Home extensions 2017 - Christmas is coming

[Believeitornot]

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[devondream]

Great photos Titsy.

My son is autistic too and so renovating his room had meant a lot of gentle coaching and compromise. If the colour makes your DS happy all I see good. I actually quite like it - would be hard not to be happy in such an uplifting bright room

[Fourmagpies]

I like that colour titsy - it is very bright but it doesn't look garish. It's all looking good.

[Tatlerer]

Titsy nice pics! I like the turquoise as well! I feel slightly guilty now that my DD (4) asked for a purple room and I've painted it a tasteful grey - I figured I can go large on the purple accessories!

[devondream]

Who would have thought front doors could bring so much pleasure?

[DustandRubble]

We have uncovered our first proper headache of the build. Sewers. We were confident that our extension was not going far enough out to be an issue for the water company’s sewer pipe running across the garden. On the plans it looked far enough away to be fine. But now the builders are digging and they think they have found it much further forward than it should be. If it is, we may be in for some problems. And they found another pipe that had been hiding under our old conservatory, which is right where we want our wall to go so we need to do something about that. Which doesn’t include crushing it under the foundations. The builders are going to keep digging to see what is going on and we may need to get a proper pipe surveying person to come out and map where everything is. And then check with the water company what we are allowed to do.

I just want it to be easy!

[Tatlerer]

devondream swoon!! What a beautifully imposing door!

dust oh bugger. Hoping someone with more pipe/sewer intel than me comments soon! X

[Believeitornot]

@4yearsnosleep I love your front door! We had the new front door first and it’s survived the work so far. The builders have however failed to fit the lock. Bastards.

Sounds great @whiskyowl. Do you have many choices to make in terms of furniture?

Everything has slowed to a halt because boss builder is away 🤔 the other builder was obviously worried as he’s left a note explaining the (lack of) progress which he has never done in all of the last 5 months.

[Believeitornot]

@DustandRubble we had problems with sewers and it delayed us while we had it sorted.

The sewer basically runs under the extension so they had to dig the foundations then put a supporting lintel above the sewer and move a manhole cover so it can be accessed. This was signed off by the water company and building control. It was just very confusing working it out! And cost several hundred pounds

[DustandRubble]

Yes, that might be what we need to do believe, we just need to work out where the things are. The main sewer is not going to be under our extension but close if it is where the builders think it might be. We could move our wall back a little bit if it is a matter of a few cms to get us back to the safe distance. But we aren’t having a massive extension anyway so we don’t want to lose much.

The unexpected pipe is redundant, we think they put a new one in when they built the conservatory on top of it. So we might just want to disconnect that permanently. It’s just extra hassle I would rather avoid!

[Titsywoo]

Nice front door devon! I love the stone surround - gorgeous! Sorry you've hit a problem dust - hope you get it sorted soon :) Just got in from the mums xmas dinner - bit pissed off as another mum was being incredibly ignorant about DS's autism. Grr!

[devondream]

Thanks titsy

The stone around the door is quite common here in Europe and was already there. But I am loving the contrast with the new door.

This weekend is "get the house ready to move in" weekend. Dustbusting, cleaning and an IKEA run. DP will spend the weekend building new furniture and fitting lights bless him.

[whiskyowl]

Awwwww titsy - the turquoise really isn't that bad, and I bet it'll make your DS so chuffed!

devon - gorgeous door AND doorway. WOW!

dust - nooooooooooooo! Hidden pipe nightmare! I am keeping every finger and toe crossed that everything is fine and that the pipes are just old redundant ones and you don't get held up/extra costs.

Today I have had the first (slightly) stern word with the builder over the fact that spotlights are being drilled for and they are NOT straight or even, because there are joists in the way. Who the hell wants a run of very slightly wonky spotlights? Not OK, not OK!! The builder tried to pull the whole "OMG, it's just too hard, like a giant maths puzzle". It's just a load of straight lines, where you can't have spots, and space where you can - not exactly solving the Riemann hypothesis, is it?

And another one: I have three steps down from the dining room to the garden room, in the centre of the room. They're quite wide. There are two sockets either side. They should be spaced equally from the middle of the steps, right? So the whole thing is symmetrical? This just seems like a no-brainer to me. But they've gone with some other random spacing that means one is 10cm from the edge of the steps, and another is 20cm. It looks STUPID. I just told him I am NOT HAVING IT!!

The worst thing is that I have explained in all cases that things being aligned is really important to me, and I've suggested early on that things are not in the right place. It's because the electrician just doesn't listen.

[DustandRubble]

Keep on at them to make it straight whisky. My builder is big on wanting straight and symmetry, he has talked us out of things because of this!

He has just rung to tell me that our floor supplier will not be able to supply our parquet until FEBRUARY. He is now calling another supplier that was more expensive and seeing if he can negotiate us a discount.

