Yippee!

We've got it!!
Planning application approved.
Now all we need is for me to successfully sell my house in York (already had one complete time waster). But we do have 5 yrs to build it before permission expires!

Rumblings afoot!

Rumblings quite literally - this morning we were woken at 5.30 by the house and windows shaking, it turned out to be an earthquake centred at Glenfinnan. How exciting!

Today our planning application seemed to move a step closer, as our case officer published her 'Delegated Planning Application Report', whatever that is. The important bit is the recommendation that planning permission be granted, subject to a few easily addressed conditions. This was followed by a phone call from our planning agent, who thinks we should hear the final result in the next week or two. So fingers crossed...

Timber!!

The beautiful horse chestnut tree is no more.
But it will live on in the new build as the two long trunks on the left of the picture are going to be milled to make two uprights and a lintle for an inglenook fireplace to surround our woodburning stove (with a back boiler to burn all the rest of the wood, and to heat our water and radiators).
The planning application is very close to being submitted - so keep everything crossed for us.
Just to clarify a point, for those of you who know me as Sandra I am aka Sam too-very confusing I know but blame my sister for giving me a nickname.

The Beginning

Welcome to our first ever blog! But we thought it's the best way to keep everyone informed with the progress of our big project, the building of a brand new Barran Caltunn Cottage!

So, just to get everyone up to speed with the whole story - Sam first spotted the property (a ruin) when she moved up here 7 years ago. At the time she made efforts to find out who owned it, but got nowhere. But then, in April this year, the plot came up for public auction. We don't do auctions up here, so it was a bit of a novelty and the whole town turned out to watch proceedings! We were outbid, but to cut a long story short we were offered the plot after the auction. We went for it!

The plot is about a quarter acre, with the ruin of a but-and-ben on it. The house was destroyed by fire in the 1990s, and as it is close to the road and built of stone it isn't worth rebuilding.

So now we have a timber-frame house planned for the rebuild, slightly set back from the original footprint. Even getting that agreed by our local planning office has been a bit of a struggle, but we are hoping the planning application will go through smoothly.

There are quite a few trees on the plot, including a huge chestnut tree. Unfortunately we had to have it taken down, as the roots would have affected the foundations of the house. They reckon the tree was about 70 foot high and weighed 14 tons! That means lots of firewood for our wood-burning stove!

Anyway we hope to keep you updated with progress, and if we manage to figure this technology out we might even get a few photos for you to look at too!