First thing to be said is that we live in a duplex. Here's a picture to give you an idea:
This is not really our place but it's definitely very similar. So you see, we live in an upper apartment (two-storey apartment) and underneath us there is a ground floor apartment with its own door. We are also in a block of 8 units in total (4 up and 4 down) and at the end of the block.
Theoretically we are not allwed to convert the attic as our roof, to which we have exclusive access, is in fact the roof of the ground floor apartment also. Due to a series of strange Irish regulations we wouldn't even be allowed to change the interior layout of our apartment without approval of the Board of Directors of our Management Company. Having said that, if all the 4 upper duplexes in our block are on board for the attic conversion we'll have a very strong point with the Directors.
Unfortunately, with this recession going on here stronger than anywhere else (or that's the feeling anyway) the neighbours are not ready to spend on the attic, but they have all expressed support for us to go ahead. We currently have two and half bedroom. The third one is so small that we se it as office, so we coudl really add one in the attic. Our next-door-neighbour Pat is an engineer and said he was going to do soe drawing for us. This was weeks ago and I haven't seen anything yet! So I've sent the dear husband to enquire and to make sure that either he was giing us some drawing or we woudl call our architect in and do things properly.
You see, ideally we'd love to have windows on the external wall but there may be objections to it (we already have 3 windows on that wall) so we would have to consider putting in velux on the roof. The space is very big for an attic, we could have easily a 5x4m area with plenty of headroom in the lowest point. So I want to fit in a nice double bedroom and a bathroom.
We will have some technical issues to sort out also such as how do we get the hot water up there without using a pump and if we have to use a pump will it serve the sink and bidet also as well as the shower?
So as you can see it's all a bit up in the ... attic at the moment, but hopefully I'll have clearer plan soon!
5 comments:
Your attic project sounds very ambitious. I hope you get the drawings soon and get the approvals you require. There's nothing like a big project like this to keep your mind off the other stuff going on, is there?
Wow! Sounds like a big job. I hope you get the support and approval for everything you want to do.
Good luck!
Sounds like a big job -- but a fun one if you can swing it and get all the approvals you need!
It sounds like it will be divine if you can get it off the ground so to speak ;)
Good luck!
xxx
Wow, definitely ambitious plans, but it would be fantastic to have the extra rooms. It's interesting how the rules are different between Ireland and the US. Here, if you rent a property, you can't even so much as paint the walls without permission (or you shouldn't - some people do whatever they want). If you own the place, you can do what you want on the inside as long as you pay for and get the proper permits.
Anyway, I hope you get to do the remodel, it will be perfect for when the kids come along!
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