Garden Living started as a renovations firm back in the late 90s specialising in late Victorian and Edwardian properties in London, Surrey and Hampshire.  We have always been a company that believes in its current day motto – Creating Space to Live.

The business evolved from pure renovators to house builders – individual in style and design.  In a later post we will show you our latest creating in Hampshire – a 4 bed home where Garden Living managed to secure planning (in a National Park) and then went on to construct a family home.

Working with Victorian and Edwardian properties Garden Living have always been a company that is environmentally conscious.  After all part of the passion with renovations is reinstatement of the existing from fireplaces, to servant bells to doors and flooring.  In the example below bringing the staircase back up to original condition took over 100 man hours.

It is this environmental consciousness that drove Garden Living into the world of Garden Rooms and Granny Annex back in the early noughties.  Garden Living took the decision to move into the world of new technologies to delivery highly insulated homes, offices and playrooms – for adult or toddler.

The fabrication technique uses primarily recycled materials, the cladding is from FSC managed sources.  And by used a back garden we are tapping into services that are already in place.

Here are a few photos from a not too distant Garden Living renovation turning a 6-bedsit 1906 villa into a single family home at over 3500 square feet.

Garden Living’s house build example to follow in a later post.

Any of our designs can be your garden office.  It really is over to you.

It’s a combination of a number of factors.

1. Firstly, you.  Your style.  The space you need.
2. Then its about the garden.  It’s size, orientation to the sun.  How the garden room will be integrated – discretely or centrally.

So the garden office takes all shapes and sizes.  Something in the corner.  Something traditional.  Something contemporary with lots of glass.

The inside of the garden office is very personal too.  A straightforward garden office with desk.  Add a sofa bed for extra weekend accommodation for friends and family.  It’s easy too to add a loo to the garden office to ever increase the productivity.  A good option if you have young child.  Adding TV and broadband is so easy to do too .  The garden office becomes a multi-purpose space for work, rest and play

Here are a few garden office examples below.  Take a look at our gallery or our garden room product page for many more options available

Garden Living pride itself on producing work of the highest quality.  Our tradesman just do not have it in them to provide anything less than perfect.

The cedar cladding is a case in point.  The ManCave window reveals are routed to provide gentle curves rather than sharp corners.  As are the small pieces above the 4.0m folding doors.  The side profile too now shows the architectural creativity for this ManCave.

This ManCave has a living sedum roof too.  A 11 seed mix to resemble an alpine vista.

The interior is just as considered.  The structural “posts” of this ManCave have been delicately plastered to provide an architectural feature which has been incorporated into the lighting design.  The structural posts shelter a ribbon light which will cast light up the walls around this pool.  The pool walls have then been tiled.  With underfloor heating, a shower and broadband cabling this ManCave provides an complete entertainment solution.

Last month saw 24 granny annex enquiries, almost 1 a day.  More and more people are starting to look at adding a granny annex in the back garden.  With banks and mortgage lending still on the back foot a granny annex is the simplest and cheapest way to add accommodation space.  After all you do not need to pay for the land – its already yours.

Take a look at our granny flat landing page.  Here we provide an overview of the stages involved in introducing a granny annex.  From here you can also download a brochure, take a look at our floor plans or perhaps you would prefer a web survey whereby by answering a few short questions, for example number of bedrooms and with your full address we can provide you not only a granny flat design that is suitable but also a ball park price too.

Garden Living believes it offers exceptional value for money in its Granny Flat product.

Many people when looking to retire consider downsizing and moving into a retirement home or even a park home.  A granny flat at the bottom of the garden of a family member, if we are honest, is not on the radar of most people.

Why?

The answer is a simple – people do not know what a granny annex is or if they do they are not aware at how easy it is to add one to the back garden.  See our How to Add a Granny Flat page on our website for more information.

We want to talk here about the benefits of adding a granny flat as opposed to moving to a Retirement Home or Park Home.

• No land cost – as the granny flat is in the back garden of a family member the land is already in the family so to speak
• No services & infrastructure cost – both park and retirement homes have to first put in place power, water, gas and waste as well as then build the roads and the footpaths.  Cost for which they are passed on to you as the property purchaser.  Obviously these costs are avoided as the main home at the top of the garden has all of these facilities.
• Individual design – our granny flats are architect designed for their owners. One granny flat at a time.  Each one stylised from the outset by the client.
• Family.  Park Homes and Retirement Homes are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to family.  Seeing grandchildren growing up perhaps.  A simple weekly Sunday lunch perhaps.  A closer family opportunity but at the same time privacy and independence with the granny flat being a completely separate home.
• Costs.  Most retirement homes cost upwards of £190,000.  Park Homes cost upwards of £120,000.  A Granny Flat around £70,000.
• Quality.  Just take a look at the photos below as a quick comparison. A £60,000 Granny Flat, a £100,000 Granny Flat against Park and Retirement Homes just shy of £200,000.

38′ x 27′ 2-ed L-shaped Granny Flat – £100,000	Combination of Cedar and Render Finish	Open Plan Living Client Designed
32′ x 20′ 2-bed Granny Flat – £80,000	Open Plan Living Client Designed	Guest Room
40′ x 20′ Pak home – £179,950	32′ x 20′ 2-bed Park Home – £149,950	2-bed Apartment – £199,950

Is Planning Permission Needed for a Granny Annex?

