Anyone starting an extension imminently?

[Karcheer]

Ours has been a long time coming, planning permission was granted 18months ago, but our builders finally start on Tuesday.
Would be great to have some build buddies

Gnome that's fantastic news, fingers crossed for building control man!

We have also had a good day, we now have stairs! I keep sneaking up and having a look, our room is lovely. Plasterers have been too (although not finished) so I need to get a fitted wardrobe company and carpets sorted ASAP so that they can go in as soon as everything is done and then we can get moved up there!

Karcher has your cat been up to any more mischief?

aesops is it all ok now?
gnome I know how you feel! I felt like we were below ground forever. The bricklaying seems to take forever, as did the digging.
It's great news that you can start refilling the holes you've made ;)
mad that's great! I can't wait to see a room any room plastering changes rooms from building sites it actual rooms, it amazing!

For us, 90% of the steels went up! dh says it looks like a gazebo. One of the steels wasn't right so it had to be taken back and changed.

Morning! Look what happened yesterday!!

Wooooooooo!

Mad I'm envious of your stairs. It's all I want for Christmas. We'll hopefully have some before Christmas. Plaster next week. If the builder isn't stoned.

Yes. Latest issue. Came home at 3.30 yesterday. Couldn't hear them. As I climb ladder to loft I seems to get up. Looks tired and a bit confused. they've had form for this before apparently. I either woke him up, or caught him in the act. Either way...I'll be home at 1 today after an exam - I'll be having words!!

Karcheer the floor level is still 'up in the air' it seems we have to decide to either dig out cement or bring new kitchen to same level then lay UFH on top then make floor level slightly higher. This could be done as our ceilings are quite high. We need to check though what the time/price difference is for these options. Having both Wet and Electric system in same area is not an option we want to consider.

Wombat WOW. Cheeky bugger! As much as I hate the idea of living through this at least it means we are here to keep an eye on them. Great progress though.

Oh shoot, as I type our old bathroom is being broken down and thrown down from 1st floor to outside. Neighbours are going to love that this time of the morning

Aesop I've just told OH to give him tasks to do today as we aren't paying him to sleep. He gets the benefit of the doubt for this first time.

Haha your poor neighbours! Ours used to complain that the 2 lads standing outside at just before 8 were too noisy. They were waiting for the boss, they weren't noisy as such, just talking. But in a quiet street .... I smiled politely and called them in.

AIBU to start charging these guys rent? They're here enough now....

wombat that's rediculous. As if he thought he would get away with that!

karcher sounds like your guys are progressing well.

aesops I hope you manage to get it resolved soon. Is it holding up progress?

I was home early. I'm out of my exam and heading home now.... I'll assess the situation. I've told OH if I catch him today he's gone and won't be getting paid for it either

No Mad not holding up progress. They are busy destroying bathroom and side 1st floor and will be moving onto fitting roof early next week.

We are discovering that our contractor although very good so far, does not like it when we source stuff from companies he did not recommend. Bi Folds we decided to go to Sunflex, he wanted us to choose from a couple of local firms that could make them quickly. Now we have exactly the same debate re Roof Lantern. To be honest we will probably go with his recommendation on this. As we are sourcing both doors and lantern directly and having the suppliers fit we know he is not getting any margin out of it. Anything to keep the peace and allow this to continue smoothly!

Wombat you must tell us what you came back to today! Hooka Pipe and Belly Dancers?

Wombat you should have set up a camera to see what he gets up to

Aesops pleased to hear it's not holding you up. I keep considering a lantern for our dining room but as it's south facing it just seems like it would be too hot

The man from building control said 'yes'!

Builder coming on Wednesday (gods of building projects permitting) to fill all the lovely approved holes with concrete.

DH and I off out tomorrow to look for patio door & windows. DH will be fitting these but obviously builder will need to know what size holes to leave (back to holes again!).

What a cheek Wombat!

Mad yes you need to think about that, our kitchen is North West facing and the lantern is directly above bi folds so we are hoping that in summer the open wall effect will counteract any extra heat.

Gnome Super News! Yes to getting your windows sorted I love shopping for the house even though the budget is way out already

Gnome that is fantastic news!

Aesops I think I've resigned myself to not having one sadly, I think we might go for 2 velux windows though. I've basically given my builder a wish list and my budget, will see what he comes up with!

