Applicant Planning Statement

The Bungalow, Woodland Heights, Ashley Road, Onchan, Isle of man, IM45BB

When we bought the house in May 2013 we were aware that we would want to make some changes to the house in order to make it our “forever” home. We knew the property had already had planning permission granted for a large extension in the past as we were shown copies of these plans when viewing the house. With this in mind we didn’t anticipate any problems making the alterations required to make the house work well for our family now and into the future as our children grow. The large plot and other outdoor space was always going to be perfect for our family so we decided we would move in and just live in the bungalow as it is in order to get a feel what alterations would work best for both the house, that we wanted to significantly update, and also our family. After two years in the bungalow we now know what we would like to achieve with a combination of renovation and extension:

*Bigger/more bedroom for 3 Children (Callum 19, Charlie 12, Sienna 6) possibly a spare bedroom. Charlie is currently sleeping in the smallest room in the house that is actually the hallway/access to the downstairs storage as opposed to a bedroom - her bed is on top of the staircase and has to be pushed out and climbed over when we need access. Sienna and Callum have better sized bedrooms but would like both to have some more space.

*More bathrooms/Shower rooms 3 Children share 1 bathroom at present.

*Proper entrance hall/Front door Currently 2 entrance doors on the font of the house both poorly positioned. They are not practical and also don’t look very nice.

*Lounge that isn’t a through room Lounge is a lovely size for our family but also the biggest corridor in the house.

*Modern kitchen/dining/family living space A more sociable living space so we can all be together and still be doing our own thing would enhance family living. This is what we have moved from.

*Gym Treadmill isn’t ideal in the conservatory

• More modern external appearance

Currently the bungalow looks tired and old fashioned.

We originally enlisted the help of a different architect to the one we have now and we spent some time discussing different ways to achieve the above list of requirements. This really became a quick process of elimination.

At this time the architect met with the local planning authority in order to gain an idea of what would and would not be acceptable on this particular plot.

Our understanding of this meeting was that the planning department would be open to discussing knocking down the bungalow and re building but this as something we quickly

dismissed for a couple of reasons: Financial being a big one and our desire to have the children settled at home another important requirement.

Also at this meeting the planning officer pointed out that any extension would need to take into account the lay/fall of the land and so raising the roof across the entire bungalow to turn it into a house was also ruled out as far as planning was concerned, and for us also, as with the knock down, we don't want to have to move the children out of the home while works go on.

Due to the shape of the bungalow and the positioning of our neighbours and driveway it was obvious any extension should be at the far end of the house.

We spent time with this architect and came up with a plan that incorporated all of the above and more. Our architect was very good but we felt the design had grown far bigger that we originally planned and had got well out of control. We tried to somewhat shrink the extension and in the end decided a fresh approach, with fresh eyes were needed. At this point we enlisted Carl Jenkins services as we felt he understood what it is we want to achieve with the extension without adding lots of space and rooms that we don't require. Although we do understand where the previous architect was coming from, it just was too much for us.

Once we sat with Carl, the current design plans for the bungalow came quite naturally by addressing problems one by one and the solutions/new design just fell into place.

In order to gain more bedrooms and bathroom space we would need to re allocate the current lounge as this is in the centre of the house. This would make space for 2 new bedrooms and a corridor in order to access all the bedrooms. By moving the staircase out of the current small room and into the main hallway, we could also fit an additional bathroom to service one of these bedrooms.

This then made the best position to access this new main corridor, the room that is currently the kitchen - and this would then solve the front entrance/hallway issue and the first 4 points of our wish list.

This would then push the kitchen and the lounge further along the house. As per our wish list, we want to make these areas a real modern family living space and bring the bungalow up to date, so we felt looking at the current shaped of the house, if we extended into the garage and store rooms it would be ideally positioned and a good size for modern kitchen and utility spaces, all accessed from the new entrance hallway.

An extension off the back of the garage would make the new lounge and the dimensions we have taken directly from the current lounge in the house as this room has proofed to be a wonderful size for all our family and the bungalows best asset.

We'd like to keep this new lounge open plan to the kitchen and thus provide the living area that is so sought after now. We felt it necessary to have a small extension from the front of this new kitchen to incorporate a few extras such as cloaks and boiler room and also for the outside appearance of the house. This redevelopment and extension to the far end of the house would also allow us to make the most of the beautiful garden/fields and mountain views, and it was with this in mind that we decided a second storey on this end of the house as previously discussed would be beneficial to the house. It was for this reason that a master suite has been planned above the new lounge and also the longed for gym above the kitchen and front of the house.

The views from this second level would be fantastic and we feel the second storey does definitely enhance the overall look of the bungalow. We feel Carl has done a lovely job of blending the two halves, old and new, of the house together with the addition of the glass "connecting" hallway. We wanted to bring the bungalow up to date and make the house have an overall modern feel and we think this design does achieve that. By changing some of the existing windows and with the further addition of manx stone clad to break up the render in external places on the house we feel the bungalow will still look at home in the area since there is lots of stone used by our neighbours and external garden walls, yet modern with the combination of the two products meeting together.

We understand the planning department have rules for good reasons but we sincerely hope planning are willing to work with us in order to allow us to have the home for our family we would love. The alternative is heartbreaking. We are not developing our house to sell on for financial gain. We have recently been granted permission to build the stables for our girls to have horses and we really feel so lucky, like we have found our forever home. We don't want to have to move our children again and bought this house believing there was plenty of potential to create our dream home whilst they get on with everyday life. We would not want move them into rented accommodation whilst the house renovations are done and have discussed a plan with Carl in order to do the work with the least disruption for the girls. Although Callum is an adult he too is at a stage where stability is necessary.

We can appreciate that since the original plans for the house were passed that rules have changed, as has the market. In hindsight we should have checked this side of things with planning before purchasing the bungalow but we hope we can find a solution that works well for all concerned.