Home Extension Thread 2018 - summer edition

[DustandRubble]

A thread to share the highs and lows of all things extension, loft conversion, renovation related. Bring your own dustpan and brush.

[FiloPasty]

You have the best name!
I’m here week 1ibti aground floor single extension :)

[Whattodowithaminute]

Checking in for this thread hoping not to make it to the next one having been on at least two previously 🙄!

[DustandRubble]

You and me both! My builders are absolutely talking as if they will be done by end of month. The head guy wants to buy my kids a present for being so lovely and coping with it all so well.

[Hopefully]

I'll be on this thread, the next thread, the one after that, the one after that....

Loving all the progress pics in the last thread! Do keep posting them, those of you actually experiencing progress.

[Twerking9to5]

Hi, new to the thread!

3 weeks in to loft conversion and ground floor extension. Currently hardly any disruption as it’s all going on in the roof! Have a feeling I’ll be less upbeat in a couple of months time.

Neighbours have been really unhappy and complained almost daily for first two weeks. Seems to have calmed down a bit now....touch wood.

[Ilovechocolatetoomuch]

First weekend in a month no builders, ahhhhhh it’s heaven!

[4yearsnosleep]

Jumping on this one where hopefully I'll actually start!

[AmazingGrace16]

Thanks for the new thread!
How do you pacify neighbours? I've popped round a few times as they had problems with party wall agreement, fences, parking etc. We've completely complied with everything they have requested and I sent them an email last night at the end of our first two weeks just checking in with them to make sure they were happy. This was having seen them peering over the fences which have been the bane of my life!

I just have this awful feeling they aren't happy still and nothing I'm doing is helping matters. I get on fine with them normally which makes this even harder!!

[Whattodowithaminute]

Amazing I’m not sure you can make neighbours 100% happy to be honest; our neighbours by our building work are gimpy about everything but we have a full
Party wall award in place and are following to the letter. We are not living on site though.
Incidentally we have neighbours doing a loft extension next to us and it’s quite intrusive, the noise all day, it’s loads harder to park, the dust is through our house, car is filthy, rubbish in our garden, they keep asking us not to park on our drive as they are throwing rubbish into their skip and worried about hitting the car but we have to pay to park
On road. Building is intrusive however much effort you make so do what you can but it’s unlikely everyone will be happy the whole way through. I’m
Just hoping that at the end we don’t have an awful relationship, I can live without having a great one; our new neighbours are never going to be my best friends, we have very little in common

[DustandRubble]

I think sometimes if you are too anxious around the neighbours and constantly checking ok that it just encourage them to be petty and moan. I’ve been lucky because our neighbours have been great about everything. I have had a few comments about how long it has taken but I just go for a breezy “oh I know, I feel like they’ll never leave!” Plus I let them chuck stuff in our skip, always appreciated!

Honestly just let them get on with it and peer over the fence if they want to. If they have a serious problem they can ask you, otherwise it’ll just encourage them to moan.

[FiloPasty]

Oh my neighbour in one side has been a nightmare since the beginning and our planning only went through on appeal. We are waiting for the party wall to arrive in the post he has told the builder he’s not agreed to anything on his property but his surveyor has agreed to there being hoarding 700mm into his property. Do I just tell him to ring his surveyor? I thought this was legally binding and they’ve agreed all this with him???
Urgh he’s horrid!

[Whattodowithaminute]

Apologies for the typos... my neighbours are grumpy rather than gimpy...

[Twerking9to5]

Makes me feel a little easier knowing others have neighbour issues. I actually think dust you have hit the nail on the head (excuse the building related pun). I think we overdid it with our neighbours in an effort to be as compliant and unobtrusive as possible. I now think this has played into a “victim” mentality. So we are backing off a bit now. The wife doesn’t acknowledge me at all and I’m now getting past caring!

[Linguaphile]

Hello all! Thought I’d check in on the new thread.

