Lou's Rockingham annexe — framing countryside views

Uh this is a 20 by7 uh and it's for a lady who uh sold a house and her and a children bought a bigger house at the top of the garden and the uh bought this smaller studio for the lady to live in at the bottom of the garden. Uh it's quite concealed behind this shed. Yeah.

You can't see it at all. No. And uh but you know and walking down you know it's like what is it?

But then come in and we'll have a look. So, it's uh So, what we've got, we've got the lounge area, TV, the sofa, little uh box here. We got the kitchen area, uh the bedroom.

So, the bedroom's through here. Uh and then yeah and then the the bathroom that you know if you've seen our video the kitchen's a double kitchen. Yeah.

Everybody know everybody knows the bathroom units that side units this side and obviously uh Lou mentioned having a big table here. Yeah. When I came down to see Lou, the thing that she discussed or we discuss I said to Lou and it's how you should think about the studio and it's one of the things about the studio.

What is it you're going to do in the studio? So I said to Lou, give me your number one requirement cuz you know like a car it's going to have four wheels. So your number one requirement isn't if I'm buying a car that it has four wheels.

It already has four wheels. The studio is already going to come with a bathroom. It's going to come with windmills.

is going to come with the kitchen. We know that. But what do you want?

" I've got four friends. I'd like them to come around. So, I'd like a space for a dining table.

So, I That's brilliant cuz let's put the dining table in first. Yeah. And work everything else around.

From So, the dining table's going to go here. She hasn't got it yet, but it's nice to show you this space rather than a dining table. So there's going to be a dining table here with four chairs and Lou is going to stand here to eat and giving them a glass of wine.

That was the vision that she had in her head. So that's the vision where I started from the design. I threw the table into the studio.

Then we put the walls in. Then we decide which bathroom. Then we decide where the kitchen's going to go.

Then the bedroom and then the lounge. But the dining table is what's going to make it a happy place for her on this particular studio. Yeah, it could be an art.

Well, yeah, it could be. You you might have a hobby. You might make dresses.

You might paint pictures. You might want your friends around. You might have an office.

You might want your grandchildren to come around. So, a second bedroom for the grandchildren might be imperative. Let's start with that because the other the other things, you know, the four things that we talk about, the bathroom, the kitchen, the lounge, and the bedroom.

Obviously, you're getting them. It's that fifth thing. Do you want an art room?

Do you want your friends to come around? Do you want the grandchildren to stay? You know, all these things.

And if we get that bit right, it's going to be a happy place, isn't it? That's that's the way because building it all the other bit is easy to us. What we want you to be is happy.

We don't want, oh, it's a shame I haven't got the dining table. It's a shame I can't paint anymore. It's a shame my grandkids can't stay over.

All them things, they're imperative. And it could be a blended family, you know. So, it might be students who want to carry on doing their studying or lots of things, but we need to know what they are.

Yeah. Just talking through this one. So, you've got your lounge and you've got your bedroom.

As you can see, the bedroom is open. The whole thing is open plat. That's how Lou wanted it though, isn't it?

and it and it lends itself. So, we've put a window at the back cuz it's a beautiful view out of the window. Just out on the field.

The camera's just adjusting there. Yep. So, that's nice.

Oh, it's a stunning view, isn't it? She's got that view and it floods the place with light. So, the light is flooding in.

The other thing that uh I talk about sometimes is corridors. If you put a corridor in, that is the ability to get from A to B, you know. So, the bedroom does have a door.

It's our pocket door design. So, that comes out. So, if Lou's friends come around for dinner, she can shut her bedroom off, you know, cuz bit of privacy.

If it's a bit of a mess in there, she can Yeah. I don't Looking at the studio, I don't think there'll ever be. No, I don't think it will.

Yeah, but she can shut the the bedroom off from uh the view of other people. Yeah. So now it feels, you know, like a feels more private in a way.

Private cuz the bedroom's not on display. You know, some people might not want the bedroom on display when they're Yeah. Okay.

