Adding value before making over payments

MichaelDH

Moneyfordreams wrote: »

Good luck... sounds like you are doing an amazing job. We have this to come... we've just moved into a bit of a doerupper to downsize... I need a couple of months to recoup cash before starting on the bathroom in September.. wall knocked down too. Aiming for next May to take out ground floor wall for kitchen diner and patio/bifold doors... i'll keep reading for tips

Good luck with your project too. Will be hard work but definitely worth it when it's time to remortgage and the value has shot up! :j

MichaelDH

So, re-mortgaging has proven to be a complete nightmare!

To recap, our house was valued by a local agent in May, and we were pleasantly surprised (and perhaps slightly sceptical!) with a valuation of £295k. Our mortgage balance at the time was around £162k, and we only paid £188k for the house in August 2016, so we were very pleased as you can imagine, but also left with the dilemma of staying put, extending, and continuing the refurbishment of our house, as we had planned since buying the house almost two years ago, or sell up and buy somewhere else. We love our house, it’s a very good size three bed semi, we are in a quiet cul-de-sac in a village location, and we have lovely neighbours, so it was a very easy decision to stay put as planned.

Fast forward, we now have plans from an architect and a full quote from our builder. The work we have planned, including the new kitchen and appliances, is around £45k. We have decided to increase our mortgage to £212k, giving us around £51k. This gives us a LTV of around 72%.

Our financial advisor recommended HSBC, so we applied for a 5 year fix at 2.14%. Decision in principal received almost immediately. They then asked for payslips, bank statements and tax return from accountant (I forget what the form is called) for partners buy to let. Financial advisor had confirmation that they were happy with everything and they would instruct a surveyor to carry out valuation. Didn’t hear anything for over a week. FA chased up and was told it was still being processed. Didn’t hear anything for another week so FA cased up again and was told our application had been refused because of the buy to let. He appealed this decision but they wouldn’t change their minds. Very annoying as they had known about the buy to let from the start so just feel like they have wasted our time, but never mind.

Financial advisor then recommended Virgin Money, who offered a 5 year fix at 2.28%. We applied and were approved straight away thankfully. Just two days later they had arranged for the surveyor to visit and we received paperwork from the solicitor for us to sign and send back. The surveyor visited last Tuesday, and by coincidence it was the same surveyor who visited 2 years ago when we were buying our house. She commented on how much the house had changed for the better and also had a look at our architects plans and was very positive about them, but she didn’t give any indication as to what her valuation was which made us a little nervous. We received confirmation from Virgin on Thursday that the valuation was £295k and then on Friday we received the mortgage offer!

To say we are pleased is an understatement! Forms were all signed and sent back to the solicitor yesterday so hopefully just a case of waiting for the legal work to be completed and then we should have funds in the next few weeks. I really didn’t think that re-mortgaging would take so long and be so stressful. Very glad we don’t have to do it again for five years!

Only slight disappointment we have now is that we had originally planned for a September start and to be finished in November, but that slots now taken. Our builder can fit us in around mid-October but can’t guarantee being finished for Christmas, so we are now thinking to delay the build until it starts to get warmer in March and be finished by the end of May. Haven’t decided what we will do 100% yet, but can see the benefit of waiting until March as this will give us another 7 or 8 months to save towards contingencies meaning that we can be slightly less strict with the build budget, plus anything leftover can go towards decorating the rest of the house, re-doing the drive etc.

MichaelDH

After what seems like a very long time, our remortgage has finally been completed! :j

We have had a bit of a change of plan with regards the house project. We are now starting end of November or early December. Garage will be knocked down and extension built, but we won't knock through. Also having the separate toilet and bathroom knocked though and refitted at the same time, and fencing replaced. Then in January work will start again with walls coming down between kitchen and dining room and the kitchen and extension,then new kitchen and utility will be fitted and also new downstairs loo.

Can't wait to get started but already having nightmares about the cost! Looking forward to getting it all completed, building up savings again and then hopefully this time next year can start making OP's again

MichaelDH

So our extension project finally started on Monday, at very long last! Well, more of a demotion project currently! Hoping that when I get home tonight the reminder of our old garage will have been demolished and the builders will have started digging foundations for the extension. We have some snow forecast for the rest of the week, starting tomorrow afternoon, so that might be cause our first set back, but fingers crossed it won’t result in too much of a delay.

