Home Extension thread 2018

[Baxdream]

Thought we should get the new thread ready!
Our front door is in. Long story but it arrived damaged 😫 it's in and lovely but it's going to be replaced!
Our fencing has started today, the short ones are new, the others are getting ripped out

I wanted light coloured quartz originally but had to go for wood to save some money. The worktop had been darkened to make it look older, it looks so pretty. (I can't put any pictures up as whole new kitchen had to be boarded up to protect it.)

I'm getting serious cold feet over our extension. The design is so bad that I feel like we're pouring all this money into it and will end up with a really badly done house. We have tons of doors and long narrow corridors with no natural light. Just found out today that we have to keep a separate loo and bathroom for the 'family bathroom' as there are issues in the loft. Which is ok as we've lived like this for a while but the space is so narrow that the door keeps hitting the tiny sink in there already. (I guess putting the new sink on the other side would overcome this but now I have to find a silly little Victorian sink... I don't even know if it exists.)

Oh no Tika! Have you gone through your concerns with whoever drew up your plans?

Tika,
At what stage your build is. Can you change layout or add some rooflights velux etc? May be add some nice wall and ceiling lights, change paint colour, some bright paintings or accesories would help.

It is not easy to get a sense of space by looking at plan sometimes. Our build would have started in january, but i went to see a house in december with room similar to what i had in approved plan and that made me realize i needed to change it.

Oh tika that must be so hard. I think it’s normal to get cold feet about decisions but if you have genuine concerns then go back to the architect if you used one. Otherwise I’m sure we will all look at a floor plan for you to see if we have any ideas/reassurance. I also feel space and design is important but how you use that space can make a massive difference as well so if you have specific problem areas then there may be an imaginative solution.

@DustandRubble is that River White granite? That's what we're going for with pale grey outer units and a navy island

It’s Ivory White 4years. Probably similar though, I bet they just change the name between sellers!

tika sorry to hear you are worried about things.

With the bathroom, could you put a pocket door in that slides into the wall? Or an internal bifold?

I have kitchen tiles! Not finished yet, but I am really pleased with them.

Your tiles look great @DustandRubble and I love the kitchen units too. Which kitchen (and what colour) are they?

Thank you @Threesocks. It’s from Benchmarx, Somerset Grey. I wouldn’t unreservedly recommend them, they don’t package their kitchens well so we did have some damage. It was all easily resolved, but for the sake of some bubble wrap it seems silly! And they don’t put the protective film over the doors either, which is a pain. But I do like them and the builder says they are good quality. DIY Kitchens do an almost identical style though.

We are looking at a shaker style in lamp room grey from diykitchens which I am hoping will have a similar look. Currently trying to decide on worktops - keep coming back to back Absoluto granite, but not sure if it will be too dark ...

I like same kitchen as you threesocks but going to have rose gold handles and knobs. I am terrified of measuring up and planning the kitchen though.
We are having several other companies come out to do free design and hopefully will use their design and measurements to order diy

@theredjellybean know the feeling!! We have had ours planned by a couple of other companies, although I realised that I had better ideas than them a lot of the time. I now have graph paper and coloured pens and am doing it that way. Hopefully it will be ok when we finally need to order it!

Oooh good idea

Thank you for the support, really. :-)
There's no way going back to the 'architect' she was rubbish. To be honest as soon as the plans got approved I knew they weren't right but my husband was just fed up with all I think (this was the 3rd plan that finally got approved) and didn't want to go with another person to spend more money (which we should have) at planning stage. So this is what we have ....

The wall between the loo and the new bathroom will have to stay. We have doors upon doors upon doors (one at the top of the stairs was required by BC).

I’m transfixed by your big spacious rooms!

I think it look fine... Honestly can't really see the problem.
Is tgat a wall jutting out between sink and loo in en suite? Could you move bath and loo around to fit sink into the space and bit we're sink is could be wardrobes?

My master bedroom is like that with shower instead of bath and a corridor or wardrobes leading into en suite... It's narrow but ok

Dust, it looks fab!

I used Wickes and an independent designer, but my final design is different to both of them. I've redesigned it so many times, but I'm now happy with where I am and our kitchen fitter who used to own his own kitchen factory said it was a good design with no issues:)

I think the plan looks great Tika; admittedly I know nothing about architecture! Could you add a sun tunnel thing to add light?

We got free tickets to the Homebuilding show at the NEC and I'm going to book a slot to get our plans reviewed by an architect to see if they have any advice & it's free! My main aim of going is to talk to the various cladding companies to try and decide whether to clad or not.

4year, Homebuilding show is great, we were there last week. Be prepared for a crowd though.

Thank you all for the encouragement, you seriously have calmed me down. It's the wall between the bathroom and the loo that will possibly have to stay, which means 5 doors at the end of the corridor. I have no idea how to make that long corridor looking bigger, I got as far as no carpets (I found a transformation pic ages ago that showed the difference between removing a carpet and putting wooden floors up with rugs/runner), mirrors but can't get over the amount of doors.

jelly The wardrobe is actually a good idea. The en-suite will be different from the plans as I have an old welsh dresser that I'd like to be converted to a double sink unit and that'll probably go opposite the loo. The drawings show the wall bigger than it'll be in the end.

Bedroom 3 is the one I already whined about a while back, where the two windows won't fit (well... looks like we'll screw them together to make a normal sized one in the end).

Cold feet warming up here.
It's silly busy at the moment, we have guys working on the heating, electricians etc.
Also keep having things damaged by careless tradespeople. So far the tally is: one car that got scratched at the beginning of works (repaired and sold), new car got scratched a couple of weeks ago by one of the workers (again, carelesness) and my range cooker that got scratched by the plumber who decided that putting his stupid drill on the glass would be a good idea. I went nuts at that one....

Thanks Tika

We went to the September one in London and found it useful. I'm hoping that this visit will help confirm whether to use cladding on the extension or stone. We're 90% convinced, but I'd like to talk it through with an architect and hopefully see some examples from the cladding company.

It sounds like you are busy, busy

Had a meeting with our builder and architect today ... everything agreed and potential start date of 14th May - eeek!!!
6 month programme ...

Exciting socks great to have some dates in; it will come around quickly!
tika is hard to see your floor plans fully on my phone; whilst I can see your concerns regarding the doors and the corridors I can’t see a better solution, it looks like you will have good sized rooms with good light and the L shape makes the corridors required (Im not an architect though...) some people on the Houzz app will comment on floor plans readily and might help too.
Concrete for the extension footings was poured here today, slow progress but at least progress...

Tika,
That hallway is needed because of where the stairs are. You have got really nice large bedrooms and it's ok if there are so many doors. Each bedroom and bathroom had needed one anyway. It is only wc and stairs one that is extra, so it's ok. Most of the time bedroom doors will be open and they will give light to hallway.