Extension help

Doozergirl

EssexExile wrote: »

Crikey Doozer that's horrible! But then this old person won't have to live in it or look at it so it doesn't matter what I think!

Nothing's worse than the present view. There's another rendering coming of a more traditional brick build with tiles hanging but the bricks currently on the house are vile and bear no relation to the vernacular. Not sure how that's supposed to work. It's an interesting one as it's in a conservation area.

EssexExile

Sorry, I was a bit rude but that is so not my taste.

There is a house just along from us that every time it's been sold has been described as an "architect designed, individual executive home" or something similar. When we moved here 20 years ago it was a square box with the ground floor finished in fake stone (like your before picture) & the upper floor clad with vertical timber strips. Someone added a front porch that looked like a 1950s school building & did a fake stone extension. Then all the wood came off & was replaced by hung tiles & another extension built. Now all the tiles have come off to be replaced with horizontal fake wood cladding & the stone has been covered with render. The wood & glass porch has come down to be replaced with a full height atrium in tinted glass & grey aluminium.

Going by previous experience it will last a couple of years & then be sold & changed again! It's on a crossroads & speeding cars are a common visitor to its front garden, only stopped from hitting the house by the trees!

Furts

EssexExile wrote: »

Sorry, I was a bit rude but that is so not my taste.

There is a house just along from us that every time it's been sold has been described as an "architect designed, individual executive home" or something similar. When we moved here 20 years ago it was a square box with the ground floor finished in fake stone (like your before picture) & the upper floor clad with vertical timber strips. Someone added a front porch that looked like a 1950s school building & did a fake stone extension. Then all the wood came off & was replaced by hung tiles & another extension built. Now all the tiles have come off to be replaced with horizontal fake wood cladding & the stone has been covered with render. The wood & glass porch has come down to be replaced with a full height atrium in tinted glass & grey aluminium.

Going by previous experience it will last a couple of years & then be sold & changed again! It's on a crossroads & speeding cars are a common visitor to its front garden, only stopped from hitting the house by the trees!

I second this. "Architect" designed individual homes hit the market in the 1930s - concrete, Hollywood, Art Deco and such like. All are an acquired taste. Then again they started in the the 1960s - concrete, big windows - think Clockwork Orange House, or even by memory Made in Dagenham. Again acquired tastes. They keep the construction industry in work - much like you say with updates and re-modelling.

An ordinary house fitting typically taste and timeless is often the way forward. Sorry Doozergirl but your image .. in ten years time that will be as cool as a mullet in a mini skirt. Even today there will be many who would shun it as ghastly.

TamsinC

Furts wrote: »

I am a little amused by the whole situation. OP has not got a simple modern box with truss rafters, or a simple cut roof. A catslide roof, extending walls upwards, matching traditional build, design and materials, getting through current Regulations and such like is all in the realms of professional design and professional building. Yet there is an expectation that all this should be available on the internet. It is not readily available as OP has found but rather than going down the professional route one gets a post on the Forum. Fine by me, but what is anyone expected to answer other than generic comments such as yours?

Are these forums not for help then? I did think seriously before posting as I know people on here often get berated for not using Google first and finding out the answer that way when it is easily found.

I was just asking for possible internet search terms or a website that might help, I haven't bought the house yet why would I go down the professional route and employ an architect etc? All I needed was generic comments so I could do the research. I didn't know the roof was called a cat slide and that was all that was needed for me to find out more. My expectation was that there MIGHT be something on the internet yes, cos almost every thing is nowadays. And I was after ideas not specifics.

EssexExile

TamsinC wrote: »

Are these forums not for help then? I did think seriously before posting as I know people on here often get berated for not using Google first and finding out the answer that way when it is easily found.

Don't worry about it Tamsin, it's an open forum & anyone can play. Some will be helpful & some won't. Just take any useful information you get, laugh at any amusing anecdotes & ignore what you don't like.

Furts

TamsinC wrote: »

Are these forums not for help then? I did think seriously before posting as I know people on here often get berated for not using Google first and finding out the answer that way when it is easily found.

I was just asking for possible internet search terms or a website that might help, I haven't bought the house yet why would I go down the professional route and employ an architect etc? All I needed was generic comments so I could do the research. I didn't know the roof was called a cat slide and that was all that was needed for me to find out more. My expectation was that there MIGHT be something on the internet yes, cos almost every thing is nowadays. And I was after ideas not specifics.

If all you need is a reference to catslide, then a search of any Chartist development could be a guide. Minster Lovell would be a starting point here. Snigs End has Planning controls so is unlikely to bear fruit. There are others.


You have not bought the house, and nobody on the Forum has seen it. What did the current owners say here, and likewise the estate agent?

TamsinC

Furts wrote: »

If all you need is a reference to catslide, then a search of any Chartist development could be a guide. Minster Lovell would be a starting point here. Snigs End has Planning controls so is unlikely to bear fruit. There are others.


You have not bought the house, and nobody on the Forum has seen it. What did the current owners say here, and likewise the estate agent?

I'm not sure what the current owners nor the estate agent have to do with my research - I like to think about what may or may not be possible on a house before I make a decision to buy ( I am looking at two different house with this roof line). I needed a word about a roof type and a possible way to look up extensions to that roof type because I didn't know the right word. That's all - I understand it's all up in the air and rather early and, for most people too early, to think about but it's what I do - I research almost obsessively but then I know whatever decision I make is based on reasonable facts, that I have worked out finances and possibilities. Obviously I will ask the owner and estate agent once I need to.

I hadn't a clue what Chartist development is, nor Minster Lovell etc, that's what I came on to the forum to find out. You need to know these terms to look them up. So thank you for the terms so I can now look them up. This wasn't a query about specifics for one particular house, but a query for words to help me do research. That is all.

What I didn't want to say but now feel the need to, is that I have M.E. and many days words just evade me and I really struggle to find the right words to connect the dots - yesterday was such a day and I thought - "Hey, you know what those lovely people over on the MSE forum seem quite nice, and I've already done loads of research and coming up cold, I'll go ask them, I only want general stuff so its shouldn't be too hard or contentious. I'm only researching."

Furts

Background info, moving off building, is the Chartists were a campaigning body circa 1840s. They built their own communities, and one of the design aspects of these communities was catslide roofs. The National Trust have one property preserved at Dodford, but the surrounding properties all still exist, there is an estate west of London, (Heronsgate/O'Connorville), and another estate called Lowbands in Gloucestershire. It is the most significant concept of catslide roofs that I have come across.

Minster Lovell is a shadow of its former self - the developers moved in. But this will give ideas on what can be done with the properties and roofs.