Extending your home from the planning stages through to the final result!

[princesskerry]

Hello

We bought our house back in September and are really happy it is definately our dream home.
The only drawback when we looked at it was the bedrooms were smaller then what we were used too, but the flow of the house, the garden especially and downstairs extension made the house perfect for us in every other way.
Now we are living here we made the right decision, at present we are not noticing the size of bedrooms massively but our general plan was always to try for one more baby and realistically we could put the two boys in the second bedroom but it is smaller and the boys furniture takes up a lot of room, but the third the boxroom is really very small, so our plan was always to extend over the kitchen extension to create a fourth bedroom.
The fourth bedroom would be a similar size to the second bedroom so not big enough for us but perfect for one of the boys and then the small boxroom could be for a new baby, if/when we start trying.
Anyway we were supposed to be applying for planning permission at christmas but still haven't started the ball rolling.
I wondered if anyone could share their experiences, I have heard so many horror stories and our worst possibility is that when the kitchen roof is taken off that the kitchen is wrecked as we simply dont have the money to replace the kitchen and besides the kitchen is really lovely wood.
One days seems to morph into the next at the moment and all the time, our funds for the extension / house decorating are going down a bit more, though our house is starting to look beautiful so it's all good. But I know that I need to stop putting this off and pull my finger out and start the ball rolling.
There wont be any problems with getting planning permission, as when we were buying the house isues arose with the planning of the existing extension and the local planning office got involved and gave it the seal of approval along with a letter for the existing extension, and we were reassured the previous request for a possible two storey extension would be honoured.
Also at least 3 other houses in the street have carried out the same extensions (including our next door neighbour, another corner plot), the only difference being our house is on the largest corner plot out of the whole street.

Anyway enough of me rabbiting on, if anyone had any experiences they would like to share I would be grateful to hear them or any advice likewise.

Kerry xxx

[clockwatcher]

My parents had an extension built a few years ago, and it seemed to go reasonably smoothly. It was a bit like a sitcom at times though, especially when we had Dave the builder, George the joiner, Paul the plumber and Nev the singing electrician all poring over the plans together - and they still managed to get the shower room window in the wrong place!

[princesskerry]

FIL is an electrician but retired so cant do the work himself but I know he will want to be around, and likewise OH's uncle is a carpenter and has managed extension projects before with a team of his friends including FIL doing the appropriate jobs.
The only problem being FIL has admited that his brother is not the cheapest but he takes a lot of pride in his work so gets custom that way and whilst I know we are his family I wouldn't expect lots of favours but if costs went sky high I know it would cause problems as we would need to keep to as budget to a point.
Just before christmas a plasterer friend of theirs plastered the whole downstairs of the house, FIL helped and we had told him what we wanted doing which differed slightly from the original plans of just plastering a few ceilings and now included two part walls as well.
FIL gave him the go ahead but didn't get a revised price, when the job was eventually finished two days later then it should and we got the bill it was almost double what we had expected.
So it doesn't always pay to employ family members or their friends, it's a shame as the guy is a really nice man and adores my children and is a very close friend of FIL's but obviously his day to day charges are high and he lowered them slightly for us, but he is still very very busy so there is no need for him to reduce his charges down anymore.
The job he did was wonderful, but I would never ever use him again thats for sure. Money is to tight for us to go for the most expensive tradesmen again. I wont lie it did cause tensions between OH and his father, as his father had gave him the go ahead knowing we only had x amount to spend and didn't get a revised price.

[tiger]

Talk to your neighbours who had extensions done and find out who their builder was and what they thought of them. You can't beat personal recommendation.
DH was a builder and never needed to advertise as all his work came from recommendations. He reckoned that if he ever got short of work he could make a good living following the cowboys around and putting things right that they'd done.

[princesskerry]

Thankyou Tiger, I had already spoke to my next door neighbour and there builder is no longer active, likewise the builder that completed this extension now lives in France but I intend to speak to other people in the street in the hope that I may get a recomendation.
That is my biggest worry getting a cowboy, shame your OH is not still active and you weren't local lol.
I know what you mean about personal recomendations, FIL never had to advertise he had a constant stream of work and even though he is supposed to be retired (he has bad arthritis) he only let his electrician certificates run out six months ago and still does DIY jobs for regulars, mainly older people who he would hate to see get ripped off who trust him.

