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?

I've loaned him the money . I'm soft. DH would have said no too, he won't be impressed when I tell him. I just know that this guy has had a bad few weeks - he was renting a flat which got repossessed last week with no notice because the landlord hadn't paid the mortgage in months, so he lost a months rent.

Oh I didn't even think to contact as many builders! I was thinking about 3 . I will check yell.com then and get emailing after tomorrow after Mr Archie #2 has been.

I'm hoping they will all be desparate for work and will do it all for about £1k LOL I wish!!!

Oh and builders - we contacted 6 based on recommendations from friends and our architect, got 4 quotes back. Our tender deadline was end of Sept. One builder could have started the next week , the builder we chose started early Nov (after a couple of weeks delay), another would have been mid-Dec and the fourth in Feb. Our builder is project managing everything, I wouldn't have known where to start with getting trades in.

Ilike - I think Jan-March is a quieter time for builders because not many people are mad enough to have extensions done through the winter months, so you might be lucky

Very interesting thread, we are looking to extend next year sometime although given that I am due to have DC4 in May don't know how that will work out. We are in a 3bed detached just now with 3 bathrooms so am hopt planning to add any more bathrooms to cut costs down a bit.

In an ideal world I would want the kitchen extended with a utlity room on the back, the living room/dining room separated by french doors and the dining room/kitchen wall brought down to create a big kitchen diner with utility off it then a playroom at the back. Upstairs we would use DD3's box room to create a corridor to another 2 rooms.

Do you think it's quite easy to block up a window and relocate it on the other side of a room?

Also can your neighbours object? Someone told me you have to stay a metre away from their fence? Can they object to you building up to a metre? And what if you move windows so they face their house? Not the front but the side we wouldn't be looking in on them having dinner for instance?

My head hurts just thinking about it all, wish I could click my fingers and it was all done!

ooh builders!
I have builders in and I am hating every minute of it. They are nice blokes but very messy and speak sod all english.

Can I jsut ask where everyone stores everything? My builders dont have a van, so a ton of wood got dropped off sun, a van load of tools got dropped on mon, and now they are planning to deliver the new kitchen here on fri!

My space is all taken up with the contents of the kitchen I've had to empty, and we are a bit crowded here as it is. I've got nowhere to bloody put it!

Hi Sweetkitty and Chopstheduck!!

Chops - we are putting a window into a wall where previously there was no windows. One of the neighbours objected to the planning application, but it was passed anyway.

Chops - our builders are leaving a lot of stuff here too, our garage is filled. We've also hired a storage unit at Safestore so all the things we don't absolutely need have been moved there. What are you having done??

Well, I went out at lunchtime, told the brickie I'd be back at 3 and when I got back they'd buggered off home . Bit cheeky cos they were late arriving this morning as well. Full working day of 5 hrs???

They've done about another 6 courses of bricks on the outside, plus the same height on the inside with blocks, and added the insulation in the middle, plus a bit of digging out around the site. Maybe I'm being unreasonable but it doesn't seem to me that they are working particularly fast.

The builder is coming on site tomorrow to collect some money so I think we'll have to have a bit of a chat ...

Oophs, sorry first Chops comment should have been to sweetkitty. Need some time in a dark room ...

we had a flood, so all the floors have had to be replaced, and the kitchen.

Ours started out working from 8-5. Then yest it was 'day off' then today they left at 3.

They wanted to rip out the kitchen tomo bu thave told them they are not leaving me without cooking facilities over the weekend.

Ours are generally working 8 till half 3/ 4 depending on light though we just bought them a new bulb for theoutside security light so they stayed till 4 tonight. Ours only get paid when get to certain stages so its intheir interests to wiggle on. Chops - Alot of stuff being stored in our garage here too to keep dry. Other stuff just random in the garden at their risk. Sweetkitty we ar ehaving a window blocked and then other solid turned into a door - builder said they do that all day long and no probs.

My dh isnt around much to see the builders so im getting told all of this interesting stuff all the time about materials and new regs on sewerage pipes for the loo etc and new fangled pipes - i struggle to maintain interest when im dying for a pee as i get out my car lol!

