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.

Great progress @thenewaveragebear1983 ! The delay must be frustrating @Hall84 .

Over here we've made good progress:

Family bathroom tiled and fitted ✅
En-suite bathroom tiled and fitted ✅
First coat of paint applied across house ✅
Kitchen installed ✅
All switches and sockets installed ✅
Loft balustrade installed ✅
Loft extension completed ✅
Boiler, water cylinder, new radiators installed and tested ✅
Full house re-wire ✅

Today's tasks
Go to house to confirm direction we want flooring to be installed
Tile the cloakroom

Pay carpenter so he can start building our fitted wardrobes 😍, utility room cabinetry and living room alcove cabinets

Next week
Quartz install (kitchen)
Painting continues
Floor install continues (unless they can complete today/tomorrow)
Install cloakroom furniture
Install new garage door

W/c 13th March: Our sofas will be delivered plus carpets laid

All lighting is currently sat in the dining room of my PIL 🫣- hopefully it will be hanging in our house within the fortnight so we can use their dining room for Easter Sunday 😬

Hopefully not jinxing it but we could actually complete in the stated 12-16 week timeframe stated at the start of the build! Would be lovely to spend Mother's Day in our new home. Tbf, as long as flooring is laid we might take our STB 11month old to see the house and her new room.

TBC- book moving van 🥳🥳

Wow @reno22 you have been busy!

our room will be finished except flooring today. He’s repairing our shower this afternoon (which annoyingly decided to break 2 weeks ago just to add an extra dimension of hassle!) then in theory this room is closed off and he will begin our garage conversion. I think he’s having a week in between to catch up on some admin and do a few smaller jobs which actually suits us as we get a breather, time to empty the garage, and a bit of time without workers in the house when I start my new job on Monday. So that will be ok. We’ve asked him for a budget total as well and will pay him up to date for the work done.

floor saga continues- original floor guy still no word, no message, nothing. Phones unable to receive calls. I contacted the manufacturer of the floor tiles and asked for local supply/fit people, someone is coming round tonight and they have had a cancellation which means availability on 16th March. So two weeks until the flood is in, but that’s the best we can do and it’s only 2 weeks in the grand scheme of things. We learn from this that we need to choose early and get in booked in as we move into our next stages. I wish I’d gone for a click version now and had the builder do it but 🤷‍♀️ we live and learn. And this is the only snag we’ve hit so not doing too badly really.

Great to hear some progress on these projects!

We now have a lovely slate tiles roof on our ensuite so they're going to be working down from the roof now so render on the ensuite then flat single storey roof is next.

External doors and windows ordered through our builder and our lovely big sliding doors that we ordered in December finally have an installation date for April which is super exciting because then the whole new extension will be watertight. They're breaking through to the current house a bit earlier than April so I may need to invest in more hot water bottles and blankets to keep me warm, but hopefully the weather won't be too bad later this month.

Our builder has finally asked us for what we're planning on putting in the ensuite so he can get the plumber around - I've had the list finalised for months and really want to order things as I don't want to miss out on anything I want with stock levels.

We are about a week ahead of schedule for now but we know it will slow down because of the lead time with certain things, but just glad we're not currently behind schedule!

Jinxed it @thenewaveragebear1983 - the cloakroom toilet is damaged. It's from Victorian plumbing and the 48hr window to tell if damages has long passed 😢

Oh no, can you replace it @reno22

this week should see the end of our work on the lounge, except for the floor which is now going down on 16th March. Whilst it is annoying we had the delay, we are lucky to have found someone who can do it so quickly, and as things go, we’ve been lucky with things so far.

this week will see: wooden shelves going in with LED strip lighting, fire being fitted and all working, a door that’s too short bring swapped for a longer one and short door being saved for my next room, curtain pole going up and curtains going on (will take them down again when floor goes in but I want the warmth!)

Once he’s done these, he’s got a week or so on another job before coming back for phase 2!

I keep going into my room and just standing there. This morning, the sun was shining through the skylight and reflecting onto the side wall and it was just so beautiful, I can’t wait to be in properly.

