Our house is a three story and terraced house with high ceilings, built in the 1890s. It had three rooms downstairs – the lounge, the kitchen diner, and a bathroom.

Our kitchen was quite small, so we started thinking about extending the home as I really struggled to cook for everybody in the house.

We are a family of five grown adult children now who have their own partners, and we have my family round often as well. And we like to entertain! So, we decided that in order to get the space we wanted to be able to entertain everybody, to be able to have much more relaxed family meal times and to spend more time together as a family, an extension would be perfect for us.

When we decided to look at an extension, the first thing we did was look at traditional extensions, largely because we didn’t know anything about modular extensions.

Then, we found out about modular extensions. We thought they looked interesting and thought we would get some more information about them. When we realized just how quickly a modular extension could be completed, and without the delays that you often find with traditional extensions, then we decided that that was the way we wanted to go with our extension.

The idea of getting a traditional extension we thought would mean having architectural drawings. So, when we were told that with a modular extension you don’t need those, I was really surprised because I always thought that architectural drawings and all the costs that comes with that would be necessary for an extension.

We decided to get our extension and got all the funding in place in around September time. We were really expecting initially for it not to be finished until January, February…March, even.

So to be told that if we started our extension even as late as the end of October, it could be built by Christmas, I was really surprised. And I’m not going to lie, I did tell my husband that if we were going to have this extension built and it couldn’t be guaranteed that it will be finished by Christmas, then they won’t start it!

When we got the guarantee from Modexa that it would be done by Christmas, and that it would be ready for my birthday at the end of December, then we agreed for it to go ahead. 

I think from start to finish, it was the end of October to the 22nd of December, when the sinks were put in and the water was turned back on.

From start to finish, the entire process which included heated floorin, all the cabinets, all the electrical items and the water all being back on, the decoration being done, the cabinets, everything being fitted was done within eight weeks!

In terms of disruption to our life – whilst the build was taking place – I was actually pleasantly surprised. We were lucky because of where the original sink had been. When we took that out, we could plumb the dishwasher into there, which meant we could still use a dishwasher.

We put the washing machine and tumble dryer into the downstairs bathroom. But even then, really, the disruption of not using the kitchen was really quite minimal compared to what it would have been if we’d have had a traditional build in place. 

It made things a lot easier; we were still managing to cook proper meals most of the time, and really only had to resort to takeaways for a week or so when it was absolutely necessary.

They are really good at guiding us through the process and accommodating all our ideas.

And I say all our ideas because it wasn’t just me. A lot of the time it was my husband and most importantly, our 21 year old daughter who had lots of ideas as to how this kitchen was going to work. She was able to easily communicate those to Tom. So they were really, really good at adapting. We even slightly changed the design of the utility room.

It was just really easy to work with Modexa. To go along and help choose the flooring, to get the colours for the cabinets or things like that. All to make sure that when we got the end product, it was just as we’d envisaged it, which is obviously really hard when you have a big space that you look at fitting and you don’t quite know what it’s going to look like.

So it is really important to have the assistance of people who know what they’re doing, to point you in the right direction and tell you whether things are going to work or not.

The project did come in on time, absolutely! As I said earlier, 22nd of December, it was all finished and we were able to put our Christmas tree up and enjoy Christmas, with a brand new, kitchen extension with everything in place, ready to use.

Budget-wise, it was probably more than we’d originally planned but that’s only because we added extras. My husband has a knack of getting something a little bit more expensive! And so, yeah, there were a few things that we have added, but absolutely, there were no extra costs, nothing added.

The new space has absolutely changed how we use our home, it’s a just a really good space to do everything. We’ve got a big, island in the middle, which my husband uses to cook on. I’ll be on the other side doing a bit of work at my laptop, or alternatively, I’ll sit at the kitchen table.

And then, depending on how many of us there are, having tea we can eat around the island or the kitchen table. But we’ve also got the lounge area as well, which is where the dining room used to be. It all blends in together. It means that whether we are doing work, watching telly, preparing or eating food, we’re all there together as a family, and we don’t all feel on top of each other in a small area.

Likewise, when we have people round, we can have parties. New Year’s Eve was lots of fun with a big kitchen; we got all our friends over and celebrated the new year together! So it really has been transformative. 

I’m hoping that with the nice weather that’s coming, that we will use it even more by having the patio doors open out onto the patio. It’ll just make it just much more liveable.

The new extension is really changed how we use the kitchen. There can often be 10 or 12 of us all wanting to have tea together. And this really means that we can get everybody around the table together. The whole family, the partners, the kids all around the table together, without having to move all the furniture around. It just makes life so much easier!

When we get people coming round to visit our house, the first time they see the extension, they’re absolutely amazed. The first thing they say when they walk in is how big it is, how wonderful it looks. And I’ve had a lot of that from people who’ve not necessarily been to the house but have seen pictures of the extension on social media.

They really like the look of it and think that it is fantastic. People don’t really know that it’s modular. It’s not something you can tell just from the outside. And when I tell them that it is and how quickly it was built, they are always really surprised!

So we really love our house! We’ve lived here for ten years. We love the area that we live in. We feel really established here. So when we wanted a bigger space, then having the opportunity to have an extension and still be able to stay where we live was a massive benefit, rather than needing to move to an area we don’t necessarily love as much.

So now that we’ve got the extension, the house really is perfect. And so we love living here, even more than we did before. Yes, I’d say we love where we live!

We wanted more space. We didn’t want to necessarily have to move away from where we live. So having the opportunity of an extension to give us what we needed to love our house even more was a massive benefit to us. So I think if you love where you live, then it gives you that opportunity to stay there, and not have to worry about the process of moving.

I’ve already recommended Modexa to a lot of friends and families. In fact, only this morning at work, when I had somebody telling me about an extension that she had started having built when she was 13 weeks pregnant, she’s now 27 weeks pregnant, and it still just has three walls to it. I suggested that she probably should have looked at Modexa, before she started with that build. 

One of the big things that impressed me is that despite all the horrible rain that we had, during the process of this being built, the build continued. They didn’t need to stop! Traditional builds would have to stop because of the rain. As soon as the walls were up and the roof was on and it was waterproof. The build was ready.

So anyone that is looking into getting any sort of an extension, I really think should look into getting a modular extension, it’s so much easier, than getting a traditional extension built.