Some good news :)

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Well, off topic slightly.

There *may* be some good news for me yet.
As some of you who’ve been following my tales of woe may be aware, we bought a house 3 years ago as a do-er up-per but have had a catalogue of personal disasters that mean we haven’t been able to afford to do very much on it at all.

Well - my OH has a 5 year loan that ends in 2 months time. We had a discussion last week about this, as we could then be £200 a month better off. BUT he could also take out a new loan for 5 years and do Phase 1 of the house renovation. I can’t get loans now cos of BC and also because I haven’t been working (I was doing temp work up til diagnosis)

Phase 1 means taking the roof off - removing old beams and replacing with metal hidden beams, insulating the roof, replacing the roof, putting in 3 velux skylight windows, creating an en suite in the attic bedroom and turning it into a beautiful adult bedroom with wenge flooring, white gloss furniture and it’ll be a haven of tranquility.

We’re just waiting to see if his loan application will be successful and we’ve had 3 quotes for the work (OH doing all internal work as he’s a joiner by trade)

It’s not a cheap job and will mean we’ll be paying out roughly the same every month as we were, so we won’t feel any worse off.

It was a tough decision - we’re living off £60 a week, so having an additional £50 a week would be fab. However we can’t really delay as one more winter will probably kill our roof, and to repair it isn’t much of a difference in price due to costs of scaffolding etc.

Also, theres the worry if this cancer returns in the next 5 years.

BUT - we decided to go ahead with it all if he gets the loan, as I said to him, we could err on the side of caution, but I dont want to live my life as if this cancer could come back at any time, I’m annoyed that it’s ruined as much as it has, but to totally stop us from doing anything until we’re “sure” would be even more depressing.

I’m really really excited at the thought of getting this major piece of work completed! It’s the start we need, the rest of the house can then be done as and when we have the money as the re-roof and renovation of the attic bedroom is the most expensive part, the rest of the house can be done in smaller stages and can be done with saving up realistically (once I’m working again).

We always said we’d start at the top and work our way down the house (4 floors)

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Yeay! That sounds like something wonderful to look forward to… hope it happens for you.

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Fantastic news, keep my fingers crossed, all the best x

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Sounds like a giant leap forward for you. All the luck in the world. Jan xx

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Jan - hopefully not a leap forward into an abyss :-DDDD

Thanks all - just hope he gets this loan and that the builders we use are not cowboys!!! My OH let it slip that I have cancer - so hoping that they won’t rip us off - using the cancer card? GASP- HORROR (ahem)

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Don’t bet on it. Builder who did our bathroom, while I was having radiotherapy, did just that. Laid a tile floor and was so desperate to get it finished so that he could go on holiday he walked on it before it was dry. The grout didn’t set and we chased him for months to fix it. He never returned our calls and we ended up having to get someone else in to lift and re-lay it. Cost us over £800. If you’re at home keep an eye on them…

Jan x

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Jan - that’s totally out of order! WHat a nightmare and how particulary heartless considering you were having cancer treatment as well. I don’t often wish ill on people but some really do deserve it.

We’ve told the builders who’ve quoted that we’ll withold last payment until completion as we’ve been burnt before. A bit of a white lie but my OH works in a trade and he says that any reputable company will be fine with this. We’ll pay for materials delivered upfront, an intermediate payment and then the last payment when satisfied. They’ve all been fine with that. We’ll put that in writing too.

My OH is nervous as we all hear horror stories and this is the roof over our heads. He says hes going to take a couple of days off work to keep an eye on how they are doing it, he doesn’t have the skills to roof himself and he’s scared of heights but he will know if they are doing a proper job of it (I won’t unless it’s glaringly obvious)
But I’ll be in and providing brews, so I’ll be keeping an eye on them.

But whenever either of us has to hand over part of work to someone we don’t know we’re very nervous about not having control. And we’ve so far only had in 2 people, 1 to fit a new central heating system and 1 to do some plastering. The plasterer was fantastic and we’ll use him again. The plumber was horrible, we had a problem with the boiler about 3 weeks after it was fit, my oH rang him and he told him to “F*ck off” and hung up! Fortunately we managed to sort it out without it costing us anything but could have been far worse. WE’d been really nice to them when they were here as well!!! I don’t understand some people, I honestly dont.

Anyway, hope it’s going to be OK, understandably nervous.

