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.

whatashower I'm so sorry to hear about your cat. What horrible news.
So as well as a navy blue club we seem to have enough members to form a barren club! DH and I are naturally barren, it was thanks to three rounds of ivf that we have DD. I am thankful every day. I know how shockingly shit infertility is.

tatlerer it is one of the mahoosive ironies in life that the less children you (can) have the bigger house/extension/kitchen you can afford 😁(Unless you spend it all on IVF 😱). So glad you got your DD! We did one round but decided we were OK with whatever happened or didn't and are still fine with that 15 years later. I wonder if we will be so pragmatic about our blue kitchen decision 🤣🤣🤣 (see what I did there, got thread back on topic 👍)

Oh my this sounds like bags of fun! We'll be starting at the very beginning of our own "Extension Horror Story" in Jan when we move into hopefully our new house. Any advice would be amazing, will definitely be keeping an eye on this thread. Good Luck all. xx

We are another blue island and white quartz tis beautiful....our builders finally left on Friday after starting in May but we added so much as we went on ... life changing sounds too dramatic a word but after having no dining room and eating off our laps for 3yrs ( there's 6 of us) I think it is just fantastic!!...hang in there everyone
especially monkey and all those with sh"* builders ......

Congratulations jigster what a milestone!

tatlerer - congratulations on your DD. IVF is such a difficult thing to go through!

Honey - so you're moving into a new place and then doing it up straight away, or will you be doing some of the work and then moving in? Just trying to understand where you are in the process! Do you have drawings and planning in place?

Our roof has started 😱, they’ll be finished by Friday. We have a knock through/I suggest you find somewhere else to sleep date of 3rd November! This is so exciting...

Hooray bax! And yay for the knock-through date!

I've only just started on the roof and it is taking bloody ages! They've been working on it all week, but it seems to be crawling. I'm not sure why... they are hard at it all day but don't seem to be making progress. The beams are really heavy (reinforced due to a green roof going on top of them) so maybe that is it?

I can’t see what they’ve done today (too scared to go up the scaffolding!) but they’re adamant it’ll be finished this week.
We’ve then agreed we’ll be out the house from the 3rd for a week and they’re going to do long days including the weekend.

I have no idea how the roof is done it’s all a learning curve to me!

My roof started in May and wasnt even half finished by mid Aug when I sacked knobhead and employed someone else. So you're doing amazing Bax!

jigster can we have some pictures please?? Pretty please??

whisky thank you

whatashower I'm glad you have found peace and acceptance. With the blue island

Oh yay I hope we are doing well 😍 I like our builders and, touch wood, they haven’t let us down so far.. let’s see if it is done in 3 days 🙈 in fairness there was about 6 men there today!

@jigster01 ooooo yes a picture please!

Got a quote for recycled glass worktop. Came in cheaper than expected but it’s a 20mm worktop. So will ask for a 30mm quote as I think 20 is too thin....

Of course ladies ....still have a chair and desk to take out the dining room so still a little cluttered ...I would also like to get a blind and maybe a voile to one side of the bifolds ........5m out x 5.5 m...

There must be some others who have finished now especially as this is the second thread ....any other photos of completions ladies?

That is beautiful!

Where is your kitchen from?

Whatashower Sorry to hear your sad news!

Jigster lovely kitchen, it must be awesome to be rid of the builders! I cannot wait for that day!

On top of everything else crammed in to my downstairs I now have a concrete mixer as well! 😂😂😂

After being ready to sack the builder yesterday after a conversation with the electrician someone has been today & taken some of the plasterboard down! Hooray hope he's coming back tomorrow!

We've found a plasterer to pay cash to, just to do the wall the boiler will go on, so the plumber can crack on nest week, bit of a relief, after the mild spell it's cold here again tonight!

My kitchen isn't blue & white I've gone for the petrol blue Altino from DIY kitchens! Contrary! 🙄

Hi Bax its second nature

That look's gorgeous jigster. I'm so jealous that you are finished. Things are going to be moving on again here from today. Several trades booked in for the next week so hopefully not too long now...

