Support thread for those crazy enough to be extending their homes this year!

[ilikeyoursleeves]

Hiya, after hijacking another thread about massive extensions (not massive erections LOL) there seems to be a few of us who are about to embark on building projects this year. So if you are one of them come join in so we can share all the excitement, nervousness and bewilderment at everything that needs done!

We are currently awaiting quotes from builders for a two storey side extension plus a single storey at the rear. We had our first quote in today which is £64k. Not sure if this is good or bad, it will be interesting to compare the quotes when they are all in. We are also awaiting planning permission but should get it fine as our house already has planning for the extension that came with the sale of the house (but we had to resubmit as we have changed it a bit). Awaiting a building warrant too.

I'm very excited but frankly crapping it re the costs as we are going to have to remortgage plus DS2 will start nursery so we will have 2 lots of chilcare costs too.

ARGH!!!

So I for one need my hand held throughout all this process I just keep thinking of the end product and hoping it will all be fine.

What's everyone else doing and when?

Congrats Sweetkitty!

Sleeves, well done you - also very exciting. What did the builder say?

Am rushing a bit (computer finally working properly again after de-virusing session at repair shop) but just to say, our Party Wall Surveyor finally gave us the go-ahead to instruct the builders, we should get the actual Award early this week and the builders are starting up again tomorrow. Even though I'm half anticipating an outcry from stroppy neighbour, thats it.

There is a skip and a 'men at work' sign outside our house...eek....dh has covered stair carpets in plastic dustsheets...we have given both sets of neighbours notes saying building about to start (we said we would). This is R E A L

I'mso, you really are moving on as well - makes me realize that even though this process feels like watching paint dry, its not that slow. I've only been awol a few days and look at all the action

Am not going to let dh see this thread, he might get man room ideas

oooh oooh ooooh your work has started elibean? OMG that;s so exciting!

Elibean - that is SO exciting we seem about a million miles away from having builders here.

I am telling all my friends that I am having a rota of visiting their houses every weekday once building starts to get out the house. I am just hoping that this new baby can sleep through anything as he is going to have to.

New babies are notoriously good at sleeping through anything aren't they. It will be good training with all those older sibings around anyway!

It IS exciting! They've already filled a skip

Yes, new babies likely to sleep through anythying...dd2 slept through the loft conversion we did in our last house, even though they were dropping steels over her head some days! I couldn't have done, but she did. We just asked the builders to stop for a cup of tea for ten minutes when getting her down for a nap, but once asleep that was fine. And she wasn't newborn, which is worse.

It did help that our builder was expecting a baby himself (well, his partner, obviously)

Oh gosh elibean, daily updates required.

Nothing happened here today. Apart from I am agonising over whether to have a sink in the utility (well agonising may be a bit strong!). What do you all think? I'm not sure what I would actually use it for - the utiity will be off teh kitchen and not attached to teh garden or a garage or anything like that.

So excit Elibean that its all started . Wish we could instruct the builder but dh needs a job. But he had another interview today, something has to come out of all these interviews. I want to get a skip and men at work sign!!!

Oh, if you can fit a sink in I'd definitely have one. You can handwash clothes (obviously, you do that all the time) and use it for rinsing out paintbrushes etc. Um, I just think it'd be one of those thngs that if you had it, you couldn't imagine how you managed without it.

Oh, and am very of Elibean

oh elibean that's briliant they've started. Definately agree we need daily updates, we can all pretend we're actually making progress on ours through your updates!
ISNT I agree with Said, a sink in the utility room would be seriously useful. You can use it for handwashing, and filling up vases of flowers (like I get lots of flowers, but still) and asking ordering getting the men (it usually is them) to wash their oily hands there and not over the clean pots and pans all sorts of stuff.

Thought we were making some progress last week with one of the potential builders, he'd included lots of things we didn't need so having taken that out his quote was looking much cheaper than the rest, and then he said he couldn't start till next year

ROFL I asked my mum and that's what she said too:

vases of flowers
hand washing clothes

I was a bit, ummmmm, OK...

I just don't know whetehr it will get used. Thing is you will have to go past the normal sink by some distance to get to the utility sink and I'm just not sure it's really going to be much use.