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it will add about 10% to the job but have you thought of getting a quantity survayer in?? they agree the work to be done with the builder and what standard it has to be and at what stages they will be paid. He then comes along each week and checks it is to standard and authorises payment. A good one would spot a dodger builder at 100 paces.

it might seem a lot to pay for peace of mind, but you know what builders are like, they keep finding little extras that need doing and unforseen problems, a QS would stop this happening.

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My OH has given them a complete breakdown of everything needed.
WE’ve got building control and planning approval as well.
They know he knows what he’s talking about, so hopefully they’ll also realise that they can’t pull the wool over his eyes.
The main concern is something cropping up after they’ve gone because they’ve not done something properly.
We’re asking for copies of their insurance approved guarantees before we’ll give them the job. This covers us “just in case”, also if they go bust in this economy and we’ll make sure they’re backed by a decent insurer too, they’re not immune either.
We had a structural surveyor in to do a survey about the roof supports and fire access etc

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Sounds as though you have all the bases covered. I’m sure you’ll be fine. OH sounds like a good man to have around.

We were quite naive. We did withhold payment until the end but paid the final instalment on the day he finished, in cash. How I wish I had paid by cheque and could have stopped the payment when we realised what was happening. Hey ho. You learn by your mistakes.

Jan xx

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Yes he’s good when it comes to covering our behinds :slight_smile:

But you know what they say “a plumbers tap always leaks”
He’ll happily drop everything to help a mate out but when it comes to doing stuff on OUR house, it takes forever.

I said to him when we have the roof done, we need to do a schedule of works for all the internal work that needs doing otherwise it’ll never happen, he actually agreed :wink: So he realises it’s all too easy to leave it to another day.

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Wooooooo Hoooooooooooo!!! My OH managed to get the loan approved!! Yipppppeeeee :slight_smile: So now we can give the go-ahead shortly.

So what have I been doing today? Clearing out my stepdaughters room (which is the attic we are converting) and sorting through her stuff. Sweaty work as she’s messy! Got piles of stuff for charity shop, for giving away to younger kids we know, of rubbish and of her stuff for her to make decisions about.

We’ve been storing a lot of our stuff up there as well so I’ve all that to sort out and make room for.

Looks like the roof will be going off in about 3/4 weeks time or so - eeek. Just towards end of my rads. I must be mad but the roof has to be done SOON or it’ll be too cold and bad weather and then it’d have to wait til next year.

So busy busy for me. I said I’d do all the clearing out, as OH will be doing all the internal works and theres not much I can do to help there.

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great you have some thing positive to look forward to…fingers crossed that things go to plan x

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I know, I’m dead excited :)) Bit nervous about making another financial commitment for 5 yearsm, especially as I’m not working yet, but we can’t keep putting things off anymore and this has been 3 years in the making.

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Oooh, how exciting! I think you’ve got completely the right attitude - we could all let this cancer nonsense completely cripple us, but good to see you’re both ready to hold hands and take that leap together. And you must keep us posted!

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Sounds fab,its something I’ve always wanted to do - but preferably in France!! OH is not so keen unfortunately. I’m a Sarah Beanie fan - she’s good at bringing it all down to earth. Sounds like you’re already well-grounded, and I hope it is all onwards and upwards with only the occasional drippy tap.

Lots of luck
S

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Thanks :slight_smile:

I’m a Sarah Beenie fan too. We bought our house 3 yrs ago as a do-er up-per but due to a catalogue of personal and financial disasters over the past years we’ve not been able to start properly on any of it.

So this is Phase 1, roof off, beams out, velux windows in, scaffolding etc, it’s the top floor of our house and once we’ve done that, that is the major expensive work done, the rest of the house we can do room by room at a cost of a couple of grand per room so that’s doable to save up for, the cost of doing the attic is £10k ouch. We’d never have saved all that up.

Big commitment due to BC and me not working right now, but we’re sick to the back teeth of not having got at least 1 floor of the house done in 3 years, so here we go…

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Hi EK - good to hear that something good has happened to you at last, you have had more than your fair share of woes lately! :slight_smile:

Good luck with the building work, I am sure it will be great!

DaisyGirl xx

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El Kat, so pleased something has gone right for you! Hope it all goes well

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Hi El Kat like the others I am wishing you all the luck in the world with your project.
Don’t forget to take before, during and after photo’s. We had a load of work done last year and looking back over the photo’s I wonder how the hell we got through it all, but it was worth it in the end.