About to start a 6-month extension build...

[AppropriateAdult]

... and moving in with the in-laws for the duration. Come join me on this wild ride!

How is it nearly June? It is so cold here today and I can’t nudge the heating on for an hour, as the boiler vent is inside the new extension where the builders are working. We all have with big jumpers on and the dog has disappeared under a pile of blankets.

The roof-light for our new dining room has arrived and was temporarily put in place yesterday, while they did some work on the roof structure. Looks great, but we are definitely going to need sun blinds, as somehow it seems bigger than it does on the plans and we have a south facing garden. It’s actually slightly smaller than the architect wanted, because just making it a few centimetres smaller saved us almost £300.

Builders came to say they were disappearing nextdoor-but-one for half an hour, as they have been asked to do an extension for them now and the plans had arrived for them to go over. So that’s three houses in a row they will have done here. Just shows, it pays to not upset the neighbours if you’re a builder! 😆

No the builders did nothing yesterday because of the rain, but today they were on it. The dormer structure is pretty much done from what I saw. They pulled a 12 hour day today, loads of teas, snacks for them. Will see what Monday brings ...

I think we are 2/3 week max off upstairs being finished the builder says downstairs will be much quicker and honestly it needs to be in so over the invasion of privacy in my home now

We started a single storey extension in Feb and are almost at the end of it I think. Building is now watertight and the screed is in. But oh my good a stressful time! Not helped by having a toddler, a dog, and a newborn.

I can't quite visualise how it will look yet, does anyone else find the same? It's being plastered currently and our new builders are arriving to fit the kitchen, utility room, flooring etc.

How had everyone found cost overruns?

We have paid out an extra £1.2k in steels (we found the previous owners hadn't put a steel in that was needed - same as a few of you 😩) We also had to pay over £1.5k in additional screed due to a builder error in communication with our glass fitters. @Jesusmaryjosephandtheweedon I see you had similar. Did you pay it? Our builder was great so we covered it, and he's thrown some freebies in - a couple very small extra stud walls etc for free.
We also just discovered our upstairs landing floorboards are resting on pipes rather than joists, so have to have all of that replaced. Not sure how much that'll be 😬

All in all we are so deep in debt, and hoping to be able to pay it off at some point in the next year. What we had saved up didn't touch it. However quotes went from £45 k shell build to £80k shell build after building regs drawings were done and the extent of the steels and ground works became apparent.
So we hadn't saved enough. On top of that the house we bought needed full renovation

@newtoitalldammit good to hear they got stuck in and caught up for lost time. I don’t make tea for our lot, as they prefer to break when they want and have their own kettle. I do refill their snack tins with lots of lovely different treats every week though and on hot days we do ice creams/lollies. Seems to keep them happy.

@mrssunshinexxx you really need an end in sight for the sake of your sanity don’t you. Fingers crossed they get a wriggle on and finish it all early for you. It hasn’t been too bad here this week, as they only did three days on site and for two of those it was only the two builders we know best.

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 I take my hat off to you for living through it all with a toddler, newborn and dog. I have one tiny dog, two young adult dc and a teen, that’s been bad enough - and the older two decamped to their grandparents after a month!

I am the same for not being able to visualise the space. Some days it seems to look huge to me, others tiny. I have found 3D planners from various kitchen and bathroom places and Ikea useful for getting some idea of the space, but I honestly have no idea for the new bedroom and they want me to point out where we want the new sockets next week.

Apparently we are slightly under-budget (at the moment) but only because our builder is absolutely golden and really tight on material costs etc. We had very similar quotes - initial was 45k to shell, but the final cost of the whole thing, including planning and drawings is going to top £100k. That does include renovating most of the house as well though, so new electrics, heating, plumbing and re plastering every room and we have to fit out a new kitchen, bathroom, shower room and toilet room.

God I’m envious of many of your build costs - we are on Channel Islands so building work is ridiculous here and ours has cost over 400k including kitchen and we’ve still more to do on top (but is going to have to wait for a while as we’ve run out of cash)

@Driverpicksthemusic wow £100k for everything is incredible! You've done so well to budget and keep it to that.

@sickofbuilders £400k is so much, really feel for you. We've spent around £200k so far (full renovation also that we've been doing over the last year). And we still have windows to replace, another bathroom to fit, and the back garden and fences to do. Cannot afford any of it so it'll have to wait.

@Driverpicksthemusic we are luckily not living in it right now. Once the baby was born we moved out. Like many of you were living out of cases with family ( very grateful they took us in)

I should add that we have a tiny house and although it will obviously be a bit bigger, it will still be tiny after the build/renovation. We are only adding 24 sqm, but reconfiguring the interior quite a lot, so we have a much more usable layout, with direct access to the garden from the kitchen/diner.

We have had to compromise over and over again to bring it in on budget, eg we were planning on an in-frame bespoke kitchen, but it’s now going to be a shaker style from DIY Kitchens and we’ve had to go for a cheaper design for the french doors than I wanted originally. We’re re-using an existing window for the new toilet room and re-using some of our sanitary-ware to keep costs down as well. We’re only having the finish to priming and mist coats, so dh and I will be decorating ourselves before we move back in. We’ve saved a fortune by living on site and not going the removals/storage route, instead renting a unit and doing all the packing, lifting and shifting ourselves. We’ve also bought a second hand garden room to store furniture in, that will then become dh’s home office after the build.

