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

The ups and downs are pretty epic aren't they! Half of the back of ours came down today. The bloody previous owners had those teeny polystyrene balls pumped in as cavity wall insulation. They are now merrily floating around all over the place. The builders are hoovering up as much as they can, as they go, but my goodness...I think we'll be finding them for years to come. Whatever clever soul came up with these as a good idea needs his/her head looked at. I can't help thinking of all the campaigns for plastic free this and plastic free that...and here we are floating thousands of these blooming balls into the ether
On a happier note I emailed DIY today in the hope I can get a rough quote before we make the journey up there in the next few weeks. I am so excited. I hope they come back with a good price!

We arw having the Norton if the quote is good, also think might go up to show room but it's a long way from Cornwall!
I am sending my quote tomorrow, I presume I just cross out stuff Howden put in which we don't want, like new appliances, and then send it Nd diy can understand it, Cus I can't :)

@theredjellybean I've also seen good things about www.unitsonline.co.uk/ they're in Taunton so a lot closer to you and they help with planning. It might be worth speaking to them?

Yep...might be worth looking at units online. We're probably about half way between the two!!
I sent them my little cut out plan and hopefully I can get a rough quote from that.

Oh wow good luck those just starting. Take it week by week. I always think "what will the house look like next Friday" (I always take check on a Friday!) Lots happens in a week!

We have a howdens kitchen. Started going in yesterday.

Oh no, I know we have cavity wall insulation as we put it in so that will be something to look forward to!
I think the advice week by week is good I work part time so I imagine it's quite exciting to see the progress made when you come home from work.
Day two and not only do these builders not actually seem to take a break they hardly ever want cups of tea. Not like I expected it so far.

Wait, did someone say sewer build over? My favourite topic ! Filo anyone can apply for the build over as far as I'm aware, but make sure someone is - it's not the sort of thing you want to wait to do, because if my experience is anything to go by, it's slooooooooooow. We first contacted the water board a month ago and don't yet have a date for a cctv survey of the sewer, which is the first essential step in pretty much every build over, although there do seem to be some exceptions. Most water companies do fairly comprehensive information booklets which can be downloaded.

Went to Ikea today and was really underwhelmed with the kitchens, which is a shame as they are pretty budget friendly. We need to visit some showrooms and get a feel for where our lemonade budget might reach our champagne lifestyle aspirations. I absolutely love the look of this company but the price is, unless our extension comes in below expected budget, several thousand out of reach.

Thanks hopefully I better get my bum in gear!

Unfortunately in my experience, everything costs twice as much as you had wished (and budgeted for) boooooooo

IloveChocolate yes its great coming home from work and and seeing the progress :-)

MrsBlondie don't ruin my dream - I'm still fantasising about an extension that comes in at £1,000 per sqm . I have lost all track of what ours is going to cost - we keep adding things and taking them away. Architect has recommended an online quantity surveying thing before we go through planning to make sure we can afford what we've designed, and to make any major changes required before planning goes in. I really want to crack on with it all though - I still have ambitions of starting February next year, but that's looking less and less likely with every month that passes without planning application going in. I thought I was being very patient by suggesting we might apply in June when we first started with the architect in December, now I'm thinking we'll be lucky to get it in then. Sigh.

Am I allowed to show off yet 😬. Just got in from work to glorious sunshine. It's so damn worth it !

We put our planning in when our neighbour moved out and the house was empty so had it well in advance. But we had to wait until we could afford it!
Our extension is about 80sq metres I think? I'd say about £1500 per square metre?

Bax,
Keep posting photos. Your place is so beautiful and gives hope that it will all be worth it!

please come and calm me down...and advise..so the kitchen saga continues..DP is mildly obsessed with things not being 'too dark'..but also freely admits he has little design flair and would probably have a kitchen circa 80's pine if left to his own devices.
He had said absolutely no to the navy blue kitchen, until he saw the computer generated pictures...i then sent him down to howdens and he saw navy kitchen and marble look laminate top....and came back and said he liked the navy cupboards but did not like marble top..he wants the dark wood top that was the choice with mid grey cupboards.
i gritted teeth and said dark wood onto of dark cupboards...not good, too dark overall...
I have googled navy kitchens/wood worktops and can only find one picture, and ok it looked quite stunning but very dark and dramatic , and we are going for a big U shaped kitchen and latern roof and big bifold doors . i think it will look odd with lots of light and then dark dramatic kitchen.

help....all pics on internet are dark navy kitchens with light white/marble like worktops.

what do you lovely lot think ?
dds and dsds said ' oh mummybean just order it and he will love it when its in '

What about light wood instead? I've seen quite a few lovely navy kitchens that have oak worktops and aren't too dramatic / dark

I actually think navy and wood looks stunning. But I cannot keep wood nice for love nor money! I've already got a ring mark in our utility (we only had wood in there as I wanted a Belfast sink for the dog and wood is cheaper than granite).

I actually don't think our kitchen would be dark with wood worktops as the room as so bright! Our garden is west if that helps?

Oh and my husband didn't like marble so we just got white with tiny grey specks

amazing good luck with party wall discussions-they have been the most stressful part of our progress so far...

Oh Bax that looks gorgeous! Please do come and show off, it's lovely to see it finished. Is 80sqm the footprint, or is it 40 upstairs and 40 downstairs? I have noticed a lot of variation in what seems to be included when online resources are talking 'per sqm'. £1,500 per sqm would be totally doable for us, if it gets up to £2k excluding the kitchen it starts to become more challenging. We are in the depths of the south west though, and will do any jobs we can ourselves, so hoping prices won't be too horrifying.

Jellybean how light is the room? I'm not personally the biggest fan of all dark kitchens (a friend has navy with white corian and it looks beautiful though), but I could actually see all dark working in a really bright room.

After all my bitching about slowness, the water people are coming on Thursday to survey the sewer. I do need to force the architect into a gannt chart to actually get it to planning though, as it's just getting silly how slow he is. He actually came to look at the house for the first time last July, although we didn't ask him to start work until November, with a view to getting planning in June.

Well it's about 35sq m downstairs and the same upstairs. Then the utility is an extra which is about 3x2 metres?

Sorry Bax, I'm going to carry on being nosy, feel free not to answer if it's too personal - what did that include? Presumably not kitchen? Flooring? Everyone says that two storeys ends up cheaper per sqm as the upstairs is (relatively) so cheap, so I suppose we are still looking closer to that £2k per sqm figure. Never mind, who wants a kitchen anyway?

We've never actually sat down and worked it out! But we took out £140k from the house and we haven't overspent (as in nothing on credit cards) apart from carpet throughout is on 0%
That includes everything including sofas, paint, kitchen, 2 bathrooms, cloakroom, paint, garden and driveway