Extension 2020 part 2: pandemics, plaster & plumbing

[birdbrained]

Original thread: Extension / loft conversion thread 2020 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/3783237-extension-loft-conversion-thread-2020

Hopefully during the course of this thread the plaster will be in abundance, the windows will arrive and houses will be put back together...

[TyneFilth]

Hello @Greenleave and @Ozanj! You're obviously very welcome here but we are all kidding ourselves that we're nearly finished. There's a newer gang here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/property/4134327-Is-there-a-2021-extension-thread

[Ozanj]

Can I join? 8 weeks and counting without a kitchen / downstairs. 8 weeks of shaking cement and plaster dust out of everything, of trying to keep the 18 mo away from screws and hammers and the bloody Instant Pot. 8 weeks of staring out at the ruin my formerly pristine garden and drive have turned into . But on a positive note we have finally picked our floor tiles. Next step kitchen

[Greenleave]

Can I join?

Just had a shocked quote of 70% increase compared to what we was quoted before Covid last year from 3 construction companies. Does it only happen to us?

[TyneFilth]

Hello all! We are in week 36. A lot of the last two months have been DIY which is overall good, but has also been quite tedious. There is never an end in sight...

We have all but one of our internal doors on now. Electrics all done although a couple of things have just got terminal plugs on the end because we haven't got the final lights/appliances to connect them to. We've been dithering over our worktop (probably a quartz composite) and swung back towards click flooring. Once we get the worktop we can get the plumber back to fit the sink, then that's the last of the plumbing. There are bits and bobs of finishing/snagging to do but we're nearly there!

We didn't put landscaping into our build contract because we didn't have a clear idea what we wanted. Now that we do have a patio-and-pergola vision, I'm slightly downhearted that there is no chance of it happening in time to enjoy it this summer.

So instead of any progress on that, I decided to rip up the carpet in the front room that we've been using throughout as our temporary kitchen/dining space. I found the most amazing varnished floor underneath! Unfortunately it's not complete boards into all the corners, and I've found at least one patch that's rotten from damp. But it was a nice surprise! I also ripped out an 80s gas fire and surround, and found a lovely big fireplace. Not sure what to do with this room but it's definitely going to be "trad 30s" in the end.

[LittleOverWhelmed]

Hope that everyone is getting on well.

We are nearly there: kitchen now in, second fix electrics this week, worktops this week, 2nd fix plumbing week after. Mostly decorating left to go...

I have a very self indulgent Instagram account if anyone wants to nose, Direct Message me and I can share a link. It has been fun documenting the build.

[mothergooseinnorthwest]

thanks all. For a while the day felt like it was ever approaching but never to come. It was worth it really.
Still not all finished. But we are all using the kitchen / living room this weekend and it feels good to have the house back.
@UptownFunkYouUp can’t wait to see your pics when you are done!

[UptownFunkYouUp]

@WhereDoesThisToiletGo I didn't even register there was a wheelbarrow in my kitchen, just shows the chaos that we get used to living with! I am at the point where I just think it's normal to have to climb over furniture and building materials just to get into bed each night.

And then I see @mothergooseinnorthwest 's beautiful kitchen finally finished and it makes me so happy to know these times really do come to an end! It's so nice, you must be delighted. The roof lantern is stunning, and I love your colour scheme.

[WhereDoesThisToiletGo]

@UptownFunkYouUp Your kitchen might be mostly intact, but it's still got a wheelbarrow in the middle of it!

[LittleOverWhelmed]

@mothergooseinnorthwest - gorgeous kitchen

[newyorky09]

Wow! Fabulous kitchen you must be really pleased with it!

[mothergooseinnorthwest]

KITCHEN DONE!

[LittleOverwhelmed]

“Silly” money

[LittleOverwhelmed]

@mothergooseinnorthwest

Composite decking for a variety of reasons. Stone is not really an option: we have a change of level between the back of the house and the garden (300mm). The floors are all suspended (so have air bricks running along the length of the back). We have four sets of bifold doors - so want some sort of level access, rather than lots of wide steps.

Want composite because it should be a lot longer lasting and much lower maintenance than wooden decking (we have wooden decking already - previous owners - but it is a pain).

In an ideal world, would love a professional garden design and pour a lot more money into it, but we don’t have much of a budget for it and - as you have discovered - landscaping is illy money (much more than building work, in my opinion).

[mothergooseinnorthwest]

@UptownFunkYouUp wow! The design is truly beautiful! Love the doors upstairs! You have a good builder and a good architect too!

We are taking a gamble getting the cheapest landscaper we can find. After our builder pulled out on this, all quotes we got were at least twice as expensive, with the highest 4 times as expensive!

@LittleOverwhelmed can I ask if the composite decking choice is for level threshold or other reasons? We were deciding between composite decking and stone and are leaning towards stone at the moment.

[LittleOverwhelmed]

@mothergooseinnorthwest and @UptownFunkYouUp really great progress and fantastic spaces 💕

We are at similar points in the process and it is exciting (or a blessed relief!) to be getting towards the end... (although there will be bits of finishing off for some time!).

Our decorating is beginning in earnest (lots of preparation already done - repairing existing areas where steels were pushed up etc). Utility room fitted this week (although 2nd fix electrics an plumbing not yet done). Kitchen fittings starts a week on Monday (although quite a prolonged process - worktop template and fitting, 2nd fix plumbing and electrical, kitchen painting...).

