No third room at our house, need extra space

mervyn114

So to tell a long story short. There are three of us in a small 2 bedroom house. It has been our family home for nearly two decades. But now it is coming to the point where we are all treading on eachothers toes. For a short while I lived in a summer cabin or "!!!!!! and ran extension cables to it. It wasn't terribly warm in the winter, and when I recently went to renovate it I found that I was not the only resident, now I am permanantly freaked out. I have a medium to large sized garden. All I want is a small box room, something big enough for a double bed, and place for clothes. I need it to be watertight, and warm. This is a long shot, I am asking if anybody has had the same problem, have you built an extension? wheeled a caravan into the garden? Lived in a tent? The restrictions that I have are as follows:
. Cost, some outbuildings and conservatorys cost more than a family car, we are on a very tight budget, needless to say, hiring a builder is way out.
. Location, The home is just that, the home, I will not consider moving, or moving out, I have responsibilities, and I feel that paying rent for someone else does not help the situation.

Ideally I would construct a small room attached to the outside of the house, close to it so that wiring it up would be easier, what have you done? any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

Lisbon

Good place to start is your local council, to find out exactly what you can and can't do without planning permission - some of your 'options' may in fact not be realistic, so recognising early on what might/might not be possible would at least save you going down time-wasting and potentially costly avenues.

mervyn114

Thanks for the reply Lisbon. That is one of the routes we have looked at so far. The council allowed the shack to be built (a wooden structure) but now that I will most likely be selling that on, we are getting into a bit of a state. I think I heard Kevin McCloud say something along the lines of if a structure has wheels, then it does not need planning permission. That makes me think of buying an old transit or similar, wheeling it into the back garden, stripping it out and living in that. Any thoughts?

Lisbon

mervyn114 wrote: »

Any thoughts?

Yes - talk to your local Council! If you like the answer you get, fine. If not, that's the time to take some proper professional advice.