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!

@NoParticularPattern so jealous! Wish we were that close. Do you mind me asking how much painting your kitchen cost please?

Congratulations on baby number 4. How exciting!!!

@CameliaLeaf i totally agree re architects dimensions. Our whole extension is 50cm too small and although large we are still squeezed on space.

@NoParticularPattern 😂 at bonding with the new kitchen before baby arrives

@nomoneytreehere also agree with architect dimensions, ours were very much out of whack in many places. I’m happy with the overall dimensions, and we pushed the extension to the absolute limit of what was allowed with PP, but we’ve had many instances where their designs simply didn’t match the space.

@Yellownotblue our biggest problem has been in the master bedroom where all the drawings showed a double bed whereas we have a superking. I wish i had thought to check as we could have made some small tweaks to the design which wouls have improved our room an awful lot.

I've jinxed it now - booked an Ocado Xmas delivery slot for a house where building work hasn't started yet with a kitchen that doesn't exist yet.

What could possibly go wrong?!

@RidingMyBike , I like your optimism!

I have just discovered our new roof is leaking. They’ve just started painting the ceiling too.🤦‍♀️

Oh no, it's all so stressful! I really sympathise.

I can't believe I'm saying this but I miss the Travelodge. I miss carpet so much.

We must be at the end of our build because builders and plasterers have stopped turning up. We've reached that frustrating stage that everyone talks about! However we did buy a microwave today and borrow a mini fridge so we kind of have a kitchen 😄

The stress levels of living with young kids in a dusty building are off the scale.

We are moving back within days to a full on building site. We’ve leaks popping up and plumbers MIA, electrics still ongoing so have only daylight so far and no kitchen or mocked up area. The security situation isn’t great.
It’s beyond stressful and I want to murder people on a regular basis.
To anyone considering a renovation - don’t!!

I am so glad it’s not just me. Have had enough! The leak is apparently not a leak but of course I wasn’t here so the builder told DH (it’s something to do with filler) and DH will have just nodded. So I will have the corner the builder on Friday when I’m at home.

Fortunately we are escaping for the weekend! And we are very close to the cat having her own access again - cat flap fitted today.

@NewHouseNewMe how long do you have before it will be finished?
Im feeling despondent today. Our builder said it would be a 2 month job (and he hoped it might be less) but we’re nearly 4 weeks in now and still on the destruction phase. I can’t imagine it’s all going to be finished in a little over a month.

Ah there you all are! Just popping by to give a quick update as we're now tantalisingly close to the end. Internal decorating should be done by end of tomorrow which would mean we can spend the weekend in a finished house! Fingers crossed, etc etc.

I can't wait to take up the protective floor covering and see our lovely floors - we saw them for about 5 minutes when they were laid and then they were covered up immediately so will be fab to get the full effect.

Having used the kitchen for a couple of weeks, I'm pretty happy with the choices we made. Time will tell. One slight mishap was having a cupboard for our specific coffee machine which we've now upgraded to a bigger one that doesn't fit - oops. And a few bits where the finish isn't quite what I'd like - caulking around the bi-folds, squiggly paint lines etc - hopefully fixable. But overall, I'll just be happy to be in a dust-free space with no builders.

The whole thing has taken longer than anticipated of course, will be closer to 6 months than 3. But on the plus side, we came in pretty much on budget and didn't have to touch our contingency which I'm pleased about. And glad we took the plunge when we did rather than waiting, as who knows where interest rates will end up.

Now to start on the rest of the house...

@NoParticularPattern How are your worktops looking!?

All go at my house, plasters are in and the kitchen has all been plotted out ready for its arrival next week.

We have had to sack the first plasterer. My dh suspects he is on drugs so one minute amazing and the next can't answer the phone, hasn't got a van and making unrealistic promises.

You all have some amazibg progress. I will try and work out how to post some pics.

Does anyone have a dowsing & reynolds discount code?

Snap! I also booked an Ocado delivery in a bout of wild optimism. Our kitchen is meant to be delivered late November… hopefully no delays.

Glazing has been delayed to mid October, glazing company very apologetic but the builders are working around the issue and doing lots of other jobs, so hopefully we won’t fall too far behind. I’ve just about managed to choose all the lighting and handed the list to my PM to check it makes sense. I don’t dare tally up the cost as it would send me over the edge.

