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

Filo,

I am going through same stage as you, have been planning since last year April and now close to getting a final design and quote. Hopefully it won't be more than what we have in mind. I keep looking at right move and think should we just buy a bigger place, but then the sale of our place and chain. All that doesn't sound easy either.

Whisky,
Oak and quartz. I love both so much. It looks amazing.

How much contingency we should keep?

Badweek - you could try letting the floor boards upstairs dry out and sand them a bit to see? There's a chance that the dye from the ply only penetrates the surface esp if they have some sort of treatment on them already? I couldn't find any thresholds that would work for us when we had an engineered wood floor put down in the hall - in the end I sanded down spare boards from the floor itself to give a rounded edge - those were stained dark and lacquered but the natural oak still came up lovely underneath.

Bax,

I cant read dimensions on the floorplan but I see that your house has doubled in size and lovely large square rooms look amazing. How long the whole project took?

I've literally just logged onto to see our planning application as showing. Following with interest!

Mum 2015 what are you doing? Ours is a side extension it’s so expensive.
Thanks Whisky ours won’t really add value in what we’ll spend either which is hard as it’s not our forever home but it desperately needs doing and the whole house needs a bit of love. You’re right about contingency.
It’s so real and scary!

Hello. After following the last two 2017 threads I thought I'd pop on to say hi at the start of the new one (mainly so I no longer feel like a stalker looking at your lovely progress photos!)

We are waaaay behind everyone here. We've had an architect do basic drawings that we are now happy with - need to send him some cheques so he can submit for PP and Building control for us. Then he said he'll start working on more detailed drawings for us to get some quotes in from builders.

I'm trying to gather a list of things that I don't think I need to think about/decide now but actually do!!

Filo,

Our home is a bungalow and we are doing side and back extension. Also sort of building a first floor on it. We started with planning of loft conversion but eventually decided to raise the walls and build first floor. We have got initial planning application approved but I have made some changes to the plan so submitted a new amended application. Now waiting for builder to give new quote based on change.

Badweek, what a nightmare!

I just watched last nights Love It Or List It and it made me very excited to get started with ours as the results were amazing. So sad that the series is over; I adore Kirsty & Phil!

Me too! Those sliding doors were gorgeous!

What a transformation! The front of the house was still awful, but wow was it amazing inside

I love Love it or list it! Plus Ugly house to lovely house, have you seen that one? I’ve got another Lioli on the planner for this week I don’t think the series has finished has it?

Maybe I have it taping on the wrong day!

How much are you expecting it to come in at mum2015?
Which kitchen companies have everyone gone with?

Last nights was the last of the series 😞

I did like UHTLH but I got annoyed because their architects always designed something they couldn't afford!

We've gone with DIY Kitchens. We went up to the showroom (it's brilliant with free refreshments including homemade brownies) the quality is superior to all the High St stores I looked at but so much cheaper. Very excited about how it'll look as I've obsessed over it for months!

Totally agree on that about the architects, I remember the one with the big bbq area at the back it was literally triple their budget!

We have Howdens, worktops from elsewhere.

That looks fab Fourmagpies!

So... Building inspector came round and despite builder being confident, he say no to existing foundations and no to fecking underpinning. Got to have wholeot up and start again. This is for basically a simple one story garden room that will onky be fractionally heavier than existing conservatory.
I am so cross. Builder is cross, he says he'd have happily built it but we want to sell in 5-6yrs so will need sign off, certificate etc.
Building inspector wants whole new concrete slab blah blah.. The fecking conservatory has been up 15yrs and not a mm of shift.... Aghhhhhhh

So added 3k to budget which I have just seen is not including vat... So we are over budget with no kitchen or floor accounted for.

Not sure how this is going to be paid for at all now....

Oh Jelly :( that is unfortunate,

Building controls can be ridiculous. I understand they’re trying to raise standards, but our whole house has been sitting on a 40 cms foundation since the 1950s. New foundation is 2.5 m in some places.

I hope it’s not going to throw your budget too much jelly.

Hi all

I would like to join you for a rocky ride ;)

We have started on a massive project in January and so far so good. The foundations are down and the walls are coming up. Very exciting to see the progress and actually learn how the houses are built!

Today we are anticipating the concrete floors to be poured, hence we need to make a decision on what flooring we want. I always loved the idea of vinyl flooring, but heard that the costs are tremendous for preparation.

I will try to attach some photos.

Great hear that some of you are so far ahead.

We have not made any internal design decisions yet and that is a big worry.

Oh jelly that’s properly shit. Is there anywhere you can shave off some costs from the rest of the build? Our quote came in originally with 7k beside the paving for the back and side of the house and we nearly choked reading it. Our total budget was way over and when we went back to the builders and said they could have the job if they met us at X, they started frantically shaving off costs to get the contract... funny that the paving miraculously reduced to 2k overnight with no change of spec.

To be honest we were quite happy to reduce the paved area to a 1 m path around the side and back but nope, looks like it was just one of the places they’d built in a massive profit margin. We hammered the price down a loads by being cheeky and upfront.

Maybe you could go back to the builders and just say that you can’t afford the extra costs and you’re going to shelve the works altogether unless they can come back to you with some savings? Unless they’ve started already in which case you might have to lower the spec on something else?

Oh and of course it could be worse. Friends of ours started an extension two weeks ago and had a call from the builders on the first day to let them know that their house had NO foundations (victoria house) and the existing house needed underpinned before they could do anything.... tend of thousands before they even put a single brick up. Horrifying

Filo,
Still waiting for quotes. I am hoping quote will be around 200k for build and further 50k for things which aren't included in quote like floor, kitchen, tiles, bathroom fittings etc. Then contingency on top of that, though I don't know how much should I keep for contingency?
Any suggestions from those nearing end of build as how much?