Has anyone else been left living in a building site?

[Paintforkitchen]

Did post this on the corona virus board but then thought this one might be more appropriate!
Has this hit many of you mid building work? We are lucky in that the extension itself is finished, kitchen in etc but there’s so much work left to do inside the house and I’m finding it so hard spending so much time in it now!
Dh is supposed to be doing a lot of it but of course we can’t get materials now and in any event his job is at risk so we don’t necessarily want to spend the money right now anyway.
So much painting to do, skirting boards, flooring and carpets to be laid, bathroom is a half finished mess, loads of work left for the electricians....

Anyone else in a similar situation and want to share their pain?! Here’s a few examples.

OP, I built last year, I’ve been there, but obviously no Covid. You are roofed over and presumably services are wired & plumbed? My strategy in your shoes would be to shelve the old plan for now. Take stock of your current finances and loans. If the shit were to hit the fan and jobs were lost, how bigs the buffer, how long could you last? Do not spend any more than you need to right now to make the place liveable. Tidy up and store the loose materials (until normal times resume) and do your best to make the place homely as a short term place. You can only resurrect your original plans once Covid is gone. Sorry. 💐

Yes! Just been upstairs to put washing away and new our ripped out bathroom stinks from the uncovered soil pipe which we can’t resolve until we can put the toilet in, which can’t be down until the Amtico down, which won’t happen as the fitters have temporarily closed owing to coronavirus 😫. Fortunately we have three more bath/shower rooms, but our son is also sleeping in the dining room as his bedroom was where all the bathroom and wet room materials were being stored in a job that was scheduled to be finished two weeks ago. However, this is only the second phase or a six phase renovation so we are now falling rapidly behind schedule and having to suffer grotty decor and a rubbish layout. So frustrating as we have time now, but very limited with what we can achieve without skilled trades and materials...

@Notesfromalankywoman you can cover the uncovered soil pipe too limit them aroma!

Yes 🙄

That's our dining room btw

Yes! We are relocating our stairs which have been done but otherwise the rest isn't finished...oh joy!

Yes but mostly DIY so we have managed to make progress under lockdown without commuting etc.
Obviously had to leave out a few jobs due to not being able to get hold of certain materials, and cancelled carpet fitter.
Got leaky windows and hoping we can get certain things sorted by Winter, but then I'm expecting there will be a big backlog due to Covid.
On the other hand, perhaps lots of people will postpone / change their plans due to financial worries. Understandable I guess.

Yes! No ceiling in kitchen, two leaking toilets, no hob and every time the wind blows bits of plaster sprinkle my counter tops. Electrician booked to start rewire quite sensibly won't begin until safe to do so, so until then we live in bearable, but inconvenient and unsightly chaos. I keep forgetting and then whoever I'm I'm video calling goes oh my God is that your house?!

Yes! Not as bad as some but we have a kitchen with no worktops and bare concrete floors that will remain that way for the forseeable future.

The sink tops have been templated and should have been fitted today, but the builders can't them and find and fit the sink. We decided that our temporary sink is better then no sink, so we've postponed the worktop fitting indefinitely .

The flooring is a specialist job so that will have to wait too.

Yep. We’ve got no window in the en suite bathroom and also no door on said bathroom so our bedroom is freezing. We also have limited heating as the plumbers can’t get any supplies to fix the smashed valve and very leaky pipe work to one of the bedrooms so it’s been capped off at a point but system is drained down and I daren’t do anything to it. Fortunately we have an aga in the kitchen so at least one end of the house is warm and the weather is improving so at least it’s not raining in round the plastic sheeting or totally freezing. Hot water is limited but at least we don’t have to go out in public!

Yep!

We've had the worst luck imaginable with our project, it's over a year since we started and now we'll be lucky if it's finished by next year, we still need a shower installed in he en-suite (which also has no door), 2 walls to be knocked through, a downstairs cloakroom to be fitted, a new kitchen and utility, tiling and brickwork amongst other things.

