Has anyone extended their kitchen into the side return? How much did it cost?

[msled]

We are renovating our Victorian house and would love to extend sideways somehow, as the kitchen is going to be long (20ft but quite narrow at 10ft 9in wide) but have a limited budget. Ideally we'd like to link the back reception to the kitchen and run the extension all the way back, but we would consider adding a sort of large bay to the side or a box with an internal courtyard between the back reception doors and the kitchen addition.
Has anyone done this? We have a quote for £38K for a full extension, but that's far too much for us. We'd rather spend less than 20K - 15K would be more like it.

anyone??

We built out into our side return (nothing fancy like an internal courtyard though) and extended it slightly back past the footing of the original downstairs bathroom. IIRC it was in the region of £35k ish...it's a LOT of work, digging foundations, bricklaying, plastering etc. I think your budgetry expectations may be a little low.

By internal courtyard, I really meant a gap down the side return between teh back recep and the bit added to the kitchen, with a bit of cheap decking on it so the drainpipes didn't have to be moved. I was being poncey!!

I've been given a rough quote of £30-35k for doing this (so it's going to have to wait a while!)

I've been given a rough quote of £30-35k for doing this (so it's going to have to wait a while!)

Hmm....seems like 30K plus is the bare minimum.

Have you seen the following website? Minimum price for a side return is £21k +vat, I'm not sure what size it relates to.

www.glassbox.co.uk/

They are lovely. We have quite a lot of drainpipes etc in the way so expect they'd charge more.. might be worth contacting them.

Moving drainpipes isn't a big job. If you ahve to dig extra drains it is.

Do you love yours now it is all done Cybil?
Were there lots of costs on top - eg doors,floors, lighting and decorating etc?

Oh yes I LUUURVE it. Best thing we ever did.

We didn't have a lot of extra cash for decorating etc, so a friend did it (on the cheap). The kitchen was in the MFI sale (Rest In Peace). Biggest expense was solid wood flooring and under floor heating which actually wasn't THAT much as we only had it in the topmpart of the kitchen.

I wish we had had more radiators put in. It is a little chilly in the winter. We had a utility put in too which added to cost.

Can I ask how much you spent on top? We would have to borrow about 20K just to do the build - but we don't have any other debts so we are considering it if it is really life-changing!

Our existing kitchen is an utter dump and we need to strip it all out as well as build on.

We've been quoted anything from £35k - £50k (excluding a new kitchen). Our plans are similar to yours. We're in London though, where it might be a bit more expensive.

Beware changes in recent planning legislation and the need for party wall agreements - they can kybosh your wonderful plans (as they did to ours) and can add months to the timescales.

We spent about 55k all in all, building, kitchen, appliances, decorating, EVERYTHING

ah 55K would be too much. I don't think we'd ever get that back on this house.

Ours was about £55k too but we extended lengthways as well as sideways into the return. The minimum I have heard of is about £28k round here but that is London. Don't think you could do it for much less anywhere though.