15th December

WE DID IT! We got Planning Permission yesterday. What a relief.

This is the story of our Planning Permission. We got the land with Outline PP and applied straight away. Our house will be similar to the Mercer's in Skem. So we went to see the planners straight away in October and they were very friendly and helpful. Russell made a lovely set of drawings and we went back to them. This time, by chance, we saw a principle Planner. We talked about MSV on account of our house facing a funny direction - he accepted it but was not what you might call bowled over by it!

We then said that we had tried to fit in with the Suffolk vernacular by using local materials: like pantiles and a rendered finish. He said that our house was nothing like the Suffolk vernacular and what did we think we were doing designing a short fat house in an area where the houses are narrow with steep roofs.

So we started on an impromptu spiel about short fat houses being better for energy-efficiency on account of the high area:perimeter ratio, and how we were going to build a super-eco house with very thick insulated walls and no central heating. It was starting to sound a bit thin to my ears - but at the end he took off his specs, looked at us and said how impressed he was that we had thought out the design and how energy-efficient housing was exactly what the Council wanted; and then he talked us through what we needed to do to make sure the PP went through smoothly. He practically held our hands to guide us. So the middle of October the application went in, and after eight weeks of what was really an uneventful progress through the Usual Channels, but what seemed to me like about two years, Russell went to the Council Offices and picked it up yesterday.

This is the signal for all sorts of buttons to be pressed.

Also the celebratory meal in the local Chinese restaurant.

And my mum can sleep again at nights.

Tomorrow the milestone of a hole being bored under the road to put the water pipe through. Saturday morning at 8.30, on site.

Russell has now finished the first shed - a very nice bijou wood affair. If all else fails, I guess we can live in the shed.

The putting-in-a-guaranteed-true-North-South-line bloke is coming on Wednesday - another big milestone.