[carebabe]

is the work you are doing going to increase the value of your property by the amount it will cost you? would it be worth considering selling and buying a larger property? property values may be coming down but tradesmens prices are not.

[BritBrat]

Talk to the planners and don't argue with them, work together on it and it will all be fine.

Take their advice when given.

[princesskerry]

is the work you are doing going to increase the value of your property by the amount it will cost you? would it be worth considering selling and buying a larger property? property values may be coming down but tradesmens prices are not.

Hi Carebabe

We have only bought the property less then six months ago with the knowledge we would need to extend.
We could get a four bed or a large three bed in our price range, but nothing was exactly what we were looking for. The biggest thing for me was the garden, we have always been used to a large garden and having two young boys, that was an essential to me whereas OH wanted a drive and a garage.
We are located in a small village on the outskirts of a large city, so the location is perfect, the local school is wonderful, garden is perfect etc etc, a compromise had to be made and we could have been in the bigger house with the pokey garden or be happy in our lovely house with lovely garden. :D
The downstairs space is really good and essentially that is where we are living so that is perfect, I'm thinking for the longterm future the extension will give us the space we need upstairs for if we extend our family.
The extension will no doubt increase the value of our house, with prces the way they are at the moment I'm not sure if the value will be increased by the amount spent on the extension but it would be close if not.
But to be honest we are not worried about that in the slightest, this is a family home for us that we plan to be in until the children are older and have left home at the very earliest (obviously if all goes to plan). The money we have spent on the better house and extension is the profit we made on our first home, so realistically I know we moved at the wrong time (told OH constantly) but we only stand to lose what we never had iykwim.:D

[littlelibrarylass]

we have planning pernission for our 2 storey extension and are just getting quotes from builders.
atm this is most frustrating as we contacted five builders , all recommended by friends or neighbours.
one builder still hasn't turned up- although we was warned that he takes his time !
one builder came 4 1/2 weeks ago, we are still waiting for his quote.
one builder came two weeks ago and we are waiting for his quote although to be fair he did say 2-3 weeks
two builders turned up promptly and have sent us quotes which we are considering.

not sure how much longer we are going to wait for the first builder , will probably phone and check it hasn't got lost in the post before we give up on him though!

our planning went through very quickly even though we had gone against the informal advice we were given:clap2:

hth

[princesskerry]

Thankyou little librarylass, when are you hoping that work will start and also how long did it take for planning permission to be approved?

[Mrs Lady C]

I'm sure their is a list of approved builders in the locality you live in somewhere, you could ring your local planning office to ask.

[littlelibrarylass]

we have to have a party wall agreement as we are building our foundations under our neigbours drive -this gives 2 months notice to our neighbour.
so hoping to start end of april.
the planning decision from the council took 6 weeks as it was approved without a problem. We had been told we might have to appeal as our plans were not in accordance to the councils rules but we didn't :clap2:

we had three sets of drawings from our architect before we were happy with the design so that took time befre we even submitted them to the planners

[tiger]

Always make sure that your builder has public liability insurance. I know that it's something you may take for granted but there are some who work without it.

[princesskerry]

Good point Tiger thankyou. I have repped everyone else too.

[carebabe]

sounds a lovely house and location princesskerry. all the best with your project.

[princesskerry]

sounds a lovely house and location princesskerry. all the best with your project.


Thankyou Carebabe, this home is extra special to us as we chose it together and to us it is a real step up for us hence me gushing lol. :o

Call me silly but the day after we moved in we had the local coucil come around to sweep the streets, and I was amazed as they never ever did that in the council estate we used to live in, PMSL!

[Becles]

Try posting the job on www.mybuilder.com (http://www.mybuilder.com)

Each tradesperson has a profile, and the better ones have references and include photographs of work they have done.

I've used them for quotes on a bathroom although I haven't had anyone out yet. You still need to do your homework though. I've had stupidly low quotes from people with no references, insurances or photographs, so I've assumed they were cowboys and deleted them. I'm going to get a few of the "middle of the road" quote people out to price the job up properly and go with whoever I feel most comfortable with.

[Khufu]

one builder still hasn't turned up- although we was warned that he takes his time !
one builder came 4 1/2 weeks ago, we are still waiting for his quote.
one builder came two weeks ago and we are waiting for his quote although to be fair he did say 2-3 weeks
two builders turned up promptly and have sent us quotes which we are considering.



