Making Plans ... Part 1

As mentioned earlier, before purchasing the land I had a couple of meetings with the solicitor and the architect. Happily, they both share the same building in Horta - so after formalising things with the solicitor it was just a stride over the landing into the architect's office.

Ricardo is my architect: having discussed the budget and general requirements. He straight away gave some brilliant ideas, and of course a few practicalities to mention regarding the land and development area. This all hinged, of course, around the solicitor's search regarding the 'build-able area' of the land. As it turned out, all was good. Tudo Bem.

Here's the result of the Topographical Survey - this was completed by a surveyor after the land was cleared. We see the upper road to the left, the tree area, drive and the ruin that will be removed. This area can be built on within planning limits. The rest of the land is largely agricultural and can not be built on. There is also a road at the right hand side, at the bottom of the slope. It's a big piece of land, by UK standards, at about 1 acre.

Here's a close-up of the topographical map showing the building area. The trees are 2 to 3 meters above the plot. Quite a feature. A steep drive! Great plot!

Up from the off Ricardo and my Project Manager told me about one of the Azores unusual planning and building pre-requisites: The need to build a parking place to the front border of your development, with a footpath.

Now this is kind of clever: The local authorities essentially get you to build a footpath and a parking spot (for visitors or deliveries) onto your land. This is smart, because it saves the local Camara from the expense of path laying and relieves the pressure on the roads regarding parking. Brilliant. Of course, what is not brilliant is the cost involved.

We did hope that the provision of a parking place would not be required, because of the tall established trees to the front (roadside) of the property. Surely an exception could be made?

Spool forward for clarity... Eventually; no, I have recently heard (Jan 2018) that some trees have to be sacrificed to make way for a a parking space and footpath. Personally, to me this seems a shame. But them's the rules, as they say, and the forestry authority will come and chop them down.... for a fee.

Meanwhile, back to plans and the ideas that are the fun part...

After visiting my project managers home, I just loved the layout, which was based around a hexagonal living area, with rooms coming off each side. So of course, I played around with that idea as shown below:

A mental expensive floor plan. But for someone this might be do-able. ££££

A quick chat with Ricardo soon wiped that notion from the list: It would be truly eye-wateringly expensive. And when you think of it, many reasons why. Builders like square edges and right-angles. Wooden floors are exceptionally wasteful and expensive if not laid square, roof lines get complicated and of course there is the need to make the build fit on the available plot. You get the idea: Não é possivel, as they say.

Here's another idea - by now I'd bought 'Chief Architect' Software, so I could do my own renders of Ricardo's plans, get a look at the interior and feel the flow :)

I toyed around with quite a few ideas once back home from Faial. Needless to say, Ricardo was hard at work too with proper workable ideas! He sent me his outline and renders. Fabulous.

This was Ricardo's first exterior render - a few small changes required. All good.

I have to say straight up that his design was extraordinary, quite beautiful and efficient in its possibilities for future expansion, availability of both internal and external decked space. I was sold.. We had a plan. A big plan...

Which turned into this - my render - with changes mainly to the mezzanine floor.

With each reiteration things got more honed, and it has to be said, bigger. But we still thought within budget.

Here's one page of the finalised drawings from June 2017 - yes, it had taken 9 months to get to this stage. Don't underestimate the work on a new original house plan. But you have to get it right. Many considerations ....

We applied for planning permission, which was granted on the first pass. Brilliant.

And then we waited to get a building quote that was within budget....

Up next: Making Plans ... Part 2