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!

I agree with the ladies saying they would never want to renovate again. @Driverpicksthemusic sorry to hear you have had the redundancy to deal with too and I hope things are OK. We did back to brick as well plus some structural work and extensions, just about breaking even on value but in a house which would be hard to find otherwise. Still lots to do outside and it has taken about 2 years. For me it's the work of packing up/ cleaning/ decorating and then unpacking and sorting out all the rooms. I do absolutely hate how much it has taken and although the house is lovely it has pushed me as a working parent of young child with other responsibilities past the point of tolerance. Everyone has an opinion also and can resent it. Coming out the other side and the house is really nice but you have to be prepared to take on a good bit of work to get where you want to be, it is more risky I think than is perceived, the building process is messy, disruptive and hard to control, you are very reliant on people doing their jobs properly. I would get a good handle on what needs to be done to make it the home that would be worth it for you. Unfortunately it is a reality that housing is in short supply and the best locations and plots do have dilapidated buildings on them often. But make sure you are up for it as once it starts there isn't much going back.

I agree with this. Especially the no going back bit. Also, what is hard is the unexpecteds - our builder basically had us over a barrel as the day after we moved out for stage 2, they discovered a nightmare under the house. We got hit with an 85k bill of “extras” - but we had no choice but to plough on as otherwise house would be fucked. I think that’s the part I’ve struggled with most. And being kept out of our house for over 3 months - just felt like builder had all cards and we had to take it up the bum

@sickofbuilders sorry to hear how hard it was. If it makes you feel any better even with loads of expertise managing builds at home we had moments of builders genuinely asking for additional money just to finish. Basically they take an advance, spend it quick and then it's all you can do to stop them leaving before it is finished so they can start another job. And that isn't even the bad ones.

@Driverpicksthemusic so sorry about the redundancy and the Covid. Hope you are feeling better? Sounds like your husband will be back to work soon - it's just not what you need right now.

I gave notice today on my rental that we will move back in 2.5 months, our house is far from ready but I am hopeful the bedrooms will be sorted out by then, and we will have heating plumbing and hot water and electricity- would I do this again? No! But I am enjoying it this time in parts, we have reorganised our interior with a small extension and are fully rewiring and re-plumbing - moving the stairs has been a massive hassle as we have had to get a new alarm and need to move the electrical supply which is an enormous hassle and has taken up a huge amount of time organising. We were unable to stay due to what we are doing, still don't have stairs!

Thank you for the kind thoughts. We’re doing ok Dh is already clear and off to his music festival tomorrow. I on the other hand, haven’t left my room since last Thursday, as PIL’s are over 75 and clinically vulnerable. The virus itself hasn’t been bad, just like a head cold, but being cooped up here has done a bit of a number of mental health and I really want to just go home. I no longer have symptoms, but am still testing strong positive.

He has already had job offers too, so we are very grateful that he’s good at what he does for a living.

Things are moving along at the house. Hall, stairs, landing and upstairs walls, woodwork and cabling all done. Just waiting for the new boiler, consumer board and radiators to be fitted, oh and We need the loo and sink plumbed in. Downstairs they have started building the stud walls for new internal rooms and all the plasterboard for walls and ceilings has been delivered for the whole ground floor.

Hi everyone. I joined this thread back in Jan as I'd had a planning application put in back in June 2023...thought it couldn't be much longer...what did I know eh?!

Just got the last of our quotes in and am actually bricking it, trying to get my head round the fact that they're all miles higher than we expected and wondering if we should sack the whole thing off. It'd still be cheaper than moving though...

Good luck with what you decide! We are definitely at the absolute limit of what value we could add to the house in terms of what we are paying and what the value is now - though I will get in an estate agent when we finish to check...! But the house will be significantly improved in layout and usability so I think it is worth it and we don't want to change location.

That's great! Hope you test negative soon

It’s very quiet on here.

Things have moved on a bit for us. It took 11 days for me to finally test clear and escape my room, but in the meantime, dh accepted a new job and work on the house moved on quite a bit.

