So I re-submitted for planning on Friday. I hope it goes smoothly but the next 8 weeks will be tense. Here's a first look at the new scheme in 3D.

So after all my negotiations, my options seem to be running out. The council are digging their heals in, and rather than letting me negotiate the ransom strip are just outright telling me that I am not allowed to do the sewer works on their land.

It's a nightmare, the people in the council, are just acting like complete job's worths. It doesn't surprise me that these people are so bitter towards people like myself who are trying to make something of themselves, as they are stuck in their dead end jobs with little passion or inspiration for anything, good luck to them I say, they are so pathetic in their little power trip jobs. One guy was particularly rude and a complete dick in my opinion. He was very unprofessional, but if you pay peanuts you get monkeys I suppose. Harking back to his sarcky comments about "why should I be driving round in a flash car if he has to drive round in an banger", well, if I ever get this project completed I might just buy one and send you a picture of me in it! That or I can send him a turd in the post, as someone hilariously suggested.

Anyway, back to the project. I've come up with a new set of plans, for a new pair of properties, only these are set away from any pipes! I spoke to the duty officer at the planning department, and he was very happy with the design overall, and he should be as it is so in offensive, but the only feature he didn't like, which ironically was the nicest feature of the property in my eyes, was a second floor bedroom, which has a beautiful full height, gable window. So after much deliberating I have removed it in favour of a single storey section to the rear of the property, to hopefully have a painless trip through planning, fingers crossed. So all I have to do now is the get a 3D visual done today, and get the thing submitted to planning quick sharp, and without further delay!

So, as time ticks by, the project is slowly grinding to a halt with everyone seemingly wanting a piece of the action.

Now it is the turn of the council. Apparently I have to get permission to place a manhole in their land, and the cost of this? about £22,000 !!!!!!!!!!

It's just unbelievable, total daylight robbery. I just don;t what else to say. It's looking like this project is going back to the drawing board.

It's very difficult to establish whether this is all above board or not, and I very much get the opinion that the people who work on the council resent developers. one of the people I spoke to actually had the nerve to say "why should you drive around in a Jaguar, if I'm driving round in an escort". I was dumb founded.

So the running total is, £37,000 pounds to build over a pipe. I'm just glad this project hasn't got out of the ground yet.

So i have finally decided on a name for my new house building company, and "urban start developments" is it!

I spent a long time trying to decided which to go for, and in the end it was a toss up between abode homes and urban start. I thought urban start had a bit more punchiness about it so thats what I've gone for.

Things on the development front are going slowly, it's a combination of two things, one these pipes have really blown the wind out of my sails, it's hard to know what to do to get around the problem. As far as I understand it I need to get permission to find out who owns the school yard next door, and hopefully if it is publicly owned then I'm at least in a fighting chance to get the diversion done. But getting answers to such questions is a slow process.

I've got almost all my quotes in now, and I'm getting a much clearer idea of my budget. I've also been tempted by the prospect of getting a main contractor in to do the whole job, while it would be great just to pass the reins over to someone else, and say "here, it's all yours", i think that it will be both more costly, and potentially less fun. That said, it should be easier that way, we'll see what they come back with cost wise.

Anyway.... you can see below, my new company logo... who hoo, website on it's way soon.

So I finally get to speak to an engineer about the pipes running across my land. It has to be said the woman working for united utilities has been an absolute pain, completely obstructive and unbelievably unhelpful. It just did not matter how many times I tried, or how I went about it she just would not let me speak to an engineer about the pipe situation.

Fortunately I did manage to meet him on site and I got a real version of how things operate at united utilities, they say 'no' by default to everything, then you have to go through a lengthy process of making your case and chipping away at them.

The good news is that a solution can be found, but at what cost? Diversion seems to be the least problematic solution, though I reckon it could hold things up by months, but it would mean I can sell on without a 'build over agreement' in place. And then of course there is the build over agreement instead, which would mean probably cheaper to implement, but the unknown of if it will effect the re-sale value of the property.

Anyway, the main thing is that the ball is in my court now, which is where I prefer it, not relying on crappy united utilities. Oh the fun of building houses!!

Well the title may seem lighthearted, but the reality is actually far worse. After the elation of finally getting my planning last week, I have thrown myself headlong into getting the build planned and on track. And no sooner have I started, I've been stopped in my tracks.

An inquiry to United Utilities about sewer connections has unearthed, literally a bigger problem than I could have anticipated. Apparently there is a sewer main running across my land, and the position of the sewer means that in all likely hood i will not be able to build my two houses, because the sewer needs a clear 3 m access to it. Did my solicitor bring this to my attention, NO, did the planners realize this when they gave me planning permission, NO, did I spot it when I bought the land, NO. So it seems it has properly slipped through the net. While my initial response to this terrible news was to point the finger, I realize that what I need to concentrate on is finding a solution to this problem. and it would seem solutions in this game don't come along easy.

I'm getting some great advice from people so far, and everyone bar united utilities are being very helpful. But they don't want to discuss this matter, and instead have asked me to leave it with them for 3 weeks and they'll get back to me then.

