An extension build

Karl said:
Needed something to take the clinical feel away, what with literally everything else being white / grey, and she wanted a feature wall. I quite like it. :)
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Ah I know what you mean. A lot of our walls are white, so we have quite a few coloured feature walls.

Some great work on the house there though :)

Need to get our kitchen done soon, dreading the disruption it'll cause though.
 
IvanDobskey said:
Ah I know what you mean. A lot of our walls are white, so we have quite a few coloured feature walls.

Some great work on the house there though :)

Need to get our kitchen done soon, dreading the disruption it'll cause though.
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Someone at work was saying how they were fed up with the disruption of having a new kitchen fitted, and it was finished after a month. When I mentioned mine is just being made to feel like home after 4 months, they realised it wasn't too bad really :D

I feel for people who have half-started things and have to live in them for a year or longer due to bad building, running out of money etc. Must be horrendous. Four months was bad enough for us!
 
Karl said:
Someone at work was saying how they were fed up with the disruption of having a new kitchen fitted, and it was finished after a month. When I mentioned mine is just being made to feel like home after 4 months, they realised it wasn't too bad really :D

I feel for people who have half-started things and have to live in them for a year or longer due to bad building, running out of money etc. Must be horrendous. Four months was bad enough for us!
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One of my friends had an extension built that nearly doubled the size of his house. He said it was absolute chaos for months. I think it was probably nearing a year from the time foundations were started to the last issues finally fixed by the builders. Covid didn't help things either.

Home improvements are always worth it in the end though :)
 
Karl said:
Someone at work was saying how they were fed up with the disruption of having a new kitchen fitted, and it was finished after a month. When I mentioned mine is just being made to feel like home after 4 months, they realised it wasn't too bad really :D

I feel for people who have half-started things and have to live in them for a year or longer due to bad building, running out of money etc. Must be horrendous. Four months was bad enough for us!
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When we first moved in , I knocked the (tiny) kitchen into the dining room to make a kitchen diner.. it took 3 months (doing most of the work myself), but we just used a camping stove (with grill!) and a microwave in one of the bedrooms and washed up in the bath, and used a local launderette!, LOL good times.

Even this time, since we had the side and then this last minute rear extension added, it was really 6 months of disruption to the kitchen, but I set up a temporary surface, used 2 x induction hobs (the single type), combination microwave, sink and washing machine.. that was easily manageable.. we had Christmas at the pub (great idea!) and look back as it being a nice challenge, but both me and the mrs are quite positive and happy to work through stuff like that and make the most of it..

I think some people are unable to 'cope' with any little thing, I guy in work nearly got divorced because the kitchen fitters delayed things by 2 weeks and she couldn't cope, making his life hell!
 
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Karl said:
It's all mains-wired by an electrician, and he's hidden the cabling really well because the lighting was all planned before the room was plasterboarded. I actually used the idea earlier in the thread from @-Ad- who lambasted me for having any downlights and also gave me some good ideas in the process! :D

There's also power for lighting already set up for the patio area. When that's built up, we'll have some uplighters built in that'll shine light around it and illuminate the step / border area.
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Hehe, I'm quite forward in lambasting straight line spotlight installs. I just dislike the practise from sparkies/builders who just go for neat lines rather than thinking about lighting design and where light needs to go.

Thanks for the pics, it's all coming together really nicely and I bet you're happy it's nearly there. Glad you went with the beam LED strips, it really looks epic and the sparky seems to have hidden everything very well (apart from those 2 switches on the extractor :p)

Do you know what the wattage of the LED strips is on the beams?

Having some downlights there to add task lighting can be helpful though, good to see you using them all. Looking forward to seeing the finished results!
 
Decorated and furnished update, plus patio sorted now:

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We're pleased with how it's lit now, and how we have a combination of options for lighting depending on what we're doing. One thing we like doing is putting the lights on just above the sofa, plus the lamp, and watching telly from there without any other lighting distracting us. We've also got a specific switch for the dining room table, and a switch for the kitchen area.

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The telly stand thingy is on some big rubber casters so when we want to, we can drag the telly out and point it at the sofa like an old school telly trolly from school :D It was a more cost effective and less 'hangy-off-the-wally' approach to a massive TV bracket that'd have to get round the steel.
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There's a dehumidifier in here that sucks the moisture out of the space and dries clothes bloody fast. Hiding on the left wall in the utility room is a ladder radiator which can be used to store laundry if we have to (haven't needed to yet!), but heats up that space as well to speed up the drying of stuff. It's nice to shut the door on the white goods and let them do their job while we eat / watch telly.
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I'm a lighting loser now, so wanted Phillips Hue outdoor lights either side of the bi folds, and that's an IP65 LED strip just underneath the patio step which casts a nice little bit of light out to the garden, as well as showing you the edge quite nicely.

The garden / fencing needs tackling in the spring, but we're really happy with how things are compared to where we started! :)

Edit: Forgot, we have yet to purchase and fit a splashback that'll go along the kitchen wall under the cabinets. We really liked the mirrored one that @-Ad- had, so it'll likely be something a lot like that.
 
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Missed this thread first time round but having seen it now, I'm just echoing other comments. Looks absolutely superb and was really interesting to follow the progress, so thanks for sharing.

I absolutely love the feel of a big open plan kitchen/diner and with the velux windows letting in extra light. Definitely something I want to aim for with my next house.

You must be chuffed with it!
 
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I can only echo the other’s comments, it’s amazing.

Can I ask the actual size of the extension, external measurements , sorry if it’s somewhere but I did not see it….
 
It's approx 2.5m x 6.2m. That's the bit that's added on. The overall footprint of the room is much larger, but not something I've measured.
jackboy said:
I can only echo the other’s comments, it’s amazing.

Can I ask the actual size of the extension, external measurements , sorry if it’s somewhere but I did not see it….
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Apologies you've probably already said but what worktops are they @Karl ? Do you know the itemised price for them? I need to replace mine and not too dissimilar metreage.

I was looking at a white/off white quartz
 
HungryHippos said:
The finish looks amazing but I'm sorry I really hate that 2 seater sofa colour with that decor! :D
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Cheers :D

Buffman said:
Apologies you've probably already said but what worktops are they @Karl ? Do you know the itemised price for them? I need to replace mine and not too dissimilar metreage.

I was looking at a white/off white quartz
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It's quartz, and it was about £4k. Same worktops in the utility room too.
 
Buffman said:
Apologies you've probably already said but what worktops are they @Karl ? Do you know the itemised price for them? I need to replace mine and not too dissimilar metreage.

I was looking at a white/off white quartz
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Before you go with a white worktop, I have one, and it shows up everything. I'd probably change mine to something else on a retry.

Looks nice though when clean!
 
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