First-time house renovation

BB1984

Good evening peeps, hope you've all had a productive weekend of DIY!

I am, as usual on a Sunday night, exhausted - it's been a very long and stressful weekend. We had aimed to get the bathroom walls tiled this weekend, but of course it didn't go to plan. Firstly, my dad, who was designated to help me (haven't tiled before), did his back in last week and so all he could do was point and instruct - better than nothing, obviously, but not as helpful as hoped. Secondly, we realised that the door architrave was missing, and that we'd need to fit that before we tiled. So we wasted some time going to B&Q, then sorted out the architrave. Then we wasted some more time arguing with my step-dad over the best way to go about tiling (all a bit political!). Then we discovered that the wall was wonky in two directions, plus the shower tray isn't level. So getting started was really hard, and made the first few rows difficult. Ended up only tiling about 4 rows over the shower, and that was it on Saturday!!

Today was a lot better, and we quickly discovered that my OH has a bit of a knack for tiling! So we got a fair bit done today. Hopefully we'll finish glueing the walls, and the floor, next weekend.

Other stuff done included: Getting several kitchen units in - looks great; cutting and fitting new floorboards to replace damaged/rotten ones; mist-coating several rooms; the plasterer finished completely (really pleased with his work); and filling various holes in walls!

The plan is to finish tiling the bathroom next weekend, so that the plumbers can finish off the following week. Hopefully the majority of the kitchen units will be in by then too. And we're also aiming, in the next couple of weeks, to pretty much finish (for now, anyway) one room, so that we can "move in" and use that one room to sleep/live in, whilst we take our time decorating the rest.

I will update my blog, with photos, tomorrow - going to bed now!

Let us all have updates of your various projects, please!

BB

TomsMom

You've got a lot done Beth, despite the setbacks. Hope your dad's back is better soon. Looking forward to seeing your photos.

I've just checked helping_hubby's blog and their plaster is going a lovely shade of pink.

This week we've had the electricians do a bit more, walls going up in the bathroom, lots of plasterboarding and lots and lots of plastering. As usual I've updated my blog every day as I forget what's happened otherwise.

Not sure if the builders will be back next week. They are getting very close to the time when there's not much more they can do until we get planning permission for the old loft conversion to be improved and that could be Christmas. We've been informed that the decision will be made by "delegated powers" rather than the application being agendad for committee meeting and apparently that's a good sign as they consider it to be an uncontentious application.

There's still a few little things they can finish off which will take them 3 days at the most so if the foreman can persuade the bossman then a couple of them might be back on Monday.

It seems like we've done a lot but up to now all the hard work has been done by the builders as we're not in a position to do this sort of work.

My son has booked us in to do the tiling in the utility and downstairs WC at the end of November. After OH's next chemo he's hoping to start mist coating the plastering if it's all dried out (it's well on the way).

We've found a fireplace we like but it only comes in marble so we're in touch with a stonemason to see if he can do a similar one in some sort of stone, we'll probably faint when we get a quote and drop the idea :rotfl:
If we do find a fireplace we can have that and a gas fire fitted soon.

We've discussed whether to have bathroom furniture or freestanding WC and basin until we're blue in the face. At the moment we're thinking of this WC and maybe this basin to go with this bath Almost decided, just not got to think about it too much or we'll change our minds again.

That little lot has kept hubby and I busy this week. Got to start thinking about the kitchen soon.

My mouth's run away with me again, as usual, so I'll shut up now

andrew-b

TomsMom, the bath you've picked out is only 1500mm long (4'11")... a standard bath is 1700mm (5'7") so don't expect to be able to lay down comfortably in it. I would think very carefully before you put a short bath in - i honestly think you'll regret it otherwise. Also to me the items you've picked out seem pretty expensive to and aren't even a recognised brand and your only getting 7 year guarantee. You could get an Ideal Standard or Twyfords suite for less money and with longer guarantee (25 years). I seriously suggest you look into it. For online suppliers of such brands have a look at bathrooms365.com and homesupply.co.uk . Your plumber will likely also be happier to install a known brand too.

