Not sure if this should go into pregnancy (hormonal) property/DIY (loft conversion), relationships (I want to kill my builder/architect), mental health (as I am about to blow a gasket).
So I have put it here. I am sounding off really. Please help me calm down, ideally by telling me this level of stress is inevitable, and that it will all turn out fine the wash. Or alternatively some stories that will help me figure out what to do with this fucking mess of a loft conversion.
Here is the story, its long, and probably boring. I have also posted it in another thread which surprisingly was in existance when I came to post, but I did not want to just hijack that poor OPs thread, I have done my own.
We are having our loft done. We have just had building regs signed off for insulation, structural steels etc, all the structural stuff has been approved. We are about to put in fire doors, integral fire alarms throughout the house, and meet ALL the criteria for building regs. Apart from one thing is very wrong.
Due to the stupidity of building regs, we now have to have a little landing upstairs before the fire door starts. Which now it has been put in, with the partition walls being quite thick, and it takes up so much room in the loft space that we will struggle to get the bloody bed in, and it cuts off almost half the bedroom . I am furious, very very stressed, lost it in front of the builders and have been pulling my hair out, almost literally. I am laying the fault of this with the structural architect who was some-what creative with his drawings. Although the drawings were structurally correct, the ratios he showed us demonstrated the usable space to be hugely bigger, we could fit a kingsize bed in no problem. He said, and according to the plans this appeared true. And the eaves space, less than he demonstrated, and the cupbaoard space, non-existant.
So, we have in effect paid £17for an almost unusable space, all because of this very new regulation which states we now have to have this landing. Not for fire regs, not for structural regs, not for any purpose I think than to piss me off.
We have decided that once building regs are signed off, we will remove the partition wall that is causing the major problem, and put the fire door directly on top of the stairs, so that the fire corridor still exists, we will not compromise the fire safety or the structure in any way, but know that all other work is safe by the building regs being signed off.
We are intending on not selling. We are planning that when we come to move, we will rent this place out and buy another place. But, as plans never seem to follow how we want them to (things always seem to fuck up), if the eventually comes that we need to sell, we will be honest and upfront with the potential buyers, and accept that we will need to either rectify the changes, or take an indemnity for the structure (and accept a slight decrease in the offer) in the knowledge the structure is completely safe. We will not put the room back as it was straight away as it is unsightly, we will let any buyer decide if they want that or not, and be responsible for it.
The alternative is to keep a fucking huge space (which is in fact only a small lobby on one side but due to walls etc loses a lot of space) which is ugly, intrusive and stops us using the space correctly just to please anal fucking building regs people who decided we are too stupid to be able to know there is a fucking step there.
My builders left quietly, and in a hurry