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.

Hello everyone! Can I join this thread? I’m feeling frazzled and in need of a bit of support

I’ve just got planning permission to build a one/two storey extension (granny flat for my elderly DM and bigger kitchen/diner for me).

Just about to get the building regs sorted but feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all! Is it usual for the building regs to cost more than the plans?

Yes Teecup - they are far more complicated than the plans as they have all the detail in them.

Good luck - hope you get started soon :)

This week our builders are finishing the last bits of the dormer and getting started on the flat roof and battening/felting the rest so we can get some tiles on in the next couple of weeks.

Very nice to see all your lovely progress. Hope Ophelia is not affecting any of you!

Good progress has been made here today, I love my builders a bit.

Welcome Teacup! and hope it's all going smoothly so far.

Hope everything stays put whisky, hard to know what the weather's doing at the moment, especially when you have brown clouds and a red sun!

sigh

I'm so utterly bored of all this today.

I have bought a beautiful light to go above my dining table though. If I ever actually get a dining room, that is.

I went to the shop to buy dinner for the kids. I came out with Chilean merlot and chocolate and caramel cake.

@NamedyChangedy

That's reassuring! I did want to be done by the end of November but possibly wishful thinking.

So yesterday we spent £6k ordering the new kitchen and utility room units from DIY kitchens. It was very fiddly and I think I've over ordered plinth material but what a relief to get that one done. Next it's appliances and worktops!
The kitchen should arrive the following week of the sliding doors.
We also had our garden designer gives us plans so we need to choose a patio so she can write our construction notes and the builders can do that!

Oh that’s a relief then!

Next question...how on earth do you choose a builder?! I’ve had a recommendation from a friend, but not sure about him. Did anyone here put their job out for tender? (Can you tell I’m following the Haynes manual “how to build an extension” )

Gosh Believe, my DIY Kitchen cost less than half that much (Luca Matt in white and dove grey). Which one did you go for? I seriously dithered over that decision for months and am still not sure about it! I'm worried I don't have enough plinths but I reckoned I can always pick some up afterwards...?

The kitchen was originally meant to arrive today so I already have my appliances stacked up in the spare room (we're two weeks behind schedule so far, fingers crossed it doesn't slip any further!)

Monkey do share your light fitting? I ordered pendants from Wayfair today but am now second guessing myself, as always!

Teecup have you used an architect for your drawings? They can handle the tender process for you...? It's important to have a very detailed spec so you get like-for-like quotes. Aim to invite twice as many builders to quote than you think is reasonable, as most of them won't bother to pitch for the job anyway!

No sign of Twatchops or any of his minions yesterday! DH text & of course he blamed electrician! They are both coming round this evening! I'm going to invite him into my living room for a coffee, let him see the shit tip we are living in! 😡😡😡

Nothing has happened for a chuffing week!

On a plus, the patio work has started as planned, hooray!

Monkey I'm liking your style! 😬

I've ordered these. Little to no idea how they will be fitted as there isn't a spare ceiling light (I have NO idea about electrics), but anything is possible, right?!

Currently just have a 'runway' of spotlights in my dining room. I want these with soft warm bulbs in just above my table, a la snooker table style. If that makes sense.

That's lovely!

No idea about electrics either and that's a dirty word in my house at the moment! 😛

monkey - ooooh, very Scandiwegie! I'm sure a channel can be cut for them if you need them. The only thing I would say (as someone with a light over the dining room table) is - make sure it's in exactly the right place and that you're not going to change the furniture arrangement in future!

rick - I nearly whooped about your patio! At least you'll see some progress!

Everything survived the night just fine, though the tarpaulin that is protecting the walls didn't half make a racket blowing about - I felt rather guilty about the impact of this on neighbours, but there was literally nothing I could do to quieten it down. My roof just arrived. Loads of planks of strong-looking timber, and the thickest sheets of insulation! I am weeing myself with excitement to see it go up.

In the evenings, I am battling to design a fairly awkward, small utility room. We have a bit of a difference of approach - DH sees this as a purely functional space, and wants to stick cupboards everywhere because we have a load of stuff to store - we have an allotment so loads of fresh and incredibly dirty veg around, and we like making jam, chutney etc. so we always have a multitude of empty jam jars, maslin pans etc that need homes). I am quite tempted to slim it back so it looks wonderful but holds a lot less. I think he is probably in the right about it, but I'm finding it surprisingly difficult to let go!!

Hello, can I join the thread? We are doing a small ground floor extension and remodelling a bathroom. Currently my house is dust & rubble as the name suggests. We are living in one room downstairs and it is sort of working.

Walls have been ripped out downstairs, there is a big hole in the back of my house. Steels are being ordered, the builders winced at the size of the one for the back of the house.

We've just had 2 weeks of barely any work that left my dh grumpy. Builders are finishing off another job and they shouted loudly so got all the labour. Thankfully we should have substantially more attention now.

I am currently trying to figure out where to put our kitchen. We had it figured out but then ripping the old stuff out made us reconsider. So the kitchen planner comes tomorrow to measure up and do alternative plans.

Also thinking we may add to the dust and rubble by getting the builders to remove a chimney breast and stack. Because we like dust.

We’re doing our utility as a practical room too. It’s going to be the messy room so I’m happy to do that if it means I have a pretty kitchen

But that looks lovely bax - it's not messy at all!

