And the Answer Is...

Back to the strawbale side of things for this blog, though I hope to post a follow on to my last blog about the Welfare Reform Bill and its potentially disastrous effect on disabled people through changes to Disabilty Living Allowance (and more) later today.  Much has been happening on that front, but in the meantime I refer you to this article in the Guardian which sums up much of current issues, and these blogs by two of the primary instigators of the Responsible Reform report: diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com/ and benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.com/  Please do have a read - the changes (and trying to stop them) are incredibly important to many disabled and chronically ill people who will be very negatively affected by the current plans.
But back to Anna, me and our plans to super-insulate and extend an existing bungalow using strawbales, lime render and a bit of green-roof.  The planning application Decision Notice was issued yesterday (exactly on schedule for the day they said they would let us know by) - nothing came in the post today but by this morning the District Council planning website had been updated with the decision so we downloaded the letter instead.  And the decision is:
YES!

We have planning permission! This hasn't entirely sunk in yet.  There was no mad jumping around with joy from me, more a bewildered wave of "okay, now lots of stuff needs to happen, doesn't it? Not sure what this really mean".  The bewilderment has worn off a bit now and allowed excitement to creep in a bit, though the "oh my god, now I need to do an enormous number of things very quickly" feeling has also ratcheted up a few notches.  This, I believe, is sensible as it is in fact true...
Now a rapid marathon of appointing an independent building inspector, consulting with structural engineers, getting construction and building regulations drawings drawn, finding contractors for the bits I don't want to do alone (ground works and roofing really), maybe even ordering some stuff, and absolutely crucially - must do today - contacting the guy who deals exclusively in building-grade strawbales and reserving some (yes there is a such a person).
Normal life and sporadic massage work must continue alongsidethis, along with making sure I don't neglect Anna who would rapidly become spoonless and utterly run into the ground without support (click here for explanation of "spoonless" - it's a genius explanation of life with chronic illness).
The planning officers report (which can be downloaded here) essentially paraphrases the Design and Access statement I wrote to support our planning application, just with relevant planning policy references added, which is gratifying as it shows I must have done something right when I wrote it!
Finally, I know I promised an exciting illustrated blog about dodgy double glazing - I'll sort that soon too.
Meanwhile: YAAY!