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?

Lordy me, FMAO, diocese and county council, doesn't get much more red-tape-y than that, I suppose...bit that they're being so uppity about skips and deliveries, though, sounds downright unreasonable! I have to say, reading your first paragraph I was thinking 'is this woman me a few months ago?!?' because I have probably typed every word of it right here on MN. Hang in there, I promise you its the dark before the dawn.

Horton, I wonder if we have the same builders?!

Elibean, that would be really funny! Ours are Simply Extend in SW London if anyone's looking for some really nice people who actually seem to care. I couldn't possibly recommend them highly enough.

FMAO no deliveries between 9 & 4pm? How utterly unreasonable! Some people just make a hobby out of being awkward I think. Hope you get the party wall sorted quickly and things start going smoothly for you.

I came home today to our trench all filled in again with a big pipe in place ready for the electricity board to move the mains tomorrow. If the mains move goes well then they will move the fusebox tomorrow too, hopefully it will all go OK and we won't be without power for too long, although it might run into Thursday if it's complicated.

We finally got our contract today too, a bit last minute but it all seems fine. Phew!

So next week we will need to clear all the areas that are being demolished then the fun will begin on the 26th

FMAO No deliveries between 9am and 4pm, seriously . Sounds like a nightmare.

sleeves Hope that moving the mains has gone ok. Assuming we won't be seeing you here again until its all working again.

I've just sorted out our buildings and contents insurance. Slight problem with house not being secure so needing to get an external door temporiarlly fitted to a current internal door. Meant to be packing the house up for storage but not getting far, finding it far to boring!

the joys of mobile internet! The spark is currently working away downstairs moving the fuse box, he has had to rip up some floor boards though but luckily its in the bit of the house that's getting demolished anyway. Think the mains has been moved now cos the guys have left who were doing that.

Rebl, do I need to call our house insurer then? Forgot all about that!

Horton, will remember that and pass it on to others looking for builders! No, not same ones, ours are in fact an individual and his mate, who usually work for a loft/extension company but who are doing a private job for us - he's the partner of an old friend, and its beginning to look (from talking to others) as if he's probably under charged us! dh is going to add a bonus at the very end, for him to share with his team. He's honest and not greedy, and we dont' want him selling himself short!

Sleeves, good to know you're still internet-able

We have the sparks today as well, fitting overhead lights in extension - which came with wrong colour screws but are otherwise lovely. Can't wait for tomorrow and kitchen starting!

That's the spark away now but coming back tomorrow to finish off this bit. We now have a new fuse box in a different cupboard and the power is back on downstairs at least, and our electricity meter is up and running outside on the other side of the house hooray!

It was quite good actually as I spent the entire morn and afternoon playing with the boys, couldn't get our as it was raining and I didn't want to leave the sparky on his own. Just as well really as he nearly put wires up the wall that is being demolished!

sleeves - Yes you need to inform both buildings and contents insurers. Contents because the builders have easy access and others also have easy access whilst the builders are there. Buildings because of something or other, can't remember why. Not costing us anything extra or anything.

Ah, well do pass it on, Elibean, if you know anyone who's interested. They are lovely. We are also planning to put in a bonus to be shared between the labourers at the end as they have been so amazingly good - well, so far, anyway!

I also like the way they've been offering us decorating tips (I don't agree with any of them so far but I like it that they seem to care about the end result).

Its all starting here. Removal men have been and taken most of our downstairs stuff to storage today. The conservatory is now without power and will be coming down tomorrow. Monday the demolishing begins.

Glad you sorted the leccie Rebl- I am still wondering how on earth you managed to sell a conservatory on ebay! How do you transport it? And take it down?!

sleeves I took a photo of it and put it on ebay at 99p (buy it now £600) and said that buyer was responsible for dismantling and removal from site. They arrived at 8:30 this morning and are just putting the final bits in the van. We're just left with the concrete base. Fantastic deal for us and them. They get a 2.5yr old conservatory for £600 (new would have been around £3500) and a days work. I get £600 for someone to come and take the thing down and away! Had the builders taken it down and disposed of it I would have had to pay £100 disposal costs and a days work as well.

So conservatory down and everything in storage. Just got to move washing machine and tumble drier into living room and kitchen tomorrow and move the kids trampoline somewhere else in the garden and we're all ready for Monday.

Well done rebl, result
And good luck on Monday! Very exciting.

