Billing
Posted: Wed 13 June, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, House Work Leave a comment »One thing that people in Norfolk seem to be really bad at is sending out bills. In some ways this is good, but in others it’s a bit of a worry, in that I have this nagging suspicion they’re somehow all going to land on the doormat on the same day.
As it is, we haven’t yet been invoiced for anything by the architect we’ve used, despite the fact we’re now on the final third of the work, and were told we’d have had two invoices by now. So far – nothing.
The electrician finished off his work three weeks ago, and we’ve still had no contact from him at all about bills. The plasterer gave us his invoice the day he finished, and he’s been paid already – same with the guy who did the fencing in the garden for us. But the (admittedly incompetent) company who (eventually) installed the wood-burner haven’t sent anything, even when we’ve been in contact since in order to get replacements for the parts of the burner that were missing when they installed it.
It’s very strange. But, as I said, I’m sure they’re all going to send them in at the same time. Life’s like that.
Planning
Posted: Tue 12 June, 2007 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Getting Organised, House Work Leave a comment »On Friday, the first stage of our planning application for the extensions to the new place passed through. So far as we know, no-one has complained or lodged an objection to our plans – the notice went up outside our place three weeks ago, and the deadline for objections was Friday.
According to the relevant website information (It’s great, being able to track the application online, and know what’s coming up) we should get the final approval through around July 9th. It’s not the fastest of processes, but that’s the “joy” of dealing with local authorities.
In fairness, it’s also quite a lot faster than I’d been led to expect. In the previous place, our neighbour told us he’d made the initial application for planning permission back in January, and the council hadn’t even processed it ’til the start of April. In fact, his notice about plans, and the request for objections went up only a couple of weeks before ours.
So far, we’ve been lucky (or organised, I’m not sure which) in that we’ve had an architect draw up the plans, and do the planning submission for us. It means he’s known what we want, and how to get it through planning permission. And if it goes through without a hitch, well then, I will consider his fees (when he eventually sends us a bill) will be well worth it.
Moving House
Posted: Fri 25 May, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, House Work 1 Comment »Today, we’re moving house. It should be fairly pain-free (with luck) – although most of it involves relying on other people to do stuff. (I’m looking at you, BT)
Of course, if BT don’t do their thing, I’m going to be offline for the weekend. We’ll see.
Preparations
Posted: Thu 24 May, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, House Work Leave a comment »Well, we’re just about ready.
The dog’s doped to the eyeballs, Psycho Cat is in a basket and ready for transportation. The current place is pretty much packed now – only the PC, desk, and stereo that really need doing now.
And then tomorrow it’s all happening.
At long bloody last.
Planning Process
Posted: Tue 22 May, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, House Work Leave a comment »It’s been interesting to see this weekend about the way the government is planning to change the planning application process. Of course, it’s going to come in too late for us, as we made our planning application for extensions to the new place last week.
In some ways I think it’s good that the process is being relaxed, and made easier to navigate. But at the same time I can see that it’ll have problems – and the potential for some really nasty extensions, conservatories and the like to go up over the next few years.
With the work we’ll be doing, we’ve had an architect design it, and get things done for the requirements of both Planning and Building Regs. It’s not overly cheap – ut does mean that we should get permission a lot quicker than if we’d drawn the plans ourselves, made errors etc. The plans went through two revisions in order to get everything right- partly just where things hadn’t been understood the first time round, but also partly because as we were in the house more, we had other ideas about how things would work, or how they should be laid out.
It’s not been quick – we first spke to the architect back in February, and the plans were finally completed and submitted at the start of May. But as soon as the planning aplication had been made, it was in the system, the notice went up outside our place last Friday, and people have three weeks to object to our (very unintrusive) plans.
By comparison, though, our neighbour in the current house submitted his planning request back in January, and only got the acknowledgement of it at the end of April – and that’s when the notice went up outside his place. So while he’s drawn up his own plans and (I assume) made errors that have had to be rectified etc. before the process was completed, ours have gone in and been processed on the first try.
Of course, we still won’t have the go-ahead for a while yet. After the three-week period for objctions, they’ve still got to be approved, and (I think) go through the local council as well for approval. So I’d be surprised if we had anything confirmed fully much before the end of July.
Still, at least it’s all going through now, so we’re still making progress with things. Would it be quicker without having to go through the planning malarkey? Yes. Would we still have used an architect for the plans? Yes. But I can see that a lot of people wouldn’t bother, and would likely just hire a builder to come and do what they want. Which might work out, but I’d certainly have my reservations about it.