Week Two of the Build

We've just been over to the house and wow, what a transformation in only a week!
 

The only problem is, of course, we have a slight hitch. I suppose it's not surprising for unexpected things to crop up but this one is going to be even more costly than it was already going to be! Basically, as a sewer pipe runs across the property at the front, we have to encase it to ensure that it is not damaged at any point during the build and so it can be easily accessed by the council if required (which hopefully will be unlikely).

The whole exercise had been assessed by the appropriate people and a contractor employed to undertake the job for a specified quote. When they started work on it yesterday, they discovered that the pipe is further into the ground than they thought: that the high end is 2.7 metres rather 1.6 metres deep as originally thought and the low end, which was originally thought to be 0.8 metres deep, is 3 metres deep. How they could have got it so wrong, I don't know. And now they're saying it's going to cost nearly double than originally quoted!!

View down the side with the hole where the sewer pipe lies

We are, of course, going to dispute the huge increase but they do have us by the short and curlies (as hubby would say) as they are already in the middle of the job and it really, really needs to get done before any other work can commence. The last thing we, and everyone else, wants is a popped sewer pipe. The thought doesn't bear thinking about.

Last wall still standing

I guess the moral of this story, is to try and have some extra money squirrelled away in the event that things don't go as planned (which I don't think they ever do on builds or renos). As, even with a fixed contract, as we have, the budget can implode.

The pipes for the sewer

The offending site of the sewer pipe

View of the view

What can I say, except let's hope our builder project manager can do some good negotiating on Monday.

I hope you all have fantabulous weekend!