Anyone with work starting soon want a chat thread?

[thenewaveragebear1983]

We were quoted in February, and have been patiently waiting… builder is Dh’s mate so worth waiting for. Finally got the 2-3 weeks call last week, so starting in 2 (ish) and I cannot wait!

we aren’t building any footprint, but are knocking into our garage to make a small living room for the kids/playroom; taking down a stud wall to make a large living room on the back; installing a wall and double doors to split a through room, and having our bathroom split into 2 to make a smaller family bathroom and a separate shower room.

we’ve never done anything like this at all so feel very nervous/excited! I’ve not really allowed myself to get excited yet so as not to be disappointed but it does seem like he’s nearly due to start!

would love a chat thread, estimate our work will take 10-12 weeks.

I saw these tiles the other day - not sure if they're pale enough but just in case boutiquestone.co.uk/product/plain-mint

Anyone living in theirs while it's being done with tips to prevent the dust etc ruining everything?

You are a legend, how did you find them???!! Genuinely I have searched and searched online for something like these!

@thenewaveragebear1983 I'm looking for large format tiles for our kitchen and bathrooms currently - decision paralysis so looked at heaps!

We've gone for a white suite with black and white marble effect large format floor tiles in the bathrooms. The family bathroom will have forest Green metro tiles behind the shower and on bathtub panel then white metro tiles everywhere else. Brass fittings.
In the en-suite bathroom the black marble floor tiles will extend behind the walk in shower all other walls will be white metro tiles.
The cloakroom will be forest green metro tiles with evergreen paint.

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 they are beautiful but I think they will end up too expensive. We are doing 3 separate sections in our work, the bathroom being the last, and I think by the time we get there the budget will be tight. Shame though, they are beautiful.

Really productive week for us, he’s built the fire surround to fit my inset fire, and today has insulated and plaster boarded the majority of the ceiling. Finishing that tomorrow. Then plasterer coming on Friday, and hopefully will do it all but may return Monday. Exciting! It’s amazing how much more finished it seems when you can’t see open ceiling beams!

still need a guy to come and finish taking my tile floor and adhesive up, that’s a days work but he can do that once the plasterer has been. Then once dry, skirting and electrics. I imagine he will move on to stage 2, garage conversion while the plaster is drying. That’s when the real mess will happen, because currently all our stuff from downstairs is in the garage. That’s really helped with dust and cleaning because everything is away

this weekend I need to go to dunelm and chose a light fitting and go to a few carpet shops for a look and chat about timings and lead times.

Plasterer came today and did the majority of the walls. Coming back to finish on Tuesday. Main builder not going to be here next week while plaster dries but a few ‘lads’ will be here during the days to do a few of the other tasks. It will be quite nice to just have a break from people in the house to be honest.

plaster looks amazing, it makes it all look very neat when it’s all uniform. The end (at least of this stage!) is in sight!

Great news! We seem to have slowed up a little, there's still no balcony but we do have new doors downstairs, plaster is done and I think mostly electrics. Little bits left in the bathroom and some painting. Then it's just the render. Enjoy the shopping

So the loft French doors and en-suite windows have gone in! The flat roof works including roof lights have been completed
and Bathroom installations have commenced.

According to our builder all work will be complete in 5 weeks 🥳 then we can (finally) move in. It's so exciting seeing our house take shape.

This week the bathroom insulation continues and the house will be white washed ready for painting.

Big decisions this week - do we take the loft en-suite as our bedroom or do we stay in the 1st floor master bedroom (next door to DD)?
And which water softener system to install?

So excited!

We got our keys two weeks ago and we now have a rewired shell! I spent the last week ripping everything out with my partner helping when he could. It’s been hard work but it made me feel great removing toilet cisterns, wood panelling, wallpaper, boarding over doorways, etc.

We have hit a minor snag as our bay window is falling off the back of the house (not picked up by our structural survey) so we urgently need remedial work but we’ve got a lovely builder who specialises in structural jobs lined up, we’re just waiting for a second opinion about how to proceed.

The heating engineer starts tomorrow and we’ve chosen our radiators, bathroom suite, etc so I’m still hopeful we’ll be into a painted structurally sound house that has a bathroom, heating and plaster by the end of April.