I can't remember who was having DIY lamp room grey and I can't look back as on tablet, but that's the colour we would have had if using DIY. Navy does look lovely though, a bit dark for our kitchen which is north facing.

whatashower sorry about your cat, that's so sad. I miss our cats several years on.

jjigster - you must be so pleased! It looks like it'll be light and airy in the day, but cosy at night.

rick - I'm glad you've found a plasterer. I get the feeling that if you can just clear a couple of hurdles, work will start up again. I am so frustrated on your behalf at all this delay!

My sister had a builder who dumped a load of stuff on her driveway. He had got the wrong house. When she asked him to move it, he became really, really abusive and was just awful - she had to call the police in the end, and then he turned up the next day ready to yell at her again. In revenge, a bunch of mates rung him up over a number of weeks, and sent him to a number of fake addresses waaaaaay out in the countryside (in completely different directions) to quote for totally non-existent jobs.

@TeamRick that blue looks nice!

@jigster01, what a lovely looking kitchen. Did you say the extension was 5m out? Wow!

So yesterday I came home, ceiling of the extension has been insulated and plaster boarded but the rest of the original ceiling needs doing. It doesn’t look like much has been done but I’m hoping it’s because my expectations are too high (they’re certainly lowered). As our kitchen isn’t coming for a few weeks, I’m expecting the builders to —slack off— move into other jobs until our key things arrive.

In the meantime, I’m looking at kitchen pendant lights. I worry that our kitchen will turn into a Pinterest cliche of navy blue island, copper pendants etc etc but I love it.

Hi Whiskey, as we can only move in in Jan we are at the very beginning. We have an architect and 2 builders lined up for plans and quotes. From what I have heard from family, friends and now this thread, planning/party wall etc can take ages so we want to get going as soon as we move in and hoping to rip the bathroom out and replace withing the first 2 weeks. We sold our flat in July this year and already lost out on one property so waiting around is not something we look forward to. Our plans at this stage are quite adventurous - rear extension for new kitchen and to lengthen the existing dining room; to convert the existing kitchen into a wc and utility room and if funds permit a loft extension but at this stage without any quotes my DH thinks we will probably only be able to do the ground floor.

You guys seem lovely and so supportive so I will be here for a while x

Jigster your kitchen/ diner looks amazing! These are the colours I hope to use and I have already seen a great idea - plug sockets on the island - that will definitely be on the cards now.

We are London based so if any of you are really happy to recommend any of your suppliers etc please let me know(sorry dont know if thats allowed or what the rules are ).

Have a great day all.

honey - I am slightly concerned by your January start. I don't want to alarm you! But drawing up plans took a long time in our case (18 months, but we were really fussy). I think it's likely to take at least 3 months to get a full set of drawings, though. What do others think from their own experiences?

Planning will take 8 weeks once you have drawings sufficient to submit. You can do planning with more basic plans while you work on the detail, but the problem with this is that if you come to the finickety stuff of electrics and finishes suddenly need to change something, you might not be able to do so. After planning, you need structural engineering approval to make sure you don't do anything that will make your entire house fall down, though this is usually comparatively quick..

Of course, you can start working on other bits of the house that don't require planning in the meantime, though!

We got our permission a couple of years ago so we weren’t in a rush. Our plans took a couple of months before we were happy, then 8 weeks for permission (it went through first time) then builders survey bit another month I guess?
I would agree that you won’t get permission for January unless you rush your plans.
In fairness we got our main permission a couple of years ago then we put in for more permission this year as we added a single storey (ours is mainly a double side extension). We put our plans in early due to our neighbours house being empty

Thanks both, when I say "starting the process" I do mean starting with plans in January, I am aware that this wont happen overnight, just as long as things get moving as soon as we are able. Its the planning permission and party wall that I am most concerned about as I have heard of a few horrendous cases recently with a close friend still being in dispute over party wall after 7 months. We can only get the architect in once we are in so unfortunately our hands are tied till then.

We will be starting with general redecorating in bedrooms and bathroom replacement etc as soon as we move in so we can at least "camp" up there if/when we need to. I guess I still have hope that its all going to magically come together within the first few months and we can start the actual build come spring lol. By the sound of things this is wishful thinking