First-time house renovation

jimbugalee

I forgot to say ... gas problems. Because this house used to be owned by the Housing Association it was under the 'major business' section of EDF. For some reason their system doesn't allow you to transfer from business to residential so they suggest changing supplier!!! haha that's loosing business?!!! We are changing anyway so I asked what happens until then. They just said when the account changes give them meter reading etc and basically they'll make up the bill ... just decide what we should be charged. It better be a good rate .. I'm not paying loads!!

They've billed us for a standing charge but said to ignore it and they won't chase then when they review account it'll come off.

Pretty rubbish I think ...

Spicey

Hi All!
Sorry not been keeping up for a couple of weeks, so will have to read back alot of pages to see what you all been up to.
We moved in yesterday:eek:. I have spent the last 3 weeks painting etc franticly. This morning I spent finishing cleaning the rented house before the hand back, landlord said Id done a great job he was very happy and wished all his tenants were that good.
Well so far living without a proper kitchen is going ok. Ive set the dinning room up as a makeshift kitchen minus sink, hob, cooker :rotfl:I think my george foreman and slow cooker are going to get well used. We have a toilet :T and sink. DH promises bath will be working tonight. Shower has not finished being tiled- yes we are living on a building site and the extension has not even been started. I am looking at it as a big adventure we can tell the future G-kids about, my 6yr old GD thinks its all fun!
We brought the dogs round for a look, they have been living with my mum next-door for the past year. They stayed an hour and the sat by the front door wanting to go back! they like their comfort.
Going to wickes tomorrow to get flooring for other 2 bedrooms, did master last weekend.
Will update blog with pics as soon as time.

ukmaggie45

I'm in a state of shock. Yesterday we offered (subject to survey) on a 2 bed bungalow that needs EVERYTHING doing to it, and offer has been accepted. :eek:

The vendors are buying a repo, so they want to do 21 days to exchange, and completion 7 days later. We'll hopefully get a survey organised next week, and then I don't know what happens next. We've been in this house since August 1973!

So looks as if we're in for a load of building work! Scary stuff!

Hoping to go into the loft to have bedroom and ensuite. Bathroom on the ground floor doesn't have a bath, but a double sized shower. Not sure what we'll do with that, prob leave it as it is.

Floors are concrete we gather, and in the kitchen the slab is cracked (nearly tripped on it when we were there on Thursday).

Needs re-wiring, new gas boiler, new radiators, new kitchen, satellite dish (we've got a freesat tele), some re-plastering probably. The living room has a gas fire that has been disconnected, I'm fancying a wood burning stove - are they suitable to use in smokeless zones?

In the loft builder (who came with us on our second viewing on Thursday) will raise the floor as needs to put more joists in for strength. Currently the loft is mostly boarded, and there's a "room" built in the middle of it. I haven't looked in the loft, but OH went up with our builder.

I am absolutely terrified!

Any handy hints ?

Decent sized garden, mostly laid to flags, which I'm hoping we'll get rid of most of. Odd shape, L shaped, it's longer on the left hand side (as you look from the house). There's a tree that will have to go, as it blocks most of the light from the second bedroom (currently being used as an office and storage room).

Front garden is also laid to flags.

Garage, looks big enough, not sure if vendor is leaving the huge work bench that's currently in it.

Living room at front of house, currently being used as spare bedroom.

I'd like to have double doors to outside in one of the back rooms, but not sure if it will be possible.

We'll try and sell our current house when the work is finished on the bungalow - assuming everything goes to plan! Terrified of being gazumped now.

I feel in a state of shock, my mind's a whirl, and I can't believe we're trying to do this!

Better go and plant my beans now!

Maggie

jimbugalee

Hi Maggie,

Wow - how exciting!!!

Firstly I hope everything goes through smoothly ... I hated waiting to get our house.

Hints ..... erm, well we're still learning so maybe I'm not the best person to ask. We have had a new gas boiler and central heating system so maybe some bits there. Also we were planning to have a wood burning stove to replace our back boiler in the lounge. We just assumed we could have one?!

