Kick off!

I'm just back from the kick off meeting for the next phase of the project and although the bills are scary, we suddenly feel a lot closer to actually getting something built. We've even put the wheels in motion to put our current house on the marker as I will need the capital out of this house to build the new one. That kind of thing REALLY makes it feel real, after so long of wondering if it would ever happen.

RRA Architects have managed to get alot of the Buildings Regs drawings done ahead of schedule which pulls the build start date into 2011: the build is currently down to start mid October. We had imagined that we would be into 2012 before anything happened on the ground.

The sums involved are very frightening though. We started off with a budget of 250-300k, however this soon looked unrealistic. When I got the initial cost estimate from the Quantity Surveyor this week I had to lie down: the initial project cost estimate was for 462k (with professional fees on top of that)! There is plenty we can pare back and some items in the costing that we do not need, so we have agreed to go with a budget of 400k. That will stretch me a little more than I would like but it's affordable. That 400k includes an 8% contingency so, you never know, we might just make under that...

We can now start thinking about kitchens, bathrooms, floor coverings and the like. This is my kind of fun, but with the two of us there is some serious negotiation to do!

How we heat of the house is also still be decided: there are plenty of options but the key will be finding the most cost effective solution and also a solution that we are confident about being able to deliver the warmth and flexibility. More on this in another post.