Extension thread 2022 part III.. celebrations, crises and will it be finished for Christmas?!

[NewHouseNewMe]

3rd thread of 2022 - can't believe I'm still here!

Oh that made me google, but grr I don’t qualify for the equivalent in Scotland 🙄

Stairs finished today but still lots of skirting left to do. The delivery was meant to arrive today but oh well. We have landing lights and my new bedroom wall lights were fitted so we are slowly getting finished. Mega exciting day tomorrow as the worktops are being fitted! We've gone for Cimstone Calacatta Veneta. Hope they look good!

@RidingMyBike which grants are these? We are replacing our boiler with a system boiler - are they included in the grants? We are in london

Sounds like a good day for lots of us @GardensandGrandDesigns @RidingMyBike @nomoneytreehere @LivingInaBuildingSite !
we also had a bit of a breakthrough today - the builders have agreed to our moving date. Hallelujah. They are bringing more decorators on site to speed things up. 22 days to go! We get to spend Christmas in the new home. Which is just as well since I’ve already ordered my Christmas tree 😂

And, the glazing company has resurfaced and said they will come on Friday to fix the snagging. I will believe it when I see it - they are shameless liars and crooks.

Tomorrow I’m starting packing 📦📦📦

Yay fab news @Yellownotblue

There's a list here. We're getting the boiler upgrade grant as switching from gas boiler to air source heat pump.
www.gov.uk/government/collections/find-energy-grants-for-you-home-help-to-heat

@RidingMyBike thank you. Just took a look and we aren't eligible 😩

I just want to vent so sorry! We are having a nightmare with our build, neighbours objected to PP, all granted, then bat surveys needed. Had a nightmare getting builders to quote, eventually chose one and waited 9 months for them to start. 3 weeks in, the ecologist had to supervise stripping of gable end tiles, found ONE bat dropping so all work had to stop for 2 months whilst we applied for a bat licence. Work restarted mid August but builder was very slow and kept disappearing to do other jobs. He asked for a £29k upfront payment which we agreed. He set up a payment schedule but this did not align to progress, after paying £58k he asked for another £29 k and we said we weren’t happy to pay it due to lack golf progress, agreed to pay half of that, they invoiced for 7 day payment, on day 4 he demanded payment by the end of the day. I was unable to do that due to issues with my online banking app plus about to leave for an overnight work trip, said I would pay the next day when I got back, he walked off site!! Not just walked off but cleared site!! A few days later sent us a revised quote saying the project had overrun and wanted an extra £12k in labour. 5 weeks later we have no roof, it is just covered in tarpaulins, terrible wind and rain and I’m off work sick with stress! Emails back and forth but he refuses to
come back without another £29k, we feel very uncomfortable paying that without the work being done, he insists work does not = payment! Our house is vulnerable and leaking, he is refusing to provide PLI details. What do we do? He has most of our money, we have no roof on our house!

@yummumto3girls this is actually my worse nightmare. Do you have a contract with the builder? Do they have liability insurance ?

Personally I'd check with companies house their accounts filing. It sounds as though they are using your payments to stay afloat.
There is little point in throwing good money after bad. I hope I'm wrong but you may need to take them to court.

@reno22 yes we do have a contract, he has breached it! He won’t give us his insurance details. Sadly we think this will have to go to court, but that won’t get a roof on our house soon and is unlikely to result in us getting our money back.

I am so sorry to hear this, with all the disagreements we've had with our builder and we've driven him mad with our perfectionist attitude to insulating the house, he would only invoice us for work done. Do not give him any more money and speak to a legal professional today if you can. I agree with reno22 his business is folding. I'm so sorry, the stress must be unreal but you can take some control back by staring the legal process. It might get him back to finish some of the work owed and ideally water tight. Good luck!

@yummumto3girls sounds awful, so sorry.

One of the reasons it is so stressful is knowing how vulnerable we are to the builders holding us over a barrel. I am in a situation where I have been asked for another payment, I am certain I am paying too much in advance too - and have been promised a revised estimate for 2 months, asked for it about 10 times and each time - oh yes I’ll get that to you tomorrow/ Friday/ next week etc. with this payment request I said no, not until I get the revised estimate. That was 2 days ago and heard nothing since. I meet them on Friday. Don’t want a stand-off, but don’t want to be taken for a ride.

