Anyone starting an extension imminently?

[Karcheer]

Ours has been a long time coming, planning permission was granted 18months ago, but our builders finally start on Tuesday.
Would be great to have some build buddies

I has stairs!!! And carpet in the guest bedroom!!!!

Hurrah!!!

karcheer I hope you mean good different

wombat that's looking great

Our grouting is just being finished today. I don't think I've ever been so excited for next weekend, going to be so nice to have carpet. We can't move up straight away as we're waiting on our new bed sadly. Although I might take the blow up bed up there for a few nights

Mad if you're like me you'll be sleeping on the carpet. That's where they found me when I disappeared just after it was laid. So excited for your carpet and grout. Like Xmas comes early!

Evening ladies, I front does look good, but it's so, so different, the whole thing just looks so big at the moment. You can now see where bedroom 3 and it's EnSuite windows will be (the brickwork continued to rise today). The soldiers were built above the carport doorway and the old steel from the old garage door was exposed (ready to be removed) I cleared out the rest of the junk from the garage as the roof is coming off soon. We've piles of junk everywhere in our house :/
So jealous of your rooms!

oooohhhh lots of progress.

Wombat I do like the dark blue on the wall. Is that in a bedroom or a living room? We are thinking about having a dark colour on two of the walls in our new living room. Dark red or dark blue. We were thinking dark red but having seen your dark blue I am now not so sure.

Hmmm so I got our builder to price up the next extension and its come up about 6k more than I thought. We can afford it but it would mean delaying the kitchen being done and things would be very tight, I like to have a buffer just in case. Not sure what to do now, suck it up and possibly borrow some additional funds, do the extension and delay the kitchen or have a flat roof extension.

Not sure what to do

Madblondedog could you have a flat roof extension with a plan to turn it into a pitched roof at a later date? Is that feasible?

DH has just phoned, we now have the floor in. Now all we have to do is stop the dog leaving foot prints in it (or sinking in and having to be rescued!). However, DH did suggest that if the dog got stuck we could just put a glass top on him and use him as a coffee table!

Gnome possibly but I think that would be more costly.

I think I'd rather go for it now and then maybe delay getting a new kitchen - Unless you can get a kitchen for £5k inc appliances

Gnome maybe he likes how soft it is on his paws

Ive had a builder round to quote for a tiny downstairs loo extension. I only have a space of 80cmx140cm to put it in. Builder sucked his teeth and said new building regs mean that external walls have to be thicker than they used to be. Our house is old with no cavity wall, he says you're meant to have a cavity wall which means inside the loo would only be 60 cm wide.

He's going to ring the council and beg for an exception for us. It seems silly to have to have 140cm of wall with a cavity when the rest of the house doesn't. He thinks the council might agree to make an exception for us. If so we will get 70cm usable width.

gnome I think cement can burn their paws.

Dont worry, the dog is not being allowed out to enjoy the concrete or become part of the furniture .

I am looking forward to him no longer having mud to trample into the house. For some reason he had an aversion to the carefully placed wooden planks!

I'm a bit over the mud and animals now. It's so muddy. The rain really can do one!

Today the steel was removed from the original garage opening.

Rain and mud can go away, even if they do make the dog insanely happy

The concrete has set and the tide of mud into the house is receding.

Pallets of bricks and blocks on the driveway plus a tote of sand. Builder due round today to start stacking bricks or something.

As the patio doors and windows are here the builder is talking about building them in himself which will save DH a job.

We are thinking about heating in the extension. It is a single room with three outside walls. Originally we were simply going to join the room onto the central heating system. Now we are starting to think about getting electric panel heaters instead.

Our thinking is that this room is quite separate from the rest of the house so may need a different approach. I think that it may be hot in the summer (south facing) and a bit colder in the winter (those outside walls). If we heated it separately then we would turn down the central heating in the rest of the house (for which DCs would be grateful as they are on the second floor and do feel cooked).

We might go with the panel heaters for now and then get radiators later.

May all your builders be busy and good!

Oh I'm so confused!
The council have come back to say that we can apply for a non material change but a response will take 6-8 weeks.
The architect says that allowing the non material change is a good sign. But of course they can say no.
Our builder says he can stop and do jobs for other people in the 6-8 weeks.
I need to discuss this with dh obvs but I really don't know what to do.
The height difference is about a foot and a half, but obvs this will impact the overall size of the rooms. I really wish I knew how much of a difference it would really, really make.
Urghhhh...

Thoughts?...

Oooh, sounds tough. Do you think you'd regret it if you didn't make the change?

Our next extension is going in for planning permission next week, fingers crossed! Be nice to have a few weeks builder free.......I think! Probably end up missing them.

Gnome did you decide what to do with the heating?

Will you build it even if you go with the lower roof? If so can't you start the build and they sgould get back to you before you get too the roof?

We applied for our lawful development certificate for the loft and they agreed it within 48 hours it should have taken a few weeks! So they may surprise you. But it meant we got our answer as the scaffolding was going up!

We have a floor in the loft, stairs and it's nearly plaster boarded. Hopefully it will all be plastered by Christmas. So just the finishing in the new year while they start on foundations for the side extension.

mad I wish I could walk around the extension with the extra foot and a half and without and see how much of a difference it makes. If we build it without the foot and a half and it's spacious I won't regret it, if we build it and it feels closed in, I'll wish we'd tried to get the extra foot and a half...

mbaby I'd say we are days from starting on that bit of the roof.

Can I ask you all?

Did you try to get a bit knocked off your quote or do you just accept it? I'm not sure if you're supposed to haggle? A friend of mine reckons you are?

simon I didn't haggle - did question myself though

karcheer it's so tough, fingers crossed for a speedy decision

karcheer do you have a space where you could lay out the space and try it out for size? Is there a bit of garage space or even garden?

What is the percentage space difference?

Madblondedog we are going with electric heating to start with. We werent planning on underfloor heating so we will be able to bring radiators in off the main CH system at a later date.

WhoTheFuckIsSimon we didnt haggle exactly. The builder quoted then DH said 'if I do XYZ how much will it be?'. DH has done the digging out and will also be doing all the internal fittings (plaster board, flooring, electrics). The builder is building a watertight shell.

Also when the builder gave us the payment schedule DH pointed out that the payments added up to £500 less than the price we had agreed. Builder said 'no problem, pay me the payments in the schedule'.

Builders were here today and we now have corners on our build!

Thanks. I'm struggling to convince Dh to agree to it.

Quote is 8.5k for a small extension for a tiny downstairs loo. In cs fixtures and fittings for loo and sink, venting the boiler, moving a drain, moving some electrics.

I think we need a second loo in the house, Dh thinks we can manage with one! Ive told him how it will add 5% value to the house, etc.

He's so tight it's untrue. We still have a 30 year old stair carpet. Other carpets have been replaced only because I paid for new ones....if it was left to him he'd be happy with threadbare carpets.

Gnome I am jealous you have a DIY savvy DH. I'm the DIY person in our house but I don't think anything I can do will bring down the costs substantially.

Our shower room is now in and looks amazing (sadly is not functional yet)

We're trying to see what changes we can make to the next extension to bring the cost down. I'm starting a new job next year which should enable us to save quicker for the kitchen, part of me is considering a loan just to get everything finished now.