What kind of roof?

Peter returns on to Hobart on Friday and we get back to Anthy by phone and discuss the possibility of a hip roof with her. We have a busy weekend with the boat out of the water, coming back off the slip on Monday 17 December. That evening we receive new sketches from Anthy. She has drawn up our alternative suggestion for a roof line, but is very negative about it. In a note on the sketch she says it will be more expensive and will “do nothing for the room”. We check with Tony about costs – he says there won’t be a significant difference and that a hip roof will be structurally stronger. We think it will make the room more interesting and give us a better option for a skylight in the kitchen, but we understand that it does create a potential roof drainage issue. On Tuesday we email our comments and questions back, then talk to her on Wednesday. After further discussion of the merits of the two roof options, I give in and we go back to her first gable design, on the grounds that we can amend later once we get a planning permit, because the various alternative options have a lower profile than her design, so any overshadowing will be less.
Our priority at this stage is to get the permit application submitted. When we were in Melbourne we gave Anthy a cheque to go with the application, so now we are leaving it to her to finalise the application and submit. However the discussions over the roof option means that it will probably not be looked at by a Council planner until late January, and it might be the end of February before we get approval. Leigh will not be able to start in January as planned. He accepts this, and we are slightly relieved, as we will need to be in Melbourne before any work starts on our place, and we don't want to interrupt our summer sailing.