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.

imsodonewithshit that's exactly where we're up to! Had two builders round on Saturday, waiting to hear back, fingers crossed we can afford what we want!

I agree with styling it to your likes. A lovely white kitchen like that can take pretty much anything.

Big sigh of relief for me as I finally have a plumber that reasonably priced 🙌🏼 We now need to shift our butts and clear the conservatory of the last few bits so we can chuck it on eBay as ground work starts in 3 weeks

Thank you Van, yes I shall consider all your suggestions.

When looking at kitchens, Dh and I both liked this paint:
But maybe it's too dark?

Plus I have just ordered myself this glass chopping board:
The multi coloured veg one.

It's all going well here. Builders are just working so fast it's incredible. Internal walls are slowly coming down, we have now lost our kitchen which is the part I was dreading but it should only be for 3 weeks or so. I feel so sorry for them working in this heat. I've stocked up the freezer with ice cubes and ice lollies for them hoping it'll keep them going!

Hi to those just starting out. My advice, for what it's worth, is to crunch the details now while you have time and don't feel too much time pressure!
I have to say I am feeling slightly overwhelmed by the responsibilty of the decisions on plugs, what lighting where, what bloody kitchen, what appliances. It's literally frying my poor brain. Got the floor decided though. Country oak karndean. One decision down, loads to go. Oh, and a norton DIY kitchen in a light grey ( or lamp room ) and carbon ( or hague blue ). See, useless!
Thankfully the builders have slowed a little which is giving me a bit of breathing space!.

Oblamov I like that paint and it's a bit of a change from the ubiquitous navy.

Bobkate I feel for you and am taking notes on what needs sorting in advance! Hope you're able to make some more decisions today.

We had an online quantity surveying estimate done, and I am so impressed with the detail (while obviously having no idea if it's accurate, but the reviews of the company are very good). It's from estimators online and they were mega quick and there's loads of info in the report, for only £180. If it turns out to be anywhere near accurate I'll be recommending them to all and sundry, but even without knowing that I'm happy with the level of detail provided. You can also download it as an excel sheet and adjust figures, which is pleasing.

The bugger is that even without steels and a kitchen (because we didn't provide specs for those - no structural engineer calcs until after planning, and we haven't got a clue on kitchens yet) it's coming in at £87k, which is about £25k more than I'd hoped without those elements. There are some easy cuts - they've added £6k for decorating, and we can do all of it except the stairwell, and another £5-6k for demolition, about half of which I think we can do ourselves. But even so it's fairly pricey. I'm torn between wanting to crack on and having the possibility of it being stuck at first fix for six months, or delaying for another year (which frankly isn't going to happen unless builders quotes come back even higher than this estimate). At least I'm self employed and can try to churn out more working hours this year, which should improve the financial situation a bit. Feeling a bit wibbly though!

The quotes vary so much, it might come in closer to your goal than the estimate. Our quotes varied by over £55k!

BobKate, I will have to show my OH your post as I've had a lot of eye rolling regarding how many decisions I've made before the builders start. Every detail is planned to the nth degree which has annoyed him (kitchen was purchased early January) but it will hopefully make life easier

Hi everyone!

Wow 4years 3 weeks isn’t far off! Exciting!

Bobkate I know exactly how you feel as I felt like that a few months ago. I still have random panic attacks that my choices will be absolute crap when they’re all in place and i’ll have nobody to blame for it but myself.

Things are really picking up steam here! They poured the cement underfloor yesterday and have the scaffolding up now to do the exterior. Hopefully with all this baking hot sun he cement will dry really quickly and we’ll be able to lay the flooring sooner rather than later. Meeting next week for measuring the kitchen space and picking the outside paint color. I’m being very adventurous indeed and am going for an off-white house. Garage door is also up! Here are a few pics of our entryway, front, and a side view of the neighbour’s house (we’re mid terrace) to get an idea of size and layout.

Oh Lingua your stairwell looks lovely!

It looks huge Lingua! I'm sure it will all look fab when finished

Hi all , what is your average sit for quotes from when they come round ? It seems to take forever !! ( taps inpatiently!!)

Thanks Hopefully and 4Years! I'm feeling quite happy with it, just looking forward to moving in now. Fretting a bit about the little details like light fixture placement, plug placement, etc. Hoping things end up looking and functioning like I want but already betting there will be a few regrets... It's all so much to work through and process and I feel like I haven't had the skills or time to do things exactly as I'd like. Still, I think the bones will be good. The location is the best part and at least it's big (around about 270 square meters, I think), so we'll fit for as long as we need to fit.

