How to get around those pesky planning commisions… NOT!

Lee’s Notes: Saw this article in the UK, and figured I would share… Funny how people try to finagle the system.. I would think they will be told to tear the building down, just to make an example of them.

Hiding a needle in a haystack is easy enough.

But Robert Fidler kept something much bigger concealed among the piles of straw down on his farm… a castle.

Over the course of two years, he managed to secretly – and unlawfully – build the imposing mock Tudor structure in one of his fields, shielded behind a 40ft stack of hay bales covered by a huge tarpaulins.

The family hid the house behind hay bales 40ft high for four years while it was being built – in a failed bid to avoid having to apply for planning permission

An Englishman’s home is his castle: The Fidlers dream home complete with ramparts and cannons

Once it was finished, he and his family moved in and lived there for four years before finally revealing the development – complete with battlements and cannons – in August 2006.

Mr Fidler claims that because the building has been there for four years with no objections, it is no longer illegal.

But he is under siege from council planners, who say the castle at Honeycrock Farm, Salfords, Redhill, Surrey, will have to be knocked down.

“I can’t believe they want to demolish this beautiful house,” said 59-year-old Mr Fidler. “To me they are no different than vandals who just want to smash it down.”

Mr Fidler, a farmer, erected the disguise in 2000 out of hundreds of 8ftx4ft bales of straw and covered the top with blue tarpaulin.

The Fidler’s country kitchen is located in the turret of their ‘castle’

After building the castle on the site of two grain silos at a cost of £50,000, he and his wife Linda went to extraordinary lengths to keep it secret. That included keeping their son Harry, now seven, away from playschool the day he was supposed to do a painting of his home in class.

“We couldn’t have him drawing a big blue haystack – people might asked questions,” said 39-year-old Mrs Fidler.

Mr Fidler, who has five children from a previous marriage, said: “We moved into the house on Harry’s first birthday, so he grew up looking at straw out of the windows.

“We thought it would be a boring view but birds nested there and feasted on the worms. We had several families of robins and even a duck made a nest and hatched 13 ducklings on top of the bales.”

But neighbours were unimpressed.

One said: “Nobody thought anything of it when the hay went up. It was presumed he was building a barn or something similar.

“It was a complete shock when the hay came down and this castle was in its place. Everyone else has to abide by planning laws, so why shouldn’t they?”

Problems began last April when Mr Fidler, thinking he had beaten the planning system, applied for a certificate of lawfulness which is given if a property is erected but nobody objects to it after four years.

But Reigate and Banstead Council says the four-year period after which the building would be allowed to stay is void – because nobody had been given a chance to see it.

The matter will now be decided in February by the council’s planning inspector, who could give the Fidlers as little as six months to tear the castle down.

The family are not alone in falling foul of planning laws.

Last November pensioners Eileen and Eamonn Kelly were told they would face prison unless they demolished the one-bedroom extension on their semi-detached home in Swanley, Kent after planners said it was “out of keeping” with the area.

More recently around a dozen Britons living in Spain have had their homes torn down after a clampdown on illegally built properties built on the coastline.

A spokeswoman for the Reigate council said: “Mr Fidler has built the house without planning permission, not sought retrospective planning permission and now claims it is legal because it has been up for four years.

“We don’t think the four-year rule applies because it had been hidden behind bales of hay.”

Thinking about completing some remodeling and wondering how it will affect your resale?

I have been flipping homes for over 15 years. I do most of the work myself, but recently I received a letter from a home owner who knows she is going to be selling in roughly 5 years.. Was a pretty long response, and I figured maybe some of you, internet playground peeps, would like to hear my thoughts as well….

When a buyer looks at a home, they want to make sure the kitchens, baths, and major systems(furnace, a/c, kitchen appliances, roof, etc) are up to todays standards. People aren’t too fond of the old octopus heating system that takes up an entire basement.. hehe Not that you have one of those, but you know what I am saying.

If you plan any major remodeling(add/remove walls, additions, etc) General Rule of thumb is to make the home open and airy.

When it comes to bath and kitchens, you need to put the minimum quality on par with the neighborhood. If you go above that your ROI(return on investment) will reduce. On that note, if you plan to be in the home for a while then buy what you will enjoy! Just realize you might not get the ROI you expected come sale time. Upgrades might push you into the lead against comparable properties, but don’t count on it. Does that make sense?

As for paint, etc. If you are specifically looking for resale, then try to stay neutral. That isn’t to say you can’t have some deep or bright colors, but be prepared for repaint. Another thought is to just paint one wall in a room a dark/bright color. It gives you the tone you want, and will be easier to change at a later date(if necessary). Stay away from painting ceilings dark/bright colors. Dark/bright colors, especially on a ceiling, have a tendency to make a room look smaller.

As for flooring: You don’t want to go too bright, deep, etc.. Flooring isn’t as easy or cheap to change. That being said, I have dark hardwood floors in my basement.. I like them, and I don’t think they will be too much of a hindrance come sale time, but I also realize they could be.

 For our region, here’s the average return on investment for some common projects:

Bathroom remodel                    Midwest 78.3%
Deck addition                           Midwest 89.7%
Window replacement                Midwest 82.4%
Attic bedroom                          Midwest 79.2%
Family room addition                Midwest 77.3%
Roofing replacement                 Midwest 81.8%
Master suite addition                 Midwest 72.2%
Major kitchen remodel              Midwest 72.6%
Basement remodel                    Midwest 68.9%
Sunroom addition                     Midwest 67.0%

Obviously, those can all change depending on how extravagant/inexpensive you go on your upgrades/remodel.

Remodeling can be exciting and great fun.. Enjoy it!