First-time house renovation

Canucklehead

Shimmyhill wrote: »

Good progress on all the recent updates !

We are actually doing the third bedroom now Wife set down a challenge, dad and i laughed it off but determined wife is driving us along and the progress is nothing short of stunning - amazing what can be done when motivated !!

We do have a new dilemma, the third bedroom has the hot water cylinder in it - when we bought we figured the boiler was ancient and would be replaced with a combi. However when we looked into it and had gas man out it turns out to be a mere 4 years old !! We removed the awful airing cupboard and have opened the room up - now of course we dont want the tank in the bedroom. Do we scrap a 4 year old boiler and get a combi or put a new cupboard around the tank and live with it for a few years ??!!!!

In other news have got stuck into front and rear gardens - had the incinerator going for 2 days (amazing how much heat they retain - was burning all night) Have also been weeding the drive stones - amazing difference !

Regarding house prices, we bought in November so potentially near the bottom, we also got it for well under market value. Interestingly a friend of the wife has put an offer in for 15k more than ours on a smaller semi bungalow. Stranger still my sister is buying next door !!!! 5k less than ours but again smaller property and under market value (have done a deal with people selling outside of EA being involved) We have bought to live in and only worry with value is for mortgage and not profit !!

Good afternoon: Save your dosh: keep the old boiler and have it serviced annually. Check to see how clean the system is as it might benefit from a DIY flush, a magnetic filter e.g. Boiler Buddy or Magnaclean, and addition of inhibitor. If you don't have TRVs and a room stat you'll benefit from their installation.

HTH

Canucklehead

andrew-b

I doubt you'll need anywhere near as much as £10k if your doing as much as you can yourselves. Total cost of ours including appliances (not washing machine, fridge/freezer though) was around £6750 - though our kitchen is quite small. If we had chosen our own fitters rather than using Wickes' subcontracted one we would probably have done it for £1-2k less though. If you scroll right back to the start of my blog i think it says what work was done - but it was basically a complete refurb.

What would be on this island..if there are any appliances, sinks etc you need to think about getting the services (water/gas etc) to it.

Andy

lisal0u

Hiya,

I have to admit to doing no DIY this weekend! I was in Newcastle enjoying myself. Its been 10 years since I left uni :eek: so 7 of us went back to Newcastle as a bit of a reunion. It was so nice being back, I loved Newcastle! Not a lot has changed in the town itself but the Quayside looks totally different! Drank and ate too much but it was a welcome break!

We have had the boiler serviced and flushed this week. No problems apart from the hot water output is a bit low. Should be 11 litres per minute (I think thats what he said) but its only 6. The plumber said it could be the filter or the heating element that is clogged up. I think we are going to wait till we move in and see what its like before deciding what to do.

Anyone know how much these things are likely to cost to fix? Canucklehead - Do you have any advice on this?

Jimbugalee - Your windows look great, you've made so much progress in such a short space of time!
Our house is going to be our home until we outgrow it. Its a 3 bed semi so it should be big enough for quite a while. We bought last July so as the market was crashing. We paid 20% less for it and we have substantially renovated it so I'm hoping we will currently be breaking even.
I can't imagine selling it now Ive put my heart and soul into it!

Kimmi - Welcome to the gang! We got our unoccupied house insurance through Halifax when we arranged the mortgage. Its about £40/month but was quite a bit cheaper then a lot of companies. Unoccupied insurance is quite expensive unfortunately.

andrew-b - I hope your back feels better soon!

KT1985 - Good luck with the house move on Saturday. We're aiming to move in in the next to months! I cannot wait!

TomsMom - I hope your husband is back home with you and doing well! I'm sure the tiles will look good, especially if they are fairly neutral. That way you can dress them up with lovely bright pretty accessories!

Shimmyhill - You have been really busy! I've got a lot of making up to do after last weekend!

Stuart did go to the house this weekend and got the rotten joist replaced under the stairs and the two new ones in. Its ready to put floorboards back down now!

At the weekend we are going to pick up the flooring and start on that. I have no idea how long its going to take as we've got to put the underfloor heating down first. We are also going to Gardeners World Live at the NEC on Sunday! Cant wait!

We also finally ordered our kitchen and its coming on the 23rd June. They wanted to deliver it next Tuesday but we need to get the floor down first and I thought that was a bit optomistic ha ha!

Helping_Hubby - We have spent about £3000 on the kitchen and worksurfaces (Ikea - 8 base units, 2 floor to ceiling units and 2 wall units). The work surface is solid oak. I think the appliances were another £1000 (Microwave, oven and dishwasher). We have gone for an island too but it will be fixed.

