First-time house renovation

jimbugalee

Wilko TomsMom?

TomsMom

jimbugalee wrote: »

Wilko TomsMom?

Thanks Jimbugalee, but looked there yesterday and nothing like it.

jamtart6

that lamp is lovely TomsMom

Incidentally any suggestions where to buy a white roll top bureau desk - literally big enough for a laptop and mouse? I have always wanted one and they are either £300 or kids-sized!! I'm willing to pay oooh about...£20 for one! ..No reallY i don't mind paying a bit but not £300!!

Jimbugalee - I am finding the house tough this is the 8th month but we havent moved in which does seem to help a lot *shut door, mess vanished* - but we can't do anything else until the extension is up now as the boiler is going out there, so until that is in we cant do the bathroom, put the floorboards down properly so cant put skirting boards on, no point painting until all that mess is finished. Can't do the kitchen or diner until we hav knocked through to the extension, and lounge is currently our "workshop" so we literally can put new ceilling rows/rose (sp?) in and dream about how we might eventually decorate it!!

On the upside the front garden looks amazing, the new grass has grown fabulously and we have been keeping on top of it. Put house numbers on and OH is just painting our outside lantern which was salvaged for free and is an old coach station-esque lamp - will look lovely I think, and magic for free!!!

Any experts with new plaster? Ours has dried out since May/June - do you think if we paint it we will still get cracks in it?

Another question is - do we have any colour-phobes here? I am terrified of painting a room anything but cream/white/neutral but I am trying to be brave and branch out a bit!!

Final question - anyone ever had black carpet? I want it for hall, stairs and landing but ever so slightly concerned that it might just drive me slowly insane showing every bit up!

Ooh I lied, not final question, we need new spindles for the bannister on the landing - 10 max (small house) are they hard to fit? Where have people bought thers from?

Thank you and all questions over!!

Edit to add: I feel awful because I cant even help at the moment, just finishing my uni work off nights and weekends and working full time in the day, so literally not going out or doing anything on house except dreaming of how to decorate it!!!

jimbugalee

Jamtart - your house sounds like ours - only we live in it!! AAARGH

I am keen to paint everything cream but go and pick up some paint brochures and it sort of gives you some ideas and might take you away from that.

My friend had black carpet in her son's bedroom. I think it looked quite cool but yes showed up all the fluff. You might be hoovering more than you think? I've often wondered what colour I would have our stairs/landing carpet ... I think brown. Hmmmm how boring. It's currently green with orange specs in it. Who would chose that?!! eeew

Shimmyhill

jimbugalee, we live in ours too - we had a month before we moved in but there was so much to be done in the kitchen when we first moved in 4 of us slept in our bedroom !!!

We moved in December and as yet the 3rd bedroom isnt done, infact there is not 1 room that is finished 100%. It gets to my wife more than me but i grew up with my parents doinf work to houses and my wife had only lived in houses that didnt have major work done to them - its character building

Everything takes far longer doing it yourself and i dont feel like i have achieved much with my 2 weeks off even tho i have done things almost every day - i seem to find 5 things that need doing everytime i start a 'little job' !!

But just think how proud you will feel when its all done, we could not afford this house finished and thats my motivation !!

TomsMom

jimbugalee wrote: »

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.

It's a man thing! Generally speaking, (OK there are a few exceptions) the woman is a homemaker (did you play "house" or "little mummy" when you were a child?) and wants everything to be nice and just so. Men tend not to see things how women see them. Untidyness and dust just doesn't come into their radar. (Generalising here guys, honest, so don't take it personally!) My OH doesn't see half of what I see and sometimes thinks I'm a bit of a nutter when I get up and move something because it's not "just so", or wipe the kitchen worktop because he's left crumbs etc. all over it.

Maybe in a few weeks things will be different but it's pretty difficult now.

Would everyone else ever do this again?!

It seems never ending. Although all our major works were done before we moved in, we only had the bedrooms decorated before moving in so we lived for weeks (despite the promise of only 18 days for the whole house) with the decorators coming and going and all the other rooms being out of action for some of the time. No floor coverings made it dirty and cold at times, even finding somewhere clean to do the ironing was difficult sometimes. I couldn't use the hob for weeks due to being constantly let down by the gas chappy. Yes, I did get fed up with it and have a good old moan from time to time but it didn't make anything happen any quicker.