[Believeitornot]

@whiskyowl somebuilders are lazy with things like making sure it looks right! Luckily it’s our builder who’s hot in symmetry and making things looks great. It helps that our extension is similar to his and he hasn’t high standards.

[whiskyowl]

I am standing my ground. I will have to deal with electrician harrumphing on Monday, but I will have a weekend to fortify myself in the interim. If I have to have pendants instead, so be it.

I am sanding my woodwork. My least favourite decorating job. I have 1930s architrave with a million thin lines in it. It's only around one ordinary sized door but it feels like 80 miles of the stuff today.

dust - I know it's a very different look, so possibly not appropriate for your home, but have you considered reclaimed? It can look absolutely lovely in the right place where having a bit of extra patina is an advantage. I bet you could get some supplied extremely quickly, too.

[TeamRick]

Twatchops has excelled himself today!

DH has had a phone call from someone called Frank who 'knows where we live' sigh!

DH emailed Twatchops to say he was happy to go through the Court process, including a link to the instructions!

Twatchops response nothing to do with him now he has passed it to debt collectors!

I've had a google, I know these people don't have a leg to stand on, we say it's disputed & it should pass back to him but has anyone got any advice?

[Tatlerer]

Teamrick bloody hell! What a tit! No constructive advice I'm afraid other than that I'm in complete agreement that twatchops can't just send in bloody debt collectors! Is it wrong that I'm visualising Frank Butcher?

[Whatthefoxgoingon]

Good lord TeamRick, what an arsehole he is! He’s just trying to scare you, no leg to stand on. No one can come into your house without your permission. That’s called trespass and would become a police matter. I’d like to see the court laugh at him. Obviously debt collectors can’t take you to court and twatchops doesn’t know what he’s doing so..... 😂

If he makes any more threats via phone, record them.

[4yearsnosleep]

Oh no Rick, It's issues like yours and Monkey's that's making me so nervous about picking the right builder. I've gone out to 7 and 2 have already been discounted. I have a top 3 and I'm desperately hoping one of them comes back with a good price!

I love the turquoise, it's very similar to our family bathroom colour and it makes me smile every time I'm in there.

I'm in the process of finalising my kitchen design and hoping that the designer can deliver all of my wish list on budget 🙈

[TwoKidsAndCounting]

Just discovered this thread, can I join?? A year into a kitchen extension and complete house reno and a finish date of xmas, one is a little stressed!!

[Tatlerer]

Welcome twokids! To join you must answer the following questions:

1. Do you know what the Mumsnet tap is and more importantly, do you have one?
   
2. Have you given your builder or any affiliated tradesperson a pet name, eg Twatchops?
   
3. Do you hate plaster dust?
   
4. is any part of your kitchen navy blue?
   
   Only joking, come on in! Here's a for the stress.

[PumpingRSI]

Welcome fellow newbie.

I have 2 x mumsnet taps.
No blue kitchen tho.

Our builders are on a go slow or not here lately. They have run out of things to do and are waiting until period between Xmas and new year to remove the bathroom and knock down walls inside. It's a tiny bit frustrating but we can't cope without bathroom whilst still working and at school. Then we become the great unwashed.

[NamedyChangedy]

Love it @tatlerer. We should have an elaborate secret handshake too - must include brushing-dust-off-shoulder action!

Welcome @TwoKidsAndCounting - after a year you must have made some amazing progress. Do you have any before / during / after pics?

Like believe things are slow here too. They’re still promising we’ll be done by Christmas but who knows. As long as I have a working kitchen on December 25th I don’t care any more.

Other than paying the builders one last instalment, I have one more thing on my must-buy list - door handles. Then I can give my credit card a much needed rest. There’ll be no presents this year, the roof over our heads is as far as we can stretch. Luckily my DCs get spoilt rotten by grandparents and aunts / uncles so probably won’t notice!

[4yearsnosleep]

Ha ha ha, no Mumsnet tap here, (although I did come close until I discovered Vellamo taps)

We're having a navy (&grey) kitchen, but I'm currently on the hunt for the perfect blue for the kitchen 🙈

[devondream]

Welcome to the newbies - we love photos if you have some to share.

Could not get to the house last night due to a snow storm so have not seen it for over a week! Am hoping to get there today for the big clean up.

Our kitchen is due to come and be installed on Monday but they are forecasting 12 cms of snow on Sunday night and we live on top of a big hill!
So let's see how that pans out.

The buildler called yesterday and wants to do the sign off / snagging list next Thursday. I can't quite believe we are so nearly there.

Had a bad dream that ex MIL came can drilled holes in my sitting room and installed. Net curtains and ruffled mustard velvet curtains with enornous bows on!!!!! 😂😂😂
Woke up in a panic and then remembered she has not been my MIL for 8 years (although I still see her often) & she does not have a key! Building takes over your whole life.