Home Extension thread 2018

[Baxdream]

Thought we should get the new thread ready!
Our front door is in. Long story but it arrived damaged 😫 it's in and lovely but it's going to be replaced!
Our fencing has started today, the short ones are new, the others are getting ripped out

threesocks all going well here. Although one of the steels has to come out, lowered by about 10mm and put back in.
Turns out our architects are not that shit hot on measuring.. hopefully if you are having problems already I would seriously consider ditching and trying someone new. Looking back I wish we had gone with our gut from the beginning. But, having said that, go with your gut feeling. They are usually right. Oh and fingers crossed on your sewage thing.
MrsBlondie seems to be similar here. Thank god for our builders is all I can say. They are certainly making us glad we chose them, despite them being the most expensive quote!
Anyway - the sun seems to help everything doesn't it. DH and I have been rotavating the heap of a back garden, sprayed it and will cover for a while in the hope that we can kill off the bloomin ground elder that has been the bane of my life for many years!

bobkate makes you annoyed at how much archirltects must earn argh when cocking up so much

mrsblondie They sent us another bill for some minor revisions the other day (£480). What grips my shit is that it probably took one of their minions about 30mins tops to make those changes. Oh hindsight is such a wonderful thing!

No relatives we can descend on unfortunately. I’m absoluteky dreading living in as there’s a lot of internal walls to come down. How do you manage?

We went away for bits, not long. A week on one occasion and ten days another. It helps recharge batteries, although coming back to the mess is hard!

You just sort of get on with it. I have developed vision blindness so I cannot see the mess & chaos! We have delivered ultimatums to our builders after a shitty day. I still like their work but dear god they are slow.

We are at the end of week one. I was at work for two days which was nice to go out before the builders get there and come home after they have gone. At the end of week one the conservatory is down, foundations are in, the scaffolding is up and the builders have put up a small part of the wall so we can see the footprint. It’s only two builders and they seem to work like machines, I keep offering them drinks etc but they never seem to stop, long may it continue.
Bobkate- we had ground elder the only way we got rid of it was sieving the earth, covering in black plastic then when we where ready putting a lawn on top!
Weather not looking as good next week i hope this doesn’t slow them down too much.

@bobkate that's so frustrating. Fingers crossed it is smooth sailing from here.

@Ilovechocolatetoomuch sounds like you have great builders. I think mine are showing signs of being similar. Keeping everything crossed.

I have resigned myself to having a rubbish garden for this year - next year's project will be the garden!

We will be living in during the build (and have 2 kids under 5). We plan to move upstairs and create a bed sit type room in our bedroom. Luckily we have the space to move into the spare room to sleep in. Just hoping it will not be too unbearable. My best friend lives round the corner so will decamp to her house if it all gets too much!

@DustandRubble hope your builders speed up. I think dust blindness is going to be something I need to work on!

hopefully ditch the architect! Life’s too short, building work too stressful! to have this faff so early on is a BIG sign. Cut your losses now. Could you get a project manager if it’s a big job? If you’ve not gone to tender yet can you do your own spec. As long as each builder has same info quotes can be compared. I’m doing the latter - meeting builders and going through my spec with them. I’m not too sure about the staging and quantity surveying aspect though.

We will project manage, so if we do stick with the architect it's only for a few more months for planning, building regs etc. I have decided to give him until first thing tomorrow (two full working days) to respond sensibly to my email from last week, then have a straight conversation that we need to ditch him if he can't stick to the schedule we have set and see how he responds.

We have here DCs and are planning to live in. Not quite sure how as there now isn't a room in the house that won't be affected at some stage.

Dustandrubble I hope your builders speed up a bit!

ilovechocolate I DREAM of builders like yours.

Have THREE DCs.

hopefully we are similar to you with 3 DCs and everywhere walls coming down! Have one quote in and 2nd due in today. Other two didn’t get back after quite a bit of chasing. Ours could begin as summer hols start! So no idea what to do. Dreading it!

Hopefully- it’s so frustrating our architect was so slow especially when he knew we where in a huge rush to get started as I am 36 weeks pregnant (with a much longed for but we thought was never going to happen 2nd dc). I feel your frustration and hope they pull their finger out!
Well weather looks great here this week 21c with sun behind a cloud all week, i’m At work 3 days so hopefully the builders behave whilst i’m Not here!

