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.

I think maybe a couple of squares of Perspex in the bifold hole will work, as long as the weather isn’t too horrible. Maybe best to keep the roof lantern hole intact. Ours has to be secure as well or anyone could wander in the back.

The old window is an old stained glass beauty (IMO anyway) that needs preserving for the future. I’m only taking out two small pvc windows but have promised them to a family making a summerhouse for their DC with SN so wouldn’t want to dismantle them.

Ours is pretty secure so I definitely think some clear stuff would work.

Summerhouse sounds fab

No sign of any builders today. Sigh.

Bit wet to be out painting too.

And eldest home from school awaiting a pcr result.

Going to chain drink tea and watch tv whilst playing candy crush!

@LivingInABuildingSite have they told you why they're not there?

Meeting the builder at 12 to discuss the doors. Will try not to cry.

Also going to see the electrician's wife later who is actually a lighting designer and sounds lovely. In the kitchen design we got rid of a couple of wall cabinets so I need to think about task lighting now in that area since we won't have the under cabinet lighting.

In more exciting news I need to plan the utility room and downstairs loo. This is the wallpaper which I absolute love. I was going to just put it on one wall of the toilet but actually I'm thinking now I will put it in the utility room too. I need to get a paint colour to go on some of the other walls - any ideas? I want to go bold.

I also need to decide on flooring for those rooms. I'm thinking grey tiles.

Here's my highly technical, not to scale drawing of the room. There is no natural light.

I'm thinking wallpaper on the blue walls and then paint on the red walls. The unit is navy blue and they'll be a white worktop over the washing machine and tumble dryer.

In the toilet I'd love a navy vanity unit. Also a bright pink light switch

I am starting to lose my shit and we haven't even started. The scaffolding has been up for a week (the roofing firm put it up to get on the roof) but the roofer hasn't arrived. He turns up today (when it's raining) to have a look - looks, says it's what he thought and then buggers off and says he will come back 'soon when it isn't raining'. Which is fine but I said to dp, give us a day fgs as we need to know when the scaffolding can come down.

with the scaffolding there, no one can park on the drive and we are in a v v v heavily controlled CPZ that costs a fortune every time a visitor needs to park and we have limited visitor permits per year. Once we get to the end of them, that is it. I have explained this to dp several times - I can see it's going in one ear and out the other! We just need the roofer to get on with it!

we can apply for builder permits but we haven't even started the building work - all we are doing is the electricity/surveying/garden work now so there's no point doing that until the point that the plans are approved and we have appointed builders argh. Also means we can't get a skip and the rubbish is piling up again.

and breathe....

@Callmejudith love that wallpaper. I am a big fan of teal so I prefer that colour but you'll know what colour suits your house! we had grey tiles in our old house on the floor and they were brilliant

Well boss just rang, as I suspected having looked at the forecast, they’ve cancelled today because of the weather. What was funny was as he rang to apologise as it wasn’t raining, it started chucking down.

That wallpaper is lovely, and brave. I used to paint bright colours everywhere but have got used to plain walls now. I’m getting everything painted plain (not quite magnolia but off white), with white woodwork and then I’ll decide on a style if I can ever think of one! I find the decisions get overwhelming so defer whatever I can.
All loft stuff is still plain though as I never did decide anything different 🙄

You could go with pretty much any colour that’s in the pattern, the dark blue background - might make it too dark overall, or any of the paler greens or yellows, not sure I like pale yellow on walls though, we has bright sunshine yellow in a flat once, I loved it.

One decision I have made is floor tiles, finally, I have so many samples!

A very boring looking whitish large (80x80) tile, same indoors and out on the patio. I’m tiling all of the extension and old rooms it connects to, and the downstairs loo. With underfloor heating.

I need to decide about an extra bit of hallway where im moving a door, to try and match the Karndean that’s already in the hall but I hope to get rid of one day, or the tile in the back of the house, or something else.

StrongArm - sympathies Re roofer!

Yes you could pick up the teal colour from the kingfisher?

For kingfisher, read bird, may or may not be a kingfisher 😂

We have planning permission for a two storey extension. We are waiting on the construction plans for the builders. We can't get on a builder's list until we have these plans. We were originally hoping that the work would be done next summer. I have a horrible feeling that it is going to be autumn/winter 2022 or even 2023 as everyone wants an extension at the moment. It is exciting though.

@StrongArm I can completely sympathise. So frustrating

@onethird that's super exciting! What rooms will be in the extension?

I had a great meeting with the lighting lady yesterday, lots to think about. She has converted me to wall lights.

I need to decide what to do about the radiator. I hate radiators I think they just get in the way plus I am always hot. I think we will put a vertical slim one near the back door.

One third - exciting progress, but realistic expectations of how busy things are at the mo is a good idea. Plus costs of materials. Focus on getting the paperwork sorted - and looking online at lots of pictures obviously!

Callmejudith- I’m always cold! We’ll have UFH in the back of the house, plus I think one vertical radiator where I have to keep a bit of wall to hold up the back of the house upstairs (!).
I worry with all the glass I’m putting in it will be cold but the guys keep reassuring me it’ll be warm enough.
I haven’t gone for inbuilt blinds in the bifolds but am unsure what kind of covering I’ll end up going for, so will be a bit odd to start with, having a big expanse of black in the evenings.

And I have at least 2 guys on site today yey! Roofer is here and an assistant so hopefully progress can happen.

