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

Ooh great, thanks

ishould I'm East London... They are lovely. We've had a lot of problems to start and it has dragged on. As great as they are I don't know if I'd recommend them. Clean, tidy. Some language barriers here and there. But all in all they are great. Just the initial problems. Are you looking for a builder?

mad I desperately wanted them, but chickened out. Piccies if you dooooo!!

Pugs are downstairs also sleeping in. We Haven't got up yet

What made you chicken out Wombat?

My main concern is we would want them where the shower is on the wall so they would have to drill in to them when they install the shower, <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.boltonbathroomfitters.co.uk/images/gallery/large/8byiba7n799wc2im.JPG&imgrefurl=www.boltonbathroomfitters.co.uk/gallery/mosaic-tiles/51&h=333&w=500&tbnid=v3XweM39MQ2y_M:&docid=KvNHfB8N00GgwM&ei=nBZHVoK7O42Nap7IvMAC&tbm=isch&ved=0CGYQMyhjMGM4ZGoVChMIgvmyxuOPyQIVjYYaCh0eJA8o" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this sort of style but not those colours. I'm a little worried they may shatter when they are drilled in to

As I am in bed still and now trying to eek out more time before getting up I thought it would be good if we could share funnies on our projects, i.e. which things have made the process easier/pleasant.

Ours;

• Young labourer had his 21st this week, the brickies stuck a huge 21 sign on the Portaloo and I got him a little birthday cake for his break - the smile on his face was priceless!

• Had a chap turn up on a pushbike outside our skip last weekend, I saw him lurking and pointed out that he was most welcome to take anything from it but not to dump anything, he then duly took a pallet, tied it to his pushbike and loaded up the pallett with bags of old concrete/bricks? Somehow he managed to ride off with said pallett dragging behind him. Next day he turned up and knocked on the door, gave me a bunch of flowers from his garden - bless him.

• Listening to workmen when I am WFH. They are a young bunch and so so respectful to each other, they really get along great and are a credit to their parents/boss. Lovely banter (v little swearing heard)

Wombat we are looking for builders, yes. Could you possibly pm me their details?

Ours have the most eclectic taste in music, Frank sinatra to drum and Base. They sing along to everything.....lets just say they won't be appearing on x factor any time soon but they do make me feel better about my singing

I really want to do something nice for them when they finish but not sure we will be able to afford anything

Out kitchen and bathroom were first done. We're doing the decorating, so we've painted the living room dining room (open plan). Waiting for the loft conversion to be finished and the stairs to go in. Then there's the rest of the decorating.

mad the way we put the shower in, it's quite wide. And the tiles we chose were long. We had to cut them into the corner so we could have the screen on a grout line. If we put the mosaic ones in it would have meant that we'd have cut tiles either side and because it's a walk in style it wouldn't have matched the rest of the floor. Hard to explain but if you look at the pic you may be able to work out what I'm talking about. We designed it all ourselves...I'm sure someone with a bit more experience would have figured it out. All our accessories are bright so I don't feel it's so boring now!

We've had a few problems so I don't know if I'd want to recommend them. (Long story) issues at the start and we've had to have a few chats. Their work is good. And they are great lads. The main dude and his brother is still around, but we've got 2 young ones here on a regular basis now as they've obviously got 2 jobs running. I'm happy to explain all that in a PM to you if you want and then you can decide if you want the details.

Your bathroom looks gorgeous to me as it is. It's actually made me reconsider as that looks really sophisticated.

We're also waiting for stairs to go in for our loft too. I keep going up the scaffolding to see how things are going and I am really pleased with the view were going to have. Stairs should go in this week which is great as then u can get a wardrobe company in to design that ready for as soon as they've finished.

These are topps tiles teckno grey. They're nice and don't show up much dirt either (a must when there's no carpet at the moment so everyone's shoes are dirty).

I'm hoping for stairs too next week - where are you looking for wardrobes?

Hammond, space maker and slide robes have all been recommended on here so I'm going to get them all to come do a design visit as they do them for free and then see who will come down on price the most

Wonderful thank you. And thank you for your nice words about my lovely bathroom :) I've kicked OH out to the pub. I'm smothering with cold so am off to enjoy a soak in that tub. Bon weekend everyone!

I'm glad we are talking bathrooms as I need to make a decision about the size of our downstairs shower room.

wombat and everyone else where did you get your suite from?

The room will be L shaped and the only fixed size is the shower which is 800 wide by 1200 deep which is the | part of the L if you see what I mean! the - part is currently specked as 1250 deep and 2345 wide, theoretically it could be wider but this would impact the size of the family room, or longer (the 2345 is historical as a wall exists here but could be easily moved as only a stud.

