Does anyone know what something like this costs?

[BarbieV7]

Hello, I am in the process of looking for a forever home which will be a fixer upper and trying to put together some rough quotes for potential building work. I am obsessed with both the island and back glass wall in this house. Does anyone have any idea what either of these could cost assuming they are of premium materials? The dial does we would want large like that one with a marble top and potentially from and sides as well. I know this isn't an easy to quote but thought some of you more experienced peeps might know :):) we've been saving up 7 years for this so I am so excited I'm barely sleeping at night

Teeniest, not trendiest!

Just wanted to let you know I got a few quotes back for marble and it is just under £4,000, like you said £400 psqm :)

In that 22:03 picture, I can't see what provision there is to prevent the good old British summer from running straight in, as soon as you open the doors.

We have (I think) the identical glass door/window arrangement. It was from Fine Line Windows. They were amazingly professional and helpful, there were some very very minor snags, and customer service was fantastic. They worked really closely with us, our architect and our builder. I would use them again in a heart beat.

Ivory! Really? Can you pretty please tell me how much it cost??

Pick, I guess you wouldn't open them if it's tipping it down and there's probably a slimline channel drain tucked away at the threshold. Sadly, that's the exactly the thing I have to research and buy at the moment.

We are in SE London; doing a 7 by 3m kitchen/living room extension, replacing bathroom suites and a freshen up of paintwork throughout and quotes have come in around £150k plus vat excluding the kitchen. Even with diy kitchens for units we will spend £30k on the kitchen (we are allowing ourselves some bells and whistles). We bought back in May last year and are yet to start the build, architect, planning, party wall dispute with neighbours and we might just be back in the house a year after we bought it if the build goes to schedule. Of course there are some bits that we could do a bit cheaper (glazing, polished concrete floor) but we are aiming for a good finish on a modern extension-sounds similar to what you have planned. I’d look at instructing an architect as recommended up the thread to talk through your hopes and plans. Good luck

£150,000 isn't too bad! Thanks for all the info! I contacted a few builders and aritecgs today so very curious to see what comes back! Speaking to my husband tonight there is always the option of buying 1.8 or 1.9 adding 100-200 ish to budget. I think we need to hear back from everyone and then see what matters most, the perfect house albeit a bit smaller or a bigger somedaybdream home but compromising rest of house for kitchen... lots to think about it very exciting! I hope you come across some better luck and things get moving soon!

From memory our bill to Fine Line was about £14000, to supply and fit. Our builder did all the prep and finishing, so I can't say how much that would have been, as we just had monthly accounts from him. We love our windows!

That's not too bad, it's probably the fitting it that gets very expensive then. Were you happy with your building team and wouldnyou recommend them and do you have a finished result of your glass doors?

£15k was all-inclusive for the bathroom including materials and labour. The room was totally emptied and done from scratch. Rewired with new lights and extractor fans, replumbed because we moved stuff around, plastered, tiled with natural slate and marble backsplash, Villeroy & Boch sink, toilet and Quaryl bathtub, and a walk-in shower alcove with a full height glass screen and a rainfall shower. I'm in North Yorkshire though, it would probably have cost a lot more in London.

That sounds super nice, yes it would probably be more just for being in London... how annoying! Thanks for all the info and I hope you're enjoying lots of lovely long baths! My bath at the moment is tiny and the bathroom not very relaxing with a washer dryer and cat food bowls :)

Some friends did similar in Dulwich, very high spec & beautiful. Cost them at least 300k though.

Without sounding obvious why the budgeting (obviously you want to pay the best price etc)? I know you said mortgage is 30% of your monthly income but 30% of 5k is different to 30% of 20k. Why not do it as you prefer and spend that little bit more?

The reason for not borrowing more is that we wanted to have a 40% deposit to get a good mortgage bracket and my husband doesn't feel comfortable taking out a massive mortgage (I'm a bit more inclined to be risky) in case he could lose his job or any other unforeseen circumstance. Also we will be renting alongside the building work which I guess start to finish would be 1-2 years which for something decent for a family of 4 and potentially 5 in the area would be minimum £3000-£4000 thousand a month plus nursery for at least one child and at some point 2... it would all come to roughly £10,000 a month and then there is general day to day and we would like to have a security blanket of a bit of money a month (we will have some savings put aside anyway). I don't know, am I looking at this the wrong way and is there some other way around it? We could always rough it and stay in a £2000-£2500 a month but that really won't get you much in the area :/

Another option is to stay in the house for some of the building work, I know some people have said there is a certain point in which the house is liveable but is that a few months, 6?

How long are you fixing for? I don’t really see the difference 150k would make long term to a 1.2m mortgage if that makes sense. Although I still see that as a big mortgage

Ideally with young kids I want to be out of the house due to dust, etc. but you could get an au pair for childcare etc.

Sometimes it’s better to not borrow the extra on your mortgage but as separate loan.

Oh i didn't even know what was a possibility, amateur hour over here haha. £1.2 is a lot but we could probably pay it off in 5-7 years max so it's not too bad. I agree that 150k wouldn't make much of a difference to the mortgage but then I think that would take us to a lower bracket which would make a difference to monthly repayments. If it were up to me alone I would do it, maybe inneed to show my husband this thread!

