Owning your own home

iii. Get surveyor as normal but make sure they know your intentions

This is a great point I hadn't considered. No use buying somewhere that can't be brought up to what we originally wanted.

One thing that's very useful is looking at your local council planning page to see the plans that other people in the area have put in. A lot of local properties will have very similar floorplans and the planning applications will have before/proposed floorplans to give you a better idea of the kind of thing you like.

They'll often also have the architect's details on there so you can get an idea of some architects that do stuff you like and give them a call. You can also just knock on some doors of houses that you've found on the planning website and ask them some questions. It being London you'll probably get short shrift from most people but you may get a few (particularly if the property you're looking at is very nearby) willing to chat with you about what they've done.

most people talked sans vat and fees, which is stupid IMO because we are B2C not B2B so why omit VAT?

I too hate this. Was one of the pros for using Nested as they are (seem to be) more transparent about this kind of thing.

I'm getting the impression that the higher end of our budget is worth the increase. I don't think the lower end ones could be brought up to the same spec as the higher ones for the difference in cost right now. And because I don't a have a set idea of what I want, it's not like I'll miss the concept of going custom. I see stuff I like and go, "ooh, that's nice, I want that" but am not able to picture how to make that happen in a place that doesn't have it.

Also make sure your solicitor knows. There may be covenants restricting what can be done to the property.

And obviously check whether it's in a conservation area or similar which may also restrict you.

Noted, thanks.

Not sure Thornton Heath has any conservation areas. Not unless the Tesco basement car park is somehow Grade II listed or an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Yeah, I was very very clear about our budget from the start, "we have £x", referred to it as a "pot of money" so they understood the concept of a fixed amount, and every architect said sure, that'll be fine... I repeated the question numerous times, explaining thats the total sum of money we have, until I was about to sign the contract and the last time they answered they said "yeah of course, plus VAT and fees..." which added up to around another 25k IIRC blowing the budget completely.

Dont forget you will have to factor in the cost of the disruption if you get work done. Our pals moved out but we couldn't afford when we had ours done so lived out of our bedroom for 4 months. If we had rented it would have been at least another 5K gone...

£25k difference in asking between these two. The smaller kitchen has an adjacent DR but I am now learning that £25k is not going to connect the two to the same standard as the more expensive house.

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Having done loads of conversions/extensions, IMO in your position you are better off buying 'done'. If you don't have a vision of what you want the whole process will be horrible - it's tiring, stressful, long, expensive and messy.
It's really worthwhile doing if you know what you want, but the process is still hard work.
Buy a place you really like as it is.

Would agree with this.
Unless you are a fussy prick like me who wants things a very certain way.
25K would prob get you the rooms connected, just, and done badly, but no kitchen and we all know they start at £40k...

Unless you are a fussy prick like me who wants things a very certain way.

the curse of a graphic designer eh?
Glad I am not a graphic designer.

Now you really are punching below the belt... Graphic Designer...

It's caps down in the modern world, innit?

It's really worthwhile doing if you know what you want, but the process is still hard work.

I know what I want. Will it kill me though? Would like to pick your brains on what could go wrong.

I know the area very well, we've had friends down there for ages and visit often. I had lunch in the Dorset Arms on Saturday and had a nice chat with Lord Delaware who was sitting next to me. He used to own the Ashdown Forest but sold it to the council a few years back. He told me that it was impossible to get planning permission for anything within an 8km radius of the forest, so you might want to look into that before buying.

I guess it also depends on how much of the work you'd be prepared to carry out yourself since that can save a lot of money.

Well, after each one we have said never again. Though have then ended up doing another one 5 years later. Still swearing about the cowboys who did the last one - so it might be a while before another.
Quick recap of Grand Designs will show you everything that can go wrong but the pain is in the managing of the process - it becomes all-consuming.
Likely things to go wrong - unexpected costs; delays to availability of things (eg windows) or trades; something will be done wrong and have to be re-done; you will have to rush decisions on fittings you forgot to think about beforehand (switches, sockets, door handles, cabling); bad weather; building regs stops you from having something/makes you have something grim even though every house on TV seems to has got round it; it over-runs and you are sharing one bedroom with your 3 teenagers and a dog on camp beds and one shower between you; cost of skips, scaffolding and the aforementioned VAT onto everything.

Hit me up if you have any specific questions.

Well, after each one we have said never again.

Sounds a bit like having a child...it becomes all-consuming

We are considering renovating a 2 up 2 down terrace and putting a ground floor extension and a loft conversion in. That's 'it'. This doesn't sounds particularly ambitious. I can see the scope for it to turn in to a shit show.

I can imagine avoiding cowboys is difficult.

Will bother you by PM

Capworth Street is the nice road around there but there are some beautiful houses just north of the aldi too. Lea Bridge Road is still quite rough but the last few years have changed it immeasurably - we now have a hipster pub (hare and hounds), a proper Italian (ItalianSlice) and all that sweet cycling infrastructure.

If you can, make sure you're in Lea Bridge or markhouse ward - that way you get the excellent Stella as your MP rather than the useless John Cryer.

I admin one of the local groups - bit further north than you - on Facebook. Well worth joining them to see what you should expect. Ours is markhouse / Lea Bridge forum but the Capworth Street one is very active too.

Also happy to help.

Big, fucked, cheap:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-72268635.html

Best summary ive seen - I always though the idiots on grand designs that ended up over budget and running late looking stressed were utter morons. Little did I know.

Looks like an old officers block.

What are those huge steel doors all about?

25K would prob get you the rooms connected, just, and done badly, but no kitchen and we all know they start at £40k...

I appreciate that this is tongue in cheek but in the interest of being helpful/offering some balance...
I've had a wall knocked out/supported between kitchen and DR, a new kitchen and appliances, a new roof and roof light and some plumbing work done for significantly less than £20k. It's functional but definitely nice enough (Howdens kitchens, stone worktops, lowish spec appliances)
No architect involved.
Definitely not knocking people who spend more (each to their own) but it doesn't have to cost the earth (Disclaimer - this was a hell of a lot of money to me but I'm glad I did it in hindsight)