Owning your own home

Turns out a few posts later I didn’t misread above. I wasn’t sure if it was an aggy neighbour notifying you of works that needed going for their property, in which case as above, not your problem, or a benevolent neighbour giving you a heads up about neglected issues with the property you are buying - in which case the ‘revert to surveyor’ instruction makes more sense.

Not a direct reply at owl.

I’d resolve it myself. Solicitors will take ages. Knock on the neighbour’s door, ask to see exactly what’s what, chat to them about what they want then either ask the seller, via your solicitor, to sort it before exchange or give you cash back to cover it.

Would anyone be able to give a very rough ballpark figure for what it could cost for a full-width ground floor extension level with the end of the kitchen, and a first-floor extension on top of the current kitchen on the house below?

This is in Oxford, so assume prices around the London mark.

We saw this place today, and it's alright but if we could do what the neighbours have done it could be brilliant.

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You'd probably need to knock down the existing kitchen unless the foundations were adequate which they probably won't be.

Unless you are buying the kitchen from clerkenwell and have an architect called Julian pming the whole thing you won't get much change from 100k I would have thought.

I had a 6.1x3.5m ground floor extension done recently and excluding the kitchen which cost me about 8k , the work cost me 45k. I cut every conceivable corner known to man though where possible and the builder was cheap.

I had a roofer round so not exactly an expert but probably knows a fair amount having been round the block and was chatting to him on his thoughts on costs for a very similar extension to that and he reckoned £30k including new kitchen.

Gonna get in some second opinions from a builder as it was much less than I thought but keen to know other’s experience and not get hopes up

Love what they've done with the place
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/131970932#/?channel=RES_BUY

At least they're honest in the description!

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2k per m²thats a great price.

Agreed.

Loads of variables but £2k per sqm is likely your absolute bare minimum for a square box, no fancy details, cheapest materials, simple electrics etc. from a keen builder.

£2500 is probably much more likely. And £3000 if you want the good shit.

It was a good price and included fitting the kitchen too. Before and after pics.

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100 to 150k

Would you be replacing windows at the same time? Would you move the internal stuff? (Thinking the gf would be 1 massive room with a long corridor from front door).

You can stick the boxes on for a certain price, then you might be able to think of it in phases and so be able to live with 1 Nige bathroom and 1 old one etc or some miss-matched bits. Or you try and do it all or as much of in one fell swoop.
I think it would maybe cost about £80-100k for the unfinished product (but inc kitchen and windows).

That's an odd layout! What are you going to do, lose the 3rd bedroom and move the bathroom upstairs?

We've just had a full width single story extension done (3x5m) plus knocking through an internal wall incl steels and new kitchen - about 100k inc VAT. That was with me doing the flooring & a load of other DIY-able bits too. You'd save on the knock-through and steels costs as that's already been done but the extra work for the 1st floor would take all that & more. So I'd have thought 100-150 range but the spread of quotes we had, it could be way more if you wanted it to be!

It is a bit strange, but the majority of the houses in this area have or had the identical layout so you can see different things that can be done with them.

Ideally we'd want to try to squeeze a bathroom up there and keep three beds (and try not to block future access to the loft).

But first we need to find a house we can afford to buy with something left over to do this work - then find a way to live and work while the work gets done.

There's a lot of moving parts to this move.

I'm doing almost the same except without the first floor bit. Architect didn't laugh at me when I said budget was up to £100k.

Extending level with existing kitchen and making an open kitchen/dining room. Maybe also a WC/utility room.

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Fair enough - I used to live in Reading where in loads of the 2 up 2 downs you could only access the upstairs bathroom by walking through the 2nd bedroom, it was very annoying!

Good luck - I've found the house buying process relatively easy but the building/extension work to be pretty stressful.

I've found it all bloody stressful tbh. especially with two young kids.

two young kids, all bloody stressful

Two young kids - check
September start date for a job in a new city - check
Uncertainty about whether our house will sell and for how much - check
Sights set on an expensive but small part of town where not much comes up for sale - check

We did this! It was fine! I believe in you. What could go wrong… conquering the loneliness of small children and not knowing anyone locally took a while tho, but dfl nursery parent crowd eventually emerged and things are banging now.

Great to hear that!

We've got friends and family in the area which should help the young ones, and some of my new colleagues have kids of similar ages too - though I don't know yet if they're good people (parents or children).

Anyone fancy an authentic Swiss Chalet in, checks notes, Hampton Court?

Yes, checks bank account, no.

House was closing today, shed needed a fortune spent on it.

HR - 225k

Put offer of 227.5. Someone puts a offer of 300 in.

When will this madness end.