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!

I love that we've all drawn the line at decorator costs, they are extortionate!

Apparently decorators are in such high demand that they can ask whatever money they want. I’ve heard all sorts of stories of decorators downing tools and asking for more than what was agreed.

We were charged £450 for our kitchen to be mist coated. He was in and out in 2.5 hours and the pint wipes off the wall if you rub it. We bought a sprayer and did the rest of the house (6beds) ourselves.

I need to confess we have a decorator for the walls just not the kitchen units! Ours is reasonable thankfully and super quick!

You're officially the richest of the group! 🤣 We need to paint ourselves and all the new furniture is an absolute dream and won't be happening any time soon!

We also have decorators in - included in the fixed price contract with the builder. Apparently they were quoted 34k 😱 and had to scramble a fair bit to find decorators. I counted 7 different trades on site yesterday. You can’t swing a cat without hitting joiners, plumbers, sparks, scaffolders, tilers, plasterers, decorators, builders, landscapers. Yes - all of them working at the same time in relative harmony. It’s a mad house. They worked until 1am yesterday. The commitment is unbelievable.

We also hastily removed decorating off our quote, reasoning we could do it ourselves to save £££. I say we, I’ll probably do it myself, as my standard (and execution) is of a much higher standard than DH. We installed two new bathrooms last year, I painted one and he the other. There is a noticeable difference in quality 🙄. So I’ll paint and he can do the prep.
Tonight we are arranging buckets and bowls to
catch all the rain that’s coming in off the partially installed roof 😬. The roofer seems less concerned by our comfort than the other builders have been. Once roof is done, all we are waiting on is the windows and sliders arriving and being installed. Then the knocking through can happen.

You sound like you have Nick Knowles and the whole DIY SOS team in! Brilliant!

@GardensandGrandDesigns oh if only that were true 😂
I think I have the smallest project as we only have a double garage conversion plus reconfiguring the room next to it. The decorator will probably be less than the Quooker 😂

I am too embarrassed to say what I am going to be spending on decorating but we don’t have the time or skills to do it ourselves. It is taking a decorating team 3 months. A few hours each weekend would take the 2 of us years 😳

I will be using decorators, many reasons, but primarily I am shit at that stuff, last time I painted a room, it took three weeks, evenings and weekends, I have the attention span of a goldfish, and it was so messy, kept getting painty fingers on everything. I promised myself, that even if it took years it would be professionals in to do it. To be fair the decorators, have been fantastic, and reasonable. The are booked for March, living room and lobby, and then hopefully have them back in Autumn to do the downstairs bedroom.

@Baxdream its great when all trades are in, really feels like progress!!!

We’re doing a combination of ourselves and decorators. The kitchen is being done by a professional as it’s way too big for us and we can’t face it, but we are doing the rest (two beds and a bathroom with hall and staircase next year with a decorator when we have saved up again). We have a lot on site today, carpenter, bathroom team and scaffolding finally being taken away. I’ll absolutely rejoice when I get rid of the portaloo end of next week 😂
Fingers crossed to a good end to the week for everyone!

@Yellownotblue our quote for decoration was similar hence why we are doing it ourselves. That and the fact we are already 6figures over budget. I have got a nice new roof though.

We bought a sprayer (about £300 from b&q) and dh did all of the white mist coat inside the house and sprayed the new render outside right up to the roof. It was honestly so so quick- he did the whole house in and out over 2 weekends. We have got vaulted ceiling's and the quote to spray 2 bedroom ceilings was £1000 which was why we thought we would have a go ourselves. We are not spraying the final coats though as it is a bit of a dusty finish so he is currently rollering on the colour. 3 bedrooms are finished now. One is half done. So 2.5 to go.

Tiler is being a bit non comittal about tiling the ensuites. We have decided to move home anyhow, the main bathroom is being refitted today.

We have found someone to do the carpets for half the £15k john lewis quoted and are going for it in a fortnight.

Perrin and rowe might have found my tap. But they are not sure.....

What are you all doung abiut wardrobes. ??The bespoke built in's are another thing I have crossed off my list.

We can't afford built-in wardrobes during the current project so we're going to make do with a couple of old wardrobes we already have, ruthlessly declutter clothing (change of lifestyle and not as many smart work clothes needed) and try out living in the house for a while before we decide what we want.

I think the space in our bedroom will be tight for wardrobes anyway, so we're veering more towards just having our chests of drawers in there and turning a small bedroom into a dressing room.

When I was looking at wardrobes I looked at Sharpes, stupidly expensive (north of 10k) and I couldn't have exactly what I wanted, it was close but for that kind of money I wanted it to be exactly what I wanted no compromises)

Ikea - I had previously bought components and installed them, and to do it for my bedroom, all components, install and delivery was approx £3500

My joiner priced me at for my exact design, all materials, building it on site, sockets, and mirror in one section for a dressing table with painting and hardware came in at £4k - I went with this option - Its amazing I love it, frees up lots of floor space, but now makes my "make do" ikea bedside tables look terribly out of place!! Still need a chair and a full length mirror, should have got in installed on one of the wardrobe doors, but I forgot.

@nomoneytreehere , our joinery is basically IKEA Pax units that are being fully fitted in. The company doing it is called Unflatpack. I’ve got a team of three in for 3 days, doing 4 rooms in total including a dressing room with sloped ceilings. They are very professional and seem to know what they are doing. I can post pictures when they’re done on Saturday.

I wouldn’t say it’s cheap, but it’s a fraction of the price of fitted wardrobes.

I’ve also got bespoke painted doors for some bedrooms, these are from Noremax. They are arriving tomorrow, I hope they are good...

We have fitted wardrobes in our bedroom that I think are ugly, but they would have been mega bucks to put in so nearly 20 years later they are still there!

I’d prefer two free standing ones either side of the fireplace that is currently hidden away behind the peach monstrosities with added pillars and pelmets.

front door is looking fab, just another layer of wax to be added tomorrow then the decorator is done. Pleased I went for going back to natural wood rather than a colour now.

two guys also started on the fittings for the glass railings, will take a few days, then get the glass measurement and order that.

nearly finished!

apart from old window - no news & small snagging bits, and probably other things I’ve forgotten about!

Wardrobes wise kids have free standing IKEA pax which is not changing. Master bedroom we are getting a joiner to build us a dressing area behind a stud wall which is being put up in bedroom. Will gives us “u” shaped area of wardrobes and drawers.

We are buying IKEA pax for the kids and we are going to get a carpenter to make and fit bespoke wardrobes for us. It's a 6m stretch including make up table so until we've saved up it will be clothes rails from Argos 🤣

Everything came back from storage today so advent in our house is unpacking a box everyday until Christmas! It feels beautifully homely though.

I've ended up following some local joinery companies doing wardrobes now on social media! The Unflatpack company you mentioned are wrong end of country for us but there are all sorts of others I've discovered!

This is genius! We’re moving on 15 December, so I’m going to sell it to the kids as the 12 days of Christmas. Okay 11 days, but you get my drift.

@plumstone the price of ikea pax has gone up so much i can see that would be the case. Please can you post some photos? Have you got drawers?

@nomoneytree here you go, probably excessive for just one person, however I love them, Couple of boxes still need sorted out, but it gives you an idea. All the doors and drawers are soft close.

@plumstone they are really beautiful. Did your joiner make your drawers or buy them.