Sounds like this place has a lot of potential. Loads of rooms?!

How fun!!!

Gemma

andrew-b

Hi Maggie,

Sounds a big job ..is the intention to move straight in or is it to refurb first? If the former i think it's better to approach it room by room! Either way you need to break it down into digestible chunks to get your head round it!

Don't be rushed into exchanging just to satisfy the vendor as sometimes vendors will try and rush a sale through ASAP before you have a chance to change your mind! The house buying process can take time. We made an offer on one bungalow that someone had refurbed to sell on ..they wanted to complete in two weeks but all the property searches would take upto 8 weeks alone. However this is probably less of a problem with HIPs. My Dad came down to do the survey. As it was vacant possession Mum and I went with him. The survey revealed various problems - some fairly easily resolveable by the vendor but some more worrying signs of structural movement too. However we had doubts about it as whilst at the property for the survey we noticed the whole house shook everytime a train went past on an embankment at roof level less than 10 metres away! We tried to renegotiate but the vendor was completely unreasonable, wouldn't resolve anything and wasn't prepared to lower the price or wait for us to complete in a more reasonable timescale. So we told him where to go and he lost the sale and a year later the property was still on the market! Anyway ask your solicitor if the timescales are reasonable..especially being the summer holiday season.

Btw...you'd better start thinking about your blog and make sure your armed with a digital camera!!

Andy

andrew-b

Just updated my blog with some shower photos and some pictures of my "Triffids"!

Andy

jamtart6

yes take lots of pics maggie!! good luck! best tip is to check on here before you do something, as someone will have done it before and you can avoid their pitfalls!


OH has been finishing the footings off for the extension, we look at it yesterday and now think its a shame we didn't go for a double storey extension, particularly since all the hard work has been done with the footings. I assume if we wanted to change our minds we'd have to go back through the planning department?

No other progress other than hoping to get gutters done in next 2 weeks! Oh..and my flowers have grown HUGE!

TomsMom

Oh Maggie, how exciting for you, come and join the club!

Before you do anything else I would suggest you have a full structural survey. I know your builder went with you but even so I would still have the full survey. Ours cost £600 and as you probably know that £600 allowed us to get £30,000 off the price we agreed to pay because of the major problem the surveyor found. If any major problems are unearthed and you still want to go ahead then it will be a very powerful tool in renegotiating the price.

Do you know if anyone else is interested? When we made the offer on ours we asked the agent if she would take the property off the market and that there would be no more viewings. She agreed. Mind you, we were only the second viewers in two years so people weren't exactly rushing to buy it :rotfl: . If the agent will agree to that then there shouldn't be a problem with gazumping.

I'd sit down with a lot of paper and a pen and make a list of what you want to do, then prioritise it and start getting quotes in. And going by the mess major renovations make it's not practical to live there while the building work is going on.

Now, you know we need photos ......... please ........... You can add them to your current blog if you like, we don't mind, you can always do a dedicated renovation blog later .

By the way,

Better go and plant my beans now!

Runner beans? Mine have been in weeks and are flowering. I'm a novice at this but what do you know that I don't??????????

I'm off to read everyone's updates now.

jimbugalee

My runner beans are flowering too! No beans yet tho hmmmm

TomsMom

jamtart6 wrote: »

Oh..and my flowers have grown HUGE!

They have done well JT :T . Lavender does tend to go a bit wild. My mom wanted some but after a couple of years or so she had them taken out as they'd spread so much. Mind you, she's over 80 so can't look after the garden now like she used to.

andrew-b wrote: »

Just updated my blog with some shower photos and some pictures of my "Triffids"!

Andy

Shower's looking good Andy. Nice size too. I love my big shower (1000 x 800). TomsDad thinks your Triffids are Yucca. We had some at a previous house but I thought the leaves were taller than yours, but they could be young plants I suppose . The flowers definitely look the same. Are the leaves spikey to the touch, I remember them being sort of hard and spikey and could stab you if you're not careful. They're pretty spectacular and a nice specimen plant.

I might take a picture of my newly painted porch if the rain stops later and I can go and add a few ramblings to my blog.