Extension thread 2021 - countdown to Christmas

[Callmejudith]

New thread for continued celebrating, moaning and commiserating

There is a little strip between each one. I think it's essentially the most expensive choice we could have made, but it's so nice in our living room and to have it the same through the whole downstairs.

I must have spent several days of my life on the DIY kitchen planner and have finally moved most of it over to a shopping cart and raised a support ticket. There needs to be an easier way to set up the shopping cart; that planner has been in its beta testing state for years !
I'm hoping they will help me with the ordering of the panels, fillers and cornice. I'm not keen to have a traditional cornice but would rather just fill in the gap on top of the units somehow. Anyone got any advice on that??

@sluj speak to them. We are having units to the ceiling as I didn't want a "space" above the wall cupboards as it just collects dust. Our house is Victorian so we have high ceilings too!

[quote MissFritton65]@sluj speak to them. We are having units to the ceiling as I didn't want a "space" above the wall cupboards as it just collects dust. Our house is Victorian so we have high ceilings too![/quote]
Did they come up with a solution @MissFritton65 ?

Wow! I've been a bit busy at work so haven't been looking at the thread and so much progress!

A fair few of you will make Christmas by the looks of it!

We need to decide on the layout tonight as we want to lodge the plans asap

We have to decide whether we have line of sight from the front to the back of the house or whether we block the passage and walk through the back via the dining room. Will try and post 2 examples so you can see what I mean!

Problem is by keeping the line of sight, we end up losing the fireplace in the dining room which I've realised I don't want to do! Argh!

The second pic, they haven't drawn the extension out to the left black line which we are likely to be able to do. The 1st pic they have assumed that extension is added in so they are not completely comparable.

Problem with the 1st one is we lose the fireplace in the back reception room (which now is the kitchen in that picture). Ignore the internal configurations in the 2nd as we can move them around. But however we move stuff around you would have to walk through that middle room to get to the back (don't need a study on the ground floor). Don't want the utility room at the back as it blocks the view to the garden and back of the house faces N/NW so we need as much light as we can get.

3rd is as it is now.

Oh and we letters are wrong on 1st pic - there wouldn't be a line across there, you would have sight from the front door to the back and that's how you would walk to the kitchen

WC! (Not we!)

@sluj yes they have used end panels on top of the wall units to build up to the ceiling

@StrongArm - trying to get my thinking cap on for you! For what its worth. Since questions... I'm not sure where your extension is going? Why do you need two sitting areas downstairs? Will they have different purposes? Or just a funny space if you know what I mean?

Think you've got a w.c. problem haven't you, which was the same as here. Otherwise you could do something like this, have seating by the garden (assume), kitchen near to table, keep fire, keep line of sight, but where to put the loo...

It’s been a tough weekend here. The builders were supposed to work both days but did t work at all. I can’t see how they will finish in the next few weeks and I can’t continue to live like this. We’ve no way of cooking properly and can only wash up in the bathroom. That gives me the complete ick!
I looked at the site on Saturday and everything is half finished - half the plastering done, half a door installed, They literally have not finished one single thing. I don’t understand why they are jumping from job to job.

@Terracedtardis

It’s been a tough weekend here. The builders were supposed to work both days but did t work at all. I can’t see how they will finish in the next few weeks and I can’t continue to live like this. We’ve no way of cooking properly and can only wash up in the bathroom. That gives me the complete ick! I looked at the site on Saturday and everything is half finished - half the plastering done, half a door installed, They literally have not finished one single thing. I don’t understand why they are jumping from job to job.

I feel your pain @Terracedtardis as we are exactly the same. We are moving out on 10th Nov for a fortnight so the builders can crack on and hopefully get the bulk of the work completed for Christmas.

@MissFritton65 I wish we were moving out. I think one of the worst things for me is that my DH is so defensive of them. He gets annoyed with me for pointing out their shiteness. He also believes they only have a couple of weeks work left despite the weeks going by with the same timeline spouted 🤦‍♀️

@Terracedtardis my husband was very similar until this week but after 3 days of no hot water even he could see the issue! We had a meeting on Friday with project manager and building firm owner and agreed it was better for us and easier for them for us to leave for a fortnight. We are fortunate that we live on the edge of The Peak District so a number of holiday lets around and available especially out of season.

@Indecisivelurcher yes it's a WC/utility problem really. We can't do without one downstairs so we need to put it somewhere! Your layout would be perfect otherwise! Because there are loads of us, we tend to need 2 sitting areas - the more formal one at the front of the house and then we have an older couch at the back to the garden where the kitchen is so someone chats to whoever is cooking. At its fullest there are 8 people living here (5 bed). The neighbours on the left have extended out further - in your diagram up to the solid line on the left - which makes the kitchen area a bit wider

Can you do that @StrongArm? You don't need to go up all the way, just do a w.c. + utility...

You could also use it as a bit of a boot room if you had a door out.

@Indecisivelurcher thank you! Yes that is a possibility (and the plumbing already there). Slightly concerned as north/north west is up so to the left is west so we would be blocking light into the kitchen/dining room but if we opened up the back it might not matter so much! I think that is a real possible alternative!

@StrongArm we had a strangely similar dilemma here in that the w.c. was the thing that complicated plans. We were also getting rid of a conservatory at the we've and the walls in between! This is what we did in the end... It still feels like a compromise, when the builders put a big steel across it was absolutely glorious, but half of it got closed up again. Had to be done though.

Oh sorry plan went on twice there instead of photo

@StrongArm your house is very similar to ours. This is what we are doing, the middle room (which is the darkest room in the house) is being turned into the downstairs loo and a utility, with lots of storage on the other side. We're then extending into the side return space which will make a large area for kitchen, dining and a seating area next to the garden.

@StrongArm we have gone for similar to the option with the utility and wc in the middle and did lose a chimney breast but it’s a great use of the space and I like having the kitchen in the former dining room space. I would definitely want to keep the line of sight. I can send you a video if you like?

Sorry for crappy progress for some of you. It’s so frustrating isn’t it.

We are playing a waiting game at the moment. Electrician back tomorrow to replace circuit board which means we can finally have the cooker power done.
Thursday is worktops day. Then doors and skylight on 12th. Floor after that.

Skylight is here!!! Tarp saw us through the weekend weather but so glad to be water tight!