The builders are in.....share the ups and downs here.....

[nappyzonecantrunfortoffee]

Been as though a few of us have the builders in i thought we could share our fun and try and get through the mire together (even though pavlos stories scared me half to shit).

SO were getting an extension built and they started Wednesday - they seem canny and we have a digger in our garden, guinea pigs at the back of the garedn i have to risk life and limb for to get too to feed and mud - loads of mud - my wellies are caked in the stuff from my guinea pig feeding missions!

Our foundations are all dug out now and most excitingly a mixy truck load of cement was barrowed round the back in to them. Wheres everyone else at?

"Your builders say your ceiling's just collapsed." But since I thought, when I was called out of the conference to a phone message, that either DH or DD was seriously ill, I was relieved to hear that.

Yesterday they were drilling at the back wall and my electricity suddenly went off! I went tearing round the back expecting to find electrocuted builders but they were fine, quite pleased I was so worried actually! Electrics had tripped but as there is no elec. where they are drilling I think it must have been just a co-incidence

We're at the walls going up stage which is very exciting as we are actually starting to see the extension taking shape.
The brickies gave up at lunchtime yesterday though because it was tipping down and the labourers gave up at about 2.30 - they were dripping! I'm keeping an eye on OhYouBadKitten's weather thread for next week. I really, really hope it's not going to hold everything up. Must ask them how long until the roof will go on.

That's all! I could witter on for hours about my build, it's such a huge part of our lives at the moment and we are squidged into one (and a box room) downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs - definitely a case of the house getting smaller before it gets bigger!

Well we're coming to the end of our work now - builders have taken their stuff and we're just waiting for the electrician to finish and issue his certificate and for a few little snags to be rectified.

I think the low point was last week when we had no hob, no heat, no washing machine a half-finished new kitchen and dh had to empty our old kitchen and a sort of outside storeroom by himself whilst I shivered in bed with swine flu.

Had some interesting moments over the build such as lying in the bath and realising that they were erecting scaffolding outside the non-privacy-glazed bathroom window!! Or staggering out of bed early one morning and walking across the landing as a brick-layers head popped up at the window scaring me half to death.

Still no heat due to a crap plumber, but we've survived more or less unscathed. Just a HUGE amount of decorating to do now!!

Oh to be at the end must be soooo good, even walls must be exciting! our foundations are a bit full of water today - i have let the guine pigs out by "beck jumping" and hoping they dont escape over the ditch and out but i couldnt leave them caged in another day! We were expecting a delivery of breeze blocks n stuff at 10am today but got knocked up at 8am as they were early - foruntly i builder had had a call and got here just before them. Our guys away on Monday so all starting again on Tuesday to dpc level then brocky gang starting following Tuesday. Still waiting to hear if ok to adjust our plans a toot.

Grendels so is your ceiling now back? Have any of you guys had to use your contingency fund or has the price sticked as was quoted?

I am shocked at the ammount of worms on top of our mud/ lawn today urghhhhhhhhhhh!

We did have to use quite a bit of our contingency fund, not the fault of the builder though. First thing was that when the foundations were dug it was discovered that there was a surface water drainage pipe running directly beneath where they would go and so we had to divert it.

Second thing was that it turned out our extension was going on top of what used to be a bottle pit so we had to excavate that and fill it with hardcore and compress it all with a whacker (which, apparently, makes the most god-awful noise and makes the house shake. I wouldn't know having been working nights at the time and managing to sleep through that!!)

Third thing was that our stoopid, stoopid architect had put in the plans for us to have a massive pillar in the middle of the new hallway to support the corner of the old part of the house and it just looked absolutely terrible. So we had to pay to get more structural calculations done and have a whole new load of steels made so that we could do away with the pillar. That was pricey but definitely worth it.

The builders were fab, we all got on really well and I'm going to miss them!! Mind you, they'll be back soon to alter a couple of things and to do a new driveway and patio. I swear the only argument we had was me trying to persuade him to take more money for some extras he did for us!

wow ! i can see coningency slipping away our end as dh keeps having "ideas". grrrrr. I am glad not all builders are orrible.

Gosh, Daisymoo - the bottlepit sounds fascinating if rather infuriating at the time. Did it actually have bottles in? Did you pull some out?

We were actually having the ceiling skimmed when it partially collapsed. Turned out that the sealant round the bath had failed and water was leaking onto the dining room ceiling, rotting the ceiling and potentially rotting the timber frame of the building. Apparently there was a lot of water in there, and it all poured out onto the floor. At which point frantic phone messages were left for me with the conference administrators. But our wonderful builders just investigated on their own account, tracked down the problem, and fixed it. The cost came to £6 for some extra plasterboard, plus an extra half day's labour. So the contingency fund remains safe...

On the other hand, the builders then identified the trapdoor to the missing cellar (which was bricked up some time between 1911 and 1949) by standing on a piece of floor that wobbled under an 18 stone guy (and does not wobble under me, weight 8 stone). A flooded cellar might well be the cause of the damp. So now we have the option of having a cellar, and we're trying to decide whether we want one. The builders are desperate to drill through the floor and find out what's under there, but I am for once exercising caution and suggesting that we do that room last, as planned.

Yes, it had LOADS of botttles and all sorts in - jars, sauce bottles, lemonade bottles and heaps of these ceramic things which were apparently used on telegraph poles in the 1940s. How they came to be in our bottle pit (and under our floorboards!) is a mystery. We found a couple of quite attractive bottles but cleaning them out has been quite difficult as they've got really narrow necks and are full of mud. We also found a couple of nice jars one of which dd cleaned up really nicely under the garden tap and promptly dropped it! Was such a shame.....

