My Dream Bathroom: From Outdated Bathroom to Spa-Inspired Sanctuary: Part 1

Renovation Journal: overcoming planning hurdles, mood-board creation and setting a date!

Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash

Following, quite literally years of talking about it, 2024 is the year where I will be turning my dream of a spa-inspired bathroom into a reality.

This is the first part of what I’m calling my Renovation Journal where I’m going to share the full process from start to finish, as we extend over the garage to allow my bathroom of dreams to turn into a reality.

I’ve no idea how many parts this series will be, or how regularly I will share; however the plan is to bring you along with me as I navigate my first ever extension and project managing the full development from mood board to end result.

As this series will be part of my paid subscription, you may want to consider fully subscribing now, so you don’t miss out.

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In todays post I’m going to share the joys of having to deal with UK local planning departments, my design direction and finally getting a date penciled in the diary.

Overcoming planning hurdles

December 16th 2021: Our planning application was submitted to our local planning authority, it was finally happening, we’d made the first step in getting the ball rolling on starting the bathroom renovation.

Confirmation was received January 4th 2022, outlining a decision should be made within 8 weeks, so by February 9th 2022 we would know if our relatively straight forward application would be approved; now it was just a case of waiting.

Seven months of waiting in fact; finally getting approval on July 21st 2022, which is a crazy length of time, especially as the previous owners of the property had already been granted to extend the property.

And, so the fun begins…..

The first objection we had was based on the outside material we wanted to use; as the extension was going over the existing garage, we were informed we couldn’t use bricks for the extension as the supporting walls wouldn’t be sufficient to hold the weight (that advise was untrue, and I’l come back to that later), so a wooden-frame construction would be the best solution.

Fine, I could live with that, however I’m really not a fan of render and agreed to marley cederal cladding¹, which would fit with our modern design aesthetic, and we were noticing more and more people using this as an alternative to render in our neighbourhood, so couldn’t see why this would be a concern.

Then, the fun and games began, with one of the neighbours disputing the application!

One of their challenges being that there would be a detrimental impact on the natural daylight entering they’re property via the downstairs toilet….

Sorry, how many hours does someone actually spend in their downstairs toilet!?

We were able to challenge back on the neighbours dispute; as unlike other extensions which had been allowed in our cul-de-sac we have more than 2 metres between properties, separated with a 2 metre fence.

In some instances planning had been granted far closer to neighbouring properties and even directly on the boundary, so for the planning department to raise this as a red flag, seemed very unfair; plus, we were already being respectful of our neighbours by only extending the bathroom and not going further back, which would have caused overshadowing in their garden.

“The proposed extension will have a detrimental impact on the natural daylight entering our property via the downstairs toilet.”

Responding back, with a portfolio of photos providing evidence that we weren’t asking for anything out of the ordinary (based on other extensions in the area), the next thing we hear is that it’s advisable to withdraw our application two days before the expiry date, and following two weeks of absolute silence!

The only explanation which we were given was that the overall design needed to be looked into, and it was more than just the choice of material we were looking to use; although at no point before this correspondence had any feedback been shared on the design aesthetic.

We basically had to agree to withdraw our application, or they’d refuse it, making it even more difficult when we come to re-apply.

Our hands were tied, we had no other choice than to withdraw, ultimately making it really easy for the planning officer, as (i). they don’t have to write a detailed report on reasons why the application was refused, and probably more importantly (ii). the application won’t impact the local authority performance targets!

Such an extremely unfair system, where you feel like you’re being held to ransom, and as with so many authorities, very little you can do about it.

We agreed (begrudgingly) to withdraw the application, and requested a detailed explanation on what was wrong with the design that had been submitted, especially as it adhered to an initial approval some years earlier, by previous owners.

Six weeks after the application was withdrawn, our architect finally received a copy of the previous design that had been submitted (and approved).

Spot the difference

Original design submitted by the previous owners

Our design submitted for approval

Other than the fact we only want to go part way back, the front design (which is what the planning department had an issue with) is ultimately exactly the same.

I think it just shows that there doesn’t seem to be any right or reason what applications are approved and what are rejected, as the application submitted previously was approved with no concerns at all.

Anyhow, we resubmitted our application, having made the changes which were requested around our material choices, and “tweaking” the original design and the saga continued….

Numerous correspondence between the architect and the planning officer, who was now disputing our revised choice of material!

It was all getting a little bit heated!

“I'm sensing some double standards that don't back up your objections.”

After they’d declined the use of cladding, and we agreed to using render (aargh) they now weren’t happy on render being our material choice either!

The architect suggested it may be worthwhile for myself to send an email directly to the planning officer, to try and appeal to their better nature.

So, I shared my thoughts, as diplomatically as I could, explaining that whilst I would love to use bricks as our material choice, we’d been advised this wouldn’t be possible as the structure of our garage was only a single skim of bricks, which wouldn’t withhold the weight of the extension.

