Background

This property came available for purchase a year ago.  It had to go through some legal stuff before a sale could go through.  The sellers (Ciaran's Dad & Uncle) were kind enough to let us to apply for planning permissions to totally renovate and develop this property into a bespoke dwelling that hit our brief and the way we live.  Luckily for me, my husband Ciaran is a partner in ODKM Architects and Designers, and has been listening to my thoughts and views on design for the last 15 years so the brief was already known to him!!!! Obviously he has also got a strong philosophy on how we live and how his designs for this house can have an impact on our lifestyle.

Acquiring Planning Permission in Ireland can be an arduous process especially with a Victorian Property located in an area of architectural interest.  After spending months designing what he thought was the perfect solution for the house Ciaran decided, after doing 3D model walk throughs of the initial design, to bin this plan and go back to the drawing board.  When I asked him why, he said that when he saw the design in 3D form he realized that his design interfered with the fabric of the building and it was not the correct thing to do.  He needed to go back to the sketch pad and pay more respect to the history of the building.

After another couple of months and many late nights in the Studio, Ciaran lodged pre-planning drawings with the planners and discussed with same and from there he lodged full planning permission application.  Planning decisions normally take 8 weeks and an early decisions is very unusual and virtually unheard of.  Amazingly the planners came back 2 weeks early with a positive answer!

Success!!!  We had notification of a grant of permission.

Luckily enough there were no observations (no issues raised by 3rd parties) on the application so it was a waiting game for the final legal planning documents to be issued which we received last week.