In fact dh and I were actually daring to start to feel a bit more optimistic when, today, the builders moved on to the only room that hasn’t been touched so far (living room) and the first thing that happened was they found dry rot in three floor joists and the skirtings on that side of the room. I have no idea how much that’s going to cost to sort out, but am pretty sure it won’t be cheap.

When do you plan on it being in?

@Driverpicksthemusic hope you're feeling better and glad that the work is progressing and your husband has a job. Must take the pressure off. Hopefully the joists aren't too much money!

We are in our house and kind of camping out here. Still have people in painting and doing radiators and plumbing etc, and trying to keep the children and dogs in the clean upstairs. Can't access the kitchen really yet, other than the fridge and tap, as it's all covered and the range cooker is yet to be connected still. So it's a pizza for tea tonight. So much stuff to do, more cleaning, sorting, unpacking etc. But we have more time after the kids are in bed

Oh i meant to say, just in case it's helpful to anyone else, with all the what and humidity our floor raises in sections about six inches. We weee so am worried it would have to be redone. However so far the builders cut bigger expansion gaps and it's flattened. Apparently it's a problem with the humidity. Hopefully it is saved as I was so upset at the thought of the waste of wood and of money

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 thank you, Yes, things have calmed down a lot and we’re feeling a lot less stressed now. Dh has a week and a half off between jobs too, so we’re hoping to get started with decorating the upstairs.

What type of flooring did you have that lifted? We’re just picking flooring for our bathroom and ensuite, so if some can be affected by humidity I would assume they wouldn’t be suitable for those rooms?

It took a whole day to unpack, check and repack our kitchen this weekend and we found three problems. One larder unit that should have been fully assembled, but instead just had the baskets with no runners or fixings, let alone being fully assembled. One that had clearly been dropped so has carcass damage and that has affected the interior fittings and one wall cupboard where they have made a real mess of the hinges, to the extent it should never have passed quality control. Very disappointing, but hopefully fairly easily sorted, given fitting the kitchen will be the last job to be completed.

Our builder’s trade quotes for the bathroom fittings I chose came in higher than my resesrch for some things and only very marginally cheaper for others, so after waiting weeks to hear his price I now have to start ordering it all myself. Of course all the prices have changed since I originally costed it, so it’s back to square one sourcing everything.

Gosh what sort of flooring is that? Our base flooring is down upstairs so that will be carpeted but downstairs we are tiling everything. I have picked all the tiles and almost ordered the utility room from DIY kitchens, I sent it to them to approve! We have been away for a week so I was pleased to see a lot of progress when we went over the weekend. I have the first viewings on the rental I am in this week as I have a 2 month notice to give - I can't wait to move home. Hopefully the first floor will be plasterboarded very soon and first fix of bathrooms is next as well.

@Driverpicksthemusic and @pashmina696 it was oak. It's been exceptionally humid and warm, so I'm thinking it's just that. Or maybe we had a little residual dampness in the screed

Ah, our flooring is for wet areas, so we’re going for click LVT rather than wood. We actually already have original quarry tiles in one bathroom, but they are so cold underfoot and also dominate the colour scheme, so we’re replacing them.

Builders have been in touch this morning. Whole living room floor, all the joists and the bay window area and all woodwork is going to have to be replaced. I am so glad we only have one ground floor room that doesn’t have solid floors. Thankfully no problems found upstairs, as they’ve had nearly every bit of floor up for cabling and plumbing purposes. At least we’ll know it’s all sound once it’s done.

Spent two hours processing photos of the damage to our new kitchen and sending it to the manufacturer this morning. Sounds a lot, but actually it’s only a couple of units, with the rest being minor touch ups to the paint finish. We just took lots of photos to make sure we could communicate the problems clearly.

Has anyone else added up what they've spent? I've just updated our spreadsheet and fairly horrified. We've overspent by about £20k when we are all finished, which isn't too bad. But the amount we have spent seems huge. We had a valuation from the estate agent but I'm not convinced his figure is overly realistic. The mortgage one mid renovation came in quite a bit lower

I've not posted about ours before as I'm in a luckier situation than many as we are renovating our new house whilst living in our old/current house. We'll put this place on the market when we see the end in sight for the reno. It's a total renovation of a period property and has been going on for 10 months already I think we've got another 10 months to go! It's back to brick and we're out to tender for the rest of the work now.

