Cheery's country living adventure 11 March 2018 at 7:28AM in Mortgage-Free Wannabe 5.2K replies 339K views

EssexHebridean

Psst - also just occurred to me, the builder’s costs for project management should have been itemised previously if he was making such charges - so if he’s not put anything down on that previously, it’s reasonable to assume he’s factoring it into his regular day rate. 

Cheery_Daff

Good point- project management costs not itemised originally. He also said right at the beginning that he's have to charge 10% extra on normal rate because we were outside his normal area - I said fine, and that was before the original itemisation, so I would have assumed included.

Going to sit down and map it all out later - I'll give him a get out asking him if the kitchen fitting costs are included, because that will make it much more reasonable, and if they weren't and he's miscalculated, this gives him a chance to save face by charging then passing on to the actual kitchen fitters...

Over soon, over soon... keep repeating that to myself...

greenbee

Din’t forget to keep back something for snagging… otherwise he won’t come back to do it, it’s normal practice to delay the final payment until a couple of weeks later to give you a chance to check.

Cheery_Daff

greenbee said:

Din’t forget to keep back something for snagging… otherwise he won’t come back to do it, it’s normal practice to delay the final payment until a couple of weeks later to give you a chance to check.

Good point, although we've already decided this is the end now. The actual builder finished a couple of weeks ago, and everything we're not quite happy with at this point, we'll sort out ourselves. I'm too damn tired to even have another conversation. Yes, it would be nice if they'd properly sealed round the windows, but as they pointed out, 'normally people would just have them plastered all the way to the edge' but we wanted stone left visible, so they've advised what WE should do to sort it, and won't be doing it themselves. Some of the joins between corners of skirting are a bit shabby, but I suspect they'd put that down to us not wanting it screwed to the wall, but rather glued. It's just stuff like that at this stage, and I would far rather just fix it all ourselves. 

Bit sad really, as I was all for sending them a Christmas hamper as they'd been so great! Until we asked if they'd swap doing the downstairs skirting for fixing the edge of the step, and they got a bit arsey about it, and we've ended up doing both ourselves. Since then, it's felt a bit like that was the final straw for him and he's sick of us 🙄 Everything they did at the start was great work, but towards the end they were clearly in a rush to get on with the next job. 

Anyway, so no snagging, but also no Christmas hamper 🙄😂

Cheery_Daff

Right, enough moaning for one day! Some practical action! 

We have been and bought a new tap (and sneaked in a cafe trip). Also got cash out for the electrician while I was near the bank, and popped in and paid the remainder of the balance for the carpet, since we coincidentally got a parking spot right outside the shop - saves me remembering a phone call! 

Got myself a cup of tea, got the remaining half of last night's pizza in the oven for lunch, and I've had a conversation with the kitchen fitter about what we can potentially do about the door that has a weird squiggly pattern in it - natural oak of course, but it really doesn't match the rest and Mr Cheery really doesn't like it... It would appear our only option is to just pay for them to make a whole new door... he's going to work out how much that will cost. I've also asked about varnish etc in case we want to change the colour...

Anyway, the handles are on, the sink is plumbed in, we've got the new tap, the fridge, oven and hob are in place (not working yet but still), so we are getting there! Hard to see as a whole at the minute, because there's stuff EVERYWHERE but we are definitely getting there! 

So, activities for me - these are definitely eating-nasty-things-first activities, some of them at least. 

* go and check on chickens - Bunty seemed quiet yesterday and if there's something wrong I want to get her booked in the vets for tomorrow. Sigh. 
* Pay apprentice invoice
* add up all builder costs and itemise what I can and see what's left
* reply to builder's email telling him that, and that I'd like the itemised invoice before I pay (although I might do as someone suggested and just pay half)
* banks and YNAB
* order mum's birthday present
* possibly do some painting in the bedroom if it's still light after that
* have a nice bath!

Ready, steady, GO! 

Karmacat

Wow!  You're doing so well to keep a grip on all this, really admirable, Cheery.  I hope you had something very nice when you had the little cafe trip this morning  

themadvix

What Karma said - you have *so* much going on it's amazing how well you're keeping on top of it! (Imagine being on strike is a blessing at the moment!)

Cheery_Daff

Thank you both! Yes, the strike (and my Fridays off) have definitely been a blessing this week! 

Well, the builder costs are worse than I thought 😮 My original adding up on here was out...

In summary... 

Original quote (minus tiling & kitchen fitting) was £10,375.

Extra costs up to 6th Oct were £4k, making estimated total £14,375.

We've now (including electrician on Tuesday) paid out £18,124 - clearly I wasn't keeping track as closely as I thought! 😮 And this extra invoice for £2500 takes the total to £20,624, which is almost double the original estimate, and is also £6249 of extra costs on top of the 6th Oct extra costs.

I can only assume there's been a mistake somewhere... I hope so, anyway!! 

Anyway, detailed email drafted including all that. Fingers crossed.

Kitchen fitter has NEARLY finished - fortunately I spotted a couple of little things before he left so he's sorting those now (the spice rack won't shut properly... and the fridge is a bit wonky but I don't think we can rectify that as the door is flush when you shut it).

The plinths underneath don't come all the way up to the bottom of the cupboards, apparently you need a bit of ventilation but I wouldn't expect to see a gap at the top under the doors...

Other than all that, we might nearly have a kitchen! Minus the electrics of course 😂 but we should at least be able to use the sink! 

Oh, and he's misplaced a shelf so he'll have to bring us a new one... 

Still, progress...

themadvix

Hmm, the plinths don't sound right, I agree. It sounds like they've been fitted too far forward if there's meant to be an invisible gap.

And I hope the builder gets back to you asap with good news about those costs - that can't be right.

Still, the end is in sight!

Cheery_Daff

That's a good point actually - I wonder whether they could go a bit further back? Or will the cupboard legs be in the way? I'll see if I can have a look. 

Anyway, did I get many of those things done? 

* go and check on chickens - Bunty seemed quiet yesterday and if there's something wrong I want to get her booked in the vets for tomorrow. Sigh.  Pleased to report that Bunty chicken is showing NO signs of illness today, thank goodness!
* Pay apprentice invoice
* add up all builder costs and itemise what I can and see what's left
* reply to builder's email telling him that, and that I'd like the itemised invoice before I pay (although I might do as someone suggested and just pay half)
* banks and YNAB
* order mum's birthday present
* possibly do some painting in the bedroom if it's still light after that
* have a nice bath!

Oops, not done anything after that, not even my mum's birthday present, eek!