NEW KITCHEN EXTENSION

Boris is not the only one who is levelling up his kingdom, we are too but with a bulldozer!

Not one for wishing my days away but I’m super excited at the prospect of cracking on next year with phase II of our house refurb which will involve building a single storey rear extension on the back of the house to create an open plan kitchen diner.

Before - existing area and kitchen window

After - view showing new extension

Now if you’re thinking I’m taking up trowel to learn brick laying then think again. This is one of those times when you’ve got to leave it to the professionals and just pay the bills. Building an extension is not something even I can bodge my way through and I wouldn’t want to either.

I’m not going to bore you with the trials and tribulations of the extension planning and costing saga as it’s been nothing but a long slog from start to finish but let’s just say it’s ended up as an exercise in compromise. Grand plans for a long extension across the back of the house scaled down to a mere 12 sq metres and even that is going to wipe out my savings pots. Construction costs are very expensive so it’s important to manage your own expectations as well as the project planning.

To give you a rough idea of how much a small 3 m x 4 m single storey rear extension might cost you, allow a budget of between £30,000 to £50,000. Forget Google’s cost indications of £2,000 to £2,500 per square metre as each building company appears to have their own unique way of arriving at an estimate, the likes of which are not to be revealed to us mere mortals.

What a 3 m x 4 m extension would look like

My cheapest quote came in at just under £28,000 not including electrics, plumbing or building inspection fees and my most expensive quote was just over £43,000 for everything excluding building inspection fees as these have to be paid for separately or internal decorating.

Set aside a buffer fund for this type of project as you know that as soon the first brick is laid, there’ll be a whole host of unaccounted for issues that will arise like a multi-headed hydra for you to vanquish. Things such as underpinning foundations, reinforcing or replacing lintels generally only come to light once construction has started and if the Building Inspector says it’s got to be done, you have no choice but to comply. You’ll need a flexible, plastic friend to come to your aid.

And having paid out all this dosh, expect to get just a finished shell of a building that’ll still need to be decorated from top to bottom. Set aside a decorating fund to cover new flooring, lighting, radiators, coving, painting and furnishing.

If you can, buy as much of your interior decorating or furnishing items in advance, when on sale or take advantage of those interest free deals that pop up. I’ve already drawn up a shopping list the length of 3 football pitches ready for Black Friday, Christmas and the Boxing Day sales. Vouchers are not a cop out, please make mine DIY ones.

So, what’s the plan? To end up with something that looks remotely like these diagrams, a single storey room added to the back of the existing kitchen which will become our dining room.

Garden space soon to become a dining room

Design blends in with existing building

The extension will be knocked through to create one room that flows through into the other. I’d have loved to also make the new extension open out into the back garden with a set of fancy glass bi-fold doors leading out onto a paved patio but this is one of the compromises I’ve had to make due to the high cost of bi-folds.

View of interior plan with extension

Instead, a set of French doors on the side wall will lead out onto a paved patio area and a large window will face the rear garden. Not shown on these plans, a glass velux window in the flat roof will allow lots of natural daylight in to brighten up the room and not take too much light from the kitchen.

View showing new French doors

Of course, the kitchen will also need demolishing in the process and re-configured into an L shaped layout to allow for a connecting arch to be built between the two rooms. More expense! And a separate project on the ‘to do’ list.