So bad news indeed, lets hope next time I update this it will be with better news.

It's funny, it has been such a long process getting planning, and I have put so much into it, now I have it I feel a little bit lost. What next? is my big question.

I think when you have such a big milestone it is easy to lose sight of the big picture, and I must admit this happens to me a lot. So what is next? well as I've done all the design work so far myself, I feel like it is getting time to hand over the reigns to someone with more experience. My brief chat with the building control guy on Tuesday left me feeling very inadequate, and I think that the project is going to run more smoothly with some expertise in the areas, which I am to all intents and purposes fairly clueless.

My other big issue is that of land contamination. It seems it a big thing these days with planning, and that it must be highly likely that this garden plot, is home to some nuclear waste or something which no-one has ever known about before. So I've commissioned the soil reports, and I only hope that they come back fine.

Then what of my foundations?, well i guess if my soil survey comes back ok, I can get some trial pits dug, and then I will have to pass this over to my new designer. It's all a bit unknown to me, lets see how it pans out.

So a decision has finally been made; I was of course supposed to be informed before Christmas about the outcome of my planning permission, to put two semi houses on the land instead of one detached house, which currently has planning. But no, there was an issue with the planning officer rather stupidly not informing one of the neighbors. Well I say one of the neighbors, I mean THE neighbor, the one next door, the one who would be effected most by the development! how stupid. so this has put me back 1 month, well I say one month, I was supposed to get planning two weeks ago, at least that was when is was signed off apparently. I didn't actually get my planning notice till 2 weeks later, i.e. last Friday, (they were too busy).

Anyway who cares now, i have it, and I'm chuffed to bits, I can't explain how exciting it is the prospect of building a house from scratch. So what next, well that is the burning question.

I've been told the service companies, gas, elec, water, are a law unto them selves, much like the planning department, and that you can't get onto them too soon. So I guess that is a major priority. Then there is building regs, and the ground survey, blimey i better get my skates on!

I'll be back soon with details of the new plans.

My other big issue is what am I going to call this start up enterprise. To me how I sell these properties is just as important as how i build them, so I gotta get it right. I'm toying with a few ideas at the moment, 'urban start' (which I think is quite young and trendy, but perhaps a bit too so), then there is 'beyond homes' which I think is quite cool also. I want to get this right so I'm not going to press the issue just yet.

So, I've finally completed on the land, HURRAY!

After what has been an unbelievably frustrating and time consuming purchase. Now I know the process, I will be so much wiser next time I appoint a solicitor. I can not believe what a pain mine has been throughout the entire process, how totally condescending he has been towards me.

For instance, the title deeds, had a pencil sketch of where the new boundary line would be, drawn at a scale 1/1250, the pencil line itself was 1mm thick so by my reckoning that makes a boundary line of 1.25 meters thick! Not exactly precise would you say? when I asked my solicitor for something more accurate he said, 'you have a scale drawing, scale it up' what an idiot.

Anyway, it was left to me to produce something more accurate, and I'm glad that I have, as the last thing I want to start this project with is a boundary dispute...

Anyway, enough of that! So I have the land, next job obtaining planning permission.

Well thats going to be a right old pain too, as the planning officers seem to respond in a time scale about 5% the speed of normal human beings. Even so, with my scrupulous pre-application advice I feel like I'm getting the design honed down. And I reckon I'm on the cusp of getting to a formal application. This stuff takes time I know, but it's pretty exciting now it's getting close to a final design.

Hopefully, by the end of today, the Barn should be cleared out by the old vendor, and tomorrow I can start planning ahead proper! woo hoo.

So I'm still in the process of trying to complete on this land, and I am only just getting to understand the issues and problems of the Local Planning authority system. The main problem being it is unbelievably inefficient and disorganized. How long have we been building houses in this country, you'd think that there would be a better way of doing things by now.

At the moment I am knee deep in the toils of contamination reports, and what a nightmare it all is. My solicitor's report has detailed that the land should be described as contaminated, yet the actual searches say not. And even then, there is a requirement apparently for all residential planning applications to have something called a PPS23 report done, which is essentially a detail site history check, soil samples and ground survey. This is of course to ensure that people who inhabit the properties in the future do not suffer the same debilitating and unfortunate fate as the current owner, that being a completely normal plot of land. which is after all just someones garden. Ridiculous!

This report is going to cost at least £1000, talk about your all time unexpected and completely unnecessary costs. The thing is as well, these type of reports exist for only one reason, to find problems, so I dread to think what problems this is going to unearth, (no pun intended) Hopefully once this is clarified I'm hoping that there won't be anymore holdups, as I really want to get cracking on this project. It's delay, after delay.

On a massive positive note however, I managed to side step my completely inefficient planning officer and speak directly to the duty officer about my proposed plans. (She was a nervous and jittery young girl) Basically all is looking good and positive, so I'm really pleased about that, as this is a pretty big step towards the success of this project!