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

Thanks so much gnome, that's really helpful. It's just a ground floor but 2 metres is actually further than I thought, so I'm going to have to have another look. I think I need to get it written into the contract with the builder that I want them to take care of the garden! Obviously, I understand that there will be mess. I just don't want the entire thing to look like the Somme when they are done!

Hi all, WE HAVE OUR PLANNING FOR THE NEXT EXTENSION, YIPPEEEEEE

Karcheer did you get your bathrooms ordered in the end? What style did you go for?

shovetheholly, the 2 metres would be a safety zone for plants. It isnt to mean that they will be stamping all over that area just that if there is a tower up (eg for roofing) the builder will need to be able to walk all round it. The law of sod is that your most tender and valuable plant will be precisely under where the builder will need to put something.

Madblondeog congratulations. So what is it you are doing next?

We're extending off the kitchen to have a kitchen diner instead of separate dining room like we have at present. I'm very excited for that to get started now, then we will be finished.

Gnome how is your project progressing? Dog handling things OK?

Congrats Mad that is great news

Guess what? Builders will be finished a week before schedule!! All plastering finished today downstairs. It was fab watching them (all 4 of them) on stilts.tiling tomorrow and decorator for upstairs

May I join you all? We started our build half term week and today I had my first taste of chaos when they took down an internal wall - the dust!

We are doing a 10x4 (ish) single storey extension - it has gone up incredibly quickly but I feel totally unprepared for the next stage. Steels arrived today so I'd better get ready!

Welcome TheWild, the dust is insane isn't it! Made me cough a lot, no idea how the builders do it really! I'm dreading the next time a wall comes out as it will be the kitchen wall and I have JUST got the house clean. Have you got a completion date?

Aesops that is awesome news, you must be chuffed!

I'm currently trying to work out what to do about some of the older plastering which is, quite frankly, shit! Considering lining paper as we can't really afford to have all the walls skimmed. Any other ideas?

Gnome - I laughed! But you may also be right!! I'll move it out of the way

mad - when you say you can't 'really' afford it, I'm sensing that there's wiggleroom there? I think if you can afford by hook or by crook to get it done, get it done now and get it done properly - back to brick if necessary. Even if that means spending a bit of your contingency fund. It's an incredibly messy job to tackle later on and it makes the most enormous difference.

Holly it would mean delaying other things which should be higher on the priority list. Unfortunately contingency fund is all out thanks to a few issues we hadn't realised when we bought the place.

Thinking maybe lining paper now then save up and skim walls in a few years.

Mad, how about dry lining? We couldnt afford to skim so DH used plasterboard. There is lots of stuff on t'internet to tell you how to do it. It does look fine. Not a perfect skim but perfectly good forever now.

Here is a link.

It was the first time DH had done it and with a bit of patience, no rushing the job, he has produced an excellent result.

Here's our motley crew. All done now and smells like wet plaster everywhere in house.

Looks like a wonderful space Aesops. Pleased to hear they're all finished

Gnome can you paint straight over the dry lining?

Woah Aesops it's huuuuuuge!

More to the point, what are those amazing things they are wearing on their legs?! Is it wrong that I want some to stride around in?

My aunt has done tongue and groove lining inside her house - and it really looks lovely. When she told me I was a bit 'OMG, will it be all 1970s?' But actually no, it looks great. She's an artist who is very good at interior decor.

Mad, yes. the layers go:

plasterboard
basecoat paint (called gloopy in this house!) two coats
Colour paint two coats for light colour, 3 for strong colours

Dont use a matt paint as this will show even the tiniest of blemish. Silk is much more forgiving.

If you do go down this route then you use the tapered edge plasterboard which allows you to tape the seams and fill over the top. For the filling use a plastering product not polyfilla type. The joints then wont show through the paint.

It is a slow process: tape - fill - sand - fill - sand

Here's another

Eeek, that does sound a lot of work Gnome. What we might do is just paint and then save for skimming in a few years time. It will look better than the current state anyway. Maybe I'll sand them down a bit first.

Holly a lot of plasterers have them now, it makes it a lot easier. Although watching them get through doors is amusing

Hello,

Yes we did order the bathrooms for 3 of the rooms, and for our room we ordered the vanity, but the retailer emailed me yesterday to say burlington aren't selling them anymore, so back to the drawing room...

Did you sort your tiles out also Karcheer?

Ours are being fitted today on walls the floor is all done and looks gorgeous, bloody ceiling isn't quite level though so need the plasterers out again on Monday

Eeek thats annoying Aesops

Karchee do they not do a similar alternative?

As I've said before we're currently looking into bamboo flooring for the hall and the kitchen diner, I'm now considering whether to do it throughout the downstairs (including the bedrooms but not the bathroom). What do you think?

aesops no, although I'm close on what I want to order in 3 of 4 of them. I'm really unsure what I want to do in our ensuite. I am going with crackle glaze in one room, I know this is madness and high maintenance but I love them.
Very annoying about your floor!

mad not really, we wanted a vanity with curved sides. The straight edged one we are having in our ensuite and downstairs shower room. The curve made it a little different and a bit more special.

mad i am really tempted to do some kind of hard floor in all of our bedrooms. I'm doing Lino in the extended bits downstairs so that when we do the kitchen and have more money I can tile the same the whole way through.
I love the look of the same flooring throughout.

Hi All

Our latest setback (in addition to wonky bathroom ceiling) is this:

Screed going down in kitchen on Monday 60mm thick, been told by tiler that it needs 60 days!! to dry out prior to tiles going down. Builder tells me 3 weeks is fine and that we can test the moisture to prove as we are fitting Ditra Matting and he is mixing with some magic stuff. WTF 60 days!

That means that the new kitchen cannot be fitted until second week in May.

If anyone can shed some light on this I would appreciate it, if it is true then Mr Aesops and I are going to have spent 20weeks without a kitchen.

Gnome does Mr Gnome have any advice?

aesops could you speed things up with a dehumidifier?

Yeah it's really tempting to go same flooring throughout. Our bedroom is upstairs so not having carpet to get out of bed to isn't an issue

Shame about your vanity unit karcheer

This week has been beyond frustrating, not just the vanity but also after the steels went in on Monday the rest of the structure was supposed to be completed this week, but due to the rain and the other extension that my builder is working on, nothing happened. He promised me the whole team would be here today, but due it sickness and things running over only the main contractor was here. Tomorrow they are all supposed to be back but I think it's due it rain arghhh...

Sorry to hear that Karcheer
I find when there is not much happening during week on site I get v frustrated. Is there anywhere you can source the vanity from? Somewhere with stock unsold?

Off to find a tiny vanity for downstairs loo today at Grant and Stone. Have you tried them or other chains? They can check all locations on their system.