Home Extension Thread 2019

[4yearsnosleep]

Time to start another extension thread. 2019 for lots of newcomers and hopefully lots of finishers too!

We're Day 5 of builders on site and have a roof framed. V excited about the big velux

I'm worried about arguments (or more accurately, not getting my own way)
Mr WhereDoes has a tendency to focus on the irrelevant issues. He said he was very disappointed in the CAD pictures of planned kitchen because "the floor was horrid' and" I don't like those bar stools ", ignoring the fact that the stools were only in the picture to show there was room for 4 of them. We didn't have to have those stools...

But he is much better at questioning why things are done a certain way, I have a tendency just to accept what someone tells me.

DH and I haven’t had many rows yet which has been really surprising. However he is being really annoying and forgetting what we’ve agreed or looking at the plan and saying things like ‘but that’s not what we wanted is it?’ To which I grit my teeth and remind him of all the times we discussed it.

Glad (?!) that others are wobbling too. I cheered myself up by relooking at my kitchen plan this morning and then realised that DIY Kitchens DO have the handles I wanted and thought I’d have to look elsewhere for.

Anyone else going with / already gotten DIYK units?

@WorrisomeHeart,
DIY kitchen Norton is running first choice in my mind, though I like look of Hemsley more. I can't justify loss of interior space and extra cost of Hemsley at the moment.

I've got a swanky kitchen designer on board but I thought I should do a price comparison using DIY Kitchens since they seem to be the MN supplier of choice!
But I don't see a kitchen planner tool on their website. Do you have to use a 3rd party planner?

wheredoes their planner sits separate to the main site - google DIY Kitchens Planner and it should come up. I’ve found it works best in Chrome browser.

We are going with a slab one who’s name I have momentarily forgotten, in Oval Room Blue with a white worktop. I was fully expecting to go for a shaker style until we went to some kitchen showrooms and looked around!

Carrera!! That’s what we’re going for. Terrible screenshot attached.

Looks good. Are you not concerned about wall units over sink. In my current kitchen I have wall unit over sink but the door has come off so it is like open shelves atm. Not sure how it will feel if door was there. I too would like to place sink under wall units instead of window but everyone seem to put it under window.

I am dithering about the cupboards over the sink. DH is very keen on them and we’ve currently got the sink by a window but can’t replicate it in the new layout. I also am going back and forth over the wall cupboards into the corner by the tall units. It’s very hard to commit!!

@Angrytears My husband said the following about fitting the insulation:

It’s not difficult, it just the fibres make it uncomfortable. Just cut to size and put between the rafters.

He wore a mask & goggles.

Thank you for the link 4yearsnosleep

Maybe go for smaller cupboards or less deep (300 rather than 600) or a mix of cupboards and shelves to open it up a bit worrisomeheart.

Has anyone got any views on wet room vs shower enclosure? We're having a small downstairs internal shower room, around 2.5 x 1.5. I always pictured it as a wet room but since it's going to be mainly the downstairs loo, I'm now thinking about an enclosure. Or just a screen and tray. I'm worried about how wet it will be - it will have underfloor heating but no window. The builders can do either but the head one has advised having a proper door as London water is so hard, the tiles will easily scale.

I think it's traditional to have your sink under a window back from the days when everyone's kitchen looked out over their back garden and you spent ages washing up so it was nice to have a view.
These days you hopefully don;t spend as much time at the sink

The wall cabinets are all 300 deep (I think!) definitely shallower than the base ones. I tend to agree re the time at the sink and don’t want to lose the storage space.

stokey I would go for an enclosure - but then I’ve always found wet rooms just mean everything else gets wet too! That could be the poor design of the hotels I’ve stayed in though. How much space between the shower space and the toilet site will you have?

@WorrisomeHeart could you put the sink on the island? What are you facing if you're stood at the island looking out?

Mortgage appointment went well! We can actually borrow more than what we got the decision in principal for before we started all the planning permission etc so that's great news!

Except she advised that we couldn't borrow more/get a new valuation until another 6 months. So as we hope to do the second half of the project whilst the first half has increased the value I won't actually be able to do this till 6m after. Is this what others have experienced?