But everyone says that it will be invauabe

Will ponder some more...

Oh shit freezing about the builder just saw that sorry was getting carried away thinking about sinks

what are you going to do?

"ROFL I asked my mum and that's what she said too: vases of flowers, hand washing clothes"
Me, I'm feeling really young and hip now

Well builder said he'd have another look at his schedule and see if there was any chance he could start this year but it would be 3 months minimum. Bit annoying as we've been discussing with him for a while so just didn't expect this. We're waiting for the final quote, which should be coming in this week. We really like the final builders but somehow think their quote will be massive as they're a building company based in London, not your local builder type.
Think the only answer is to have a glass of wine or three

Oh that is such a shame freezing. I have my fingers crossed for your final quote.

I get the feeling that this additional sink is a lifestyle sink rather than a practicality Everything seems to be doubled up these days - two sinks in the bathroom, two in the kitchen, two ovens... where will it end?

Ah, you're all lovely getting excited with me

If it helps, we did a loft conversion nearly two years ago in order to make our house more sale-able, and it took till last September to sell it and move into our rental...so in a way, its been a long time coming! And tbh, still feels like a long time till we move in

But it IS happening. I haven't seen it yet, but dh has and he says they've poured concrete into the trenches (footings??) they've dug, already. Its quite scary, tbh, its so hard to believe all that mess is ever going to turn into our home - iyswim. I mean, if I broke our house that badly, I'd never be able to put it back together again - its just blind faith that they can

I'mso, re the sink, I won't have one and am already! I've no idea if I'd use one either, tbh, but it does sound useful...what would you do with the space if it wasn't a sink, btw?

Freezing, everything crossed for that last quote - hope its what you want to hear!

I have a new dilemma: our hugely annoying/weird neighbour seems to have accepted (well, she hasn't much option) that this is going ahead. Now she wants us to make the side of the extension wall facing her patio brick as opposed to render, so she can grow plants up it. Before you all howl with outrage, we did say to her - in the name of peace making - that if it helped to grow something up the side, or put light reflecting mirrors, we'd be happy to do that for her. Small concession, given how upset she's been.

If we can do brick without affecting the planning side of things, and paint it white so it matches the rest, I don't really mind...not much in it, costwise...but wouldn't a trellis on the side wall do the same job?! What d'you reckon? And, do any of you think the fact that the lawful development certificate says 'materials to match exisiting' (ie white rendered etc) means we can't change a bit of it to brick, even if we want to?

I think she can do the same with trellis. But make sure she doesn't put a boarder with the soil coming higher than 2 bricks below your damp proof course otherwise you could have damp problems (this is from bitter experience ).

Thanks, rebl. No danger of that, there's a fence in between....we're not building onto the party wall, just up to a few cms away from the fence.

dh has come home: he's fed up with her, and says we'll offer to rebuild her fence (after its come down to give us access to our new wall) higher, and/or with a high trellis on top of it. That way she can do what she likes without using our wall at all.

The really funny thing is, the people 2 doors down the other way have just put in a planning application for a HUGE extension (twice the depth of ours), so the neighbours on the other side of us - who tried to make us make ours smaller - are going to think ours is teeny in comparison

Wow I've been away for a few days and look at all the action! We went camping down south for a 4 days, first time away with the boys- it was great, apart from it being freezing (I should have borrowed your MN name FMAO) the first night but that was soon sorted with lots more layers. After borrowing so much for the house it will be camping for us for the next while!

ISNT re sinks, we decided not to have one in our utility room so we could have more space for wall units, storage etc. It will just be a small room and on one wall we will have washer and dryer, and the other wall some units plus DH's filing cabinet for his work. That only leaves room for some coats, the pram etc. The room is in the middle of the house too so we'd have to walk through the kitchen to get to it (ie just as easy to go to kitchen sink..). Things like washing paintbrushes etc, I just do that in the side sink IYKWIM.

Elibean EXCITING!!!!! What have the builders done up to now? Great that it's started, the thread is hotting up! Umm, and what is the difference between render and brick? Is the render the little stones that are on the house? (I am so ignorant of builder jargon!) Can't see why she would need to use your wall at all though if there is a fence there? Surely she'd be tresspassing or something? I think she is just trying to be a complete PITA!!!

