[cupra_brendy]

The missus decided the house was getting too small for us and the three little'uns and that we needed more room. We had a think, discounted selling the kids and divorce and came up with the idea of a bright area where we could watch the TV, kids could play within eyeshot, extend the kitchen and also do away with the shed and get all of our utilities together in one room.
Our house is a three bedroom semi with a pretty decent sized garden but unfortunately everything was arse about face in the house when we moved in 5 1/2 years ago. The freezer and tumble drier were int he shed, oil tank and boiler were on the concrete patio and the kitchen was too small.
I'll put up a pic of the current plan and how it will look when finished later when I get home (left them in the house D'oh!)

First and foremost, apologies on the pics, most were taken with my phone, the canon hasnt been seen since it disappeared under a heap of cushions and throws!

So far we have the founds in, drainage moved, calorgas system removed from kitchen. I also demolished the shed with a chainsaw one afternoon which was hot work but fun.

The rear used to have a concrete deck and flagged area. This is all being done away with to make room for a 25"x13" sunroom with new wooden decking extending out another 12-14 feet at floor level rather than have steps straight down onto the grass. Next door have a half version of what we are going for though they have a glass roof rather than eco panelled.

Anyway, A couple of before pics taken a while back before any of this was thought about so apologies on the angles!

And so it began, first up was moving the Central heating boiler and oil tank, they weer moved down to where the decking will finish and will virtually disappear once it is all finished. The next job was inserting a beam to strengthen above the kitchen door/window as they will be removed eventually leaving a free area to walk in and out of the new section.

Next the foundations needed to be dug and filled, all done in a day as its not a relatively huge job.

A wider picture of the rear of the house, its a strange looking house as the bathroom windows are on the side of the house rather than on the rear. To the right of the kithen window is the driveway and most of that width will also be taken up with the new utility room portion of the extension.

A couple of days later the breeze blocks and joists went in.

Another couple of days went by waiting for a dry one and eventually got the spark in and got the basic electrical and Av cabling in. At this point I am going for a 5.1 system (I am asking for recommendations on receivers over in the amp/receiver section) with all of the main gear being located in a unit that will be built below where the 46" Sharp Aquos LCD will be situated. (wall extending out from rhs of kitchen window). Windows went on for a fit.

Utility room to the right will have a door leading out onto the side of the driveway. We had our guttering and soffits replaced before any more work was done as they were looking tired and now was the best time to do it before anything else was done.

This is the wall which will have the TV mounted and a large wooden unit designed round it. The kitchen wall, window and door are being removed to make an open area leading from the kitchen to the new section. It also shows the two doorways leading out of the side of the house.

This pic shows how far the decking will extend out ((basically, right out to the boiler), the honey suckle tree has also been cut back and will need another trim before the old fencing is replaced.

That is me pretty much up to date, the floor is going to be tiled with 60x60cm tiles right through the old rear living room, kitchen and sunroom, looking like a semi polished off white colour and the wife is deciding on the rest of the details today and tomorrow.
The roof arrived last week but had to be sent back as it was the wrong size!, its replacement should be here tomorrow or Friday. As I mentioned earlier, it will be a lean-to design with glass outer eco panels (self cleaning) and a thermal layer underneath then a thin layer on the interior which can be painted like plaster.
Equipment wise, I already have the Sharp Aquos 46" LCD, Sky + HD and the matching Sharp blueray player, all HDMI.
Any recommendations on a HDMI enabled receiver would be great. Speakers would be excellent as the current LG speakers I have are not going to be used. I would prefer a shelf style pair for the rears where the new L shaped sofa will be (far left of the area) and similar speakers which will be mounted on the unit surrounding the Tv.
Any help or pointers to anything mentioned here would be greatly appreciated.

[spocksbeard]

That looks like its going to be an awesome room, I'm sure it will be much enjoyed when its done

[turbo-northener]

Good luck with it - currently building a glazed extension so know what it's like juggling everything.

[cupra_brendy]

Originally Posted by turbo-northener

Good luck with it - currently building a glazed extension so know what it's like juggling everything.

Cheers matey,
I was hoping to do an update but was today told that the builders have buggered the brickwork and a few other bits and hadnt consulted building control, they called round today at our request and want to speak to the contractor on Monday 9am sharp. It may have to come back down and if it does we are going to change the plans to have a solid tiled roof instead. Bloody contractors...

