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?

Congratulations SweetKitty and welcome to world Jacob

So happy for you all

Imsonotelling - you won't want to know that the last one was 1h35m from waters to baby with 30m of contractions so 3 hours was long for me!

Just having one small baby has really shown the house is at bursting point I have nowhere to out anything. Even one small room would be great just now.

OMG sweetkitty you are swift!

Hope you are recovering well from it. New baby lovely

Congratulations sweetkitty!!! Awww what a lovely name too, enjoy these early ickle baby days as much as you can despite feeling squashed at home. I utterly adore newborns, DS2 is now nearly 10 months old so those days are long gone!

FMAO Mauritius WOW

We got our bill in for the structural engineer this morning so hopeully that means our building warrant will soon be through. Not that it really matters anyway since we aren't starting work til July...

OMG, just spoke to our preferred builders, and they can start on 14th June if we want!!!

Yeay, congratulations Sweetkitty! Welcome, Jacob...love the name...and very impressive, fast arrival (by normal standards ). Parents, eh - 10ft the other way

FMAO, how exciting! I hear your dilemma about moving out; fwiw I would do the same, hold out as long as poss then maybe go to parents for the worst of the build time. I think a couple of months, if you have fast builders, probably is realistic? I can't remember exactly what your'e doing, but certainly with a one storey rear extension (34' across) the kitchen is due to be fitted just within 8 weeks from the start of building work. Maybe 3 months, if things go slowly? Would you cope with 3 at your parents, d'you think? At least it will be summer, so travelling maybe better, and easier to get out and have space from time to time?

Itching to go and peek at progress, but flat out here yesterday and today...dh is there now and says its taking shape under his eyes. Builder says he'll lay the patio for us, too - so now have to choose some flagstones

Ooooo FMAO are you going to go with that date then? It's going to be a busy summer on this thread!

FWIW I'd probably move out if I could during the work, so if you think you could bear it at your parents then go for it. We are staying put though, hoping it won't be too bad until the breaking through bit (????!!!!).

Hopefully we will go with that date, but won't commit until they've answered a few more questions, just waiting to hear what they say.

Thanks ladies

I am already dreading the building work I mean 4 young children and they will be ripping my house to shreds!!! At least they won't be touching the big girls room, DD3 will go in with them I think.

Does anyone have the heeby-jeebies about vat?

I saw someone on the news saying they might put it up as high as 25%. The emergency budget is in the next 50 days i think.

We have the stuff through from the sols about the mortgage, we just need to sign and do it. But I'm worried that we will get the money, vat will go up to 25%, and then if we decide to put it off we'll have all this spare money sitting in the bank on less interest than we're paying.

I don't know what to do

We've decided to go for it with our preferred builders so it's all go.
Got a meeting with them next week to sort out the contract details, I can hardly believe it.

ISNT, we're also rather nervous about the VAT, so we're just trying to get on with it asap. I assume once a contract is signed then any changes to VAT after that will not apply.
It's going to cripple any type of spending if it's going up to 25% surely?

ISNT yes I am with you on the heeby-jeebies front about VAT. I asked DH if he thinks we could do a deal with the builder to keep it at 17.5% at the point of signing the contract but he doubts it since they would have to buy the materials at the new rate and then they would be shafted.

I saw on the news last night some financial person predicting it will rise to 20% in Jan 2011 so I am praying that's the case, I doubt they could make it rise to 25% in one go? However, DH is an accountant and he said they can do anything they want in the emergency budget. I don't know anything about economics but surely if it goes up to 25% then noone will be spending anything and that will affect the economy dramatically...? ie, in a bad way?

And ISNT you'd prob be best to just go ahead with the mortgage as even if VAT does rise, it's going to stay there for a while so would you want to be waiting years to do the house to see if the rate goes down again?

