First-time house renovation

TomsMom

helping_hubby wrote: »

Only I'm now thinking the green leaves don't really go with the blue, but I don't care, I love the blue

Try telling that to a bluebell . Of course green leaves go with blue, nature's colours.

Nice to hear from you HH. Missing your news.

Now, I have some REALLY exciting news. Are you all ready for this........ We've just collected some potatoes from one of the bags :T five perfectly formed lovely potatoes. There are plenty more and still some very tiny ones that need to be left to grow more so we're not emptying the bag completely. Not having them tonight but probably tomorrow but if they taste as good as they look I'll be so proud! We've already had a few carrots, about as big as my middle finger but oh so sweet and tasty.

Other news, son started tiling the utility room today and will be back tomorrow to grout and Steve the carpenter is getting on well with the sliding door storage in the loft. Tracks are fixed, MDF doors are in place. Tomorrow he'll be making adjustments to get it all perfect then it'll be painting it all to match the paintwork the decorator did.

Hopefully I can update the blog at the weekend.

vansboy

kimmi wrote: »

Hi everyone

We're not moving in straight away, needs a lot of work doing to it, and at the moment there is no kitchen, that was the first thing we ripped out! The blog is in its very early stages, not quite ready to make it available though ...

But we've now got some much grander plans than we originally thought to do! Have had some builders round, and are now waiting for quotes, but in the meantime I need to draw up some proper floorplans, have done a very crude pencil drawing but my technical drawing skills are zilch!

Couple of things to think of...

As it's not liveinable (made up word!!) just to make sure you have told the council, so you DONT pay council tax, if it's in this state!!??

Also, not 'plans' as such, but remember that once you've got the dimensions of rooms, you can design & plan the kitchen in 3D, with the free downloadable planner in http://www.ikea.co.uk it is a bit fiddly at first, but once you get the hang of it, it'll save lots guesswork!

Have fun!

VB

helping_hubby

TomsMom wrote: »

Try telling that to a bluebell . Of course green leaves go with blue, nature's colours.

That is such a valid point I'm itching to get photos up - we've bought new canvas pictures and lamp shades, but I'm here at work Got a big project on so having to work late all this week

Talking of veggie plots, I pulled up my garlic last week, out of 12 I only seem to have 6 bulbs, and they are a little small. But my dads were rotting so he told me to get them out now.

My front garden is really starting to flower now - it's really exciting. I had some Lupins from my aunty and one is flowering. My dahlias have flower buds. Not sure when the gladiolis will flower but they are about 2 foot tall.

TomsMom

helping_hubby wrote: »

Talking of veggie plots, I pulled up my garlic last week, out of 12 I only seem to have 6 bulbs, and they are a little small. But my dads were rotting so he told me to get them out now.

I'm not a garlic fan, only thing I find them useful for is fungal nail infection :rotfl: . There was some wild garlic came up earlier in the year, I did pull a lot up as it spreads but the flower is quite prettyl

My front garden is really starting to flower now - it's really exciting. I had some Lupins from my aunty and one is flowering. My dahlias have flower buds. Not sure when the gladiolis will flower but they are about 2 foot tall.

I love lupins, want to get some dwarf ones for next year. OH loves dahlias, had to leave some at the last house. Gladiolis generally tend to be a late summer flower so should start to bloom in August. They may need supporting as being tall they are susceptible to being blown over. We don't need to lift ours over winter as our winters are generally mild here at the seaside. Not really an expert, just had them at the last house and learned from our mistakes .

lisal0u

Hiya,

Been very very busy so not had much chance to keep up lately!

UKMaggie - Congratulations on the bungalow! Sounds like you're in for lots of fun! I would recommend reading all the blogs, you'll find lots of useful advice in them and also what not to do! Im looking forward to seeing pictures!

Andrew-b - Your shower is fab! I hope mine looks as good!

Jamtart - Your flowers are lovely! Well done! You must have green fingers!

