Home Extensions 2017 - come along on the journey

[RedRobin1]

Hi just wondered if anyone has recently started or about to start a home extension. Haven’t seen a 2017 thread so starting one here.

Our two-storey extension is due to start on 1st March and we have just started packing boxes. The planning and research has been ongoing for 2-3 years. Had planning permission approved a few years back and completed all the research around what we would like in our new extended and how we would like to design it all - extending the kitchen / dining area downstairs to create an open plan living, dining and kitchen space and an extra bedroom upstairs.

Have two DCs under 4 and need help / advice / tips and general hand holding.

Is anyone else starting theirs soon?

Wow Pigley! Looks amazing!
Well no bricklayers yesterday and today they didn't come because it was raining! Yeah right!
Actually starting to get worried now as opposed to annoyed, I was awake at 5.00am this morning googling rogue builders!
DH sent a strongly worded email & guess what the bricklayers are coming tomorrow, just like they have been for the past 2.5 weeks!
I'm at a bit of a loss tbh!

Team Rick- I feel your pain. We had a few weeks of worry that things were dragging and not much happening at the beginning. Im sure things will pick up soon. Sometimes it pays to give them a nudge :)

To be fair they cant brick lay in the rain and this morning was abit of a wash out for us as the builders were trying to build the retaining wall for the patio. They had to down tools till it eased off abit.

My kitchen arrived today! Not being fitted till Thursday but very excited that its arrived after 4 weeks with no Kitchen !
Electricians have been fitting sockets and lights and the decorators have painted everything white. Looking fab!

More bricklaying today. They're on the inner leaf, you can see where the doors and windows are going.

We finally have a wall at full height!!! Apparently roof going on next week. Bit depressed to see them stomp all over my lovely flower border though today they have destroyed some lovely plants. Now need to get out there and dig up a load more before they go the same way grrr

We have walls too!

Fortunately I don't have many lovely plants as our garden is pretty destroyed too spydie. I did say before they started that there wasn't much I was precious about in the garden but even so it does make me wince sometimes!

Wish I had walls! 😞!

It is pissing it down here. We have 50% ish walls to first floor level. They are just putting up a gazebo to allow them to work today.

I have a wall! 👍😄😄😄

Yeah TeamR! They seem to get the walls up so quickly. We should have a roof next week.

Yay teamR it will take shape really quickly now

Ah ladies, brilliant to hear progress!
Our budget has gone entirely to shit. New water supply pipe at £1K, chimney needs rebuilding at £2K, an existing room we were hoping to keep was crumbling so had to be rebuilt at £2K, now we've found out that the plaster is crumbling away in the entire house so can't be skimmed, so that's another £16K to take it back to brick, re-board and plaster. Bleurgh.

Oh no Tatlerler. That's my worry, though so far all okay but they haven't started inside the house yet. I do know our gas pipe needs replacing which I guess won't be cheap.

Tatler- Eek! Thats the trouble... you dont know what you'll uncover :( Our contingency fund got spent on the extra steels after finding the walls wouldn't be strong enough.

TeamRick- So gad youve finally got some progress!

Kitchen was due to be fitted Thursday and friday but fitter didnt come. Builders didnt turn up Thurs and were only here a few hours today so not alot of progress here apart from realising that electrics and a socket has been put in the wrong place despite being plastered and painted. Dh is planning an email outline all the things still needing doing ( theres tons of little bits) and to have a moan about how long its all taking.

Thank you everyone, I'm so relieved something is happening!
Another full days bricklaying today & they're coming back Wednesday. We need scaffolding for the top of the walls & then the roof!
Expecting more delays but I don't think I'll be so worried next time!

We are now into week 3 of nothing much happening. We do have a working sink and dishwasher at last, but the plumber damaged the worktop (already been redone thanks to the first guy not doing it satisfactory), so everything seems to have stopped again. The carpenter is meant to be fitting the floor, after the first guy let us down. But as of yet the plywood has not been delivered and we are still waiting for confirmation that he won't be charging us more than the original people.
But the plumber installed the pipes for the bathroom basin in the wrong place, so I think this needs to be moved before the floor goes down. Then the bathroom can be fitted.
And the kitchen still hasn't been finished - although I think we are waiting for parts.
Electricians still need to make good around the spot lights, install my mirror, sort the outside lights out & fit a couple of plug points, but they can't come back until everything else is done
Going into week 14 now...

Week 8 here and again all going smoothly....underfloor heating laid and flooring cemented (?) today ....builder said to stay away from room please while it sets ...he came into house earlier to get bag of cement and the dog ran in behind him ( he forgot to shut the door behind him ) and promptly ran the full length of the wet kitchen thru to the garden and only stopped because he saw all their bourbon biscuits I'd just sent out !!! ...the Plasterer had just got to the end ! All I could hear was "Woah Woah !!!!"
Gas fire being fitted next week also -can't wait for that.
UK power are coming to move their pipes/cable from the downstairs loo so we can move the meter outside and fuse box under the stairs and finally get a sink in there.
£600 if my builder digs the excavations for the cables or £2000! if UK power do it ...another job for my builder then

So I'm back a week later & they haven't been back!
No scaffolding, no more bricks layed, one excuse after the other!
Since 19th May when the concrete went down they have been here for 2 days!
I'm going to use this thread as a bit of a log & you know what if we ever get this finished I'm going to name & shame!

We have a working basin and shower in the new bathroom. But my mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer today so I really don't give a shit about the whole thing.

Oh derek, sorry to hear that! Puts things in to perspective! Take care of yourself!

3 weeks in and we have had to have a full re-plumb which we kind of expected but didn't know until they got the floor boards up. They found that there were no footings by our old bay on the ground floor so needed to do that. There's a good chance that there will be additional costs when imtgry eventually start on the loft conversion too. I feel sick at the potential costs which are escalating and just hope there aren't too many more surprises.

On the plus side it's a relief to have moved out into rented and not to be in the midsts of it

Wow! Only just discovered this thread. My whole life I've dreamt of designing my own house. I finally get to do it and I hate it! We bought a rat infested terraced wreck Christmas 2015 and only got planning permission this January for what we wanted to do, mainly because we were delayed by not having a pitched roof. We're being very eco friendly though so they had to give it in the end.

The house is now gutted. We're extending the back and adding another bedroom upstairs. Everything needs doing - plumbing, wiring, floors, windows, staircase, etc etc. I really really want to be in by Christmas because that place is eating our money! We live in the rented house we have been in for years but will have to move in as soon as the house is habitable as we're paying a lot in rent.

I find the decision making so difficult - wood burner or not? Storage or toilet under the stairs? And the kitchen...oh the kitchen. I've had so many quotes and they're all so similar and I really really want an acrylic worktop, but they're £2.5K! I feel like an ungrateful cow but I'm really not enjoying the process. We're on our second lot of builders and the house isn't weather tight yet.

I want people to tell me that they've been through it, it was hell, they thought it would never finish, but it did and IT WAS ALL WORTH IT

Super excited to get the scaffolding down today.... It's looking really good now! Unfortunately the range rover isn't ours they just decided to park right outside!

Sorry to hear about your mum Derek.

Teamrick I really hope they pull their socks up soon!

Thanks JOJO! They are promising they're coming tomorrow, we will see!

TeamRick that's shit! You're not in Birmingham are you? Cos if so your builders are probably at mine

Derek I'm sorry to hear about your mum. Fingers crossed they've caught it early?