Our neighbours are having a loft conversion done. Yesterday DD1 came running downstairs saying there was a hole in the wall, I really thought she was joking but she wasn't.
Apparently due to a small miscalculation we now have a four inch hole between our bedroom and the neighbours bedroom. The builder assured us (through the hole) that he would fix it all for us.

lol whyme - that could be interesting! really a bottle pit - i thought that was a name for soemthing other than ermmm a pit of bottles - wowzers! we are inlikely to find such trasures as we live in a relatively large boring housing estate.

My extension started on Wednesday too. So far they have pulled down our (old, crumbling) garage which has been taken away in a skip. They have marked out the new build and the footings are being dug on Monday.
It is all very exciting - but today I have had to get all my washing done by pulling the washing machine into the middle of the kitchen and putting the waste pipe into the sink. The washing has then been dried in the dining room with the drier venting out of the window. I think the novelty will wear off very soon.

oh dear - washing here has been a pita also - i have knowhere to hang anything outside so am also resoting to tumble dryer and airers everywhere. What are you getting done and how long have they said? On Thurs whilst diggin foundations they dinked mmy drain and i was banned from using the loo for a whole hour - it was torturous!

Lord what are you getting done? what week you in?

We are having the garage rebuilt with a utility room as part of it, an extension behind the garage to make a larger kitchen, and the wall down between the kitchen and dining room to make a massive kitchen dining room. I didn't want any disruption over Christmas (which I am hosting as usual) so didn't want him to start until January but he wanted to get going so has said he will rebuild the garage, and the shell and not knock through into the house until the new year.
I am out of the house most of the week as I work part time and I have been keeping myself busy on my days off as I hate being in the house when they are working!

same here with reagrds timings - am also hosting so he going to get our shell up and knock through after xmas. DH has too also just decided we should move utility into our new downstairs room and knock current utility through to the kitchen to make it bigger. This will leave is with an unfinished job i think as we wont be able to afford a new kitchen till later inthe year so will be repositioning the smaller current one on tuther walls. Oh dear! Is your garage not attached to the house then i got confused with the kitchen ext behind the garage. I too work pt and love coming home to see where got to today! I am bit peed of today as an immediate neighbour has told me another less imiediate neighbour has snooped down our garden looking for a trug (bendy bucket) as his has gone missing and immediatly he is accusing our builder who hand on heart i would never suspect of pinching a blade of grass - fgs - he wont even accept a cup of tea of me or access to my loo! Honestly some people make me so grrrrrrrrrrrr. The fact he left his plastic trug out on recycling / bin man day speaks volumes!

You are scaring me with how similar we are! My garage is attached but only goes halfway down the side of the house so we are extending behind it. (Does that make sense? It is really difficult to explain)
I have never made so may cups of tea in my life as I have in the past couple of days! Our builders are lovely, friendly and polite and even take their shoes off when coming inside. How annoying about your neighbour - what a cheek to look in your garden. We are having a new kitchen, but the trouble is DH and I both have really expensive tastes so think this whole project will leave us bankrupt!

i competely get your extension now .

Mine wont accept tea or coffee but that said hes only been on my working days so far - on friday i had to force a glass of lemonade on them!

I am really hopng b and q do some kind of 50% off kitchens in december or jan so i can lure dh into lettign me have a shiney white cook and forth jobby! The relaity will be repositioned old units!

Hello - we are a week and a half into our build. It's all been ok so far except that one of the garage walls and half the garage roof has been pulled down, and thanks to the rain and wind a large section of the garage ceiling fell down this morning. But I'm loving it so far.
Rupert - your extension sounds virtually identical to mine.
Nappyzone - are you still using washable nappies? You are amazing if so.

The weather! It's horrible here It's our own fault for getting this done over the winter hopefully they can get stuff done in between the showers! I don't expect the builder wants anything to drag on any more than we do. Feeling a bit gloomy about it all today.

Cake were only using them on a night now with odd sposies so not to much washing generated. Ouch for roof!

Lord it so will be - chin up - in my opinion it may drag out longer over winter but at least the dc wont miss not being able to use the garden as much. Imagine that torture had they wanted paddling pools up and thelikes but they cant coz there is a big hole/ dangerous plant material etc... everywhere.

Our builder isnt coming today as it is his daughters graduation some distance away - he was going to come beforehand but i told him to chill and have the day off and enjoy it. I cant wait for tomorow now for the momentum to continue. I did tell him to drive carefully and secretly wondered what happens if the builder is "no longer available".

YY Nappy - that is the same reason why we are putting up with this over the winter, we don't want to miss next summer (won't be able to afford a holiday lol!)

Well our builders managed to get a digger and a dumper onto our driveway last night without anyone in the house hearing them. I got home from work today to find all the foundations dug (or at least I think so - it is dark out there). They certainly work fast these builders!

Oh having big holes in the garen has completely took me back to my youth - now they are full of water its like beck jumping all over again! I would be interested in profile pics showing progress....if anyone cares to share - sadly ours is just a shoyte hole at the moment but im hoping for some real excitement tomorrow!

hiya, sounds like you are all have fun (!). Do you mind if I ask a few qu's here? We are hoping to start our extension next year (getting architects in this week to tweak current plans,planning permission came with the house when we got it 2 years ago).

When is the best time of year to start? Is spring / summer best?

How much is it costing you roughly? Is £1000 / sq m accurate?

...better go and get DS from nursery just now, I'll think fo more qu's for later! Thanks

for the actual build ours works out at about £660 per m2.

I think for speed sumer would probably be better but for us we livein our garden in the summer and it would have been torturous for the kids so opted for winter - i dont know if prices are same all year either but quotes we had earlier in the year were far higher.

Ours is much, much more than that but has alot of steelwork, structural stuff in the existing house,a lot of plumbing (3 X bathrooms and underfloor heating and a few fancy features) oh and I live in an rip off expensive area!