First-time house renovation

TomsMom

helping_hubby wrote: »

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

HH - I've just seen the update on your blog. Your gladioli is very pretty - ours are all solid colours but I love yours. Nice carrots too!

But your kitchen - what a difference the worktops have made, I had to look twice because I thought you'd changed the units too! And your blinds are a lovely splash of colour - mine isn't up yet but I ended up buying a suede effect one in "Latt!" from Dunelm and it goes really well with the kitchen tiles (in fact I've had the same ones in the utility and the bathroom, seems to go with everything - or maybe I've got a very boring brown house :rotfl: ). Hoping to get the kitchen blind up this week, TD's feeling a bit better today so he should be up for it, fingers crossed.

latecomer

Hi everyone :hello:

Appologies for the lack of updates from me. I've been so busy with the new job that I just dont have much time on the pc. Also the weekends have been really busy of late, partly with DIY though

Tiling is finally finished in the bathroom and this weekend saw the sink and radiator being installed which of course didn't go as planned. The basin waste we were given didn't have a seal for the top and there was no way it was going to seal without one so we bought a few basin waste kits from screwfix and used the best looking seal (rest will be going back). Radiator wasn't a much trouble until I was testing it and found a slight leak from the top section of the valve that screws into the radiator and of course the only way to fix that was to drain it all down again. Anyway got that sorted last night and also checked under the floor for leaks and none were found. :T

FIL and me spent nearly an entire weekend cutting the infamous skirting boards and trying to get the angles right. Walls and floors are about as straight as the Rockies which makes life a little more interesting. Got most of them cut but the fitting is taking a long time as we are using grab adhesive and leftover packs of tiles to put pressure on them so we dont have to nail anything to the sanded floors and hence we can only do one length at a time.

Plans have been submitted to the planning dept and I spoke to our neighbours about it. They didn't seem concerned and as far as I know there have been no objections. We've also had the building warrant stuff done and it should be submitted by the end of the week which will hopefully cut down on the timescales by a few weeks. With a little luck we might just manage to get the building work done this year......maybe

Stove pics are not going up on the blog at the moment.......some kind of internal error. I'll take some pics of the rest of the bathroom and upload them all in the next day or so.

Glad to see everyone else is still making progress, I'll try and get a chance to read all the posts when I'm next on.

Keep up the good work everyone :beer:

@TM - hope TD is feeling better

latecomer

Blog updated with a couple of pics of the stove, more to come tonight when I get a few minutes

ukmaggie45

latecomer wrote: »

Blog updated with a couple of pics of the stove, more to come tonight when I get a few minutes

Ooooh, nice stove! You'll be glad of that come the rest of the summer! :rolleyes:

lisal0u

Hi Everyone!

Its been AGES since I last stopped by, sorry about that! Just had a catch up both here and on the blogs!

Josepina - Congratulations on finishing the extension! It looks really good, cant wait to see it all decorated! I bet you are so glad that you dont have to deal with bloomin builders anymore ha ha!

Jimbugalee: There might be some useful advice here for japanese knotweed. I work for the Environment Agency and I know we gets lots of problems with it growing in flood defences!

helping_hubby - The carpets look lovely! Really finish the rooms off! Im nearing that stage, just need to finally decide and get them ordered!

On the subject of doors we have gone for these downstairs (Only £49 instore!) and these upstairs (Only £25 instore!). They are lovely but the veneer is so thin that you cant really shave anything off them!

TomsMom - Your carpets look lovely too, I bet they are very comfy under foot!
How amazing having a steam train pass by your house! They make such a lovely sound!
I hope TomsDad feels better soon! I bet he's so fed up with it all now!

Ive just harvested some spuds and cherry tomatoes. The tomatoes were so sweet! My carotts are slowly getting there and ive got aubergines and squashes yet to come!

andrew-b - Im very impressed by your ever increasing diy skills! Were going to attempt skirting soon, wish me luck!

latecomer - Your stove looks fab! I bet that will keep you toasty and warm in winter! I still haven't progressed any further with our bathroom so no new photos for you just yet!

Well Ive been stupidly busy lately! Stuart went on a road trip along the west coast of America (Vegas to Seattle) with the lads on the 3rd August and isnt back till the 18th so Ive been having to sort house things out all by myself :-(

If I dont get a nice present there will be trouble ha ha!

We have got the joiner back who fitted the kitchen to sort all the internal doors out. As all the walls had be plasterboarded the doorframes were too narrow so they all had to be replaced/built up. This is day 6 and he still hasnt finished! Im glad I got a quote for the job rather then by the day! I think he will be finished today and we will have 6 new lovely doors hung.

Its so nice having a bathroom door and not having to prop things up against it!

I will take some pictures when he's finished and update my blog!

I was hoping to be moved in by the end of August but what with Stuart being away, us camping not this weekend but next then Leeds festival the weekend after its going to be some time in September now!

xxx

jimbugalee

Thanks Lisa. Looking forward to seeing your blog!!

