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.

@Callmejudith

Concrete is going in the footings tomorrow whoop

Exciting! Once the walls start going up, you'll start to get a feel for the space.

I wish I had found this thread sooner.
I started my 6.2 x 4.2 double storey side extension in early March. It has been so so stressful I don’t think I would ever do it again 😬. It may just have been my builders but there was so many delays on all materials and often they just wouldn’t show up.
It should however be finished within the next 2 weeks 🤞 except for floors and doors. I’m
Moving back in next week.

The thread however has made me feel better about the amount I have spent knowing that costs are generally very high at the moment!

For those looking for cost breakdowns to compare as I struggled to find total cost here’s mine.

The total extension square metre for both floors is around 50sqm approx 25sqm each floor.
That is a kitchen diner on ground floor and bedroom and en-suite above.
I have spent in total £108, 000 which includes tax and all appliances etc. I have budgeted an extra £7000 for decorating, carpets and a new front door which I haven’t paid for yet. So total cost £115,000.

Breakdown of costs for those interested.
£62000 for extension build including knocking down existing garage foundations etc. This included kitchen and bathroom fitting also.

£3000 rendering my existing house

I went way overboard with my kitchen and spent £17000 at wren 😬 beware they get you with their fancy units and 7 year interest free offers!
Bathroom again I spent £4000 online on pretty expensive sink toilet walk in shower etc.

Doors 😬 £ 3500 as I wanted black glassed
out fancy ones. Builders are having a fit and refusing to fit them as they are so difficult to fit so not my best choice!
Tiling costs a fortune £6000 for kitchen and bathroom including fitting but again I’ve gone for very expensive tiles.

I got my existing house knocked through 2 rooms and kitchen ripped out. new roof for existing house £8000 and all new guttering porch roof etc on existing house also. Loft boarded out £2500
New boiler and cylinder & hub and whole new pipe work throughout including water pipes to the property Trench dig up etc (wasn’t expecting to have to do this 😬) £4200
so that added extras also!

My original quotes for builders for just the build
Varied dramatically from £62000 for the guy I used up to £150,000 😬

I would say if your on a budget ask around. I would say though that if I had paid more it probably would have been a bigger company who were more organised and probably a lot less stressful but at least it’s nearly finished now!

Next just to get someone to sort out my drive and garden that have been wrecked and dug up! Everyone saying no availability till next May 🤦‍♀️

The last few weeks have felt like slow progress as it was mostly groundworks. Walls have gone up this week and knock-through done ready for steels going in on Monday. Our 2yo DD's room has a big gaping hole in it due to removing the old concrete lintel and for new steel so have had to relocate her to spare room, thankfully we'd not got rid of her travel cot yet so that came in handy as she didn't want to go in the "big girls bed". Got bifold company coming to measure this morning. Hoping our builder will be finished his work by end of next week and OH will be taking over to do the roof (timbers and EPDM) and all the internals. Just got to get all our other trades scheduled in (plumbing, electrics and plastering).

I cannot wait to have a new wall go up

Rebel yours is looking fab

I popped home today and was stunned to see the builders there delivering bricks…on a Sunday!

We have a wall! I’m delighted

Great news @Callmejudith! You actually start to imagine the space 😊

I paid for our windows and doors today. To be installed early October. So exciting. So much money leaving our account left right and centre 😂

There is currently a 8-10 week wait on velux windows. Apparently they've never seen anything like it!

@Callmejudith I just called a kitchen company to order a new range cooker...apparently they're looking at January for a delivery date 😂

Fingers crossed, I've just ordered it elsewhere and they've said "hopefully October, maybe into November"🤞

We started our extension on Monday and I’ve had enough already 🙀. Sand everywhere in the house, I’ve lost my dishwasher and there’s junk everywhere as they’ve demolished my utility room.
Luckily we ordered our kitchen, velux windows and patio doors a while back so hopefully any delays won’t be down to that. I’m praying the weather improves though!!

@Sewfrickinamazeballs we are paying our builders weekly. I feel ok about it at the moment let’s see how I feel if things don’t move along!

started ours in May. We know have an extension ready for kitchen to go in.

They are starting on utility in 2 weeks time. Then inside the house with work in the loft.

There have been delays in supplies, costs have gone up. And I dread to think how much the garden is costing us. They had to completely dig it up in order to put new drains in. Topsoil getting delivered today!

With everything - including carpets, new curtains, decorating, new kitchen, 2 new bathrooms, new plumbing and radiators, installation of woodburner, new front and back gardens - it's about £250K.

Our initial thoughts when we bought the house were £100k. F*ck me.

@barking I feel your pain; we started our build in late February and had the roof steels put in yesterday so looking at around November to be totally finished. Our Architect said £150k was a good budget- none of the quotes were near it!! We are in for £220k to second fix so probably looking at £270/80 finished. Ouch it looks terrible in black and white!!