Getting there! Decking slipped back to July / August (due to composite decking supply).

[UptownFunkYouUp]

Pics!

(Old kitchen left more or less intact pending arrival of new kitchen).

[UptownFunkYouUp]

They look great! You must be so pleased that you can see the finish line.

It's been a transformational week for us, we are now fully knocked through and bifolds are in place so we can finally start to picture the new space. Still lots to do, especially upstairs, with almost every room started but not finished but it has been really exciting seeing things taking shape downstairs.

I have to say my builder has been really good. He's a really nice bloke, a real character, and he was the cheapest by a mile. I posted on here ages ago a bit worried about using him as the accepted wisdom is to never go with the cheapest but we just couldn't afford the others! I did my research on him, even contacting previous clients through Facebook who all said good things about him, so I took what still felt like a gamble and it paid off thankfully.

[mothergooseinnorthwest]

The sliding doors are finally in! We only found out yesterday afternoon that they will be installed this morning! Almost thought they would be another week of waiting.
Flooring next Monday to Wednesday. Can’t believe we could do it with such short notice. Will be only the hallway and garden left after this. Home stretch now!

[mothergooseinnorthwest]

@TyneFilth sorry you had a shitty day but don’t feel too bad. I have a similar tale.

The kitchen fitter had to move all top units 5cm to the left after his first day because he read the plan wrong and didn’t leave enough room for the fridge freezer. My husband was there to have a brief chat too and didn’t spot anything. We had a tricky conversation with our main contractor regarding this. The same fitter later on didn’t check with us and used an end panel to fill a gap instead the plinth we planned to use. We ended up ordering more pieces and absorbed the cost ourselves. Like you, I felt bad and guilty after the first incident though it wasn’t our fault.

At the end of the day, we all have to fix it if we make a mistake at work.

Shame about your delay though.

[TyneFilth]

Well I ruined someone's day today. I feel like quite a shit. But also what more/different could I have done? Mini aibu here...

Carpet fitters arrived earlier than expected and plumber was still fixing the leak. They got started at 9.30 as opposed to 9. I said to both different guys that the landing carpet stripes were to go lengthways, the front room was the sandy colour carpet and the back room the blue. Then I left them to it and went to work in the shed office.

My husband made them coffee and expressed an interest in all the prep work with grippers and underlay and stuff. They had the carpets for the bedroom laid out in there loosely. They assumed that was him agreeing the carpets were in the right rooms....

I followed the covid instructions of staying well out of the way and letting them get on with it. But eventually I really needed to pee and we still only have one working loo, upstairs... Stairs and landing are looking lovely I said, then OH NO! You've got the bedroom carpets the wrong way round!

There followed a load of "but your husband never said anything" kind of backpedalling. He said it looked good, after they were fitted, and it does - it's a great job, and they don't clash badly, but it's not what we ordered.

So I've had a painful phone call with the supply company, and they've phoned the fitting company, and it's going to be redone, but not for a few weeks because there's a silly lead time on one of the carpet types. But the fitters have to bear the cost of the mistake and he was furious while he was doing the last of the stair sections. I'm mildly concerned that he'll have punched at it a little too hard. Good job the stairs were brand new and hopefully strong timbers!

I genuinely feel awful that this mistake has happened but they should have had instructions and plans that didn't rely on us being there to say which room was which, right? If this was a few weeks ago we would have been leaving the house for the day so we weren't sharing the airspace with them.

[mothergooseinnorthwest]

@UptownFunkYouUp @TyneFilth glad to see you two are making progress. We had a whole week of absolutely no building work or any diy.

Patio doors pushed back again to this week(still no exact date) and I will chase the builder if we don’t hear anything tomorrow.

Hopefully will have better things to update next week.

[TyneFilth]

We're getting our upstairs carpets laid tomorrow! Had a bit of a rollercoaster of cancellations and rebookings due to original fitters being pinged by test and trace to isolate.

This prompted us, of course, to decide to make sure all the landing floorboards are nice and securely screwed down. Then the tell tale sound of splashing from downstairs told us we had hit a pipe. Joy. Turned out to be one of the new flexible radiator supply pipes. GAH! Plumber coming first thing (call out charge urgh), hopefully can fix a new section of pipe in there.

And for reference should any of the rest of you be randomly inspired to screw through your pressurised heating system pipes, Gorilla leak fixing tape could cope when it was all switched off but still had water in the system, totally wasn't enough when the radiators were on and the water was on the move.

[UptownFunkYouUp]

Things are moving a bit faster here now. We knocked through upstairs this week and we are knocking through downstairs next week. The builder is saying he's confident we'll be ready for kitchen installation on 14th June which is the date the kitchen company want to schedule us in for, so all good at the moment. It's still like living in a pit for now but feels like we might be weeks away from the end rather than months. Here's hoping!

[newyorky09]

Thanks @mothergooseinthenorthwest that’s reassuring. It all feels so stressful at the moment! Constant decisions to make and I’m worrying about so many things!

[mothergooseinnorthwest]

@newyorky09 I have a bigger crack over the door frame on the first floor. Builder said he was happy with that if that’s the biggest crack we have.