I have a bit of an off-topic, in-topic question for you all.....

We are 3 months into renovating our house and I just want to know how everyone copes? I'm finding it really hard!! Maybe our house is the extreme as we're doing literallly everything ourselves. We did have someone in to do the damp work and it was so nice! they did everything and cleared up etc etc

As I work from home I am also practically in the house 24/7 - maybe that's another reason I'm struggling? I just think it's really hard to keep your house tidy etc and somewhere to live and do all the cooking, washing whilst all this is going on.

Bit of a moan but I just can't imagine ever going through this again with another house. No way!!

Any tips or advice to help me through?!

helping_hubby

jimbugalee wrote: »

Thanks Lisa. Looking forward to seeing your blog!!

I have a bit of an off-topic, in-topic question for you all.....

We are 3 months into renovating our house and I just want to know how everyone copes? I'm finding it really hard!! Maybe our house is the extreme as we're doing literallly everything ourselves. We did have someone in to do the damp work and it was so nice! they did everything and cleared up etc etc

As I work from home I am also practically in the house 24/7 - maybe that's another reason I'm struggling? I just think it's really hard to keep your house tidy etc and somewhere to live and do all the cooking, washing whilst all this is going on.

Bit of a moan but I just can't imagine ever going through this again with another house. No way!!

Any tips or advice to help me through?!

It is really hard. We're 13 months in and nearly finished. We moved in from day 1, but we haven't had to do any structural work.

We had new central heating (combi) installed, new radiators, a new bathroom and electrics all done. And the rest we've done ourselves.

My only tip is to try and get the living room done ASAP (maybe minus the floor - borrow rugs or try and get some cheap if you don't have carpet like we didn't). And aim to keep that room DIY free. No tape measures, nothing! It gives a bit of an escape. Then focus on your bedroom you sleep in if it really needs doing.

Some things IMO are worth paying to get someone to do them. We were going to do the bathroom ourselves (tiling, plumbing the lot). But we don't have a second toilet and it was December when we got round to it and I am sooooooooooo glad I paid to have it done and dusted in 2 weeks.

What sort of work have you got left to do and how does the budget look for doing it?



@latecomer - can you post a link to your blog please?

jimbugalee

Thanks helping_hubby.

I think our main problem is even though the house is 3 bedroom it's not huge. Most rooms have tools in them because there is no where else to store them and they are in constant use each day. The lounge doubles up as my office because my office is currently the bathroom until we move it upstairs. Apart from that it isn't a lounge at all. There's no furniture in it, just tools and the gerbils! The kitchen I try and keep tool free but it's quite big so also ends up being a storage space for paint etc. The bathroom downstairs is very temporary until we move it upstairs. I try and keep it clean because we do have to live in it but it's difficult!!
The bedroom is practically finished but we can't have carpet yet because I think it will get dirty until the upstairs bathroom is done. I think the garden is my favourite part apart from the corner with a load of junk in it. AARGH sounds awful doesn't it?!!

I am hoping this weekend we can make a trip to the dump to get rid of the pile in the garden - there's lots of copper and the water tank etc. But how can you call it a priority when there is so much other stuff to do?!

Oh dear I sound like the biggest moaner!! My boyfriend and I differ in that he doesn't really mind living in a mess - I do! We don't come to blows over it at all but I think I'm finding it particularly difficult to live here.

So far on new central heating & boiler, damp repair, new windows, new bathroom (minus tiles), various tools etc we've spent about £6k. Our budget is really only about £7k so not alot left. This budget is only meant to cover what we've done and the finishing off of the bathroom. Then we pay it off and start again. We have the facility to borrow more but didn't want to. We also have about £500-750 per month to spend which is the money we both put in on top of paying back the loan over a year.

My boyfriend is definitely going to do all of the bathroom plumbing (which involves routing a new soil stack) and we might pay someone to do the tiling. Maybe bathroom's wouldn't normally take this long but we are moving ours upstairs and putting it in what was a bedroom. If it was just a makeover we'd be done by now!!

I cannnot wait until the bathroom is done and then I thought we could relax but it'll be nearing winter and we'll need to put the central heating in downstairs (bit easier as boiler already installed). I think we're a very long way off actually being able to sit in the living room.

I do try and have a tidy up each weekend but I find it really tiring! I think it's the not getting anywhere that does it. Maybe in a few weeks things will be different but it's pretty difficult now.

Would everyone else ever do this again?!

TomsMom

Hi guys

Will catch up later, got to do an early tea as I'm going out tonight but I have a question.

I'm loving this lamp but would like one in more of a chocolate colour which Next don't do and the bronze is too ... bronzey :rolleyes: .

I've searched a couple of lighting sites but don't seem to be able to find anything like it yet. Any ideas?????

jimbugalee

Blog updated
http://seatonroad.blogspot.com/