Our kitchen fitter is working away still...most of next week, he reckons. Its starting to look like a kitchen, most of the carcasses are in (and an amazing thing called a magic corner unit, had lots of fun standing there mesmerized pulling drawers in and out!).

Will do, Horton.

Just a quick one from me, we got planning permission yesterday quite funny reading the neighbours objection letter online, some of their points were totally objected by the council and most of the letter looked like a moan as they were moaning about the houses to the back of us that were built some time after our houses and are on higher ground and look down on us. Their main point of us building too close to their house was dismissed as the council said there were several other extensions on the estate already and our extension although large was in keeping with the cul de sac and would not be obtrusive. They also said light was fine and we were not overlooking anyone.

Now a bit scared as my Dad who is a plumber was up yesterday going on about moving boilers/dust/mess/amount of work and we would be better all moving out! Erm thanks Dad.

Oh wanted to ask you guys a kind of personal question re finance. We don't have enough equity in our house just now to borrow against it for the extension. The cost of the extension is going to come from selling another house and maybe 10-20K on top if needed. Obviously the other house might not sell for a while and we are desperate to crack on with the extension. Can we get a loan for the extension just now with the view to paying it off once it is completed? DP contacted the bank we have the mortgage with and they said no once the extension is built obviously it will significantly increase the value of the house and our LTV will be a lot lower. I always thought you could borrow for home improvements on the assumption of the improved value of your house at the end, does that make any sense?

Sometimes I think we would be better just moving house and are being a bit crazy and greedy wanting this extension!

Well done Sweetkitty! Bet your are glad to now have PP, sounds like your neighbours are just being moany indeed.

RE finance, I don't know if you can get a loan just now to pay for the extension. I imagine you might have to borrow quite a lot to extend, and despite being able to pay it back once you sell the other property, the banks might not like that as nothing is guaranteed to work out in their opinion IYSWIM. Are you in a position to remortgage with someone else and get equity that way? We ended up remortgaging but it was a total PITA and took quite a while to get through all the paperwork.

Why don't you call a mortgage broker for advice? I went via London and Country mortgages (phone number on moneysavingexpert) and they were fantastic, gave excellent advice and found us a great deal.

Rebl good luck for tomorrow, bet you are well excited!!! I am and I'm only a week behind you! Will you still be able to use your washing machine if it's in the living room?

News from me- did a car boot sale today to get rid of all the junk I have cleared for the extension and I made £125!!! And all the electrics are gone in the bit of the house that is being demolished, it was weird cos yesterday I went to ring the doorbell with DS1 (he has a thing for doorbells) and it was gone! The wiring is apparantly wired all weird so although we have power downstairs (only in the sockets), we won't have any power upstairs until the frame of the extension is up ie months! So we have a huge extension cable running upstairs, does the trick!

Hope all other projects are coming along nicely!

Sleeves Thats a good amount made. Sounds like your electrics are fun!

Been all go here since 8am this morning. Toilet delivered, then electrician came. Builders started with jack hammer at 9 taking the concrete roof off the outhouse. Noise was totally unbearable so called a friend to go round there. Just leaving the house and there was this almighty crash from the kitchen. I go running in, kitchen ceiling had fallen in and water was pouring in from above, like Niagra falls in my kitchen. Couldn't understand how what the builders were doing could even risk that happening. My ds who has already in his wisdom shoved 3 toilet rolls down the toilet and flooded the bathroom once in the last month decided that it would be a good idea to put the plug in the sink in the bathroom and turn both taps on and leave them running . Must have been running like that for 30mins or so. What with everything going on this morning I hadn't realised that he had even gone into the bathroom. The kitchen ceiling could clearly take no more water damange. So the most destructive and difficult mess to cope with hasn't been produced by the builders but by my son. I can't wait for him to start school. He can flood their bathrooms instead of mine.

OMG rebl started reading it an thought your builders had caused your ceiling to collapse but then saw it was your DS

ilikeyoursleeves - thanks for the advice, we don't have enough equity in the house full stop so it looks like we will have to wait on other house selling, could be a while

elibean - I have a thing for erm drawers too and cupboards. The kitchen we have just now is ribbush, drawers are tiny, cupboards not much better, zero storage. A new kitchen is v exciting.

freezing - sounds like a nightmare with the no deliveries/skip issues.

One if our neighbours objections was that we had informed them we would need to take down part of their fence for the scaffolding, we said we would replace it as before probably better as we had planned to fill in the gaps between the slats to give them more privacy. They also said they have a number of trees along that side that they have spent years tending erm that's one tree then, unfortunately it's roots have come through and are under where we will be building but thats not our fault. Currently their well tended garden is knee high in thistles and clover!

