Tomas the builder

Even though we haven't bought it yet, Jess and I had an appointment at the new house with a builder (contractor to you).

Ostensibly, we just wanted a quote on a few items the surveyor (inspector to you) had highlighted, including the entire electrical system.  In reality, though, it was an excuse to start talking about a house extension.

As I mentioned before, the house is a bog standard 1930's semi-detached with a tiny, dated kitchen.  It originally had a small living room and dining room, but the owners had removed the dividing wall and made it one long room, although the dining area was quite dark.  Our idea was to add a few feet to the back of the house, put in a lot of glass to lighten it up, and open the wall between the kitchen and dining room.

Of course, the first thing the builder pointed out was that everything we wanted to move was structural.

Fortunately, although I never heard of this in the States, it's quite common here to insert a 'reinforced steel joist' and remove the supporting wall.  Of course, it's not cheap.  And we are talking about three of them.

So now we're waiting for the builder to come back with a quote.  Of course, we'll completely change our plans -- I've already changed them twice today -- but it's quite exciting to be looking at photos and talking about what we want to do. 

When the quote comes back and we have to deal with the reality of compromising to meet our budget, that probably won't be as much fun.