Support thread for those crazy enough to be extending their homes this year!

[ilikeyoursleeves]

Hiya, after hijacking another thread about massive extensions (not massive erections LOL) there seems to be a few of us who are about to embark on building projects this year. So if you are one of them come join in so we can share all the excitement, nervousness and bewilderment at everything that needs done!

We are currently awaiting quotes from builders for a two storey side extension plus a single storey at the rear. We had our first quote in today which is £64k. Not sure if this is good or bad, it will be interesting to compare the quotes when they are all in. We are also awaiting planning permission but should get it fine as our house already has planning for the extension that came with the sale of the house (but we had to resubmit as we have changed it a bit). Awaiting a building warrant too.

I'm very excited but frankly crapping it re the costs as we are going to have to remortgage plus DS2 will start nursery so we will have 2 lots of chilcare costs too.

ARGH!!!

So I for one need my hand held throughout all this process I just keep thinking of the end product and hoping it will all be fine.

What's everyone else doing and when?

:( :(

Just got the quote in for the extra foundations work and it's £4k.

Can't believe it, that's half of our budget for all the internal works. That could have been a great bathroom or a great floor.

Bugger, BUGGER. Sob!!!! :(

Hope everyone elses build is going better than mine!

I'm sorry sleeves . TBH its less than I was envisenging for you though I know that thats no consolation. Do you have any contingency money? Try and look at it like you are going to have the actual building, the internals can be made great/perfect in a couple of years time. I know its not what you want but at least you can still get the building up.

We've had torrential rain today which has really slowed progress. We have the outside bricks to about 5 courses below roof level, then they just need to do the block work. Looking like the roof construction starting next Monday, so still 2 weeks delayed but at least we have progress now even with the bad weather.

Sleeves sorry to hear about the extra costs. Not great obviously, but hopefully this will be your setback of the project. Everyone has to have one, and better to get out of the way sooner rather than later. Sorry that's not particularly helpful really but just trying to be positive.

Things seem to be going okay here. I've been making lots of tea for all the builders and delivery people - I decided to keep them sweet while I can. We've moving out in a couple of weeks and after that they're on their own.

Footings have been dug and filled, kitchen concrete slab done today. Scaffolding arriving on Thursday so it seems to progressing scarily quickly. I won't be able to keep up with the decisions.

Builders left the digger keys with us over the weekend, DH had lots of fun but we don't have much garden left now

Elibean glad the holiday was a good break. Good luck with unpacking and sorting - must be fun sorting it all out even with LO under your feet.

Hi to Essence, Houseman and Lexilicious and everyone else
ISNT where are you at? - I think we're doing really similar extensions.

Just catching up and blimey sleeves how awful. Really feel for you. I think you just have to look at it like rebl says, getting the building up is the big deal, anything else can be done later or saved up for or done cheaper and replaced in a few years. I hope you are feeling OK.

rebl so glad your PM is back and kicking arse

Hello to everyone else as well!

The news here is that they started on Weds... And blimey such a lot has happened. Garage ripped down, horrible front garden ripped out, old patio and all concrete steps and things at the back broken up and ripped out, they're digging the foundations today, there is a grab lorry here right now taking stuff away!

So far so good... The builder who we hired (he's PM it really, co-ordinating everything rather than doing it himself) is great and the people he has got here. They scooped up an apple tree and planted it for us somewhere else with the digger, and when we got back someone said "you'd better get the hose on that" and one of them had already done it! The shed base at the back is done as well so hopefully we'll have a shed up in the next week and can get the dining room emptied. We do have to move out front room around to have the kitchen in here soon, which will be interesting. It all seems to be going very fast so far, but I think that's probably always the case, that the structure seems to go up quickly and then it all seems to grind to a halt while they do electrics and things...

Still, all happy here!

Just popping on to say BLIMEY!!!!! Been in the front room this morning so not seen the work going on out the back. Go to the kitchen to get lunch and . The walls are to roof height both internally and externally. Give these brickys a dry and day and they shift!!

Glad things are going well with all the current builds!

....apart from mine . I am soooooooo frustrated. Sooooooooooooooooooo frustrated! The digger bloke has spent 1.5 days laying 'hardcore' into the area of the extension and we were meant to be getting it filled with concrete today (8 inches thick with reinforced metal stuff inside across about 30m2) but the concrete isn't feckin coming until this Friday! So no builders tomorrow and the bricks won't be started til next Monday now.