Hi @yummumto3girls that sounds extraordinarily difficult. I suspect the delays have meant costs are rising and he’s desperately trying to do small jobs at the same time to get instant cash.

Please don’t give a penny more. I agree with the others this isn’t going to go well. The trust has gone basically.

What area of the country are you in as perhaps we can help with specific builders, lawyers etc.?

To organise payments, we had a bimonthly on-site meeting where our architect validated the progress according to the builder’s invoice statement so that 75% of roof was indeed 75% of roof. To be fair, sometimes things don’t get finished until very late so partially paying according to progress isn’t unreasonable but unless you’re in the trade, it can be hard to know if their assessment is fair.

I hope you get it sorted soon. It’s everyone’s worst nightmare..

@yummumto3girls I found your post so sad, I’m really sorry this has happened to you. We have the same invoicing system as @NewHouseNewMe so only pay for work done, as assessed by our independent project manager. But, we have a rogue glazing contractor and they’ve been a nightmare like your builder.

Can you maybe find out his sources of work and ask them to have a word with him? In our case, the glazing company got a lot of work from our architects, so the architect called them and said they would stop the pipeline unless he sorted us out. It’s not been plain sailing after that, but at least they delivered our windows eventually.

Sending you a virtual hug, this is so stressful. And once the trust is gone, you’re always wondering if the job is done right.

Anyone else having the most bizarre dreams about their project? I keep dreaming about secret rooms, cupboards that open up to minuscule showers or to kitchen show rooms, builders reupholstering our furniture in vile chintzy fabrics, etc 😂. Last night I dreamt the pantry cupboards had arrived and they were a nasty varnished wood finish, straight from the 50s.

It's happening!

@yummumto3girls this sounds awful - but as others have said, please don't pay any more and get legal advice.

Total surprise yesterday afternoon, plumber turned up, and fitted the shower screen, taps, towel holder and loo roll holder - Only thing left is the shelves, and DB can do them at the weekend.

Dining Room table and chairs arrived this morning. Hobbled about and got the chairs put together, and then opened one of the table boxes, and promptly dropped it on my foot with the broken toe, Swore a lot!! Have left the rest of the table for DB to assist.

@Yellownotblue yes to the dreams, all very odd, they stopped the night I moved in, but for the six months before very vivid about lights falling from the ceiling, doors that didn't open, and a window that was always cracked.

@GardensandGrandDesigns cam wait to see a photo of kitchen complete with worktops!

Ready to be spammed!

Ooooooh! Looks like a showroom! Gorgeous, bet you’re delighted.

Oooh that looks amazing!

Love your doors! Have you got a qettle?

@GardensandGrandDesigns , that’s absolutely gorgeous. It must feel amazing to be so near the end.
@yummumto3girls , I’m so sorry that’s happening to you. It sounds like a nightmare. You’d probably be best seeking proper legal advice given the sums involved. Can you get a quantity surveyor to estimate the cost of the works so far, so you know what kind of deficit you are talking about. I don’t have any experience, our builder has been onsite for about 6 weeks and we don’t have a payment schedule, but they haven’t asked for any money yet. I’m sure it’s imminent.
We are still in the slow and steady removal of internal walls stage atm. It’s dusty and cold, and we are living in, as there weren’t any rentals available. It hasn’t been too bad yet, as we have a number of usable rooms left. But roll on end Jan.

Thank you all ☺️ I remember joining this thread a year ago and loving seeing those finishing and now I can't believe it's me! I'm so happy with it all and the tense conversations with the builders are just vanishing away. The space is amazing and me and boss builder were laughing away today so we've both gotten over any quibbles along the way!

Yes it's a qettle tap! It's getting installed tomorrow so will be interesting to see if it's any good as half the price of quooker but still 100°c.

It does look amazing!

we have a qettle and really like it.
except for 2 things

• it seems to make a sort of froth on top of tea, I scoop it off but am really aware of it when making visitors tea
• make extra sure the filter housing is firmly attached to whatever it is attached to, I tried to change the filter (thinking maybe would solve problem 1), the housing came off the wall, I can’t undo the filter thingie to replace the cartridge anyway and now the housing thing is leaking and filling the bucket it’s currently sat in within hours.

the plumber is due tomorrow to look at it.
wish I had just left the stoopid filter thing alone, I don’t even drink the filtered water anyway as mostly drink water from a jug that the fridge refills.

don’t know what to do about the froth stuff though.