The | bit has been built this week and knocked through and now the - looks as if it'll be really cramped... Urgh... Might post this as a separate query and see if some super bathroom designer can assist ;)

Told you I was having floor plan issues :)

Have you had a play on any floor plan software? That was the only way I could work things out

We went to Grant and Stone with plan. They put a CAD drawing together and then explained what sizes we needed for everything, we then went through their showroom and brochures and picked what we liked - one thing was crucial was that we both tried out the bath. DH is over 6foot and I am only 5ft 4" Our existing bath is great for me but not long enough for him.

We then got a detailed quote from G&S on everything we chose, I am going to stick it in excel and take out pricing and then put it out to a couple more suppliers to see if they can offer a better price

Can I join in... even though I'm at the "just getting a plan drawn up and planing applied for stage...?"

Two story side extension here. If I'm honest I'm absolutely bricking(!) it. Everyone I know who has had extensions done has ended up hating their builders. No-one I know will recommend theirs.... Also, we had a bathroom and cloakroom done a few years ago and that dragged on for months and the builder/plumber started well and then became a monster. He was having a bloody affair when he should have been tiling! He'd pretend to go off to Wickes... And he left us with a fire risk bathroom, a leaking bathroom, radiators that never worked. I ended up pursuing him through the courts, won and the bastard moved to France!

AND we both work full time now.

And breathe.

How did you all find your builders? I'd love some singing ones.

planning NOT planing. Although there may be some planing...

I think I'll go into grant and stone with my plans, did you call to make an appointment? I did pop in to get brochures on wet rooms a week or so ago.

I intend to really shop around for the best price, but I need to know what I want first!!! What have you gone with?

mad yes I found some online just now! been playing :)

We made appointment, funnily enough I just checked my quote and then found a mail from my contractor with a copy of quote on it...the builder quote is considerably lower i.e. extra 10% discount! Need to check he is passing that on to us.

We went for Aquilisa Quartz Digital Shower (two heads) in double shower although we are having bathroom build with membrane for 'wet room' we have been talked out of this now and going with a large stone shower tray with small lip with very good glass panel with 180 degree fold back. Kohler bath and loo. We will be going for neutral tiling to walls and want a morrocan style floor tile to brighten it all up.

We spent HOURS researching the bathroom and kitchen. Took all the measurements and did it on the home base online designer thing to work or maximum sizes of stuff/positions. I won't lie, it took 2days of faffing. Then... We did more research and bought all of it online. Bathrooms.com ... Victoria Plumb.... Random sites for shower glass. The whole suite cost much less than it did at wickes or in a shop. It's frightening when you're buying it and thinking "shit I hope it fits" but have faith! We had it all quoted and it was a rip off from diy shops.

Found it much easier going into Wren Kitchens and wickes with the layout and ideas for both rooms - i found it easier to cut the bullshit.

The kitchen, wickes wanted over £7k, £1500 for the solid oak worktops. We found them on an online store for 1/3 the price. Wren were brill, said what they could do cheaper for us etc. But I still only bought the cabinets, dishwasher and some other bits. The cooker, hob, sink and tap came from various places. We went to them and got prices, then went to currys, John Lewis etc. Ended up with bits from all over the place. Hassle... But saved about £3000!!!

More than happy to share these sites when I'm at a PC next :)

Hello Cobbler!

My OH work full time too. This renovation shit is exhausting. But I'm starting to see light at the end of the tunnel. Good luck with yours :)

karcher if this helps you imagine the shower finished....my shower in the pics above is 900 wide (i'm elbowey when washing my hair, i could be a Herbal Essence advert) and 1400 long. It's a wet room style shower, so slopes downwards. I know what you mean about feeling small when it's built, but I think that's because when you're viewing it, you're just looking at the room itself, not what it's used for. When i was doing the bathroom plans online, the room looked cramped. In real life, it's like a bloody hotel room in there.

I went in the loft for the first time the other day, and i was fearing having a total shit fit that super king bed and built ins wouldn't fit. then when we measured and marked out where stuff was going to go, I realised it was going to be fine i was totally overreacting and there's ample space.

I'd like to try and set up an online album to post all the before and after pics. When i've done that i'd love to share it with secretly hoping others do the same so i can be nosey

Sharing pictures would be great.

I'm very worried about ceiling height and general size of our new bedroom, but I think I'll worry about downstairs for now ;)

wombat I'm actually happy with the shower size it's worked out better than i thought! it's the rest of the room.

I think we will go with a flat slab shower tray rather than the original wet room plan as well, I was worried about leakage but thought it would end up being non standard size so wet room would have been the only option, but it is standard size, so we can now use a tray if we wish.

yeah! the loft ceiling has to be 2.1m high. When we stand up in there its odd as all our other ceilings are so high - victorian house. I'm just too excited to focus one just the one thing. When we moved in it was a rented per room and an absolute hovel. so for the last 7 months we've lived in the bedroom with nothing but a kitchen and the bathroom. we're doing it all at once. the sofa came out the packet 2 weeks ago after we laid the floor. i nearly cried. i'm curious about your L shape bathroom! let me know how you get on with it!