Hope that helps

Andy

TomsMom

Thanks Andy, we're always keen to have suggestions and recommendations. Bear with me and I'll explain why we're thinking of those at the moment (will probably turn out long again :rotfl: )

Regarding the bath - we had two places do bathroom designs for us and they both came up with the same design (with no hints from us). Not sure if it's obvious from the pictures on the blog but there is an alcove in the corner along the wall to the left of where the current basin is. Both designers put the toilet there - a back to wall type with built in cistern in one of those cupboards. They tried a bath in the alcove (which was hubby's first suggestion to me) but then changed it to a corner bath in the opposite corner (where the toilet is temporarily in the pictures). My first words to designer 1 were "But I don't like corner baths!". However, I had to admit the design did look stunning and much better than a standard bath. So, we went to see corner baths which confirmed my view - I didn't like corner baths.

However, a rectangular bath in the same position came too close to the door on that wall and just didn't look right in the original position of installing it with the one end in the alcove. So we researched corner baths on the 'net and found offset corner baths. We didn't like the ones which are as rounded as normal corner baths and found a couple like the one I linked to above. One of them (a Vernon Tutbury) had a glass screen for showering, which we don't need, but because it had a permanent fitting for it on the bath it just didn't look right without the screen. The Saninova can have screen or no screen and no tell-tale if you don't have the screen.

We had one delivered (sale or return) to a plumber's merchants and went to see it last Friday. We sat in it to see if it was suitable. I personally will use the shower so am not bothered, hubby is to have the final say as he prefers a bath. I did point out that it wasn't that long, my feet touched the end when I sat in it and I'm 5'5". He is 5'7" and of course his feet touched the end too. As neither of us are "loungers" in the bath, we get in, get on with it and get out, no candles, books or wine :rotfl: he said he was happy with it.

We have to ring the plumber's merchant today but can say no and he will send it back. We can of course change our minds nearer the time and grovel and I'm sure he would get it back for us. So, I hear what you are saying, thank you for that, and the jury is still out.

With regards to the toilet and basin - after a lot of thought we decided that we didn't want any bathroom furniture, cupboard-wise, for the basin and toilet. Then I said "but the bathroom has to say WOW!" and we're struggling to find a WOW WC and basin. Those I've linked to are the nearest to WOW we could find. So again, not a final decision so I will look at the links you've given me (thanks again, hadn't come across those sites) and see if I can find the wow factor.

Are you still with me? Good lad!

I really appreciate any input from you (and anyone else following this) as my brain has now become totally scrambled. I'm used to doing one room at a time and I'm finding it hard having to make decisions for so many rooms in such a short space of time. There's too much choice methinks!

latecomer

Seems like everyone is busy busy busy!

I've had a week off work and am now back for a rest. Spent about half the week trying to get a roofer and a plasterer. Managed to get some to come round and others who despite phoning to arrange specific times, didn't bother their !!!! to turn up. Roofer was meant to be coming on friday but the weather has stopped him. Its dry today but I suspect the gale force winds might yet again put him off. Any excuse

Plasterer is going to come one day next week and is happy that he can do everything in a day. the new alcove is looking pretty good but took me an age to get it all boarded up.

Spent about an hour in B&Q explaining why the online price (£10 cheaper than in-store) for the radiator is the price they should be charging as you cant buy them online. Spoke to several staff all who claimed its an online price only, then got escorted to the plumbing section to the most useless "plumber" I've ever had the mis-fortune to meet (and I've had dealings with before). Finally managed to get a duty manager who understood the issue, appologised for the confusion and got it sorted out in about 5 mins flat.

Putting the new radiator into the living room of course turned into an mammoth job as I had to run new pipework to the main pipes and then tap into them. Took most of the day to get it installed and the cenntral heating back on but got there in the end with help from the in-laws (very into the their DIY thankfully!). the living room is now a nice place to spend time without having to have the gas fire on.

Got all the old skirting boards off from our small bedroom and stripped them back to the bare wood. We're going to use these bits to patch up the all the other rooms where they are damaged or missing and then get some new stuff for there. Hopefully all the wood everywhere wont be too much but its worth trying as we both love natural wood.

Also spent about a day out in the garden trying to get it tidied up a little. We were given a hedge trimmer which collects the bits as you cut as it was too heavy for my uncle to use. I can now fully understand why its like a serious workout and I'm not convinced it saves much time as you need to have regular breaks. It might come into its own when I do the hedge up the side as tidying up around the bushes is a pain in the rear.

