Next Step - PC

Having got the certificat, we now needed a permis de construire - planning permission to restore our non-existent cottage.

If the cottage is over 170 square meters we have to use an architect to draw up our application for a PC - an expensive process. Under 170 square meters we can make the application ourselves - a daunting process.

There are complex rules about the measurement of buildings - SHOB (gross) and SHON (net) - and pages of websites are devoted to complicated tables and diagrams.

Our cottage is dangerously close to the limit, but a conversation at the DDE (the authorising body) and a back of the envelope calculation and we come in just under (167.90 m²). Don't know how she got to that figure - something about the stairwell not being counted and being an old building - but I'm not asking too many questions and that will be the figure in the application. So we can do it for ourselves. But oh help, how to produce plans and diagrams that will make our case for us?

We were given a crib sheet by the DDE and fortunately we have architect's plans and paperwork for our maison principale so I start with these, copy as much as I can and use them as templates for the rest.

Thank heavens for the internet and geoportail.fr which has IGN maps - needed because they show contour lines, a scale and a compass. Just put in the name of our lieu-dit (the land on which our house stands) and print off a copy.

Floor planner was another free internet find - bless them they are testing a beta version and so are offering users the opportunity to play. This formed the basis of the internal drawings.

The rest is a combination of Powerpoint and Word. Tod went out with the camera taking the needed long shots and close-ups and I copied them on to the pages with the maps.

For the vertical elevations I draw rectangles and triangles in Powerpoint and use bitmap pictures of trees and bushes to make it all look pretty.

We have to produce five copies of the complete dossier and another five of certain key pages - glad I've got a colour printer.

I proudly take everything to the Mairie to be told that as we have to install a fosse septique we also need a soil test for the DIDAA (application for the sewerage installation) and that all the paperwork needs to be handed in together. I'm given a flow diagram which shows the all the bits of paper going off in different directions and helpful hints on what to do.

I take all my copies away again and try not to look too despondent.