Little did we know that advise was actually incorrect and have since been informed we can have the extension matching to the existing bricks, I’ll touch base on that later.

To add further insult to injury during the time we were trying to get our application approved an extension just round the corner from our property had commenced, and guess what material they were allowed to use?

That’s right, marley cedral cladding!

A further four weeks passed, with no acknowledgment of the email I’d sent. then finally July 21st 2022, we received the news we’d been waiting for, the application had finally been approved!

Crack open the bubbly…..

Photo by Nico Jacobs on Unsplash

I know our experience of dealing with local planning authorities is not unusual, and this happens to so many people all of the time.

How people cope when they want to proceed with a major development I’ve no idea, there is just no regard for the unnecessary stress that you’re put through, all for wanting to improve your home.

So, now we’d jumped through more hurdles than Edwin Moses² it was time to put pen to paper.

Mood board creation

I had plenty of time to visualise how I wanted my dream bathroom to look and below are the images I’ve selected for my inspiration board, which is the starting basis before proceeding with the mood board.

Having a little play with uploading a video for the first time, this is a 3D visual I created which can really help bring initial ideas to life.

There’s been a few things that have already changed, however it gives a “rough” idea on what we’re looking to achieve.

From the initial inspiration board, I created the final mood board (below).

The bathroom suite has actually been on order since February 2023!

Fortunately Lusso Stone has held it in stock for us, as the original start date of last summer, basically came and went, which brings me on to the last section of this first instalment of my Renovation Journal.

Setting a date

Although we had endless challenges with the local planning department, I was less than impressed with our choice of architect.

Chatting to a builder friend on the whole experience and sharing the costs for the architect to draw up the building plans, he suggested we proceed off-note³, as the build was so simple, it was unnecessary to go to the expense of having official plans drawn up.

It sounded good to me!

We scheduled a meeting to review and discuss what I wanted to achieve and it was at our first meeting where I was advised if we wanted the extension to be in brick, to match inline with the rest of the property, it definitely would be possible.

I explained that our architect had suggested against this, due to the single skim of bricks not being sufficient to support the weight of the extension, or the existing foundations and the build would have to be constructed from a wooden frame.

Not true!

Yes, the single skim of bricks wouldn’t hold the weight of the extension, as it was, however the foundations (after being checked by the building control officer) were more than sufficient, as were of the same depth under the garage as the rest of the house.

We would need to arrange to have steel beams constructed to support the extension in the garage, other than that bricks would be fine to use.

Seriously, after months of debate with the planning department about our choice of materials, we were now being told that to use bricks would be fine, which is what I wanted all along!

“The building control officer has confirmed that the foundations for the garage are the same as the rest of the property and therefore it should be viable to place the new loads from the proposed first floor extension on the existing foundations via new masonry piers.”

Anyhow, there’s no point dwelling over what has already happened, so let’s get a date booked in the diary to get this project started.

May 2022, the bathroom renovation was going to begin, or was it?

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I’m sure there’s no surprises to read that no, May 2022 passed, as did June, July and August!

Regular calls and messages to my builder hoping we’d still be able to get the build completed before the weather was due to turn, and then the news I really didn’t want to hear.

He just couldn’t fit it in with the existing projects he was working on.

One of his regular (rather demanding) clients; a property developer, who spent most of 2022 snapping up properties in the area left, right and centre, resulted in the time we’d been allocated for our project to begin, being eaten away.

Not ideal, although one of those things.

In the grand scale of things, a small one-off project for a friend compared to a project worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, it’s no surprise our little renovation was being pushed out.

This is where money talks.

So, a revised date has now been penciled in for August/September 2024.

I’ve been assured it will happen this year (it has to happen this year, as there’s no way I’m going through the planning application again⁴).

All being well, my next meeting with the builder will be taking place in April, where we can finalise details and start looking at getting materials on order.

These roof tiles have been piled up in the garden since February 2023!

We haven’t even knocked down a wall, or laid a single brick yet and it’s been eventful, with plenty of challenges.

I’m sure there’s going to be a loads more drama before I’m able to enjoy my first soak in the bath, although I really do hope not!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading Part 1 of my Renovation Journal and will be joining me for the next instalment.

I’d love for you to share with anyone that may find this series of interest, and please do share any comments you have.

Thanks

1. Marley Cedral: a weatherboard cladding which is becoming increasingly popular as an exterior material here in the UK.

2. Edwin Moses: American former track and field athlete winning gold medals in the 400m hurdles at the 1976 and 1984 Olympics, and between 1977 and 1987 he won 107 consecutive finals and set the world record in the event four times!

3. Off-note: a trade term for working off the drawing submitted to planning and working alongside the building inspector, inline with the approved application, ultimately saving a fortune in architect fees.

4. Planning applications in the UK are only valid for 3 years, so work has to be completed before July 2025.