The First Step is Land

The first thing we need to do is to increase the size of our house lot. Presently, it is ca. 900 square meters. The problem is that our lot is regulated "TU=25%." That means that the total square meters of all buildings (including garage, shed, etc.) cannot exceed 25% of the total size of the lot. In fact, it is not just the total ground space of buildings, but the total floor space, which includes basements, attics, etc. With our 900 sq. meter lot, that gives us 225 sqare meters of floor plan which we can build (ca. 2250 square feet).

Such a limited space makes any addition practically impossible. The house itself presently is 89 square meters on the ground and second floors. Since we will anyway need to build a new foundation for the house, we intend to render the basement possible to renovate (although we will not be able to have bedrooms or any 'occupiable' rooms in that basement because such rooms require an emergency exit window and the Preservation Department will not let us disturb the ground level around the house that would enable such a window). Nevertheless, a basement of 1.9 meters increases our square meter total to 139.

Already on the property, we have an outbuilding that is ca. 20 square meters. Although it is technically not preserved, the Preservation Department has said it would look much more favorably on an application if we kept that building. So now our total is up to 159 square meters.

The building regulations also require that every lot must include a plan for a garage, even if it is not immediately built. While our lot is pre-existing and, therefore, not subject to that regulation at present, when we submit an application to build an addition, this regulation comes into force. So we must plan where a garage will be located and include its square meters into our total. A average two-car garage is ca. 60 square meters, which would bring our total up to 219 square meters.

Already, that means that our addition of three bedrooms, a kitchen and a bathroom (the existing structure will house the living room, dining room, and two small bedrooms) is limited to 6 square meters. That would be rather cramped :-) (each room being one square meter).

There is also an additional problem with lot size. Presently, most of the un-built-upon land is on the 'public' side of the house. This is the side of the house that faces open farmland and can be viewed from the passing road and culture trail 300 meters in front of the house. The Preservation Department has already advised that we can build nothing on that side of the house because it would detract from the cultural landscape. We agree with the Department on this point, as well as the front-side of the house being the only place where we have open lawn, which we would like to keep that way.

On the two sides of the house, we are already within five meters of the boundaries so there is no space for expansion in those directions. Toward the back-side of the house there is enough space for an addition, which would require moving the outbuilding. That leaves us in the predicament of where to place the outbuilding and where to place for an eventual two-car garage.

Our lot is primarily surrounded by a single farm, except for a tiny sliver of land owned by a different farm. We have spoken with both landowners and have come to an agreement in principle that we can purchase land to expand the size of our existing lot. Since we are already going through the process of boundary changes, we have asked the primary surrounding farm if we could purchase a larger amount of land (ca. 8 to 12 'mål' (8000 to 12000 square meters or ca. 5 to 7 acres). We've also come to an agreement in principle for that purchase.

To complete a purchase and transfer, the first thing we need to do is to reduce our principled-agreement with neighbors to a specific agreement. The only real issue here is price. We have agreed in principle that we will pay full market value. In fact, due to the land zoning in question, that is the only alternative. Anything substantially over or substantially under that price would cause the application with the land authorities to be rejected. The land in question is zoned LNF (farming and nature). It is an area with steap hills into a ravine which is not farmable, but has some trees on it. So the market price we must find is the per mål price for unfarmable, partially-treed forest, LNF zoned, in the Eidsvoll region.

After agreeing on a price and other details with neighbors, than the government bureaucracy fun ride will begin. We're still not certain of all the steps, but we know it is complicated, especially with LNF land.