Extension Thread 2022....plaster, panic and pics

[Callmejudith]

Slightly naff title but I haven't had enough coffee yet

No UFH here @Sewfrickinamazeballs. I had it 2 houses ago and didn't like it. Big black radiators throughout here. Similar reasons. Also we are on a tight enough budget!

Spark here today. The mess he made of the spotlights is shocking. He's back in the morning to rectify it all but ffs I am just about at my limit. It is such a rollercoaster this week. The quartz has gone in and is utterly gorgeous, but we still have no oven or sink. The floors are a mess and need a final leveller but nothing can be done til the plumber comes for final fix and he is now a week late.

It's all rock and roll here. Saturday night and updating the BIG spreadsheet.
House insurance has been moved to a new provider - thankfully only about £150 more.
Savings are officially being moved to the current account.

@BlueMooMoo

It's all rock and roll here. Saturday night and updating the BIG spreadsheet. House insurance has been moved to a new provider - thankfully only about £150 more. Savings are officially being moved to the current account.

I love my mega spreadsheet! Couldn't be without it during this process.

Ooh I definitely need to start a spreadsheet as we've started spending (deposit on the glazing to fix the price) is it just item, budget, spend, difference and say notes? Interested in what yours looks like!

We finally submitted building reg application last week. Are we likely to get approval by 18th April? Anyone know how long it takes? Thanks!

@GardensandGrandDesigns

Ooh I definitely need to start a spreadsheet as we've started spending (deposit on the glazing to fix the price) is it just item, budget, spend, difference and say notes? Interested in what yours looks like!

We finally submitted building reg application last week. Are we likely to get approval by 18th April? Anyone know how long it takes? Thanks!

I have a cash sheet, lists what cash we have and where (I amend as I spend). This is then picked up by another sheet in a 'cash remaining' cell. I have an 'estimated spend remaining cell' that picks up the things I have budgeted for on the list. This gives me an idea if I'm likely to be over or under budget.

I have loads of columns in this sheet to log spend. (Room, category, item, make/model, source, link, qty, estimated spend, due date, paid date, Part/full paid, actual spend, over/under estimated spend, % total budget.

When I have paid, this is totalled in a 'actual spend to date' cell and I adjust the calculation so it's no longer picked up as an estimated spend.

I'm finding it the best way to track spend to date as well as planned spend.

I need to add a column to track delivery as I'm struggling to keep track of what's turned up when (particularly when builders take parcels in and hide them places I would think to look!)

Oh wow, thanks! That sounds very detailed!

Building control approval is 20 working days where I am, which isn’t England so not sure if that helps much!

Goodbye budget, nice knowing you

Builders supplier can't supply the sliders we want, so visited home hub group to view some there. At best, need to find £4K more, probably more like £5.5k.

Existing front door can't be reused as it's 200mm too wide, and existing back door is 200mm too narrows. FFS. Probably at least £3k.

Welcome to my world @Sewfrickinamazeballs
It’s a rare day we go without approving some overspend somewhere . Are we sticking to budget? No chance!

@Sewfrickinamazeballs

Goodbye budget, nice knowing you

Builders supplier can't supply the sliders we want, so visited home hub group to view some there. At best, need to find £4K more, probably more like £5.5k.

Existing front door can't be reused as it's 200mm too wide, and existing back door is 200mm too narrows. FFS. Probably at least £3k.

Gosh that's a big uplift. Are you looking for a specific brand and model?

@GardensandGrandDesigns

Oh wow, thanks! That sounds very detailed!

@Sews sounds very detailed! I get enough of spreadsheets at work and am still to get to grips with using Google sheets on my phone so mine is a very basic 3 tabs Estimated Item/link/Quantity/Price individually/Price total/add vat?/estimated/actual Builder Date/amount/what Actual Date/item/category/price/notes

A few formulas in there to automatically calculate vat/totals/running total spent/ etc.etc.

Delivery date booked /delivery received sounds like a good idea though (sorry I can't remember who said this)

Same re budget!

For eg today, the fencing guys are doing alongside the side extension. Officially ‘their’ fence not ours but as it was us needing to move it for the renderers we said we’d pay. No probs.

Now where it meets the old fence at the front it looks crap! But obvs we can’t now ask the neighbours to pay to renew the old bit. Will leave for a few days and see but think we’ll have to take the hit and replace the front bit too. What’s another £££ at this point anyway?! 🙄

And they are having to redo the fence that is sort of ‘ours’ (no known ownership) on the other side and not really high enough now our patio is raised up.

Sigh.

The old hallway/kitchen doorway is opened up but still boarded up for now.hopefully a pause in the dust wars.

@BlueMooMoo no brand in particular. I just wanted 3 panes, all movable. His supplier is mainly a upvc one (mainly windows) so are very limited on sliders and I think they will be massive frames and a bit crap. I think the builder underestimated the cost in his original quote. We have £4900 budgeted for but are looking at about £8.5-10 realistically.

