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 absolutely love it Bax. I am still a bit grumpy that mine has ended up so grey. I may paint a wall in the new extended bit crazy bright just to make up for it!

Bax wow! That looks amazing.

I've been following this thread for ages but not posted. We're two weeks into a 5-6 week build, a single storey full width job with some internal bits too. So far the builder has partitioned off a 'new' front room and knocked out a doorway. We have blockwork almost to full height and the brickwork is coming along too. The worst is yet to come...I lose my kitchen next week and the steels are probably going in!

ItsThe I like your builders. :-) How exciting. I bet they’ll finish your extension before mine gets done. If that’s the case, please send them my way.

Bax I love bold colours, that bathroom is ace!

Bax Aren’t you worried about splashes around the loo? I’d normally tile behind and around but we need to save some money and I have been trying to think how (and I’m pretty sure I haven’t ordered enough tiles) and seeing yours makes me wonder if that’d be a way to do it.

I've never really thought about splashes behind the toilet. It's always had tiles in those areas.
This is the main bathroom so I won't really use it anyway!

Interior doors, aargh selection headache.

Sounds like some great progress here and I love the bright bathroom bax I wanted orange and white for a while but not sure I'm brave enough.
Feeling really frustrated here nothing has really happened on site for about 6 weeks... waiting for steels to go in, was hoping this week it might happen but that still looking optimistic... I’m worried now that being in for the end I the school term isn’t realistic which has massive implications regarding school application for next year... rant at builder tomorrow planned...

Wow Kissing I’m jealous of the builders coming early!!

We’re starting electrics this week. Happy dance!!

Meanwhile, I’m still up at night trying to decide on my kitchen. I just don’t know what to do! Currently have white with black flames granite worktops. Thinking I should either change to white on white or dark cabinets and light worktops. Part of me loves the idea of an all white kitchen (wood floors should warm it up!). Is that a mistake? Pics of kitchen and my crappy ikea room planner mock-up (not an IKEA kitchen tho!!) included.

Black flamed and brushed, not flames! Looks like this.

If I go white, should I do plain or carrara? Quartz or ceramic??

My instinct was no to an all white kitchen, but having looked at pics they do look nice and fresh, Lingua. Is it a bright space?

It’s got a whole wall of sliding glass doors and another window, so it does have a lot of natural light, but because it’s a west/northwest facing exposure there isn’t much direct sunlight until the evening if that makes sense... I just don’t want my kitchen to end up being a dungeon as it’s so big and no direct morning sun!

Some pics of the very bare space

And some ideas of what it might look like, along with what our island is sort of hopefully going to be like in terms of shape.

I think a grey (or at least darker) backsplash would be good to break it up and keep it from looking too sterile. But I honestly just don’t know!!

Maybe a slightly marbled worktop rather than pure white? It’ll help keep it looking cleaner I think? You could do a bright splashback. There’s some nice examples if you look on google images for white kitchen, bright splashback.

Yes that’s my instinct as well, something that won’t show the dirt. An example of the worktop we could do is with that green kitchen below.

Do you think I’m right that the space isn’t really light enough to take a dark kitchen? Or do you think it could work? We just have soooo much rain here, particularly in winter, that I don’t want it to be too gloomy. We could do just a warmer gray (like what’s pictured) which might look nicer than plain white on plain white as well, but again I worry about the trendiness factor!

I hate this kitchen stuff because it feels like such an expensive thing to get wrong!

I absolutely love the idea of white units, white quartz/pale granite or similar worktops and wood floor. So not completely white on white, more of a textured-white-on-white, with the wood to warm things up. I'm not a massive fan of dark kitchens in darker rooms, although I think it can work amazingly well in big south facing rooms. Our kitchen is/will be north west facing, and we are currently planning wooden floors and units and white worktops (hoping for corian).

Will you having tiling/glass splashback? Could you pick out a colour from a white quartz worktop (pale grey?) to have for that to keep some dimension in?

Ha ha, we might end up with the same kitchen then Hopefully.

Humpty we found choosing internal doors the easiest part! Which ones did you go for in the end.

I wouldn't judge the room too much in its current state. Once it's plastered/painted it makes a huge difference!

So we've found out our builder is about to fold/go bankrupt/is in a financial mess!
Thank god we ended it last week! I'm actually so sad it's ended this way. Our house is beautiful 😢

Whattodo 6 weeks no work? That sounds horrible. At least our guys potter around a bit every day.
How does this mess up your school plans?

Dust I think you asked about Solidor. Well... I didn't expect that grain look (it was one of the reason I didn't want another brand). It looks better on our side door which is Chartwell Green but the front one. They didn't have matching colours for the lion knocker and it's a shiny black cheap looking one. I guess that's the main gripe, it kind of ruins the look and there's no way of taking it off without potentially damaging the door. But I'm already starting to get used to it. I'm pretty sure it'll be just left as it is.
Our flat roof garage also looks a bit crap, we'll have to build some sort of pitched storm porch on it. But that'll have to wait.

(One surprise from last week is that my eldest got into a middle school that I applied to, so for a few years we don't have to worry about secondary schools. It's a different borough so the various term dates will be making things a bit complicated but I guess this is when me being unemployed (aka SAHM) comes in handy.)

Lingua I'd go for light marbling as well if you go for a white worktop.

Your poor builder... I think ours are struggling, trades don't turn up as promised, cash flow issues. I'm quite amazed, in a dropping economy people aren't grabbing every work they can.

I tried to take photos over the weekend of the progress, I haven't quite got the hang of how to photo a small space.

Bax what a shame about your builder - I've been stalking following this thread for a while and they seemed so good until the nth hour.

Linguaphile I think ours will be the pocket sized version of yours . Our house is teeny weeny. I'll post plans at some stage, but I am trying to avoid looking at them and getting my hopes up until we get more information about the sewer build over situation.

Lingua I also wouldn’t judge it on the current space. Some of my builders think I am mad having painted bits of our kitchen diner quite dark and with the grey kitchen. But as soon as we have natural light in it will change so much. Once you have walls and floors yours will look different too.

I had the bifold company measuring up today, now I am staring at integral blind swatches trying to decide what colour to get. They are all a bit dull.

tika I know 6 weeks without progress is ridiculous... it will affect schools as we were hoping to apply for in year transfers by the end of this academic year, the new borough won’t accept an application until we are resident (even though we’ve owned the property for nearly a year now) delays have been relating to BC wanting different steels to the ones calculated for by the structural engineer and I think miss management by builder...

lingua we are having white units and stainless steel worktops; I know it’s not for everyone but I actually want to be able to see the dirt to be able to clean it. Our current rented kitchen is dark units and worktops and it isn’t for me. Go with what you want.