First-time house renovation

helping_hubby

latecomer wrote: »

@helping_hubby - grass looks fantastic. did you seed or turf?

I'm hoping to get our looking better but we'll have to see. Apart from anything else its got more hill and valleys than the Himalayas

It's turf. I did want to seed, but we have rabbits and it's just not feasible to grow grass from seed with them munching and digging on it!

TomsMom

latecomer - Oops. Hope things go better next weekend and that your suite arrives on time.

Shimmyhill - Isn't it a lovely feeling when you settle on a price you're happy with, haggling gets to be fun then!

jamtart6 - Paving slabs for the front would be £70 - don't know what to do, whether to get them and make do, or save up to get a proper paving and drive way.

You'll need to work out a list in order of importance and see what takes priority. Although it's nice to get the outside looking lovely, if there's something inside that is more important in it might be better to get that done first.

BB1984 - I know what you mean about getting other quotes. Where we live good tradesmen are like rocking horse droppings (that's why we had builders and electricians from 60 miles away). Sometimes you can go by instinct, and if you like the person and his price is fair you should be OK.
How exciting about trying on your wedding dress, I bet you felt like a princess. Poor Chester - why is he being shut out? It's not permanent is it?


We've spent today moving boxes and boxes of stuff over to the new house and piling them in the loft. Shame it was raining today, we could have done with some dry weather to carry all those over. Haven't had time to sort as we go so I expect when we eventually get around to putting everything in their proper places there'll be a fair bit to throw away.

The decorator put the first coat of paint on the two bedrooms and will probably finish them off tomorrow.

jamtart6

BB - Is your door uPVC? If so it depends on the colour, the pattern on the glass and the number of bevels (?) on the door. Out window man said it would cost us £550 minimum for our [STRIKE]front [/STRIKE] back door which is nice but nothing exquisite. Hope that gives you some idea - I was shocked at how much they cost!

TomsMom - Yes we do have a list, the good weather just made us leapfrog and do the front garden!! I have done a lot of overtime lately, so might treat us to the drive...but I will think a LOT more about it first (plus we wouldnt get it done before the extnesion was done because we'd have to have a skip on it!!!!!!) - Are you in the house now?

TomsMom

jamtart6 wrote: »

TomsMom - Are you in the house now?

Not quite. We're moving in on Thursday. Although it's exciting we are exhausted. (My brain's not working properly at the moment so if my messages don't make proper sense you'll know why!) We thought we'd have more time but we've had two weeks' notice to leave our present accommodation, nothing was packed but there wasn't really room to do it anyway as we had to clear two rooms here for the new people to bring some of their stuff in. And with the decorator not yet half way through the new house we haven't been able to take anything over until today.

We'll be living in a big mess. We'll have two bedrooms and the loft decorated and clean. The loft will be used to store a lot of stuff until other rooms are ready. The kitchen can't have the last worktop fitted until the worktop expert comes back off his holiday next week (fingers crossed he will fit us in as an emergency), our son doesn't do the worktops and he wont risk doing a poor job, the invisible butt joints need to be spot on. So with that worktop missing I wont have a hob and the oven housing wont be secured as it's all in one run. I have a new microwave, one of those combi grill/oven things so if I have any energy left at the end of the day I can cook something, and I have a steamer so I can do veggies.

There's no flooring down in the kitchen yet either and it really needs some self levelling compound before we have the vinyl laid, no flooring in the bathroom either. There's no carpet ordered yet for anywhere in the house and we've no curtains to fit any of the rooms. The two bedrooms wont have any heating as we have to get new rads for them (we thought the builders were doing those as they did everywhere else, we think they forgot them!). I might end up sleeping in the loft amidst all the boxes!

We still have to choose some tiles for the kitchen so must try and get out to do that soon.

On top of all that OH has to see his specialist next week who will arrange for his appointment for his PICC line to be inserted so his new chemo can start prior to his bone marrow transplant.

It's all go round here :rotfl: . I ran out of elbow grease at the weekend so could do with a bucket load of that, and if anyone has any energy to spare I'd be grateful if you could send some my way!

Shimmyhill

BB1984 : My sister just had her front door replaced and it came in at £900 fitted - this was with a toplight window above the door. I had a quote from the same chap for a back door and that was for £500 so gives you a rough idea of costs - i think you can get doors cheaper but not sure about quality and locks etc !

Windows are now ordered so just waiting for the surveyor to come and measure up properly - of course right as we ordered them we decided to add an extra opener to them all adding £300 !!!!! Still really pleased with the price after the haggling and the windows will look great when done compared to the Alu ones we have !!

latecomer

@TomsMum, sounds like you are going to be having a hectic week. If I was closer I'd come and give you a hand

I've managed to arrange for the bath to be delivered this week. Unfortunately as I couldn't take the call its been arranged for wednesday when nobody is there. i''ve just tried to get it changed but thats the only day they deliver in this area so its that or nothing. Mind you as there are no tiles down it doesn't really matter as we cant fit it anyway but at least it will allow us to cut holes for the waste and I can work on it during the evenings. Trying to get the rest of the suite arranged for this week too but with it being a bank holiday on friday I suspect we are going to have to pick it up. Hopefully from somewhere local

Apart from that just been pricing up tiling adhesives and grouts for the tiling. OH is going to get a price from the place we are getting the tiles

latecomer

I've just found out that the driver will call about an hour before delivery which means I can get nip out from work and get it delivered to the house. Means I dont have to worry about getting it back from work to the house :j

Just need to hope we can sort out the other bits too.

Edit: update - The rest of the bathroom suite is ready for delivery so I'm either going to get it delivered to work or pick it up.

And I've managed to get hold of the architect and he's going to come round and look at the house next week. :j

KT1985

Just a quick update- I have finished plastering my dining room! It was all artexed (walls and ceiling) and it is now all done!:cool: I am a very happy person- now to move on to a room twice the size:eek:

All it has cost is the plaster and my woman hours (which are cheap as chips at the moment as I am unemployed/a student) very mse :money:

TomsMom

KT1985 wrote: »

Just a quick update- I have finished plastering my dining room! It was all artexed (walls and ceiling) and it is now all done!:cool: I am a very happy person- now to move on to a room twice the size:eek:

Well done KT, I think it's amazing that you have tackled plastering as it's apparently quite an art to get it right. Did you enjoy doing it? I have a feeling that if you didn't you wouldn't be prepared to do a room double the size.

latecomer

We need pictures KT

I was sanding down the joints in my plasterboard filling last night and also filling the large channel where they had cut into the wall to fit the bath. Made lots and lots of dust but not much progress. Will be an update to the blog shortly too......


Blog updated. Will make sure I take plenty of pictures over the weekend as the real work begins on the bathroom.