The best thing you can do, honestly, is to just shut your eyes to it. You know it will be finished in the not too distant future, just accept that it wont be perfect until then. You have a lovely house, you are young with your health and strength and are taking on a project that a lot of people wouldn't attempt. At the end of it you will have something you will be very, very proud of.

Would we do it again - maybe if we were young but not now.

Your tap is lovely, your garden's looking good, Steve's room is looking great, the stove is probably better built than a lot are today (my first one was given to my by my m-i-l and was about 25 years old at the time!), and the dog's certainly happy enough. Just stick with it, you'll get there in the end and you'll be saying "Remember when ...... " for years to come!

jamtart6 wrote: »

Any experts with new plaster? Ours has dried out since May/June - do you think if we paint it we will still get cracks in it?

It should be fine now JT. Ours was left for a few weeks and we've had no cracks at all. Just do the mist coat thing and then water top coats by about 10%. There are threads about it and also Misgrace is a mine of information if you can find some of her posts.

Another question is - do we have any colour-phobes here? I am terrified of painting a room anything but cream/white/neutral but I am trying to be brave and branch out a bit!!

Ha ha, ours is very neutral all over, I didn't realise quite how similar all our colours were until I realised our feature walls on the h/s/l were only a couple of shades darker than the main colour, I wish I'd been a bit bolder now. However, the lounge is an oyster colour and now the hang on the wall fire is a stone colour it will be lost. We were going to paint the chimney breast a dark brown but it will be too much for OH so we're having a textured dark brown wallpaper instead as that will be easier for him to do (only about 3 strips). And, of course, we have the feature wallpaper on the one wall in the dining area which everyone comments on, I love it. If you can record a few 60 Minute Makeovers you'll get an idea of what can look good, feature walls are in so go for it. The paint brochures have lots of ideas in them to get you going.

Final question - anyone ever had black carpet? I want it for hall, stairs and landing but ever so slightly concerned that it might just drive me slowly insane showing every bit up!

My son and d-i-l have a dark blue one in the bedroom. She hates it as it shows up everything.

jimbugalee wrote: »

I've often wondered what colour I would have our stairs/landing carpet ... I think brown. Hmmmm how boring.

There are so many shades of brown, we had it in our last house in h/s/l and with cream (like a buttermilk) wallpaper and curtains/vase in shades of terracotta it looked lovely. This time it's more of a mushroom and I'm still working on what to accessorise with. The lounge is another shade of brown, more of a fudge colour which almost matches the stripe in the suite which is teal/beigey brown.

Anyway - bit of news. We picked up our curtains yesterday and the fire arrived today. Fire is hanging on the wall but we have got to get the redundant gas pipe moved/hidden (which was left because originally we wanted a gas fire but went for electric due to difficulties drilling through thick random stone wall). Also the chimney breast will be wallpapered. Can't do anything for a while as OH is back in hospital for 2 days again this weekend. He's needing so many transfusions of blood and platelets at the moment it's a wonder they're sending him home!

jamtart6

thanks for tips TomsMom! I think black carpet will be avoided like the plague then! I had a lovely idea for the wall on the stairs to match, not sure it would look good in anything other than black and white so need a re-think!

Will keep everything crossed for TD!

jimbugalee

Thanks all - I feel a bit better about everything but still would never choose to do this again AAARGH!

Had a mass tidy up in the kitchen and bathroom to which the blokes looked oddly at me wondering what an earth I was doing but I refuse to live in a mess just because we're rennovating.

I can't wait for the day we can actually choose colours/carpet etc. I think that's a good 6 months off

Next time I am def buying a house which just needs decorating!! I may come up against some objections from my by though hehe

jamtart6

Well I'm never moving again Jimbugalee (this is my first and last house if all goes to plan and I don't lose it, I don't plan on losing it but I don't like to make sweeping statements like that as feel I'm jinxxing myself !

I wanted to be living in ours and finished by xmas, so either we work flat out and do it (and the money will run out) or we accept we'll be working on it into next year too! The latter I think!

jimbugalee

I think our aim is to get this place done and move out in a couple of years. (thank god!!)

Nah I do like it - it's our first house but I think our second will be a lot different .... fingers crossed.

For now I have just gotta be patient and wait for everything to be done. Also I can't really help with very much apart from the decorating, which we're no where near yet. The plumbing/electrics/structural has to be done by my boyfriend. I feel a bit useless and just end up cleaning up all the time!

wow .... I do moan a lot this week!