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?

They got moved thank fooooook and im shattered. Architect finally came through last thing today so things can move on, elec man turned up and i need some mroe spots as room bigger than he expected in bathroom so an extra £60 on spots. Plumber finally coming on site on Monday but i beleive that when i see it. I am miffed though as where new bedroom is builder sugested he can do away with one of the nibs that would be in dd room and i agree it would be better and said to go ahead but didnt realise it would affect lintels so when i rang to chase the sizes the bloomin archy has had to engage a structural engineer and charged us £85 for the pleasure grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. The builder was a bit suprosed to and has suggested he is taking the pee which i do feel a bit. Hey ho.

Oh, glad they got moved! Funnily enough we've just had a whopping bill from structural engineer today, for the whole build. No holiday for us this year I think!

What is/are nibs?

Getting the plumber in sounds good - like there might actually be an end in sight...woo hoooooo

My builder was here for a fleeting 10 mins then buggered off without even telling us what was going on. Needless to say I tracked him down and found out. Apparently they are aiming to re-start monday but if the Met Office is right, nothing will be happening here except for more farkin snow.

The nibs are the pillar things that support the roof lintels i think where the new bit joins on - you know like in some houses they make a feature arch of em - well we didnt want features and prefer to go straight through where we can so it looks continuous .

Oh the joys of snow - just think the longer it goes on the more cash you can save to get extras done....

We have a lot now of the white stuff and dh has just spent the last half hr tring to dig the car out as we have ran out of food and an asda run is a must!

Just looking at architects calcs now as thy came in late and i actually think he has got the wrong end of the stick as we were going for two longer lintels so as to avoid needing a crane to put em in and it looks like hes done it for one long one grrrrrrrr - no doubt builder will confirm this on Monday or not.

We've got the builders in too - anyone actually get their work complete? We started ours around the same time and are STILL not back home.

Nowhere near finished, not even near to nearly being finished. No proper roof, no windows, no heating, no floor upstairs, no plasterboard or plaster (obviously)

I wish! as off tonight upstairs everything is crammed in 2 rooms upstairs so last upstairs room can be knocked thought tomoro. Where new rooms are lengthened it appaers that even though the old part is kind of textured ceiling that builder hasnt any intention of making old ceilings smooth so they look like one room asit isnt in the spec - i am narked about this and have instructions from dh who will be conveniently at work to push the issue as it needs sorting one way or tuther before sparky starts whacking in the rescessed lights. He said it will look fine lol - it wont will it ? it will look crap - i can see me habing to pay out mroe to get this sorted. grrrrrrr

taxiservice - have you moved out then you lucky blighter if you have! What you getting done and hows it gone so far?

Nappy - that is rubbish. He needs to skim the whole room! It will hardly cost a thing to get the plasterer to keep going once he has plastered the new bit. At the worst you could offer to pay for a half day of labour for the plasterer (about £60) but you shouldn't have to.

i know!!! i have scrutinised the spec and it doesnt mention plastering old ceiling anywhere so he has us there, the old and new ceilings will be seperated by a lintel beamy thing but even so grrrrrrrr. I know if i ask a price he will come up with some ridiculous price. Tempted to get my plasterer friend in to do it cheap just so i dont have to pay the builder out of annoyance but really relations have been good so far and i want to keep it that way. He had quoted in for gettign a plasterer in to do all the plastering required but now he is doing it himself hmmmm. DH said i should make a joke about it and say i told dh and he said that your defo pulling my leg as obviously it will look shoyte ! Can hardly wait for tomorow - NOT! A part on the new guttering appears to be leaking a toot too - best get it over with lol!

I bloody hate having to deal with the 'problems' - dh (and I) talk through problems/ideas/changes but then I'm the one who has to deal with the awkwardness of talking to the builder about it

its crapola isnt it! At the end of the week on a fri my dh finishes early and musters up "ooo were looking good" so i look like a moaning old goat! He has left me a list this am of snags - grrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!

