Home extension 2019 the Third thread- Drowning in Dust

[WhereDoesThisToiletGo]

And we're off again

@Italianna speak to your builder in advance.
They are used to rigging up temporary facilities during building.
Is there a bathroom it could go in temporarily? (contrary to Code!)

Hmm @WhereDoesThisToiletGo, good plan. Our architect seems pretty on the ball and has talked through a schedule but has 2 children fewer than us and perhaps underestimates the need for marathon laundry events at the weekends. Will work with builder too. What is the "Code" and how does having a washing machine in the bathroom conspire against it?

Soaked it's a flat roof with pitched front and size. Think they call it a crown pitch roof. Builder boss is coming to have a look this morning and advise...
It's all a voyage of discovery! I'm in awe of the people who go away while building work is happening - the number of things we've had to remind them of, it was a good thing we were here! Hoping to escape over half term but am apprehensive what we'd find when we came back
I don't know about switching dishwasher with washing machine but it sounds a good idea if it's possible. Not looking forward to losing facilities...

Helpful hint - buy wine in bulk from Majestic.
Not only will you want to drink more yourselves, it is useful to bung the occasional bottle to the neighbours for putting up with your building.
So far this week it has been a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc to number 28 for helping us lift the granite from the old kitchen into the van, and a bottle of Malbec to number 32 for letting us get the steels into back garden through their fence, and asking them to park off their drive so that we could do it.
I have also used the washing machine of number 30 and parked all day on the drive of number 33 (who will get their bottle of wine when they return from holiday)
Once building work is over I will ask our physically closest neighbour (who actually backs on to use)if she would like our window cleaner to do her windows as it's been quite dusty

As you can see, I have lovely neighbours!

@Italianna you're not meant to have stuff plugged in to bathrooms other than via shaver sockets, but I'm sure your builder can work something out.

Thank you @WhereDoesThisToiletGo. Noted!
I think we will be without a downstairs loo too so a work around will be required.

@gleegeek are you living in whilst the work is going on? Any top tips hugely appreciated please!

@WhereDoesThisToiletGo I thought your top tip about bulk wine purchasing was purely for self-administration however I see you are more altruistic than me. V good tip as opposite neighbours start their similar work just before us and 2 doors down have just started...could either work in our favour or most likely not, so vino peace offerings sound majestic .

It's important to keep your neighbours on side, because we are happy to put up with the upheaval and noise and mess because of the final benefit to ourselves, but our building work rarely has any benefit at all to others.
I put a note thru the door of all our neighbours warning them in advance and they've been pretty tolerant so far

@lightlypoached those sockets are great and I love the white ones - will def get some for my island

@soakedat3 thanks for the encouragement, have been busy making decisions and feel like things will move on quickly next week

Re the sockets question I had an interior designer work it all out for us for the living room and kitchen and then winged it for the rest of it. But then our neurotic electrician has had a bit of a hissy fit becasue I don't have proper measurements for the kitchen units/ electrics. he has alread sent me a passive aggressive text about having plans for tomorrow for first fix. but the kitchen won't be fitted for weeks. I get that the ceiling lights need to go in but the oven spur? Surely he can just put the wire in and then we decide where it ends up later on?

I've been to Wren this afternoon for a full on kitchen replan, all looking good but I am grappling with the double oven/ two singles conundrum. See attached pic - the probelm is that I want abuilt in larder fridge and separate larder freezer. But reading this thread I now want a corner larder unit and two single ovens - the oven is going to the right of the chimney breast in that unit

@WhereDoesThisToiletGo our neighbours have most definitely not been onside - they have been obstructive at every opportunity, next ddor even going so far as to make sure that one of their two cars is outside our shared front space AT ALL POSSIBLE TIMES so that (presumably) the builders or us can't park there. This despite having space for two cars on their drive AND having listed as one of their many planning objections (in their 9 page letter) the lack of available parking on the street and their (incorrect) assumption that we were going to be parking our cars on the street rather than our drive.