So all in all not a bad week. Would have liked the roofer to come while I was there but that cant be helped.

Got our new sofas coming on friday along with a replacement chest of drawers for our faulty bedroom one. Would have liked to have got the plastering done prior to their arrival but that cant be helped.

helping_hubby

Every sounds like they had fairly productive weekends. I only worked on Saturday but I got loads done.

In bedroom 2 I painted the ceiling, sanded the skirting board, filled the boarded bits above the doors, then I got carried away with the filler and paintbrush and went around the house filling holes, and I painted some of the kitchen (Note kitchen is rubbish and the plan is to bodge job it to look good enough until we can afford a new one, so I didn't do any prep work for the painting!)

Some really bad news...the TV broke! This really isn't good timing and I refuse to buy a new one. It was a hand me down CRT. I have a square hand me down CRT upstairs which we moved downstairs but thats on it's way out too. I have a 14 inch in the loft. That will go in the bedroom for now. Just have to hope the square TV holds out for 6 months while we save for a new one. Or get one from Freecycle. Some of you might think I'm mad, but I can't really live without a TV. What would I play Guitar Hero on?

BB1984 - more photos in your blog please I wanna see your tiling!

Tomsmom, I love that toilet. I don't know a lot about bathroom bits, but I think what andy says makes sense.

I'm not a bath person at all, so to me your bath is neither here nor there, just so long as it looks good in the grand scheme of things. I'm more of a shower person. If I could afford it I would have £500 on the shower that I loved.

Bathroom 365 is really competitive with prices. I'm getting all my stuff from Jewson - I probably keep going on about it but they were cheaper that city plumbing for the Twyfords stuff, and they price matched all my Bristan goodies to the bathroom365 site.

latecomer

Just nipped back home at lunchtime as I'd not heard from the roofer and found him and his lad working away. They should be finished today and hopefully that will be the roof water tight for a bit longer.

Hopefully the wood around the base of the chimneys will dry out before it next rains and then hopefully that will let us know whether the leaks have been fixed. fingers crossed thats the source of the damp in the wall too.....

BB1984

Tom's Mom - i really love the look of the toilet! It's very sleek and looks easy to clean as it has none of the usual wiggly u-bend etc round the bottom. I don't really know anything about bathroom suites so can't really comment on quality etc - just superficial comments from me I'm afraid! The bath looks nice but I guess it's not everyone's cup of tea what with being short. (But then, I'm short so I'd prob be fine!). We didn't spend much on our bathroom suite (not actually sure how much as the plumber got it for us!) but we went with just a very simple, plain white suite by Roca. We decided to up the "wow" factor a bit by buying some cool taps (from Trade Depot) and using nice slate tiles on the floor and as a border to the white wall tiles. Incidently - anyone know what I need to get to seal the slate?

helping hubby - you did loads in one day! nice one! I will try and put some photos up on the blog this evening so you can see the tiling. I'd def suggest Freecycle for TVs, there seems to be loads on there as everyone's replacing their old ones with flat screens.

latecomer - sounds like you had a very busy week! Well done on getting so much done. I'm impressed with your plumbing skills - I must admit that I'm scared of plumbing so I leave that to the experts! We need to take your lead and tidy our garden up too - have been dumping stuff out the back and our neighbours must be fed up with looking at a rubbish tip....

BB

OddjobKIA

THE FOLLOWING CAN BE APPLIED TO ANY PROJECT....BIG OR SMALL

RE-search what you want and costs of choice

Choose what you want and who you want..

Plan with contractor including costs and time line..

Get written quotes and include 10-15% for unforeseen problems

Stick to your plan and budget

Pay your builder and look forward to a future project

Enjoy your end result knowing its what you wanted and what you wanted to pay..

R C P Q S P E

TomsMom

Any of you guys help me out with this?

I started a new thread about a bath with a D-shape at one end and not getting much response.

Can you take a look and see if you can offer any advice, I want the good stuff but the budget is being severely stretched by all the extra work the builders have found necessary.

Went out with the builder yesterday and ordered the shower door (good price on a good quality 8mm door) and shower (not the one we originally wanted but great quality for the price and below what we expected to pay) and 'cos we'd saved such a lot on the shower door we ordered a mirror like this with little blue l.e.ds (only we didn't pay that much ).

Would appreciate any help on the bath.