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.

Whisky a weekend in a clean House sounds like an ideal birthday present!

Thanks whisky and glorious. I'm very pleased with them. I think they are made of oak? Enjoy your weekend away whisky. If love to be dust free for a few days!

Picking up bathroom tiles tomorrow and we've got a man coming to quote to restore the parquet in the hallway (because of the new porch we need to take some out from a bedroom that's about to become a bathroom and match it up with the current). I'm praying it won't be too expensive!

Escaping the dust is good. Our temporary home is not luxury but it is clean. I am also enjoying having a working dishwasher and a kitchen sink!

And the peace. I have been watching tv and lounging about happily.

Word from our builders is that everything is going to plan. Kitchen is being ordered with a view to being fitted mid December.

Just a quick one to say that kitchen is being rectified as a I type. This is the problem with sub contractors - they’re either lazy, can’t be bothered or there’s miscommunication. Genuinely can’t work out why he did what he did but at least boss builder got it sorted and was apologetic.

Wow Bax, tat extractor looks awesome!

Thanks for the welcome rick.

believeit glad it's being sorted

We've got a reason for ours getting the quote wrong. He hadn't looked at the tech drawings first! Apparently steel is bigger than expected and it's a lot of work. I get that, but the work hasn't changed.

We've arranged to meet with him Monday and hopefully can knock a bit off. It's not double the cost, clearly my ability to apply simple mathematical principles goes to pot when I'm stressed.

Lovely banisters titsy

whisky - it's an engineered oak, with a top layer of 4mm which is ok for me, as I don't plan on doing much to it. Builder gave me a very stern warning about letting anyone with stilettos walk on it though - am envisaging some awkward conversations if we ever have a party and I need to demand people take their shoes off!? Perhaps amtico would have been safer after all!

believe oh goody, am glad boss was able to swoop in and sort it, maybe he needs to give them a better briefing upfront next time. Hopefully that's the last of it now - I'm desperate to see it finished! Can your workstops still be done on schedule?

namedy - You can't beat real wood! 4mm will be absolutely fine, it's enough for one sand should you want to do one, but you're unlikely to need to. Your builder is right about heels, though - they seriously wreck any wood floor. Although I think they'd make stringy vinyl mincemeat out of Amtico too. You'll just have to buy a load of pretty guest slippers for your party!! Or maybe some of those novelty huge ones with animal faces on the front. Quite a look with a designer dress.

believe - Hooray!!! Your builder sounds good, I'm glad you've got him in your corner. What a relief, though. There's nothing worse than realising something is wrong at the end of the day when everyone has gone home and worrying about until the next day! I dunno about everyone else, but worries that are mouse-sized for me in the day become T-Rex sized at night.

titsy - Oak makes sense, it looks gorgeous!

extension - fingers crossed you get a bit of a reduction. I can understand the steel thing, they are expensive and they go up in hefty chunks with length (as I'm sure some of those on this thread with mahoosive ones will tell you).

Nice it’s getting sorted believe builds are never 100% smooth even with the best of builders.

I adore a herringbone floor 😍 Namedy

Looks like we have quite a few finish by Christmas hopefuls! Shall I start taking bets?

My faith in contractors has been restored this week!

The plastering company has been fantastic! They've finished all boxing in, and on target to finish the plastering today!! There's about 5 of them in there!

We've been incredibly lucky they could squeeze us in but we were definitely due some luck! 😃😃

whatthefox - open a book on it!

rick - You're like a woman who has come out of an abusive relationship, who is suddenly realising the world isn't shit, it's just her ex-partner who was!! Good riddance Twatchops!

Love the floor @NamedyChangedy we went for engineered but with a 15mm layer 😬 it is expensive though. We’ve had this floor before and it served us well.

So we have the bones of a proper kitchen 😍 I’ll post a pic

@TeamRick that’s great news re the plasterers!!!

Kitchen!

When the island has the end panels etc in I’ll take a picture. As I’ve said before I do love The Hague blue

Gorgeous!

I really am enjoying seeing all of your houses come together. People who haven’t done this really don’t understand how emotionally draining and difficult this can be, even when it’s all going ok.

🙌

Looks lush! We’re going for a Hague blue island and accents throughout the open plan room.

Ladies, I now have building regs drawings and a spec from the architect. I’ve added in an electric plan for the light & sockets. Anything else I need for quotes?

Omg it looks fantastic believe!! Especially with your white walls. It must be super bright during the day. Do you have all your lights in already?

No the lights aren’t all in. The electrician has put the spots in but not fixed them in properly (he’s waiting until the painting has been done). Lights should be next week.

It is very bright but once the floor is in (oak) plus island plus the furnitures I think it’ll be ok. We might go for light grey tiles instead of white though as it might be too much white.

Also with the huge sliding doors, you get a real sense of the garden and that will also add some colour to the room.

4years, have you spec’d the following:

Radiators
Boiler
Security alarm system
Doorbell
Fire doors

The more you spec now, the fewer the surprises later on.

PS now is the time to fix any outdated wiring, add in smart home features etc

Well we're 5 days in and we're on our first mistake... they're laying the wrong bricks!

I'm not sure if the samples were labelled incorrectly or whether they've ordered the wrong brick. But either way it's wrong and not our fault.

My husband thinks we should just accept the different brick and not make a fuss. I don't want to set us back, but I need to say something to them as it's def not the brick i wanted! Eugh and so it starts...

Fab kitchen believe!!!

Am intrigued by all the talk of templating kitchen surfaces

We are in Europe - buying a German kitchen but kitchen surface is arriving same day as kitchen from.

Is that not the norm in the U.K.??

@Sherbet38 I wouldn’t just accept the bricks. We had a similar situation when a client came to us saying that the bricks he used didn’t match the main building and the neighbours were fuming and reported it to the planners. He ended up having to call in a specialist company to paint each offending brick.

Double check your planning.

Whatthefox

I’ve spec’d radiators, but I’m not 100% on the boiler yet, I think I need advice from a plumber on what’s needed beforehand as I’m not sure our boiler will cope with 25m2 of underfloor heating! Tempted to get a quote from the plumber as it’s a specific task and we know a good one, same with the log burner. I expect it to be cheaper for me to sort the installer direct. We’re also going to get the kitchen fitted separately too. Do we need firedoors? I’ve spec’d fire resistant lights but didn’t realise we needed doors (although maybe it’s in the construction spec?🤔). We already have an alarm we never use as our dog is the best deterrent! We already have a door bell and the front door is actually being replaced next week as you could currently pull the glass panel out and waltz in 🙈

Devondream templating is only for solid worktops (granite/quartz/silestone etc)