Indecision

Last Wednesday Michael came over to show us the plans, ideas and sketches that he’d come up with for the house. He was rather excited that, having previously said it wasn’t an option, he now thought it was possible that we could have a first floor extension above the garage. This would follow a similar, pitched roof, design to the one he designed for the people five doors along from us. He was also aware, as we had been since looking in the estate agent’s window on Saturday, that their house is for sale for two thirds more than we bought our house for. For Michael this meant that, since their house is smaller than ours, we could spend all of this difference on our house and still be in profit. He’s deluded and working on a very different budget to me. He confirmed this when he mentioned that the kitchen in his home cost £40,000. That’s several thousand more than my first house cost. Despite this I was intrigued that the first floor was again a possibility and Marianna was very excited by the idea. However, during the meeting I became concerned that it wasn’t ever our first option and with the pitched roof and me being six foot one (and a bit) I’d have two rooms much of which I couldn’t stand up in. I also worry about our building taking daylight out of Martin and Anne's house. All we could do now though was let him investigate the possibility of the first floor extension since it’s quite likely that we won’t get the planning permission granted. I must have been looking pretty virile the last time we met since he'd arbitrarily labelled one of the rooms in the extension 'Nursery'. We chose him over the other architect applicants because he came up with some good ideas when we first met and he’d sketched out some of these; including having an alcove with cupboards just inside the front door and removing the wall which separates the kitchen from the sitting room. We dismissed all of these though apart from extending the downstairs toilet into the space below the stairs. Marianna came up with many ideas, especially for rearranging the second floor rooms and having a ‘Jack and Jill’ door system. Roles have now been established; we come up with ideas and he tells us how unrealistic they are. There was also a lot of discussion about moving the first floor stairs. He didn’t think this could be done as it had been done in Becky’s house but, since Marianna remained very keen on this, he said he’d give it more thought. The worst bit of news was that it could take five months to get all of the planning permission sorted out. This was the meeting for making final decisions. We didn’t. We made a date to meet again.

Marianna and I discussed the plans over the following days. She drew new ideas and we marked the floors with sticky tape for where walls and furniture might be. However, when Michael knocked at the door again five days later we still hadn’t reached a decision about the first floor extension. We had hoped to visit the people five doors along and have another look at their place but they appeared to be on holiday. Or hiding from us. We had, though, made decisions for a version of the house without the first floor although these changed again when they were discussed with Michael. At one point during our discussions one of the squirrels appeared in the garden and was chased up a tree by next door’s cat. Michael commented that he put traps out for squirrels in his garden. I didn’t ask what he did with them once they'd been caught. Use the meat for kebabs? Use the fur for merkins? As we discussed extending the house for children we don’t have and guests that may never visit I think we were tiring him a bit and he offered the opinion that we should have lived in the house for at least a year before we did anything to it. We reminded him about the sockets and lights that don’t work, and the plumbing and the heating and that none of the windows are airtight. He was a bit quiet after that. I was able to visualise the house with a ground floor extension but was struggling to visualise it with the pitched roof. The more we discussed it the more my head and the world began to spin. Did I want a project this big? My idea of a project is to alphabetise my CD’s. This was the meeting for making final decisions. We didn’t. We made a date to meet again.