Extension thread 2021 - countdown to Christmas

[Callmejudith]

New thread for continued celebrating, moaning and commiserating

@Terracedtardis

I’m going boring white too. The kitchen is cobham Blue and we were worried a colour would make the room too dark. I’m thinking mustard or ochre accents though to add some colour. I’m going for Lick green 04 in my living room though. DH isn’t keen but I’ve overruled him 😆

I'm being targeted by adverts for Lick Green 04! It does look lovely, and watching it be poured is very satisfying...

I think I'm going with just walnut and tranquil Dawn, might chuck a bit of blush pink in to the mix at some point. They do dulux mixing a 5 min walk from my house, anything else I'd have to drive to a bigger town so not happening

@Terracedtardis we are having Cobham blue kitchen as well but our island will be cornflower blue. I think we'll probably stick to white walls but quite a way from that at the moment.

@Indecisivelurcher I’m probably going to colour match it tbh. I’ve used ridiculously expensive Crown paint in my kids rooms. ( I was shocked at the price as I always thought of Crown as budget!). My 5 year old has already written on her walls and it won’t budge 🙄 The Valspar in our hall has come up fine after she did the same thing there.

@MissFritton65 Interesting! I can’t wait to see yours. I’ve gone for the whole kitchen in Cobham blue though I did toy with mixing in units in other colours. I’m just not confident enough that I’d pick the right combinations.

@Terracedtardis have you tried WD40 to remove the banksi?!

Spent all summer stripping wallpaper in the living room, had it all replastered and painted it, hours and hours and hours of work. Kids played noughts and crosses behind the sofa with red wax crayon...

[quote Terracedtardis]@Indecisivelurcher I’m probably going to colour match it tbh. I’ve used ridiculously expensive Crown paint in my kids rooms. ( I was shocked at the price as I always thought of Crown as budget!). My 5 year old has already written on her walls and it won’t budge 🙄 The Valspar in our hall has come up fine after she did the same thing there.

@MissFritton65 Interesting! I can’t wait to see yours. I’ve gone for the whole kitchen in Cobham blue though I did toy with mixing in units in other colours. I’m just not confident enough that I’d pick the right combinations.[/quote]
Unfortunately it's going to be a while before I'll have photos of our kitchen!

@Terracedtardis @MissFritton65 our island is cobham blue too. Went with dove grey for the other runs of units. Went really light with Wevet on walls as we're NE facing and our old lounge always felt gloomy but with the bifolds and roof lantern letting in loads of light now I could've gone a bit darker, hoping our oval room blue feature wall will make a huge difference plus we're going for mustard accents

@Indecisivelurcher 🙀🙀🙀
I’ve not tried WD40 only a magic sponge which usually removes everything. The builders need to fill cracks which have appeared in the room so I will get them to paint over it. I will remember the WD40 for if/when it happens again.

@RebelGeek76 I was thinking Wevet too but then I read it was a grey? It was very white when I tested it out.

[quote RebelGeek76]**@Terracedtardis* @MissFritton65* our island is cobham blue too. Went with dove grey for the other runs of units. Went really light with Wevet on walls as we're NE facing and our old lounge always felt gloomy but with the bifolds and roof lantern letting in loads of light now I could've gone a bit darker, hoping our oval room blue feature wall will make a huge difference plus we're going for mustard accents[/quote]
Our kitchen will be South facing so will be very light although at the moment it's impossible to tell as we have a plywood wall!
Our new bedroom faces the same way and it was extremely light today and has less windows than the kitchen will have.

[quote Terracedtardis]@RebelGeek76 I was thinking Wevet too but then I read it was a grey? It was very white when I tested it out.[/quote]
It might look very different on your walls but on ours it's definitely more white than grey.

Paint is so hard. I feel like I have this huge blank canvas and I just don't know where to start. We have decided to leave the painting until last though so actually that's quite good as I can really see where the light falls and how we use the room.

I am SO excited about the worktops. We'll still have another week with no doors/windows but we'll be able to actually use the kitchen and put stuff in drawers and cupboards and actually clean out our spare room boxes. We do need the builder to cut a hole in the pitch and fit the extractor thingy properly before the worktops but he has promised me someone is coming to do it.

I went to Ikea yesterday to buy the lovely bamboo drawer inserts and they are too bloody long. So annoying as they're £12 there and everywhere else they are at least double. I also bought loads of their drawer liner stuff which I plan to put everywhere to try and preserve the kitchen a bit.

