To ask to be temporarily rehoused whilst new kitchen installed?

[SENwoes]

I will preface this by saying I KNOW I’m very lucky to have a HA house, and I KNOW I’m very lucky to be getting a brand new kitchen for free.

So as above, I have work commencing on 22nd January to rip out the old kitchen and replace it. I don’t have a choice in this, according to the documents, I am unable to say no it’s fine, I’ll keep the old one. I’ve been told the works will take 2 weeks, as it also involves taking up the tiled floor and replacing it with lino.

It’s just dawning on me what a nightmare this will be. I have to completely empty the kitchen obviously, but there’s not really anywhere to put the stuff, it’s a very small house (just living room leading to kitchen/diner downstairs). The big appliances will go outside in the back yard apparently, but everything else will have to be boxed up and kept somewhere. I’ll have no cooking or washing up facilities, and no way of washing or drying clothes.

That’s all pretty standard I know, but my main concern is that I have a disability (CFS) and also both DC are diagnosed with ASD and currently in the house all the time as neither in education. We will essentially be trapped in our bedrooms for 2 weeks as we won’t be able to move in the front room as realistically that’s the only place everything from the kitchen can go. I need to rest…a lot, and the works will be noisy, which will also affect both DC as they struggle badly with loud noises and not being in a calm environment. They’ll also struggle with a team of workmen being in their space for 2 weeks, They both have completely different food aversions and neither of their limited range of foods is conducive to being able to batch cook and set the microwave up somewhere. Realistically it will mean a lot of eating out, but that’s not really affordable for 2 weeks.

Has anyone been in a similar situation and WIBU to ask the HA if there’s anything that could be done to move us while the works are going on? The only family member I could stay with is my DM but she’s a long way away and having works done on her own house which means she doesn’t have a functioning bathroom, so that’s not ideal really.

I have Cfs, kids with Autism and had my kitchen and bathroom done by my HA. It was hard I won’t lie, and they needed to do a full electrical check as they found problems. The weather was warmer for me so I put all my kitchen cupboard bits in a tent in the garden. Could you buy strata boxes from Argos and fill with plates etc? I had the toaster and kettle in the lounge with me. The cooker was connected most nights so we could cook( took pots from the tent, washed, dried and went back), although of course it was messy around us. The builders came early every morning and had planned what jobs for what days. I asked what the next job was so I could prepare the kids for extra noise or whatever. The builders were here a bit longer than planned but by that stage things could go back in cupboards etc so it wasn’t as stressful. It was very very noisy at the start so ear defenders are a must, and even a little walk if manageable. Good luck.

RTFT

They are usually fine about delaying it like I said mine was delayed so I could go away to my daughters graduation for a day it makes no difference to them as long as its within the timeframe just be aware it might be longer than two weeks because the snagging man comes over after they have finished don't be afraid to speak up about any issues they tried to leave me with gaps between my cupboards and the kickboards I said no (ds is autistic he WILL put things in there) they came back out and covered it all up nicely

I know you haven’t asked this OP, but I’m going to offer this suggestion in case it can long term help your CFS and hope you aren’t offended by the unsolicited advice. I’m offering because I was in the verge of being written off with CFS a few years ago, after struggling to stay awake (I was sleeping 16-19 hours a day).

Have you tried B12 injections? Not tablets. You’d need them every other day until no further improvement in symptoms. You’d need 5mg folic acid daily to support them (at least 1 hour before the injection). After 3 weeks of every other day injections my doctor could visibly see the difference in me and agreed to prescribe it ongoing for me (I had bought it from Germany to try it originally). I could actually stay awake all day!

There are other cofactors you’d potentially need (iron, vitamin D plus K2, magnesium, B conplex with no more than 10mg B6 daily etc) but you’d definitely need those monitoring with blood tests to know how much etc. B12 injections won’t do you any harm (you pee out any excess) and folic acid is water soluble too so if you don’t need them, it’s not going to make you any worse or do you harm.

in case you’ve had blood tests done and your levels are “fine” - if your folate level was low it can cause a false high B12, if you lack intrinsic factor your B12 can be high but you are functionally deficient so need injections, in some countries, anything below 500 is considered deficient - in the UK it’s based on lab averages, so in areas where lots are deficient, the bottom of the scale drops dramatically. Remember, lab ranges are based on sick people - healthy people don’t go to the drs to get tests done on the whole! So the lab averages will always be worse - you always need to know optimal results!

