Is there a 2021 extension thread?

[Yellownotblue]

Just that really, I found it very informative (and exhilarating and at times heart breaking!) to read the 2020 extension threads. I couldn’t find a 2021 extension thread. Please can you direct me, or if there isn’t one, let’s start it! All welcome.

As for us - we’re awaiting PP for our extension and our architect said the work might start as early as March (ha! I’ll believe it when I see it). It’s a large extension and we will need to move out for about 9 months so I’m a bit flustered at the thought of moving out in 7 weeks’ time. We’re extending over the garage, in the garden and in the loft, and doing a shedload of other stuff from electrics to roofing and redecorating everything. We’re in SW London.

@perenniallymessy I have just checked our bank and it seems they actually don't have and mortgage advance products that don't have an ERC. You would have to go straight to the variable rate which is over 4% so a lot more expensive. The rest of the fixes and trackers all come with an ERC.

Since we have just moved moved and only switched our mortgage in January, remortgaging to another bank is out of the question.

[quote Sewfrickinamazeballs]@emeraldcity2000 our initial budget is £150k too. God I hope the quotes aren’t £300k![/quote]
Same! We can stretch to £200k but I'm not sure it would be sensible to spend more than that really. From virtual sniping houses for sale in the neighbourhood we'd only be adding about £150k in value so there comes a point where we'd be better off moving to a house that's already improved.

Snooping, not sniping!

I am very jealous of your great rates and lack of ERCs. Natwest wouldn't even let us go on SVR (which I tried so I could tie the two together next summer). We tied into 5 year fixed in 2017 (I was pregnant with first baby, husband is self employed, didnt know what the future would bring when it came to trying to get a new deal) at 2.2%, 80% LTV. To be fair I also didn't think interest rates could go any lower.

But hoping when extension is done by the time the mortgage is up for renewal we'll be able to renegotiate a better rate at the new LTV and take out enough to pay off the advance when it comes to the end of its fixed term 6 months later.

@Ginflinger

We have just moved back in after a tricky 7 months (including homeschooling) in a tiny AirBnB. The relief!

Double storey extension, kitchen extension and significant internal work, full rewire, new heating system and new drainage.

We are 50k over budget (all poured into the ground to shore up foundations - we took a punt and got unlucky) and still have half an unfitted kitchen, one unpainted room and one room that needs replastering.

Things I would say:

• high stress at the start, when they start knocking stuff down and you find unexpected problems / newts / roman burial ground etc
• quiet in the middle while they crack on and build
• high stress in the last third, when we had to force down costs which meant compromising on windows/kitchen etc - all the replanning and remaking of decisions

Beautiful, old garden has been totally destroyed - far worse than I hoped .

Lots of holding your nerve and pushing on.

Silly mistakes - like getting a radiator in the wrong place, and one set of lights that are on the wrong track - feel inordinately annoying.

The massive plus for us was that we could totally trust our builder. He was brilliant. We communicated well and could disagree without rancour. I can't imagine how awful it would be to have to work with someone you don't have faith in.

We tried to cut costs by buying an IKEA kitchen - found them unbelievably useless. Avoid. Their supply chains are all messed up at the moment.

In Jan/Feb/March lots of supply chain issues generally - might be resolved now.

Choosing stuff without seeing it over lockdown was really, really hard.

There were some things we really stretched the budget for that I do not regret at all - lightwell, for example. You need to know what you cannot compromise on.

Gosh that was a long vent. We are really happy with what we've done.

Good luck to you all!

Thanks @Ginflinger, this is super helpful. Your project sounds similar to ours. We are knocking down our detached garage, extending an existing extension and going double storey to the side, rewire, replumb, move the front door and stairs. In all we are adding 40 sqm downstairs, 32 sqm upstairs.

Im pulling together a design brief so that I can get the builders to quote against the major aspects, such as the1st fix build, 2nd fix stuff and fixtures and fittings. Hoping I can use this to work out what we can cut or try to do ourselves (or delay), but also as you say try to get a lot of the mundane decision making out of the way now and hopefully reduce the need for 'extras' on top.

Originally allocated £150K to it, have a £30K contingency with an extra £20 available if needed. We are not borrowing (very fortunate), but might look into this if the quotes are massive. I worry that we wont be able to borrow because of a couple of missed payments (stupidly small amount of £13 I missed on a CC when my dad died but its there none the less, and caused issues when we remortgaged a BTL last year).

Why is this so expensive now!

One question for you all - when contacting builders, did you just phone and ask them to come quote, or send them the plans and drawings in an email as a first point of contact? Not sure what the done thing is.

oh, and thanks for all the SE cost guidance. Second quote back at £1400+VAT so much better than £3600+VAT, but our architect has said we get what we pay for so questioning my decision to probably go with the cheaper one. He has worked with them both so says they are OK, but we would need to check the drawing and calculations very carefully to make sure its all as required.

@LittleOverwhelmed

External Windows and doors (including bifolds) going in this week - finally! Flooring and decorating in their wake.

They are also “making good” upstairs - which took a battering when they pushed the steels as far up as possible.

Moving back on the 30th April. Wont be finished, but should be comfortable.

Excellent news! Bet the windows and doors are very welcome!

Hi @Sewfrickinamazeballs

We sent the plans and drawings as recommended by the architect. I guess it's best people understand as much as possible from the start? We asked 5 people, which is slightly embarrassing 😳 but we were total newbies. They were all recommended by the architect.

Quotes were roughly on a par: we knocked out the firm who made an insane suggestion about the foundations, the firm who couldn't start early enough, and a really awesome firm on the basis that both their partners were frontline workers and they had to stop work to do childcare if there were another school closures lockdown (there was, God imagine, we would still be renting.)

Then went on gut feeling.

