First-time house renovation

lisal0u

Hi Everyone,

Didn't really get done what we planned this weekend! We had some !!!!!! in our back garden looking for things to pinch so we spent most of the weekend putting up a big fence at the bottom of the garden!

Dad is putting the radiators back on today so we will finally have heat again, not that we really need it now but hot water will be a treat!

TomsMom - My spuds have sprouted too! Just need to cover them over again. Also bought some petit pois, cabbages and purple sprouting broccoli.

Midori - I think you do need to get a structural engineer to do your calcs. The council specifically requested to see mine before they would sign it off! You could always give them a ring and ask! You do want to make sure the calcs are right though, dont want the house falling down around your ears when you spent time and money renovating it! The engineer will also work out how thick and strong the posts need to be that its going to sit on etc.

latecomer - Your tiling looks really good! It makes such a difference when you get them down. We've still got our wall tiles to do yet. Going to take some time off soon so I can actually make some progress!

I am planning on taking some pictures at the house tonight and updating my blog as I havent done it for 2 months, bad bad!

Lisa

Midori_2

think we will get a structural engineer to check the wall as well as do the loft then. But BB if you have any ideas for the wall, it is an internal wall in a bungalow, no room above although we want to convert the loft, 3m wide. um.. sorry, not very good at describing it! We are guessing it is load bearing as we think all the walls in the bungalow are, they are all solid. We want to knock it through to make a kitchen dining room. One end of the wall meets the rear outside wall.

These surveyors or structural engineers just seem to charge so much, we don't know what is fair or not. But we will get it done, rather safe than sorry!
cheers Midori

BB1984

Midori wrote: »

BB if you have any ideas for the wall, it is an internal wall in a bungalow, no room above although we want to convert the loft, 3m wide. um.. sorry, not very good at describing it! We are guessing it is load bearing as we think all the walls in the bungalow are, they are all solid. We want to knock it through to make a kitchen dining room. One end of the wall meets the rear outside wall.

Right, I've made a whole load of assumptions (so don't take my word for it!), but I think you'd be looking at a 203x102 UB.

Then assuming that the walls the beam spans onto are ok, you'd need a padstone on each end - this would just be a cheap proprietary concrete padstone, or alternatively something like 3no. courses engineering bricks.

Engineer shouldn't charge more than £150 for this, including a quick visit -the calculations take about 10mins once you've got the relevant info! :rolleyes:

BB

Midori_2

Thanks for that BB, much appreciated. We need someone to calculate the loft measurements so we might as well ask them to do the wall calcs aswell, at least then we have something to show the building regs guys!
Midori

latecomer

Bit later than they were meant to be but I've just taken delivery of our final lot of skirting boards. There was meant to be 6 lengths of 4.8m but there is actually 8 boards of varying lengths. I'm sire the total length is probably over what its supposed to be but I'm not that concerned. I'm going to leave them packaged until OH gets home to make sure I dont damage any while moving them.

Also got 5 large loft boards which I'm going to try and get up into the loft after lunch. Not entirely sure how I'm going to do it but I'm going to give it a shot as that way i could get them fixed down and then start clearing out the back room.

Final bit of news, got an interview on friday. :j

I'm absolutely terrified having only ever had one job and hence not done any interviews in nearly 9 years. I'm going to do a fair bit of research into the company and have been given a few tips on what they could ask. It also sounds a more senior position that I've had which doesn't help with the nerves.....

BB1984

fantastic news Latecomer - on both counts!
All the best for your interview

BB

latecomer

And we now have a partially boarded loft. Getting the boards (2.4m x0.6m) up wasn't easy on my own and I'll get hell from the OH for doing it but just wanted to make some progress. Screwed down in far more places than necessary but I like to do things properly. Next job will be to start moving up some of the stuff in boxes from the store room and then take the old sofas (yup there are 2 of them in there!) to the tip. That should hopefully give us enough room to empty the old living room so it can be tackled next. :j

In fact I'm even going to take a picture and put it on the blog

Edit. Done.

TomsMom

Hello everyone. I've been without my computer for a few days, it's been away being upgraded and made "official" (we wont go into that ) and it seems to be behaving itself very well at the moment.

latecomer Super news about the interview, hope it all goes well. Floor tiling looking good.

Beth It's great that you've finished your room now, it's looking good. My word, Chester has grown into a handsome, large, young man!

lisal0u My spuds are going great guns. Your purple sprouting broccoli should do very well, my neighbour has grown some and gave some to us as she had too much. Snails have nibbled my red pepper leaves so it's time to fight back!

I've managed to clear a bit more of the garden, not much left now. Decorator has put the first coat of emulsion on the stairs today but he's starting to mess us about, not turning up and when he does only doing a couple of hours. So today we told him we've booked the carpet fitter to come in less than two weeks' time so we need it finished - a little white lie but he's taken it on board. He has to put the second coat on the stairs, repaint the downstairs WC as we decided it was just too blue, it will be repainted in Timeless (off white) which will be better. Then there's the lounge and just a bit of patching to the plaster on the dwarf wall in the sun room and painting that bit then Bob's your uncle! We've been measured for carpets today and will get the price tomorrow and find out how long delivery will be then we can check with the fitter to see when he can come.

KT1985

We are pushing on, it is starting to look good

I made envelope cushions a la Kirsties homemade home today- I love sewing! Having bought a sewing machine, I am going to make/customise the curtains and bed linen.

jamtart6

KT1985 wrote: »

We are pushing on, it is starting to look good

I made envelope cushions a la Kirsties homemade home today- I love sewing! Having bought a sewing machine, I am going to make/customise the curtains and bed linen.

i love kirsties homemade homes!!!!!! i am dying to try the envelope cushions, were they easy??