Just did a quick Google there and it seems there is a predicted VAT rise to 20% by 2011. So no idea what that means in terms of when it will rise but it's pretty likely it is going to go up so probably the sooner we all get these extensions done the better!

aRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH

we have said we want the mortgage to complete 5 july

so if anything major happens between now and then we can still cancel

really don't want to have to stop it

only other thing to do is start buyhing the materials and things now and stuffing then in the garden

DH said there's no way VAT can get up to 25%, it's not allowed to get that high apparantly. He also thinks it might increase gradually by 1% points over a period of time.

Oh phew well that's alright then!

What is the cap on vat, does he know? i am a worse case scenario type person and it will help with my sums.

He said there used to be some European rule on VAT caps but he isn't sure what it is now, he's pretty certain it won't go to 25% anyway. I think if you do your extension this year you will be fine (well, you'd better be seeing as I'm in the same boat!!!).

I'd do your sums allowing for 20% worst case scenario as that's the figure being banded about on the news. But I think (hope) that won't come in til at least the end of the year by which point we will be sitting in our lovely new houses with no VAT worries

PS I also saw an economist on TV tonight saying that a huge VAT rise could really risk a double dip recession so they are very unlikely to do this. I hope.

Thanks sleeves and sleeves DH

My prob is I am extremely risk averse and so not knowing stresses me out.

Quick update from me. The builder has agreed the veluxes don't look right, and is going to speak to the roofer. The stairs to the loft room are in!! They look fab, and the mess was minimal. Iwas expecting to come home to a dust cloud, but the builders have been really good hoovering before, during and after. Just off to collect DD from school, will try and post pics later!

Great news Vonny! Glad your builder could see they weren't right, that's good that you noticed in the first place!

Would love to see some pics if you have a mo

We got a confirmation letter from the builder today re starting mid July so not too long really. So we are definately doing it now!

OMG, want to see the kitchen man tonight and handed over a huge deposit cheque! We're on! He had received our amended quote from the builder who is going to start work on 24 May - that's Monday week! OMG, OMG! I can't believe after all the talking we're finally there!

We reduced the kitchen quote as much as we could, we are no longer having an integrated fridge/freezer but buying a stainless steel one from Comet or somewhere, we have taken out the cooker and combination microwave as we have perfectly functioning ones from Neff already and will replace them next year, if necessary. After various other shuffling we finally reached a figure we could all live with and we've signed on the dotted line. We also managed to reduce the builder's quote a bit and he is now doing the floor tiling and underfloor heating as well so we have only two figures to deal with and less unknowns. We will still end up with a lovely oak and granite kitchen with all the cupboard space we need.

I am a mixture of excited and terrified!

Great news annh, I take it you are still extending then and not getting a garden room now? Wow 24th May isn't long at all! How long do you think the work will last?

No, garden room is off the agenda, for now at least. We really liked the look of it though so we might revisit it later on. Works are supposed to take 10 weeks, until 6 Aug and then the kitchen fitters arrive after that. That unfortunately means almost the whole summer hols will be taken up with building and no kitchen. We have also made tentative arrangements to go on holiday to the South of France for the last two weeks of the build, not sure that should happen now (it's a family house so we have some time to make a decision) but the builder seems to think it would be a good time to be away while we have no kitchen and they are working indoors. We shall see!

annh, congrats on getting it all ready to take-off!! Builders love having owners away while they work, ours tell us they can work much faster without us there

VAT....yes, worrying. I have to admit I'm relieved to have got payments underway, but also have got somewhat used to unknowns. I think I'm just good at blanking them till they become realities (dh would agree, especially financial ones!).

Vonny, am so glad your builder is being sensible - they sound good, especially given the hoovering! I took the dds out for a night when our stairs went in (last house) expecting masses of dust, and one of them has asthma: it really wasn't too bad, they sealed the rooms off brilliantly and we were back to normal quite fast. How exciting to be that close to your new space...

The back is totally off our house, the walls are pretty much built around new extension, and next week they will start roofing - amazing how fast this bit seems to go. Then we have plastering, plumbers, floors, endless other stuff, and finally (ish) the kitchen....I still do'nt really believe we're ever going to move in, but its definitely progressing!