Extension Thread 2022....plaster, panic and pics

[Callmejudith]

Slightly naff title but I haven't had enough coffee yet

@nomoneytree that was for our existing house, not got to the extension windows yet but that does seem steep. Our extension will
mismatch too as will be modern vs our Victorian original part. We are just embracing the different styles and not trying to make them match.

Hope everyone has enjoyed their bank holiday, I was at work as normal but it’s just quieter in the care home which is nice for us all I think, less ‘managing’ going on lol.

I have spoken to my brother about the finances and he’s cool with lending us some more. I think we need to get something written down in case anything happens, we have wills, but they won’t show the debt. He hasn’t even touched his inheritance from my mum, mine is all gone which makes me 😞 but I have to get over it a bit.

So, just need the boss builder to agree a meeting to discuss what’s left, get some rough figures so we can actually have a budget to try and stick to!

I think almost everyone I know including myself has felt that way! But once it's plastered and painted it will feel much bigger. And unless you have a massive garden, there is always the risk of having compromised too much on the garden for a bigger house. But I love looking at gardens! :🌳

I see what you mean. I would try and pull in the relevant people and come up with a plan - that's an awkward spot to have put the megaflo

@sew do you think you'll be able to make it on budget?

It's started and to be honest I'm not totally happy with it. Trying not to overthink it and be grateful for what we do have/will have. Just frustrating It's due to something totally out of our control.

I can't see why that would be an issue. Could you ring your bank for a hypothetical chat to see what's what?

Definitely ask for an account in writing of material prices at time of quote and now/and detailing the changes made.

Not sure our quote will help - but we are paying 28k for 13windows and 3 doors. But we have gone with a mix of upvc and aluminium. Sounds like you might be getting timber which I know is a lot more expensive?

Good luck! Did you have a rough budget to start with?

I don't think we'll ever probably get round to doing the 3 other projects (garage conversion, downstairs bathroom, porch/hallway reconfig) to be honest. It's just too much money and as much as a house is a home there has to be some limit on what is spent. Even if our salaries increased dramatically or a random windfall I think we'd be inclined to save the excess or put it towards other things.
Other projects we will save up for are the garden and the driveway.

Argh. Think the app has gone wonky again - i was replying to people but I don't think it's included it. Hopefully some of my posts make sense to the relevant posters :🤣

Well we did get ballpark figures from the company years ago, we got a proper quote for the loft extension and that wasn’t far off and stuck to time too.
they gave us the ballparks for the rear and side as 2 numbers as we were going to stagger the jobs.

Then we decided we’d do the two jobs joined together. And we completely changed the plans, made it bigger, adding foundations etc not included in the ballpark figures.

Then planning issues and covid hit.

And we kept adapting and adding, not foolish silly stuff just making the project work better. And adding some bits to just get them done whilst builders are already here.

so any ballpark is long behind us now 🙄😂

we’d like to do the driveway too, plus any rooms we haven’t touched as they now look v dated. Our bedroom, the front room aka My Room. But we’ll need a break for ourselves and to see if we can regroup financially to even consider starting anything else.

I'm hoping we can get to the end of the 'build' without borrowing any more. We will still have decorating, carpets and any new furniture still to sort, plus the patio/driveway but I could live with that. Still need the numbers back for the plastering and other bits that need doing. Revised my bathroom plans and downgraded a bit. Squeaky bum time but should make it.

We will have spent about £300k by end of May. Even if we could borrow more, I'm really questioning whether I'd want to spend much more at this point, even if we will end up doing the other jobs at some point but on the flip side I want it all finished and building work behind us. It's silly amounts of money when you think about it

Can I ask where do get internal fire rated door. We need 5. Thinking of popping into Howdens this weekend.

We will need couple of years to recover to plan for 2nd stage(wrap around extension, new kitchen) if we ever get this first stage done. I really miss my own clean bathroom. Feel like it has been a life time (while it is only couple of months). I went out this weekend and just couldnt find anything to wear, my skin has been deteriorated so much from little sleep, stress and hair thinning. We wont have any proper abroad holiday trip this year either, I have already spent the money for 3 Easter week and up coming May half term.

I haven't been for a while on here. Loft conversion pretty much done now. It is the tidying and redecorating the rooms downstairs that were trashed during the loft work that we are working on.

@Sewfrickinamazeballs Yes we did exactly that. We have our main mortgage (1). We then moved house, ported the main mortgage and borrowed extra (2) to move to this house. Six months later we went back to our lender and borrowed more(mortgage 3) after getting planning permission and our builder being available to start. You can have as many mortgages as you like; just a little admin headache making sure you know when each one needs renewing and if you are mortgaging to another lender then it is very possible that you will end up paying an ERC on the other mortgages. Thankfully, ours 2nd and 3rd are on 2 year fixes so ERCs are 1% which is a small amount (less than £500 combined) compared to the overall mortgage amount.

I will say though that whilst the lenders do the affordability checks so not particularly salary multiples, they do still have a maximum they will lend. Our lender was 4.85 times multiples(I think it is 4.45 times now) and I reckon we are very close to that now so I can't imagine they would lend us a 4th mortgage.