For those that aren’t project managing yourself, what sort of cost are you paying for that service? I’ve been quoted 20% of the quote plus VAT and I actually want to cry. Though I know PMs are massively important and we can’t do without one. Anyone got any stories as to how a good one has paid for themselves basically based on problems they have averted etc? Feeling things are out of control :(

I want to warn you @Sewfrickinamazeballs that you are on dangerous ground! I started worrying about size frames and I won't share exactly the cost but let's say it was at least twice what was budgetted!
@LivingInaBuildingSite - I'm sure it looks amazing though! Any photos or too outing.

I've just started a post looking for a kitchen fitter around Herts/London/Essex if you have a good recommendation. I can't seem to find any that aren't exclusive to a given brand (e.g. John Lewis of Hungerford) and obviously kitchen suppliers won't reveal who they use!

@Littlemissweepy - I have the opposite tale. We used a PM in a previous build and were not sure that it was worth it necessarily. We're much more seasoned and doing it ourselves. Our builder actually said he's impressed how quickly we're turning around decisions and buying stuff. So my point is that if you have a good builder and are hands on, you might not need one. If you have a terrible builder and something goes wrong, the PM and builder usually blame each other anyhow!

@NewHouseNewMe

I want to warn you *@Sewfrickinamazeballs* that you are on dangerous ground! I started worrying about size frames and I won't share exactly the cost but let's say it was at least twice what was budgetted! *@LivingInaBuildingSite* - I'm sure it looks amazing though! Any photos or too outing.

I've just started a post looking for a kitchen fitter around Herts/London/Essex if you have a good recommendation. I can't seem to find any that aren't exclusive to a given brand (e.g. John Lewis of Hungerford) and obviously kitchen suppliers won't reveal who they use!

@NewHouseNewMe you are so right. We looked at slim frames and normal and of course I love the slim ones but not sure they are worth the extra, but even the 'standard' framed ones are more than we budgeted. I trusted the builder to allow for a cost, I should have checked this over more thoroughly, but I didn't have time to check every single item on the quote. I think for us lead times may a big part in the decision making. The hole is there and needs filling in the next month or so. Slim ones can be deprive red on time, standards ones not. Argh!

@Littlemissweepy we are using a pm but he has his own preferred trades and is managing the build from that point of view too. Many of his trades are not vat registered so we save there. I'll let you know at the end if it was the right decision but I would t be paying a full service builder and then a pm on top - your builder should be your pm if doing it all in house. I can't see how you will make any saving paying a pm on top of a decent building firm.

@Sewfrickinamazeballs @BlueMooMoo I think for budget we have decided to go with bifolds. Probably smarts as they seem to be the cheapest whilst still a decent build quality. No grand designs here. I didn't like their sliders at all though - they felt cheap. The man in the showroom told me not to get the lift and slide as they are always going back with problems post fit where they come off the rails. Reynaers were what I wanted originally but they are too expensive - about 8k I think for a 5m opening.

So I originally didn't want bifolds at all but have actually come round to the idea that for budget they look the best.

[quote nomoneytree]**@Sewfrickinamazeballs* @BlueMooMoo* I think for budget we have decided to go with bifolds. Probably smarts as they seem to be the cheapest whilst still a decent build quality. No grand designs here. I didn't like their sliders at all though - they felt cheap. The man in the showroom told me not to get the lift and slide as they are always going back with problems post fit where they come off the rails. Reynaers were what I wanted originally but they are too expensive - about 8k I think for a 5m opening.

So I originally didn't want bifolds at all but have actually come round to the idea that for budget they look the best. [/quote]
That sounds very sensible. There's always going to be pros and cons to different choices and as long as you're happy with the decision. 5m is a huge amount of glass for either so I'm sure it will look just as fab as you envisioned. How many panels are you going to get do you think?

@nomoneytree I had a terrible experience with Reynaers for a clients job both the installer and the brand itself, issues with quality and customer service that were very very costly to resolve.
So it's probably a good thing they are off the list.

External wall foundations have been dug and concrete to go in this week. It'll have been 5yrs since we first bought the house and had an architect around. Let's hope I'm not building at the next 5yr anniversary!
It is tin rather than wood so maybe I'll finally splash out on some new pots and pans in 5yrs time

Plumber off with covid. Sigh.

Electrician came for half a day as busy elsewhere this morning.
He’s the plumber’s brother and the whole family were away together last weekend so likely to be positive soon 🙄

So not a lot of progress here today.

@LivingInaBuildingSite

Plumber off with covid. Sigh.

Electrician came for half a day as busy elsewhere this morning.
He’s the plumber’s brother and the whole family were away together last weekend so likely to be positive soon 🙄

So not a lot of progress here today.

Stay positive! My hubby had covid for last 10 days and me and the kids tested every day and negative. Zero change in routine, same beds etc. So there is hope that the electrician will keep working 🙂

@wonkylegs that's great inside info. Thank you for sharing. What do you think of smarts.