Well my 1st day of the extension and I've totally lost my calm exterior and I'm a frazzled mess who has no useable kitchen, no washing machine and a flood damaged bathroom. I'm not a happy bunny and its not even the builders fault. Honestly, of all the days to do it. But half the outbuilding is off. I've been promised a working washing machine by tomorrow evening and a working kitchen. We're on microwave meal tonight. Thank goodness I've made and frozen loads of meals.

It can only get easier, can't it, if I can control my child .

Oh. My. God. Rebl!!!

Nightmare! Can't believe that has happened to you, but on the plus side (if there is one) at least the builders are already there to fix your ceiling and bathroom. Get carry out food for a few days if that helps things. Hope it all gets sorted soon and things get better from here on in.

I am just back from telling our neighbours on the other side of us that we are starting the extension next Monday. I have never met them despie living here for nearly 3 years. Well, we met the man once when he needed into our garden to chop his trees down but I have never met the woman. They are on a different street (a cul de sac) while we are on the main street so we never really see them as their driveway is on another street. They were totally fine with the extension though and said they think it will look fab once it's done. Seemed like a lovely couple too, and appreciated me going round there. So that's all the surrounding neighbours now told and they are all on board, phew.

Hi guys- sorry can I crash your thread.....I started another one about my mid build blues......just wanted to answer sweetkitty query re finance....we bought our house and it was a lot cheaper than we could actually afford but knew we wanted to do the build.

We too asked our lender if we could get a top up loan for the build on the projected value rather than the actual value as the actual value is pretty low but the potential value will be better. We were told no too. But the only thing is that we lived in the house 18 months before we needed to get the increase. When we got the valuer out he valued it at £25k more than we paid for it so we actually landed up getting more than we thought we could. The only thing is that when you make your application they ask you what you think it's worth and you do the LTV on that figure - the paperwork was all sorted and then they came back with the higher figure and we then had to re-do the paperwork to get the higher amount.....daft really.

If there is a chance that your value is higher it doesn't cost anything to go through the process until you accept the offer and get the money....

There are development type loan companies I think who will lend on the basis of a projected value but they would need a second charge over your property and that gets all a bit messy.....sorry not sure if I've helped or hindered.

We're doing up a 70's house with a back and side extension with one of those lounge kitchen diner open plans at the back and creating two new bedrooms. We've moved out - after reading threads on here with people saying that they wished they had we decided to stretch ourselves and move. We've maintained good relations with the builder so far so we'll see. Just having that "halfway" build blues at the moment - so near yet soooo far !

hi herbgarden, welcome to the thread and hope your build continues to go well. Sounds like you made a good decision moving out, we are staying put and it all starts next week, eek!

Rebl, how did you get on today?

Sleeves We left the house yesterday at 9 and got home at 6:30 after spending the day with a very kind friend who even feed the kids for me. Was our wedding anniversary yesterday so dh and I went out for dinner .

Been a problem with the skip company of all things so things have ground to a complete halt but new skip company coming today apparently and they're going to be swapping skips over every day at 7:30 from now on so hopefully no more delays on that front.

About to leave the house again now as jack hammer on roof about to start again.

Welcome Herbgarden

Rebl, ye gods! This is one you will be able to laugh/tease ds about in years to come, at least...but you really are in the thick of it, aren't you? Hang in, its all going to start coming together instead of apart soon!

Its dh's birthday today, the Head's leaving party day at dd's school, and we have plumber, electrician, kitchen fitter all at the house in full action mode doing the fiddly bits.

Proof that its real and will be finished one day: I ordered a sofa today

Nice to hear how everyone is doing! Elibran, I know what you mean about ordering things making it seem more real, we ordered our fridge-freezer at the weekend and are looking at TVs for the kitchen now and it is really cheering me up in the middle of the chaos.

Our extension is now completely up and roofed. The window, door and French windows went in about a week ago. Half the floor is laid, other half waiting for some different kind of tubing for the underfloor heating In that half. The builders are mostly plastering and working around the plumber and electrician. Officially two more weeks of building left but the builder has admitted they are running about three days behind. However, the kitchen will still go in as planned as they will be finishing up outside by then. The novelty of trying to cook in the garage with a horrid little brown plastic sink and about 2 feet of work surface is wearing thin but thank heavens for good weather and bbqs!