Barn Conversions - anyone done one?

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TulipBlaze

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We have a small barn on the farm, adjoined to the farmhouse at one end. Its around 20m long and 5m wide. We are thinking about converting it for ourselves to live in (we currently live off the farm, OH's parents live in the farm house). The barn is single storey, a simple rectangular shape, made of red brick with oak beams and a tile roof. It has two internal walls which we would make into the two bedrooms, and leave the rest as an open plan kitchen / dining / living area. My OH is a farmer, and very practical so we are hoping to do a good proportion of it ourselves. I also work for a building products supplier and get materials at trade price.

The farmhouse itself is Grade 2 listed, which means that the barn could be considered to be "curtilage listed", and therefore General Permitted Development is not applicable.

Any one with experience of project managing / doing their own conversion? Especially with listing restrictions. Any ideas of how much we should budget? How long did your project take? How was your experience with planning, and how long did it take? All experiences, good and bad, welcome!
 
My parents converted an old cow barn/stables into a 2 bed single storey residential dwelling. They lived on-site in a caravan and the total process took 2 years start to finish.
The barn already had pp when they purchased it, however they did make some (small) changes which took a long time to be approved. The planners did also make surprise visits to ensure all was going to plan. Compromises definitley had to be made with regards to windows and even the garden (apparently a winding path from the drive to the front door is not rural!) the biggest building issue seemed to be with a) builder disappearing part way through and b) the septic tank that was installed was wrong so cost approx £2k to dig back up, re-install correctly and put the courtyard back together again.
I don't think my parents would do it again but they are now mortgage free with a beautiful property before they hit 60 so I don't think they regret it at all.
Not sure if that helps but good luck, sounds a fun venture!
 
Just about finished ours! A barn of similar dimensions that was attached to our cottage. Due to the walls being a bit wobbly and there being no foundations meant that we basically knocked it down and started again from the foundations.

We got a large living/dining/kitchen out of it and a utility room. We made 1/3 of it 2 storey and gained a bedroom upstairs too.

I would honestly get an architect to look as they may come up with a room configuration you hadn't thought of. Our old tiny kitchen is now our downstairs bathroom lol.
 
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