The builders have been working for 5 weeks now. There are 3 of them - father and son and a friend of theirs. They were recommended to me and so far we’re really pleased with their work. We’re paying them a day rate and they seem very productive.
Although their day rate is very reasonable the costs are continuous. Skips, £280 a throw (we’re on no 4) and I’ve been to the tip with a car full twice! Weekly deliveries from the builders merchants are usually £900 or suchlike. Hiring scaffolding and other equipmemt, asbestos removal (cement board under the roof tiles), structural engineer, building control fees. Abby’s now got a Travis Perkins account and is in first name terms with Les at the local TP. She’s been to HSS and Brandon tool hire a few fimes to hire equipment / pick up disc cutters etc etc.
So far the builders have removed the kitchen, removed a bathroom, removed all the flooring, taken down some partitions, made a window opening into a door, taken down two walls and put in two steels, prepped the walls for plastering, repaired some ceilings and probably quite a few other things I’ve missed.
The pre-planning app went in and the 25 year old planning officer who is straight from Uni and who has been with the Council for less than a year has some issues with it. She seems to gave gotten her calculations wrong, which the architect has politrlybpointed out to her. Apart from that her issurs seem to be the new proposed porch (too modern for the country) and that the extension perhaps needs to be finished in a different way to the existing house, which is rendered. Planning majes me nervous as at the moment we have converted a 4 bed house into 2 beds with the extension providing a further 2/3 bedrooms.
We’re hoping to order the new kitchen within the next fortnight. It looks like we will fit Wundatherm retrofit underfloor heating downstairs and also in the upstairs living room. I hope to order some new windows / doors in the next fortnight too. A carpenter is coming on Weds to discuss moving / adapting / refurbing the staircase.
If the location of the house hadn’t been so perfect for us, it would just have been a lot easier to buy a house that was already done. Hopefully, it will all be worth it.
I’ve made friends with Paul Grey the Damned’s bass player. Hes a lovely bloke with a teenage son who uses to go to Harben’s school so we have a bit in common. He also likes real ale so we’ll be having a pint at some point
He’s just come back from the States where they were on tour with Blondie.
I’ve not been posting a lot as the refurb is very time consuming.
No real news on the planning for the extension. The app went in about a month ago and the planning lady needs to look at it in the next couple of weeks.
The upstairs underfloor heating was completed earlier this week and the boarding is now also done.
Next week, the missing windows / doors are going in on Monday, some electrics and hopefully some plastering.
Thereafter, the builders need to fit a barhroom and cloakroom, tile the remaining downstairs floors and then the staircase people can fit that. Credit cards are maxxed out. Very little left in the piggy bank. Just need to get it finished and get in it.
The planning officer is being a right cunt. He’s an inexperienced jobsworth named Ryan. He’s totally out of his depth and trying to cover up his ineptitude by refusing to engage. He’s on a personal crusade to prove the house has prevously been extended, which it hasn’t. Well beyond his remit. We’ve bitten our tongues thus far but we will definitely make an official complaint in due course.
