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?

We had our patio door replaced about 4 yrs ago and it was about £700 hence we are recycling it in our project - i know patio doors are a bit scorned at in favour of french doors but to us they are more practical. Anyway i digress... I owuld have loved glass all along but we could potentially be overlooked and as i spend alot of time at the back of the house we opted big windows instead and also im not really very good at keeping windows clean . regards heat i think they are all reflective these days whatever thats all about but our builder was on about it today.

Kitchen wise - well at back of our house as it is is from left to right utility (containing loo), then kitchem then seperate dining room. The original plan was to gain this big downstairs room on the back with 3 full length windows but now only part as were moving the existing utility and loo into the left hand part of it so we can knock through the utility to current kitchen and make it a long jobby kitchen. We cant actually afford a kitchen till nearer easter so are going to do a bodgey job of repositioning units in the interim but overall aim is so we dont have to have further building works done in future.

has it stopped raining for you all yet?

It's mostly been dry here.

How long is it taking your kitchens to be done? Our builders were in from 8-5 yest, loads of hammering and drilling, etc and I looked in to find they have only done two cupboards! I am sooo fed up with it now. I have space for one car on our drive but the other is full of rubbish and the old kitchen.

its beenmainly dry here to though wet under foot if that makes sense - it mainly rains overnight. Today we have bricks up to first floor height - yikes! just got quote to go ahead with the utility/ kitchen knock through conversion and to move loo and build new utility into new large room with plumbign etc.... hmmmmm - more decisions to make. Its just all numbers now!

It's been dry here today, so the bricks are almost up to first floor height. Nappyzone - your brickies seem to be working much faster than ours.

Feeling cross again tho - brickie asked if he could borrow cash again today . Ended up lending both the brickie and the labourer money last week, brickie has repaid and labourer hasn't (but has provided a good sob story and promises this friday ). Decided I wouldn't be lending out any more money, so told brickie that I have no cash in the house. It makes everything really uncomfortable . They are being unreasonable to ask, right?

defo unreasonable to ask - can you not tell the main man so to speak and say it makes you feel a toot uncomfortable?

I will take a photo an put up on profile later and would like to see others please to share the mud and pain!

To be able to stand in it and visualise how it will be is fab

Valuable lesson learnt today - make sure you know exactly what you want extension considerers before you start as changing plans mid way is costly - my dh who im really pissed of with and his bright utility/ toilet moving / knocking through idea has cost us almost £2k and it makes me think if we'd negotiated that in at the beginning as part of the job it probably would have been half as much . Just means the end of the big work wont have a nicely tiled and professionally finished bathroom and floor as me and dh will be diy ing it into the summer no doubt and the current kitchen will be repositioned and bodged grrrrrrrrr

I know the main man would be pretty unimpressed - when they asked last time they said not to mention it to him . I've been an idiot to get into the whole lending thing in the first place. Hopefully now I've said no they will not ask again. It's just made me feel worried about leaving them in the house - they seem honest but if they are so in need of money should I start worrying about our stuff????

Poor you with the extra 2k. We're trying really hard not to change our minds too much. I think where we are adding to the cost is by upgrading stuff we originally intended to reuse - like new windows in the extension rather than reusing the existing ones.

Im sure they wont ask anymore now you have given a clear message .

I have just added some more photos.....

We are definitley reusing our existing patio and windows from upstairs - we cant aford any other now. I feel like im in grand designs ha ha with a much smaller budget and less ideas ! I am keeping a very tight book! Weekend were gong to pick our rads for the bathroom - rivetting eh!

Wow, your walls look great. And your brickie has worked fast - it has taken ours what seems like days to get to that stage!

Mmm radiators - I've got to pick some too. I would love to get some sort of funky radiator rather than the standard white rectangular ones. DH is not keen on the idea. But I'll get my way try to change his mind!

DH announces that he thinks the builders are annoying and boring, and he wishes they wouldn't call him 'hubby'.

I reply that we are not employing them for their scintillating conversational skills, and that he very rarely needs to talk to them anyway.

He says that he wishes they had a better taste in music, because he can't stand Planet Rock.

I have to agree.

ha ha I have to say that I quite like my brickie's taste in music. Not sure what radio station he listens to but there is lots of rock and indie stuff. Not so keen on his singing tho!!!

lol Grendle you made me laugh - mine were listening to some talk show thing today which was ultra annoying as i could hear it through the garage the short time i was in. My dh has hardly spoke to our builders - i think hes scared to for osme reason as when i say ask them something he gets all fluistered and i end up being the go between! They arent a young spritley crew mine - they look like they have come out of retirement!

Cake we are having boring radiators about the house but in the bathroom we ar epicking our own so a curved ladder chrome jobby and then this one here which will go in the corner next to the bath (its half the price on ebay) - my dh objects too but im standing my ground.

I love the curved radiator, that's the sort of thing I would like. Funnily enough I'm looking on ebay at radiators at the moment.

hee hee - the guy who does curly one on ebay is near us so going to his shop on sat. i think they are called london radiators on ebay. oh the fun!