@reno22 did you decide on a water softener system? We're looking as well and haven't really started the research yet.

Our extension is going well. It's now been just over 3 weeks and the roof frame for our single storey extension is currently going on. They still need to build another storey at the side but I'd prefer a ceiling in my utility first. I cannot believe the speed of this! I know it all slows down drastically when it comes to all the internal stuff, such as plastering, flooring, etc but they're making amazing progress....just a shame our kitchen isn't arriving until July (9 month lead time and we ordered in October before we'd even decided on a builder)

@vrouge it is mind blowing how quickly what is the weight baring structure of your home goes up! I'm still in shock.

All our windows are in. The bathrooms and cloakroom are being installed as I type. Our kitchen will be delivered next week (we ordered in the summer before we had a builder as well). The whitewashing of the walls is starting this week.

Still waiting for the new boiler system to be installed but low key I'm happy it hasn't as it's kept our energy bill down (we aren't moving in until works are completed).

@vrouge we haven't finalised on a softener system. We initially thought about BWT (buying as a standalone from screwfix) but our builder had never heard of them (he's going to ask his plumber contractor) . We also have Harvey's coming over in a fortnight. It's more expensive but lots of positive reviews. I'll let you know what we decide.

I can concur with that, we are only doing internal stuff and oh boy, this week has dragged on literally watching plaster dry….. the freezing temps and no heating out there hasn’t helped. We’ve put a few heaters out there to keep it above freezing and a fan to waft the air around, but it’s really slow! Builder hoping to return Tuesday to do skirtings and electrics to go in, so hoping hard that it’s dry enough by then

Still not dry, we put 2 heaters out there with a fan on and doors open today and it looks a bit dryer but not anywhere near dry enough for skirting yet.

labourer coming tomorrow to take the floor adhesive up. Dirty messy dusty job, poor lad. Then the electrician is coming Tuesday. That will make a big difference, it will be amazing to see proper electrics out there! I went to dunelm to buy light fittings today (lots on sale, really good reductions!) but I couldn’t find one I liked that was dimmable; in the end I’ve gone for a really simple black flex and I will get a huge origami paper shade, they seem to be all the trend at the moment. Plus we’ll have spots round the skylight and strips in the shelving on the fireplace wall, all independently controlled and dimmable.

we’ve also been thinking about floors. We originally said carpet, but for the cost of carpet we have realised we could get reasonable LVT or laminate. Once the lad takes the adhesive up tomorrow we will see how the concrete is, we may not even need it screed. I think with laminate/LVT we will be able to have thicker underlay as well to make it warmer. We can’t have underfloor heating, it’s too expensive to install and to run.

but I can’t choose! I keep getting samples and they look very flat and plasticky. We have an original parquet floor in the adjoining room and it’s very imperfect “rustic” . Therefore I don’t want to try to match/replicate it, but will need to get a similar colour to it or it will look very odd.

I am decision fatigued!

Electrics In, floor tiles taken up, got a quote for LVT today which is a bit less eye watering than the Amtico quote! Hopefully this coming week will be very productive: radiators plumbed in, skylight arriving Thursday hopefully, shelves up and lighting installed, skirting and architrave going on round the door, and hopefully fire installed as well. Oh and decorator coming to mist coat. So basically done! I will then paint next weekend if all goes well. Floor guy says 2 weeks, sofa coming 2nd March so slightly early but not too bad. If I book the floor early next week, hopefully we’ll be completely done by maybe 10th March or so? Exciting!

we’ve asked him for a current total and will pay him for work done so far, then move onto phase 2, garage conversion!

That sounds like things are really moving! We should be finished with the builders by Tuesday and end of the week for the last of the plastering. One of the downstairs ceilings was damaged with a leak. It was already in pretty poor condition though. I don't want to get my hopes up too much though as it feels like we've been saying the end of the week for about a month now 😂

Week 12 (of 16) of our extension, renovation and modernisation work:

Boiler/water tank installed
Kitchen roof lights in
Kitchen cabinets being installed (should be completed in 2 days)
All bathrooms installed

Our decorator has completed the white wash and painted the intended colours behind the radiators and started ceilings.

