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 the froth doesn't sound good! I'll report back when ours is plumbed in this afternoon. Thanks for the tip!

I'm interested. I'm desperate for a Quooker but keep looking at other options (due to price!)
Be interested what you think too!

I got a Quooker - and I love it. Was quite sceptical in the show room, but thought what the heck, the chances of getting a brand spanking new kitchen with my complete wish list again will be small to none, so why not.

OMG - instant coffee, and tea at any time of the day or night. hot water bottles filled on a whim. But the best bit, is filling a pan with boiling water, then onto the induction hob, and its boiling in under 10 seconds, makes cooking pasta super fast. Also no kettle cluttering up my hob - got rid of it after a month and haven't missed it.

Downside - getting the sparkling water filter in addition to the initial kit, was just a step too far price wise. The filter and all the gubbins, takes up the cupboard next to the sink. Didn't come with instructions, two installation booklets, but no user instructions. Now I know how to use it, its fine, but there is a knack. Does mean having to teach family when they come round, but less chance of small people being able to burn themselves!

Plumstone that’s really reassuring that you are impressed with the Quooker. It was the only hot water tap that our kitchen place would stock, so we bit the bullet and went for it. We drew the line at the sparkling water one, plain old boiling will have to do us :).
As I left the house this morning, our builder commented that it was “about to get messy”. I assume that means external walls are coming down 😬. It’s about to get so cold😭. The foreman did say he thought the roof would be on and windows and sliders in place before they stopped for Christmas, so we just need to suffer through December.
I hope the rest of you have a very productive Fridays.

After much faffing, the filter finally got changed on the Qettle so I will see if that helps.
but I may not bother changing it again and it was such a faff!

the plumber did say the froth may be because the water is not hot enough, so maybe try running it just for a second or two then make the tea.

so I’ll try that too.

bit mostly I love the Qettle and it is life changing for pasta, etc. and not having a kettle on the counter, although dh does now have a coffee machine 🙄

Time to update my TO DO: list:

The hallway; open shelves for shoes and school bags


• DONE ✅! Can start arranging shoes and school bags now

The original old sash window halfway up the stairs - waiting for it to come home, have been told it will be soon
….no news……

Stripping back the old front door and oiling


• painter will do next week

Oiling 3 new doors


• painter done the first coat

Security cameras - have a new number to contact

Patio glass balustrade - have paid for parts which are due to be delivered ✅, then builders can fit them maybe next week, get final glass measurements, order glass, wait for it, fit it

Downstairs loo: pick a mirror. Long bare walls atm - thinking maybe a large wallpaper sort of mural thing?

Snagging list of decoration issues - DONE ✅

extra silicon either side of bifolds - DONE ✅

extra silicon around hallway floor - painter will do next week

I keep adding bits
Including:
Broken tile in upstairs bathroom to be repaired

Broken edge of tile in kitchen to be repaired

couple of broken kitchen bits/edges of shelves type thing
door seal of bifold door is loose

Deep clean post build, need to find a company - have a recommendation, not contacted yet.

I'm back to report on the qettle - so far we love it! We've had lots of cups of tea just to play with the new gadget! It does hiss at you but it's boiling water so it's going to do that. I can report no froth, glad you got yours fixed too!
Treated the new kitchen to some nice hand soap and lotion, it deserves it! 🤭

Builder obviously wants final payment soon as 4 vans of builders turned up today going through entire snagging list! 2 more new snags pointed out today and they are going to do those Monday. Carpenters last day (hopefully) Wednesday. Then stuff back from storage on Thursday!!! Taking the kiddos to watch Matilda movie tomorrow while DH does more most coating. Have a great weekend all!

*mist coating

@GardensandGrandDesigns you’re so close! Sounds amazing. We are now plastered, so just waiting for it to dry enough for most coats. Windows to be fitted Weds and then main team leave and we have different people in for flooring and the kitchen in Jan. Decamping to my parents for Christmas but now we are plastered I can see the shape and I love it. Happy weekends all!

Sounds good @Martinisarebetterdirty just don't make my mistake with the screed floor. Get a dehumidifier in early as I still can't get over how long they take to dry and the effect plastering has!

For those of you who’ve actually finished, or have done this before, when was final payment due? Ours said it would be on completion of snagging but then sent the invoice before they’d even had a snagging list and are now sending reminders. They’ve done about 2/3 of snagging and haven’t responded to my queries so far. We also still have a skip on the drive and piles of materials!

I've had two experiences of the final payment. My large (large) extension I overpaid too soon so there ended up more work left than money. We ended up kicking them off site and sorting the final bits ourselves for our own MH!

