This was the view straight down from my office window earlier today. Mick and Jaime are digging the trench on the right because, Jaime says, they've decided they don't like the one on left which they dug yesterday. The real reason is that we're having our kitchen extended. And we are not alone. According to the Halifax, one in four British homeowners are having improvements done, an increase of seven percent on last year. Enlarging kitchens is a big favourite, but our reasons for doing so are atypical.
We are having ours done so it's easier to fit all the kids in at mealtimes. Other folk, especially first time buyers, are doing it purely because they think it will add in instant £5,000 to the value of their property. But how much are they borrowing to have the work done in the first place? And has the property market made us insane?
I hope you didn't waste your time applying for planning permission? ;)
Posted by: Ben | September 13, 2007 at 03:43 PM
Fortunately, the project isn't grand enough for that to be required. But, oh, do I recognise the voice of a fellow Hackneyite...!
Posted by: Dave Hill | September 13, 2007 at 04:41 PM
We've spent the best part of eleven years doing up our house, mainly to accomodate our growing family.
And now it seems the garden grabbers are after us... Sadly our back garden counts as a brownfield site, when there was me thinking it was somewhere my children could play so they don't get obese.
(I do realise of course it is fantastically lucky to have a garden big enough to be grabbed, but that's why we moved from London eons ago...)
Hope your work goes well...
Posted by: Jane Henry | September 13, 2007 at 08:10 PM