Home Extension Thread 2018 - summer edition

[DustandRubble]

A thread to share the highs and lows of all things extension, loft conversion, renovation related. Bring your own dustpan and brush.

Reading this thread after a few days and so nice to see everyone's progress. It is like catching up with old friends :)

I wish I hadn't asked our architects to project manage. We wanted to start after Easter - so it would be moving towards completion now - but we're only just getting to appointing contractors...

We're going for manual velux as it's a northish facing room that only gets sun in the mornings so with bifolds, I don't think they'll be open often.

So frustrated to be delayed for so long. It's going to give me even more time to change my mind; I've redesigned the kitchen 4 times already!

Mum2015 - I love bungalow living, do you?
What is your extension giving you?
We are creating a kitchen diner and converting the current kitchen into a bedroom so it will be a little odd having a bedroom off the lounge but I have seen it done in other bungalows so hoping it will be a good thing on resale that we have three bedrooms. Fingers crossed!

Relief here when the guy doing the painting told me the bathroom paint is the undercoat, so not to worry. Phew! It was growing on me but also bugging me that it didn’t match the wallpaper.

Hello, just popping in to placemark and then go back and read all the threads. We've just moved (well 2 months ago) into a 1920's end terraced house which needs an attic conversion and a side extension. Everyone in the street has already done it so we're thinking planning will be ok? But where to start, architect probably or builder first? Hope to pick up on your experiences.

newhousestress if everyone else has done it in the street and you’ve got a good idea what you want you might be ok with an acrhcitectural technician-we paid ours £1400 for drawings and to go through planning. If you want anything more design led then an architect may be more the way to go. Can you introduce yourselves to neighbours for builder recommendations and to have a cheeky look around what they’ve done? Good builders have long wait times; we’ve basically waited a year for ours.

newhousestress What Whattodowithaminute said. Step 1: Charm offensive with the neighbours, esp those who have similar work done. Take note of which architect or builder they used, would they recoommend them, is so why? Some neighbours will invite you in.
Step 2: Apply for building regs. We couldn't have done it without help of an architecht (££££) or architecht's technician (££) even if it did essentially just involve 'drawing a box'. Our guy was recommended to us by one of the builders (that we didn't go with in the end because their waiting time was sooo lobg). So, also start calling builders for an initial site visit. Get at least 3 quotes in and get a feel for how soon they could start.

sorry fat fingers

Step 2: Apply for building regs - ie planning permission
sorry I've got fat fingers AND heatstroke

Newkitchenideas1,
I love bungalow living too. I wish we had big enough garden to do ground floor extension but unfortunately we don't so we are adding first floor to it. My next house would be a bungalow with bigger ground floor or large garden to create one.

Sorry, I have been awol for a while but things going along nicely. We escaped in our van last week for 5 days. They had to do a bit of pipe moving so the water was going to be turned off, so it made sense to disappear. Came back to all the new roof trusses on. Exciting!!
Not so exciting was the sudden deluge of rain we had early Monday morning. Thankfully the water only came into parts of the house which is being worked on. It was still a bit pants though...literally pouring through various holes around the house.
Loving reading all your updates. I am STILL in kitchen colour choosing hell! If any of you fancy having a look on my kitchen photo inspo thread and looking at the plans and helping it would be much appreciated! I'm thinking either stiffkey blue or inchyra blue for the non grey bits. It's just what combination to use. My DH has vetoed the all blue version I had posted upthread.

Mum2015 - that sounds like a lot of work and disruption?
Will be worth it in the end though!
We are fortunate with the garden size and we should still have a good size left.
We (well I say we) I toyed with going up but dp said no! Will you be finished by x mas?

It won't finish by Xmas. Builder said 8 weeks for shell only. We are doing first floor/loft conversion first. Once that is done, we will move all bedroom stuff to first floor, and then work on ground floor kitchen diner.