I was quite upset about all the compromises for a while, as we have been planning this for so long and had already given up our ideal of having a two storey extension with a much better design. I think living through the chaos of the build has actually knocked that out of me though. Now I am just thankful that we have been lucky enough to do it at all and that it will be so much better afterwards.

Definitely @Driverpicksthemusic I reckon we are about 5 weeks off completion but also have a 2 and 3 year olds and am 5 months pregnant! I feel shattered. X

@mrssunshinexxx Oh my goodness. Not sure I could manage it pregnant, let alone with two toddlers as well! It’s no wonder you are shattered. I hope you are able to get some down time at the weekends?

We have 6 weeks until our kitchen is being delivered, then the builder that’s project managing goes on holiday the week after that. He really wants it all but done by then, but even if not dh, dd and I will be moving back in and getting stuck into the decorating. My IL’s are lovely, but I’m not sure we will all manage to live together for more than a couple of weeks after they get back from their holiday and dd is desperate to be back home for the summer holidays so she can go out and about with her friends.

All hands on deck with the packing this weekend. We’re pretty much down to empty furniture downstairs, but dd’s room is still very full. We’ve set up dehumidifiers on low in the back room to help dry the plaster so it can be mist coated in time for us to store the remaining furniture in there.

@Driverpicksthemusic see you should be proud of yourself, you've done amazing work to keep it in budget with the adjustments you've made along the way etc. Good luck for the final decorating and unpacking! That's very exciting.

@mrssunshinexxx are you living in it? We were for a bit before the extension, but we ended up having to board off half the house as the toddler and dog wanted to get into everything! Hope you're not feeling too bad with the pregnancy, and that you'll be in a completed house soon.

Ours unfortunately had little we could reuse as it was in bad condition, and quite a lot was unsafe and needed replacing (like the stairs and asbestos removal etc). I think we could have been more on top of it with the budget - I have tended to budget and pick things like the glass doors, and then stick to it rather than make another decision which could have saved money down the line when other expenses have popped up

@sickofbuilders when can you move back in, and what are your extra build bits you'll need afterwards?

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 @Driverpicksthemusic yes we are living in it but luckily hasn't affected the kitchen other than blocking up what was the front door, we are now having an actual porch and entrance elsewhere and a dishwasher is going in the gap where the door was.
As much down time as you can with 2 kids 😂 x

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 we moved back I start April but they are STILL here. It’s very intrusive and means I can’t WFH.

weve still got some work to do to roof, new windows (around 7 upstairs and a row downstairs) an en-suite then carpeting 3 bedrooms. I mean they can all wait - our en-suite we will probs do later this year/early next and DH can do the bedroom decoration as he’s quite good.

the annoying thing is I don’t think our house will be worth what we’ve spent as we bought peak market (having sold ours before prices rocketed and rented) but we looked at over 60 houses. But we will be here for 25-30 years until we downsize in retirement so I am hoping it won’t be financial disaster. We do have a plot down side of house we could sell for development if needed but I worry daily.

Btw thanks for all the suggestions re bookshelves colour - we went with same colour as wall - still some sorting out to do but think (hope!) it looks good!

@mrssunshinexxx ha yep I feel you there. We planned to do a lot more ourselves but realistically with work, toddler, baby and dog, we're too knackered after they go to bed to do much at all.

@sickofbuilders that looks great! If you plan to stay in it a while, I figure it'll appreciate over the coming few years. That's what we figure with ours

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 thank you, but we had very strong motivators for staying on budget. First off, we are not getting any younger 😫we already have one dc living at home but attending uni locally and dd will be going away to uni in a couple of years, so we need to ensure we have money for that and we need to try and do something to boost our woefully inadequate pensions.

We are very lucky that we still have plenty of equity in the house, but we’re already mortgaged till pretty late in life, so borrowing more wasn’t really an option.

@sickofbuilders the bookshelves look great. Sorry to hear you’re still living through building work madness.

Thank you - god I hope so. It’s been a nightmare of a house with huge issues along the way!!!

Thank you! I’ve not caught up on where you are - I need to read the thread! But hope all is ok

@sickofbuilders the shelves look great. Great idea to do them same as walls. Hope you are nearly done.

I've given the builders a date of the 12th to be done and out of there. I'm sick of it now and need to get back into my own space. Painter is in next week so should also be done by 12th. My brain is fried now. Exhausted

@Jesusmaryjosephandtheweedon jealous , I want to give mine a date !

Ours went over by about 2 weeks, we've been out since end January and told a 16 week build. If it wasn't for the issue with the floor we would have been bang on time.

He has bits left to do now so I've told him he needs to get them done. I'm moving in on 12th and he better be out of there.

Looks great!

I am so envious of those nearing completion ! We are not water tight yet - no roof at all over the extension - but I think that's the next thing to do! I think our schedule is slipping a bit but we aren't hugely over budget, a couple of K in steels and an unexpected wall had to come down and be rebuilt as it wasn't originally supported or something. We have managed to reuse a couple of windows that were pretty new so that's made some savings.