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?

He's doing screed, plastering and stud walls, about £4K outstanding! Oh and guttering that's never been done and the sealing round the edge of the bifold doors! And the fitting of the front door & window.

The guttering & door fitting have already been paid for, and the door & window I think.

The irony is that we actually tried to get the bifold company to fit the doors but he wouldn't hear of it! Wanted to be held totally responsible for any issues with those! Meh!

Sorry for hogging the thread everyone!

Well... we had part of the foundation done yesterday... only for the dog to slip into the concrete to his elbows. Dog seems fine I feel horrible for letting him out (he's been washed), husband thinks they need to do it all again as there are two massive holes right at the corner.... only myself to blame this time.

Tiki oh no! Poor dog! Pets & extensions are not a good mix! I've got to work out how to keep the cat off the screed later!

They are actually here doing the screed! 🍾🎉🎈

Oh poor dog! I'd get those holes sorted tika, you don't want problems with your flooring later.

Yay TeamRick!

Hi, may I join you?

We're having a single story extension at the back and double to the side. 2 young children, 2 dogs, I have anxiety, and DH is doing the work himself (he's a tradesman, so it's his day job anyway.).

DH keeps saying we don't have enough money to finish it but refuses to sit and write a budget or tell me how much money he actually has (inheritance from his mum).

They're pouring the concrete for the floors today. I'm hiding at work!

Can I join too? Day 1 of my build today. They've bashed in some stakes so I can see where levels are (v uneven site). Diggers are coming tomorrow!

bella - I'm worried about your situation, it doesn't sound good that you can't get figures for this stuff. I have a spreadsheet with fairly intricate costings, because changing a design in what seems like a really minor way can easily save (or add) £1-2k, maybe more! Why won't he speak to you about it?

guilty he's always been like this. Refuses to discuss anything remotely useful and buries his head in the sand.

We could go on about our dysfunctional relationship all day! I'm sure everyone will get very bored though.

bella - that sounds so hard for you! I'm sure you would be a source of so many ideas (and help) if he were only to share the financial situation with you.

I am sorry if my post brought you down. I guess I'm (unwarrantably) suspicious of guys who do this because a friend of mine had a bloke who had secretly run up a ton of debt and was keeping it from her by never divulging the money situation. But that doesn't mean this is the case for your situation!!

At least you'll go home to see your brand new floors setting. How exciting!

Welcome to bellagoth and hooray that you actually have a tradesman who will want to do an exceptional job, given it's his own home! I too would be flipping out if my DH wouldn't tell me the financial situation though. Does he think you'll go wild in the aisles with the family credit card or summat?
Oh Tiki your poor dog. My two cats are living on our site (in my daughter's wooden playhouse on stilts at the bottom of the garden - we stuck a cat flap on it!) and I live in fear of them being plastered in to a cavity wall. I go and see them at least once a day though, so fingers crossed it won't happen!

Tatler love the sound of the cat hideaway! 😄!

I built a barrier to try & keep the cat offf the screed, dining chairs in their side, the Ikea airer. He made a bee line straight for it & squeezed himself through leaving paw prints all over it! That's cat's for you!

The guy laying the screed has done an amazing job! He hasn't finished though mainly because although he was here at 8am, twat chops didn't turn up with the cement mixer until after 10.30! Is there no end to this man's incompetence?

We failed to keep Ddog out of the concrete. Her paws have been immortalised in our foundations.

Bella lovely! I have a picture like that too! Cute little paws! 😄

We had screed today too! Must be the day for it. We've been told not to worry about the drying time as the flooring fitters have to lay their own screed (?) over it anyway????

Nice to hear you are making some progress TRick!! Nothing more has happened here since my last post.

Builder turned up a couple of times last week and did a couple of hours each day.... We have partial guttering now. Then didn't appear so DH chased him and was told (sob story alert) that his other project (that was meant to finish mid july I believe) still isn't finished, they want him gone and they owe him loads of money, so he needs another week there to get it done. The plumber that has done all the work on our project still hasn't had a penny, yet we have paid virtually everything. We still haven't seen the window guy to sort the missing pane of glass, 3 months after installation!! No doubt he hasn't been paid either... I'm so sick of it now, we are very lucky that we have a working kitchen but it's incredibly frustrating looking at all the bits that need finishing, particularly as there isn't actually a huge amount left to do. If we had someone here doing a full days work, it could be done in less than a week!

