Extension / loft conversion thread 2020

[missfliss]

Hello,

Thought I'd start a thread for 2020 extenders and converters.

Might be good for us each time say a bit about what works we have planned / are in the midst of if folks are happy to share some / al details.

Current house:
1970s semi with 2.5 (!) bedrooms on South Coast ( Sussex).
Single storey extension ( large kitchen / diner with bifolds) was completed in 2013.

Planned works
Loft conversion with full width rear dormer and small front dormer to create a new master bedroom with large bathroom.

Stage
Planning permission received, builder appointed to start in March

Costs
Build is £60k including VAT. Bathroom / decor extra.
It is a double dormer with aluminium sliding doors to rear and lots of pipe work due to siting the new bathroom at the opposite end to the existing bathroom below.
It's more than expected but we have non-standard plans and are doing the work to stay in the house for years as opposed to maximising profit to sell.

Reasons for doing work
An adult space to hide away and relax!
Also our son has additional needs and we may need to use au pairs in the future ( new room needed). As our son gets older he may need to live with us into adulthood

Plans
Attached

Next steps
Party wall agreement
Deciding on bathroom fittings / flooring within budget

Toilet, I have a PowerPoint thingy where I've put in the existing sockets and marked up some new ones. Just need to do a colour code on it and make sure I don't forget any.
Also need to think about lighting zones!!!

Banana, this sounds similar to ours (I think? Not sure... Need to check the plans). Our house already had a small extension, so in total we are out 3.2-3.3 metres from the original house. But the room won't be a rectangle as we are pinching room for a toilet and a coat/shoe/stuff area.

Here is our plan.
Just under 5 metres across and 6.6 metres deep with the couch nook.
The internal walls will be defined later. I want the space for the coats/shoes/stuff a bit deeper. Want to have IKEA Tjusig in there and a long mirror with a spot light on top.
Ideally I want washer/dryer next to each other and then shelves up to the top (builders will make us doors in front). But still might have to stack them. Not sure yet. Builders said we are flexible and can look at the space once it's built.
Toilet won't get a pocket door, the architect just drew this in. I hope we can get a sliding door, but running outside. We will see.
Aaaaaaaaaah.

We also got a little bit of wall today while I was at softplay with the little one.

Jealous of everyone's walls! Had hoped there would be some progress here. But all they've done is stacked all the blocks in preparation. Bit worried all the block towers are going to blow over in the storm this weekend...

All being well the roof is going on tomorrow, and we had a wonderful weekend hiding from Storm Dennis plotting electrical sockets on the kitchen plan! Who said building work can't be glamorous

Thanks banana will check it out. Well we made no progress this weekend at all. We are doing alot of our own groundworks ( leveling and shifting soil etc. To save a bit of cash which is well worth it as it's worth about £4k, until you do something stupid. So Saturday morning we started to crack on with the work my husband using the small tractor, me shovel and barrow and 2 preschoolers in their mud kitchen. All fine until my husband drove the tractor in to a puddle forgetting it was a chuffing great soak away hole which was covered to stop the kids going in but not the weight of a tractor. Well 3 days later we have got it out. I am sure we will laugh about this weekend in several years but oh boy not something I want to repeat. Thought I would share the pain.

We have a mostly fitted kitchen now!

We are so close to starting!

Funds are in my account
Final plans and structural drawings done
All southern water agreements back
Final meeting with builder tomorrow before we start on site next week!

I will try and keep you all up to date with progress, cost and any tips I have along the way!

@bananabunch119
Where is your kitchen from? I'm going with white with a wooden worktop. What flooring have you gone for?

@minniemooblue the kitchen is from Howdens. It's a laminate worktop. We are having laminate floor boards in a lightish oak colour.

@bananabunch119 I thought it look familiar. Almost identical to what we are probably going to choose!

well, the scaffolding is up on ours and the builders portaloo is arriving tomorrow, then actual work starting on thurs / friday with steels arriving on friday or monday...
happy to be starting really so we can get it done

To everyone struggling with starting or just getting through it, it is SO worth it.
Even now I keep saying to Mr WhereDoes, I can't believe how much bigger and brighter the room is despite it being The World's Smallest Extension. I have avoided doing the calculation to see how much it cost per square metre, mainly because it would be unrepresentative of the actual space gained as the old room layout had quite a bit of useless dead space

Oh, toilet, where can I read up more about your project? Small extension sounds right up my alley!

Our walls are growing.
I have nearly cleared the kitchen and the dining room. We did some wallpaper stripping yesterday (only one more flowery wallpaper to go) and looked at flooring and tiles.

Thrilling update here...

A portaloo has arrived. I can feel your jealousy

Yup definitely jealous missfliss! Still waiting on a more exact date than early March from my builders....

@Pashazade aaw . Waiting does suck - hope they can start soon for you.

My son said that it was 'the worlds most disappointing Tardis' - he is correct!

At least your portaloo is discreet.
Ours was dayglo orange and could be seen from the end of the street.

We have rafters!

Scaffold is up.
And my child has chicken pox... At least it can watch the builders.

Hi everyone, please can I join the thread. We have just chosen a builder for our planned rear extension to hopefully start in May. We are knocking down an old galley kitchen extension and leaking old conservatory. From your floor plan peachesi182 looks like we are planning pretty much the same as you so excited to see your progress! Would be great also to see what you decide about plug sockets and radiators if poss please.

Hello @newyorky09 best of luck for May!

I’ve included a this year compared to last year picture. Last year, we were just one month in to building and we’re open to the elements. We lived at my mum & dad’s house from Feb until August.

Steels got craned in yesterday - and the team worked like trojans to clear the loft space and cut the access hatch - our front lawn is currently home to a load of stuff including timber delivery until the skip gets here

Oooh lovely to see all the new projects starting ,

We have kitchen news - it will be delivered from Germany on 6th March, woooo! As soon as it's in we can get the stainless steel people in to measure for the work surface - going for full stainless steel with pressed-in sink. We had that years ago in our old flat and it was bloody wonderful - virtually indestructible, you can chop on it, out hot pans on it and it's a dream to clean and sanitise and make pastry on. My DH is an ex chef so he loves it too.

And I've ordered a very lovely Tylko unit for shoes in the hallway. If anyone wants to order anything from there PM me as I have a code to get you £130 off your order !!!

We are so close to the finish and are at the heamoraghing money stage still !

Nice @lightlypoached - that's exciting!

We are at that rapid pace progress stage in a loft conversion where you think that it's going to take 2 weeks because the work to build a shell is comparatively quick.

Steels are in position, wooden supports have gone so space is opened up, floor joists are going down.

This bit looks quick.

However we have two dormers being built and a whole roof to be retiled and a hell of a lot more to happen first.

We're supposed to be finished this week.
But we have a big American fridge shaped hole in our kitchen because the fridge won't fit through our front entrance