We had to add 50k on to our initial budget and that’s just for a 4m back and small side single storey extension.

It's so expensive to do any works at the moment. I don't think prices will come down though, so we're just going ahead now.

I've got a budget of £300k. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it's going to be right 😂 We really scaled back our plans to get to that!! Sadly it doesn't stretch to anything outside, so that will have to wait till next Spring.

I'm not including the £15k (waste of money) architect fees or the £5k on Airbnb in the budget.

I've forgotten to allocate any budget for removals/storage (ooops) and new fitted wardrobes in our master bedroom. I think I'll have to do an IKEA hack for the wardrobes and get nicer made towards end of next year.

We're not even extending. It's just a refurbishment inside 🤦🏼‍♀️

That should say *tight...hopefully also right 😂

I haven’t even considered the garden properly. It’s been dug up for drainage and I was just sort of hoping they’d put it back. The reality is I’m going to be left with a mud bath aren’t I 😩

@Terracedtardis our price including putting back and turfing and partial paving in front of the patio doors. But while they were here we also had additional paving put in for a dining area on a really boggy bit, a stand for a greenhouse, a retaining wall and another bit of paving.

This thread amazes me that many of you can ‘just find’ an extra £100k to spend on increasing budgets. I’m in awe and just hope we can be the same later in our lives! We are from professional backgrounds and so are our social circles and no one we know can afford works like this. We are early 30s, on our 2nd home. Is it just good jobs or are many of you older and on your 3rd/4th homes? Just curious…

The costs are astonishing aren't they? When you get to over 100k it all just sort of feels meaningless and it's easy to think of 10 or 20k as small amounts when in reality this is still huge amounts of money.

Our base cost is £210k and have about 90k extra to get the kitchen, bathrooms and all the finishes sorted. Also haven't factored in any outside work but knew this when planning the budget. Still, with SE house prices it's still the cheaper option over moving. Crazy!

@Redcart21

This thread amazes me that many of you can ‘just find’ an extra £100k to spend on increasing budgets. I’m in awe and just hope we can be the same later in our lives! We are from professional backgrounds and so are our social circles and no one we know can afford works like this. We are early 30s, on our 2nd home. Is it just good jobs or are many of you older and on your 3rd/4th homes? Just curious…

Second home here (mid 30s and 40s) in the SE and made £200k in profit on our first home in 3 years due to rising house prices. Bought a real doer upper for roughly the same price somewhere slightly cheaper so had flexibility to increase the mortgage if needed (we have had to borrow 70k, bringing us to 60% LTV, but we tried not to borrow - grrrr COVID and brexit). The rest has come through inheritance which we are eternally grateful for.

@Redcart21

This thread amazes me that many of you can ‘just find’ an extra £100k to spend on increasing budgets. I’m in awe and just hope we can be the same later in our lives! We are from professional backgrounds and so are our social circles and no one we know can afford works like this. We are early 30s, on our 2nd home. Is it just good jobs or are many of you older and on your 3rd/4th homes? Just curious…

We are in our 50s and were mortgage free, small mortgage to buy the place we are in now - with some extra in that for renovations. We both have savings and I had inherited some money. So we had more money in the pot.

We are doing it up to be as we want it to be for us - while not doing anything too ridiculous to effect eventual resale.

10 years ago we'd never have had the money to do it.

We are also taking it above the ceiling price for the street - but are likely to be here for 10 to 15 years and then downsize in retirement.

@Redcart21

This thread amazes me that many of you can ‘just find’ an extra £100k to spend on increasing budgets. I’m in awe and just hope we can be the same later in our lives! We are from professional backgrounds and so are our social circles and no one we know can afford works like this. We are early 30s, on our 2nd home. Is it just good jobs or are many of you older and on your 3rd/4th homes? Just curious…

We are in our 50's and downsized from a large 5 bed house we'd lived in for 17 years so had a healthy pot of money to renovate with.

@Redcart21

This thread amazes me that many of you can ‘just find’ an extra £100k to spend on increasing budgets. I’m in awe and just hope we can be the same later in our lives! We are from professional backgrounds and so are our social circles and no one we know can afford works like this. We are early 30s, on our 2nd home. Is it just good jobs or are many of you older and on your 3rd/4th homes? Just curious…

For us the massive increase in house prices is what has enabled us to do this work. We bought a doer upper several years ago and this is the final stage.

We've had a number of houses previously. I want my perfect house now and that means the pain of renovating. Otherwise, we'd be paying a lot to move with stamp duty and then living with someone else's style. First time I've chosen my own kitchen and bathroom etc. Stress I don't want to repeat though 😂

@Callmejudith

There is currently a 8-10 week wait on velux windows. Apparently they've never seen anything like it!

We ordered our bifolds, roof lantern and back door earlier this week and there's a national glass shortage and fewer suppliers. We were told 4-5 week lead time. We've opted to get frame for bifolds fitted so we can get render and plastering sorted whilst we wait for glass.