Both adjacent neighbours have called the council with complaints about noise (when they started at 7.45 rather than 8 on a couple of days). And the neighbour that is joined to us called the planning office to report us for building outside our planning permissions (we haven't).

It'll take more than a bottle of wine!!!

@northernruth that sounds grim, regarding neighbors. In our old place the awful neighbor started building an extension. No planning or party wall. Day 1 he had knocked down our wall and dug under our kitchen. We were far to nice even got the paperwork for party wall together for him. When we went to put in a loft conversion that wasn't touching the adjoining walls. They objected and got a solicitor involved. Some people are just really hard work.

Where would people go for innovative kitchen design? I think I know what would work but would like an expert to have a go too.
@wheredoesthistoiletgo I already buy wine in bulk to survive the kids in the house. But noted to up the scale.

I feel very lucky with my neighbours, its one reason we are doing this work rather than moving.

Anyhoo, having joked several times about us doing The World's Smallest Extension (TWSE), I thought I would share this totally outing photo so that you can see just HOW small it really is...

I'm standing in our gutted kitchen, little grey box far left corner is TWSE, the area to the right of it was a separate small TV room, rarely used.
I LOVE the space!

@northernruth I don't think your electrician can really do first fix unless he knows where your appliances are going to be.
Yes, he can move it a bit but if you are thinking of majorly altering your layout, doing first fix is pointless.
I went round gutted room yesterday with boss builder and my very detailed finalised kitchen plan and we measured out and drew on the walls Fridge, Freezer, End of Units etc.

@WhereDoesThisToiletGo that looks like a fantastic space

@northernruth here is our kitchen plan with a larder fridge and freezer either side of the oven tower and corner larder which will be semi customized by our fitter

@chopc
We are considering Howdens. Did you need to make an appointment or just turn up? What did you take with you? Are you happy with the price?? Sorry for all the questions but you have a similar layout to what we are considering!

@minniemooblue in terms of design and ideas they were hopeless. But I had planned this kitchen for so long I had a fairly good idea of what I wanted.
All the units shown comes to about £8k excluding work top. Don't know if this is a good price or not but compared to other quotes it was reasonable

I basically had a list of must haves and the howdens guy just planned the units to fit

You need to make a design appointment. You ask them to come to your place so they can get a feel of the place

In terms of what I took with me - I had saved loads of pics oh the look I was after

@chopc that looks amazing! How big is your island going to be?

@chopc thank you so much. It looks amazing. Did you get your appliances through Howdens?

@minniemooblue no i didn't. I looked at the models I wanted then put it on google. Then purchased from the cheapest supplier. However appliance superstore did a bulk deal on some items

@Isittheend it will be approx 3.6m x 0.9m

I could have had it deeper but figured I can't reach more than 90cm from one end so decided to go wider instead

Wow! Lots happening! @WhereDoesThisToiletGo That is a lovely space and worth it. Great light! Your neighbours sound great also.

@Italianna - a dishwasher has the same in and out as a washing machine so I'd be surprised if they said no. Water in, waste water out. Very good idea. It is bliss having a washing machine again and not having to carry it to others houses!!

Electricians do need to know where they have to drop cables but not exactly! Also, decide on radiator placement early so they can put the pipes in under the floor in the vacinity.

I am in a slump today as v little has been done this week. Tools have gone to next job but we still need radiators, window ledges and other bits and bobs. Kitchen supplier saying will supply 155 degree hinges when the book says needs 165 degree hinges. He is "going to check as his spec says 155". SIGH!!!! This last 1% of work is very emotionally draining. I feel like chaining New Dad to the new bbar!

@WhereDoesThisToiletGo I know where everything is going - he just wants detailed measurements which should be easy to work out eg oven housing is 600mm etc

@Slightlysurviving I got an interior designer to do the plan - she went to Ikea and we were going to use Plykea fronts, but then there was a problem with cover panels on the island so I found an alternative at Wren, the issue is that you dont' get a detailed plan with wren until you put a deposit down and I'm not going to do that until I'm happy with the plan......