The Results Are In...

The builders quotes have been received and there has been a clear winner which is good news. Even better news is that we have met the builder and I believe we will be able to work with him. That may sound odd to some, but I was worried that he might be one of those cocky, winky, alright darlin' types that would upset me over time. He isn't like that at all which is brilliant news.

The only complication we have now, though, is a decision as to whether the house should be demolished and rebuilt which means VAT on the construction will be zero-rated. There are other benefits, of course:

• New house comes with a warranty
• New house will have modern materials and better insulation
• New house means no strange "joins" between the existing house and the extension

The downside is an extended construction period. Decisions, decisions. At least the builder can start pretty soon - 1st August. A 30 week construction period will take us through to the end of February (including a 2 week holiday for Christmas). Winter weather will probably mean that we don't get in to the house until Easter 2011. In other words, almost a whole year AFTER we had originally hoped for.

Even so... the excitement is building!

And we thought we'd be in....

When we decided to buy Carnhill, we believed (wrongly) that there was a chance of getting plans completed, builders selected and the job finished by the summer of 2010.

It's now June 2010, and we still don't have a builder selected. Thankfully, we are quite easy going and not ovely concerned but having said that, I don't believe we have been unnecessarily tardy in our approach to this project.

The fact still remains that it has taken a very long time to get to our current stage! And there is absolutely nothing that can be done to hurry this stage along. Builders should have received the working drawings from which we should receive quotes by 21st June - 3 weeks. It's quite exciting really - what will they come back with? £100K? £150K? £200K? More?

This will be the first time that we can properly compare our budget against a properly quantified quotation. Here's hoping that we have set aside enough funds for completion. And my recent re-assessment of completion dates may have to be re-assessed again. Have we a chance of getting in to the house before Christmas? Unlikely at our current rate!