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.

Love the Cat whatashower. Yeah I'm sitting on your island- what are you going to do about it???!

BRILLIANT, knew i could rely on you lot! Just ordered it!

next up: anyone got a pop up socket in their island? Ive ordered one with good reviews but am sweating about cutting a hole in my stupidly expensive worktop if its going to be naff…
Ditto boiling water taps…...

I’ve found some lovely taps on tapwarehouse.com £69.99 for a variety of pull out Vellamo taps with a lifetime warranty

I’m currently impatiently waiting for builders to get quotes back to me. Why is everything involving tradesmen such a slow process? I’ve been trying to get a new front door fitted for the last 2 months.....it’s still not here and no date for fitting yet 🙄 safe to say I won’t be using the same guy for the glazing needed for the extension

I haven't got a pop up plug for that exact reason. I've asked the builder to hide one somehow instead.

We've got the howdens boiling tap. Again not fitted yet though

I was talking to our electrician about those pop up things in the worktop. I have concluded I don’t want one and he is going to put some elsewhere on the island instead. They just look like something my kids would break immediately. The electrician was here today doing the chasing for the kitchen while everything is ripped to pieces. There was a lot of drilling.

Building control are coming tomorrow to sign off our rsjs before the concrete goes in.

Oh and we are not doing a boiling water tap as the act of putting the kettle one is important to me. There is just something so soothing about it.

For boiling water taps we went for an Insinkerator as it was the only one available for anywhere near our budget. I haven't had it fitted yet though so can't recommend.

We have a pop up socket and use it all the time. It's very sturdy. If you have the money this is a fab option as you can use a piece of your worktop so it is pretty much invisible. www.the-sbox.com/design-installation/

I am really fed up of dust right now. And getting pissed off with the plasterer who has accidentally gouged a big bit out of my parquet floor. Luckily it's being redone soon but he didn't know that. Also he keeps walking plaster into the kitchen which has an engineered wood floor and when plaster gets stuck in the crevices its a nightmare to clean out . I'm at the point of wishing they would all fuck off.

Good news on the flat Tatlerer if not the delay.

Had good news today work made a mistake on my salary years ago and are going to pay me the diff as a lumpsum for Christmas. A few thousand so will now be able to afford new furniture. With going over budget I thought We would simply have to put the old very tatty stuff back. Am thrilled to bits and may have cried happy tears at work.

10 mins later found out kitchen will now be installed 2 weeks earlier and no longer on 22 December.

Hoping this is the week of great news for us all.

My first 'letter before court' that I sent to ex-builder-shitface was ignored. Months ago.

So today I sent him another copy, this time by recorded delivery so I get a signature of delivery.

Not feeling strong enough for a fight.

rick help.

We have THE Amazon tap in our utility (which is also our temporary kitchen for the moment!). Love it.

We're having the Adobe 3 in 1 boiling water tap, it's not fitted yet so can't show a pic but it looks lovely in the box. It took awhile to find one that works with lower pressure hot water so hoping it works okay.

We're not having any pop up sockets so can't comment on those. Friends down the road have one though and love it.

titsy you have my sympathy, we had plasterers here for 2 days a couple of weeks ago and there was plaster everywhere, streaks down walls and doors, all over the floor, bits of plaster on appliances (fortunately old ones we're not keeping, not that they would know that). They'd made no effort to tidy up afterwards.

Come on Monkey go for it!
Remember the misery he caused you! You can most certainly send another letter!

Haven't got an practical advice, we'd decided to just walk away but now Twatchops threatening us with court but in your shoes I would pursue it!

How are things with you otherwise? I've been thinking of you!

All the pics look great. So pleased everyone is moving forward

We're well on hold now. We didn't get the non - material amendment. Seems to be a woolly term with no definition and planning can do what they feel like.

We've now got to put in another planning application. Planning officer said this would likely get through as change was only minor, but not non - material. Still not clear on the difference.

Anyway, neighbour will have the opportunity to object again and I saw her looking at the other side of my extension with some chap tonight. I can't think of what she'd be looking at.

I'm so frustrated. Another 8 weeks and neither builder or architect want to take responsibility.

