Houston: we have lift off!

Img Livingetc.com

It's been six months and four days since we got the keys to our house and guess what? The work has FINALLY STARTED! I would say that this was the happiest day of the last few years but actually, that was probably when I got measured for a bra post baby number two to be told I was a 32DD. (Subsequently shrank to a 32D, but after being what I thought was a 34B for 10+ years, you can imagine I was over the moon...)

Last night we met with Anthony (Architect) and Teia (Builder) in Old Street - where there's an invasion of architectural offices - and discussed the schedule and timings. For some unfathomable reason quite obvious things such as "lighting" were left off the schedule and will now have to come out of the contingency fund. It didn't take that long to sort out everything, and in the end a contract was signed and the builders promptly showed up this morning to begin demolition.

Rob popped over to pay them the first instalment and was surprised/delighted that the old kitchen had already been ripped out. We're off to Ikea tonight to order up the kitchen. Photo at top shows a glossy white kitchen with dark counter top, I like this because it reminds me of Pierre Koenig, my architecture hero...

The third quote is in...

… and the bottom line is only double our building budget! I never thought I'd be happy that something was only going to cost twice as much as we expected. This is a great start. As I was hoping, the quote is from our New Zealand friend Teia and he can start work before the end of the month. We need to get the quote broken down into a full schedule so we can see which bits we can shelve until next year aka "Phase 2". The building quote covers demolition, build, plumbing etc, but we still need to buy all the fixtures and fittings including cabinetry etc. None of our sums include appliances or furniture. Basically, we need to be able to shave £20 to £25K off the spend. It's not an insignificant sum so it will be tricky to get the balance of major works done vs priorities and preferences.

Then we have no choice but to do the rest of the work when we've got some more funds. Depressing really, but heck, not as depressing as paying six or seven months worth of mortgage on an empty property (which is what we have been doing, for any new readers of this blog).

The photo above is what the garden currently looks like. Our neighbours were having an afternoon soiree and tentatively asked over the fence if it would be OK to cut down the grass as there was possibly a family of foxes residing in there. They own a large Persian cat, which is a sitting duck for some wily urban foxes. We were happy that they offered to cut the grass as neither Rob nor I have ever dealt with a sickle… or a lawnmower come to think of it.

Rob is keen to move in relatively quickly, whereas I'm thinking it would be better to give the builders a head start (say, 6 to 8 weeks) and see where they're at. Am a bit nervous about having a large gaping hole in the back of the building with a bit of tarpaulin over while we wait for the glazing to be manufactured. Firstly, it's not safe or secure and secondly, it'll be a bit chilly unless we get an Indian summer (not likely. This is England.)

Next step after seeing the budget breakdown is to get a contract signed between us, the architect and the builder. The only hiccup is that the builder doesn't currently have full building insurance but he's sorting this in the next couple of weeks.

So, five months behind schedule and it looks like we're about to have lift off...

Love me tender (document)

This is a double height extension on a narrow Victorian property, so I don't really know why I've included it, other than I don't have a relevant photo to go with this post.

So, what's happening with the actual build?

Not much.

The tender schedule document won't be finished until next week. It's imperative that everything gets included (from which way the joists are running internally, to which walls will be demolished, to structual information, everything we actually want built etc etc) so that the builders can give an accurate quote. This will probably take a few weeks after we've supplied the tender document. Once we have the quotes in, we then have to wait for the builder to have a 12-16 week gap in their schedule in order to start the work.

Way back in December when we exchanged contracts we imagined moving in around May or June, but this looks to be more like July or even August now. The glass for the extension takes 9-12 weeks to manufacture and this can't be ordered until the extension walls are built, so it's possible that we'll end up living in the new house while work is still going on (great with two small kids) or we may have to sell our flat in order to finance the cost over run. Neither of these outcomes is ideal so I'm going to not think about it for a while.

When we originally bought the house I was a bit ambivalent about moving as we're close to the tube and the local school, a great drycleaner and loads of useful shops. The new property will mean having to get up earlier and being more organised about getting supplies in. But I have to admit, after so many conversations with our architect and his fabulous assistant I am starting to get VERY excited about how our house could turn out and am anxious for things to kick off soon (as I'm sure you are too if you've been reading this for the last month!)

POSTSCRIPT (24 hours later) - the tender document has just been despatched to the first of three builders. I was really excited until I read this post on another building blog which said they were waiting for 8 months to get a quote in - argh!