The garden, if you can call it that, has been completely trashed, it's more like wasteland right now, and we don't have access to it from the house, it looks derelict, it's awful.

So depressing, it wasn't too bad when we were out of the house all day but living in it is the pits!!

Yep. Quarter of a kitchen and a washing machine in the living room (thankfully plumbed in and useable) as was making the space open plan. Found an RSJ and had it checked but work stopped before it could be removed. Means lots of big holes in walls and ceilings whilst they tried to figure out if it was supporting anything. Was meant to be having a new front door fitted so hallway partially stripped for that which is now also on hold. Was getting the garden fences replaced as they are short in height on one side. NDN dogs like to jump or dig in to our garden (which we found out accidently). Our dog is dog aggressive so have nailed old garage roof corrugated sheeting to the existing fence as a temp higher one and old bricks to fill in the holes. All that said, I'm still happy living here

Oh I forgot the mountain of rubbish stacked up in the side entrance which we need the skip for, and the holes in my kitchen floor, currently stuffed with rags because an old gas pipe had to be removed. As we live in a bungalow, it's the crawlspace below and I have visions of someone being down there...

Yep! Currently have a new kitchen with no work tops tiles or hob!

Yes, we have no bathroom. Pllumbing done, tiles done, but the fittings are stuck in the storeroom of the shop, and the plumber can't access them. We are managing with the downstairs loo and a very ropey shower in an ensuite. Could be worse.

Not quite the same but I want a surveyor to look at my house for a few issues and that's not likely to happen for a while yet... Stressful!

Yes! Our kitchen is finished but our consumer unit isn't, so all those fancy sockets and integrated appliances don't work! We're living off an an extension cable run from an old hallway socket powering a microwave, kettle and portable hob.

Dust everywhere. Garden full of rubble so no outside space. Sitting room full of building materials so nowhere for the baby to play. We're spending every night desperately painting and decorating her room (one of the only nearly-there spaces) to get it done so we can put her down!

I keep thinking how lucky we are with our extension. It's obviously halted but is completely external to the house as we will only knock through near the end of the project. We were due to turn a bedroom into a bathroom but thankfully hadn't started that part.

The garden is a mess but we have the building site area fenced off, so at least the children and dog can play safely. It was all supposed to be finished by June but I'm hoping for Christmas now.

Much better position than for some of you, sending much sympathy to you all!

Yes me! Luckily tho we've found some local family run building supplies companies who are delivering with safety rules, and my DH can continue work on our building site.

Similar position to Elsiebear90! Kitchen in, no worktops, a few doors missing but Howdens due to call today and have hopefully had new stock delivered.

Current situation disaster !! plywood covering where bi-fold and windows are going ...no floor downstairs as we are having UFH and pipes have been taken up as we can't get the screed to cover them at the moment, kitchen is in one bedroom with microwave, hotplate, and kettle ....garden looks like the local tip, skip overflowing at the front of house, neighbour moaning about everything, but on the bright side we still have jobs still getting paid and so far we still have our health and the delays mean I can fret and worry about all decisions on the kitchen mmm do I need a boiling water tap ...or how about a water softener should I change the fridge/freezer etc etc

Sure am. I have no kitchen. bedroom 2 got all new kitchen appliances sitting in boxes.
2 beds taken apart leaning against wall.
Old.kitchen got holes in wall where all new electrics had been done. It's total nightmare x

Thanks for sharing your experiences! Sorry for those of us in this boat. So hard being stuck at home when your home is in pieces!!

If only we thought to pick up supplies like plaster, plaster board, skirting boards etc we could have done a little bit more whilst stuck here. Oh well!

@neron dh ordered our kitchen floor just a couple of days before travis Perkins shut - so our temporary ram board kitchen floor is going to remain our kitchen floor for some time! Desperately wishing he’d ordered it a couple of weeks earlier!