Nesting is a common phenomenon amongst expectant parents, but few of us get to engage in the activity on the scale of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
The couple have been granted planning permission to undertake major building work at Anmer Hall, the ten-bedroomed Norfolk mansion on the grounds of the royal estate in Sandringham that the couple have been given by the Queen as a country pad.
I know, nice gift eh?
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Royal officials submitted a secret planning application for substantial changes at the Grade II listed building, but reporters from the Daily Telegraph managed to see the plans at the local council offices after their names were vetted by the police.
According to the Telegraph, the plans show that a new garden room will be built onto the existing kitchen at the side of the house, “with a pergola to be added over a patio next to it to give the royal couple extra privacy.”
The Telegraph says, “A wood store is to be converted into a sitting room and lavatory, possibly for police protection officers, and two berths of a four-block garage will be turned into an “equipment room”.
"Extra trees will be planted around the house to screen it from public view, a new gate across what is currently a public road will be built and a lawn at the house will be taken out to create extra parking spaces.”
The late-Georgian country house is just two miles east of the Queen’s Sandringham House, where the Royals celebrate Christmas. It was allegedly one of the country houses where Charles and Camilla used met for secret trysts, when the Prince of Wales’s friend Hugh van Cutsem rented the property.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, currently living in a rented farmhouse on Anglesey, are also waiting for renovation work on their London home in Kensington Palace to be completed.
When they are not on Anglesey, they live at Nottingham Cottage, in the grounds of Kensington Palace in West London, which has just one bedroom and has been described as 'cosy'.
However, later this year they will move into the newly renovated Apartment 1A inside the palace itself, which was Princess Margaret’s home, while Prince Harry will have the cottage.
The new apartment will suit the couple’s growing family, as it boasts five bedrooms and three reception rooms.
The Telegraph reports that the planning application expires in 2016, meaning that all building work will have to be complete by then.