[sean m]

any news on this build
sean

[cupra_brendy]

Hey,
Basically a lot of wrangling and a few solicitors letters have been exchanged in this past month and a half.
The cavities, it turns out were only done to conservatory standard and not extension spec. Building control were brought out a few times and each time left saying it wasnt happy with gaps, thermal figures being submitted etc. Last week they told us they were giving the contractor one last chace before we (being the owners of the house) were being taken to court. The contractor we had paid to look after everything has tried to resolve everything but I guess initially it was a cost saving exercise so he wasnt too badly out of pocket, now the builders have had to come back, take down the roof, inner walls, dig holes to prove foundation depths/widths and all the wiring and plumbing has had to be removed.

So we are back almost to square one as below. Only the outer bricks have been left. We are having the roof lifted another foot or so, cavities are being build wider and using cavity beading rather than cheapo polystyrene (which apparently hasnt been standard since 1996 or something, could be wrong) and making more use of the glass frontage with ceiling to floor panes but not starting from the edge of the building, we are going to have brick two feet each side then glass across the middle.
We were told 8-10 weeks so had a new kitchen, massive sofa, tumble drier, cooker, freezer, heated flooring, vertical radiators etc (luckily the decking hasnt been organised yet) ordered and most of it has turned up so now we have to walk everywhere within the house, sideways as there is no room for anything else. On top of this, we have had no cooker as the gas hob was the first thing disconnected and I can only face so many chinese and mocrowave meals!
The gardens are ruined as concrete and bags of sand were left in the front and now has a big bare patch on the grass, the rear garden has lots of building bits and pieces dotted all around the garden and trenches round the house so the kids cant even use the gardens, all of this should have been finished in August so to be honest, its been a fairly stressful and noisy house.
Anyway, here is some of the latest pics.
Our nice new Oil burner house, with a stack of useless insulation sheets behind it.

One of the trenches to prove Foundation depth and width

Partial view of the inner skins coming down

Closer pic of the inadequate cavities.

Another accident waiting to happen if the kids were allowed into the back garden

I hope they arnt reusing all of these!

Brickwork quality and cavity from inside the utility room.

Finally our kids play area!, the decking will eventually run to the boiler, Im hoping to use pro grade astroturf so I can practice my putting without needing to head to the course.

[RowdenCO]

Just read your thread, hope you manage to get things sorted out so you can get your lives back to normal. I look forward to reading about it when you get it sorted, because it was sounding and looking quite impressive.

[cupra_brendy]

Cheers Rowden, I just had the wife on the phone, building control were out giving off to the builders again as apparently we need a steel post erecting vertically beside the old kitchen window, not sure of details yet but my prediction made to the contractor a while back sarcastically joking that the extension wont be finished until christmas isnt going to be far off now. Im fairly laid back but my missus is going ballistic! Im not usually a where theres blame theres a claim but the solicitor did mention compensation due to all of the rest of the workmen and items bought having to be put back and rescheduled (well, those items that havent already arrived) Our new huge sofa is in storage from the suppliers and I think they are due to start charging us for storage if it is held up much longer.
I really wish we had just gone down the slate roof route and not tried to be more eco friendly with the high performance roofing that we did pick as it would have been an easier job in the first place.
ARRRRRSE!

[RowdenCO]

I take it the builder wont be passing these costs for all the re-building onto yourselves? I'm down in bristol, so unlikely to be coming across the same builders. Will you be outting them on the forum for anyone in your local area so they can avoid?

I'm currently dealing with Redrow who are building our new house. We've been told they're not releasing for another two weeks, but haven't explained why... now moving Nov 27th, so might be in this side of xmas, but I really feel for you esp if you've got kids thats gotta be hell.

[cupra_brendy]

Lets just say tempers have flared up a few times, even I have been narky with the kids having them under my feet constantly.
To be honest, I don't entirely blame the builders, they showed us their instructions from the main contractor and he was trying to do it under the radar of building control. We only contacted building control after having the rest of the house bead injected and the guy came round to the back and didnt quite know how to tell us that it was wrong. He was almost embarassed for us when I told him it was a knock through extension rather than a conservatory.

I certainly wont be paying any extras, the builder is out something like £1200 per day he spends at our house (4 days so far) and that he is only doing it as he has worked with the contractor for 19 years or something and that he will get paid by making it up over the next few jobs with the contractor taking less and giving the builders a little more.

I wont be recommending them though the plumber, spark and joiners that we are using have been top notch and very understanding.

Hope you project is a little smoother than ours has been so far! Keep us updated too, any plans for something special?