First-time house renovation

KT1985

one more thing (well, two really)- we got our dishwasher!!! as you can probably tell, this is very exciting fr us, as I have missed having one so much in our rented house. We bought a Hoover of some description and it is great. Just need to plumb it in properly now!

Tomsmom- hope your OH is doing ok.

BB1984

Ow ow ow ow owwwwww!
I've just spent a good hour or so nailing down all the floorboards in the third bedroom - we'd never gotten round to doing it after taking all the boards up to replace the joists. Now my back and shoulders are killing me, and I have a blister on the palm of my hand - boo hoo hoo!
I'd intended to do a second coat of gloss on the picture rail and window frame tonight too, but I just face it now - David will have to get up early on Friday morning and do it before work, and before the carpet fitter comes in the afternoon.

JT - good to hear from you. I'd definitely go for a big kitchen diner. It's much better when you have friends round for dinner, as you can chat as you cook. And when you have kids, you can sit them at the table to draw or whatever whilst you cook dinner. I agree with KT that it's a much more sociable set-up than having a separate dining room.

Hmmm...just re-read your post and realised that it sounds as though either way you would have an open-plan space. In which case, maybe go for a more separate dining area, perhaps with a breakfast bar to define the space? However I would just say that I reckon you can never have too many kitchen units....!

KT - sounds like you're doing well, and don't worry, the house will be fine for you to move into - as long as you've got a functioning bathroom, and preferably somewhere to cook, you'll be fine!

TM - can't believe you've done so much gardening already - do you want to come and start on mine?!

Andy - sounds like you've been busy, looking forward to seeing some photos! I do admire your patience, you always seem to take your time and ensure you get a really good finish. I aim for that, but sometimes end up getting impatient and rushing things!

BB

TomsMom

BB1984 wrote: »

TM - can't believe you've done so much gardening already - do you want to come and start on mine?!

BB

Ah, but when it's the shape and size of a cub scout's neckerchief it doesn't take very long :rotfl: . I'm good at pulling stuff out, regardless of what it is as I know nothing and as long as I'm wearing rubber gloves I don't mind the worms and snails .

Hope your blister heals soon.

KT1985

BB1984 wrote: »

KT - sounds like you're doing well, and don't worry, the house will be fine for you to move into - as long as you've got a functioning bathroom, and preferably somewhere to cook, you'll be fine!

Yep, and we are beyond this point already. Rooms that are good to go are the dining room, nearly the kitchen (so near!!) 2 upstairs bathrooms, one upstairs bedoom, and I am currently working on the hallway and lounge.

The hallway is my current project- a black and white theme. We are having black woodwork and white walls with a lovely black and white wallpaper and a speckly black carpet for the hall stairs and landing- completely impractical, but funky. The whole house is a bit like that, heavily into design that is going to date eventually (except the bathroom-no avocado suite nightmares for us), but I don't mind. So long as we love it then it is ok to go in the house.

I just can't wait to move in and for it to be finished. It is still quite a way off, but we are getting there now- I can see it coming together day by day. Ithink I will be sad when there is nothing left to do though!

BB1984

Got two more quotes back for the front door - one was about £605 incl. VAT and the other about £645 incl. VAT. So I phoned back the first guy (£575 incl. VAT) and he's going to come round with a glass sample, hopefully this weekend, so we can check it's what we want - we wanted sandblasted-type glass rather than patterned obscured glass. Then hopefully he'll be able to fit it the following weekend - can't wait! Feels like it's all go go go again at the moment!

BB

Midori_2

Hello to everyone!
I just wanted to say what a fab thread this is. I check it quite often and it is great to see the progress people are making. It is such a good idea to have a blog, not only can you see your own progress but it gives inspiration to others! We have recenlt bought a bungalow (what is it with bungalows, they seem to be the in thing at the moment!) that is in need of complete renovation. We do have ideas but sometimes it is hard to know where to start! Building regs seems to crop up at every step! There are so many things we want to do. How did you guys go about applying for building regs approval? Did you put in full plans for all the jobs or just a building notice for each bit? We are a little unsure at the moment. Especially as we are trying to do everything ourselves.

Midori

TomsMom

Midori wrote: »

Hello to everyone!
I just wanted to say what a fab thread this is. I check it quite often and it is great to see the progress people are making. It is such a good idea to have a blog, not only can you see your own progress but it gives inspiration to others! We have recenlt bought a bungalow (what is it with bungalows, they seem to be the in thing at the moment!) that is in need of complete renovation. We do have ideas but sometimes it is hard to know where to start! Building regs seems to crop up at every step! There are so many things we want to do. How did you guys go about applying for building regs approval? Did you put in full plans for all the jobs or just a building notice for each bit? We are a little unsure at the moment. Especially as we are trying to do everything ourselves.

Midori

:hello: Hi Midori and welcome.

Could you not have bought a house instead, there are too many bungalows and not enough houses being renovated :rotfl: .

And do a blog, do a blog :j , we love to see how everyone is progressing and it's nice to share ideas.

I'm not an expert on the building regs bit as we had an architect and builders and this was all taken care of for us. I'm sure someone else will come along and be able to tell you more than I can. But what we did do before anything was started was to contact the local Building Control Officer (who my son knows pesonally so he was more than happy to help) who came out and we discussed our proposals with him and asked his opinion. He was really helpful and when we mentioned that our architect suggested making the old loft conversion larger when it was rebuilt (previous owner built a dangerous/substandard conversion previously so it needed replacing) he suggested contacting the Planning Officer to come and have a look too. Planning officer was also very helpful.

I don't know if it's because we live in a fairly small community and ruralish area that they were so helpful and friendly but it would be nice to think that everyone gets the same level of service!

Looking forward to hearing more about your renovation and seeing your blog.

Midori_2

Hi TomsMom,

Thanks for the warm welcome. I think we might just do that and try to get the buildings regs guy to come out for an inspection and a chat. We are also getting a structural engineer to assess the loft for conversion. Our trouble is we live 1 1/2 hrs away from the bungalow! ( we are in military quarters and have bought a property that came available when an elderly relative died.) It is close to family so thats the main reason we bought it but it does mean we can only get there at weekends, which can be a problem with engineers or the like who only work mon-fri.

We have actually set up a blog but I can't add links as a new user because of spamming rules or something but it is www. diybungalow. blogspot .com without the gaps! Hope that works. We only completed on the bungalow at the end of March so a long way to go! Next big job we want to knock down a wall between kitchen and dining room but we need an RSJ and so need calculations by the structural engineer and so hubby needs to get day off to arrange to travel to house to sort it out!

It is nice to see everyone else is hard at work with the renovations, keeps us motivated!

Midori

Shimmyhill

Exciting day today !!

New windows are being fitted as i type this, the difference is staggering !

Will update the blog tonight

TomsMom

Oooh Shimmy, that IS exciting. Can't wait to see the photos. Hope you've got better weather than we have, it's cold and raining here.