First-time house renovation

helping_hubby

I've never heard of Japanese Knotweed, just looked it up though and I feel for you! I guess the only thing you can do is control it and keep using round up on it. I saw a link to a company that specialises in getting rid of it, but reading all the government websites it sounds like it's not something that can be got rid of easily. Apparently it can regenerate from 0.7g of rhizome!

We had our carpet fitted yesterday:
http://thehouserenovationinsurrey.blogspot.com/2009/08/carpet.html

We're very happy with it. It feels like a proper home and it was so good to get out of bed and have carpet under my feet...it's been 13 months of floorboards!

We've also been working hard to get the kitchen revamped (pictures in the bottom of above link). OH has plumbed in the new 1.5 bowl sink (got the Franke one in the end and it's nice a sturdy £95 with postage and plumbing kit).

It is leaking a bit though. He's going to have a go at trying to fix the drips coming from the metal pipe joins...he read in the book to use plumbing tape?

And when I did the washing up last night and drained the bowl, it leaked from the waste pipes (but doesn't leak when running water). So he's going to try the tape on those joins too.

When it's finished I'll get a before and after put up.

The breakdown was:
£311 worktops and upstands
£95 sink and plumb kit
£62 tap
£18 kick boards
£50 lights
£28 Blinds
Paint, Caulk etc we already had
£10 Wooden trim
TOTAL: £574

TomsMom

That's really nice HH, very cosy and homely looking. That looks like two sofas???? I like the way you have arranged them, and the plant is a nice finishing touch.

I still haven't taken photos of mine since the carpet went down last weekend, I've been busy in the garden the last couple of days with the nice weather. I'll try and get them done today.

Hope you get your leaks sorted, I'm not much good at giving advice with that sort of thing as DS sorted out a leak from the toilet which the builders left us with - I just left him to get on with it!

jimbugalee

Hi helping_hubby,

Wow carpet makes such a difference! We only have one carpeted room in our house and that's our lodgers. Can't wait until our bedroom is carpeted but we're leaving it for now because I know it will get dirty.

Kitchen looks great too!!

Yes this knotweed is a problem. Before we realised what it was we must've cut it down a bit and put it on our driveway where there's a bit of soil and it's already cropped up there. Apparently the roots spread 7m from the plant - that's easily under our house GRRRR

It could get as serious as effecting property price if it's not got rid of when we well.

Looks like for experts to kill it costs around £3,000-£3,500. Really our neighbour should pay but there's no way she can afford that, what do we do?! We could spray it but by law we're entitled to sue her if it enters our property. Obviously we don't want to do that but how else do we get rid of it?! I feel this is gonna be a massive problem

helping_hubby

jimbugalee wrote: »

Hi helping_hubby,

Wow carpet makes such a difference! We only have one carpeted room in our house and that's our lodgers. Can't wait until our bedroom is carpeted but we're leaving it for now because I know it will get dirty.

Kitchen looks great too!!

Yes this knotweed is a problem. Before we realised what it was we must've cut it down a bit and put it on our driveway where there's a bit of soil and it's already cropped up there. Apparently the roots spread 7m from the plant - that's easily under our house GRRRR

It could get as serious as effecting property price if it's not got rid of when we well.

Looks like for experts to kill it costs around £3,000-£3,500. Really our neighbour should pay but there's no way she can afford that, what do we do?! We could spray it but by law we're entitled to sue her if it enters our property. Obviously we don't want to do that but how else do we get rid of it?! I feel this is gonna be a massive problem

Are you doing up to sell?

I don't know what else to suggest

TomsMom, yep 2 sofas. OH isn't so keen on how I did it, but it defines the 2 living spaces I think. Also sitting on the sofa now I cannot see the mess of the kitchen He'll get used to it

Still need to get some pictures up, but we're having a tough time agreeing, also they are quite low priority in terms of finances. We now have no spare money, so need spend month by month now. Next is doors, after that we need a sofa bed, then some furniture for the living room, then possibly pictures. Also need to replace the fence in the front garden and we're due Wheely bins in October so I'd like to get a screen for them one day - but that's a luxury. But really there's not much left to buy...:) Nearly there

jimbugalee

Yes, we will sell in a couple of years. It didn't show when we bought the house - I guess it depends whether the person who does the report knows what it is. It may be mistaken for bamboo!! I'll have to get a pic up.

Shimmyhill

All looking really good HH

Really like the photos you have taken, i am a keen photographer (not that i have taken a pic in months since starting the house) and have had a few put on canvas.

Just looked at my Dev Arts account and i haven't uploaded a pic since January

TomsMom

Well, I've dotted about from one job to another today. Started to make double sheets out of single ones we no longer need but too good a quality (and some new unused ones) to get rid of, then got fed up with that. Couldn't face the ironing, did too much gardening over the last couple of days that I couldn't risk my back again, and generally fed up with my own company. (They're keeping TomsDad in hospital again overnight after his review today, you can tell I'm fed up on my own again!)