This time is a much smaller cost (not much over £30k) and we are awaiting the bifolds to be fitted and radiators. We are paying both trades directly but I still owe our builders about 10% and I'll pay it once both those things are completed. He's not chasing us though and has been exceptional to say the least.
We are using our own decorator and carpenter though which is totally separate from the builder

That should say previous large extension!

Thanks @Baxdream , sounds like we’re not being unreasonable. Mentally they moved onto other jobs weeks ago. To be fair, they were very quick to respond to the snagging list initially but have gone silent on me when I pointed out what was left to do and are not answering queries I have (which inform whether something is part of the snagging list).

They have generally been bad at communication. But on principle, I don’t see why I should pay (about 4% of the final balance) until the work is complete and I don’t think they should have sent the invoice until snagging was done. They are also storing a load of stuff on our drive like pallets…..

I wouldn’t pay until everything is finished, but I suppose it depends what your contract says? Ours says not to and our PM told us not to when we discussed extras last week.
Thankfully no new screed Gardens, we are mainly new floorboards as a first floor extension just redoing the kitchen at the same time.

@MyBuggyIsOutToGetMe per my RIBA contract we hold 5%of the build cost for at least 3 months (max 6) after we get building regs sign off and the builders have completed. This is to cover anything that may require fixing in the short term and encourage the builder to respond quickly.

We have one builder and he's responsible for sourcing all contractors which helps

We are also holding back 5% per the riba contract

Went to site today and found they were pouring concrete for the back extension. Looks great BUT there is one wall they haven't knocked down yet (because they are concerned about the wall above it coming down without extra support) so I assume once it is down, they will have to come back and finish the concrete in that small bit. I do just wonder about the order in which they are doing some things! 1st floor extension (old one) not fully down yet due to dodgy wall so that needs to come down and be rebuilt

Have spent the day cleaning the house. The builders had stuff everywhere but i have taken back control of all but one room.

Has anyone got any good tips on getting rid of the dust. Its thick everywhere.

Not a tip per se but my PM has scheduled 3 cleans in the final 2 months, so am guessing it is going to take some cleaning!

We've had a query from our builders - they want us to check for 'quality' the sanitaryware and cupboards for the bathrooms. We ordered these direct and paid for them ourselves but I thought we'd asked builder to take delivery (we're not living in the house), check them and dispose of packaging. They charge 18% on top of purchase price for the admin/labour stuff so was expecting a charge for that.

DH went over the day they were delivered, checked them off against the order confirmation and that the packaging was intact. But they're being stored temporarily until it's time to fit the bathroom so he didn't want to take packaging off as they'll all be moved at least twice more.

Builder now reluctant to take responsibility for it if there is a fault and the bathroom company blames them. Which I can understand. But what do you do about stuff you've ordered separately instead of via the builder?

@nomoneytreehere just on the cleaning, you clean it all but the dust goes up in the air and then resettles over the course of the next day so it takes a few cleans before you get rid of all the dust!

@RidingMyBike in the end we let the builder order it all as they were making a fuss about this too!

@RidingMyBike if the builder has charged you margin i think they have taken on responsibility. If no margin any issue is yours. I unwrapped and photographed everything for this reason - then any damage is the builders fault.

Thank you. I've emailed builder to ask for clarification - dug out the email from Oct on which we'd asked them to check.

Morning All, So nightmare at the weekend, DB arrived to put the dining table together, unwrapped it all and then we discovered the protective frame around it was broken, when we lifted this off, the part that is underneath the table top that moves to extend it, had been completely broken up. So annoying, however all credit to Oak Furniture land, they accepted the pictures I emailed, and then informed me a replacement would be delivered and the broken table removed on the 8th December. Whole issue took less that 10 mins to sort out. They would have delivered on the 5th, but I am not available that day, so the 8th it is.

DB then amazed me by putting up my shower room shelves - after they had gone up and I was happy, he informed me he'd never drilled into tile before, so glad he told me after. Shower room looks fab now - I am very happy. Needs a really good scrub as the white floor tiles are still pretty filthy, however until toe is better and i can kneel in comfort, this will have to wait.

This week, is the start of Christmas Shopping - I don't want to buy presents - I want to buy house stuff and faff about!!!!

Started looking at colour schemes, and furniture for the sitting room - Really want to have it all finished and furnished by the summer, and with the lead times on sofa's etc, I'm going to have to start in Feb!! It never ends!

Hope everyone's week ends further on in the project than it starts!