Thank you for the support and positive comments. We are knocking down an illegal conservatory, pulling up a driveway that is causing rising damp and adding a new reception room, a utility room, two new bedrooms and an en-suite. It is going to be chaos but I hope it will be worth it.

It is excellent that you are choosing lighting and radiators. You are making good progress.

@Callmejudith I've just done the lighting in the front rooms (they will only be redecorated rather than being demolished and rebuilt!) so have spent a long time looking at lighting. We went for wall lights in the hall and then ceiling lights in the living room/dining room. I'm so happy with the dining room light - it looks spectacular but I'm reserving judgement on the living room one (it has mirrors in it to give us more light - which it does- but i just feel it looks slightly too modern for then room). I find it quite hard to visualise lights in a room just looking at them!

I found these swivel lights which I think look good, I really like the idea of being able to fiddle with where the light goes.

Joy. We’re going to have an ugly box near the door hiding the waste pipe. Any ideas how I can hide/make a feature of it?

@Callmejudith

Joy. We’re going to have an ugly box near the door hiding the waste pipe. Any ideas how I can hide/make a feature of it?

I assume it's about 15 to. 20cm wide, floor to ceiling? What door in what room? What 5o you intend to use that space for?

Yea that’s correct, it’s in the corner before the sliding doors. I will probably have a lamp in front of it or the Xmas tree!

Hi everyone, I'm a bit rubbish at keeping up to date with this thread but finally feeling we're on the home straight! We got our bifolds fitted last week which was a relief, still got to fit the trickle vents and replace the handle on our upvc door (wrong colour) and there's some snagging regarding the beading as they fitted them in the dark (don't ask!) But hoping that will be sorted by weekend. We've finally got electrician in doing our first fix today and tomorrow and once that's done we can get on with plastering and flooring. Still waiting for roof lantern, been 6 weeks now and they originally advised of a 4 week lead time, they were hopeful it would be this week when I spoke to them 2 weeks ago but seems unlikely now. Kitchen due to be delivered by DIY kitchens sometime next week but we're not going to be ready to install it just yet so hoping we've got enough room in garage and utility to store units whilst we sort floors and walls. Got our UFH ordered and waiting for them to complete pipe design - we're doing DIY install of a retrofit overfloor system (gas engineer connecting to boiler but we'll be laying the boards and pipework), will be fitted once kitchen units in place. We'd got a plasterer lined up for skimming walls/ceiling once my OH has boarded it all, he did our external render a few weeks ago and said just contact him when ready but sadly called him yesterday and he's now booked up until mid-oct and we don't want to wait that long. OH came to rescue with one of his mates again and hoping we'll have someone in next week.

Totally flying by the seat of our pants with all of this which is my PM style...I'm good at resolving issues quickly but rubbish at planning and scheduling 😂😂. We're hoping we'll be done mid-Oct at least the extension bit, but then will have shower room to sort and remedial work elsewhere in house which hopefully will be done by Christmas. We've invited my mum, sister, BIL and kids for Christmas so no pressure haha, but it will be lovely finally having a space big enough for entertaining.

RebelGeek - looking good! And further ahead than we are. How wide are your bifolds? Each panel and in total? Just curious.

Callmejudith- we’re going to have lots of weird boxing in here and there, hoping it adds character lol. Where we redid the bathroom upstairs both the shower and bath waste pipes are currently visible in the kitchen. The shower will get boxed in along the ceiling of the downstairs loo. That will also have the gas meter and fuse board in cupboards somehow.
The bath pipe runs along an old steel so we will just have to make that look wider, not ideal.

Get lots of those stick up family photos done in the right size and make it a skinny photo wall?

I have no ideas about actual decoration and end results as yet.

The roofer is here so winning today. He’s also meant to be demolishing the top of a wall between us and next door that is too high, was too high for the old extension really so a bit weird. He’s been next door to put something down to catch bits, hope it all goes ok. Neighbours (other half of the semi) are getting a new kitchen and lots of other work done too so they have workmen in anyway so hopefully not too disruptive.

Have been procrastinating all week but have got on with more summerhouse painting today. Lunch now then back to it. Maybe…

Rebelgeek that looks amazing!! What a great space

@RebelGeek76 that space will be great, it looks fantastic

@Callmejudith all our pipes (currently) are on the outside of the walls (on the inside of the house if you see what I mean!). Not sure what we will do when we renovate! I've got used to it now weirdly but need to think about putting them into the wall spaces as they aren't even boxed in. I would think a lamp works well to cover a soil pipe box!

our roofer also here today - hooray - he is aiming to finish tomorrow.

i was on my own last night and all the electrics kept tripping. Could see both dp and electrician were thinking it was something i had done . Except now dp has just texted me (I'm at work) to tell me that by some miracle the circuit is tripping every time the microwave is on or the washing machine. I said funny that isn't it!! Electrician thinks it's a faulty RCD as the appliances are new but let's see....!

I am feeling slightly hesitant as we need to spend the weekend taking bricks out of the soil in the garden. I am not looking forward to it!

@LivingInABuildingSite the bifolds are 4.9m and about 960mm for each pane. We did plan 5m but had to lose some of the room width because architect's measurement was slightly out and we would've ended up with ridiculously narrow utility.

Thanks callmejudith and strongarm we're starting to get a feel for the space now but my OH still thinks it's not big enough 🙈!

Had confirmation that our roof lantern is being delivered tomorrow, yippee and we'll finally be watertight...another job to add to OH's weekend list!