I think my expectations are just too high ... oh well

how high are yours now cake? we get our slab in tomorow then proper brickie gang coming on Tue.

I mean your bricks by the way not your expectations . im just wondering how quick the brickie stage takes!?

Hello all,

I went out shopping with DH today and bought some 'house extension porn' ie a Haynes manual on house extensions and also a home magazine, I love looking at what others have done!

The more I think about all this though the scarier it feels. Particularly re practicalities- our garage will be torn down for access so can't store anything in there and there is literally NO space left indoors to store a thing (hence getting the extension). Plus the whole getting in and out of the house thing stumps me since our front & back doors will be gone first. I think we will prob have to rent some storage somewhere plus maybe move out for a bit? SIL has a humungous house 10 mins away and dh thinks we could maybe stay there, fingers crossed!

Sweetkitty, the architect i saw yest said you can't have any windows looking onto a neighbour- it must be only allowed on one side maybe because we have one window on one side of our house but he said we couldn't have any on the other. Also I'm not sure about the 1m from the fence thing as our approved plans allow the ext to go 25cm from the boundary!

Wish me luck for tomorrows architect

The window I want to put in will overlook the side of our neighbours house, currently the only window that looks over is the en-suite and it looks onto their en-suite window, all privacy glass, it would be our bedroom window we would move so we could put a bedroom behind ours.

The only other thing I thought about is the new extension would cut off light to our neighbours living room and conservatory a bit, this is the other side but someone told me it's not your right to light IYSWIM.

Am so jealous of all you who have builders in and are actually getting something built.

Sweetkitty, after reading my new home extension book it said something about a 45 degree rule- that you can't extend beyond 45 degrees from your house IYSWIM? If it goes out further your neighbour could lose lots of light.

Are you just thinking about it all just now or made steps to do plans etc? The architect I spoke to the other day said it can sometimes take 9-12 months after initial meetings til building work starts!

ilikeyoursleeves - I actually think it willbe the beginning of the year after next beginning of next year will be plans, then a new baby and will need some time after that

Right the house across the road has an extension, now it is about half the size of the one we would want, there's is at the same side as us two storey but as we have a bigger garden we would want to go back a bit as well IYSWIM.

The thing is there's is the same house but semi-detached and they have built quite far up to the neighbours fence so far in fact they cannot get their wheelie bins through from back to front so their wheelie bins sit underneath their lounge window, all that money spent and you have wheelie bins under your window anyway we wouldn't have that problem as we can have access the other side of the house.

Their are other options though we could do out the opposite way where there is more space but access issues upstair, we would have to go through the cupboards and the ensuite to create a corridor and that would be more disruption.

A few other houses in the estate have side extensions as well where we want ours so it mucst be possible, our house is only about 8 years old so relative new build which I think makes it easier too.

our neighbours had side window put on facing our side and should have privacy glass but doesnt - we didnt disppute it as doesnt bother us. Our initial meeting with architect was end May so 6 months or so for us from birth to buildin and so approx yes 9-who knows when to completion.

sweetkitty does your planing have an online facility so if same house as yours you can search on it and then rip of their plans get some good ideas

that didnt work did it? rip off

nope clearly i am crapola

nappy- how long was it til you started building once you got planning permission? I didn't know there was an online planning thing, must go look

We got our permission through on the 5th Nov and they started building on the 11th!!!!!! Our builder is local and was confident we would get it so booked us in.

I just found the online plans and saw the neighbours plans for their conservatory! Plus their builder was the one we are thinking of using (one of DH's old schoolmates!) so I might just have to chap their door to see what they thought of him.

Woooo exciting! I am going to spend ages nosying at all the local extensions now

But must get to bed first... cheers for that helpful info Nappy!

I didn't think it would be a problem as a) we already have a window facing their house so if we wanted to snoop we could and b) the only window we can see is their en-suite anyway.

I think the only way to tell is to get an architect out is that the first stage, will have to go and talk to neighbours.

If we could come under 80K would be great, 60K is the plan, a 4 bed with the space we want would be another 130K more.