I’ll shut up now, feel free to PM me if you’d like any info. B12 injections saved my life. I hope they can help you too!

Well I wouldn't. We need a new kitchen and bathroom, we can't afford it, but if we could DS is autistic and would be highly likely to have meltdowns over the disruption - and his meltdowns are violent and have put me A&E.

He struggled hugely with us changing the radiator in the living room, that took a day and we took him out while the work was being done.

And lets not dismiss people's very real struggles as being a first world problem, because by that standard pretty much nobody in this country should ever complain about anything.

- I am a homeowner and I would love for someone to come along and tell me that I can have new kitchen cupboards next week installed for free!

You would increase the value of your property with a new well designed kitchen. OP gains nothing. You would also have a choice in select items you deem nice to have - OP will get a functional kitchen

No she doesn’t want it, but she doesn’t have the luxury of owning her own home to have that choice, so she has to suck it up or move somewhere else.

Fuck me, how dare homeowners have an opinion. She will have a new kitchen she should be grateful. As a home owner I had to live with a George Foreman grill and a microwave for five years until I’d saved for a kitchen. You all need to get over yourselves. Scarletttulips is 100% correct.

Grateful for what exactly ?
I have been a home owner and now due to circumstances I'm living in a housing association house
If you saw my kitchen you wouldn't be grateful

Swings and roundabouts....as a homeowner, you can choose what work you have done and when. We recently got a new kitchen...we couldn't afford one for years and lived with our falling apart old one for a long time.. peeling sealant, very little cupboard space, peeling laminate on cupboard doors etc. However, when we could afford it, we got to choose the colour and tailor it to our tastes and needs. It cost us a lot of money though. Yes, social housing or ha tenants don't have to directly pay for their kitchen but they also can't choose what they want. I wouldn't say one group is massively privileged in comparison to the other...if you're a homeowner with no spare cash you are pretty stuck if you're in desperate need of home improvements or renovations.

Are you disabled? Do you have two disabled children?

I think you might be the one who needs to get over herself.
I'm a private home owner, but it doesn't prevent me having empathy with someone whose life has not gone the way mine has, and who consequently has no agency at all over what happens in or to her home.

@threatmatrix as a homeowner what made you decide to own a home without a functioning kitchen?

Everybody who has a new kitchen installed suffers stress and inconvenience. It doesn't matter whether you own your home or not. The OP is asking for advice on how minimise the stress as she is disabled and her children have additional needs. She asked a reasonable question and it's descended into an undignified back and forwards about people's living situations.

I don't have an answer for you OP. If you can't get temporary accommodation then there have been some good suggestions on how to cope. I hope it goes well.

No, the owner of the home has a new kitchen... In this case the HA.

OP will have inconvenience and expense that she doesn't want, and possibly a rent increase thanks to the 'added value' just to add insult to injury

@Tillow4ever thank you, glad you are feeling better now. I do have low B12, and so started having the B12 injections late last year. I had the first 3 booked for the same week, the first 2 were ok, then the third one I had a really bad reaction to and ended up in an ambulance. Really dizzy, racing heart, freezing cold with the shivers, couldn’t stand up, was having weird hallucinations. So they gave it a couple of weeks until the next one, which was a bit better but I still felt really dizzy and completely wiped out for a few days and my balance completely went. When I saw the nurse that time she was asking me about the reaction I’d had and said that a few patients from the surgery recently had also had similar reactions. Don’t know if it was a dodgy batch or something, did get me wondering as she said she’d never come across it until recently. Anyway was booked in for the final two just before Christmas and then I got covid and missed them, and haven’t rebooked them yet. So they haven’t been quite the miracle cure I was hoping for!

I’ve had CFS since 2015 and had various bloods done over the years and my B12 was always ok until the last test, so I don’t think that’s the cause of my tiredness, although it’s probably not helping. I had an incredibly stressful and prolonged time of several years where I was literally in fear of my life, suffered terrible abuse, was too scared to sleep etc, which I think ultimately knackered my nervous system in the end. And then I got a really nasty virus in 2015 and that was that, been a bit useless ever since. But I think it was a combination of the stress and then the virus kind of finished me off.