Should just do a quick one of the bathroom. I know you lots of people have seen the bathroom, but it is uh still got the shower shower and the sink behind you, the toilet and the boiler cupboard, the water boiler and the and the heater and the light and the extractor fan. Yep.

Yeah. So, and then obviously the other thing that has is the dehumidifier. Yeah.

So, that keeps the humidity at a good level. So that in a nutshell is this studio. Everything you see is what we do designed around a dining table.

Yeah. No, we're loose over the moon with it, isn't she? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. We asked her to come on video, but she's Yeah, she uh Yeah, if we could have got what she said, it would have been amaz. But people are shy and they don't want to, and I understand that.

Yeah, no worries. That's fantastic. Thank you.

just looking at this half window in the NX Alex it um how come you started doing because we didn't used to do the half Windows did we no no we've always had the ability to do them you know we always try to keep things simple but with this that was you know if we if we turn it down it was all about getting light light is important isn't it it makes you feel good so if light is floating into the room it just makes it feel good so Luke wanted a it was my suggestion that she put a window in here to and it does have a stunning view if you pull that blind up yeah light of the dining room is a crazy view I mean from back here it looks like a yeah looks like a painting yeah oh it's lovely and that opens out the way so you still get ventilation yeah so you can open it as well and one of the things that the ladies have said you've got cross Breeze that's always going to cool things down right so that window will open yeah we have got an aircon in your door or your window open um you can feel the pressure washing in yeah yeah great that's fantastic thank you

so this Annex features a what you're calling a double kitchen yeah because we only do two kitchens we do the 1800 or the 1200 so in old money that's six foot or four foot so you could have just a four foot if you just if you're just having a small studio and you're not going to do a lot so you'd have to think in the forefoot section all you're going to do is make tea and maybe run a microwave that's it remember Lou wanted the table the table for our friends to come around so yeah the position of the kitchen to the table I felt was important so she can prepare them something whether it be sandwiches or a meal yeah uh so we've got the bigger kitchens we've got the four foot and the six foot together a lot of people just have the one uh but this one's got the two and then underneath we've got cupboards that are all 600 mil Parts why right so you could have a washing machine you could have an oven you could have a tumble dryer you could have a dishwasher it would all fit in here you just have to remove the cupboards and lose cupboard space obviously but the drawer we put in the middle under the sink because you're not going to get an appliance under the sink because the sink because of the plumbing of the sink yeah yeah that's that's brilliant that is I love that drawer in there but it does allow these other areas it gives you the flexibility to put an appliance in if you choose and you you know the lady just said a minute ago I might add an oven is that possible and that's the beauty of it we would just take that cupboard out well we wouldn't even take the cover down if they wanted an oven we'd just turn that into an oven house and then another one would go straight in and wire it straight in because there's a few spare yeah ready and waiting there I know this lady's gonna put a microwave combination oven on the fridge right it feels like that's why she got a small fridge freezer but if if in time if you chooses to add an appliance it's easily done yeah so it's quite a big kitchen and you'd easily be able to prepare quite a decent meal here yeah because she wasn't sure uh Lou mentioned that she might may have just gone for this but she's now glad yeah obviously it's different circumstances for different people isn't it the thing is you know you've got having the flexibility and the building has got that flexibility I feel to to adapt to whatever your needs are yeah that's great thank you

