Final stage of extension - constant 'extra' costs

[MummytoMog]

WAH.

Feels like we've been building forever, and we are down to the last possible money we can borrow. As it is, poor Fatboy is having to give up nursery to pay for the extra loan we had to take out (only for a couple of months until he hits three, don't panic!). We've been shoved out of our house for a week longer than the sodding builders said we would, so extra expense there and now they just KEEP coming up with extra costs. Like apparently we have so many 'channels' in the extension that we need ANOTHER new fuse board (we already completely rewired the old house as it was a death trap) which will cost £400. And apparently 'someone promised' our neighbour that we would retarmac the shared drive. ERM, say what? It was knackered before we got anywhere near it (although I admit is has not been improved by six months of building work). I don't even know how much tarmac costs, but I know we can't afford it. Actually, how much does tarmac cost? Anyone know?

I literally dread my phone ringing or emails popping up in case it's them. I just want them gone. Actually, I want them to finish, take care of my snagging list and then leave forever. Emigrate preferably.

When he said in July that I'd be sick of having him around by the time he was done I thought to myself that I was already sick of having him around. But now I've reached a whole new level of sick to death of this whole thing. I can't even get excited about new kitchens or new rooms. Woe is me. Etc.

Scary stuff - we are in the planning stage of an extension and thoughts of unexpected costs and never ending builders in the house are filling me with dread. No advice just watching with interest and wishing you luck.

I totally sympathise. We are in the hopefully final stagesof an extension. We don't even look at the budget anymore. And I am sick sick sick of tradesmen in the house. I didn't mind it at all at the beginning (last spring/summer) but I have had enough.

The worst is when you're halfway in and there's no going back and you have to plough on til the end or live in a building site forever. Horrible!

Oh yes, the 'we've gone too far to go back' stage. that was probably when they took our roof off :(

I know they're not actually bad people. But to them it's just their job and to me it's my house. Where I have to live. With my small children, who I prefer in one piece. And they're so dirty, they never clean up after themselves, I have to nag nag nag to get anything done that isn't immediately obvious (hello concrete under ridge tile, I'm talking about YOU) and they seem to think they have all the time in the world. I borrowed an extra £5k more than I thought I needed when I borrowed the money to pay for the fit out, the kitchen and the bathrooms. Unsurprisingly, it has all been spoken for. Their solution to the 'there is no more money' problem is to tell me to fit the fucking disgusting fire doors they want, rather than ones which are appropriate to the age and value of my house. FUCK OFF and stop telling me what to spend my money on.

And breathe. I used to have weeks where it was funny (like when the kitchen ceiling collapsed one morning at six am) and odd days where I burst into tears (like when the oven door exploded all over me and the kitchen). Now basically I seem to have no kind of sense of humour or proportionality. I just get hysterical at the slightest provocation. I grind my teeth all night in my sleep. I've put on about two stone from misery eating and look five months pregnant. My husband is lucky if he gets a shag once a week.

We are NEVER doing this again.

Presumably you are project managing the build yourselves? You have to divide the costs into reasonable and unreasonable or possibly, foreseen and unforeseen. Was there a contingency built into the original budget because building work is always going to go over? If not, why not?

Ignore all the unreasonable stuff like retarmacing the drive. "Someone" telling the neighbour it would be redone does not form part of the original budget. If it needs doing, and it sounds like it probably does, tell your neighbour you simply haven't got the funds to do it now and will look at it in six months?

In other areas, if you need a new fuse board, why was that not identified at the planning and costing stage? The builders presumably knew how much power was going into the extension? Was their costing not very comprehensive or have legitimate extras come up as they went along?

Agree with that. I've told my builder that any costs outside of the original budget have to be cleared with me in advance or they won't be paid. So far I have only agreed to costs that are clearly urgent or would be more expensive to do later. Also, I have reduced the scope of work they are doing to balance the budget at times for instance, they were supposed to do our wardrobes but when they padded one of the bills, instead of arguing I simply said I would save money by getting the wardbrobes done separately by a 3rd party for less. If you punish them by eating into their profit margin, they try it on a lot less. I hope you've been holding back a retention for snagging it is literally the best thing we did as a lot of their profit hasn't been paid so they are invested in finishing the job properly. Speaking to my builder literally fills me with despair and I know he hates my guts but at least we are only very marginally off budget. Hang in there. It is so much harder than you ever imagine it would be before you start off! I too am now struggling to get excited about anything anymore.