I still would explore borrowing on the mortgage if not maxed out now before I look at other ways of borrowing as interest rates are still very low.

Our build has started again after we lost a week waiting for the SE to visit site and confirm he’s happy with some amendments to the proposed build. Mainly nervousness on my part but was keen not to tempt fate and our builder had some other smaller jobs to fill time. This is technically now week 3, foundations are already poured, blockwork done and now timber frame is being erected. It all seems pretty simple but as we’re extending out from an existing single storey side lean and then building up over both structures whilst living in house it is going to be quite interesting!
Budget wise we’ve had to add a retaining wall to side of house/ driveway that added about £5k but looking at some other items now for existing house - staircase, steps etc. I can see how easy it is to have budget creep!
Need to start biting the bullet on some decisions for interiors.
Any reccomendations for dressing room fit out that doesn’t break the budget? Doesn’t need to look pretty just functional. Considering ikea pax but they stood me up on my online appointment!
I also need to finalise my kitchen plan, after resisting a sink in the island I’m now having to go with it and an off centre one too which upsets me aesthetically but functionally will work much better in the space.

@JoanDarc I would still consider ikea pax. Have you tried to design it yourself on the planner? I really like that it is flexible enough for you to change the internals as your storage needs change.

We have just finished our loft conversion and just like @Newhome321 we also need a couple of years to financially recover to start on the back kitchen/diner extension. The loft was a NEED as we really needed the bedrooms but the kitchen/diner is a WANT. Not the end of the world with the current set up but I'm really excited for the next stage.

I have designed our draft kitchen on diy kitchens just to get a feel for the space and it looks like I might end up with a sink in the island. The design currently has only one external wall where the hob and extraction to outside will be. I don't fancy having the hob on the island as we always have a pot or two knocking about on the hob. Unless we have one less bifold door and put in a window with sink underneath. But then the working triangle is stretched with the fridge on the opposite wall a good 6m away. We still have sometime to think about it though. We most likely will end up having new drawings and possibly apply for planning permission again. I daren't think about how much it will cost. I believe we can sell for a 'profit' with the loft conversion but at the very best I reckon we can just about maybe break even with the downstairs extension. But we plan on not moving anytime soon.

We definitely would not sell for a profit for what we’ve spent but we aren’t planning to move anytime soon.

Had the electrician go through his list of jobs which was less than an A4 sheet so he can see the end even if the rest of us can’t!

patio steps being worked on, from memory of the other side it’ll take quite a few days to do a layer, let it set, then build up the next one.

plumber doing the downstairs loo basin. Still haven’t found the right loo though!

We're heading into week 5 of our tiny 7m² kitchen extension. So far it still seems to be a lot more ripping stuff apart than putting things back together.

The kitchen wall is gone, we have sheets of plywood. Steels are mostly in - its massively overengineered but I didn't have the time or energy to get a different structural engineer and go through planning again (I didn't realise until every builder asked why there was so much steel...).

We're having a 2yo UPVC sash window moved from the back wall to the flank wall, its been removed and propped up in the dining room since last week but they are making the new hole for it today!

Somehow the kitchen is still functional, thankfully, & we are reconnected to mains water after the pipes basically falling apart when the footings were dug. The boiler was successfully moved and still works, hurrah.

I'm 36 weeks pregnant today and if we have walls and a roof by the time baby arrives I'll be very happy. I've given up all hopes of having the kitten fitted or even being at a plaster finish by then though

@Notyetthere will check out the online planner. 👍 Your kitchen sink dilemma sounds similar to ours . I wanted to avoid either hob or sink on the island but unfortunately I had to compromise after I saw the initial designs. We’re essentially having an L shape with island then dining table in front of big 2m window. Each bit of the L is around 5m long, one run is full height units, the other is low units only. Realistically both sink and hob on this run would be a squeeze in what should be a decent sized kitchen. Sink on island was lesser of two evils for me and bonus is the working triangle is much better.
We had our kitchen ripped out today and a decent temporary set up including dishwasher set up in the remainder of the open planned family space. Definitely no going back now!

@JoanDarc Exciting that you have started now. Definitely no going back now. I think I could just about fit the hob and sink on the same run but then it throws the symmetry out that I have designed with the mantle. I would have to get rid of the mantle.

I want the diy kitchens mantle but I reckon it might be too busy with the Helmsley design; I might get out carpenter to build something simpler for us instead.

Sounds like great progress everyone.

We are definitely in the peak decision zone now. 1st fix electrics almost done, finally all the demolition is done. 15 skips so far, 1 to go.

Lots of costs have gone up so had a good update from the builder yesterday. Apart from a fiddly bit of plastering (we are having a big LED square in the hallway) the costs are up to date and we should just about have enough to get the main bits done but only have about £3k spare. We still may borrow some more to get the landscaping and any final finishing stuff sorted but feeling more nervous about that with the rate rise.

Today is screed day! Finally! Then all the plasterboard to do and we can start put it all back together again.

Must keep an eye on this thread as we are close to the end!

That all sounds really good @Sewfrickinamazeballs do update with pictures!

We are at dpc stage so nice to see the space actually there to see. On Monday the builders are coming inside to take out a corner of our house and put the first steels in. We're 80% packed for moving out...