In other news, I just phoned the HA to ask to speak to the supervisor of the kitchen replacement as was offered in the text. I wanted to clarify how long I’d be without water or electricity, from that point of view it seems ok as it shouldn’t be long, a few hours at most for both.

The other issue was my white goods being put in the back yard. I said I wasn’t happy about them being outside for 2 weeks in the winter, and I wouldn’t be able to afford to replace them if they got damaged. She said I would need to claim on my contents insurance if that happened, and that they weren’t liable for them as they were a tenant’s responsibility. I said I appreciate they are my responsibility but I don’t tend to leave them in the garden…in winter. And I would be very surprised if any insurance company would pay out for them being damaged due to being left outside, and even if they did I’d have excesses and increased premiums to pay. She then suggested I find somewhere else for them to go. I said I don’t know anyone nearby who could have them (I really don’t), and with me being disabled how is she expecting me to move them? I pointed out realistically I would have to pay for someone to come and take them away and store them, which I can’t afford, especially as I already will have extra costs incurred due to not having a kitchen for 2 weeks and us needing to eat. We then came back to the start with her saying they’d need to go in the garden then, and I said that’s fine if you’re happy to sign something to state liability for them if anything happens. She said no, I said no, she said she’d get the supervisor to phone me. So waiting for that now.

I also asked if the works could be delayed until the weather is better, so there was less chance of damage to my belongings, but apparently that’s a no too. She said that kitchens are replaced on a 20 year cycle, and mine needs to be done next week otherwise it won’t be done for another 20 years.

Ah good the supervisor just phoned and said that ‘on this occasion’ they will take my white goods on the first day and store them inside at their yard until the last day, although that’s not usually something they’d do.

Be careful. What if they don't store them safely and they damage them? I'm guessing they will say they accept no liability. You should ask them to confirm in writing that they accept full responsibility for the items.

I can't believe they actually wanted appliances left outside for two weeks. That is completely unreasonable.

Well done on your update, OP. Absolutely ridiculous of them to think that your insurance would cover a deliberately neglectful action on their part. Madness.

Rents go up just like mortgages.

We were having an extension built when my partner of the time died ( he was the main earner)

@threatmatrix sorry for your loss.
Although if you could plug in a George Foreman grill and a microwave couldn't you have just bought a cooker and plugged that in?

Sorry to hear about your bad experience, it sounds awful! I’ve never heard of it having that sort of reaction (it’s just a vitamin so shouldn’t do) but maybe your other cofactor levels dropped low from the other injections. We do often get worse before we get better due to reversing our symptoms.

The thing is, tiredness is a neurological symptom, and the BNF that all doctors have quite clearly states every other day injections until no further improvement in symptoms. It took me well over a year over every other day until I truly felt well again, not just better. I started helping out with the B12 Society because I was so angry that doctors know so little about B12 that patients are horribly undertreated for it. I was lucky - my doctor was willing to learn more. Most aren’t that lucky. Learning to self inject it made things easier, as that’s cheaper for the doctors surgery as no appointments to give.

One thing to mention is that you have to be clear of ANYTHING containing added B12 before blood tests - so supplements, energy drinks, etc. a single one in the 4-6 months prior to the blood test can cause a false high. So it’s not always as simple as looking at results and saying they’re ok - they might not be a true result, which is why the B12 society is trying to get training programmes accredited for doctors, so they start treating symptoms not numbers.

I get a bit obsessed talking B12, sorry! It just frustrates me when doctors do half a job. I bet they didn’t get you to take 5mg folic acid before the injections either, which means you wouldn’t be able to utilise it, so it would essentially be as if they injected water.

I’ll leave it there, hopefully it gives you something to think about and consider trying to explore further. I wanted to die when i was at my worst. I was convinced I must have cancer or something because I felt so unwell and exhausted. I couldn’t believe a simple vitamin deficiency could really make me that ill.

good luck with the kitchen!

I just re-read and saw your comment about the virus. That’s how mine started! I had flu in Feb 2016. The tiredness just never went away. Very similar to how long covid is described in fact.

@SENwoes I know, massively inconvenient, but can you make space for the white goods in your living room?
I wouldn't trust the HA storing them correctly off site.