Freezing what a pain about the builder not being able to start for ages. Do you think you will wait or go with someone else?

Not much news from me- came home to official planning permission letter so that's good. There is a surveyor coming this Friday to value the house for remortgage purposes and we are still waiting on SE to finalise his stuff so we can then get the building warrant. The builder said he was going to put everything in writing and put in post but nothing from him as yet. His joiner hasn't given us brochures for the french doors yet either- not sure what to think of that! If I didn't know they were good builders I'd start to get worried, hope this isn't a sign of them being disorganised!!! Do you think I should chase them up?

Oops sorry I left on another MN name there- it's Ilikeyoursleeves here!

Can I ask your opinion on something? I had used another MN name to post about our builder suggesting we pay a lot of the extension in cash to save VAT (but he does use some non VAT registered men too). I feel a bit dodgy doing this so wanted to see what others thought about it, the concensus seems to be don't do it! I am in a total dilemma though. We know the builders work (he did SIL's extension and it's great, plus just did a neighbours one and she said he is one of the best builders she has used (bar his previous joiner's finishing touches). He is also saying we could pay a bit of VAT if that makes us feel more covered, and the fact that we know him and where he lives, and the fact that we wouldn't pay anything up front makes me feel better, but I am still in a dilemma! He said he would put something in writing and sign it so is that OK? We are on a very tight budget so any savings would be great.

This feels like a confession as I feel a bit about all this, as it just doesn't sit right with me. But if we could save loads it would be great. That's why I name changed to post about it....

What do you all think? I need to read up on what happened to Pavlov and others too.

Hmmmm.

Our builder has made noises about vat savings too. I have never done anything like that in my life and always fill in my tax return v carefully etc etc. I know that my friends who are in the building trade etc just don't declare half their income though - for them this stuff is normal.

Obviously it's utterly immoral.

But

Isn't it the responsibility of the person charging the fees to add in vat? And if they don;t and then they don't declare it, that is their problem if they get caught IYSWIM. if someone charges you a fee and it's not got vat in it, how are yuo to know whether he's on the fiddle or whether he's simply not vat registered?

Our builder said we would get receipts for everything whichever way it was done.

But I still feel like it's bound to end in tears. Even though it's what everyone else does

i do hope this thread doesn't now turn into an AIBU with us all screaming at each other

Oh and thanks for the utility info. That is my feeling too. It will be a small room and I want to get as much storage as poss in there as well as a desk under the window.

I just don't see us walking past the sink in the kitchen to get to the one in the utility if I'm honest, we are both "path of least resistance" types.

going to think some more

Sleeves, you had me wondering who STovie was there....welcome back! Render is basically plastered breeze blocks. Bricks are, well, bricks. The little stone stuff (which isn't on the agenda for us) is pebbledash, I think!

Our builder is a pal, and we know him, and his work. I have to agree with everything you've both said - ie I've never avoided my own taxes, and I'd be very wary of doing anything cutting corners of any sort with an unknown person doing any job for me...but it IS their responsibility, not yours. Also, its a fact that in the building trade, its sort of understood that that happens - an awful lot of the time. So we are in the same boat

Re the sink, if you need storage, I'd agree - stuff the sink, go for cupboards! We have a teeny space really, so its a no-brainer. Washing machine, cupboards, thats it. And side door. Can relate to line of least resistance people, oh yes, me too....!

Which brings me on to the neighbour once again...hopefully for the last time...dh went to see her, and she is being much more reasonable (having had a letter from the council telling her she has no grounds to object to any of it: think she needed to hear it from an authority figure). She doesn't want to grow plants up our wall, it turns out, but wants brick because it can be built without pulling her fence down - and she has spent years growing something up it, which would possibly be damaged/killed. So we've asked Planning to tell us if its a problem changing materials on the end wall as per neighbour's request, and if its not, we'll do it. Not red brick, just mellow grey/yellowish, and can't be seen from our garden anyway.

And then she has 'won' something and will be happier as our neighbour, which would be good. Phew. What a saga

Oops, forgot daily report! Breeze blocks delivered today, and Magnet delivered doors for back of extension. Am at how expensive glass doors are, but hey ho!

And the cement is nice and set