Autumn 2006

SuseMonday 25th September, after Tai Chi, we drove up to Glenreasdale to begin work mending the driveway with Andrew. Sadly, he and Rosie are planning to sell up and it would be a help to them if the driveway were less of a negative obstacle track.

First thing was to clean out the ditch and get it flowing. Then we levelled out the roadway ready for the Type 1. Unfortunately it was delivered all in one big heap so the driveway was going to be blocked for a long time while we spread it. Enter Alastair of Precision Sawmilling, who had come for a meeting about providing the timber for the house. He jumped in the cab and spread it in half an hour. Genius!

It was agreed that Alastair is going to take care of the site scrape, including tree stumps as well as providing the larch cladding. He was really interested in the project, using local timber etc and seems to be a good contact.

John and Andrew Tom

Through the week we continued clearing ditches and levelling the rest of the driveway. The team consisted of Suse on the digger, John with the shovel and Andrew with the roller. We also had some help from Tom with the wheelbarrow.

The second delivery didn’t happen as the driver wasn’t able to reverse through the gates but we managed to get the trial pits dug – in the rain – before leaving on the Saturday.

It was October before John got back to finish the driveway, dig out the ditches on the lane and fill in the mud at the entrance so that in future lorries have an easier time of accessing the driveway.

Meanwhile we still haven’t resolved the issue of the plans. We discovered that John hadn’t appreciated the height of the house had come down since making it narrower and so, with that sorted out, it was back to the 2 storey plan. Chris has negotiated a 1.8m springing from the eaves which gives enough head height inside to get the accommodation we want.

The planner also doesn’t like the arrangement with the utility room roof, which is needed for the solar panels and to provide a log store. We decided to drop it for now and find another solution later. But we’re still not sure whether Tim will buy it and time is slipping away. I contacted the local councillor who will have the final say, to see how important it is to him. He suggested putting in the application for what we want. He is very supportive of our efforts to use local materials that don’t do harm. He warned us that the main problem with the neighbours would be the road, which they can’t seem to agree how to maintain.

Meeting with Chris on November 29th to agree final details. So it’s all hands to the pump getting neighbour notifications ready and a covering letter as well asking anyone who has a problem to get in touch with us to discuss it. John took up the plans when he went up with Jo and Em to repair the drain at the end of the driveway.

We had hoped to plant trees this winter but there is still too much clearance work to be done that Alastair will need access for so they took up the 50 ash trees that had seeded in Emily’s back garden and left them in pots with the hedging cuttings we took in the summer.

larchMeanwhile we’re reading up on project management and trying to plan the timetable and budget. We’re going to the Ecobuild Show at the end of February again, hopefully with the Building Warrant and a shopping list. We are buying 52 tons of larch in 4.8 metre lengths which Alastair will mill by the end of the summer and we’re trying to get our heads round the construction details.

The Planning Application is still not straightforward. Because of the empty field in front, it is being treated as unknown ownership and so has to be advertised. But the Planning Department advertised it with the wrong address so the ad had to be done again and that will take us through to the New Year.

We had a couple of friendly phone calls from neighbours expressing appreciation of the way they’ve been kept informed but another two wrote in to the Planning Department to express concern about the road. This might mean that the application would be treated as having objections and put to the full committee but we couldn’t find out. The Airports Authority don’t object, SNH have made some responses about the trees and right of way, Environmental Health haven’t commented (but they might have their say when the Building warrant goes in) so we are left trying to find out whether it will be dealt with by the planner and the local member or whether it will have to go to committee, which could take another month.

Update
One day before the two month deadline, 2nd February, when the Planning Department are supposed to have completed the application, the planner phoned Chris to say that if we added a bit more render on the wall facing Glenreasdale House, he’d put a report together that afternoon! We decided to keep the planner happy. It still took another month before we got approval.

2 thoughts on “Autumn 2006”

  1. I would like to point out that the ash seedlings that came from my back garden were there when I moved in and it was not through neglect that they had been allowed to grow. OK. some of them were new but it worked out well in the end!

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