I've been told several times that I
haven't actually covered our plans for No. 65 in this blog.
To be honest the plans have hit a brick wall in the form of an over official 'objectionable' (Architect's words not mine) Case Officer in the Planning Department, We've all heard horror stories about the hideousness that is local Planning Department but I truly entered this thinking that the reputation was urban myth. My naïvety is laughable!
We wanted to add a large extension
which makes the house L-shaped with the aim of maximising the
sunlight, and end up with a 5 bedroom modern house with views over
the garden. Design features included a double storey atrium at the
front door, french doors in the Music Room and Master Bedroom and
normal windows for the smaller bedrooms. All this is currently
stripped out by Planners claiming, subjectively, that it doesn't fit
with the existing house style. Details should be published soon of the diluted
drawings that we have submitted on the South Cambridgeshire District Council website.
So our lovely plans for updating this
ugly squat 1960s chalet style house are dashed slightly, for now!
But we have a plan up our sleeve so watch this space. The house has
been empty for three years now – it's a two storey house with no
period or redeeming features, except one. The garden. It is set
within an acre of raw land just prime for a little bit of love. A
long front garden – now full with weeds and thorns – gives some
depth from the road and then the garden opens up into an overgrown
field and orchard ripe with possibilities. There is a row of five
mature Poplars; majestic in their looks and their beautiful rustle in
even the lightest wind. The icing on the cake for the kids are Blue
and Floss; our neighbour's Ponies.
We have had great fun exploring and
getting used to the garden. We've more plums and apples than we can
possibly eat – apple crumble, frozen plums and plum squash (try it in Prosecco - yum!). Blackberries, sloe berries, pears, more
apples are all coming. A first trial for Sloe Gin is on its way.
Listening to the gentle thud of the
apples falling to the ground I was hoping for Newton-like
enlightenment of some sort. The reality was more mundane; when one
of the children disturbed my daydream with a request to identify poo.
We'd been told of foxes and muntjac deer – particularly a
Fantastic Mr Fox who has been seen nonchalantly wandering round the
garden as if he owned it. Despite trying we've not seen anything
ourselves. However several google image searches later (have you
tried to search 'poo'???) we can confidently confirm the presence of
deer and foxes. Sightings hopefully to come.
On a less romantic note(!) we had three
large 7ft piles of rubbish in the garden. One was ash and burnt
scrap metal. The second was grass cuttings and brambles; the third
is of uncertain heritage. Some say it was a pond filled in; others
say it was an old chicken shed allowed to rot in situ. All we know
is that it is ugly and potentially hazardous.
The weekend's job was to attack Pile
Three. There was no pond, but there was several decades of asbestos
tiles, bricks, plastic, roofing materials, metal, chicken wire, and
more rotting wood than came up from the Mary Rose! Who could just
dump all that in their garden? It's beyond me. It filled a 16ft
skip. And I'm left having sleepless nights worrying about our
asbestos exposure.
Despite temperatures cooling, Eric and
Ernie are proving to be snug and warm; although Abi informed me that
she irons her already-ironed uniform 'to warm it up' in the mornings
– ingenious or madness?