Extension thread 2021 - countdown to Christmas

[Callmejudith]

New thread for continued celebrating, moaning and commiserating

We are about to embark. Architect has drawn up feasibility plans and builder has had a quick look and said more than £200 but less than £250. He’s coming next week to have a proper look. I have no idea what that is meant to include. We can do £250 but not £300 so fingers crossed it will be affordable to us.

Those of you that are nearing the end what has been your percentage overrun? I’m petrified of running out of money.

Sorry, going in and out of Internet in car (I'm not driving), I meant, structural engineer was able to confirm by phone that roof would be strong enough.

Everything is so unpredictable at thr moment @nomoneytreehere
Could you add to the mortgage if you absolutely had to?

@nomoneytree it is all really unpredictable. If we were starting now our builders estimate it would all have cost us approx 30% more. We have kept prices down by compromising onto cheaper solutions when we have hit problems. I suspect some of the problems we have had with supplies have been because companies can't honour orders when their own costs have escalated. It has hit labour, parts, shipping and transport so you can see how delicate the supply chain is at the moment. My take away is buy local and simple where you can!

That's a good idea on the wildflower roof @Indecisivelurcher - the pic of the roof looks great! I didn't know that about New Zealand and gas boilers. I had also heard that the water isn't as hot as a gas fired boiler.

I find this house surprisingly well insulated (noise and cold) at the front but at the back with the dodgy extensions it is freezing though we are yet to turn the heating on!

@NewHouseNewMe I don't want to add any more to the mortgage. It's already pretty hefty although we have more than 50% equity. I've recently paid off a huge amount of debt and the thought of going back there makes me anxious.

For various (sad) reasons we have around £275k in cash that we can put to it but I'm fearful of spending every last penny and more on the house and leaving us vulnerable.

I think where I've got to in my head is that prices will keep going up for so long as house prices are going up but if house prices stagnate or fall then renovations are likely to stop. It's like bungee jumping where you can't quite bring yourself to jump!! That said we have totally outgrown our house and need more kitchen space and bedrooms so it's either do this or move and we are looking at around £40k in stamp duty due to mental house prices.

I've got friends renovating at the moment and some have hit 7 figures which gives me the fear of god.

@HappyBackHome which diy range are you looking at? I'm thinking of Helmsley in dove gray. I would really like a Tom Howley but the budget won't stretch. I've been busy planning the kitchen off the feasibility plans as if I can't get the dream kitchen I want I'm going to stamp my feet!!!

I'm a bit worried that the shaker look has had its day but I just love how it looks so maybe at 44 I need to realise I don't need to follow the trends!

@nomoneytreehere I’ve been looking at the Norton and the Stanbury. I did look at the Helmsley too. I like the way it looks, but I’m not sure about in-frame style kitchens due to their reduced drawer sizes/door openings and it has too many fiddly bits to clean for my liking !

I thought I was set on the Norton but when we got the sample doors we didn’t like the visible joins on the door, so I think we’re now pretty set on the Stanbury . It has smoother, slightly curved lines inside the edges of the door panels, which we think look neater and hopefully should be easier to clean !

I also think the shaker style is a classic and won’t go out of fashion anytime soon… I think the shiny ‘flat slab’ style doors will look dated more quickly, but I am no style guru, so who knows?

I am going for what I like though and what will fit best with our lifestyle/realistic cleaning abilities… dh originally wanted ‘modern’, flat, shiny, easy-clean doors but I think I’ve persuaded him that shaker style is more likely to remain popular, and it will fit better with the 1930s meets modern vibe I’m aiming for…

I will only ever have one new kitchen to design and choose though, so I am going for what makes my heart sing - within budget of course !

We are going for the Linwood, shaker style . When I looked at the Pinterest pictures I collected, they were nearly all shaker so I took the hint
I'm aiming for a more modern Mrs Patmore kitchen

Hoping for lots of straightforward decisions and busy builders this week, everybody!

Love that roof with the plants though I have the touch of death so that would be a disaster for me.

@nomoneytreehere can you push for a fixed price? That’s the one tiny thing I’m thankful
For with our builder. We agreed a price back in March and that’s it. There’s been no talk of any additional costs and if they tried at this stage I’d tell them to stick it

Plasterer is (finally) back today it’s amazing how quickly he works and what a difference the plaster makes (even if he is a week late).

Almost all the plasterboard is done in the kitchen just a couple of bits to go. They should start the floor FINALLY this afternoon.

Kitchen gets delivered on Friday but we should have space in the front room to store it over the weekend. That means we have this week for screed and plaster to dry then we’ll be frantically painting on Friday and Saturday.

