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.

@newyorky09 we start Monday too. I think I'm mostly excited! A bit nervous though.

We aren't planning to move out at all, are we crazy?! We are having two bedrooms and a playroom knocked through, but it can all be shut off from the rest of the house and we can live in the other side of the house. I'm sure it will be noisy but with two DS I'm immune to noise! DH & I both working from home but we can go to work in the gym (it has a business area) once that opens up again.

So glad I decided not to do the kitchen as part of the build too- we're going to do that a couple of years down the line so we can save up again! That will just be ripping out the kitchen, knocking into a couple of cupboards next to it and fitting a new kitchen.

My DC are 11 and 8, so at school the whole time the work will be on (builders work 8-4).

Our neighbours extended working through lockdown and it wasn't bad at all. I am very tolerant of noise!

We are in the final weeks of our loft conversion and can't wait to get back to normal. We have lived here the whole time (me and the kids moved out for a few weeks).

Knocking down walls creates a lot of dust that just never seems to disappear. At least I'm not in the office so not worrying about how covered I am

Definitely not looking forward to the dust! Once it's all done we'll book the cleaners for a deep clean.

WE HAVE OUR STRUCTURAL DRAWINGS!!!!

I am so happy that we can finally start to get quotes.

The kitchen end of our family room is 5122 by 4985.
Is this big enough for an island? I'd like it to be a U shape with island in the middle

We have planning permission for our extension/renovation. Yay! We are knocking down our huge detached garage, extending a bit sideways, a bit to the rear and over our existing single storey extension. Stairs are moving, front door is moving, rewire (including moving all the electric meters to a wall that currently doesn’t exist, replumb, remove chimney, so a fair bit (if builders quotes are near our budget).

Can I ask at what point you guys started looking into builders. Our architect is doing the building regs drawings in the next few weeks, so don’t have these yet or SE calcs. Not sure when I need to start contacting builders.

This is the room.

We tried getting quotes before getting our technical drawings but they couldn't give quotes. The kitchen will be that area but I'd prefer the island to be facing the other way.

So we're just starting now to get quotes

We've put a deposit down with hkoc so maybe I can get an idea now.
I had exactly the same thought about a sink under the window!

Thanks @LittleOverwhelmed. Not sure we will be able to move out. I hadn’t really budgeted for it and had thought we might stay at my mums but with covid not sure that will happen! Me and the kids might go stay there. I am also working from home so calls etc have been difficult at times especially when the steels went in and today when they were using a circular saw to cut roof tiles

Anyone got any advice on kitchens? I am currently considering a Howdens one. We don’t have a huge budget after the build and they seem to get pretty good reviews.

I am totally dreading knocking through (builder said about 10 days away!). The dust and chaos will be hard to deal with but I am also quite excited! I want to have a go with a massive hammer

@Chuckaluck I'm putting DIY Kitchens units in our new utility, the plan being that if I like them then we can use them in the kitchen when we finally get around to it! The price seems reasonable and I've heard really good feedback about them.

When we did the kitchen in our last house we had a quote from Howdens via the builders. Even with the builder's (supposedly good) discount, the cabinets were about the same price as the fancy German Leicht kitchen we ended up getting, but the Howdens ones didn't make such good use of the space.

My friend really rated her IKEA kitchen, it cost her £2k vs the £15k odd she was quoted by kitchen companies. But her DH is really handy so managed to adjust it to make it just right for them.

Yes I do follow them on Instagram, it gives amazing ideas!

We had Howdens at our old house. We had no issues at all. I think I'd have used DIY kitchens if we weren't using handmade kitchens

@LittleOverwhelmed sorry, who is good to follow on instagram for kitchen ideas? Thanks

Handmade kitchens of Christchurch

Thanks both! I’ll be losing my day looking at that!

Those HKOC photos look great, are they really expensive? I am planning on fitting our own DIY kitchen as we have fitted our own kitchens before

@sluj

Those HKOC photos look great, are they really expensive? I am planning on fitting our own DIY kitchen as we have fitted our own kitchens before

No they are very reasonable - their prices are online and they still have their 50% off sale. daveyandalger.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Handmadekitchens-PriceList-v15-Sale.pdf The good thing is that they don’t charge extra for bigger units - all of ours are going to be 1m wide which cuts down on the number of units you need. If you do decide to go for them if you are referred by an existing customer they get a hamper

We've had some time to sleep on our original ideas and have changed them already. Plan 1 was to do a 6x6 kitchen diner lounge single storey extension out back, and moving our front door to the garage for a new hall so it no longer opens up to our front living room. After messing with the DIY kitchens plans, it looks like the kitchen will take up most of the extension and we'd be squeezing in lounge and dining table.
Plan 2 is that the new extension would be a huge lounge overlooking the garden. Our kitchen diner moves to the front where our lounge currently is, our current kitchen becomes a utility room with loo and we would convert the garage into guest bedroom/ chill out space for the kids/ office.

For the HKOC kitchens - do you need a kitchen designer separately to plan it all? Also do you just send them the measurements? I’d be so nervous about getting them wrong. A couple mm out would make an expensive mistake!