Move position of house - please help!

S

Sparki74

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Hi - we are completely stumped and a bit saddened. As we were just under a month away from starting to build our house, we had our builder come out a put the stakes in the grounds (for measurement), and we discovered that the house is really too close to the road. Even the builder, who is really decent said that it was a bit close, and that ideally it should go back another 10meters. If you are looking at the house from the road, it's 13m wide, and the house only goes back about 16meters from the road. We are afraid that having a house so close to the road will take away from it. We're in the countryside and there are no big houses around like this. I'm just thinking of the impact on privacy if its so close to the road, on a little bit of an incline. We spoke to our engineer who said he could let us have another meter or two, but that would be it. If we want anything more, we must go back to planning, and start literally all over again. My hubby just called the planner and he's out on hols until Mon. The other thing is that if we go again for planning permission, the house will be higher up on the site, but as it's a high enough site, there is a chance that as a two storey, it could be too much and planning permission could be refused, and we'll have to revert back to the original plan - having wasted 3 to 4 months. Does any of you know of large 2 story houses built close enough to the road in Cork - how do they look in a rural setting. By the way, we have to put the hedge in around the site as there it is agri land. Any help / advice would be much appreciated.
 
Re: Move position of house - please help!!!

Sparki74,

It's a tough one, in this instance marking it roughly on site first before planning may have been required, how far away from the road is the house at the moment. if all else fails you could go back the 10m and then go for retention on the house and hope it goes your way, however doing this you wouldn want anybody objecting atleast until your in the house.
 
Re: Move position of house - please help!!!

Thanks Joe - we already suggested this to our engineer, and he's said that because it's very different from what we got planning for, that he wouldn't sign it off. And that's fair enough I guess, he's been professional.
 
Re: Move position of house - please help!!!

Could you do a little photoshop magic and impose an image of the house onto a photo of the site to see what it will look like? Use the location of the stakes to position the house.
Leo
 
Re: Move position of house - please help!!!

Hi Leo, I'm afraid I'm not au fait with Photoshop, mind you it would come in handy now :(
 
Re: Move position of house - please help!!!

FWIW I don't think that a house starting 16 metres back off the road will compromise your privacy that much as you are on an incline so the house will be above the road - it would be a different story if you were below the road . A boundary hedge with wooden gates will add to your privacy. Personally wouldn't go the retention route as putting the house back further on the site might give rise to skyline issues with the planners and imo it's not a risk worth taking.
 
Thanks for that - it's calmed me down a bit. We're going to go out to the site again, and see what we can do around the permiter of the site to make it look as if the house hasn't fallen from the sky.
 
Many 'corner site' new house in dublin are built right up upon the footpath, and look terrible in early construction stage. When completed with fencing and landscaping they look fine. Certainly would not take a chance on retention when the whole house is moved! A couple of house in dublin had to be demolished and rebuilt recently because of this!
R
 
Can you have a second entrance which means you can drive around to the back of the house possibly even using the back door as the main door? I know people who did this for similar reasons as outlined by you above and as the back garden is big it opens up the space, especially as it backs onto fields. They put up a porch with climbers and it looks very pretty.
 
hi ya, unfortunately we can't have a second entrance. However I like the idea of doing something with the porch.

Thanks all for your help - we went out to see the site again yesterday evening, and after much consideration, it's not as bad as we thought. So we will go for it, and be creative with the boundaries :) Thanks again.
 
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