We have had ten days of no workies here so are 2 weeks behind. There has been understandable (?) reasons for no shows (like waiting for material to arrive, particular guys being on holiday etc) but FFS how long does it really take?! We have had a garage plus existing single storey extension to be demolished so that did take a while but it's now a month tomorrow since we started and we aren't even past the foundations stage!

ARGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

My only consolation is that our builder has just got a kitemark for quality and an independant person just looked at the work he did at my mates house and said it's one of the best quality extensions they've seen. So I am hoping it will all be worth the wait!

Worked out we have £4k left to do everything inside the house- includes flooring, bathroom, downstairs loo, painting / decorating, sofa, table & chairs & garden fence. At all do-able or am I dreaming? And that's if we don't have a single more 'unforeseen'.

:(

sleeves Its sounding so frustrating for you at the moment. It will all be worth it. We're 2 weeks behind as well for the reason of people not turning up I know how frustrating it is.

As for all the things you need to do for £4k I think you can do it but you'll be having to shop around. The most expensive individual item will be the sofa but you can get them for free on freecycle. Again the same for the table and chairs, get them 2nd hand on freecycle. They might not be what you want but they'll be functional and you can replace them later when you've been able to save some money.

Morning everyone

Sorry that's things are so slow at the moment. I reckon you can do it all for 4K but as Rebl says, it will take some shopping around. Can you do the decorating/painting yourselves? Freecycle and Ebay are good places for bargains. There are quite a few sales on at the moment for bathrooms (or there are round here anyway).

We have a fun weekend ahead, as builders have asked us to move out a week early so lots of packing up going on here.

Hope everyone has a good bank holiday weekend.

Hmm well are trenches have got 2 feet of water in them and there has been a bit of a land-slip. So it's all ground to a halt (hasn't stopped raining for days here, and been torrential at times).

Bah.

Sleeves you can do it for £4K. With bathrooms I have learnt that the cheap and cheerful stuff is just as good as the expensive stuff, and TBH, it's a bathroom, no-ones going to be peering at your toilet that much thinking how fabulous it is Cheap and functional - think wickes B&Q etc.

Decorating you can do yourself and check out freecycle as others have said, maybe ebay? Local closing down sales etc you may get some bargains in the recession. Shop around on teh net for flooring/ start a thread on here asking if anyone knows of cheap suppliers for whatever it is that you want.

You can do it!!!!

ISNT Oh dear, how annoying with the weather. Hopefully it'll stop and they can sort it all out before there is more of a landslip.

Freezing How exciting, moving out a week earlier than planned. They really must be steaming along to be ahead of themselves. You never hear of that, you only ever hear of delays!

We're on the 2nd day of nothing happening. Nothing more can be done until the scaffolding goes up and that was meant to happen 1st thing yesterday and they still haven't turned up. The bricky is starting to panic as he's going on holiday on Wednesday and he's so close to finishing and then our roof can go on. Need to call the pm as its nearly 2 and still no scaffolders.

I think you can do it, Sleeves - agree that bathroom stuff doesn't need to be expensive at all, it all looks the same anyway.

The weather is mean...can just imagine the havoc its wreaking on footings being laid, roofs, etc. Its only minor, but we're having delays over the last exterior coat of paint, the patio steps, pointing etc because of it - plus dd and I have hideous coughs and temps as though it were already winter

Still, sounds as though all the builds are moving ahead - v exciting! Am starting packing for the move next week, will probably reappear on The Other Side - though not sure I'm eligible anymore, as the bulk of it is (can't believe I'm typing this) finished!

I'd highly recommend Wickes for bathroom stuff, sleeves; sorry to hear of your woes. We got a perfectly nice plain white suite there for under £600 a couple of years ago. And there was definitely cheaper stuff as well. Also, things like flooring can be done really cheaply too. You can always replace it later on if you want to.

Thanks for all the lovely posts about our situation, it all helps!

Today the concrete (with metal reinforcements) was laid on top of the hardcore so at least that's been done and they should be able to start laying bricks on it next Monday . We have a massive pile of hardcore material (basically black stones) that have been left on our lawn though ARGH so I have asked the gaffer to tell the digger bloke to get rid of it. He put it on top of our bloody path!

