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?

Around here you have to be 1m from the boundary at 2nd floor level, not sure about 1st.

I do think it varied between boroughs, and then the person at the council who looks at it has additional authority.

Have a look on your council website they will have the rules set out on there (well ours does anyway).

Who is doing your plans? If it's a local builder/architect etc they will be well aware of the rules in your area.

Hi all, just checking in. Our mortgage completes this week and we should get the cash in la bank next week . Its going to take a helluva lot of willpower not to touch a penny of it til the building work starts!

And the builder is coming over on Wed with his spark to check out the electrical stuff that needs moved and to measure the doors etc.

How are you all doing? sweetkitty any further forward with the neighbours?

ILYS - fab news when is the big day then?

No more news here DP spoke to the architect today and told him about the neighbours, he phoned the council who said there has been one letter of complaint about lack of light so far. I think the next step is the council come out and do some sort of light evaulation test. We will block out some sunlight to the neighbours garden but only until about 3pm when their garden gets no light anyway. They were saying last week it was more about feeling closed in

The architect seems really clued up and it was he who came up with the 500mm thing.

Just checking in as well. We are now in week 4, the floor beams are now in place and the walls are half-way up. I have the rest of this week and next week to clear the kitchen and dining room, that's when they break through and the hell starts! I am so not looking forward to it. I will be using the garage as a kitchen but will still have to go through the old kitchen to get to it which is not going to help the dust in the rest of the house. I also just realised that until the windows come and veluxes are in, which is not for several more weeks, the windows will be covered with ply wood so the area will be completely dark - yuck! Definitely time to remind myself how it will all be worth it in the end!

Hey everyone

sleeves good news on the mortgage, be strong on the spending - I know I'd struggle!

sweetkitty that's great that you feel happy about your architect - it really helps. Hope it all works out okay in the end

annh and brightwell I like hearing about your progress - it gives me hope that it will okay for the rest of us.

Our building drawings were submitted last week, and architect reassures me it won't be a problem if they don't respond before the build starts but builders are a bit concerned about it.
I'm making a big list of everything we need to decide on such as doors, door furniture, light switches so am hoping I won't forget anything, even though some of the decisions will be much later down the road.
Got the in-laws here tomorrow to help take all our garden rubbish to the tip to make space for the builders.

Hi to everyone else - hope things are progressing for you too

Things seem to have slowed down here, the struts for the roof are in place, with the supports for the 3 velux windows. Builders are now finishing block & brick work for the gable ends. They're planning to get the roof on this week & start knocking through next week.

Is anyone on here having wooden doors from your room which backs onto the garden? If so, where have you looked for for them? Any recommendations? And are they very very £££ compared to upvc?

FMAO can I have a nosy at your list? We should be thinking about all that stuff too seeing as the work starts in a months time but I have done nowt about it! I picked up a few brochures from Homebase today and that's as far as I've got.

I'll ask the builder tomorrow how much we should be planning at this stage as the fine details like door knobs etc seem forever away!

And I am quite sad cos I am planning on getting an iphone next week and I have found lots of apps for planning a room, budgeting, Ikea catalogue etc and I am well excited.

annh & brightwell must be exciting for you to be in mid extension action but bet you were wishing it was all finished too.

said we are having upvc french doors (I think) so can't help you there...

Am so of anyone mid extension or choosing things for new rooms seems like forever for us right now.

My current obsession is watching the light in the neighbours garden, so I reckon it is East facing so in the morning they have loads of light, by around midday I can see they have a point in that the extension will block light into about half their garden but by about 3pm their own house is blocking the light anyway. So I don't know about the light objection.

The other one is that we will be too close to their house even though we are building within premitted limits, if their house was like ours and drive to drive it would be fine but their house is a different kind to ours and has been built close to ours, is that a good enough reason for the council to say no? Someone said unless you own the land around your house as well you cannot object to it being built on.