Right better get back to work
x

Canucklehead

lisal0u wrote: »

We have had the boiler serviced and flushed this week. No problems apart from the hot water output is a bit low. Should be 11 litres per second but its only 6. The plumber said it could be the filter or the heating element that is clogged up. I think we are going to wait till we move in and see what its like before deciding what to do.

Anyone know how much these things are likely to cost to fix? Canucklehead - Do you have any advice on this?

Good afternoon: What is the make and of model of your boiler?

Canucklehead

lisal0u

Hi Canucklehead,

Sorry about that I did mean to put the make. Its an Ideal Mini C28. It is only small and will never have a large output but for just the 2 of us I was hoping it would be good enough!

Thanks
Lisa

Canucklehead

lisal0u wrote: »

Hi Canucklehead,

Sorry about that I did mean to put the make. Its an Ideal Mini C28. It is only small and will never have a large output but for just the 2 of us I was hoping it would be good enough!

Thanks
Lisa

Hi..if you have the manual (or go to the Ideal boiler website if you don't) go to page 46 and you'll find an exploded view of the flow limiter and filter assembly...this could be the culprit (first place the OH would look;)) assuming you have a good flow of water going into the boiler i.e. the service valve fully open. No idea of cost of this repair where you are but should be a relatively straight forward job.

HTH

Canucklehead

TomsMom

Well, the tiling in the kitchen is going ahead and I'm warming to it. Still thinking "What if I'd taken a drawer front, would I have plumped for the other tiles?" but too late now. They do look nice and will look even nicer when grouted.

Our son was making really good progress until we had to make a decision on whether the splashback behind the cooker should go all the way up to the cooker hood. The cooker hood has a curved glass 90cm wide then stainless steel chimney above, the hob is 60cm.

Q1 - Do you want the tiles straight up behind the hob, 60cm wide, to meet the filter part of the hood? or

Q2 - do you want the tiles to go across the whole 90cm to meet the end of the curved glass? But the tiles are too hard to cut in the curved shape so wouldn't be the neatest finish. or

Q3 - do you want it 5 tiles high, straight across to match the height of the rest of the tiles on the other walls?

There we were, me, OH, son and d-i-l, all in a huddle discussing different aspects, practicality, how far would I chuck the bolognese sauce on a bad day :rotfl: , do I really need it all the way up as I don't fry much and when I do I use a splatterguard. Oh decisions, decisions. Well, we took the easy option and just went for the 5 tiles high and straight across. I'll just have to stir the bolognese sauce gently .

Next problem (the one he's tackling at the moment), the windowsill. Worktop to windowsill edge is one tile high plus about half an inch. Too much to seal the gap with silicone, to small to cut silly bits of tile successfully. So now he's hacking off the new plaster the builders did on the windowsill to take it down to just one tile high. Naughty words flying around again (I really don't know where he gets that from, I never knew any naughty words 'till my son grew up ).

OH and I just came back from getting a bit of shopping. Walked into local Co-op's car park and I promptly tripped on a paving slab that was higher than the others and went flying. Cut my foot, grazed my hands and am going to have one almighty bruise on my thigh. Luckily no ripped clothes and nothing broken. Went in and reported it. Told them I wouldn't sue but was very worried that it could have been a little old lady who could have broken her hip.

Called in at the local Home Centre and brought home some curtain samples so I'll stay in and keep safe this afternoon and see if I can settle on some curtains.

lisal0u

Canucklehead wrote: »

Hi..if you have the manual (or go to the Ideal boiler website if you don't) go to page 46 and you'll find an exploded view of the flow limiter and filter assembly...this could be the culprit (first place the OH would look;)) assuming you have a good flow of water going into the boiler i.e. the service valve fully open. No idea of cost of this repair where you are but should be a relatively straight forward job.

HTH

Canucklehead

I do have the manual so I'll have a look. We have a good flow of water into the boiler (I think the plumber said 16 litres/minute?). I'm hoping its just the filter as it seems it wouldn't be too expensive to fix.

Thanks for your help!
Lisa

Shimmyhill

Canucklehead wrote: »

Good afternoon: Save your dosh: keep the old boiler and have it serviced annually. Check to see how clean the system is as it might benefit from a DIY flush, a magnetic filter e.g. Boiler Buddy or Magnaclean, and addition of inhibitor. If you don't have TRVs and a room stat you'll benefit from their installation.

HTH

Canucklehead

Hi, this is not a money saving thing - more a losing the water tank measure !

Other option is to move the tank or maybe buy a more slimline one and put more in the corner of the room.

Canucklehead

Shimmyhill wrote: »

Hi, this is not a money saving thing - more a losing the water tank measure !

Other option is to move the tank or maybe buy a more slimline one and put more in the corner of the room.

Hi...I assumed it was an MSE thing my mistake but the advice is still relevant in part.

Canucklehead