1 - Get recommendations
It may be obvious but sometimes it takes a bit of
work. Because we delayed our building
work until we had been living in the house for three years (we thought we would
get the ‘having a baby bit’ over and done with first!) I had plenty of time to
think about what I wanted done to the house.
When I was visiting people with houses like ours where work had been
carried out I always asked “would you recommend your builders?” Through this process I gathered lots of ideas
about how I wanted the house to be re-modelled and who I might ask to quote for
the work.
2 - Shop around
It is probably my working background but I have a
golden rule that I must have at least three quotes for all work before I make a
choice. In the case of the extensive
glazing work we’ve had done I’ve now spoken to at least six different companies
and we’ve had three different window companies carry out the various work
around the house! I haven’t always
chosen the cheapest. Most of our work
was carried out by a local guy whose work I had seen at a friend’s house and he
proved to be excellent at advising us and carried out all his work to a very
high standard. However for one of our
bigger glazing jobs I went for the cheapest option and saved around €7,000 from
our original quote for the work!
3 - Haggle
I love a bargain! So while I may not have been quite
so careful how we spent money on some things (we really ‘splashed out’ on our
two new bathrooms.) I drove a hard bargain for others. I told the kitchen
planner that he had an Ikea budget for our kitchen and we got a great quality
German kitchen for a fraction more than Ikea price, plus they threw in their
display dishwasher for free! I went between two glazing companies telling each
what my latest quote was from the other until I got them to the price I was
prepared to pay. I took a picture of the
cooker I wanted in Hornbach with its price tag and emailed it to my kitchen
planner saying we’d buy the cooker ourselves if he couldn’t match the price, so
he did! All these tactics slimmed our
budget, although building work here is very expensive compared to the UK,
particularly the cost of materials.
4 - Get a good project manager
For our major building work we had a designer who
planned all the work with us then we had a project manager for the on-site work
and he was amazing. As soon as he walked
into the house he picked up all the issues I had been worried about before I
had a chance to mention them myself. He
guided us through the process, helped us make decisions when things were not
going according to the original plans and advised about what to do for the bits
of work we undertook ourselves. I had
complete confidence in the build throughout because he was in charge and when
the plasterer had a falling out with the carpenter he dealt with it all and I
didn’t have to get involved in their little tiff! (NB builders can be very
sensitive, territorial creatures who need their egos stroked and space to do
their own thing in their own way. If you
can’t deal with that, and I really can’t, then having a project manager
who can is a big advantage!)
5 - Vive la difference!
Our builders were mildly horrified when they realized
we were not planning to move out during the build. Apparently it is the usual thing to do, but
when you have no relatives nearby and your budget doesn’t stretch to hotel
accommodation for three months it is not an option! So they had to learn to
live with us and us with them. When I
came down one morning to find the kids and builders all sat around the kitchen
table together eating breakfast I did wonder if we had all gotten a little too
used to living with each other! They
were also bemused by some of our design choices as they were very different
from what their Dutch clients choose.
However we all agreed that the end result was a great combination of
Anglo/Dutch design and ideas.
6 - Contingency
We built in a 30% contingency to our budget. We should have built in 130% instead! Building work always costs more than you
expect, there are always hidden problems that you find once work begins. You can also find that once you start fixing
things around the house it’s a little addictive, so you end up saying “while
you are here, could you just move that radiator for us?” etc. You either need to be completely disciplined
and stick to your original work specification with no variation or accept the
budget will need to stretch! It also
helps to have practical contingencies for when the house is not
functioning. Fortunately we have a
friendly neighbour who we could go to for dinner when there was a big hole in
the middle of the house and the ceiling in the dining room had fallen down!
7 - Embrace the chaos
If you cannot live in a house where everything is
covered in brick and plaster dust, where big hairy blokes are lurking in your
house night and day drinking endless cups of coffee and where all your
belongings are piled high in a corner of what used to be your living room,
while the kids sleep in a small corner of what used to be a bedroom but is now
a storage unit, then DON’T DO IT!!! Buy a brand new house instead.
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