Home Extension Thread 2019 - The Extension

[TheFatberg]

Only a few posts left on the first thread of 2019, so here's a new one to get us started.

No roof window. :( But he says if it's too dark he'll put in an extra window at the side that's not in the plans. It won't face the neighbours so is a viable alternative. Just means I may have to reconfigure my drying racks!

I'll still have my two velux windows in the kitchen though! And think someone on the previous thread had said about electric ones so one will be all fancy and rain sensing! :O

Ooh so jealous Soaked!! I've decided to go for vented lanterns. Although I can't actually figure out how you open the vent... unless I'm supposed to keep a ladder in the room. Might need to think it through a bit more 🤣

I think you get a pole kind of like the ones for opening loft hatches? Only one will be electric so the other will still need us to use a pole. :D

@TheFatberg Any update from DIY kitchens re your delivery?

WhereDoesThisToiletGo well it won't be next week. I'm so mad. But they've said the week after which is better than 8th July which we were told earlier. They've admitted it's their cock up. We'd better get free delivery and a guaranteed time slot.

There are other things that builders can do but I was looking forward to having something nice in the house! I've really been sick of it the last couple of weeks.

Can you do something useful with the down time like paint the walls?

There's another part of the house they can hopefully do - old garage is becoming a room so it'll need a window, insulation, plastering etc. I'm sure that'll take a week. And a downstairs toilet.

Better remember my mantra!

@TheFatberg, that is seriously crappy, I’m sorry to hear that. I had my fingers crossed that you wouldn’t be affected by the issues. I hope their resolution is quick!

A quick check in from me - DH is doing a sterling job managing the start of the loft build while I’m here in NZ however we’ve had ANOTHER issue with the structural engineer’s measurements and he’s agreed to the builders suggested change. I am very tempted to email the SE and say that I’m concerned about the validity of all his plans now - with this latest issue it seemed that he’s transposed a measurement. It will probably save us money in the long run but hugely frustrating given his fee amount.
I’ve also had to decide on tiles for the dormer - I think we’re going with red to match the roof although I was originally wanting grey. I think that may look odd having two colours and I guess it should really match?? What are others doing with their loft exteriors?

soaked that is such a shame about the velux! I am becoming very cynical about the architect input level - we had similar worries from the builders about the ability to include veluxes, despite it being on all the plans, although he seems to now be comfortable with the approach. We are going for the rain sensing ones in the loft so I don’t have to run up the stairs to close them 😂

@WorrisomeHeart, thats good DH is doing well with the build while you are in NZ. One thing less to worry about!

My neighbour has normal velux ones in her two kids bedrooms (part of house design when originally built) and I often see them open when it's been sunny then starts raining while they are out. It must be really annoying!

I am hoping builder is wrong and architect is right but won't know until he starts to build the roof. It's a hand cut one on that side and all the wood is in the garden already. So exciting!! Fingers crossed the architect has calculated the angles correctly. Mind you losing one velux would offset the cost of the electric rain sensing one...

Is it ok to join this (v late)?

We're just starting on our extension journey - waiting for the architect to come back to us with initial ideas/quote/contact for the tree inspection thingy.

We are at the planning stage but still managed to have an anxiety dream last night in which the builders turned up early and destroyed my garden.

Have decided to go with inbuilt blinds in the doors but the window company the builder uses don't sell them. so I've sent them details of what I'm after and also got s separate Quote myself. This may get complicated.

And I've found my dream kitchen table ..... £1500

@lightlypoached "dream" items are the curse of the planning stage.
My dream radiators cost the same as your table.
But the good news is my dream table and 6 chairs cost half as much

Hi all,
May I join too? We have been planning a two storey rear and one storey side extension since August 2018, when we first met with the architect. We inherited both him and his original plans from the previous owners of our house. It seemed like a good idea at the time but with hindsight it might have been better to start from scratch. Anyway, lots of ups and downs later we are waiting for the final contract with the builder. We have a start date of mid July. I don't want to post the actual date in case it doesn't happen! In fact that is why I have held off posting here for so long. We had so many points in the planning process where things took an unexpected turn I can hardly believe we are here. Anyway, I've learned a lot from all of you on the other thread as well and look forward to joining on here.

Welcome @PeacockPriestess and @joan12 - everyone is at different stages here. I've followed for a while but only recently started posting.