Sound advice from unexpected . I would think the person that promises pays. Also with the fuse box - did you add anything mid build (be honest with yourself - any while your there just...xyz type comments), if it is your changes you pay if they messed up they pay.

Have you got an architect or anyone that could help you out with negotiate/ explain there is no more money?

I get nervous speaking to our builder and I reckon he is an angel - my usual competences disappear and I send in DH. It's really hard but it will end!

Jesus this could be me talking. Just at the end of a nightmare build- actual build work great but internal issues aplenty- they are so fucking clumsy- have damaged things that they weren't even working on! I agreed a 10k spend on extras- but they are trying to come back with an extra 1.5 k on electrics for the bastard electricians who turned up when they felt like and left us with no electrics in some rooms for 3 weeks! The original allowance for electric was 1k so I am fucked if I am paying two and a half times that!!! The last bit job they had to do- French windows which arrived damaged and I am no way paying for them till it's sorted.Plus the kitchen fitter is pissing and arsing me about with the last bits!!!

Absolute band of twats!!!!

Jesus - I am getting stressed just thinking about it!!! And I have never sworn on Mumsnet I don't think.

OP my DH and I have been rowing non stop, it ruined our Xmas plus as you say we were eating shite in a pitch black kitchen for 2 months, plus my exercise regime went to shit!! I have developed an Health condition which I am convinced is stress related!!!

So OP - have a little from me - I feel your pain and sorry for my fruity language xx

Oh yes we were washing up in the bath. We had the microwave in the bedroom. No running water downstairs for months.

We had to wait 15 weeks for rear wall glazing. The shower tray was too heavy and we would have had to reinforce the bathroom floor. We sent it back and it got chipped in transit and they blamed us.

Thankfully our kitchen went in ok without too many issues apart from a tap that didn't work.

We managed to find some Bulgarian tradesmen who have done our decorating, tiling and wooden flooring at a fraction of the cost our builder would have charged. But we are still over budget (although it was partly our fault as the budget was a bit unrealistic).

I would never do this again but if I did I would be far better at drawing up a budget and managing the builders and their 'extras' for which DH and I thought they used a random number generator thingy to calculate the costs of.

And I am no longer excited by it all. I just want it finished and my house back to myself and try and work out how we are going to pay off all the loans and credit cards.

The toilet couldn't be wall hung as fixing holes wrong shape for washer (that is an ongoing dispute)

I know what you mean. I used to dread them turning up and ruining my peaceful morning brew before work.

And my DH phoning me ranting because he was arriving home to carnage every night.

At least most of that bit is over.

The extras (including the fuse board) are basically reasonable. I don't think they quoted properly for the electrical fit out, but that is my fault for not checking it. We are currently (on an original budget of £110k) about 10k over. Nothing gets done unless I agree to it, but if they find rotten joists in the floors (and they did) they do need replacing and we suddenly have to find hundreds of pounds. Stuff I thought was included, suddenly isn't (second fix electrics in the damn loft conversion for example), and I wish someone had warned me about building notice charges, build over fees and how much electric shower power supplies cost. At least they knocked some money off for the fuckwit plumber who shagged my boiler.

We are doing tiling, flooring and fitting the kitchen ourselves. And decorating. We have 5% as our last stage payment, which won't be paid until the snagging list is done.

Hiya

We have only just started (like interviewing builder stage). I think you are all being very brave.

One thought: this too will pass

One lesson (for me): hold onto 5% for snagging

One request: when you are sitting in your newly decorated, newly extended houses enjoying the fabulousness and making up for the sex drought, please could you find a moment to come back and tell us it ended well?

all the best
MW

Sigh. At least the doors are FINALLY sorted. I have sourced them. I have ordered them. I will have to paint all 12 of them, but they are beautiful. They need to be, to be worth the extra £1500 ;) Although that is a good £500 cheaper than even my nice builder could find them, and £1200 cheaper than the stupid builder suggested they would be.

I WIN.

I have taken your advice, and every time an extra cost comes up now, I sigh and say 'oh what a shame, I suppose we will have to lose the decking/built in cupboard/new front door'. Seems to be working...

DH rang having a bit of a melt down. Apparently it's too much for his fragile little soul having to move all the furniture back after the rewire and tidy up. Woe is him. I moved everything out of our original loft conversion into the garage and the kids' room in July. Then everything out of the garage into the outhouse in September. Then everything out of the kitchen into the living room and a storage unit in December. Then everything out of one of the kids' rooms into the other in January. 30 sqm of oak flooring around various rooms in the house. I have spent SIX MONTHS moving furniture around, selling stuff on eBay, buying stuff on eBay, ordering kitchens and appliances, cleaning up after the builders, sweeping up collapsed ceilings, liaising with the knobby builders and managing the budget. Once the builders leave, I have to fit the kitchen, the utillity, the cloakroom and two bathrooms. But a bit of hoovering and shifting furniture is apparently too much for poor wickle DH.

