We are about half way through, we are living in the house and haven't got to the really messy part yet. We are building a first floor extension on top of a large but rather badly put together ground floor one, which will give us two more bedrooms, an ensuite and a much larger family bathroom, and quite a lot of restructuring - turning the stairs around, moving a downstairs loo, knocking one wall down & building another. Im actually going to get a room to paint in, which is very exciting.
We have had quite a few setbacks. We bought the house thinking we would have to spend a certain amount, but I think we shall spend about 50% more, partly because we underestimated in the first place. Then we had to underpin the extension, then we had to set on another structural engineer as the first one messed up and nothing happened for about four weeks whilst we had just half a roof. We are having to have a new central heating system put in, when we thought we would need just a new boiler, and today we have found out that there is asbestos in the garage, which the surveyor missed.
I have been very stressed about it all and to me it is a bit like giving birth, it is painful, messy, you haven't a clue what's going on for much of the time and very little control. You just have to go with the flow!
The guys on site have really cracked on in the last couple of weeks and we are starting to see what a fab house we'll have once it's done. And we absolutely love the road, so it will be worth it in the end.