AmazingGrace looks like yours is really coming along as well!

Hello to all the new members! May your projects be problem-free and quicker and than mine.

Lovely to see progress pics, very inspiring!

Bobkate that's great advice and backs up all the questions I keep annoying my DH with. I'm a great one for planning in advance, but it's hard to know quite how many decisions need to be made!

Hendricksy - we've just had a quote back in 3 days, but it's pretty rubbish as it misses lots out and doesn't break down the costs. Am hoping the others will take more time and give more detail!

Well we've got another builder coming round tomorrow to quote, so hopefully we'll have 3 quotes soon. My plans for the utility room have just been wrecked though - was hoping to reuse our double Belfast sink from IKEA that's currently our kitchen sink, but the new Metod units apparently won't fit it The current unit it sits on is shot, so no chance of reusing that. Ah well, at least I can order everything from DIY kitchens now, saves messing around with two suppliers...

Well we've had an anti-climax week this week, after the madness of the last 4 months it's all but ground to a halt and we've only had one builder in fitting the kitchen. Had Topsco over to template the worktop today then once that gets installed we can get the cooker canopy built and the kitchen will be finished. New front door now ordered, black aluminium, from Origin which will come in 2 weeks then the front porch can be finished and coincides with the new windows arriving which means the external rendering can also be complete. Literally crawling over the line now. As for the garden, we'll it's a complete mess now, I'm not sure where to start on that!

Hope you are all making good progress.

We’ve had a slow week too humpty bit bored of it now... had a quote to redo our garden, knew it wouldn’t be cheap but about £15k.... eeek....

Wowzers, that's alot! I've not even considered external help, the funds simply don't allow so it's going to be a case of rolling up sleeves and getting hands dirty.

Humpty our worktops are Topsco, really pleased!

Our garden cost £9500 for all new fencing, levelling, new patio and grass . I have to say it's worth every penny!

We have been idly considering our garden after the build too - I think it's going to be an awful lot of elbow grease as there's going to be about £3.47 leftover . At one stage there was talk of an office pod, new shed etc, now it's more 'I wonder if we can afford to get new turf laid or not.'

Well our incompetent architect is, in theory, going to do the planning application on Monday. Progress, people! We need to get a builder on board as I want someone examining his drawings and telling me whether they are buildable asap, so we'll start ringing around and see if anyone is prepared to come and have a conversation/quote without building regs/structural engineer calcs done. I know the quote can't be accurate without the steels spec, but I'm hoping that we can get quotes excluding that. Still slightly horrified at our £87k estimate and hoping we can get someone in with a lower quote.

I know it’s eye watering isn’t it? Cost per sq m a lot cheaper than the house renovation though.... I need a better detailed discussion with the builder so I know properly where we are on that budget before I commit to the garden works.

Hi all! I love seeing your progress.
So it was the start of something exciting today....something new went in!!! We are almost at the end of ripping out/knocking down what needs to be and with the shell built too it feels like we are our build is now working towards acheiving something rather than destroying it! (if that makes any sense!)

SO today new windows went into our flat roof. It's flooded the rooms with light and they look amazing. I think the plan is that internal walls will go up next week and then it truly will feel like it's all coming together. they have only been going for 5 weeks!

Once the ground floor is done they will move onto the loft conversion.

Neighbours are still being rubbish. I sent them a courtesy text letting them know our builders would be over today just to install the windows and the reply I got was..."not too early I hope". urgh I do wonder why I bother even letting them know!
Other side neighbours were lovely and thanked us for going out of our way to keep them updated. Some people eh?

We are also getting our kitchen fitted in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure how much discount we have managed to get but shaker (Burford) kitchen with bespoke range surround and breakfast bar with utility room for 10k in total from Howdens.

Garden is next years project to save for. We'll need at least new turf and patio. We could do both ourselves but as it took OH 3weeks to lay a single row of paving slabs (12ft long) it would take 3 years to do. Luckily my mum will chose and plant all the flowers/shrubs etc

Bax, so happy to hear that, the worktops were such a big purchase I'm petrified I won't like them when they install so I'm glad you were happy.

I love the paint Oblomov!

Humpty they were quite stroppy when they fitted but in a , let's get on with this way, rather than a bad way.
I'd definitely recommend them so you'll be fine