I love the idea of the plant roof but also have the touch of death, and it would be north facing so basically moss I guess. Did chat to builder about it today and he said he’ll look into whether the roof can take the weight but I’m not sure now anyway.

So electrician came round and we made loads of decisions - have to hope they’re the right ones!
The boss guy came round to basically apologise for Friday and we’ve agreed a weekly meeting to discuss what’s coming next so I have an idea of what’s meant to be happening and it isn’t a surprise.

Now need to contact out alarm company to find out if they can hardwire in some of the alarm bits as I really dislike the plastic wireless boxes they stick everywhere. The current ones are white but have already faded to nasty yellow. I really do not want one of them on my beautiful bifolds!

And need to decide on what kind of doors to put on the front of the side extension as they need to be secure too.

@LivingInABuildingSite weekly meeting sounds good.

Plasterer has been making me feel better again, he said the screed guys are excellent and it will dry super quick and my kitchen units won't sink into it. He's also told the builder they must block up the big hole where the sliding doors are going to go to make the room warmer so the plaster will dry quicker. I'm borrowing every heater I can find.

Trying to also find a painter for Friday and Saturday. May have to do it myself which could be interesting.

Also just found out we can really do the flash smart lighting system. Bit of a shame but we can't really afford it tbh. We'll still have our circuit design so that's good.

Waiting for the tiler................................will he show???

*can't do

Today is the first day I've been able to walk the length of my new room... And I've realised it slopes!!! The middle portion is to blame, which was preexisting. But I am thinking now the end door should have been built higher to allow for self leveller... If they put self leveller down now it'll bury the bifolds. Fuck...

@Indecisivelurcher that sounds a bit tricky.... What kind of flooring are you putting down on top... Any chance they can go down a bit?

We're having karndean. I'm not sure if it'll help.

That doesn’t seem right that they could do that with the floor. Can you check it on your phone? My phone has a spirit level thing.

I can’t imagine how they can fix it but there must be a way. And at their cost surely?

Callmejudith- did the tiler come? 🤞🤞

My roof work is done. Well, sort of, the carpenter types have finished. The rubber guy is back on Wednesday to finish the side, and the very front needs tiling where it’s got a pitch to it.

The electricians have started, yey! Lots of cabling going up the in ceiling. And ready to come down for the tv (the glass one hopefully). One of the electricians knows about Sky Glass coming out too so he has an idea of what I’m talking about.

I've put an actual spirit level on it. It's defo on a slope. This is a knock through, there are 3 rooms,
1st the kitchen,
2nd was a small room,
3rd was the conservatory and is now the new extension they've actually built.

1 is higher than 3, so 2 is sloping between them.

3 is the only bit the builders have built themselves and is flat.

When it was small rooms you couldn't notice the slope but now it's open you can. In hindsight I would have wanted the builders to notice that 1 was higher than 3 and 2 slopes, to have built 3 up level with 1 and filled 2 in to make it all level. But they didn't. So now I feel a bit stuffed.

@Indecisivelurcher sorry to hear your level floor issue. It's super shit when something becomes clear too late to change it.

Our living room floor isn't level. One corner is 4cm lower than the other end of the room!!! 😂 Only DH noticed. I didn't think anything was wrong until the structural engineer confirmed when he came over. We're not changing the floor though, as I want to keep the current hard wood flooring. Honestly when your room is full of furniture and "dressed" it won't be as obvious as it is to you now. Never mention it to anyone and they'll likely not notice.

@Callmejudith did your tiler appear? Hope so!!

Our site was busy again today. I ended up there twice because of the incessant questions. It was all about heights of radiators and shower valves and handheld shower thingys. Oh and more wall lights. I want to say I don't care, but I really would care if it's wrong. Finding it really difficult to make the decisions when it's still a mess there. The bathroom floors are currently joists, so Christ knows how I'm meant to know what's right for actually taking a shower. Why can't there just be a standard perfect height for xyz??! 😂

I'm starting to see hope of rooms actually looking like rooms. The living door has been moved and it already looks a billion times better. I can't really explain, but it was in totally the wrong place originally (bad planning by the precious owner) and now it looks right 👏

The new position of the living room door. Room a mess, but it make me happy happy happy 😃

The builders have got 7 weeks and 1 day till I'm moving back in. Don't care if they're finished, I'm sleeping in my house on 1st December and the Christmas tree is going UP!!!!! 🎄🎅🏻🔥

That photo is a perfect example of how not to store doors. I hope they are the old ones?

Thanks @PoshWatchShitShoes - my main concern is my dining table is going right on the slope so it could mean the table is on the piss... will wine slosh out of my glass at Christmas?!