15 years later.. making a new start

Stuck.

For 15 years.

This building has been a monument of collective family history, but an abandoned monument like a gravestone taken over by the surrounding wildlife. In fact the ivy is taking over.



Ok that's enough, let's get down to business. This will be my second conversion project. The first was very painful, and hopefully the subject of a second retrospective blog (insert link), as much for my benefit as there was a lot to learn from it.

The building (in the pics above) was the stables to the local manor house, so part of it is about 400 years old. Luckily though it's not listed, so developing it should be relatively straightforward. The building is in the town centre right opposite the mainline train station with half-hourly service to London. It has a single parking space, but no garden. I'm omitting naming some details at the moment to keep the blog reasonably anonymous, not sure of the pros & cons here, any thoughts?

My father bought the building back in the 90's, and in 1995 the building received planning permission to convert to residential use, and some work was completed at that time, but was then essentially abandoned. Following a divorce it became no-one's principle residence.

Did I say get down to business, or mull over the past? It's inevitable i suppose, and may make the development interesting in other ways too. I can see this blog quickly degenerating into a mess of notes entwined with emotional strings from the past. But a chance to cut free from them also.

So where to start. Have seen an architect (plan to see many more), an estate agent (also many more), plan to see my accountant, building control, and other developers. Any other ideas who to talk to? Please put in comments. I will also share plans and ideas on this blog, so any feedback, comments, questions welcome.

The idea is to convert the building from it's current state as a single residence/ huge family warehouse into anything between 2 and 4 units. Current options under review are:

Option 1: split into two, 2-floor town-houses (see plans: unit 1+2 and unit 3+4)

Option 2: split into two apartments plus one house (unit 1, 2, and 3+4)

Option 3: split into four apartments (units 1-4). These would comprise:

Unit 1: ground floor studio apartment

Unit 2: first floor studio apartment

Unit 3: first floor one-bed apartment

Unit 4: ground floor studio / workshop / commercial space

 

Various areas of consideration in deciding how to proceed:

• Financial - sale (capital gain)
• Financial - rental (rental return)
• Financial - cost (budget)
• Financial - tax (income tax, CGT, IHT)
• Effort / duration - how long am i prepared to work on this?
• Stageability - can the project be broken into stages?
• Predictability / risk - what are the unknowns for each option. Market factors.
• Difficulty of planning permission / local politics
• Conservation - e.g. retaining original features
• Environment - e.g. smaller units are more environmental than larger
• Aesthetic - look & feel
• Instinct - maybe this is the only real factor?
• Whether building / units will be sold, rented, or retained by family
• any others..?

Latest concept sketches on units 1 & 2 (if going for 4 units):

 

There would be an outdoor but covered foyer with entrance doors downstairs leading to units 1, 2, and 3. Unit 4 would have it's own entrance. So units 2 and 3 (upstairs) would each have their own staircase. The existing staircase, which is too steep, will be removed.