Bobkate... Sympathy I keep changing my mind on curved vs non curved units at end of peninsula and end of run of units. Loved them to begin with but now don't. Plus the difference in price is about 1400 pounds... So back to the drawing board, or at least the little grid and cut outs.

On positive note if I go for square ended peninsula my whole kitchen, including worktop and a new fridge and cupboards in utility room comes in under 4000. And it is not a small room!!!
It helps we are not having new cooker or dishwasher.

Can you post pic of blues you like

@humptynumpty02 are your worktops in now? We too had a delay with Topsco, was quite stressful as really wanted them in, in time for DD's birthday party. They didn't manage it but have been in 2 weeks now and are lovely so was worth it in the end! I did have a few wobbles tho re how much we'd paid out with nothing yet to show for it!

That is gorgeous sdaisy!

I am really looking forward to a month without builders. They are off for 2 weeks and then we are off. Hopefully we will come back to a lot of progress. It won’t be finished, but it ought to be in the final stages if they focus.

Oh Bobkate I hear you on the awfulness that is choosing a kitchen colour! So fun in theory, so stressful I’m practice. I chickened out in the end and just went white with quartz marble worktops. I still wonder if I made the right choice! Mostly about the fact that we went with DH’s choice of his much-coveted ultra thin worktops. Which have a 40cm overhang in the seating area. 🙄😅 Kitchen planner says it should be okah and there are supports underneath, but I still freak out if I think about it too much. Oh well. What’s done is done.

And re the water pouring in, poor you! Are the builders sorting it? We are still drying out the plaster from when that happened to us a few months ago. 😭

In other news, we just discovered that our builders did not include any priming or painting of the walls in the quote. So that’s another 5-7k we have to pull out of our bums. If anyone wants to find us, we’ll be working off our debts at the poorhouse. 😭

Good god... Linguaphile... That's enormous amount for painting... How much wall space do you have??????

I wrote on here a long time ago about nerves applying for our extension and now we're half way through. So grateful we could move back in with mum whilst the work is complete. We Have a dorma bungalow but are putting a dorma on the back too to have another bedroom and bathroom. Went round yesterday. Our house is ruined. All the kitchen ceiling has fallen in due to so much rain they've got the main structure up and the huge beam in to support the work but there are holes in every ceiling and wall apart from my front lounge. What are we doing 🙈 they are obviously repairing anything damaged and it will be worth it in the end... hopefully... just keep breathing haha...

@ lingua - and I so hear you on working in the poorhouse!! I just totted up what I think will be our final bill for the whole shebang and dear god it's immense!! Trying hard not to think too hard on that.
These are the different combos I've got at the mo. One with all grey round the outside, one with the darker base units. I feel like I am hounding the poor lady at Howdens, especially if we don't end up using them which is quite likely. Although I think I'd send her some flowers anyway.
Wonder if I should ask for one last combo of dark island and dark back run of tall units ( where the ovens are ) and grey on the two side runs.
The blues I was thinking of was either Stiffkey Blue, Inchrya Blue or hague blue.
I had written something else, that I've forgotten now - the dog sat on my ipad.
I am having a bit of a mare day today!!!

I like the first pic the most Bobkate:) it's going to look gorgeous

+1 for first pic. With that worktop dark units look better than light.

First pic.. Definitely.
Looks quite like mine... I am having carbon grey bottom units, light grey top, silver pewter handles, marble work top and pale grey silvery wash oak flooring.
White tiles, pale grey walls... Can't wait for my 'soothing scandi colour palate' kitchen /family room.

Biggest issue is stopping my interfering mother who keeps popping by and saying 'ooh I saw a fabulous bright pink kettle I thought Id get you for a pop of colour'.... NO NO NO... No pops of color, that's the whole sodding point... I need /want soothing grey on grey tones throughout.. My beautiful Ruby spaniels are providing my colour accents.. And I am having teal velvet sofas in extension.. Mainly Cus dogs and me look fab against dark turquoise colours (I am red head too like dogs).

Anyone else got challenging relatives trying to foist their design ideas onto them???