Also I always assumed that you can draw down smaller amounts as not to start accruing interest as you are obviously not paying the builder up front but apparently this is not the case and I'll have to take the total despite not needing it.

Sorry if those are both really stupid things that I should know already 🤦🏽‍♀️

Were you hoping to do a second remortgage pretty soon after the first do you mean?

avocuddl that is an option but one of DH’s few sticking points so it needs to go on the counter run. I’ve been looking at lots of Pinterest pictures and I THINK it will be ok with the cupboards over.

Re mortgage - we have borrowed all we need for both parts of our build (except I think we may need more 🤦🏼‍♀️) and yes it is all drawn down immediately, which is a pain but understandable from the bank’s point of view and gaining more interest out of us!

It will look great @WorrisomeHeart ! I really like the design! Has anyone found the perfect American fridge freezer? There are so many options and the prices range so much I don't know what to go for!

Yes we only need a little bit more on the mortgage to finish the whole project, but I'm going to speak to nice builder soon and see what he suggests timing wise! It might mean that, instead of stopping downstairs completely, we actually build the skin of the upstairs (as someone had suggested to me previously) and then just finish off later

We are also going for DIY although I had the kitchen designed in wickes. Once you've designed the on the DIY planner, does that produce a shopping list of everything you need?

Avocuddl - I had the advantage of having an old style mortgage on which you could pay off and draw down. So we paid our advance in there and have been drawing it down when we need it. It’s a pain to phone our lender each time.

So fully flexible mortgages used to exist but not now. 🙁

avo yes it does give you a full shopping list and also you can choose whether to include the worktops and handles etc or source those separately. I think they may help if you email them your current plan and they will convert it but I could be wrong.

This is the American f/f that we are getting - we went into a big Curry’s and tried out lots to check the ‘clunk’ factor of the doors 😂

ao.com/product/rq689n4ac1-hisense-american-fridge-freezer-stainless-steel-49123-27.aspx

Ooh yes that's a really nice one with lots of space. A lot of them do seem quite clunky and a lot of space used up for the ice maker or whatever

Yeah we specifically didn’t want either an ice machine or water tap so this one suits us. It turns out it’s a Which Best Buy as well (I got the one month for £1 Which subscription and chose all our appliances before cancelling it 😂)

All your posts sound so familiar!!

We originally remortgaged to get the big amount needed for the extension, but then went back for more money last week 😬. We could have borrowed more than we did, but dh wouldn't 🙄. We also now can't remortgage again for 6 months.

We are about to buy an American fridge freezer. I know I definitely want it to have 4 doors with the fridge at the top and freezer at the bottom. I really like the Sharp one from Costco, but it's more expensive (it did go down to £1099 over Easter). I think we'll be getting the Hisense one through TopCashback

https://www.very.co.uk/hisense-rq689n4ac1-91cm-wide-total-non-frost-american-style-multi-door-fridge-freezer-stainless-steel-look/1600181118.prd

https://www.costco.co.uk/Appliances/Fridges-Freezers/Sharp-SJ-EX820FSL-Multidoor-Fridge-Freezer-6535-A-Rating-in-Silver/p/265221

We have definitely found the last 4 months stressful, but only really had one big argument! On the whole I have made most of the decisions and managed the build on my days off while dh has been working.

Exciting day yesterday as the carpet went down in the study - I went for a grey Berber loop one and really pleased with it. The radiators also went in and some of the doors have been hung! Monday is quartz day and then the floor is going down 😅

Our sink isn't under a window btw. Here's our kitchen plan and new radiator!

I got this from Costco the other day. They’re very expensive and it is a pair (not sure if all American ones are) but I thought they looked fab.

Hoppahouse that sounds like us. My OH is just going along with the extension and is resentful that the need to be in a good position financially to do so it meaning he can’t do other things. I’ll be making pretty much all of the decisions myself which is already stressful and we’ve not even started building yet.

Can you post a pic of your carpet? I currently have a sample stuck to my wall to try and make my mind up about it