Hi there

About 3 years ago we added on a family room to our home 6mx5m- my DH did all the work, although we did get professionals in to do the roofing and gyprock. It took about 6 weeks and all up (fully furnished, floor boards, painted, new lounge, rug etc) cost us $16000.....

4 weeks ago we got a builder in to add yet another study/computer room onto the family room we just built........, and build us a decking. The size of this room was 5mx2.5m. We also got him to replace all the arcatraves in our home (except the bedrooms) and he made some of our walkways more open (rather than those mousey type entrances). All up we spent $33000.........
Get lots of quotes from builders, request to see their work. And when you do find someone, ensure you go thru the contract with a fine tooth comb. THere are a lot of scumbags out there just waiting for people like you and i.......whilst we were quoted one sum for the work we wanted, at the end of the job we ended up paying more coz he added on things that were not in the contract......also set a date (realistic) of when you want the job finished. We didnt have one, and we were very much put out of our comfort zone for 2 weeks (me and girls had to live at mums .....grrrrr).

We are going to renovate/extend later this year too.....but i guarantee you my DH will be doing it. Fair enough it may take twice as long, but its twice as cheap, and we found my DH put a bit more lovin into the craftsmanship than what a builder would.

Good luck - its fun, but a PIA if you know what i mean......