We are already over the moon with the progress that has been made, builders are much further along than anticipated, partly due to the fact the old structure was just falling apart once the roof was taken off, so the walls had to be taken down to a level that left them safe.

Part of the old structure was a coal bunker/storage area built on to the back of the garage that stood proud of the back of the house by about 6 feet with the roof line reaching just short of the bathroom window. I’ve always hated this, it looked horrible and it cast a shadow on the patio area and blocked out light to the kitchen, so really pleased this has gone, and in it’s place will be a new set of patio doors leading out from the kitchen on to a new raised patio area.

Although not strictly a ‘Mortgage Free Wannabe’ journey currently, we are aiming to get back to that once this project has been completed, so will aim to keep this diary going and add updates about how out project is going. If anyone is actually reading this, and may be in a similar situation to us, trying to increase the value of their property as much as possible or just trying to make it better, I hope this might be useful.

Off home now, via my parents’ house to pick up the boys (our dogs!), and very excited to see today’s progress!

MichaelDH

it's the start of week 2 already. Very impressed with the amount of work completed so far. Old garage structure has been completely demolished and the footings have been dug out and then filled with concrete. This week the team are hoping to start off by laying the bricks for the damp course and then by the end of the week should have dug out the floors, moved the drains and put down the insulated concrete floor slab.

The old structure had no footings as all, so not surprised it was falling down! Unfortunately this meant that the new footings had to be dug from scratch, rather than old footings being reused or made deeper, so an additional cost of £1k. Not really too bothered about this as think it's justified, plus we've managed to save some money on other areas thanks to our contractor.

In other news, we had a design appointment at B&Q at the weekend, so pretty much have a layout agreed and an itemised list of everything we need. Not sure yet if we will get the products we need from there or go to a local supplier, but good to have a plan we can work from.

MichaelDH

It's the end of week 3 already, and everything seems to be going to plan! The external walls are almost completed, if not finished by the end of the day then our builders are working tomorrow to finish off. We are really impressed with how well the new brickwork matches our existing brickwork. It's perhaps very slightly redder in colour than the existing brickwork, but I think by the time it’s weathered and looks a bit less new it will match almost perfectly. There's only really above the garage door and above the new patio doors where old and new brickwork meet anyway...

The roofers will be starting on Monday, so hopefully by the end of next week the roof will be competed, the skylights and new patio doors will be in and the extension will be water tight. We need a new garage door, the old one is now too big as we now have a double skin wall instead of single skin, plus I hated it anyway as the style didn’t suit our house at all, so the opening will be boarded up for now, until we have bought a new door and it’s been fitted. I’ve got my eye on an electric roller door so will have to see if there’s room in the budget :rotfl:

We've decided that we are definitely replacing the tiles between the upstairs and downstairs bay windows, which I think is called the barrel? The existing tiles are very faded and a few have slipped or have cracked over the past 60+ years, and I really don’t think it’s worth just replacing the damaged ones and then painting them, as some of the neighbours have attempted that with varying levels of success… Instead we will have the tiles stripped off, the barrel insulated, and new tiles put up, so we just need to decide on the colour. I was originally thinking a light grey colour, but our builder has suggested using a dark blue slate as it will match the blue engineering bricks used on the parapet above the garage door and on top of the new wall around our drive. This should hopefully be done next week, when the roofers are on site. There’s obviously an extra cost, approx. £650, but I’m sure it will be worth it.

We still need to make a decision about where to buy our new bathroom from and the layout, plus choose tiles for the kitchen and utility floor. The bathroom layout is making me feel a bit stressed, deciding on a layout for the new kitchen was much easier!

Our plan for this weekend is to finish the demolition of our swimming pool, which we started doing in September! Once we’ve finished breaking up the walls we can start filling it in with the rubble and soil that we’ve collected for the past 2 years. Can’t wait for the day that we have a larger lawn area where the pool used to be, with more room for the dogs to run around! Still not quite sure why the old chap who owned the house previously thought it would be a good idea to build a swimming pool, but like to think he’s up in heaven having a good laugh at us struggling to demolish it :A

MichaelDH

It's almost the end of week 5, where has the time gone?