Oh fantastic news both!
I feel like we've been saying it since Christmas but I think we will actually be finished this week. There's just a few little snags to fix and the light to go back up on the back room ceiling. (Not quite but nearly dry after 3 full days!) Builder is coming back tomorrow 🤞 I feel like our house is nearly our own again!

Thankfully a replacement will arrive tomorrow @thenewaveragebear1983 .

For those who have done extensive building work before how clean can I expect my builder to leave the house? Will I need to clean/hire a cleaner to get the house cleaned ahead of moving in?

I wouldn't say you need a professional clean personally unless you have spare money to do so. It naturally gets cleaner once your floor is down and the dust is no longer being produced! I've gone a large extension previously and just completed a double garage extension.

@reno22
Our builder has 'builders' clean' booked for next week as the project draws to a close. It appears to be contracted out to a cleaning company.

Morning all, no chances here since last week. Builder has completely finished his work in our lounge now and we are just waiting for the floor to be fitted this coming week. Materials all paid for, being delivered weds, fitting Thursday. I am so excited as I just want to get my furniture in there and start using it! Exciting.

We're now heading into the very final days/weeks. It's unbelievably stressful - problems with floor drying and laying mean we're going right up to the last minute before moving in. It should be ok as long as there aren't anymore hiccups.

@RidingMyBike 🤞

@Baxdream @RidingMyBike that's good to know re the builders clean. Tbf, they are cleaning fairly well as they go along it's just the windows look so mucky. I will raise it with them but tbh I just want them to be done and out of our house. Sad that I won't be spending my 1st Mother's Day waking up in our family home.

Aah well on a positive note it is all coming together.
Floor installation: living room ✅, dining room ✅, kitchen/family room ✅, cloak room ✅, hallway ✅, utility room ❌
Kitchen + quartz installed ✅
Garage door installed ✅
Paint : top coat outstanding
The carpets are being installed on Thu
The sofas arrive this week
The carpenter/joiner has already started on our built ins 😍

I'm loving seeing my daughters pink room. Can't wait to fill it with all her things! Also the bathrooms look just as imagined- I've attached some pics

Forest green/brass - family bathroom
Black/white- en-suite
Pink -DD room
Dark blue-master bedroom
Denim black- loft

Outstanding :
Fit light fixtures
Sand +paint mantle
Finish built in wardrobes
Start utility built ins
2nd coat/touch ups paint

I'm told we are on track to finish w/e 25th March. There are lots of people on site but unsure whether to believe it. What do you think?

@RidingMyBike I'm tempted to take a leaf from your book and tell him we are moving in on 25th March so as to refocus his mind on a pre Easter finish...

Oooh it looks lovely!

It is really stressful having a deadline (ours is genuine because of the tenancy end, but we implied to the builder we'd given notice earlier than we had done!) but we suspect it could have dribbled on stopping and starting for another six weeks or so otherwise. The plumber, in particular, is a bit prone to disappearing off to other people's jobs and not getting stuff done when he says he will!

We've struggled a bit with elements that aren't managed by the builder - so we chose to organise flooring directly to keep costs down. But that's meant the builder isn't as aware of what's going on and can't take the blame with problems, eg our UFH should have been on before flooring laid but floor shop forgot to tell us, builder didn't think about it as he wasn't organising flooring and we didn't know as never done this before! That's produced several days' delay whilst screed dries.

With hindsight would probably have been easier to do it all via builder but he's charging 18% to manage everything...

My DD is having a party early April - it's at the house and invites have gone out so definitely need to be in 😬.

We paid the premium to have our builder handle everything so all delays are due to him. Tbf, I'm annoyed that some of his management eg saying we need to get something by a given date. Us doing so and him not using it for weeks longer- this has happened with a few big things eg the shower screen- ended up being the wrong size (clearly said on the box) but they opened it in such a way we couldn't refund it. £900 down the drain. They installed the wrong toilet into the en-suite. We had to chase the supplier back and forth which caused delays. Tiles - we told the type of tile and pattern. He advised on the volume we'd need then with hrs notice asked for more. I ran around like a blue tit fly getting it only for the tiler not to do the work for another 4 day etc.