Yeah, my dh has a good line in that. If I ask him to speak to builder about stuff, he comes off the phone sounding like they are best mates (although have to admit our builder has a good knack at this).
Are you on early checking school websites? I'm sure ours is open but not looking forward to the drive in, it snowed (lightly) but on and off all day yesterday, our lane is really slushy again. Mind you, if I can go out ruddy builders can get here!

We have had no more and school open, defrosting here really. no sign of plumber yet..... talk went ok got bathroom plastering sorted but other 2 ceilings remain with his conscience for now but said i was dissapointed if it going to look crap. He seemed in a good mood anyway so i will see.

Good luck i hope your men get in!

Morning! Hi Taxi, I'm very jealous that you've moved out ... what are you having done?

I am soooooo pissed off this morning. Got back from dropping DS1 at playschool to find no one on site. Finally got a call from builder at 10.30 to say that he's ill so is taking the day off. Fine, but because he's off the brickie and labourer are not coming either. FFS!!!!!! We chose the wrong builder. And all this after the builder said on Friday that if the bad weather continued he might have to pause our job and start on something else

nooooooooooo thats shocking! whats the weather forecast down your way? we seem to be thawing here and im praying no more is to come....

Hows it all going?

Making progress here. Tilers coming tomorrow (although forecast dire) we have a floor upstairs now and new windows in existing house and extension (apart from the big feature window, folding doors and two others) The normal ones are being done on Mon, the big ones won't be done for another three weeks. Electrician and plumber are coming next week to do first fix so that feels like a big step too.
How about you? Any sign of a plastered ceiling?

Where r tiles for and what you gone for? We finally picked our tiles and went to get them today as tiler coming next sat and they were out of stock for 6 weeks - grrrrr so done the whole trips round tile shops again and just sent dh out for them - i was so bored of it by the end. We had first fix plumber and elec out this week, bath cant get put in till tiled so all 3 rooms at back of house upstairs remain out of use and half plastered. DD bedroom almost dried out and ready for paint but no radiator or electrics final fixed to make the room livable so i have high hopes for the end of next week for the bedrooms and by end of the week after should have my bathroom all done bar the flooring. When they first fixed i came home and there was men all over my house and big footprints of dust . Now they are plastering they seem to freely walk between the rooms upstairs via the landing so we have had some dustage. Dh has this week also spent 5 hrs building bathroom cupboards which was mildly amusing for about an hr then turned into a trauma as tiredness seeped in but plumber wanted them fro the next day to measure etc... - since then they havent moved!

Oh no, nothing that exciting, tiles for the roof! Brickies have finished the last bit of blockwork they had to do upstairs (in the rain poor things). We don't have plasterboard between rooms, flooring in our bedroom, guttering, the two large windows - only minor things I am that end seems to be in sight for you.

the end upstairs is about 2/3 weeks off then they will start downstairs which is major mess and encrouchment on my life - i much prefered when they were seperate from my abode!

LOL! Yes we have that to come. At the moment they are separate from us, I'm not looking forward to the dust/men tramping through the house etc.

(oops, sorry, name changed again!)

morning! sorry I've been MIA. stuttering progress here - the upstairs windows are going in and then the brickie will do the catnik (if that's what it's called) above the windows, then hopefully they can start on the ceiling joists tomorrow.
We had a bit of a 'chat' with the main builder last week to explain our frustration at the last of progress. He said that, unless we incur further weather delays, we should be all finished in SIX WEEKS!!!!
Place your bets - what are the chances??

Lol you have to love the optimism of a builder! Today we have a large downstairs window appeared in situ but no others which is fair crack been as though they are being recycled from current windows - i must say i do like this window, some frame has gone up downstairs in new bit to seperate living room from utility but they not starting downstairs till upstairs is finished. I asked our builder when he thought the whole show should be finished and he said the end of this month - surely he means feb? ANyway like you cake bets are welcome! Pipework for extending central heatign system seems immense - copper pipes everywhere.

My friend is gettign our builder round to quote her a job to do asap so am interested to hear when he says he can commence.....

We have soem dustage - more a lovely layer of plaster dust but still nothing to cause me to over dust.

ooo also just applied for the £400 boiler scrapage schemem voucher been as though we need a boiler anyway - just thought id mention as im sure cake you said you needed one too so may as well apply!