Our project is progressing very well. The roof is fully tiled and the four windows have been installed, so just the guttering to go up now then the roof is complete. We upgraded to bigger windows than originally planned, and so glad we did as really pleased with the amount of light they lit in. Once the walls have been plastered and the kitchen has been installed it will be a really light and airy space and add lots of additional light to the back of the house.

When I left home this morning the new patio doors were being installed and looked great, and the builders were starting to board up the opening for the garage door, so the extension should now be weather tight. Today the builders planned to prepare for installing the steel supports where the external wall is being removed, so this morning I had to empty the kitchen units on that wall so that they could be removed. The gas hob is also being disconnected today so my partner popped out on his lunch break and bought a portable induction hob and a couple of cheap pans that are induction compatible. Steels should be installed tomorrow and then next week they will demolish the wall and then install steels on wall the between the kitchen and the dining room so that it can come down too. I think we have now reached the point where the house is going to become very dusty!

In other news, the garage door has been measured up so just need to place order now. We have decided on an electric roller door in white, for £695 with a 5 year warranty. Should be installed in 2-3 weeks.

MichaelDH

Today marks the end of week 7!

Our extension is now fully water tight with the roof completely tiled and finished, first layer of insulation installed, new patio doors fitted at the kitchen end and new garage door at the front of the house. Both the walls between the kitchen and the extension and the kitchen and the dining room have been removed and steels installed. An opening has also been formed in the hall at the the bottom of the stairs to allow access in to a downstairs w/c, and the first fix electrics have been done.

Whilst the work in ongoing the builders have boarded up the wall between the living room and dining room, and we've decided we actually like being able to close off the living room and have a more cosy space, so we are going to have oak and glass bi-fold doors installed. We've also decided that with all the work going on we might as well remove the redundant chimney breasts from the back of the house, so that's been done. Only slight annoyance is that upstairs the neighbors gallow brackets have been set too far in to the wall and actually protrude in to our side. Rather than forcing them to but this right (their work has only recently finished and took around 4 times longer than planned) we are just going to have them boxed in.

We've also now bought everything for the bathroom and all of the tiles for the bathroom floor and walls and for the floor in the kitchen, dining room and utility. Just need a toilet and sink plus tiles for the w/c downstairs now, which we are hoping to buy tomorrow. Bathroom is being stripped out today and then tiled and fitted out next week whilst downstairs is out of bounds due to underfloor heating being installed on Monday and then the floors being screeded on Thursday. Luckily my parents are away on holiday from tomorrow so we are going to sleep at their house whilst the bathroom is out of use.

We are also hoping to visit a showroom tomorrow for new oak banister end then either glass metal spindles for the stairs, but hopefully that's the last of the unplanned purchases/works.

MichaelDH

I haven't had chance for an update for the past few weeks, been very busy with work and the house etc. Yesterday marked the end of week 10, our original finish date, but we still have a little way left to go.

The bathroom is all finished and looks amazing! It's cost a lot more than we originally planned, around £9k in total, but the amount of work that went in to it (turning separate bathroom and toilet in to one big room, moving all the plumbing and electrics, removing all plaster brick and boarding before tiling etc.) and the finished result it's well worth it. It now has a real wow factor!

Outside the garden has been totally transformed, with new fencing all around, the swimming pool now filled in, a raised patio area at the top and bottom of the garden (to be paved at a later date) and the rest of the garden leveled off ready for new borders and a new lawn. I really can't wait for the summer, and after 3 years finally be able to sit out and enjoy the garden.

Downstairs the plastering is pretty much finished and the floor tiling is due to be started on Saturday and finished off on Monday. All of our kitchen appliances have arrived but the kitchen isn't due to arrive until the middle of next week. The kitchen needs to be fitted and then the quartz worktops have to be templated and installed, so I think we are looking at being completely finished by the end of the month.

Our builders have been fantastic from start to finish so we are really glad we waited around 9 months for them to fit us in. They currently have a waiting list of around 18 months! Lots if decorating to do now to get the house finished before we can have a rest and start enjoying the extra space!