Well done MtM glad you have a strategy that has worked!! One of the main factors we considered when appointing was they had a reputation of no extras - yes we probably could have got a lower quote elsewhere but I wasn't convinced the end price would be any lower. So when following up references that would be my number one question. For us so far the have stuck to it absorbing somethings but we also know there will be no price reductions if we get pleasant surprises fingers crossed so hard it hurts

Just got home. Everything is wrong. I may walk out tomorrow and never come back. Seriously, everything. Down to one of the loos having inexplicably rotated through ninety degrees so it faces the wrong way. All the basin pipes are in the wrong places. It's shit. The plastering looks like crap (are there stages? Will they tidy up the rubbish corners?). And they still haven't given me a price for the joists, which makes me think they're trying to bounce me by saying 'we have to do it today and it will be £shitloads but it has to be done'.

I feel for you - just been through it here and the best thing we did was had a 5% retention, to be paid no earlier than 3 months after completion. Which was a bloody good job as 2 months after completion, big cracks appeared in the plaster - so watch out for that!

Plaster goes on grey if not having plasterboard and then covered with the pink stuff which is smoother.

The plaster is over plasterboard, but in internal corners there's like a little hole and it's not quite smooth. It looks how I would have done it (ie a bit amateur).

OH is being a total tool and making out that I'm being massively unreasonable by not wanting my sink directly in front of the bathroom door, or to be knees against the washstand when sitting on the loo, or to have the basin so close to the loo that I can wash my hands SITTING DOWN. He also seems to think that everything in the world of plumbing can be solved by flexible connectors or corner basins.

I have emailed the builder. All OH has to do is go down the list of points one by one, where I have detailed the problem and my expected resolution. But apparently I'm being unreasonable.

I don't understand why all these issues with positioning and spacing are only coming to light as the sanitary wear is actually being installed? Who actually drew up the plans for the extension? Who designed the bathroom? Any decent bathroom showroom would have told you if your chosen fittings were not going to fit in the space available.

The problems are emerging because they have changed things on the plan. I didn't really need a bathroom showroom to draw up my plans for me for sanitary ware! It's easy enough to do yourself. Most of our fittings are either Ikea or recycled from the house before this one (I've had a six foot long iron bath in the garage for four years), but aside from the enormous bath, they are all quite standard.

Basically they've shifted the position of the soil stack (without telling me) and shifted the upstairs en suite WC through ninety degrees because the stack is to the side now, not the rear. I have asked why we can't use a ninety degree flexible connector and if I don't get a satisfactory response, I will simply replumb it myself. It's not exactly complicated. The downstairs WC has also suffered as a consequence (it has to move forward to allow the soil stack to run in a new boxed in bit) and the basin pipework in there was simply a mistake, which they're changing. It was shown in the correct position on the plans. Similarly the first floor bathroom door has moved, so that the positioning on the plans (which I liked) is now unworkable. I understand completely why they've moved it, but that does mean that the bathroom layout has to change. Now they've had this explained to them in teeny tiny words of one syllable, they've agreed to move it round.

We are just coming to the end of our extension, and it has been pretty stressful and a few extra costs have come up which were budgeted for but yours sounds like a bit of a nightmare. We are so lucky our builder is really approachable, reasonable on costs, likes to finish a job well. He's even good with the kids and was reading my 2 year old a story the other day while he was having his lunch break!!

As for the plaster I've found there will be small areas that need sanding down that aren't quite smooth but nothing that's a proper hole or anything.

That's tough. Just know there are good days and bad. For us, some times the house now feels like a series of small fires. The outside stopcokc was broken and Thames Water had to fix it which, if they didn't act quickly would have seriously delayed our house. By some miracle it was done in 3 days. However, later that morning the landscaper called to tell us one of the panels in our bifold doors was shattered! Today, found out the builder never looked at what toilet he was installing under the stairs and now it won't fit properly without redoing the soil pipe and carpentry and that the wall in our kitchen is too low for our bespoke kitchen. Spent most of the morning on the phone with the carpenter making the kitchen to see if our cookerhood unit could be re-made and organising returning the toilet we bought 2 months ago (thank God the company was reasonable about it) and getting a concealed cistern. Still at work as I only got started on doing my job after lunch!