Good morning Stephen.. hope you have a wonderful day today!
Happy Birthday Rabbit!!!!
(12 posts) (11 voices)-
+1 from GOTD team! Have a Cheerful Birthday! :)
Posted 11 years ago # -
Idunnobutiwastold
Gaming AcolyteHappy birthday, Whiterabbit!
Posted 11 years ago # -
Quantum Dragon
MemberHappy birthday, Mr. Whiterabbit, Sir!
Posted 11 years ago # -
Whiterabbit-uk
Games GuruThanks guys. Apart from a problem with our planning application (for the extension to our new house), the day was great. Beautiful weather, a great meal cooked by my wife, birthday wishes from the kids and feeling good for a change. (oh yeah and several new games for my birthday)
Re: the planning application, it was about to be accepted, when one of the planning officers noticed that not all of our neigbours had been given the oppertunity to object to any of the plans. We only have two at one side, one in front and one at the other side, but she hadn't been sent a letter with the proposed plans. somehow the planning officer had missed her. I was told by my architect that he'd never known this to happen before, but then, the planning officer in charge of our case is new to the job. He apologised and said it will speed it thropugh once the consultation period has ended. They have to send out new invitations to all our neigbours for another consultation, which lasts three weeks. We'd planned to be out of this house and getting it rented out by mid July. Looks like we will have to delay for at least another month, which apart from spoiling the summer, will cost us in lost rent asd we had planned to rent this house out as soon as we moved out.
The letting agency that is going to manage the property for us had said they had people looking for a four bedroomed house that wanted to move into the area mainly because of the schools.
Mid July is an ideal time to start renting as it's before the start of the new academic year. We may be pushing it by mid August..
Still, the guy responsible for giving the go ahead said it's very unlikely that the plans will be refused.
The only sticking point was one of our neigbours objected to the balcony we have planned that will overlook our back garden. They said we would be able to see into their living room, but the balcony is within the roof space, so in effect only a juliet balcony (though technically it will still be classed as a proper balcony because we are creating a space big enough to put a breakfast table and a couple of chairs on the balcony; access to the balcony is from the new attic room, which is going to be used as a second sitting room and will be through patio like doors onto the outside balcony. We thought as the kids are growing up, they would like their own sitting room space as well as their bedrooms. They always have friends stating over, so it will be ideal.
Anyway, there's no way we could see into their house (Which is at the side of ours, plus they have a 100' garden between us and them). Even if I leaned over the balcony I wouldn't be able to see any part of their property apart from a tiny corner of the bottom part of their garden because it's at least 4 meters forwards of their property.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Campy
MemberOne more happy birthday wish and good luck with the housing issues. In 2008, I had a new home built from the ground up so I can empathize with your situation. I still remember being asked questions like what height did I want the doorbell. My answer, "doorbell height." Best wishes.
Posted 11 years ago # -
mikiem2
Moderator"We'd planned to be out of this house and getting it rented out by mid July. Looks like we will have to delay for at least another month, which apart from spoiling the summer, will cost us in lost rent asd we had planned to rent this house out as soon as we moved out.
Mid July is an ideal time to start renting as it's before the start of the new academic year. We may be pushing it by mid August.."
Would it be worth it to talk to the letting agency & doing a bit of research to find out how much your odds of renting the house go down if you wait till mid or end of August? My thoughts are 2-4 weeks delay might or might not cost you months of rent -- if it looks like it will, would it be more cost effective to move out anyway, renting a furnished place or even staying at something like a hotel for a couple of weeks? I don't know how they manage it in the UK, but in the US it's not uncommon to have everything packed in a container that the movers would truck to the new location -- in that case it's hardly a big deal for them to store the container in their warehouse for a couple few weeks before delivering your furnishings.
Also in the US there's sometimes a requirement before renting out a house, where the house & property have to be inspected by the same dept. that inspects new houses, buildings & such. If you do need to have that done, *if* you haven't thought of it already, sooner is better than later since you're facing a deadline of sorts, & if they say you have to do anything before renting it out, that'll take time to arrange & complete... I ran into snags that way since they changed the building codes since the time that we bought the house.
"The only sticking point was one of our neigbours objected to the balcony we have planned that will overlook our back garden. They said we would be able to see into their living room,... Anyway, there's no way we could see into their house "
FWIW if they continue to object, rather than try to persuade them that they're wrong, I'd humbly suggest giving them something more or less meaningless, and by that I mean adding or changing something that's not much effort or cost, or even just saying that you will, even though you know it will have no effect on their objection. Some people have more open minds &/or attitudes so you can show them where they're wrong -- other times people can get extremely upset, focusing on the part where you're telling them they're wrong, even if they acknowledge to themselves that you are indeed right. Things that occur to me this morning include saying you'll put a tree in your garden blocking line of sight, that is if you wanted to add a tree anyway, or saying that you've talked to the builder or architect about extending the side wall of the balcony -- in the latter case they'd have little or no way to say you did or didn't change anything... either way they would hopefully be very happy that their new neighbor took their concerns so seriously.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Sorry, Wrascally Wabbit. We were off trying out our new tent trailer since Thursday.
Hope you had a great day and get to move into your house soon.
Posted 11 years ago # -
Happy Birthday!
Posted 11 years ago #
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