Home extensions 2017- the one where all builders are dickheads.

[monkeyfacegrace]

Link to the old thread.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/2847599-Home-Extensions-2017-come-along-on-the-journey

As you were ladies.

Bax I love the colour of that kitchen door! Gorgeous!

Oooh Bax that is such a gorgeous colour, and the combo with the handle colour is absolutely beautiful. Can't wait to see it all done!

Sorry to have been awol. Went on holiday for half term to escape everything.

Remember the water leak? It went further than we thought so a shitload of chipboard had to be pulled up too.

Anyway, as I said, we went away for a week. My best friends (who I've mentioned before. The ones who own the bespoke furniture company), well. They have a spare key to my house. LOOK what they did. Just LOOK!!! I just have to choose tiles and handles

We got home at 5pm to a total surprise. I cried.

Oh monkey! Your lovely lovely friends! I almost shed a tear just reading your post as I can only imagine what that must mean to you!

That is amazing monkey what lovely friends you have!

Thanks! I love the colour- we’ve ended going all navy so fingers crossed it’s not too much 😬

Bax, I love dark coloured kitchens. What sort of handles are you going to put on them? I was too much of a chicken to go for nearly black as I don’t like cleaning. My tange cooker is black and it’s always dirty looking.

monkey that’s very kind of your friends, it’s a lovely kitchen! 🤗

Aaahh... shall I scare everyone with my chosen kitchen colour? Google RAL6024. The carpenter asked me a couple of times by now if this is what I really want. 😀 But I can see it working with oak flooring, black appliances and white metro tiles on walls. I won’t have any top cabinets at this stage, I’m hoping the storage will be enough without them.

I like it Tika! I agree it will go brilliantly with oak and black in particular!

That is lovely tika!

Our handles are the ones in the picture (copper)

Tatlerer it’s me installing kitchen before the screed is fully dry and flooring down Howdens said it was fine and we moved in to the kitchen on Thursday. The flooring is going down in 3 weeks. Obviously the builders haven’t installed the end panels or kickboards I think they’re called so all that’s in contact with the floor is the plastic feet. I hope it will be ok. We’ve got the velux windows open all the time (wired in and with rain sensors!).

Still haven’t decided on which colour glass splashback to have so I’m being very careful opening tins of tomatoes so I don’t ruin the paint work (f&b strong white).

Overall I’m really pleased, it’s so nice being able to spread out again and have everything in its place. Shower and utility rooms aren’t plumbed in yet and the front door is coming on Monday but we’re very close.

The builders have put a dent in the new plaster and hidden it behind a piece of worktop. Last week the electrician put a dent in one of the ovens. At some point the frame of the bi folds got damaged.... no trade has ever owned up let alone apologised. Anyone else finding this? Infuriating!!

I’m really enjoying this thread. Sorry not to post very frequently.

Wow Monkey your kitchen is fabulous! What amazing friends!

Wow monkey that's amazing. I think I'd have cried too.

We went away for a couple of days this week to get away from the house. We're making good progress though at the moment. Half the kitchen has been delivered, sun room has been plastered, utility is ready to be plastered next week and wall in kitchen is coming down mid week ish. DH and I choose worktops last week though tempted now to look at Ikea.

Quick design question please!

Tiles. I'm getting 'brick' size and shape gloss sage green tiles.

Do I take them all the way up the back wall to meet the wall units, or have them say 3 rows above the wooden uprights, then a small strip of paint?

You can see in the pic with the microwave where the old tiles were. I think I want to go all the way up but I'm SHIT at design!

Help!

Emma"The builders have put a dent in the new plaster and hidden it behind a piece of worktop. Last week the electrician put a dent in one of the ovens. At some point the frame of the bi folds got damaged.... no trade has ever owned up let alone apologised. Anyone else finding this? Infuriating!! "

Yes ours put a big dent in our rear window screen timber frame the day they moved all their tools out. The annoying thing is they were only just fitted and not even sealed round yet. The fitter said unfortunately there's no way to fix that, you just have to sand it back to make it smooth.

Your plaster is dead easy to fill and repaint. The oven and door maybe not so much.
Just remember in 5 years you won't remember which is which dent.

Bax that is absolutely lovely! And monkey.

Emma I'm getting a bit sad about various bits of damage, too. Only so far it's to the existing parts of the house and garden rather than the new bits.

Four magpies- your bifolds look gorgeous!

Thanks bax hopefully they'll look even better when we can finally take the protective tape off and there isn't a builders yard right outside!!

monkey our old kitchen has all the way to the top and looks good. I'll add a pic. We're just having an upstand (going for 10cm though so a bit taller than yours) and kitchen paint and hoping for the best. We haven't decided on the bit for behind the hob yet.

I'm loving these progress pictures.

john - the stink has somewhat subsided now - thanks to a very breezy couple of days. What a pong, though!

monkey - another vote for tiles all the way to the top - stylish and practical! Your kitchen looks a million dollars, hooray for lovely friends!!

four magpies - I love the shape of your extension. I saw a place on Pinterest that had that same roofline, and the architect had put in a couple of plaster-in LED striplights right at the apex of the roof, it looked sensational.

So I went to the quartz shop up the road from my house and asked about their prices. They have the EXACT same quartz as Ikea - same manufacturer and everything - and I think the price they have given me is actually a bit cheaper. It's Silestone Marengo, if anyone wants to check with their local suppliers.

I also think I'm changing the colours of my kitchen. I just love whattheshower's black and oak, so I'm switching to that - but with more oak than black, if that makes sense, and in the Ikea range. I'm still a bit uncertain about this, but it 'feels' right.

Oh and tika - I really like that 50s green. Good on you for being bold!

Ps regarding your garden being trashed, our builder covered the lawn and flower beds with materials and whatnot, and washed out cement on one part of the lawn.
When they left in February there was only 50% grass left. We didn't have time to do anything with it so we left it, apart from we scraped off the crust of cement.
By about august you couldn't even tell we had any damage, it's all back to normal, all we did was cut the grass!
Gardens are tougher than you think.

My garden has been trashed & it was beautiful!

Then the patio people turned the whole lot over with the digger but I’m looking forward to starting again from scratch!

I think it will be part of the healing process for me next spring!

I might even start a thread in Gardening & document it all! Think that will be very therapeutic!

We’ve only been in our house 4 years and we always intended doing the extension so we never did anything with the garden. The garage and driveway is all going and we’ll need to level it out somehow

Building work is just a great excuse to re-do a garden! I'm having fun imagining all the new plants I'm going to put in.

Ps those are the pre extension photos we’ve lost most of the garden 😂