I am hoping all our dramas are now out the way now and things can progress next week, at least the weather looks good for next week. Pleeeeeese!

oh sleeves I am so sorry. It does NOT have to be that way. I am happy to report (but sorry if it rubs salt in wound) that at the end of week one we are on track. the foundations were dug to 1.5m, council bloke happy so filled with concrete to whatever level. the mystery drain layout was sorted and a random water stopcock found. brickies came on thurs to do substructure bricks/blocks. and today the rest of the sand/aggregate was put in and then the concrete laid, it rained so it has a little puddle of water on top but will dry from underneath and we can walk on it on sunday.

I am glad to have gone for the contractor I did. he was the cheapest quote but also the most organised. he drafted a project plan and was happy to amend things so that I got a washing machine plumbed in to the utility room future location early in the process, he understood that having a baby you kind of need to keep business as usual going in the house! and also the materials for each stage of the project have been arriving outside our house well ahead of time.

the builders have made a total mess of the garden but it wasn't a show piece anyway.

i don't know about doing all those things on a constrained budget as you say. I hope you can, I'll post links if I get good deals. there's a sale on at wickes just now, but as usual they put the big items like baths and units on sale as loss leaders and make up the money on accesories. eg today we bought a half price cloakroom basin for £73 and a mixer tap for £79! ridiculously extravagant but the cheaper ones were horrid.

I'm pleased anyway. I'm chuffed they did all that work up to foundations and concrete platform while there was all that rain. the project manager who did the quote and contract also seems to be the resources guy, so it's not left to the builder bloke himself to buy and schedule things while he's trying to work. the site manager who gets stuck in to some of the niff naff work I think is the brother of the brains. I really hope it continues!

oh and the builder let my little boy sit on his digger.

i was jealous.

pic on profile tmrw

Right, ILYS, let's fix your budget problem. Victoria Plumb is doing a sale and I don't think there's much longer to go. The particularly good thing about their sales seems to be that things like taps are included.

So you have £4k to do:

flooring - real wood starts at £16.75 sq m inc vat - my downstairs is 50 sqm total so that would be £837 if you're doing a similar area. Or (Martin's downshift challenge!) laminate starts at 6.99 inc vat, so 50 sqm would be £350. Fitting is either a few days DIY or about £500 from a fitter.

bathroom - Victoria plumb a bathroom suite in the sale is £299, plus taps at 25-50 a set, plus wastes 10-20. That would be within £350.

downstairs loo - VP again: basic loo £79, corner basin £29. taps, waste, bottle trap hmm bit of a money pit, £75 say.

painting / decorating - This is the part I would leave out for a while if it comes to it. Is your builder doing everything up to a plaster finish? Just get a big trade pot of matt white for new plaster and get all your mates round. But you will need to get at least some tiling done around your bath and basins, and presumably flooring in your bathroom/loo. So that's a hundred or so in tiles and grout, (carry on the same flooring as elsewhere?) and a couple of days of labour at £100 a day.

sofa - tesco/homebase online I reckon. Tesco has some simple, inexpensive ones - I'm looking at Studio and Rimini - 150-180 each.

table & chairs - tesco has an absolute steal called the Marlborough and I might get that myself. £20 difference between the six chair and four chair set.

garden fence. - Obviously depends on your perimeter, but top tip if you have anyone in your little black book who's a bit handy, don't bother with pre-made fence panels. Postcrete bags aren't expensive, get pressure treated timber for the posts every 2.5m, then whack some horizontals in and a load of vertical pickets. My dad did 6m of fence around our pond for £150 in materials and a day and a half's work.

So

£2500.
What did I miss? [endearing puppy-like need to be helpful]

Aw lex I am touched! That is so sweet that you have gone to all that trouble to find stuff for me on a tight budget, makes me feel better that it could be doable :)

I'm not sure when we should actually order anything though. DH's BIL is a plumber with a trade account so I am hoping he might be able to source some sanitaryware at cheaper prices. At least the labour for fitting is in the builders quote so it's just the actual sanitaryware that will cost.

Might start looking at flooring, I'd like oak wood I think but don't know what type to get, will need to look at some shops /samples.

Well tomorrow the bricky is meant to be coming out to start the building work, I am not holding my breath as I keep thinking that something will happen like the bricks not being delivered until 4pm or something .

Good luck to everyone next week, let's hope it's a good week for building- at least the weather is good all week!

