Is it normal to have the wobbles before big building work

[MaryIsA]

After a year builders about to start.

Extension for new kitchen, so ga4den will be a mud bath. I’m going to start a separate thread about pets and building work.

We can continue to use old kitchen while it’s happening. Then remodelling upstairs to put a new staircase in.

It’s an old house so lath and plaster and dust. 6 month estimate.

Just sitting here thinking wtf are we doing and why didn’t we buy the already renovated house with the bigger garden and a view...

The difference in price is going to be gobbled up by the work.

Any tips?

Yes, that's normal. It's like having a baby, painful but worth it.
Focus on how it will be afterwards and expect some hiccups along the way.
Keep in constant communication with the builders too and if they hit problems ask what they would do if it were their home.

Sounds like the house we are about to buy, OP. Lath and plaster, planning big kitchen and first floor extension. Already thinking about / dreading the work. My ideal plan is to have the builders start on the extension build and we’ll move out once they need to break through (at which point they can rip through the rest of the house, which needs a complete refurb, rewire and plumb). That’s the only way we could possibly minimise the time we have to spend imposing on family / renting, but in reality I have a feeling it won’t work that way and we’ll have to move out sooner for longer. We also could have bought a ‘done’ house and saved ourselves the pain of work, but this house has one of the better, non-overlooked gardens that we’ve seen so I am telling myself that in the end, the work will be worth it.

Glad to hear its normal. We don't really have the option of moving out - though may go and spend the week at the ILs while the upstairs is being done.

It's like a massive game of Jenga, moving the furniture round from room to room, trying to squeeze the fridge - which has been living in the conservatory since we moved in - into the kitchen. And getting the washing machine plumbed into the garage.

I was stood in the freezing cold conservatory this morning - really not wanting to take the washing out to the outhouse in the garden. And thiinking how nice it will be to have a proper kitchen and utility.

And then husband reminded me again of the house we'd looked at that had all of that all done. Aaaargh.....

Yes it’s normal, my advice (although others may disagree) would be prepared for delays and unexpected costs and be flexible.
It is possible to stress yourself when things aren’t going to plan and sometimes you need to just take a step back and think.... one thing that you realise is you have to make decisions all the time on a big building project and it gets exhausting.

Tips, keep a separate building work/dust hoover (don’t ruin your Dyson like I did) and accept that you have to live with dust unless you intend to clean all the time.
Once the weather gets better eat outside if you can, we used our gas BBQ a lot even in winter, it was much nicer than our crappy temporary kitchen.
Also don’t start off by making tea for the builders all the time, it will become expected and takes up lots of time and for me blurred the boundaries a bit so it became more difficult to be the tough client when needed and I think reinforced my builder already quite set old fashioned views about male/female roles, infact I think I wouldn’t make tea at all for future builders, I’d just provide some stuff for them to do it themselves.

Yes massive wobbles by me. We are coming out the other end now and despite being hit with the first lockdown 2 weeks in to the work, it has been worth it, just because it's built to suit my family and financially we have saved quite a bit on buying it ready done. Hold your nerve it will be a painful few months but you'll get through. My wobbles left when we were watertight and I could see the space.

We didn't buy a house because of the wobbles. We were offered a relatives house at an extremely attractive price. We looked at it and had a survey done to obviously forewarn us about any problems. Luckily the house wasn't due to be sold immediately cause it took us two months to make a decision Partner and I must have changed our minds fifty times before we eventually said no as there was so much work that needed doing (still regret turning it down 2 years later )

Yes, normal. We had no kitchen from beginning of September until the week before Christmas. DH was cooking outside on a camping stove, bless him, and we got an instant pot. It seemed to take forever but is so worth it now, with a utility in an extension and a knocked through kitchen/diner.

The dust was the worst thing - I thought I understood that it would get everywhere but was still surprised to find it in my bed, on my toothbrush etc when all of our work was downstairs. Good luck. Just keep ploughing on, it'll be worth it in the end.

