# Extension and garden project



## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Hi all

I thought I would post a load of pics up for our in-progress house extension.
Its a single storey, we are going out 5m at the back and having a garage down the side. 1960's 3 bed semi :thumb:

The project started at the beginning of November, although we had already started accruing some materials on the cheap (like sand)


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Phase 1 - demolition of all the stuff, and basic groundworks


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Phase 2 - Foundation pour and general site levelling. Building inspector was happy with a 1m foundation as its pure clay here.
The concrete was mixed up on site and pumped in, very impressed with this system, its extremely efficient and cost effective.
As you can see, we have quite a high water table here!
BTW this doesn't have a broken sewer pipe in this picture - its a surface water drain.


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Now its starting to get interesting, more tidying up of the site and getting up to DPC













































This picture was taken when we had our boiler moved from the existing kitchen to the loft. Man it was cold, no heating or hot water from 8am Saturday till 4pm on Sunday!









Last shot getting up to damp.


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Bringing us bang up to date (as of the pics I took this weekend)














































The observant amongst you will have noticed that we haven't gone full width on the extension. 
We have a 1m set in from the neighbours for two reasons.
The first is a shared sewer, and its easier to leave it where it is rather than the expense of moving it. 
The second reason is the current kitchen is going to be turned into my office and a downstairs toilet. 
This way we will still have a small window into the office for natural light so its a winner all round!






















































I'm actually struggling to get pics now as although I am working from home, its dark when I start and dark when I finish and I don't want to get in their way!


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## RS3 (Mar 5, 2018)

What's going in the extension, new kitchen /2nd living room?. 
And what do you think it will cost all together?.


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## Mirror Finish Details (Aug 21, 2008)

Going to be very nice.


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## grunty-motor (Aug 11, 2016)

That back part looks huge!

can you get a car in that garage? looks narrow.

or is it just the camera?


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## dholdi (Oct 1, 2008)

grunty-motor said:


> That back part looks huge!
> 
> can you get a car in that garage? looks narrow.
> 
> or is it just the camera?


Counting the block pavers in one of the photos the opening appears to be around 1700. It looks like there may have been potential to squeeze another 200 or so but we don't know the details of the deeds etc. Whatever the reason it will make a nice covered space that's more useful than what was there before. Looking good :thumb:


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

RS3 said:


> What's going in the extension, new kitchen /2nd living room?.
> And what do you think it will cost all together?.


Its going to be a large kitchen, with a narrow utility room behind the garage.
The existing kitchen will be gutted and split into an office/den and a downstairs toilet and shower.

The base build cost (bare plaster finish), including the reframing inside for the kitchen/downstairs toilet/front room is around £60k. The kitchen is going to be another £10k plus fitting, and the garden is coming out at 9k.
Electrics and plumbing are on top, but my step son is a plumber and he owes his mum so its materials only for plumbing. I am considering doing the electrics except the consumer unit myself and getting building control to sign it off.


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

dholdi said:


> Counting the block pavers in one of the photos the opening appears to be around 1700. It looks like there may have been potential to squeeze another 200 or so but we don't know the details of the deeds etc. Whatever the reason it will make a nice covered space that's more useful than what was there before. Looking good :thumb:


The original plan was to go right up to the boundary which would have given us 2.4m external, around 2.1m aperture into the garage. Unfortunately, it transpired that the boundary kerb stones are only haunched in on our side for some reason so they had to come in from that around 250mm to avoid our neighbours drive and garage slab collapsing. A complete bummer, so there won't be enough width to get a car in, although I was just planning on fitting it out as a nice workshop anyway. A big improvement over two leaky sheds!


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## RS3 (Mar 5, 2018)

blademansw said:


> Its going to be a large kitchen, with a narrow utility room behind the garage.
> The existing kitchen will be gutted and split into an office/den and a downstairs toilet and shower.
> 
> The base build cost (bare plaster finish), including the reframing inside for the kitchen/downstairs toilet/front room is around £60k. The kitchen is going to be another £10k plus fitting, and the garden is coming out at 9k.
> Electrics and plumbing are on top, but my step son is a plumber and he owes his mum so its materials only for plumbing. I am considering doing the electrics except the consumer unit myself and getting building control to sign it off.


Thanks blademansw.
I doubt if its so important to you because you are building to suit your needs but at £80k, do you think your property value will increase by this amount?.


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

RS3 said:


> Thanks blademansw.
> I doubt if its so important to you because you are building to suit your needs but at £80k, do you think your property value will increase by this amount?.


I think its probably going to be around £60k increase in value, but as you said this is not really important as we are doing the work for quality of life improvement. We did look at moving instead, and we could find no properties that we could afford that we liked, or in areas we wanted to be in. We are in a relatively quiet and mature 1960's estate with lots of open space, we would be insane to move out of here to a modern box with no land. 
Even with the massive 5m extension, the back garden is still 11.5 metres long!


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## vsideboy (Sep 1, 2006)

Nice one mate, bet it will get used more than the conservatory, that's pretty much identical to our conservatory that is (and has always been) just a dumping ground!


