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?

Good luck, ISNT

So we have mentioned Howdens & Wickes catalogues... any other ones that are good for things like doors, floors, decking, taps, bathrooms etc?

we have got samples of green glass splashbacks!

Obviously we are both bang on trend

Going to order howdens catalogue, wickes is on its way...

Re flooring we are going to have the cheaper amtico line which is called spacia. it is like posh vinyl type stuff so not everyone's cup of tea but my mum has it and she is a great advocate. i think with 2 small children and I'm a bit lazy the easier / less stainable the better.

I am well aware that a lot of peope are that we are having a plasticy floor though!

Anyone looked at the rubber floors? They are really quite a statement!

Is it the howdens kitchen catalogue that has all teh doors in the back?

Hello all, Elibean delighted you are almost there with the party wall thing, hang on in there! I lurk on here from time to time as have just finished renovating our house last year....

Re Ikea - we did a side return extension on our kitchen last year and our designer and builder recommended Ikea units with more expensive worktops, taps, appliances etc. Apparently they can be more difficult to fit but our builders were really experienced with them and we had no problems. In the end chose the white gloss doors (Abstraakt I think)? and have lovely granite worktops now, smeg range etc. It looks brilliant! And a fraction of what we would have paid elsewhere. I love the functionality of the Ikea kitchens, we have pull out larders and big deep drawers now for out plates, vegetable drawers etc. I still can't believe it's my beautiful kitchen!

We have been thinking the grey gloss doors and then putting some corian or granite on top - sounds like we might be on the right lines.

There's such a lot to think about isn't there...

tinasan it sounds fab

Thanks, Tinasan

Good to see us all talking the fun stuff, makes a nice change from quotes and dust and contracts, eh?!

ISNT, oh yes, absolutely Sounds like you had a good time, do you feel less overwhelmed now you're getting stuck in to decisions?

I love rubber floors, and tbh with small children think Amtico is brilliant. I would probably do the same, if we hadn't bought a house with wood floors already in place throughout the ground floor....makes sense to continue into the extension. The only floor I'm defo changing is an upstairs bathroom one, which is goose-poo coloured, very cold, large floor (and wall) tiles which are freezing underfoot and slippery when wet....going to take those out and put bamboo in instead.

ps your kitchen sounds wonderful, Tinasan...am a nice shade of glass splashback at the thought of it being all finished

Phew just got back and competely changed our minds about the kitchen. There is a wood one that I loved last time but DH wasn't sure, then we went and looked at alno, john lewis, poggenpohl etc etc and got carried away with the idea of grey gloss. BUT just been back and we both agreed on the wood one.

Which throws our flooring idea out - I think we are going to have to have one of those with two different types of flooring to demarcate the kitchen as the spacia we chose (wood effect) will not go.

So back to the drawing board!

Was good though and the kids were OK, only mildly stressful. Was really busy considering it's a friday~!

Tinasan very much like the idea of using IKEA cabinets but different work tops etc. I hadn't even thought of that, so guess there's much more kitchen planning to be done

sleeves and everyone else, will let you know about other catalogues as I find out about them (and keep an eye out here for other suggestions too)

elibean good news about the party wall, at least somethings happening

I'm getting a bit frustrated, we're waiting to hear from 2 more builders on quotes, and I've chased them a bit but don't want to bombard them with emails either. We're really keen to get going because at this rate, we won't be started by Christams, let alone finished

Hiya all. Our builder came over this morning with his joiner to discuss his quote in more detail although he is the type of guy who would write you a quote on the back of a fag packet LOL. He seems pretty laid back and had a laugh when he saw my list but said they were all good qu's to ask. He comes highly recommended by various people I've spoken to so I'm not worried about his non-businessy attitude, though I've asked him to put everything we discussed in writing so we have a contract.

He agreed to throw in a velux window for free so that's fab. He is also going to save us a lot of VAT as some blokes he uses aren't VAT registered hooray! He said he can start mid May (OMG next month!) and we have to contact him once our PP & BW come through which should be by end April. The joiner is bringing us brochures soon so we can choose our French Doors as they need to be installed first given they are demolishing our front and back door!

So I am now getting quite excited!!!!!

Hee hee Elibean - actually forgot to mention my gorgeous glass splashbacks! I think they weren't too expensive either, there's a place called Balham Glass that did them for us....

Oooh, thanks

Well done, ISNT, wonderful decision making!

Good to hear everyone moving on...even the things we're frustrated about aren't quite the same ones as when the thread started, eh?

What worktop material is everyone considering?

I LOVE the look of granite but I'm a clutz and would break too much of our stuff on it so thats out.

