Issues with architects

We hear nothing from Anthy for the remainder of November. In the absence of a response from her we agree to a meeting on 12 December with Leigh, Tony and an alternative architect that Tony has worked with before, and write an email to Anthy suggesting that perhaps she hasn’t really got time to help out with a job that has been sprung on her at short notice.

On 4 December, we receive sketch plans from Anthy which are perfectly adequate. We have limited time to look at them because we have guests arriving the next day and we are taking them sailing. But now Anthy is chasing us, so we agree to meet her when we are both back in Melbourne on Tuesday 11 December, the day before the meeting with the other architect.

We return to Melbourne, meet Anthy on Tuesday, but run out of time to make final decisions because Peter has a meeting and I’m off to Seaford to scatter the ashes of grandparents, Fritz and Elsie. We agree to reconvene on Wednesday afternoon.

On Wednesday we meet Tony, Leigh and Daniel Ash, a young architect we rather take to. He has some ideas and comments we find interesting. He seems to have a better grasp of the structural issues and we quickly resolve the issue of how the new wall will be built – as two brick veneers walls back to back. Anthy has been trying and failing to convince Leigh he should build in brick veneer rather than double brick for months. In the discussion between him, the two of us, Tony and Daniel he was convinced within about half an hour, because the structural implications were clearly explained.

During the discussion, Tony and Daniel also suggest that since what we are doing is basically a repair job, fixing things that are decaying, we may be able to go straight to a building permit and skip the planning permit. This seems like an opportunity worth pursuing, so we agree that they will go and talk to a building inspector. I ring Anthy to tell her what has happened. She heaps scorn on the idea that the job can be done without getting a planning permit. However she eventually agrees that we should wait until Tony gets back to us before we meet again and we postpone the Wednesday afternoon meeting sine die.

Later that day, Tony calls – Anthy was right: a planning permit is needed. By now I am in the process of returning to Tas and we both have commitments on Thursday, me in Hobart, Peter in Melbourne. So we don't have time to meet with her again.