To go;

Tiling (2 bathrooms, cloakroom, kitchen)
Lay ground floor floors (3 receptions, kitchen and utility)
Electrics 2nd fixes
Install balustrade
Water softener install (speaking with Harvey's today)

Our new bed, sofas and carpets are arriving mid March. May the odds be in my favour 😬

@reno22 🤞

@Hall84 our plaster took 2 weeks to dry! Hopefully this lovely spring weather will speed yours along.

he’s here today and suddenly again I need to make decisions on all the things I’ve been mulling over for weeks and weeks. Paint colour today, just for where the rads will be and the shelving. I chose my colours weeks ago but now having doubts. I quite like this sludgy green beige colour- east facing room, needs warm tones, but will potentially be dark, although we are having a 2m skylight. I feel I should go with my gut.
I’d really like coloured skirting boards but don’t need to choose that yet. I may even go for black. But obviously will need to go with the walls, without looking too psychedelic 😂 (only in my world could sludge green be psychedelic 🤣)

need to pop to b&q tomorrow to get a sample, and get a bit on the walls.

Oh no! Let's hope not. The main round of plaster seemed to take a couple of days. It certainly seemed to be quicker once the radiators were up. I don't think they're painting it so hopefully shouldn't impact them finishing up this week.

We have some paint on the walls today and I’m really not sure…. It looks so different in all the different lights, and so different when it’s a whole wall compared to a sample….. I’m sticking with it, for now. Partly because I bought £130 of paint 🤦‍♀️
it does look nice next to white and black, really brings out the earthyness of it, and I keep telling myself that until it’s finished it is impossible to tell, and once it is, it’s only paint. It can be changed. we we’re going to do it ourselves but have now asked for the decorator to cone back, he’ll do the walls and skirting etc for £250 so although we are trying to save money, it barely seems worth it in the grand scheme of things.

Productive week! The green looks much much nicer now it’s the whole room. I lugged in my furniture and some cushions and other bits last night and it looks so nice with it all in there. Then lugged it all Back out.

skylight went in today, it looks so good!! Even from the upstairs window it looks amazing and from the room it just looks ace. Skirting going in today, i need to experiment with wood stains this weekend for my shelves and the decorator will do them next week. I ordered curtain poles (expensive as it’s hard to get a 4.5m pole!) and my curtains arrived today.

this weekend I am making a footstool, and knocking up some cushion covers on my sewing machine. Sofa is coming next Thursday. I think the only thing we’ll be waiting for is the flooring, he’s coming to measure tonight and then it will depend on his availability. We’ll need the levelling layer to go on as well, and to dry, so that could hold things up a bit. But the end is definitely in sight!

So… it’s been a long week. Productive, and a lot of the little bits getting done. Gloss paint all finished now except touch ups. Shelves waxed and tracks put on for the lighting, which will go in end of this week (hopefully). Plastering round the skylight done. Tv bracket on the wall, door handles installed, plinth for curtain pole added, light fitting changed, fire installed…. The floor guy was supposed to be coming to level today and fit tomorrow, but he didn’t turn up and didn’t call which I was very annoyed about, and his phone is off so I’m fuming!! That will hold everything up as floor was going in tomorrow and Friday the builder was going to be able to finish off. Now that will all be delayed!

also, sofa is being delivered tomorrow and it was going to be able to go straight into the room, but of course now floor isn’t done that won’t happen either so I’m a bit annoyed to be honest with it all

We were hoping to be finished weeks ago. Every week I think we might be, then it tips over. Again 🙄 plasterer coming tomorrow for the ceiling and then final bits for the builders. Next week now though, gah! Good luck

Oh no @Hall84

i’ve still not got hold of my floor fitter! Went to 2 other places today, looks like they may be 10-15 days wait, and they didn’t actually have anything I liked as much as the original choice anyway. Very very annoying. I could potentially order the floor from the wholesales and get my builders floor guy to fit it, but he could be 2-3 weeks as well. I’m assuming that unless my original guy has had some hideous accident that means he is completely unable to work, he will be intending to do ours and that will be quicker. It just annoys me that I’m having to go with the shit service guy!!!

so frustrating!

my sofa arrived today and it looks beautiful and it’s in the garage 😢