NEW YEAR
There will probably be the usual New Year `party'-novel ideas/locations for 24.00 hrs welcome.
OTHER
At August Bank Hol it was noticed that there was a half completed attempt to fence in the village carpark , organised by the NP and paid for by a grant. Apparently it had been intended to fence the whole perimeter to limit dog dirt and to prevent local children from cycling into the road!
Several of the local farmers however threatened to bop members of the Parish Council if the volunteer army squad carried on because it interfered with their sheep driving. The army, who thought they were there to help the local `community' thereupon went home.
Both I and Terry our neighbour have asked for access to be maintained in the corner near to the cottage and John Young will ask that this is done. Whether it will be I don't know as it turned out that Powys CC who own the Car-Park hadn't been told the work was being done and it isn't just dog shit that's a problem.
ITEMS WANTED
Another mower has been obtained, however another upright vac (with height adjuster) is needed, also china dinner plates.
GENERATOR (250V) ,COAL, CURTAINS FOR FRONT WINDOWS
GODRE PENTRE-POSSIBLE EXTENSION
Chris Crowley
Now that the Sports Council loan has been repaid and surplus funds are accumulating it is possible to start considering various options for the improvement of facilities. To this end the Committee has decided to open a separate account to identify money available for an extension. At the moment this will have about £2000 in it.
I should emphasise that unless an unusually bounteous fairy godmother appears this is likely to be a long term aspiration (Circa 10 years) due to the high cost of major building works e.g. £ 10-20K.
The purpose of this article is to try and start a discussion about what the objectives of an extension should be and how they should be achieved.
Obviously this subject has been widely discussed by Club members over the last 10 years and my impression is that there are as many different views as there are people to discussing it, and so of necessity many of the points below are my own personal views and are only stated in order to discuss the subject and obtain a consensus view of the current members.
Objectives
In any project it is always worth spending as much time as possible considering the objectives in this case we need to consider it detail what we want the extension to do so that the plans incorporate as many of the desirable features as possible and that space isn't wasted on something that is never used.
To replace the shed
To provide extra living space upstairs
To provide a permanent home for the library
To provide better changing and showering and toilet facilities.
There would seem to be 3 main building options:-
Single story lean to extension (at drive way end as the stream is too near at the other end)
A 2 storey extension to side of cottage.(upper floor stair case, library/storage)
Build around existing shed
Implications
Obviously the more costly the project he greater the number of years before we are likely to be able to afford to do it. The least costly option would be to build around the shed especially if we did it over several years.
A single story lean to would probably be reasonably affordable -especially if we did the building or fitting out ourselves, but wouldn't have room for the library (unless it was very long) or stairs, one option would be to build it with 2 story foundations and floor joists and build higher later.
The 2 story extension would be almost the equivalent of another building and could possibly even be an unrealistic ambition due to cost and the difficulty of making it fit in with the existing building.
Planning
Legally we have a permitted development right to a certain size of extension as we are below a minimum area(up 50 Cu. M or 10% of the original dwelling -which ever is greater , up to a maximum of 115 cubic meters).It is also possible that we have established the shed as a building by putting in a concrete floor and bog over 10 years ago. It is also worth remembering that the Cottage was bought with planning approval for an extension (which has now expired).However we would still have to comply with the Building Regs.
As Ystradfellte is the NP there are tougher restrictions on what can be done regarding extensions etc. and they must blend in with the original building, in fact having of necessity restore the cottage much as it originally was, I don't think we would want to do anything that looked out of place and it fact one benefit of doing an extension is that we will be able to get rid of the ugly rail wagon and make better use of the garden/drive as useable space.
We have a copy of the Parks guide on extensions and except possibly in the case of the 2 story extension they would be easy to comply with-.ironically if we ignore the building Regs. and did the job with all the spare stone lying around we would end up with the required vernacular style!
A further consideration is that in applying for an extension we might be forced to upgrade the rest of the cottage e.g. insert a DPC. For this reason it could be desirable for the extension to be built initially as a utility extension with no internal connection to the cottage.
Other
It is essential in my view to ensure that the design of the space is practicable- numerous people have doodled designs for an extension however it is very difficult to ensure that the space is not used up as door openings or that sludgy cavers don't drip mud into saucepans or that the piece of metal can be got to the vice without poking someone in the eye.
Previous discussions in the pub on this subject have identified two camps- those who think we can buy the materials and do it ourselves, and those who want to pay a contractor to do most/all the work. Clearly they all have advantages and disadvantages. However, what may be advantages to some are disadvantages to others !
Please write to the editor with your views (& plans) on the above so that we can accumulate as many as possible- if we can arrive at a definite view of where we want to go it is much more likely that we will get there..