Argh

Awwwww, beautiful grey kittie!! [heart]

We are reaching PeakDust here. The kitchen is knocked through, the study is in the process of knocking, and the dining room radiator has been taken off ready for more creative destruction there today. The boiler is also part-fitted, and two of the side windows have gone in. I have no water downstairs, so no washer, no dishwasher and no heating. On the upside, though, I finally ordered my Ikea kitchen! HOORAY! It's being delivered 27 December, so I should be able to build some of the cupboards ready for installation as soon as January kicks off. This is also a brilliant excuse not to stay at the in laws' on boxing day evening.

monkey - you can do this. You don't need strength for this kind of fight- you just need to have persistence at putting one foot in front of the next and resilience in not letting the bastards make you so upset you stop. for you, we have your back! #TeamRick&Monkey

Titsy - Gah, awful news about your plasterer. It's frustrating when builders aren't careful with your stuff and parquet is so beautiful.

Devon - Wow, talk about a windfall coming at the right moment!

Dust - I'm with you on the kettle front. I like the ritual of tea. Which is something I'm not getting anything of at the moment!!

Our temporary kitchen has gone 🙈 but the kitchen is being plastered tomorrow then kitchen will go in.
Having an extension is as hard as everyone says it is!

But it is happening so quickly Bax, how exciting!

I have just had a man from the water company round, he’s doing some work on the road, he asked if I could turn on my cold tap in the kitchen so he can work out what supply he is meant to be working on. I got a very funny look when he said I didn’t currently have a kitchen tap, luckily the bathroom tap was an acceptable alternative.

Absolutely! They are brilliant. They might get one bifold ordered so that the kitchen part of the family room is 'finished '

As much as it's chaos here we're so close!

😂 I so know that feeling. We'll have such lovely kitchen taps soon!

Ps our builders have just snuck out for lunch they don't normally leave it in such a mess 😂

Just got home so just brief and the oven has been fitted. It’s a bake off slide and slide 😍

Will post properly later

They've cleared up all the stuff on roof today so looks like they'll clean it down tomorrow then the scaffolding should come down on Thursday! Sadly that means the diva scaffolders will be back for a couple of days but hey ho needs must! The plasterer will be done tomorrow - phew, messy bastard. Plumber does two full days on Thursday and Friday to finish that. Electrician is here to close off tomorrow - annoyingly the outside lights got delayed so won't be here until Friday but luckily DH can do that.

Kitchen ready for plaster tomorrow!

My ovens went in yesterday & the electrician came today to connect them up but needed some extra bits so he's coming back next Monday to do the whole lot & finish his second fix!

Now while I'm enjoying the break from cooking another week on takeaways, meals out & ready meals, on top of 7 months of the renovation diet I'm going to be the size of a house! 😱

I do keep hiding & sliding the oven door when I walk past it though! 😂

Wow Bax great progress!

Seems to have been the day for ovens!

Lovely to see progress and commiserations for those hitting delays and planning issues.

I am holding off on visiting the house (1 hr away from where we are staying) until Friday. I find it easier to see it less often and then marvel at the changes!

Hoping the tiling and most of the painting will be done by Friday. I have taken a day's leave on Friday to buy kitchen lights to fit over the island and choose some furniture (happy times).

We started our "4 month" build on 22/6 and should be done by 18-20 December. Although it has taken 2 extra months the quality of the work is perfect so am seeing that as a positive and it makes the delay easier to swallow. I hope those facing delays can at least take comfort in how well the house is being done.

We are in total chaos. No heating, no water - we have saucepans and buckets! Living out of 2 rooms upstairs. Dust everywhere. The smoke alarm going off every time welding is done. The electrician flying off in a hump because we said we didn't want trunking in the study. Plus, the kettle is upstairs, the tea is in the hall, and the milk is in the extension, which means making a cup of tea is now a major mission requiring military-level planning. Cooking anything at all is impossible, so we are basically living off takeaway.

However - by the end of the day, I'm hoping to have a new boiler that works!! And the dishwasher, washing machine, and sink temporarily plumbed in so I can get some washing done . I MAY also have a roof light, which would be amazing because I will be able to get a proper sense of how light the space will be for the first time.

Builder is being great, but this is one of those weeks where I just wish there were 2 of him!!