Checking in, been a while. Hope that everyone is extending as expected . With DH finally getting a job we've been able to start getting the extension of the back burner. We've hit a rather large snag though, money. Because DH has been out of work the mortgage company won't extend our borrowing for at least 6 months (the probation period that dh has). But the builder has been fab and rang yesterday with a new estimate for doing half of the extension (kitchen and family room) and he can do it for all the cash we have so we don't have to borrow . So its all systems go I hope. Just got to confirm starting dates. I'm quite excited but also very nervous, particuarly on the knocking down the outside wall bit!!!

Gosh exciting news rebl

sweetkitty yor architect will know the rules and everything so sure you will be fine.

sleeves iphone on top of extension? you might expode with excitement it's all too much!

Now I have a question for you all, I want your help.

We have had the buildings regs drawings, they have gone to the council, and we have copies to get quotes (WOOHOOOOO!)

Now we have the bloke who has done others on teh road, he is very nice, seems efficient, teh houses he's done haven't fallen down and the people who used him say he was fine. We also know he is quite cheap. And teh architect has spoken to him a few times, he has been v proactive phoning him to explain about various things to do with these houses. We have given him the plans for a proper quote.

We have previously asked some other people for quotes - none of them have seemed very interested. 2 never bothered coming back to us, the other 2 just did a £psm estimate and anyway I didn't like them.

We have no other recommendations and a huge pile of leaflets we;ve had through teh post.

now The question

Should we get some other quotes, just sort of for the sake of "doing it properly", when we know that we are going to go with the bloke from down the road.

or should we save ourselves the stress of copying all teh plans and getting loads of other people round, and waiting and not hearing and then getting a cheaper quote and "ooh what should we do" and all of that malarkey?

So other quotes, yes or no?

What do you all think?

Hmmmm ISNT we were in the exact same position a while back. Remember our first builder who we were 'definately' going to go with because he built SIL's extension and it was fine? And the neighbour up the road also said he was great? Remember he turned into our utter nightmare of a thank-god-we-found-out-how-crap-he-really-is-before-we-hired-him builder?

From lots of snooping and going back to get an update from the neighbour we decided he was pretty rubbish (SIl had her extension done years ago and this builder only did the brickwork, which is his main trade anyway). We had got one more quote at the time from a company that my mate is currently using and it turns out that's who our new builder is anyway so I am very glad we originally got that quote, even though we had always intended on going with the (crappy) builder. So IMO I'd get a few quotes anyway. They are also good to compare prices and to haggle a few things if another builder is cheaper.

Our architect gave us 3 copies of the plans to send out for tender, could you do that so you aren't copying them all yourself? You've nowt to lose anyway I reckon.

rebl great news that you are about to start soon too, yippeeee!

Our builder was round today and measured up for our French Doors. We decided to get them opening outwards, he said he reckons that's best too. I also had to send a cheque for £400 to the elec people today to bloody move the meter- what a rip off! They won't tell me when they can actually move it until we pay but our building work can't start until it's moved- argh! They wouldn't even tell me if we'd need to wait weeks or months, better not be months anyway.

Builder also said he can temporarily replumb our washing machine under the stairs so that's fab as I do at least a wash a day!

Oh and finally, ££££££££££££££££ coming our way tomorrow ooooooo! You all need to remind me not to spend it on nice things and keep it for the build!

OMG, its getting v exciting on here

RL is far too busy, I don't have enough time to keep up! But while I remember all I've read, ISNT I probably wouldn't, tbh, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't. If that makes any sense at all

Hurrah for movings on of all sorts, Sweetkitty it seems like yesterday I was staring at the light in the neighbour's garden (trust yourself, if you think it doens't get sun till 3pm it probably doesn't!) and although its hugely frustrating, tis a necessary step forwards. Easy to say from the other side, I know. Apparently all neighbours worry about light, and the truth is extensions hardly ever, ever affect the light!

We are up to our ears in fast decisions, occasional snags (flooring company in yesterday and turned out the builders had 'levelled' the concrete floor with some latex, making it bulgy in wrong place, and had to spend 3 hours chipping it off again - and one of our French doors is the wrong sort, has to be re-ordered), and I'm getting curtains for the bedrooms made and measuring sofas for recovering etc. Its lovely not living in the building site, I'm hugely grateful for that - but I suddenly realized I had a whole house move to manage in a few weeks' time, not just the extension

Chimney sweeps and shelves and downstairs loo basin and god knows what: its a whirlwind, isn't it?!