Hopefully,
It is such a frustating process. I had thought main build would get all completed while i am on maternity leave, and we dont even have a quote and date of start. In couple of months, i would be going back to work and dont know how will i project manage it. Its been months chasing and waiting i even thought lets sell this house and move to a bigger one, but someone guzumped us while during the process. Lost some fees in that process too and back to wait and chase!

I'm not going to lie, living in with the mess does start to get to you. Ive had to spend hours of my life cleaning because we need to live in it. Hours wasted and lots of late nights and take-aways!
I have two children.

The dust gets everywhere.

We seem to spend our lives at B&Q, Wickes right now lol! Had to buy new skirting boards, internal doors and handles and paint tester pots.

The architect emailed. To tell me he's going to email me.

Ah hopefully, That is so annoying! make sure you put a review on check a trade!
The entire ground floor brick work is done and the lindtel are on over the windows and bifold (well the hole where they will be) not sure if this is good progress in 6 days it certainly feels like it.

Sounds like excellent progress to me!

hopefully sorry, that did make me splurt out my tea a bit!!
Ilove that does sound like great progress!
Our timber frame has been started! Got the beginnings of a new side wall
Trying to get to grips with what appliances to choose. Finding the whole thing very overwhelming to be honest!
It sounds simple. 2 single ovens, a tall integrated fridge, tall integrated freezer, 80cms induction hob and an island extractor. But there's so much choice....aaaghhh!!!

Ilovechoc OMG in 6 days?! Foundations dug too?

Bobkate I know. It took me hours to choose a fridge freezer . Too much choice!

If it helps, I really like my Neff pyrolitic oven bobkate. The hide & slide door is brilliant.

Thanks dust I am so tempted by the hide and slide part but also like the idea of a door staying put so I can rest things on there if needs be. I am literally frying my brain looking at reviews, specs, costs, Steam bake or no steam bake, does the brand itself make much difference? Gah - off to bed now before I blow my pea sized brain into outer space.
Will try again with fresh eyes tomorrow!

Think I’ve found a Builder. Did you guys have a contract? How are your payments staged please?
mum2015 I cant believe how long it’s taken to get quotes - obviously a lot of work to go round and they can cherry pick.
hopefully e-mailed saying he’ll email? Seriously frustrating. Hope the actual email arrives soon!
Please let me know about building contracts/agreements etc. Thank you!

Sigh. I should start a 'probably starting building work some time around the turn of the next century' thread rather than hanging out on this one!

So the architect emailed regarding my proposed schedule. He has always known that we have a planned start date of early 2019 (Feb, ideally), with a view to everything being totally done before winter 2019. He started work (surveyed the house) last November, and at no stage has suggested that early 2019 isn't realistic, and still isn't, to be fair. BUT we (DH and I) have always been talking to him in terms of a lead time for builders of 6-9 months, as that seems to be the local market, and he hasn't argued. As such, I assumed we would be in a position to start getting quotes in the next couple of months, to give us some chance of that 2019 start date. He is now saying that actually we shouldn't even think of getting quotes until we have planning permission and structural engineer calcs, as that can change the final sum so much (I had assumed it would only be slight changes, because he has always know both lead times and planned start date). Based on applying for planning in early July, he thinks we're likely to be in a position to start asking for quotes in December, and that we will get someone to start in February. This seems more than a little optimistic to me.

Obviously if we need planning and structural engineer stuff done before we go for quotes then we need it done, that's fine, but I'm really irritated that he is so wildly optimistic about start dates for builders, because that is what fits in with the timescale we initially proposed, rather than being realistic and saying actually best case scenario it's likely to be a later start.

So now the delay is not his work (he has agreed to my proposed schedule for his work, which will see us applying for planning in early July and getting structural engineer/building regs all sorted by end November, at which stage his work for us is done) but rather the realities of the build process.

The real bugger is that if we are, as expected, looking at a 9 month + lead time from December, we're really looking at another 14 months from December 2018, as we can't start the build going in to winter 2019 because we need to be able to live in the house, which we can't in winter with no rear wall. Of course, the architect might be right and we really will get someone to start work within two months of our initial approach, but that seems, at best, wildly optimistic.

I really don't think there's anything we can do about it - it's just a question of continuing to slog through the process and hope that when it comes to it we do find a good builder who can start earlier than friends have told us theirs did.