TomsMom - Sorry to hear about TomsDad! I hope the next harvest is a success!
I'm very impressed by your potatoe harvest! I haven't dared do mine yet! They have flowered though so should be ready!

Ive had a few tomatoes that were lovely, a few strawberries and some petit pois! Not quite enough to make a meal with just yet though!

Kimmi - Congratulations on completing! Im looking forward to another blog to follow! I think I'm going to have to quite my job to keep up now ha ha!

Helping-Hubby - That's very MSE! Its a really good idea I think I might try it myself!

Right I've had a very busy few days! Spent all weekend laying the underfloor heating and started on the flooring on Sunday afternoon. Been doing it after work too! Need to get it finished because we have booked the kitchen fitter in for Tuesday (14th)! Cant wait! It should be finished by the Friday!

Ive updated my blog so you can see what the flooring looks like! I'm really pleased with it!

Ill do lots more updates as the kitchen gets fitted! Hope it looks ok and all fits!

Bye for now!
Lisa

TomsMom

Floor is lovely Lisa. Can't wait to see more!

ukmaggie45

Hi Lisa,

lisal0u wrote: »

Hiya,

UKMaggie - Congratulations on the bungalow! Sounds like you're in for lots of fun! I would recommend reading all the blogs, you'll find lots of useful advice in them and also what not to do! Im looking forward to seeing pictures!

It's early days yet - surveyor been in earlier this week, we're waiting on his report. Full structural survey.

I'm reading the blogs of course!

It's all quite scary, for starters I've never planned a kitchen, so will have to begin looking at stuff like that. Thought it would be useful to begin looking no matter what happens. It's not counting chickens - knowing what's possible would be useful wherever we might go, and we could do with one here anyway. Our house is definitely a "do-er upper", we may end up doing it ourselves - we'll see.

Your kitchen floor looks great. Interested in the underfloor heating now!

We were supposed to go to the caravan today, but seems to be a million things to do, phone calls to make, and so on. Hopefully we'll make it tomorrow, as need to check on our plants and make sure that they get watered thoroughly. (not sure how much rain they've had on the Llyn)

Next weekend we prob won't be able to get away, as have to have a tooth out on Thursday :eek:, and as am dental phobic I don't think that I could face travelling even by Friday. At least I have a nice lady dentist with gentle hands. :T

We have to see IFA sometime too, but we're waiting to hear about that.

TomsMom

Yoo hoo! I've done a little (:D, well you know me!) update on my blog as things have been moving on a bit this week. OH's having two weeks off treatment and is making the most of it!

We need to get the loft sorted by Friday :eek: as DD is coming for a visit. Big tidy up and clean up needed!

Maggie - hope the visit to the dentist goes OK. My d-i-l is having an extraction tomorrow after a week of pain/visits to the dentist/antibiotics etc. A one hour appointment has been booked, it's a fractured back tooth which he says might be a problem. Rather her than me! Any news on the survey yet?

I need to know what you've all been doing, 'cos I'm a nosey so and so .

ukmaggie45

Hi there TomsMum,

TomsMom wrote: »

Yoo hoo! I've done a little (:D, well you know me!) update on my blog as things have been moving on a bit this week. OH's having two weeks off treatment and is making the most of it!

Wow, things are really coming on well now. Like your in the eaves cupboards! Think we might consider doing something like that if bungalow goes through...

Hope TomsDad is having a nice rest - how's the harvesting going? Hope that it's going better now.

TomsMom wrote: »

We need to get the loft sorted by Friday :eek: as DD is coming for a visit. Big tidy up and clean up needed!

LOL, I've given up on that kind of stuff - the DDs know we live in complete and utter chaos.

TomsMom wrote: »

Maggie - hope the visit to the dentist goes OK. My d-i-l is having an extraction tomorrow after a week of pain/visits to the dentist/antibiotics etc. A one hour appointment has been booked, it's a fractured back tooth which he says might be a problem. Rather her than me! Any news on the survey yet?