I must post some pictures...

ps whoever asked about wooden doors (ISNT?) yes, they are expensive, but we decided to invest in some. They cost a few thousand and fold back. You'd think, at that price, they'd have checked they'd stuck the right ones in the packages before delivery, wouldn't you

We are experiencing floor grief now.

We had decided on some light wood type amtico.

We have totally changed our minds and are thinking of going dark, and still amtico (easy to look after and good with underfloor heating) but which one? We are wandering around the house endessly looking at samples in different lights. it's got silly.

If we haven't managed to choose flooring in, what, 5 months? Then how on earth are we going to do the rest of it?!!

Thanks sleeves and eli for your votes, one each way, that's a great help

Ah, you should ignore mine, ISNT...I'm lazy

And we know our builder well, and he's built for us before. Never hurts to have quotes.

I've gone the other way now with choices: carpenter asked us to choose a paint colour for the shelving unit in one room, and I looked online and then asked him to choose the 'most cream-like' out of two whites

Quick update from me. Our main builder has been off the job for a couple of weeks, due to getting his foot crushed by the hydraulics on a skip lorry. He's had two ops so far, and may need to have more. He's a lovely guy so we were really sad to hear about his accident. The side extension is up . Roof is on, veluxes in place. The loft is finished, paint on the walls and everything! The boiler has been moved into the (new!) utility room. The dust and dirt is horrendous, DH keeps muttering about eggs and omlettes when I moan about it. Chimney breast coming down tomorrow, so much more dust, soot and general yukkyness heading our way. The budget is holding up pretty well, so far.

My roof is on, the velux windows are in. Builder is off to Ascot tomorrow...lucky so & so. Knocking through starts next week, builder assures me "it's just a bit of dust"! It's all starting to feel very real now. vonnyh...I keep saying the eggs & omelettes thing, looking forward to the paint on walls stage. I've started glancing at the Dulux site. And I've not even started thinking about curtains.

OMG how exciting! Vonny and brightwell - blimey!

Vonny is it liveable? We are going to be staying here and I'm bricking it

I'm going to go through teh leaflets from builders tonight, find a couple who are in that master craftsman thingy, and check they aren't making it up, and get a couple more quotes.

sleeves our architect gave us 2 copies, I want to keep one for us though as I'm worried about not getting them back (paranoid)!

Just remembered a recommendation we had for a builder from months ago and it was still in my wallet!

Have emailed them

Eggs and omelettes? Am I missing something?

Great news vonny & brightwell that your builds have progressed so much.

I am getting a little nervous here that we haven't even started to think of anything like floors, doors, windows etc and the build is starting in a months time...

You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs!

ah ok!

Thought that you were all saying that omelettes were the easiest thing to cook amidst the chaos and dust.

Ahem

There's a thought...omelette's will be easy to cook when the kitchen's torn to pieces...I could use my camping stove....or move in with my Dad.

Wow, it's suddenly got rather busy in here!

sleeves yes you can look at my list but I haven't actually done it yet Will be a few weeks before I get round to it since we're away next week.

ISNT I would go for a couple more quotes, just to double check prices and availability etc. Especially if they haven't done work for you before.

Sounds like it's very busy and dusty for everyone else, it will be over before you know it (or at least that what I keep telling myself)

Hello peeps This isn't extension related but on Monday we are getting cavity wall insulation skooshed into the walls and then a few weeks after that we are getting our loft insulation topped up with another 30cm or so. It's some government scheme I think and all the loft insulation is free and it's only going to cost us £130 ish to get the cavity walls done! Apparantly it can save you £150-£200 in heating bills a year so we will get our money back after a year. Last winters bills were so hopefully it will make a big difference. The builder said the extension part of the house will be far toastier than the original house too.

Have a good weekend esp all those knee deep in dust!