Could you save it over the next year though? Just basing this on the fact you’ve saved for stamp duty etc whilst you’ve been on mat leave & your planning to pay mortgage off early.

Actually I think you should speak to an independent financial advisor. It’s not always the “best” thing to pay your mortgage off early. As in putting the money into other investments for a mortgage period is more rewarding. That’s what i’ve been advised anyway in the past.

The friends who bought in Dulwich (works in law) & could of bought their house outright but it was better to get a mortgage.

I hadn't thought about that either, yes maybe we should! I guess our thinking was paying it off quickly to lower our mortgage repayments. We do have some investments with good returns but that's through husbands work and not an independent advisor so that's something to look into. We've calculated the stamp duty cost (which breaks my heart btw!) and everything and we've deducted that from the overall budget as well as fees, hiring movers etc. We could save that over the next year but it would mean probably waiting another year and if it was between putting moving out of here on hold for yet another year or a higher mortgage/lower overall cost of house I would rather compromise on the latter. Can you tell I'm sick of being here 😬 also I would like to have more space for when baby number two starts walking. Our place is barely 80sqm of poorly laid out space and it's just not enjoyable any more day to day. I think another option could be to buy soon and pay however much (half?) to the builders and pay the other half on completion which if it was in a year then we could probably have another £200k. We are quite bonus dependant for paying off the house (Christmas time!).

Personally Id wait as I think the market will struggle for at least the next year & there could be further interest rates. Plus I think at some point the gov will have to increase taxes.

Keep looking in case you come across a gem though. Good luck

Personally I would say, buy something now that is liveable but not shiny, and wait a couple of years before you do major building works. This is what we've done - we bought a few years back, the house was ok but not recently renovated. We spent about £20k on some minor changes so we could live in it happily for a few years. Now our major works are starting later this year and our DC are 5 and 3 (though we could have started last year if we'd been more organised)

Lots of benefits to this:

1. You get to work out what is best for the house over time. For example we know where the light falls much better having lived here for a while, there are several layout decisions we are making based on that. We know where the "pinch points" in the house are, we know exactly where we need storage etc.

2. You will have slightly older DC when the works start which means you have a bit more time/headspace/energy to get on with discussing designs, choosing taps etc. Hard to take a 2 year old to a sliding glass door showroom... Your current 2 year old may be an easy child, your next one might not be once a toddler!!

3. You will have considerably older DC when the works finish which means less damage to your freshly done house. You say you don't mind scratched floors but once you've spent hours choosing the floor and thousands on buying and installing it you might feel differently... having seen the damage 2 active children have done to our house I am glad we didn't do the work before now.

4. You will have a better idea of what layout works with two slightly older DC, rather than with baby and toddler

5. You will hopefully have more money to play with and can do exactly what you want, and (as I said upthread) depending on finances you might even be able to do the loft and basement all at once while you've moved out rather than having to try to do them later whilst living in. Also basements can often wreck decor upstairs as things shift a bit, eg tiles crack, so better to do it all at once.

Just my tuppence worth! I know you're itching to get on with it but I do think waiting a couple of years could make things so much smoother for you. And mean you are more likely to get the right result in the end.

Also - presume you are looking at school catchments and/or have registered for the local private schools...?

This makes a lot of sense, thanks for the afterthought and taking the time to write me. That goes for everyone too, super helpful.

I did think of that as an option I guess the only aspect I didn't like was having to move out after having moved it but I guess it's not the end of the world.

I have looked at schools, I am hoping to find something within a good catchment and have also applied to a few of the private schools there though I would really hope we could get a good state at least till secondary school. I spoke to the two schools in the area I like and got the boundaries for their catchments in the last 3 years but I also won't pass up the perfect house if it doesn't fall within those either... I'm just really hoping it does!

I have a friend which took on the job as project manager with a 4 months old and she had a pretty easy baby and it seemed horrendous even so and I agree, not what you want to be doing at that point in your life! The plan was that by the time building works were to take place the youngest would be two and would either have a nanny like my oldest or would be in nursery so I would have free days to concentrate on the works and might actually enjoy some time away from baby. Is that horrible to say? I spent the first 14 months 24/7 with my first and would like to do so with number two and as amazing as it is, it's also very draining 😆

They're good points and I especially like the point of figuring out where we would like everything and taking the time to work it all out. I suppose it's also what I am trying to do now as I am still a bit away from buying but wanted to get as much of the big ticket items together as possible to sort of plan and budget.

I think waiting to do the basement might not work out so well though because I believe that would be at least £300-£400 from what I've gathered and that would take us to at least two years further down the line to save with the rest of the housework and I wouldn't want to wait so long to do up the rest. So much to consider!

Hi! What do you mean further interest rates? A drop? Because I believe they have just increased right?

And which taxes are you referring to?

Thanks!

Depending what inflation does interest rates could go up again (slightly) this year.

Well if Labour win the next election I think tax could be increased for higher earners. Tbh I think the Tories will have to as well as the public purse is empty.