Round of applause for lexi. How thoughtful are you?

Hooooray! Today we finally got some bricks laid! Well, the breeze blocks things anyway. Hopefully the weather will allow them to progress fairly quickly and we can start to see progress now.

On a sad note DS2 has chickenpox :( but on a happy note he seems to actually be pretty OK but is barred from nursery so I have to take the week off . Til Friday anyway as DH has them that day. So I am taking DS2 to Ikea with me tomorrow (tightly strapped in the pram so he can't infect anyone!) and I am going to do the Ikea challenge and see what I can get on a budget. I'll be looking at stuff for our utility room, sofas, tables, and meatballs of course. I love Ikea (saddo alert) esp getting inspiration from all the rooms they set up. And it should be pretty quiet tomorrow.

How is everyone else doing?

[yaps excitedly and begs for biscuit treats!]

fair winds and -following- -seas- blue skies for anyone with brickies at work this week.

mine had the bank holiday off and are going to do at least one superstructure wall today, also bricking up the back door so they will start needing to walk through the house... dunno why I'm bothered, I'm not remotely houseproud!!

and they are pressuring me to get the french door ordered and delivered asap which wasn't scheduled to happen until week 5 (we're in week 2 now) so that's a sign of serious advancement in the plan!

best of luck all!

Hello everyone . Been away again and come home to scaffolding up but nothing else done. But the bricky is here already and said that he's not leaving until he's finished the job today . Blue skies here, at long last.

half a wall done in a day here, and my sliding door kit from eclisse has arrived.

They bricked up my back door but forgot that there's going to be an internal window there - glass bricks - so they'll have to bash out a breeze block some time. No biggie.

More tips for sourcing stuff: my friend at work got £1800-worth of Roper Rhodes bathroom for £450 by finding showroom surplus stock being sold through ebay. I'd never thought of that. And she got it delivered for £notverymuch by putting up the job on Shiply which is a sort of reverse auction for large item couriering.

I should totally be one of those design notebook people.

lexi You definatly should be a project manager if you can source things like that! Horray for the wall as well.

We have a roof . This morning we had just walls, this evening we have all the timber up for the roof . It looks absolutely fantastic, you've no idea. The veluxes have arrived as well. The bifolding doors should be in by Friday. OMG I'm so excited its silly really.

On a more horrible note I've had a bit of a cleaning / yucky bad 24hrs. DS managed to pretty much make the whole sofa sodden in very strong smelling wee yesterday. I spent 2 hours tryinig to clean it last night and couldn't. The living room stank like a toilet this morning so had to call a cleaning company in to clean the sofa. Timing couldn't be worse as we're knocking through in weeks time and I would have had it clean after that anyway.

Then this morning (before 9am so WAY too early for this sort of discovery) I found a cockroach in my kitchen. Makes my skin crawl. I have been cleaning like a mad thing all day and found no more evidence of any others so hopefully one off but it was on the worksurface in the kitchen [sick smiley]. Better not find any more.

Rebl at a cockroach- yuk!!! And a stinking sofa too, not a good day! Put dettol all over it, DS1 was sick loads a few weeks ago and all over the sofa, DH put so much dettol everywhere you couldn't smell a thing after that!

Fab news on the building front, a roof wow that's amazing! Remind me again, are you doing a single or double storey? Mad to think we started a week apart and we are only 4 layers of breeze block off the ground just now. But it's looking good, that's the builder done up to our internal floor level now- we have a teensy basement that you can walk about in (bent over in half) so he has built the bricks up to that height and put in a space for an external door so we can use it as a storage space. The timber frame has arrived too and the joiner will be starting on that tomorrow :)

Thanks for all your bargain tips lexi! You sound very organised! On a bargain note I found the table we will be getting- an extending table from Ikea which seats 6-10, £179. We already have a smaller version of the same make and it's pretty good IMO. With 2 young boys I'm not paying any more as it will no doubt get a lot of bashing over the years!

sleeves We're currently doing our single storey wrap around. So 8.5m long family room and a kitchen. You will soon catch up, you'll be amazed how quickly it will all move now that you have the foundations in.

The roof is now felted and we have 3 veluxes in. And the best bit, we were sent 1 wrong one, but it doesn't matter, its the electrical opening type . Makes up for the wee'd on sofa (not so sure about the cockroach though).

On that note we've not found anymore and believe I've looked!