Welcome dust! I'm not yet at your stage - not looking forward to it much!

You definitely need a lot of storage space, whisky. Can you make it quite attractive storage using clever cupboards and the like?

This is my dining room and kitchen at the moment. The builders are regretting knocking down the garage already as they have realised they have nowhere to store their crap.

Here is a picture of the design so far! I'm RUBBISH at this! Any suggestions v v v v v welcoe.

Part of the problem is that the window is in an awkward place, but it actually has to be there for a whole variety of boring structural engineering reasons.

(The window is the grey rectangle in the far corner - it's a bit confusing from this angle because you have the door ghosted in too).

I am not great at layouts either. I find it so hard to visualise what something will look like.

Where are my builders? The boss appeared, said he just needed to drop off some tools and would be back with someone else to start work. That was ages ago. I thought things were really going to get moving this week.

How big is your utility whisky

My thoughts

Make your utility small and practical. Mine is too big and I regret the wasted space. It’s not a room you’re ever going to lounge about in. I have too much floor space that could easily fit a large sofa, but of course I don’t have one there! It is just a room to do some menial task and then leave.

I recommend a large deep butler sink for messy cleaning.

Do you have a dryer? If so, stack it with your washer on top or better yet, raise them both off the ground so you don’t need to bend over to empty them.

Check that you can actually reach to the back of the high cupboards. Otherwise it’s wasted space. Consider those pull down shelf thingys to allow access.

You need to keep a double height cupboard for vacuum, ironing board, mop etc.

If you have dryer and washer, I’d stack them and swap them to where the tall cupboard is. This will give you direct access from the door.

It's cupboard sized - 2m x 2m roughly

Love the idea of the deep sink - that would be really helpful as I'm always splashing mud all over the place!! Also the pull down shelves - great idea. There will be a stepladder in the utility because the ceilings of my house are highish (2.6m) and I need storage for things I don't use that often but want to keep.

I think I am going to put my hoover and mop in the high understairs cupboard, which is a separate area. I am fed up with lugging around a canister vac that weighs the same as a small elephant, so when it goes I will get a Dyson cordless. Putting a plug point in there so I'm ready for it!

The big cupboard is actually a freezer - sorry I should have mentioned that. I have a lot of frozen stuff, and I don't have space for a full-height one in the kitchen. I think there will be space for an ironing board next to it, though I may not be able to put a door on it.

No dryer - I currently just use racks, will probably buy a washer-dryer in future and put some of those Ikea Grundtal things on the wall too. This is a bit of a sticking point between DH and me: he thinks we need work surface in the utility for things like bread-making and liqueur-production (we do a lot of this kind of thing) plus a microwave (he does not want the last of those in the kitchen). I would prefer to have a separate washer and dryer. I think he's probably the more practical in terms of his ideas and our lifestyle here.

I know it sounds stupid, but there's something I just don't like about the design. DH, however, makes the point that by storing a load of stuff in there, we can have a more aesthetically pleasing kitchen. I think I probably just need to accept that as a tradeoff.

I agree with your DH that it should be a practical space, so kitchen can be prettier. But you can jazz it up with nice colours and can afford to go a bit crazy.

However, microwave there will take up valuable worktop space and you have v little. Or are you building it in? Have you considered a combi oven in the kitchen instead? I think it’s well worth getting that extra oven.

Your design is unbalanced, mostly because of the offset window. Ideally it would be in the middle of the wall with your sink underneath. Apart from fiddling at the edges, I think it’s always going to look a little off. A proper kitchen designer could help more here. I was trying to balance it a bit by stacking the washer and dryer to echo the tall freezer. Really recommend getting a separate dryer, the combo ones tend to break down a lot faster and never dry as well.

I would always go separate washer & dryer over a combi, much more effective. I am totally wedded to my tumble dryer though, I am really missing not having one,

I personally wouldn’t want to be bread making and similar in a utility room of that size. Won’t it feel a bit cramped and tricky? Much rather be making bread in a nice kitchen and hiding all the laundry crap and mucky stuff in the utility.

Also what do you use your microwave for? If for general cooking at all it will get really annoying having to trek into another room for it.

Yes, that window is a PITA. Unfortunately, it has to be there because of structural issues - this is the point at which the existing house ends, and because of the way it is constructed a good amount of wall has to be left in. It would cost £1500-2000 to move it, unfortunately, because of lintel and support issues. I don't know if it's really worth that to have a more balanced room, given that this is "just" a utility.

Microwave - I don't even own one right now! I am planning on getting one to get through the period over which I have no kitchen. I don't think I will really use it once I have a kitchen back apart from to melt things like butter and chocolate for baking and maybe to defrost stuff; it might not be worth the space (not sure as sometimes when you don't own something already it's hard to imagine how useful it could be)!

Bread- It might be a good idea to move this into the kitchen, actually! I was thinking of doing the making bit in there, and then leaving it in the utility to do the rising so I can keep the kitchen absolutely clean at all times (open plan layout!) But it could easily just wait on the side, and it might smell good in there too!

Ovens - I am having 2 singles in the kitchen.

Dryer - You are arming me with ammo to throw at DH later today!! It would be reaaaallly nice to have 2 separate ones. I have never had a tumble dryer, so do not know what it is like.