Progress is finally happening! The electric first fix is done, plaster has been done, we have a front door, our windows all have knobs, and they’ve put in the balcony doors in our master suite.

They should be able to insulate the floors next week and pour the cement the following week. So excited it’s finally happening! Once it’s poured the kitchen fitters can come in. 🤗

[Twerking9to5]

@linguaphile what a gorgeous framed image you have of the trees from your window!

[DustandRubble]

That looks stunning Lingua, even unfinished. The view is amazing.

[Ilovechocolatetoomuch]

Wow lingua that looks lush!

[MyNameIsJane]

Lovely Lingua

[HippoJones]

Can I join too please? We are seven months into a build that will hopefully take us ten in total. We have pretty much demolished the entire house and are rebuilding although the planners made us retain the front wall of the original building (which is a shame because it’s the ugliest bit of it and has caused us endless headaches).

We’ve been building through the snow, non stop rain and Beast from the East weather hell all of which have contributed to us being 6 weeks behind where we should be now. Only huge cost problem so far has been to do with the 48 steels the Structural Engineer has forced us to put in which came to thousands more than we had budgeted.

Roof is starting to be rebuilt this week and thankfully we’ve just overcome a nightmare to do with the ceiling height in the loft. Our bedroom is going up there as the planners rejected our original proposal which had all four bedrooms on the first floor. Our planning process was horrific and we had to hire a consultant in the end to help us get it through so our final design is not what we originally wanted but more ‘what we knew would get passed’.

We’ve never lived in this house (bought it early last year as a rebuild project to hopefully be our forever home) and so we’ve been haemorrhaging money paying rent elsewhere whilst we do this. Financially it’s been hugely stressful but I am absolutely loving project managing the build itself. I think it helps that we’re using builders we’ve worked with on a previous much smaller project. If we had crap, untrustworthy builders we’d be stuffed!!

Finally getting towards the time we can start picking everything from doors to floors so would love to be able run ideas by fellow Mumsnet renovators. Might need some serious handholding though as the bills start coming in as I’ve got a feeling there may be some bumps in the road ahead!!

[4yearsnosleep]

Welcome Hippo. 48 steels, ouch I can imagine that was a bit of a shock!

Lingual it's looking great. Love your view to the garden and funky front door

[Whattodowithaminute]

Lingua the greenery you have through your windows is gorgeous; looks like you’ve really optimised your view with the wonderful glazing.
Welcome hippo, 48 steels is incredible, we only have 4 and they’ve been the most challenging bit so far so I really feel for you...
I’ve been getting annoyed at our lack of progress this weekend; will call builder tomorrow to try and manange him more effectively but i think he will ultimately do as he pleases anyway...

[HippoJones]

It’s been a bottomless pit of steel. I think our house could withstand a meteor hit now. Some of them are so small I can’t even understand why on earth we have to incorporate them, others are so huge it’s taken endless cranes just to get them on site. Lingua, I’m not sure where you live but the view from your windows is glorious. Good Luck with the builder tomorrow Whattodo. It’s beyond frustrating when the weeks tick by and nothing moves forward.

[whatashower]

Hi guys! Extension survivor (one year on and dust free) here, blatantly placemarking because I love to see your fantastic progress.......❤️

[DustandRubble]

48 steels! That is incredible. I thought I was doing well for steels having just hit double figures.

[Homesunderthehammer27]

I joined the last thread, but things have been hectic and I didn't return....

We started a month ago. It's a large ground floor extension adding new rooms and a double garage. We have foundations but are not quite up to damp proof course yet - should be there by the end of this week but delayed by the availability of the man digging the drains and then the concrete pump so there has been a week of holidays and then a bit of faffing on this week because they need to leave space for the concrete pump to get to where it needs to be.

I have become one of those people who changes their mind about where things are going though. When it's all on paper, it's very different to when the bricks are on the ground, and our builder also suggested a couple of ways we could save a bit of money on steels (that I'm going to spend on putting in round windows! )