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

Day 2 and neighbours already moaning about where the builders were parking. we haven't packed up anything yet as everything for the next few weeks is outside. Should probably start though!
I'm so glad the nerves are normal!!

O.k I was feeling calm till the roofers arrived today. There seems to be about 5 of them lots of loud music and drilling :/
Trying to think happy thoughts and think of the end in sight. They plan on knocking through on Friday, we are taping up the doors and going out all day!

Sounds like lots of exciting things going on!

Nothing exciting here, although have started idly researching kitchens and am completely underwhelmed with the fitted kitchen offerings out there. Our kitchen is really quite small so I'm going to look into the price of a bespoke solid wood handleless and see how much it horrifies me.

I’m still waiting for your builders to pop round humpty!
Meanwhile Builder 1 is coming over tomorrow to go through quote and double check everything I think is included is actually included. Starting to look at tiles, floors etc. I’ve expensive taste. Damn!!

Kimlek I have ridiculously expensive taste. I keep seeing tiles or doorhandles or whatever and becoming completely fixated on getting those exact ones, and nothing else is ever going to do. Suspect all of that will go out the window when the reality of quotes comes in! Although we are potentially looking at a significant cost saving as there is some chance we may be able to leave our current single storey extension standing (we had all thought it would need to be demolished, but the walls more or less line up with the final design, and it seems like it might be built to a higher spec than originally thought now we are investigating more seriously). It would form the new bathroom and utility alongside the completely newly built kitchen. Will save us c.£6k, plus demolition and removal of rubble, if we can do it.

Hello! I am a new starter on the Ext thread. Just contacted someone to complete our drawings yesterday. Funds have been agreed. Although we plan to start the build in September/October.

Almost had a heart attack this morning when they said they where going to start knocking through the wall 5 days early.
Luckily they have decided not to as they have to wait for scaffolding to come down before the can get rsj in and the roofers aren't finished so a few more days to try and stuff everything in storage!

I have steels; skipping around happily!

Our builder and the guy in charge seem to not be communicating that well. Has anyone else had this problem?
Our guy in charge tells us no knock through till next week the builder has knocked through upstairs today and the whole downstairs which we haven't moved anything from is covered in dust!

What is the neighbour upto brand new? Our neighbour practically has a periscope over the fence 24/7 I am going to buy some large shrubs lol.

I am anticipating neighbour problems on one side. They aren't exactly unfriendly, but a bit stand offish, and very particular about their house and garden, and I can see them being horrified at the disruption of an extension. Hoping we can mollify them with lots of reassurance (and cake)!

Ilove oh dear with the unscheduled knock through! How infuriating. I still haven't worked out what we're going to do with everything, as we're not going to have a room left untouched. We could hire storage but it's soooo expensive. Contemplating seeing if we can hire a van and store at my parents', as they have a huge house (although not so big that they're not going to exactly notice the influx of stuff, sadly).

Hopefully-Storage has worked out about £700 for the 6 months so cheaper than moving out and I have no idea where we would have put everything otherwise, It was so worth it!
Scaffolding coming down tomorrow and the rsj goes in alongside downstairs knock through.
I am excited but also also a little bit nervous that there will be no door between us and them anymore!
Our new bedroom looks huge I can’t wait for electrics etc to be done and we can get in there!

Ilovechocolate £700 isn't atrocious (although cheaper than anything I've found locally, must look more in depth and actually think about how much space we need), but it seems such an unnecessary cost! I'd rather spend it on a few nights in an air b'n'b if we need a break from the house, or on some fancier tiles for the bathroom. Need to ponder that one, and smile winningly at my mum. I hope the RSJ goes in smoothly today, and the scaffolding coming down gives you a good glimpse of how your house will look!

I am in watch and wait mode for the architect. I feel like we're on the home straight before planning permission application, and I just want it done now, even though I know there's a looonnngggg road ahead still.

we sold all the things locally we were not going to want anymore. ie nest of tables, washing machine, bookcase. Managed to fit a few things in garage and others just covered up and they plastered around them.

Final stages here hooray. Painted lounge and OMG it looks amazing. Had a wall bricked up. Nice cosy room.

Good luck all just started. Its a ride of emotions. We still have lots to do. You think you are finished but its all the finishing parts like flooring, paint and new furniture.

Mrs Blondie I am so jealous.
Those of you who had a knock through would you say that this is the worst part?
We are camped out now the study is now the kitchen, lounge is stil the lounge and we are squeezed in the two front bedrooms. Luckily the bathroom is untouched as is the downstairs loo/ utility.
It will be nice to get outside without taking life in our hands knocking head off on scaffolding.

We had a wall knocked through and not the worst part. At this point the builders were still in that area and we had dust guards up.
Temp. kitchen in our lounge. The worst part is when the dust guards go down and you have the builders in the whole house/downstairs!

Drilling into walls OMG the noise and the mess.

ANyone had final inspection = anyone still lingering?
What happens at this one? Can you have your karndean/vinyl added before or do you have to wait? (Floor already inspected)?
Is it checking fire alarms/heat sensors etc?

If only we were at final inspection! We have the walls nearly up to full height though. Then the roof can start happening. I am hoping by the looks of it and how much the brick layer gets done in a day that we should have them up to height by end of tomorrow.

How exciting MrsBlondie! You must be so pleased to be at the point of considering a final inspection.

I have been taking a great big red pen to my plans this evening, for the umpteenth time. Sometimes I do feel just a tiny bit sorry for my incompetent architect (even if 90% of the problems are due to him designing something that later consideration shows won't bloody work). However I have heard from the architect and we are still on track for the schedule I set him.

All is going well here with them ahead of schedule so far. What hours do your builders work?
We had hoped to hire a container to store all our stuff onsite but inspector has said no as the telephone wires are too low apparently. How is everyone else?

Ahead of schedule is brilliant, go builders!

My guys work school hours as they have young families and do the school run. So usually just after 9 until 3. They don’t take breaks. It’s worked well for me as I would hate builders turning up at 8am when we are all getting ready and it means the house is ok for the kids in the afternoon.

Having said that, they are still here today. They work longer when they need to.

Ours have been working 7:30am to 6pm, every day, like complete gods. They are way ahead of schedule, but 3rd party window contractor have made a complete hash of things which is going to put us 4 weeks behind schedule, so a 7/8 week difference. So annoyed.