A few threads on building recently so thought this might be of interest. Nine months after instructing an architect our planning permission has finally come through :) Nothing particularly fancy; we are taking down some extensions (less than 30 sq m in total) and rebuilding a bit bigger. The only conclusion I have come to so far is that architects and planning officers are involved in a game. Niether particularly wants to play, and if either were actually concerned with the best solution for any given project they might try going about things a bit differently. I'm sure there are all sorts of bits of legislation which mean they can't do this and the public do have a habit of interfering (ie the neighbours). The sole purpose of the client in all this seems to be to write cheques. On the whole it hasn't been a bad experience and I'm not actually knocking the professionals as such, but it does seem a remarkably inefficient way of going about things. The good bit is that we are now one step closer to being able to do something about the way our spaces [I]sound[/I], the list of things that can get sorted once we have removed ceramic floor tiles/internal windows/low ceilings just keeps getting longer. Any tips for things to include in the design now (I'm guessing separate mains spur is an obvious one) gratefully received.