So I got around to taking a few photographs and have babbled on and on in my blog in case any of you are bored or just want to have a nose at the new carpet. No new plants this time but a lovely steam train!

Have a nice weekend everyone, we've been promised a few more nice days here. Hope you're getting it too Maggie!

helping_hubby

TomsMom wrote: »

Well, I've dotted about from one job to another today. Started to make double sheets out of single ones we no longer need but too good a quality (and some new unused ones) to get rid of, then got fed up with that. Couldn't face the ironing, did too much gardening over the last couple of days that I couldn't risk my back again, and generally fed up with my own company. (They're keeping TomsDad in hospital again overnight after his review today, you can tell I'm fed up on my own again!)

So I got around to taking a few photographs and have babbled on and on in my blog in case any of you are bored or just want to have a nose at the new carpet. No new plants this time but a lovely steam train!

Have a nice weekend everyone, we've been promised a few more nice days here. Hope you're getting it too Maggie!

Aw sorry to hear TomsDad was in overnight.

Just looked at your blog and photos and now my new interest is doors...I absolutely love your dining room door. It's gorgeous. Having read Rosekittens reply on my door thread I am tempted...I might consider wooden for the kitchen door as someone has suggested. Although I've found a white moulded one I quite like, so I'll see what that looks like in the flesh first. I feel I'm getting impatient now and rushing into things just to get things done. The plan is to buy the doors and fittings on the bank holiday weekend as I'm hoping there will be a 15% weekend again.

I hope your B&Q customer service queue is not like ours...everytime I go there it's out the door. I always dread having to return something.

I've not had much time for my garden this last few weeks, but I need to do some serious weeding today or tomorrow. It's looking amazing I think...I will get some before and after photos of the front up because it really has transformed. I love the lupins, so next year I'm going to fill my entire central bedding with them

My first Gladioli has finially flowered today - it's so pretty.

I pulled up a couple of carrots for the rabbits and there were actually real carrots on the end (as opposed to carrots the size of a sewing needle!). I nearly kept them for dinner, but I couldn't resist the begging eyes from Gizmo

jamtart6

Sorry to hear about TomsDad I love the wallpaper in your dining room very nice indeed!

helping_hubby -I am soon to be interested in doors as well!! Hope you find nice ones!


Our current situation is being hampered by lack of funds we need to pay building inspector, extension materials, roof, main house guttering, new doors and paint in the next couple of weeks. So we won't be buying the new shed just yet!!

We have an alarm on and house numbers as well finally! Our grass is looking beautiful now that we have re-seeded and turfed part of it, it no longer looks undernourished. Also had a treatment from some weed people and that seems to have helped loads. Nice and plush and green!

Just wanted to tell you all that had an email that B&Q are now doing furniture. We have had a quote from Sliderobes for £2800 for a corner wardrobe, but I'm thinkingh of getting the doors from b&q and getting a joiner to fit them. Although I've yet to see the quality of B&Q, but it would probably save us over £1000 to do it that way.

TomsMom

helping_hubby wrote: »

Just looked at your blog and photos and now my new interest is doors...I absolutely love your dining room door. It's gorgeous.

Our doors were from Wickes, York Contemporary Door but we didn't pay that :eek: , they've gone up considerably since we bought ours. They were finished with Osmo Polyx Oil, dead easy, just brush on and wipe with a cloth. We were told in store they rarely have offers on doors, we ordered ours over the phone so as to use the catalogue discount code CAT09 for first orders and you get 20% I think (might have been 15%, can't find the catalogue at the moment).

Have you seen Wickes other doors, they have some moulded doors in their Best Deals section at the moment, save 20% when you buy 5. I wonder if you can use the CAT09 code for telephone orders again? Mind you, packaging is £4.95 on each door delivered so you'd have to take that into account when working out the price, depends whether you can get doors home in your own transport.

I love the lupins, so next year I'm going to fill my entire central bedding with them

My first Gladioli has finially flowered today - it's so pretty.

I've got some dwarf lupin seeds for next year, I've always liked lupins. My gladioli are all in flower and they're lovely. Don't forget to pull of the dead flowers as and when they die off, keeps them looking nice while the other flowers are OK.

I pulled up a couple of carrots for the rabbits and there were actually real carrots on the end (as opposed to carrots the size of a sewing needle!). I nearly kept them for dinner, but I couldn't resist the begging eyes from Gizmo

Oooh, you must save some for yourself, they're so nice fresh from the garden.

TD has transport booked for 2pm so he'll be home between 3.30 and 4pm. His platelets so low that if they hadn't given him a transfusion he would have started bleeding apparently, also his red cells deteriorated rapidly the last few days so he needed blood too. He almost lives at that hospital, pity the food's not more appetising!