Cheery's country living adventure 11 March 2018 at 8:28AM in Mortgage-Free Wannabe 5.2K replies 341.9K views

beanielou

Agree with EH.
Pay 50% meantime.
Was thinking that as I was reading!

Cheery_Daff

Thanks beanie. I'm not paying anything else now I've realised I've already paid far more than I thought over the estimate 😮 

Mr Cheery has realised there's a couple of places where the granite doesn't quite rest on top of the cupboard, and there's a small but perceptible gap. One is ok, but one is the thin bit in front of the sink, and another is near the corner of the breakfast bar - people will naturally lean there (especially as it's next to a step) so it does need sorting as it'll become a pressure point. Shouldn't be too hard, just a very thin bit of wood inserting I think. Yawn.

Went to the Christmas lights switch on in the local village. Brass band played for a bit, then the lights (just a single tree) were just turned on at 7, no announcement, no singing, no cheers 😂 It was the most charmingly uneventful thing I've seen for a while 😂

Home now and we have mince pies and mulled wine 😁

themadvix

Oh the lights switch on sounds lovely!

EssexHebridean

The light switch-on  really does sound lovely - far nicer than the over orchestrated “countdown” style ones that most places seem to favour! 

Absolutely right not to pay the builder anything more allowing that you’re so far over all the previous information on costs you had! 

Cheery_Daff

Yes it was hilarious, the lights switch on, just so completely NOT a fanfare  

Had a reply from the builder this morning saying yes, of course, quite understand, I've got a spreadsheet so I'll send a full breakdown, and then an hour later, one appeared. It's very detailed, down to who exactly has been here on which days and what they've done. I would have expected him to keep meticulous records, and it seems he has - I don't have an issue paying it if that's what it cost (although it would have been nice to have an idea it was going to be so far over). 

I am still going to sit down and just check everything tallies in relation to what all the different trades have been paid and what's left though. 

Nipped to the cafe this morning, and got a couple of pizzas - we're going round to see some relatively local friends last night. Also managed to arrange a social event in a couple of weeks with another couple of even more local new pals, so that's nice

Today I have three aims: 

(1) check this invoice and pay it if I'm happy with it
(2) make the house a little more homely - and I'm not going to be any more specific than that about what I'll do - I'll see what takes my fancy
(2) have a long-awaited bath!  

Cheery_Daff

Right, been through the invoice and checked everything. Looks accurate to me in terms of the days all the different people were here (it literally has dates, initials of who was here, work done, cost per hour x number of hours). There's a slight variation between amounts for different combinations of people, but it looks like that might work in our favour so I'm not going to quibble it (ie when the plumber is here on his own, he's charged at £35 an hour, whereas in combination with others, sometimes he's £20). That's fine - there's no separate charge for coordination so I'm happy for a bit of messing about/organisational time to be added into those rates. 

Most of what's left to pay covers costs of extra materials anyway - they're listed separately, including day they were bought and where from. 

Bit annoying that the estimate of extra costs was so out in the middle, but hey - I'm happy we're not paying for anything that wasn't done so that's the important thing. 

This is the final invoice for the builder (and all the trades associated with him), thank goodness. We've been paying for the kitchen in 3 instalments, so there's just the final one plus fitting which I calculate to be £3103.70. 

Then I THINK we've paid for everything (except anything else we're buying ourselves, eg downstairs skirting boards). 

Total cost will be £35,754.78

That includes all builder stuff, kitchen plus fitting, granite, appliances, light fittings, bedroom carpet, 3 new radiators, paint etc

So far more than we wanted to spend at the start, but not unrealistic given some of the choices we've made (we could have had a far cheaper worktop, for instance)

Anyway, enough maths for now! Bank website playing up so I'll pay that later.

Mr Cheery went online to book his booster jab earlier, and there was a cancellation for this afternoon so we're going back out in a bit to do that. Mine's booked for 17th Dec - at least if we're knocked out by it, it won't be on the same day.

And then, damn it, I WILL be having a bath before we go out tonight!!

rtandon27

Well done for persevering Cheery.  Now that you've set your mind at rest that the costs are 'legitimate' you'll be able to get that well deserved brain break & free up some emotional energy just for yourself!!!  You've done amazing well with being on top of it all while still holding down a full time job - very admirable xxx

Tescodealqueen

Well done on all that complicated building stuff. Have a lovely bath and evening. Luckily I had no after effects at all after the booster jab so fingers crossed for you

beanielou

Enjoy your night.

EssexHebridean

I’m so glad you’ve reached a point where you feel comfortable with what’s been charged and have ended up on a decent footing with the builder too - both things are important. 

For context, your works have cost about three times what our kitchen did, but allowing that you’ve had a lot more structural stuff done, and it’s a massively bigger space, that really doesn’t sounds too bad at all, does it! 

Hope your long awaited bath is/was blissful, and you have a wonderful evening!