I just find the endless issues and decision making overwhelming and find my stomach sinking whenever DH wants to talk about something. We have a half useful half useless architect/project manager who seems to be pissing off the contractors etc but we're I too deep to fire him.

I just want it to be this time next year already!

Hey everyone I thought I had posted on this thread recently but must have dreamt it! Hope everyone is doing well and that things are progressing sorry to hear of some setbacks . We are in a mobile in the garden which is very handy for security and it's surprisingly comfortable once we got used to it . Can almost pretend we are on holidays when the sun shines !

Things are pottering along here it's my husband and FIL that are doing the build / renovations. They are bringing in different contractors then for different jobs like plastering and block work. We've knocked down a few walls in the old house to make it more open plan and are digging up all floors now to redo them properly. They have go down about 4 foot in each remove all the old rubble then refill , put down insulation and pipework for rads etc . It's a dirty drawn out job I don't envy them. Hopefully the old flat roof extension will be knocked in two weeks And then they will get started on the new one

Yes I am adding up everything absolutely everything - still have 2 months or so to go...

I started following this thread ages ago… only just had planning approved 😆😫
Up until now has been stressful enough - I don’t think I can cope!

@Namchange101 I’m sure it doesn’t have/need to be as stressful as ours has turned out to be. We have had a lot of complicating external factors that impacted us. Just keep a picture of the end result in your mind and you’ll be fine.

This week’s grumble is delivery dates/slots. It never occurred to me what a pain they would be to organise when you’re not living on site. Finally ordered my en-suite (and some of the bathroom) sanitary-ware, only to find out the day they were due to be delivered, no-one is going to be at the house and we are away on holiday (well a very short, but desperately needed, short break, which is all we could manage this year). Lots of emails back and forth and finally managed to get delivery moved back a day, but what a palaver.

That was just sorted, when an email arrived from the company I pre-ordered my toilet room basin from months ago. It was due the first week in August. Date kept being bumped until I finally receive notification that they will deliver it - yes, you guessed it - on the only day that there has been no-one on site since April. Gah!

Also, almost all deliveries seem to start at 7 and end at 6-8 so if you’re not careful they can arrive before or after the builders are on site and either be taken away or dumped on the drive and left.

BUT the fact we are having sanitary-ware delivered means progress is being made and for that I am grateful. Unsurprisingly, we won’t be back in for the start of the school year, which is a pain with dd and school runs and ds1 and his DSA funded taxis for uni, but the builders are genuinely having a big push to get it all done asap and it shows. We’re still in the messy state, just before it all suddenly comes together, but at least I can start to hope that will be soon… ish.

In other news, I have finally found the exact tiles we chose for the bathroom, but in matt. 😄 It’s strange the things that make me happy these days!

Talking to myself here, but what’s new?

Delivery chaos today, replacement kitchen units turned up unannounced, alongside the sanitaryware, which also failed at all stages of informing me via tracking/texts/emails. In the middle of all that my eldest dc accidentally sent their weekly Tesco shop to our house instead of my parents’.

Add in delivery drivers who insist they can’t find your house, but actually are looking for the wrong house number because they misread the delivery sheet and just about every trade on site all at the same time and damaged units to be returned that aren’t fully repackaged because we weren’t expecting them today and we have had a very stressful morning.

Still, we now have a whole kitchen ready for fitting and 3/4’s of our bathroom and ensuite.

Yes @Driverpicksthemusic I am on bathrooms too - my tiles are coming next week and think the tiler starts the week after.. builder told me to press go on bathroom stuff so I have spent all afternoon researching towel radiators as need specific sizes and colours... spoken to bathroom shop to adjust things, and ordered the things I am getting from 3rd parties... my bedrooms are mostly plastered so I am now being asked about paint 🤯 so that and doors are my next job! Then door hardware!!