Lou also said that before she went with booths she got full planning permission for a brick built Annex is that right Alex yes I mean she said she looked at our site and thought our Studios were only craned enough so they're not a flat pack and then she yeah because it's a very very long garden and she was concerned that it was only trainable but yeah people sometimes get mixed up thing because it is built under the Caravan Act that it is a cranable but it isn't you can build it under the Caravan by building it here what we could do is move it with a crane if we wanted to that's that's the point of it we've designed this system where we can pick it up with the crane if we want to but Lou not knowing that went down the full I'm going to get a builder for plan information to get the a big Brew but it wouldn't have been any bigger it would have just been brick built and uh she discovered that the price just went up and up and up and then she also knew she was never going to have any control you know building costs at night they've run away with themselves especially if you're doing it over a 16-week period which was what she was quoting 14 to 16 weeks to build it for example inflation's running high now so some materials that you're quoting for today in 16 weeks could go through the roof but it's not even 16 weeks is it because while you're waiting for planning and you're waiting for your you eventually find a good Builder yeah and then by the time he's available and how as you say at the end of 14 weeks yeah it's all difficult so the speed of the install uh she didn't realize how good that was going to be but she suddenly says you know she's living in a with her grandchildren are in the garden and you know there was the stress of the garden I wouldn't have the garden for 64 months yeah through the summer yeah so we were able to come the drainage was done in two days and the studio was built in three days it was separate weeks so it gave us a little bit of flexibility if drainage did run over and it did give us a bit of the studio so two days the drainage was done three days the studio was built then on the fifth day the guys come in with the aircon aircons behind us came in with the aircon the electrics the internet and then on annexes The Decorator then arrived and finished it off in painting So within a two-week period the whole thing was ready for it to move into yeah Lou said it was roughly half the price half the price what's the building quote and she said that wasn't a quotation that was an estimation of what it was going to cost so they were always concerned that although that was quite High it could also away with itself yeah yeah well it would as we know in general building yeah yeah it never uh hs2 and all that you know yeah so I mean we do building projects and they they're never what we uh imagine they're gonna be yeah so okay now that's fantastic thanks for that

so we're still in this 20 by 17 studio flat Alex what what's the background to the decision making of of how this ended up being here well they had this house each I think Lou lived in a bigger three-bedroom house and the daughter lived in a smaller three-bedroom house so the door needs to upsize and the mother needs to downsize so they decided to pull the money together buy a bigger house for the family so that the grandchildren and the children have got a bigger house and then Lou was able to downsize into this studio at the bottom of the garden therefore staying together so they looked into the options of building a brick building down here double the price double price build in a brick building off the house which doesn't give the separation now and probably still double the price and then they weren't separate because to build something this big as an extension and to get everything within it it's quite difficult because you know it's how you're going to use it in the future so they've decided to move the studio down here build the bigger house so she's close to a family close to her grandchildren and they've still got some money left over yeah because it was half the price half the price that she's got the security of some cash in the bank she's got some cash in the bank that's giving her a good feeling as well yeah great thank you

yeah this studio Annex features some shelving Alex you said earlier it doesn't need insulation in the internal walls yeah these walls are full of insulation you know thick insulation to keep you out of swarm the building there's two buildings joined together so within this wall there's insulation and then in that wall is insulation normally normal right so what we do is we just cut a hole in here and put the Shelf in it we'll just cut the insulation out so it has a nice light at the top yeah and it's got a nice card new home so that's it's a nice feature isn't it it looks great give a feeling of uh make the place look feel bigger yeah and you've got them in the living room and in the bedroom yes and it gives you a nice Alcove next to the bed as well yeah yeah I think they've got a nice touch brilliant thank you

in this studio Annex at the moment then Lou's got the TV just on a stand but she was asking you about putting it on the wall yeah putting it on the wall and the thing with boots we're a big company you know we we're doing two of these a week so we've got we're doing two of these a week we're doing you know 12 13 other Studios a week so we've got back up we've got service Engineers we've got after call service so if something you need something done we've got it yeah we've got pix and Clem who are just out all day not fixing things but they're helping people so like Louise just said could I put my Telly on the wall yeah you can so what you would do rather than her and not knowing because there's a pocket door there's a pocket door there which kind of comes yeah so you might complicate it a bit you don't want to drill through the wall and you I know where the electrics are but you probably don't know where those electrics are so pics or Clem with no so they'll come in and they'll do any of the other little jobs that you want to do you know would have to charge you but it won't be a fortune you said the same about if she wanted to put an oven in yeah if you want to put it in a later date you know just phone uh our after sales and they'll arrange to come in they'll do it cheaper than any other Builder because we know where everything is yeah so it'd just be like phoning a normal Builder and saying can you adjust this or can you put me some shelves up well we've got a backup team that will come in and do all of that stuff so you might find after you've moved in what I could do putting the Telly up here or a wire here or an oven here or anything that you want to do finally after sales and we'll we'll attention yeah great thank you