We're into the 4th month of having a double storey extension built on our house. We had no intention of moving out during the build and the builder never indicated there would be a need to, athough we told him that my sister had offered to put us up for a couple of weeks during the worst of it, given that we have young kids. The few people I know who have had similar extensions never moved out for any more than that and my parents had one built when I was a kid and we lived in the house throughout. For the last few weeks we've been asking him when would be a good time for us to disappear for a couple of weeks so I could warn my sister but never got a straight answer. Then, out of the blue, he said he thought we would have to leave for 8 to 10 weeks!!!! We told him this was not possible and he just said "well just do what you can" and we agreed to stick it out until we could stand it no more. I came home from work just over a week ago to no heating, one cold tap and no flushing toilet, fled to my sisters that night and have been there ever since! Since then the kitchen and bathroom have been ripped out, the knock through has been done on both floors and the house is frankly far from liveable. We've been back every day to ask when we might be able to move back but he continues to be vague. He says our extension is unique in that the boiler & hot water tanks were on walls that were knocked out, meaning we would have to lose services much earlier than normal.
We're living on borrowed time at my sisters and are panicking that we may soon be homeless! Were we naive to think that we could get away with only vacating the house for a couple of weeks???
Would be interested to hear how others lived through similar work.
I'm wondering if the property is secure, given that the knock through has already been carried out...?
Regarding your living arrangements: Is there any way that you could rent somewhere else in the short term? Do you have a contingency for this?
Unless you are on extremely good terms with your sister, living with two families (with kids!) in the same house can create a lot of tension. Everyone needs their own space. The sooner you can find alternative temporary accommodation the better.
Meanwhile, keep badgering your builder to get things sorted quickly.
Yes - the property is secure. The knock thru was only done last week once the roof, windows etc were in. We considered a short term rent but my sister (who actually works in lettings!) told us it would be very unlikely we would find anything for such a short period and she should know. We didn't work this into our budget as we had no idea it would be necessary!
I know three people who have had similar types of extensions done, and two moved out for the entire duration, and one moved out for the last half of it.
Have you tried asking the builder if he can prioritise certain things in order to get you back in sooner? Presumably if he got the plumbing and heating sorted the house would be habitable? And it can't take him 8 weeks to do that.
