Sian & Geoffrey's Single Storey Rear Extension in Devizes - June 2023
Like many people, Covid was an opportunity for us reassess our lives. We were living in a very large detached house with a 2 bedroom self contained annexe and nearly half an acre of land. My husband, Geoff, had retired in 2017 and I was still working full time as a Legal Assistant. We realised that I was, in fact, only continuing to work in order to maintain the house and garden – what if we sold our current property, downsized drastically and freed up some capital; I could then give up work and start doing some of the things we had always planned to do in retirement.
And that is exactly what we did. We moved to a much smaller semi-detached house with an idyllic low maintenance garden. The plan was to build a single storey rear extension, and make the downstairs open plan. However, we had never attempted anything like this before and were complete novices with no real idea where to begin, which is where iPlans came in. We had an initial on line design session with Lloyd, during which we set out our “must haves” and “would likes”. Following this, we then had several sessions with designer Ant who drew up initial plans, and from this we gradually clarified what would work for us.
We changed our mind several times, and I have to say Ant was extremely chilled and patient throughout and had some very good ideas which we hadn’t really considered before. For example, we were set on a smaller extension but Ant suggested going for a larger space as the building costs would only increase by about £10K - £15K. iPlans then conducted the whole matter for us, finalising the plans, submitting the planning application and then dealing with any queries as they arose. We also needed to obtain a Build Over Agreement from our water provider and iPlans arranged all of this for us.
Our case handler, Marian, was an absolute star and kept us regularly updated as to progress. Quite late in the day we changed our mind yet again, and decided we wanted a lantern skylight which unfortunately meant another planning application fee, but this was entirely our fault. I cannot praise Marian enough, she basically held our hands through the entire process, ensuring that nothing caused us any stress. And now we have an amazing open plan space which works really well. The kitchen/living space is light and airy and an ideal space for entertaining; I’m so glad we listened to Ant’s suggestion to go for a larger build. The downstairs loo houses the washing machine to minimise noise.
To summarise, iPlans were worth every penny, everyone with whom we came into contact was lovely, efficient and knowledgeable. We had contacted several design companies prior to choosing iPlans and found their fees compared very favourably with these other firms.
“iPlans pretty much do “what they say on the tin” and do all the hard work for you. We have been delighted with iPlans throughout, and would have no hesitation in recommending them to anyone going down the same route, especially “virgin extensioners” like ourselves!”