Got a meeting tomorrow with my structural engineer so hopefully foundation design will be sorted soon and I can get work started.

Ouch - I have a delicate head this morning, spent the last part of the evening in the Firs club in Codsall last night watching Stoke beat Birmingham 3-2 with a fantastic goal from Ricardo Fuller.
First part of the evening was spend listening to councillors waffle on about things they don't understand, however my planning application was APPROVED!!!!

Brilliant - I can now start the hard work - just after I've had another coffee...
:-)

Today's the Day!!!

Planning meeting tonight so I might miss some of Stoke v. Birmingham which is live on sky, but it has been officially recommended for approval now so hopefully all will go well.

Swindon Marina has been pulled though so not much else to be discussed and it looks like I might be the second application up for discussion.
Going to the pub for a few drinks afterwards regardless!

The all important planning meeting looms ever closer, in two days time. The 199 berth marina at Swindon village is also on the agenda so hopefully the planners will tire themselves out and not make any silly decisions on my barn. With a bit of luck it will be approved and I can finally get cracking on the foundations.
Having had a bit of hassle from Eastcote, hopefully they'll back off after this week when they get a further payment from me.

Planning.
Determination date for planning is set at the 10th November and although I have been asked to remove the porch from the plans, they are going to recommend an approval. Considering it was originally a definate no, it's great news.

Not much happening here

Still no planning application made yet - it's been very busy at Prime Oak but hopefully the Design & Access statement should be done this weekend.
I've also been away every weekend this.. er.. last month including a first entry in the Round the Island Race. 179th out of 1,754 boats isn't bad at all but when you find out you've beaten Ben Ainslie by 148 places when he's got three Olympic sailing gold medals, it seems an awful lot better !

Well that went well!
Organised a meeting with Mizzy Marshall at South Staffs planning & she decided she also wanted Valerie Davies to attend so I invited friends of mine, David Haston & Ian Reynolds to join in who just happen to be rural planning specialists www.hastonreynolds.co.uk (I built their website)
When Mizzy saw them there, she said "oh, you've brought in the big guns!" - which was nice.
The initial view was that they wouldn't allow an extension on the barn but after David ran through a few details of a barn extension in Brewood that was won at appeal, there seemed to be a big turnaround so all is looking much rosier.
Hopefully the application will be lodged in the next few days.

Planning Meeting

Got a meeting sorted with the planners on the 25th to try and get the approval updated to something more reasonable - no doubt they'll tell me I cant do anything but we'll see.

It's all go

Well sort of, Eastcote have sold three of the other properties on the site in one day, subject to all the usual.
One unit to a couple, one to a family that own the Hollybush pub at Ebstree and one to a women and her two kids who is splitting up from her hubby.
I met her yesterday and she's a bit of a babe so that's nice !

Work has started!

Not by me though, our friendly reclaimed roofing company have stripped the wrong barn by mistake.

The tiles did need to come off at some point though so hopefully a tarpaulin will be added soon.

What are they like?

After six months of fighting with the Halifax and three official complaints, they finally hand over just part of my mortgage and 30K short of the original figure agreed - because I am apparently not buying an house but a plot of land??? The fact that there is a barn with an albeit dodgy roof on it, they think that constitutes a plot of land.
Funny that, especially as the day after the money transfer, they delivered (to the barn) a hamper full of goodies including food, drink and a box of hooks to hang pictures on the walls!

It's now mine

After negotiating with the Halifax since October, the deal is finally done and they've coughed up the first wad of cash.