He is meant to be doing alterations to upstairs but we are going to find another builder and do it next year. We've run out of money due to going over budget anyway, and frankly I don't fancy having holes in my upstairs through the winter with a builder who is a nightmare! Bit sad really, as the alterations are to DDs room, and I really want to get it done so we can sort her room out for her.

On the plus side, I tiled the floor myself and it looks really good, all 25sqm of it!!!! Now to grout it

Can I join tin oo please? We are verrrry early in the process. The architect we're likely to use came for the first time last night. We only have around half of the money we'll probably need so getting plans submitted whilst we raise the rest of the amount.

Out of interest how much are you all paying for architects? We've been given a ball park of 4k for planning stage then 4k for detailed drawings/spec.

I've paid between 10-15% of total build costs as architects fees before. We tend to use RIBA chartered practices so they tend to be on the expensive side. I've never had any trouble with architects though. Builders are a different story!

OB sorry I can't remember exactly - it seems like a life time ago! I'll have a look at DH's spreadsheet later.

Thanks Spy, sorry you're stuck now, it's so frustrating isn't it! You've done an amazing job of that floor! That was very brave to tackle that!

I think I missed something with architects? I paid £500 for a man to come and do me a drawing which I sent off for planning permission. Then I chucked the drawing at the builders and said 'do that'. Is that not it?

Maybe that's why my build is fucked, I'm a novice

Planning decision should come through today... fingers crossed, neighbours have objected so don't feel very confident.
bellagoth we were on the August babies group together?
Sounds like some of you are having an awful time with builders, hope for progress for you all soon!

The diggers are here!

I moved my car to accommodate the most enormous skip I've ever seen, and in the 2 minutes between my shifting it to the next road and the skip arriving, my cheeky neighbour across the road, who has her own bloody driveway but can't bloody reverse the car, had got her husband to park her car in the spot!! To make matters worse, they're not answering the door. Think we've fudged a solution, but it's not what I needed this morning!

Waves at what. Are you on the FB group? I've not checked in here for ages, I really should!

guilty I think I'd have dropped the skip on their car.

Sorry to those of you with unreliable trades people. May I just say a few words in their defence though? DH is a carpenter. He's dyslexic, dyspraxic and I strongly suspect autistic. He's clever, but didn't do well in school because of this, which is why he learnt a trade (and he's damn good at it too). Most of his colleagues are the same. They're of an era where schools wrote off children with any sort of learning difficulties and just sent them to study vocational subjects. So although they're usually very good at the work they do, they largely lack basic skills like time management and organisation. I know how frustrating it is, believe me, I've lived with DH for a long time! And it's no way to run a business. I've gone through it with DH over and over again.

I've forgotten my point... I think I'm trying to say that quite often the builders aren't being malicious. They're just a bit scatter brained, if that makes sense? Obviously there are plenty of cowboys too, and there's no excuse for that.

So, I had a flooring contractor all sorted. They were actually general builders, so I had a full week - 10 days work for them, snagging and prepping and plumbing and then finally laying the floor. Guess what? Came, quoted, and have now disappeared off the face of the earth.

WELL FUCK OFF THEN.

bella - that's a really interesting insider's perspective. I suspect that my builder HATES paperwork. I've had to wheedle every bit of it out of him, and there have been long, outwardly patient, inwardly frustrated waits inbetween. He's bloody good at the practical organisation so far, but clearly has something bordering on a phobia of anything more administrative. He's given me the contract this morning and it is literally a blank print-out. He is waiting for me to "fill everything in"!!

monkey - I think using a technician is fine if you know exactly what you want. Some people are just very spatial, and can reimagine houses at the drop of a hat. I'm not like that, though; in fact, I'm totally rubbish at it! Employing an architect (I think I paid about £7k) did mean that we got a much better remodelling of the internal space than I could personally have achieved, and good advice on unusual materials we wouldn't otherwise have known about. (We are doing a timber frame construction, which has saved £££ on brick - I didn't even know it existed before the architect mentioned it). This has meant we have been able to spend money on big ticket items - a nearly-double-height room with similar-sized glazing being the main one.

That's a great floor spydie!

Bella, yes I can see that re builders. Ours is like that although he has an administrator to help. Things have picked up again and the porch is on it's way with the screed down 👏🙌 so I'm ordering the tiles today. Back wall demolishing has started as well so the steel can go in finally. It's been sat there for 4 weeks!!!!