Be prepared for more ups and downs! We have brilliant builders, which is great, but you can't control the weather or suppliers.

@WorrisomeHeart hope everything went as well as it could have done with the funeral. When are you back?

Have a good weekend everyone. Our electrician is out this morning and we're moving some stuff around.

I think the inherent delay in starting that irks us so much is actually very useful.
We only decided to do this extension in the last few days of December but then went full tilt into looking for someone to do plans, engineers, Planning, kitchens and builders all simultaneously.
Getting an actual start date has been the limiting factor but honestly if we could have just got on with it in March we would have made some really bad decisions.

Hello 👋🏻 we are just starting a single storey extension (once we settle on a builder) I've read the previous thread and it's been very helpful so I thought I'd join this one.
What should I be asking the builders, I have a good gut feeling about one who also has brilliant reviews on Checkatrade, do you just have to go with instinct in the end?

Hello everybody! And LOL at inheriting an architect with the house :D

What does your dream table look like @lightlypoached? We already have a table that is going to be moved (finally!) into the kitchen from the living room. And for some reason I have not thought much about how our radiators look but I suspect I will be asked next week. I do love how tall radiators look but am running out of general wall space...

@HerLadySheep, I think gut feel amounts to a lot. Also if you feel that you can discuss any changes easily with the builder too. You might change your mind about some small details once the build starts. One thing that caught me off guard was that builders all give a varying degree of details in quotes. It made it quite hard to compare!

Good news - we have a start date.
Bad news - it's middle of August.
Shame cos we were really hoping for mid to end July but Mr WheresDoes thinks we've been bumped in favour of an exisitng client. But we're sticking with Beardy Builder.

Earlier would have been better as lovely next door neighbour said we could use her garage for storage when her tenants move out in July while she looks for new tenants or sells the house.

Good news about start date. I wouldn't want to go back to getting quotes etc again if you like Beardy builder. How long will the build take? The weather might be nicer in Aug...

It's hopefully only a 2 month job, including inside work, so we'll just be patient.
To be honest, we've got a few enabling jobs that must be done before they start so if he'd suddenly said Next Week, we'd be stuffed.

@soakedat3 it's a calligaris extending with a ceramic (ie virtually indestructible) top.
Goes from 160cm to 220.

Lovely simple practical and I love it

Exhausted today! We hauled 2 cast iron fireplaces downstairs, fixed a loft ladder to the new loft hatch and took delivery of our en-suite tiles.

We went for plain matt white from Tile Mountain £10.99 psm for the majority of the room. (Based on a recommendation from MN - thank you MNer).

Plasterer starts downstairs tomorrow. We are very excited.

Hi extension folk. I was on the last thread but slightly fell off as life had just got stupidly busy. We're 3 months in to a single storey kitchen/dinner extension. We've knocked down a side garage & utility (originally built of breeze blocks with a leaky roof) to make a new large utility & bike storage, knocked down & expanded out at the back to get a large kitchen/dinner (around 5x6m), and turned part of old dining room into a downstairs shower room.

We've had a couple of delays with doors & windows. Basically an extra £4k appeared that we hadn't accounted for & took a while to figure out the "variance". So they've been delayed till week of 5-12th July. Which means the floor can't be done until after that, which means the joiner can't get in to build the kitchen.

It's all rather annoying, especially since we're living here & I'm quite desperate for it all to be over.

@northernruth did you look at Bespokea, Super Fronts or Naked Fronts as alternatives to Plykea?

I really love the Super Fronts colours & look but we wanted one of those fancy breakfast station pantry cupboards, so have ended up going bespoke to try and achieve it - still cheaper than devol etc. But the joiner is going away for the whole of August so it's a real battle for time now!

Have just skimmed the thread so sorry if I can't remember everything. Someone was asking about blinds - I think you ideally want them to build in a blind box. We thought ours we're going to do this & then they didn't. Another sight bone of contention.

Still my bathroom tiles arrive tomorrow, have gone for hexagonal dark blue with some stars. Embracing the dark in the shower room & downstairs corridor with dark tiles, F&B railings & for the corridor House of Hackney midnight cosmos wallpaper .

Going for a mixture of dark & light in the kitchen. Cupboards will be very dark green with brushed brass fittings, brass splashback, white quartz worktops and light grey concrete like floor. It's a very sunny south facing room - the 3 sliding doors are around 2.5m high so hoping it can take the dark cabinetry.