Glad you got some quotes! When we wanted to start our extension about 18months ago we tried to get quotes, some never turned up, others measured up and never quoted, one that wewere happy with said he coudln't start for a year! Anyway we decided to do the work ourselves in the end and have hired individual professionals when required - digger man to dig footings, etc. NB your electrics only need to be checked by a professional, not installed by them, so if you know someone to do the work PK then get them to do it and pay to have it checked.

It has been hard work, and we've only done bits as we've got the money to do it, and its still only a shell, but we've saved a fortune, and been able to incorporate all our last minute small (and large) changes!

[princesskerry]

Try posting the job on www.mybuilder.com (http://www.mybuilder.com)

Each tradesperson has a profile, and the better ones have references and include photographs of work they have done.

I've used them for quotes on a bathroom although I haven't had anyone out yet. You still need to do your homework though. I've had stupidly low quotes from people with no references, insurances or photographs, so I've assumed they were cowboys and deleted them. I'm going to get a few of the "middle of the road" quote people out to price the job up properly and go with whoever I feel most comfortable with.

Thankyou Becles I've just posted on here.

[princesskerry]

Glad you got some quotes! When we wanted to start our extension about 18months ago we tried to get quotes, some never turned up, others measured up and never quoted, one that wewere happy with said he coudln't start for a year! Anyway we decided to do the work ourselves in the end and have hired individual professionals when required - digger man to dig footings, etc. NB your electrics only need to be checked by a professional, not installed by them, so if you know someone to do the work PK then get them to do it and pay to have it checked.

It has been hard work, and we've only done bits as we've got the money to do it, and its still only a shell, but we've saved a fortune, and been able to incorporate all our last minute small (and large) changes!

I think if it was just a ground floor extension that could be a possibility, but being a second floor one, as soon as the roof is off we are exposed to the weather so we will need everything to flow and not be left with gaps in between.
But this is a great way of doing it as and when you have the money.

Thankyou I didn't know that about the electrics, my FIL didn't tell us that which makes me think he may not want to do them lol or genuinely have not known as he was always qualified, he does everything by the book so perhaps giving him the benefit of the doubt it could be the latter.

[far canel]

Hi Carebabe

We have only bought the property less then six months ago with the knowledge we would need to extend.
We could get a four bed or a large three bed in our price range, but nothing was exactly what we were looking for. The biggest thing for me was the garden, we have always been used to a large garden and having two young boys, that was an essential to me whereas OH wanted a drive and a garage.
We are located in a small village on the outskirts of a large city, so the location is perfect, the local school is wonderful, garden is perfect etc etc, a compromise had to be made and we could have been in the bigger house with the pokey garden or be happy in our lovely house with lovely garden. :D
The downstairs space is really good and essentially that is where we are living so that is perfect, I'm thinking for the longterm future the extension will give us the space we need upstairs for if we extend our family.
The extension will no doubt increase the value of our house, with prces the way they are at the moment I'm not sure if the value will be increased by the amount spent on the extension but it would be close if not.
But to be honest we are not worried about that in the slightest, this is a family home for us that we plan to be in until the children are older and have left home at the very earliest (obviously if all goes to plan). The money we have spent on the better house and extension is the profit we made on our first home, so realistically I know we moved at the wrong time (told OH constantly) but we only stand to lose what we never had iykwim.:D


Its always much better to have what your happy with.
Sometimes size doesn't matter (at least thats what I tell my wife;))

[princesskerry]

Its always much better to have what your happy with.
Sometimes size doesn't matter (at least thats what I tell my wife;))

Is that so Far Canel :wink: :wink:

No you are right and we need to do something about it before we spend the money, as we will never be able to afford to do it again, so it's now or never.

[tiger]

Another thing to be wary of is builders asking for upfront payments. A reputable builder will have accounts with their suppliers for buying materials.
If they need stage payments then it should be agreed before they start.

[princesskerry]

Thankyou Tiger, your advice is really welcome.

[Khufu]

Another thing to be wary of is builders asking for upfront payments. A reputable builder will have accounts with their suppliers for buying materials.
If they need stage payments then it should be agreed before they start.

Well - this can go both ways, Polish builders need the money up front as they can't get accounts as easy and often get supplies from home, and tend to be a lot cheaper. I think you need to trust whoever you get, and check plenty of their previous work, there can be reasons why people need some money up front, but be sure they explain why, and it makes sense!