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.

We are back home. I shall miss the oven, even though it was crappy.

The question of whether we have a kitchen for Christmas hangs in the balance. Builder has gone from saying “yes, definitely” to “we’ll have a better idea in 2 weeks”. Getting the steels in has taken longer than they expected. We will see what happens.

whisky where are your windows from?

noooo titsy that's not long! Still, it'll encourage you to be decisive!

On the subject of decorating, I am at a bit of a loss for our ensuite. It's pretty small. The wall opposite the door will have a large shower which is 1.75m by 0.8m. That's the whole wall. In a little alcove just to the left of the door will be a sink (approx 70cm by 45cm). The loo will be to the right of the door and the total floorspace excluding the shower is just under 2m. Some of it's under the eaves so there is limited headroom for that part as well. There is one velux window in the ceiling.

I am really struggling to decide what I want on the floor and on the shower walls. I was thinking that we could have a custom mirror on the wall in the alcove and therefore dispense with tiles there. Ideally I'd love coloured glass on the shower walls but that is £££.

What would you do?

Mirror mirror mirror. Largest one you can get glorious. This is the cheapest way to create the illusion of more space. Get demister pads to put behind the mirror.

whisky you running in going guys guys guys has really made me laugh. I can just picture your excitement

Just popped on to say how excited I am to see everyones progress -its all going to be fabulous, hang on in there and dont worry about Christmas 😀
not bookmarking at all

It's been a busy week. Painting now underway, tiling nearly complete, radiators in and ON 😉 And wooden floor laid in sitting room.

Still pending - finish painting and tiling. Install hall loo and bathroom, lights in, wood burner in, kitchen in, internal doors in.

We have earmarked 9/12 as move back in day.

I think there will still be odd jobs to do post Christmas but it looks like we may have more or less finished for Christmas :))))

Hoping everyone else aiming for Christmas makes it.

Skips in! I am organising my food storage kitchen cupboard this morning! Dusting every single tin before it goes away! Lol!

The Building Regs people have suggested we fill the gaps round the edge with cellotex ( good job Twatchops left so much in the front garden) 😡 The new building people are coming to do that Monday, and then put my floor tiles down Wednesday! It's all go go go!

Twatchops emailed yesterday to say he will be contacting his solicitor re the £800 we 'owe' him! We ignored it! See you in court Twatchops!

Oh hello you lovely people - it's all go in here, isn't it?

TeamRick fab to see what great progress you've made - and glad you're still smiling about Twatchops!

We have our kitchen units in and floors down. Hopefully worktops are being templated on Tuesday, but we still need all electrics fitted, doors hung, utility and shower room plumbing and tiles etc etc! Builders are being good and are still committed to us being in for Christmas. I just want them out of my house now, in the nicest possible way!

We're also planning to DIY most of the painting ourselves after the main building bits are done. If it's still during term time, I can take a couple of days off work and do a fair bit if I really put my mind to it. I may regret it later, but it seemed like the best way of managing time and cost.

whisky did your windows arrive!?!?

I am very impressed with all the progress. TeamRick your kitchen and utility are looking fab.

We have been at a complete standstill for weeks now. The builder was supposed to be giving us the quote for the wooden floor. He said he had done it but it never appeared, despite us and one of his guys reminding him. DH reckons he didn't want to do the job or was worried about how much it would now cost. We know the retail price of the wood had gone up whilst we were waiting for the quote.

So we made a decision the other day to scrap the wooden floor idea. Not helped by everything costing more than we expected plus we have had to have some other jobs done. Got a quote for carpet at the weekend.

Texted him to tell him to come and fit the skirting boards. And after not replying to other texts get one back the next day to say he will be here tomorrow. Hopefully if that gets done we can get the remaining decorating done then - the decorator is just waiting for the call.

We may even be all done for Christmas. It won't be quite what I hoped for but at least it will be over and we won't be completely broke

Sushi - we had to downgrade our flooring. As our kitchen is so big it was so expensive to have parquet. We've got engineered wood instead then carpet elsewhere.

Plasterers are back tomorrow to do the snug and maybe the kitchen. It's getting exciting now!

Evening all. Well - we won't be moving back on 8 December as hoped! Despite our builder's protestations that all would be well, and he'd pull evenings and weekends to get it done, he's stuck to his 8.30-4.45 schedule so we're behind. I've started a new thread in chat as we stupidly gave notice on our rented flat and the property mgt company won't grant an extension as they've already lined up a new tenant. Ugh. Any thoughts on that one appreciated - link here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3097582-Given-notice-on-flat-but-can-no-longer-move-options-rights?watched=1

@Tatlerer that’s terrible!!! Oh no! How bad is the house? Could you move back and slum it for a while?

(We are living in madness, plastic boxes everywhere with no kitchen)

@Tatlerer just read the thread. Can the builder rig up a temporary arrangement with lighting and plug in heaters? Ours has given us temp lights in the extension?

Tatler, I'll say this very gently as I know how stressed you must be. But. Nobody can physically make you move on the 8th. Eviction proceeds can't start for ages. So if you wanted, you could sit tight for weeks and weeks, even months, yet. However. Morally, it would be really selfish. If new tenants are lined up, don't forget they will have made arrangements to move in. This could mean giving notice, booking vans, days off work etc.

