Is there a support thread for those going through building work?

[MaeMobley]

We have now been living for 2 months without a kitchen.

I miss most:
my dishwasher
my washing machine
my cats using a cat flap and pooing outside
boiling a saucepan for pasta

Less than 2 months to go.

We complete on buying an old pub on Monday. Currently there is a 2 bed flat upstairs, and two bars and a function room (with mirror ball!) on ground floor. Pub been empty since 2009, so hoping to get permission to change into a five bed house.

I have three boys - 5, 3 and 7months, and OH works abroad for 46 weeks. Am ma, yes?

Insane

I think I am insane! It's so exciting though we're turning a grade 11 listed terrace which is a wreck into a beautiful family home. I'm in denial about how long it's going to take (and how much it's going to cost)
I'm only 5 weeks pregnant with dc3 (shhh) and by the time we move in, half way through the build, will be 12 weeks so hoping morning sickness will have gone by then (if I dont miscarry again, long story)

If only we could decide on a bloody kitchen... (harvey jones/roundhouse taste, ikea budget!)

Good luck to everyone please update the this thread.
Great idea about the slow cooker. We will def have to set up a makeshift kitchen in the dining room.

Paper plates- genius!

We're 3 months in and the extension is just being plastered now, I think another 4 weeks of fit-out to go. We were managing with a fairly good makeshift kitchen (boiler and kitchen were the first things to go) but have just had to shrink again so we are sleeping and cooking in the lounge. I think you get to a low point when it seems to have gone on for ages with no end in sight. I would advise choosing your pretty things like colour schemes early because I have no motivation now, just thinking I'll buy anything to get it done.

Having seen the other thread my neighbours deserve an honourable mention because they have not complained at all about the vans, dust, mud and noise.

Does anybody have any tips to make it easier?
I agree about paper plates; we also use the laundrette/ my mum to do our washing (not sure it makes it easier - no choice).

"Does anybody have any tips to make it easier?"

Book into a hotel?

Quite seriously, especially if you have youngsters, they will find it an adventure to stay somewhere even if it is as inexpensive as a Travelodge on one of their special-offer weekends. If you like you can stay local so no tiring journey.

Plenty of peace and quiet, working bathroom, no cleaning to do, no need to cook, it will give you a rest. Once a month will do.

I'd rather stay amongst the dust and chaos than have us and the kids all in one hotel room if it was just dh and me i'd factor in a lovely hotel stay as part of the budget!

MaeMobley
PigletJohn, with a combi, can you never run 2 showers at the same time? I assumed it was our poor useless boiler

Sorry didn't see that until today.

With a combi, the total amount of water that comes into the house from the main is the total amount of water that can come out of the taps, hot and cold added together, at any one time.

It is probably between 8 and 12 litres per minute.

So turning on a second tap will always reduce the amount of water that can come out of another tap.

Depending on its power, a combi can probably produce about 10 lites per minute of water that's hot enough for a shower. If you're blessed with a big incoming water main that can deliver, say, 20 litres per minute, the boiler will not be able to make it hot enough. Bath taps are usually tinkered with to reduce the flow when a combi is fitted.

Installers like combis because they are easy and quick to fit, especially in a small flat with no space for tanks. They are popular with some householders who think that having an extra cubic metre of space in the airing cupboard will not mean that they just fill it up with more junk.

IMO they are not satisfactory for baths, as they take so long to fill up (100 lites at 10 litres per minute = 10 minutes), and they are not satisfactory for a house with two showers that may be in use at the same time as they will only get half the flow each.

A cylinder, or a Megaflow (which is a modern version of a cylinder that runs at incoming mains pressure) heats up the water in advance of use, so you are not contrained by the speed the boiler can heat it, and can fill your bath as fast as the water will come through the taps. A Megaflow does need a modern, large incoming water main with a lot of flow, though, to get the full advantage.

Thanks PigletJohn for the combi explanation.

Re booking into a hotel, we are staying with my parents for half term to get away from the house!!!

On a slightly lower budget, we took the kids to the local pub for breakfast on a saturday, no washing up, bit of a treat and surprisingly cheap.
Tho a tiny bit embarrassing in the school playground when DS2 bounces around going "pub day tomorrow, hurray!"

Just marking my spot as we're hoping to start extension in a few weeks...

It will be worth it in the end. It will. It will.

OH and I are excited and yet terrified about completing the purchase tomorrow. Have 5 weeks to get the pub flat habitable for us and three small boys, then the task of getting change of use (saving us £800 per month business rates ) before we can begin building.

Tomorrow is not the end.

We renovated a sixties house between August and December last year with two kids aged 6 and 2. We didn't plan to move out but we ended up renting a little bungalow because the builders accidentally removed all of our drains while we were away in Cornwall.

We moved back in on December 16th. I really feel your pain. If it helps to see the before and after shots, I blogged the lot of it at sixtiespalace.blogspot.com and there are plenty of photographs of rubble and all our ups and downs! Good luck. Keep Calm. Carry On....

Oh and if there are any questions about any of it, you can either ask me here or comment on the blog and I'll receive your question as an e-mail.

Turned water on today. It the poured thrugh the ceiling into the first bar. Still no electrics. Copper piping been nicked. I move in with the boys in just over a month...

Ok Captainbarnacle, you are allowed to moan and whinge as much as you want.

Actually excited!

How's the hotel booking looking?

I'm also going through a build and mostly living in the house - boy do I need a support thread.

We started work last July and broke the work into 2 phases, however phase 1 has just dragged on. Our builder suddenly got inundated with work for large extensions and rather than finish the smaller works, like utility room, porch replacement, bathrooms and driveway we have had to engage other builders. Very time consuming and so frustrating. It just feels as if it's never ending.

My lessons learnt - if possible and for major, major works move out. We did for a few weeks during the knock through. So glad we did as I'm not sure we could have coped. Consider holiday lets, lodges, especially through winter you can get some good deals and you are not then all in one hotel room.
Contract with a builder so that he knows he has to finish the works (we didn't and used trust!) Finances hasn't been an issue just remaining work, I think he just prefers the big building jobs rather than internal stuff.
Good idea to sort out all the colours, internal decorations upfront as this can take forever. It's never too early to get stuff ahead and store if possible. Better to have everything ready rather than last minute.
Don't underestimate the thinking through of designs for kitchens, bathrooms, we spent ages looking at drawings and making changes. Glad we did as the end result is worth it.
I might however be regretting the black granite - but went along with what dh wanted..should have fought harder!
The new shape house has meant new furniture - not much of our old stuff suits, we didn't allow a budget for this and we should have.

For the benefit of others contemplating work I would strongly endorse allaboutthename's advice: ".. Contract with a builder so that he knows he has to finish the works (we didn't and used trust!) .."

A useful, simple, easy to understand and cheap 'Standard Form of Building Contract' can be found here