When considering building a granny annex, one of the first considerations is often whether it will need planning permission and building regulations.  (Understandably- sometimes planning permission can feel like a daunting  process)

As a general rule of thumb Granny Annexes are likely to need planning permission.

They are permanently habitable spaces and thus planning is a requirement.

Garden Living take care of the entire Granny Annex planning application process – the drawings, the application form, the meetings and liaison with the planning officers managing the case. We de-stress the planning process completely.

It is however often the stage where many families, believing it to be difficult, and even impossible say “thank you but we do not wish to go through planning”.

It is here we ask a very simple question:

If there was an granny annex at the bottom of the garden what would family life be like and therefore is the planning application worth a punt?

Often the granny annex is for an elderly parent who needs just a little closer attention. The benefit to their life and the alleviated stress and worry to other family members is significant. With the alternative often meaning care home… a few hundred pounds and a planning application process is for most families worth the hassle.

Besides Garden Living will take care of the whole process as part of their turnkey service.

Even if you are building a granny flat for a “deposit saver” the process can be worth it. We have families who are looking to add a granny flat for a child returning from university who will live in the annex until a point where they may be starting their own families at which point mum and dad are intending to move into the annex and the deposit saver will move into the main home. The families assets staying in the family.

We are not going to say we will be successful every time but legislation and governmental thinking is heading in the right direction. A recent article in the Telegraph shows that everything is moving towards the family rather than away.  We have this full article for you if you drop us an email: enquiries@gardenliving.org.uk

Great news for granny annex

This large 70 square metre granny annex that was successful at the first time of asking.

For more information about putting a granny annex in your garden please click this granny annex link

A common question is how much is a granny annex?

Quite rightly.

The difficulty for us in providing something accurate relates to the inside and the finishes.  We are after all creating a home when we build a granny annex.

For example:

• Are we going to install a standard Ikea style kitchen or a handmade oak kitchen?
• Will the flooring be hardwood or laminate?
• Will the shower room actually be a wet room?

There are so many questions that need to be thought about in the design of a granny annex.

For us it is important to create a home that is stylised by the people whose home it will be.

Here is a selection of photographs of a variety of granny annex interiors which we as Garden Living have created.  Some standard some premium.

Please visit our Granny Annex page to find out more about installing a granny annex in your garden for your family.

Garden Living

Creating Space to Live

With the Olympics in full swing as well as the holiday season being well under way Garden Living are still receiving many granny flat enquiries.  This month twenty five up and down the country.

We believe that the granny flat or granny annex is a far superior option to that retirement home or park home option that many people investigate.  Living with family close by can only be better for our well being.

Take a look at our granny flat landing page which will provide you with much of the information you need introduce a granny flat to your garden.  It lists the top five questions asked by our customers, for example Planning Permission, as well as detail all of the stops we go through to make it all happen.

Alternatively, take a look at our floor plans or perhaps you would prefer a web survey whereby by answering a few short questions, for example number of bedrooms and with your full address we can provide you not only a granny flat design that is suitable but also a ball park price too.

Granny Flat Enquiries

We have been thinking of ways in which people new to Granny Annex research and Garden Living in particular can start to get a feel for us as a business.  Over the coming weeks and months we hope to add many components to the Granny Annex online experience.

Last month we updated the Granny Annex Landing Page to be more informative, explaining the process that introducing a Granny Annex requires.  Services which Garden Living can manage in its entirety on your behalf.

This month we are adding an enquiries map.  On average we receive between 40 and 60 Granny Annex enquiries each month, from Scotland to the South West.  This wealth of individuals will help us to develop our business further in providing answers to questions from Obtaining Grants to Bathroom Aids.  All to help families introduce a Granny Annex that works for them as an individual family.

One of our future developments will be a Granny Annex community where people can ask questions of each other.  Again we hope this will help people take the forward step of keeping the family close.  We firmly believe that a Retirement home, Park Home or a Care Home do not hold a candle to a Granny Annex in the back garden of a family member.

To start with though we will put up the Granny Annex map for June a little later this week followed by the 2012 Granny Annex enquiries map.

This week we visited another family looking to put a granny annex in the back garden.  This family like many we visit has a very large outbuilding doing very little other than storing odds and ends.

With a child now returning home the family are looking to put a small flat in the back garden to afford independence for everyone.

Quite simply we are going to demolish the shed and replace with a new housing quality granny annex with bedroom, shower room and open plan living kitchen.  The granny annex will use the concrete base that is already there both saving money and time.  We hope to have the 45 sqm granny annex built and complete in about 6-weeks.

Our architects have created a design that is very similar to the shed but instead of a timber uninsulated structure we are building the granny annex using the latest materials to create a home.

Like many families with children returning to the nest they are looking for a housing quality home rather than a shed conversion that could be used for a few weekends in the summertime.  Living at home again, for many years, is becoming a reality for society as a whole.

If you are interested in a granny annex then please contact us or take a look at our granny annex page which provides a great deal of background information as to the process of introducing a granny annex to your garden.  It is a relatively straightforward and with Garden Living will be a stress free process too.