Good luck! Exciting!

@Muststopeating

I am very jealous of your great rates and lack of ERCs. Natwest wouldn't even let us go on SVR (which I tried so I could tie the two together next summer). We tied into 5 year fixed in 2017 (I was pregnant with first baby, husband is self employed, didnt know what the future would bring when it came to trying to get a new deal) at 2.2%, 80% LTV. To be fair I also didn't think interest rates could go any lower.

But hoping when extension is done by the time the mortgage is up for renewal we'll be able to renegotiate a better rate at the new LTV and take out enough to pay off the advance when it comes to the end of its fixed term 6 months later.

I feel you. We fixed for 4 yrs with our first mortgage as 1st time buyers only to see interest rates plummet a few months later but we were stuck. We we eventually came to the end of the fix, our mortgage payments dropped by over £400 per month! We swore to never again fix for so long. We have done well with 2 yr fixes since then; we have done this 3 or 4 times now and all have served us well. Some have been through just switching with our bank or remortgaging to another bank.

We have applied for a further advance on our current mortgage. The extra borrowing will be 6 months apart so we shall either stay with our bank and switch or we shall remortgage to another one depending on what the rates will be at the time. This means we shall just have to pay the ERC on the extra borrowing at 1% which will be below £500.

@Sewfrickinamazeballs with regards to builders, we sent them the drawings first and one of them came to view the house after sending us an estimate. We are still waiting on another builder to get back to us on the

Hi. @LittleOverwhelmed - wondered who you got your bifolds from and if you would recommend. We're starting window / glass hunting this week. Bit less exciting than kitchens

We're awaiting a planning decision on our first floor extension (on top of an existing downstairs extension). The deadline is 8th June and the council are apparently running on time.

I suspect we'll get objection from our neighbour and possibly have to amend the plans but we'll see what comes back.

We were originally thinking we would build next year but are now thinking we might go with their year since we won't be going on holiday (or likely doing much else which costs much money).

We are likely to use the builder from downstairs who lives nearby and we are friendly with, I need to double check he has availability perhaps near the end of the summer/autumn. Fingers crossed he does as the idea of having it done sooner rather than later is quite exciting.

Can I join you all please? Hoping to do a single storey kitchen and side return extension later this year. So far we are struggling to get quotes from most of the builders who have been round to have a look. Those who have quoted are coming in way over our initial budget. Currently we are looking at spending around 150k once we factor in the new kitchen, appliances etc and that’s going with a budget DIY Kitchen.
Is anybody else struggling with the cost? It’s giving me anxiety as it just seems like a ridiculous amount of money. We will only add around 40k to the value of our house 🤦‍♀️. I’ve toyed with the idea of moving house instead but everything’s so overpriced at the moment and most of the houses still need a ton of work.

@Terracedtardis yes 100% feel your pain. We started with budget of 100k. We're doing 60sqm single story extension and reconfiguring majority of ground floor (though DH is doing most of that work). We're looking at 190k (inc VAT, fees, etc) and that's with DH fitting IKEA kitchen, flooring, skirtings, etc. Its all just eye wateringly expensive. We've started and I'm still not entirely sure how we'll fund it all (especislly as I'm going on an unexpected maternity leave).

The only advice I can give you is look for opportunities to pull out chunks of work (that don't have a risk of delaying other work if a problem) and get separate quotes outwith the main contractor who will br adding a 10-20% markup on everything. This will be particularly effective if you can find small businesses/individuals that aren't VAT registered (because revenue is below cap not because they are dodgy).

Yes that’s what we are trying to do. The main reason for the huge cost for us is the foundations, drains and steels we require. We are removing a couple of chimney breasts which would save 6k if we kept. DH is not keen though, and it does feel a bit like a drop in the ocean.

@Terracedtardis would moving to an equivalent extended house cost more than £150k? I would seriously consider moving if that is the case. How much sqm are you adding if you do the extension? Removing chimney breasts would definitely be pricey. We are removing a few of the structural walls downstairs so I dare not think about how much steelwork we shall need.

I do feel you on the kitchen front. I am eyeing up the DIY kitchens Helmsley range but it is one of the pricier ones and I'm wincing every time I add VAT to it. I could cut it down if I removed the mantle, corner walk in larder unit and maybe less drawers but then I feel this is too many compromises for a dream kitchen.

We considered moving but with prices how they are we would be spending at least 300k for a house that would still need at least 100k of work.
Things are nuts where we are right now!

I’m also looking at Helmsley and haven’t priced it up yet. That’s a shock too far right now

Contract signed with the builder this morning - going to start beginning of July.
Also found a flat to rent nearby for three months.
So exciting!

Our notice has been placed on a lamppost outside our house this afternoon. Does anyone know if this is instead of our neighbours receiving letters or will they receive letters too? I'm hoping for the former...and that our neighbours don't see it!

@LittleOverwhelmed No I didn't know them but I'm following now and I will check it out. I do follow a few others who have gone through the Helmsley journey. There is also an instagram hashtag of people just sharing their Helmsley kitchens.

@Callmejudith Congratulations. You must be excited with anticipation to start.

@Terracedtardis I have literally already shocked myself as I used our planning drawings dimensions to design the kitchen. Obviously it isn't accurate enough but it at least gave me an idea of what the open plan space will look like. I even switched on the daylight (sun) in the 3d and now know to switch on window to another wall as it is West facing and will direct the sunlight right into the telly area over the afternoon/evening. However, I have shocked my myself with the price. We aren't even doing the downstairs yet as we can't afford it so only the loft conversion but the Helmsley kitchen piggybank has already started . As for the £300k to move, I can see why you are extending. We are also extending as it would be half the price to move to the equivalent house.

It would be double the price to move so we are extending instead.