We've currently choosen solid wood but I'm beginning to only see the negatives on that now. I'm worried about ending up with horrible stains everywhere that I can't get out.

Then I'm left with the normal laminated type. Although they're not as nice I'm beginning to wonder if actually they're the one for us. Wipe clean easily and I won't break everything on them.

Our second kitchen designer came today. She's lovely, so we're hoping her quotation will come in near to the one we'll be getting from the Howdens guy so we can choose her as I think she'll be a lot more useful in helping us to choose the tiling and the flooring. Neither of us is particularly good with colours, so we could do with help like that.

Elibean - it is a good feeling, isn't it, that things are moving on; to begin with all I could think about was all the building work, but now I'm getting some mental picture of what the finished result could actually be like.

Tinasan - splashbacks - I haven't even begun to think about that! I think a lot of people don't realise that there are craftsmen out there that you can get special things from without it costing a bomb. And it does make the final result just a bit more special.

ilikeyoursleeves - our builder is a bit like that. Ours wasn't selling himself at all (because his work speaks for him) but he's the kind you can have a laugh with, which is going to be necessary!

I've just remembered another thing I like about the lady kitchen designer - she's no taller than I am, so did understand why I don't want wall cupboards as I can barely reach anything on the upper shelf.

I'll try and put some pictures in my profile as it's a bit difficult to describe in words what we're planning.

rebl we're going for a composite quartz, in rich brown - to go with cream gloss units and oak (some units, and floor). I wanted a warm look, because its north facing kitchen. Not too keen on granite, love wood but too much hassle for me (am v lazy ) and glass...which I think is beautiful...is definitely out because it chips and I, too, am a klutz.

ugly, your kitchen lady sounds lovely - and short too? Perfect! My brother (our kitchen designer ) is very tall, and I am short: I had to put my big sisterish voice on and say 'no' to his eye level microwave oven

Fingers crossed for the quote for you!

Ah that's good to see your pics ugly, it's so hard to visualise what everyone is doing!

I am a bit of all you who are getting luverly new kitchens! We aren't getting one but we will be getting a new floor in there which I'm looking forward to as just now we have crappy laminate that's not been laid particularly well. I'm thinking an oak floor or something? Real wood anyway. Is that easy to clean?

rebl would a wooden worktop be OK re spills if it's varnished / sealed or something? My concern would be if you would easily get knife marks in it or burn it etc. Granite looks fab I think.

Anyone getting a new bathroom? We are getting an ensuite which will be nearly double the size of our current bathroom so I'm dreaming of a freestanding double ended bath and a nice separate shower... and lots of nooks for storage

rebl we have a solid wood worksurface at the moment. We've been here 4 years and I think it was put in about 2 years before that. it's fine - we are medium careful - pans from teh hob go on heatproof surfaces but DH is always putting hot cups of tea on it, we spill stuff merrily etc and it doens't usually get wiped down straight away.

(God we sound like scummers )

Anyhoo it is in remarkably good nick.

I also dropped something really heavy on it once - somthing pointy and heavy - and it dented but after a few weeks the wood had somehow sprung back again you can't see it any more. Also if you do sometihgn catastraphophic you can get it sanded out.

You need to oil the wood once a year (well that's how often we do it anyway).

Am really impressed with it. Would get it again but units are going to be wood so that would look mad!

Hope you have enjoyed this essay!

Questions re external doors.... I don't know if any of you are getting a new one but what do you think is best? A upvc one or a solid wood one? I'd love a solid wood one (that's what we have just now) but I don't know if we'd need to spend ages treating / painting it first and it would be a huge PITA? A upvc one would be low maintenance but I'm not sure if they look as nice...

Any thoughts? What do you have already?

We had a solid wood one at our old house and it was there when we moved in and it was in just as good nick with having had zero maintencace on it when we moved out 7.5yrs later.

I would go with a wooden door anyday over uPVC.

Oh, wooden door definitely. Had one at my last house that must have been 100 years old. This one has a upvc one - I'm ashamed of it and can't wait to one day replace it.

Aargh, had the bloke round today to do the drawings. Can't believe how long the whole process will take. To make it worse, 2 houses have come up for sale nearby (like where we live) that are sort of affordable and bigger than current house. What to do?

Wooden door definitely. We have upvc with is horrible, and very easy to to break into as I discovered a couple of months ago when I woke up to find someone burgling our house...

hi still following this thread, we have architect coming on Tuesday as we have finally decided on what we would like to do.

The external side kitchen wall IS coming down to make way for a larger kitchen/dining room which means new kitchen.

Am utterly dreading it all though, wish I could sleep through it and wake up with it all done.

vonnyh how horrible and scarey. Hope you were all ok.