Plasterers are in and doing a fab job - the walls are so smooth it’s like touching glass 🥰.

I feel like we’re at a stage where there are loose strands/unfinished work everywhere. The cladding is 85% complete, the electrics are 90% complete, etc - nothing is quite finished yet. But still, I think I see light at the end of this long tunnel…

I've just written a snagging list! Surely the end is near!! I don't think the builders have much left to do only skirting and architrave. Think it will be the electrician here the most once the plasterers finally finish. We have a lot of lights!!!

Kitchen fitting starts on Mon, really hope I like the studio green colour...

So exciting for all of you near the end!

I am trying to find us somewhere to live whilst the builders get on with things. I really should have us and all our stuff out by end of October - really can’t face it! Thought of paying rent and mortgage and 2 sets of bills does not fill me with joy 😒.

@GardensandGrandDesigns i have just googled studio green, it’s a great colour for a kitchen. You going all in or half and half/ just island?

I went for Livid by Little Greene in the end - was so overwhelmed by choices of green!

I've gone all in including island! I also love livid 😍

Evening all! I am having a huff because everyone has just….. stopped. Worktops are mostly in- missing a couple of sills which I haven’t heard back about yet but they’re not massively important in the grand scheme of getting things finished. So that’s annoying but not stopping anyone getting on so not the end of the world. What is, however, stopping everyone getting on is the fact that they’ve all just gone AWOL. Plumber still hasn’t got me a date for the new boiler, still ignoring me about when he’s going to get the kitchen plumbed in too. Electrician is supposedly here tomorrow all day but has already said he will need a whole other day after this one just to get the wiring back to the consumer unit because the wiring in this house is a total mess. So because literally no one at all has pulled their finger out this week I will still have a mostly finished kitchen that I can’t use this weekend. It is currently a huge glorified corridor to the garden. Which has cost a bloody fortune and makes me quite stabby every time I think about it. Joiner has been and put some doors on today but over half are still to go on. Also some snagging about the hob fitting the worktops properly etc. but he doesn’t seem to fully understand what I’ve been telling him. Which is annoying since he was the one who decided that he didn’t need to be here when the worktops went in.

It looks so so lovely. I’m just incredibly cross that they’ve all just downed tools right at the last moment. I hope everyone else is shaping better than we are!!

@nomoneytreehere I’m afraid I have absolutely no idea what the cost of painting the kitchen has been as I don’t see the bills and I imagine they are annoyingly vague. This is not technically “our house” but belongs to the family business so all the bills go to them and the “secretary” rather than through here. Which sounds way fancier than it is 😂😂 it’s a farm and SIL’s boyfriend (“secretary”) is the only one who can be bothered to faff with HSBCs online banking on a weekly basis 🙈

Also loving the green kitchen trend. Ours is island and tall cupboards in Puck by LG and then the outer run of base units is Portland Stone (also LG). Really pleased with it, less pleased with the finish on some bits but I’m assured that they’ll sort it. Kitchen man had it colour matched by Morrells to spray.

Oh wow, sounds like for once in my life I'm on trend -we're getting a green kitchen too! Howdens Chelford in fir green. Except the kitchen designer put 'fur green' on the plans.

Hoping to finalise bathroom plans this morning as our provisional project start date is not far off now!

Longtime 👀 over-here!
Feeling less and less likely we'll be 100 💯 done by Christmas as the works haven't even started 😤. But hopefully phase 1 ( the kitchen family room knock through, new bathroom , cloakroom and painting) will be.

We too have locked into the on trend green shaker kitchen from wren. Looks like we are in good company.

Well I’m untrendy as ever! I’ve bucked the trend and we’re getting a black and yellow kitchen.

But I’m also having green for my utility room (FB Yeabridge).

@GardensandGrandDesigns I found that the hardest part- I felt a lot of guilt for disrupting their lives and basically making it unbearable - the baby just could not nap in the noise and everything was so dusty. I had to take it day by day and make the best of the things I could and keep reminding myself it is a short period of their lives. I wish I could say there is a solution but I don't think there is except coming out the other side of it.

I have found that I'm much more sensitive to aural overstimulation now as the result of 6months with constant noise. Maybe this will lessen as time goes on.

Sending strength to you all that are in the low points of your build journeys.