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

vsideboy said:


> Nice one mate, bet it will get used more than the conservatory, that's pretty much identical to our conservatory that is (and has always been) just a dumping ground!


In theory, the conservatory was a nice area with a table and chairs for dining. In reality, it just got filled with cr*p lol.


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## JordanE (Jun 26, 2013)

got any updates? might be built by now. 
just curious why you didnt go up to the boundary on the right hand side.. seems like youll have a piece of land next to your neighbours fence you can do anything with?


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

JordanE said:


> got any updates? might be built by now.
> just curious why you didnt go up to the boundary on the right hand side.. seems like youll have a piece of land next to your neighbours fence you can do anything with?
> View attachment 80968


Ahh yes, fair point I have failed miserably to update!

The reason for the gap is the cost of moving the sewers that were there, plus I wanted a window into the old kitchen (which will become my office when I pull my finger out)

The rest of the extension is finished - I'll post some more pics below


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)




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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)




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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Me pulling the ceiling in the old kitchen ready for the sparks to run all the electrics.

















Made a bit of a mess lol


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Start of the patio


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Ceilings and walls being boarded.


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Utility room boarded


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

My high performance support so I could fit the roller shutter door by myself


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Bit of hot plaster action...
































The box is to stop the dogs wandering into the extension lol.


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Another sneaky look at the garden still progressing.


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

And so the painting begins.
I have to admit, I paid someone to do it, I am far too much the perfectionist and my wife said "I am not waiting 3 weeks for you to ***** and moan and get a perfect finish"
So we paid some decorators cash money and to be honest, I am glad I did.

Utility room first

















Now for the main kitchen...


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Another cheeky look at the garden, the sparky was very proud of his choice of lights


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

The start of the kitchen fit out. Got a mate who is a chippy who offered to do it mates rates if I did labouring for him.
Kitchen is from Howdens, and is the Chelford range.


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

The nice man turned up with a very clever bit of tech to template for the quartz worktops...









And precisely 3 weeks later.. they came back to fit them.
































For some reason, Duncan the chippie didn't want to fit the pull out bin so he left it for me to do . Cheers mate, it was a barsteward!


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Now its time for the flooring to go in. We went for EvoCore laminate as it was a bit cheaper than Karndean and allegedly more resistant to scratching.


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

I actually shed a tear when I paid for the Rangemaster induction range. Sparky helped me drag it in from the garage and fit it, it was shall we say.. heavy.








I also fitted the extractor and the splashback.

French door fridge freezer fitted.









Then Duncan the chippy came back, and announced that the kitchen designer was full of it and we needed a bridging unit and extra end unit to balance up the look of the fridge freezer. As he had talked me out of the full height spice rack that I had next to the larder unit originally, I got stuck in with both feet and ordered it up. He was unavailable to fit it, so I fitted it.


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Onto the utility room. Originally we were going to go with the contract range from Howdens in the same colour, but decided that if we cheaped out on this it would annoy us every time we went into the utility room so again, we went for Chelford. 
I had arguments with the wife, as she said "We don't need to many cupboards" and "We don't need another freezer".
I stuck to my guns and won (of course she filled all the cupboards straight up lol)

Duncan was off doing something, so I fitted the whole of the utility room (I paid careful attention to what he did in the main kitchen, and bought a new blade for my circular saw)

























Call me sad, but I was inordinately proud when the worktop finished EXACTLY where I marked it, including the allowance for scribing the other end to the tall larder unit. I was like Homer Simpson spinning around on the floor.
We couldn't stretch to quartz in the utility, so it was just high pressure laminate.
























The tumble drier and the fridge freezer were fairly new and came from the old kitchen. Tall larder freezer and washing machine were new.
My wife said she was glad we got all the cupboards and the extra freezer as they are all full up now!


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

Finally, all finished (I think I still had a couple of little things on my snagging list at this point)


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

And the garden - I still have to build my BBQ area, the builders left the base to my specs with a dwarf wall. Keeping a very close eye on timber prices at the moment hoping for a bit of a fall before I drop a huge sum on timber for the BBQ/seating area.

























We have some pots with plants dotted around now, and the end game is to build some raised planters to sit on the slate.
I am also going to build a living herb wall down the small gap between us and the neighbours, but thats an autumn project to be ready for the spring.

I have a separate thread for the garage fit out.

Sorry it took so long for the updates, I kept putting it off as I had so many pictures!


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## c16rkc (Apr 15, 2010)

Looks fantastic! You will certainly enjoy all that extra space!


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## JordanE (Jun 26, 2013)

Nice kitchen. 
I agree with your mate. Glad you stuck units around the fridge. It did look odd before


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## blademansw (May 23, 2011)

JordanE said:


> Nice kitchen.
> I agree with your mate. Glad you stuck units around the fridge. It did look odd before


Yeah, surprised the kitchen designer didn't put them in to be honest!


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## Starbuck88 (Nov 12, 2013)

That looks fantastic! Well done!


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