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

Doesn't sound "finished" to me!

Ive done some phoning round today and the builder is coming back thank goodness

More good news is the plumber has nearly done the ensuite so ive been brave and ordered the new bedroom carpet!

Builder has to come back cos he aint getting paid until house is really finished!

Oh how annoying re the builder catquest, fingers crossed they get finished soon!!

I’ve had a very productive day - structural pack has been delivered from Slowy McSlowface and a flooring guy came over to talk all things Amtico. Long story short, I am determined to sacrifice anything required (furniture, first-born, kidney) to get this Amtico Spacia laid in the new kitchen extension. It is just sooo beautiful. I am trying not to google prices - we have about £2700 in the budget for flooring and I will be horrified if it’s more than that, but am expecting it to be closer to £4K 😱😱

That amtico is gorgeous!! Was talking to neighbour about this last night. She saying it's hard to get actual wooden floors as the lux vinyl is just so good now people have stopped stocking real wood.

Worrisome, it's just pd. Sigh. Architect can't get hold of planner. Double sigh.

@catquest1 hope you get the pole all removed and work finished. Thank goodness for snagging but really I wouldn't have thought that something so big was a snag!

Wow Worrisome it looks lovely!! Around £30 per m2 right? what's the fitting cost like?

No idea yet and that’s the part that is worrying me 😂. I think it will be about £35/sqm and the room is 42sqm. I am sure that we’re looking at least as much again for installation right?

WorrisomeHeart I love your flooring. We've gone for something a bit cheaper as we have around 60m² to do (all of the downstairs, including hallway and utility room). Think underlay was about £150 too.

I'm feeling slightly ripped off at being charged £80 by home insurance when I called to tell them of building works. Sigh. £20 admin fee for online docs is bit cheeky!

Anyway, no update on planning but I did get a good photo of the corner larder today when finalised kitchen and utility designs. Really quite sad how excited I am about that and the bench they are making for me out of end panels.

I've made a note to tell our insurers before we actually start but don't know what premium they are going to add.
Those corner jobs are a thing of beauty, aren't they?

Explain how you make a bench from end panels....

Dh not that happy about the £80. His line of thought is that the builders indemnity insurance should cover but I always thought that if we didn't tell ours and something went wrong then we'd have no house. Oh well it's done now so can't call them and say actual we're not doing the work...

I have no idea how bench will be built @wheredoesthistoiletgo but when I get the cad I will post up to see. The kitchen guy just said we'd order extra panels for new dad to build and it'll look like this. New dad will hopefully do some magic with brackets and frames.

We are at Day 3 of painting. My arms ache so much that I have to use one arm to help me lift my other arm. I’m a wuss!

We met with Beardy Builder today at his current project.
He's quite a bit more than Hairy Builder but Mr WheresDoes really likes him. I admit he does make me feel more confident about the process, especially when he said now that we are not going for UFH, we can keep the use of existing kitchen much further into the build - being kitchenless is the thing I worry about more than dust and money!

Oh no Jane 😬 What are you painting? We're still painting stuff - mainly door frames and doors now - and I'm pretty sick of it!

I'm a bit scared to ask but how long does painting go on for?!?! I have rubbish upper body so I might not stay the course!

We finally got our planning permission this morning, I’m so happy. Our next door neighbour objected so we were a bit worried it would be refused but they didn’t take any of their objections in to account at all.
We’ve got plans for a double storey side extension with an 8.5m single storey extension into the garden at the back totalling 71m2 so a big build.
We’ve had a couple of quotes, I think we’ve picked our builder, the only thing I’d he lives directly opposite us and I’m unsure if that’s a good idea or not to use someone so close. He did our bathroom last year and I love it, the quote was accurate and he finished exactly when he said he would.

Painting stats

Mist coat in progress for bed 2 (still some plaster to dry out)
Landing ceiling & walls new plaster painted
En-suite - ceiling painted
Bedroom 1 - all except woodwork painted (but I would be happier if I could give it a third coat)

Rooms yet to do

Bedroom 3 - needs ceiling removal before plastering
Hallway, kitchen & Living room will also need the full works! 💪

Yubaba, if he’s done work for you before, then I would use him. Keep some ground rules in place - that you will not talk shop on the weekends/after a certain time in the evening.
My BIL, who is doing our build, said that he got a text at an unsociable time from a client who followed up with another text late at night. I said I would never do that. (And I haven’t so far.)

Be careful about the insurance. We informed our insurers we were doing work and they refused to insure us so I spent a very stressful day finding alternative insurance.

We are 1 year into our build/renovation. It's been a mammoth task

• reroof, re-render and complete renovation of existing house
• demolition of old extension
• rebuild of new wrap around extension
• garden landscaping

We are mainly done, just external painting and front gates to go, along with digging out and re-doing the front garden ...

We have lived in it the whole time with 2 children (3 &6), so it is completely doable, albeit stressful at times!!!

@threesocks - we were refused insurance too.

I have a link which is searchable by my name for alternative insurers if you need it. It all ended well. I’m sad that now I will have to say that I have been refused insurance on those initial questions.

That's rubbish Jane and Socks. I'm glad you managed to find alternative insurance. I had spoken to a lady about it and she says she wasn't charged when she got work done but that was years ago. I wonder if they've decided to charge more as more people renovate rather than move now. It's really frustrating that it seems like everything has to be almost double insured!

@Yubaba, our builders parents and until recently he himself live around the corner. I'm choosing to look at that as a benefit as less likely to just up and leave and also more considerate to neighbours... I hope! Our next door neighbour knows him by name from a boy!

Thanks, we actually really liked a different builder (who lives round the corner!) but he’s a much bigger firm and is vat registered. The vat on his quote was £14k!! that’s a new kitchen!
The one over the road is smaller and subcontracts out electrics and plumbing, the way he did his quote was to pay them separately and to pay the suppliers separately too to bring down costs.

DIYK dates have changed AGAIN. But I met with a Wickes designer this morning and have almost 100% decided to go with them - not least because of the massive sale they have on at the moment! And they can guarantee delivery dates which is more than DIYK can do at the moment. Also look at this gorgeous pantry. This is the layout - ignore the purple of the splashback, it won’t be that colour.

That is a great pantry! I like that layout too except I don't like fridge next to oven as our current one is like that and I think the heat makes fridge over compensate. But it is all v old so new tech etc is prob better.