I'm a landlady and I cannot even begin to describe the angst and stress that tenants who don't leave cause, to a whole chain of people.

I know it sucks, it really does. But it's not your landlords fault, or the people who want to move in. Please leave when you need to

Could you look at air b n b and hire a holiday cottage for a few weeks? Would probably be cheaper than rent even, at this time of year.

Thank you for being gentle with me monkey! I know that what you are saying makes perfect sense. That's why I'm hoping that the tenant will be happy with the other flat, or if he isn't, we'll take it for a few weeks (it's the same size, just on for £50 pcm more). Or even move into a one bed unit if they have one in the building which would do for a few weeks - because then we could physically do the move ourselves over the next couple of weeks by carrying stuff up/down in the lift etc!. Good idea re the airBnB option too. I suppose I was really hoping that we wouldn't have to pack up the whole place and move more than once. We brought some furniture into this place but we might be able to move that back into the house and stash it out of the way.

Believe the upstairs is nearly finished! So that would be liveable in - the electric second fix hasn't happened because they were waiting for the place to be decorated but they could come back and do that before the 8th. And we could eat out/microwave everything for a while!

Sorry pressed send too soon. So, in conclusion we could slum it - but the builder has said in no uncertain terms that he doesn't want us there as it would slow him down even more :(

Our spot lights were temporarily fixed in before decorating happened so it is possible. You can move back in if you want - it’s your builder’s problem if he’s not met the deadline!

We have used a variety of air b n b and holiday flats (45 mins away in a tourist area).
Has been fun and easier than camping.

Feel for you though as we are also supposed to be moving on 8/9 and have everything crossed the builders make it on time.

I hope everyone's builds go well this week.

Aaargh, so I'm having a nightmare with Ikea, their delivery system, their credit system, and my kitchen. Looks like it won't be delivered til the new year now (they have a big backlog). Given that it would have been almost impossible to fit before Dec 25th, it's not a biggie at all. But I am finding that things that don't go smoothly are disproportionately wearing and frustrating at the moment! I had a real AAAARGH moment about it on Friday, not because there was any huge problem, but more because I have worked so hard on this for weeks and weeks and psychologically, I really wanted to put a big tick next to it on my mental list.

Christmas has never really involved a kitchen here, so the delivery date isn't a big concern. My real worry is becoming whether we'll have plastering done and radiators back on in time. The radiators are column ones, so slightly see through, so to be mounted the walls behind really have to be painted. That means quite a lot of plastering, drying, mistcoating and decorating has to be done. I think DH and I may end up doing quite a bit of that decorating work just to get it done!

titsy - You'll get there with the colours! You really will! If you're anything like me, a lot of the indecision is anxiety - and a deadline has a way of evaporating a lot of that.

tatlerer - How good are you at slumming it? And do you have spaces in your house that are unaffected? Because I would be tempted to try moving back into the place in your shoes. Every room in my house bar the front bedroom and bathroom is affected by the building work, so I am camping out in a tiny and cramped space with the bare necessities. Life is inconvenient, but it's not impossible this way and there are workarounds. I've put the kitchen stuff I need into clear plastic crates from Ikea, which can just be moved around the house to avoid whatever areas are being worked on that day. I know your builder doesn't want you there, but at the end of the day he's the one who is late. You could always take stuff to a storage unit if that makes life easier?

dust - I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your kitchen! The windows are from Smart Systems!

whisky sorry about your Ikea woes. Clearly everyone wants a new kitchen for Christmas!

We had a meeting/heated debate with our builder this morning. He's now saying 5 Jan is more realistic so there go the Christmas at home plans.

On the plus side, the property mgt guy here was in touch first thing this morning. The chap who was going to move in here is taking the apartment upstairs, and he's said he will disregard our notice to leave so we can just push the trigger when ready. So while it will add on expense, at least we will have somewhere to live and nobody was let down.

tatlerer - That's so frustrating from your builder, especially as you were promised so much flexibility to get it done. I'm really glad the property guy has been more flexible, though - it will save you so much hassle not to have to move right now.

Talk to me about kitchen taps……There was one recommended here earlier wasn't there - has anyone fitted it yet? Was it from Amazon?

HideHide we've bought one for our utility room- it's some way off being fitted yet (sigh) but it feels chunky and looks so expensive, and it was £47! whatashower recommended it I think. I'll try and find the link.

It was this one, but I see Amazon are no longer selling it directly: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01AYSJLL6/ref=mpssa112?ie=UTF8&qid=1511799050&sr=8-2&pi=ACSX2366SY340QL65&keywords=gicasa+professional&dpPl=1&dpID=51mjlVLZqtL&ref=plSrch

hidehide yep that’s my tap. Easy install, looks good. Seems to be out of stock but there is one in the Amazon warehouse “used as new” might be worth taking a risk - Think there is 20% off outlet at moment. Pic shows IRL sorry not a close up.

I got it too but it's not fitted yet.

We have a plastered snug ✔️

Hopefully the kitchen will be being plastered tomorrow