Bricklaying continued today and the steel men were back to correct something.
gnome that's great news!

Has anyone had experience of bamboo flooring please? We are thinking about it for our new sitting room floor.

We are fully tiled and have both veluxs in, former roof going on in Monday but We are getting windows and stairs in the next week or so :) then we can walk up to our new loft very excited. The builder is also confident we should be finished by Xmas which I doubt!

gnome my brother has it in his bedroom, he fitted it himself, I know nothing more than that.

gnome I'm looking into bamboo too, we has engineered wood in our old house and it didn't cope well

mcbaby sounds like you're progressing well. We've got all our Windows jn and plastering done

Gooooood evening one and all. I came back on Friday to find my kitchen covered in dusty shite. There's a door where there wasn't (good news), however the handle is where the bloody borrowers need it. It's a Victorian panel door (with the four rectangles). The guys put it so it aligns with the gap in the middle. Very good. Except it's a tad low. Bollocks to it. I've had wine. It's for the spare room. I can't be arsed with filling in holes and getting them to do it.

Poor OH is exhausted. He's spent all day laying flooring whilst I swanned around having hair done. He's been snoozing with his head on my lap since half 8. We had a rare night off last night and went into town (central London) for food. Anyone else feel like they're just existing with all this? Not living?

Builders recreational habits: There was no smoke or fire on this occasion. I was tempted to crack a joke or 2.
Quite frankly I feel like this today...if you're going to do it, at least do it when I'm at home. Share.

I can't remember who posted about this, but it sucks royally they won't allow you to source your own stuff. We've done all ours, even the stairs.

Hope you're all well. Sunday tomorrow. No builders

Mad what didn't you like about engineered? We've laid it downstairs in the living dining and hall. I'm a bit nervous about it. It seems a bit precious already...

McBaby fingers crossed for your house to be finished for Xmas.

Mad be brutally honest about engineered wood - DH and I are really struggling with the right floor combo. We are having porcelain tiles to new extension but cannot afford to take UFH through to the dining room and front living room (which is currently carpeted). He says engineered I say Karndean. There seems to be a love/hate consensus on 'overpriced vinyl' as DH calls it. We have it in our bedroom/ensuite and I love the fact that it is warmer than tile and not as precious to look after as wood.

Wombat Yes to existing rather than living through it. We have not even thought about Xmas prep as still too busy balancing jobs vs keeping eye on build and sourcing new stuff. Glad you guys got a night off.

DH away tonight for the week, and joiners are rocking up on Monday to start the roof. I have to be in the office 3 days this week as coming up to the busiest time of year work wise.

Oh, and I am not sleeping too good. Hence the stupid o'clock posting time!

OK, our experience of engineered wood flooring was with oak which apparently is very soft. My dad has done his whole house with it and not had the same issues so it could be a case of a bad fitter or a dodgy brand

We had our kitchen diner done and to begin with it looked gorgeous. It just didn't age well, you had to be careful every time you moved the chairs back at the dining table or the floor would scratch. A friend walked in in stilettos and marked it. It just scratched, marked and dented so easily and 2 years later when we moved it looked ok but I had wished I'd just gone for tiles.

Like I said my dad has it everywhere except the bedrooms in his house and hasn't experienced any of this but then he lives alone and is very careful.

Things we have learnt about flooring:

• cushion flooring got soft in very hot weather and stretched
• laminate no matter that it was described as suitable for wet areas has not lasted well in the downstairs toilet & utility room
• oak floor wears but that wear can be considered character
• Tongue and groove is difficult to lay perfectly

We have solid oak now. It does still look okay (it has been down for a few years) but it has certainly got a lot of wear character now in the normal high traffic places like in front of the sofa.

What is currently the sitting room is going to be the dining room when the work is finished. We will recycle the oak planks from the different areas they are in now so that the best end up in the ding room. We will be tiling the wet areas of kitchen, utility and downstairs toilet.

We are looking at bamboo now for the new sitting room as I have heard that it is very hard wearing. One of the things we are keen to get this time is something which is click fit rather than than T&G to get a more tight fitting finish.

Is anyone getting Christmas presents/bonus for thier builders if so what? We were thinking ale and money but not sure is that is the done thing or not?