Just found the London ones on ebay! Wondering where I can sneak them in. Are you intending to put towels on the curved raditor, or is it just there for heat/visual effect?? I'd like to get two of the vertical style radiators for the new room downstairs. Probably going for a standard radiator for our new bedroom and need two towel rails for the bathroom and en suite.

I've added a picture of today's lack of progess

yes in the gaps (larger gaps) i was intending to warm a towel on it before i step out of my new bath . Then just a curved ladder one at tuther end of bathroom for when i step out the shower!
We look like were at similar levels height wise for bricks. It looks good and sunnY!

Oh dear its kicked off a bit here this morning. Told DH about the money business (hadn't told him about the previous loans ) and he was pretty unimpressed. This led to him going out with his spirit level and checking all the work done so far (money issues = poor standard of work in DH's little world ).
So ... turns out that the mock kitchen window frame is wonky, which has made the bricks around it wonky too. There is also a prob with the two interior courses of blockwork they started on one side. DH stayed at home this morning to have a word. Thankfully the brickie agreed with him and was apologetic but it means that a lot of the work done yesterday is coming down . I guess at least its been spotted at this stage not a week down the line, but I imagine the brickie is feeling not too happy this morning....

Oh dear - always annoying to watch stuff going backwards. But at least you've spotted it at this point!

oh dear - best it sorted now though and now they know your dh isnt to be messed with hopefully the rest will be smooth - eek!

We have had a three rows of bricks day today - scaffolding arrivng tomorow and more bricks. Head man didnt seem as jolly/ chatty with us today so we are resorting to a friday packet of biscuits being left on his work bench tomorow to make the peace again as i think he may have detected our unsureness of his new quote for the xtras!

Biscuits seem to be the answer to everything!! How were things today Nappyzone? Are you going ahead with the extras??

We've had a pretty good day today. Brickie seems to have forgiven us. Lintel went in for the kitchen window and all the bricks around that are done. I got laughed at for asking about the 'sticky-uppy bricks'; I now know that this is properly called a soldier course

Got a bit of a shock when the brickie told me that they need to put the first RSJ in next week. Even bigger shock when he explained that this involves putting five holes through the wall of the house to insert temporary steel supports through the wall and into the ensuite and our bedroom . Apparently they will put temp insulation over the holes to keep us warm but OMG!!! I was thinking that they wouldn't be disturbing the interior of the house for weeks yet. So I'll be spending the weekend trying to sort out the dumping ground that is our bedroom!

Yes going ahead with extras and yes all seemed happier today - i got big smiles off all and biscuite definitly went down well!

Are you back to where you were now cake?

We have big holes in our wall too but they dont penetrate into the interior iyswim, scaffolding up today mainly i think and a few rows of bricks - our garden looks alot smaller with all that up which concerns me. Some planks of wood which im assuming first floor will also rest on have also appeared and its making it all a bit dark in the kitchen - hey ho! Its all good progress.

Anyway next friday i have decided it will be them big fat american blueberry muffin cakes. Its a small price to pay for good relations.

Any idea when your knock through will be? At this rate i think the roof will start to go on a week on Monday which still leaves us 10 days till xmas - im wondering if they might knock through one room before or maybe get downstairs done first as this only one room and the utility to disturb? i dunno - its getting exciting but me too have a bedroom whats a dumping ground also! yikes!

Our bricks are up to about shoulder height now. We owe them the next payment when they are up to roof level - next week I think! My builder has promised me he isn't knocking through until after Xmas now as I can't be doing with that disruption. I heart our builders - they are so polite and helpful and even take their shoes off to come in the house - and to think I was dreading it!

It sounds like your builders are making amazing progress. I like the muffins idea. I've just bought myself the Hummingbird bakery cookbook so I might have to try out some of the recipes on them. I think they'd really like a bacon sandwich, they looked well disappointed when I told them I was a veggie!

We're beyond what they had to knock down, getting scaffolding next week too. I think our knock through will be after Christmas - the builder said that they plan to do everything possible outside before starting. You've made me think tho - I assumed that they would do upstairs and downstairs at the same time, but actually that's really silly. I'd prefer it if they did the upstairs first, that way I can start decorating upstairs to keep me amused when most of the downstairs is out of bounds.

Are you at home for xmas? If they do knock through before xmas will that make life really difficult for you?

I cant be done with the disrution either rupert but then part of me thinks the sooner its done the better and with all that time off over xmas its a shame not to spend it decoarating!

we are home for xmas, were hosting dinner! nahh not difficult as long as some room is complete before they go off for a few days iyswim. I dotnnwant any rooms left half done if tey goig to commence , i only want them to strat a room if they can finish it before they go on their holidays. Blimey cake i wasnt so enthusiastic to bake - merely whatever is reduced in tescos!

I just sent dh to bank to pick up our next payment - unfortunatly i had forgotten to tranfer the money over to the current account i told him he was drawing it from - he said his stomach lurched when the lady said actually i cant as there is nothing inthat account lol! ha ha oh well all sorted now!