Plumber here today putting in the ensuite ahead of the tiler on Thursday so looks as if we are in a "busy" period. We seem to have days with loads of people here and then times when no one is here which can be frustrating.

I've just saved a fucking disaster before the tiler started on one of the bathrooms.

The pipes for the shower control and handset and overhead shower weren't central to the new bath (4cm off centre!!!). No idea why no one else could see it, as it was totally obvious to me on first glance...

They can't move the pipes now, so they're now building out the wall, so the bath will be central to the pipes 😭

At least it won't look stupid now, but I'm losing space. Only 4cm but it's annoying.

The builders and trades are all fantastic, but I feel a bit sick when I find big mistakes.

I hope I see everything before it goes actually wrong 😭

So fucking stressful making decisions when stuff isn't in place. Like where the edge of the tiles will go, but before the shower screen is even in the room.

I'm so busy and stressed with work, this whole build thing is just too much 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

Sorry for the self-indulgent moan xx

Worktops being templated this morning 😍. We're having to delay them coming to fit them until 2 weeks to give us enough time to fit our UFH and LVT flooring. Both DIY jobs again and I've opted for a herringbone pattern so not making our lives any easier!

@PoshWatchShitShoes what a nightmare but at least a disaster averted. I'm such a control freak so I have to be around to see everything going on to make sure it's as expected. Moan away that's what we're here for, it can be so stressful at times so a good vent is needed!

PoshWatch - that is so aggravating, and exhausting. Hopefully the added but could be a useful shelf (for a glass of wine!).

Boss guy for weekly meeting today (as I was out all day yesterday).
Carrying on with things as expected this week, waiting for the glass next week. Unfortunately he’s away on holiday next week but has left lots of instructions. So UFH should start as soon as the glass people leave, then screed. Agree we will split the manifolds for UFH into side extension (out there in a cupboard) and the main house - possibly under the floor as we have a large void under there and a sort of trapdoor to get access.

We’re north facing too and light has always been an issue. Although nearly 3 years into having the back wall blocked off it’s hard to imagine any daylight at all at the back!

Good catch @PoshWatchShitShoes

I'm pissed off because just spent hours painting the ceiling only to realise the edges done by me are in a different brand to the rollering done by dh, and obviously you can tell.

Thanks for your comments everyone. Yes I agree the utility layout is crap. I'm trying to see if I can move the wc to the hall and make the utility only in the bottom area so that the kitchen is bigger. We have 5 children so are always cramped for space around the table.....

Our kitchen is also north facing. I'm really stuck as to whether or not we should add the roof light (and have a smaller master bedroom) or keep the rooflight even though it's not in the ideal space (above the oven and mantle).

@PoshWatchShitShoes so lucky you noticed. We have had loads of work done on our house in the last few years. I've come to the conclusion no one apart from you cares what it actually looks like. You literally have to wander around being a pain in the ass to get things done properly. Our skirting board was half fitted by a really expensive carpenter and the other half fitted by my not particularly handy husband (as we ran out of money). Guess which half looks better and doesn't need recaulking 5 years on.....

Wow that was a good swerve Posh! Those things scare me because I think what on earth are they doing which we can't see??

I bought a bar stool today which I really like. Have put a pale pink velvet cushion on it and I'm working from the kitchen to try it out. Really like it - DS hates it

@nomoneytreehere will the rooflight affect any extractor for the oven? We've had a bit of a mare with ours being under the pitched roof.

@RebelGeek76 it looks so great. What worktop are you having? Also are you having anything above the hob?

We have a north facing kitchen with one window at the end and it is a bit gloomy but the kitchen is where you get away with pretty lighting so we chose to put it there and utilise under cabinet lighting etc. We have kept the brighter areas for seating and big windows.

Echoing the thoughts on policing the look of everything! We just interrupted the installation of a door liner. It's made from expensive pretty planed wood so it can be left bare. No door will be hung on it as it is a sliding door, it is literally a liner. Caught the builder just in time before he put massive holes through it, saying you won't notice when you paint it. I do wonder what the point is of explaining things for weeks on end when they clearly don't listen to a word I say until the moment strikes.

New drama. The expensive solar powered velux is stuck shut. A few people have tried to open it but no joy. Need to get the roofer back in and probably a velux engineer. Thank goodness it isn't summer

Thanks for kind replies to my moan earlier. It helps so much to have this group, as I think it's impossible to know the pain and stress unless you're actually living through this kind of mess right here, right now 😂

I'm back on site!! The wall behind the bath has been built up and the tiling has started, which is good.

Currently opening beautiful light fittings and trying very hard to imagine a finished room 😆