Also, they broke my original French doors (£'000 to replace) plus I'm concerned they've caused our original stained glass windows to bow. But if they finish on time I'll honestly get over it

I genuinely don’t know how you all manage with these big scale builds, I’d be a total nervous wreck. We have had just one builder, he’s been slow because he’s alone and very meticulous and doing 1 room at a time, and that’s been stressful enough!

I went to dunelm on Saturday to buy a picture frame and ended up buying a tv unit for £369 🤦‍♀️ to be fair, we haven’t bought any furniture for our room except a sofa (on finance) because all our furniture had been collected over the years all around the house and the new room allows it all to come together. I imagine all those finishing touched for a whole House Reno really add up.

i’ll add some pictures too although it doesn’t photograph well as the room
is too big 😆 (massive first world problems, my room is too big for insta 😂) 3rd pic was before it was finished but you can just about see the skylight. I love it so much, I cannot wait to be in there!

We've had a few instances like that @reno22. It was apparently imperative when we started to get the bathroom ordered asap so they could check fitting and work around it. So we galloped around getting it sorted. Then it sat around for four months getting in the way as they didn't fit it for so long!

To be fair to the builder, he has chased up all the things he's responsible for and apologised for any mistakes. And I suspect it isn't surprising on a project this size for something to go wrong!

Oh, and the "builders' clean" is looking suspiciously like it consists of one builder wafting a Henry hoover around!

Well our builder has said we can move in next week so I'm booking the movers for Friday 24th! Will be nice to finally unpack into our family home!

Yesterday all the light fixtures were installed
The carcass of the built-ins were completed- some of the drawers as well!

Not sure if we'll move DD cot in on that Friday but definitely feels like real progress

Finally at the stage of purchasing items and of course I get an outdoor wall light that is way too big for one of the spaces... didn't even think to measure but fortunately I can use it somewhere else so it's not a wasted purchase. Now to find a 15cm wide wall light... Absolutely love love love our pendant lights for the island - managed to find them less than half price so ordered them now but they won't be installed until July when the kitchen arrives so they will sit gathering dust until then but considering other costs are spiraling out of control I will take saving on the lights as a small win!
Our big sliding door installation has messed up the order our builder was planning to do things in which isn't terrible but we know it may cause some delays to the overall project. It's only been 2 months and I'm looking forward to the days we have no builders here...as lovely as they all are.

Latex went down on the floor today, LVT tomorrow and then we are In!!! I am so excited!!!!!!!!!!!

My biggest updates for this week is

• all the lights (including exterior security lights) have been installed
• the carpet (staircase to loft) have been laid and feel so lush
• ground floor LVT installed

Outstanding
Touch up paint
Compete built ins In master , loft and living room
Order shutters, blinds and carpets
Utility room- paint and build built ins (will likely happen after we've moved in but is completely separate so don't care)

Convince VM to bring forward our install date
Book the moving van 🥳

We have a floor!

That looks lovely - the walls and flooring really sing together! thank you so much for sharing pics of your journey- we are hopefully starting work soon, and following this post is helping me maintain perspective in the face of all the disruption.

@thenewaveragebear1983 your floor looks really lovely! Did you find the LVT fitting costs to be extortionate? We are currently getting quotes and the fitting is more than the product per square metre which I wasn't expecting! Not when the product is expensive in the first place.

Our flat roof was finally finished this week (well today) after it dragging on due to the weather so outside the house is starting to finally look a bit more finished - render and windows/door installation to go - the inside will be another story soon when they finally break through to the house but that's okay - it's just still exciting to see progress each week!

@vrouge we paid 1247 for the materials (latex and dry Back/glue down planks x 30m2) and 950 to the fitter. If I’d known, I would have gone click fit and my builder could have fitted it. I did think £950 was a bit steep but then he came yesterday for 4 hours and today for 8, and is coming back tomorrow at 8.30 to seal the edges so I can put my furniture in over the weekend so I don’t think that’s too bad. If you’re anywhere near bromsgrove/Worcester/Stourbridge type direction I am more than happy to recommend our guy, he was lovely.