I would say it is normal. We are on the brink of beginning a significant extension - going out to the rear (double story), front and partial side. I think it's important to look at it as something that is not necessarily going to add value to your house price - it's something to improve your quality of life, to make a better, more comfortable home for you. That should be the number one consideration. An increase in the value of your property is likely, but try to see it as a bonus, rather than the ultimate goal. Good luck 😸

I think that’s so important the advice about thinking of it as improving our living in the house not the potential increase in price.

The budget is terrifying.

The thing is our position has improved since we bought the house and we could have afforded a done house detached in a better position.

But we are committed now...eek.

Never. Look back, I like that. But my dh sounds v similar to yours. Won’t or can’t do the work himself. It’s going to cost £200k all in and if we sold we’d lose about £75k. The house will be lovely but the garden is too small.

Have you got a really good contract in place which has a detailed specification attached to it, and includes things like payment schedules and provisions to stop payments, ie if the project isn't proceeding in line with the schedule?

This is really key as I'm amazed at how some people have major building work done without, or based on a quote. It can be very reassuring to have. Ours also made provision to hold back 20% of the final bill until after all of the following had been satisfied:

A building control completion certificate had been issued and received by us,
We were satisfied that all outstanding snags had been completed. Once those were satisfied then the final 20% became payable 14 days after receipt of the building control certificate. The builder was fine with this

Yes, the architect, wh we have gave used before and ran a the tender for the work, did all of that. So we’ve got a proper schedule of works, contract etc.

My thoughts:

Have one room that you try and live in and don't worry about the mess or dust in any other of the rooms.

If you have anything delicate or valuable pack it away as brick and plaster dust is sticky and gets everywhere.

Have a plan for when things stall, which often happens so you are not left looking at a building site.

You have the beauty of knowing you are seeing all the behind the scenes work, a lot of renovated for profit houses are badly botched and require lots of expensive remedial work.

The best tradespeople are like hens teeth and you find them through friend of a friend. Inspect their past work if you can. E.g if it's a plasterer ask past clients if they were happy with the finished result and time taken. Beware of any trades that can start immediately- why haven't they currently got any other work on.

Be aware that you will at times reach the point when you are sick of the sight of the place and it will reduce you to tears when yet another problem is uncovered that you hadn't anticipated, but you will get past these issues and know you will have a solid home that suits your needs.

Yes it's awful, I had a home with no roof and half the walls knocked down for what seemed like months and every time I visited it didn't seem to get better, back in a year nearly and so much happier with our home

I'd say though hide your valuables as I had some stolen when we had a different renovation, and expect them to rifle through your stuff - not all will of course, but some may do, so get a safe or hide things at your parents/ILs houses

@chocolateorangeinhaler thank you. That's helpful. Most of the house shouldn't be too bad until they start the upstairs work. But we are hoping to keep the living room as the escape room.

@custardbear - stuff stolen - really? I think we've been very lucky in the past. It's very common where I live to just leave a key under the mat for workmen to let themselves in. It's a small community so most work is done by someone who has been recommended or we know.

@MaryIsA

“The thing is our position has improved since we bought the house and we could have afforded a done house detached in a better position. “

I feel the exact same way ! We bought our house 5 years ago and we are only now getting the work done . I’m freaking out as it’s a huge job and I don’t think our house will be liveable ( I have a toddler, a baby and 3 cats too 😳) . Like you , our financial situation has significantly improved over the past five years and I’m now ( sometimes 😩 ) regretting buying a fixer upper . I hope it will all be worth it in the end .

@MaryIsA yes, I had a necklace and some other bits of inexpensive jewellery stolen unfortunately - most I'd taken with me (had to move out) and all our furniture was in the middle of the room, drawers all facing inwards so they must have pulled the furniture around to open drawers to find the jewellery - I guess I learnt not to trust anyone