Thanks for the dental wishes! Mine's a next to front teeth one that had a cap that came out. Seems the root is split, so they can't glue it back in, so am all gappy at the mo! :eek: Suspect it will be a problem getting it out, have a 50 minute appointment. Am dreading it.

Commiserations to your DiL, hope it all goes OK and isn't too horrid for her - guess it may be done and dusted by now?

Hmm, the survey. We're waiting on the document, should arrive "early this week". OH spoke to the surveyor on Thursday I think. There are some problems we didn't know about. We knew the kitchen floor concrete was cracked, so had taken the cost of fixing that into account when we offered. But it seems that there are sulphates everywhere surveyor could look (some places have glued down vinyl tiles, and ceramic tiles on bathroom floor).

So will cost quite a lot to get it fixed, and it will have to be fixed - will only deteriorate otherwise. Google concrete sulfate (or sulphate) to get the idea. Remove top 6" of concrete, lay new DPC, pour new concrete, bitumen on top of it. :eek: We'll be in touch with the EA again when we have the survey in our hot sticky little mitts.

Mixed feelings - really like the place, and it's in lovely quiet position on a cul de sac. We live on a busy road with lots of traffic, it's a bus route, plus there are always screaming police cars going past which make me jump. Well, I say "always", but several times a day in the week, less on the whole at weekends.

And I've totally fallen in love with the garden. It could be made lovely.

Depends rather what else is on the survey, though apparently there's a problem with one of the kitchen walls - not sure if it's tied in with the concrete attack - from the stuff I've been reading over the weekend it possible is. But that isn't much of a problem as we'd want to extend the kitchen, so the wall would be replaced anyway. If you see what I mean.

We're wondering if any of the other bungalows in the road have had the concrete problems.

We may have to get additional testing done, imagine that will be in the surveyor's report when we get it.

Maggie

TomsMom

Hey Maggie!

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Hope TomsDad is having a nice rest - how's the harvesting going? Hope that it's going better now.

He's really enjoying his two weeks' off treatment. He's feeling pretty OK and can get on with a few jobs around the house. Still having weekly blood tests and his red cells are low, his telephone consultation tomorrow will tell him whether he has to go in for transfusions this week - he's hoping not! The stem cell harvest will be after the next chemo in a couple of weeks time, providing his blood result is good enough. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for the dental wishes! Mine's a next to front teeth one that had a cap that came out. Seems the root is split, so they can't glue it back in, so am all gappy at the mo! :eek: Suspect it will be a problem getting it out, have a 50 minute appointment. Am dreading it.

Aaah, that sounds awful. Teeth are a nuisance.

Commiserations to your DiL, hope it all goes OK and isn't too horrid for her - guess it may be done and dusted by now?

D-i-l's tooth had a last minute reprieve. Dentist ground it down instead and she's to go back in a fortnight for him to have another look. Antibiotics have done the trick, the pain has now gone. Dentist doesn't want to remove it really as "she is young". If it was me I'd have said "whip it out, I can't be doing with this" :rotfl: .

Hmm, the survey. We're waiting on the document, should arrive "early this week". ......... But it seems that there are sulphates everywhere surveyor could look (some places have glued down vinyl tiles, and ceramic tiles on bathroom floor).

So will cost quite a lot to get it fixed, and it will have to be fixed - will only deteriorate otherwise. .......... Mixed feelings - really like the place, and it's in lovely quiet position on a cul de sac.

And I've totally fallen in love with the garden. It could be made lovely.

Depends rather what else is on the survey, .

If it was me I'd be getting estimates to remedy the problem and try and negotiate the majority of the cost off the price. Someone will buy that property, and if you love it so much then that someone should be you.

We're wondering if any of the other bungalows in the road have had the concrete problems.

Might be worth being cheeky, knock on a few doors, tell them you are very interested in buying the bungalow, etc., and wonder if they've had similar problems. If they're long-standing residents then they may not know about it, but anyone who has moved in fairly recently might have come across it.

Wont uncross my fingers yet. I do so hope you can go ahead, it looks lovely and I can see the potential in the garden that you are seeing.