First-time house renovation

jamtart6

suisidevw wrote: »

I'm after a nice wardrobe and chest of drawers. Can't seem to find anything we really like. Does anyone have any recommendations for good quality companies etc?

I know TomsMom used a good one, decent price, quality and delivery - I'm sure she will be along soon - I forgot the link! :A

jamtart6

aha! well i am going to ask mr gutter man again or get in the loft to see what they have done. if it is pitch black ill know we arent vented! is the over fascia ventilation commonplace? thanks for info andrew:)

suisidevw

Thanks for the compliment Andrew and the link. Will forward to wifey now and she can choose, I'll say yay or nay!

Our carpets come today! We finished last painting at 12am last night and was in work for just after 7. Shattered but going to be worth it come 6pm tonight! Measuring for the runner too

TomsMom

Flippin' 'eck, I go shopping, get a migraine, have an early night and what happens - you lot are chatting away nineteen to the dozen and there's more posts in one day than there's been for a week :rotfl: .

I did do the multi-quote thing but they've mostly seemed to vanish so I'll try and remember what I wanted to add. Firstly, if I haven't commented on some of the questions it's because I don't know anything about what you've asked so can't help.

Welcome Dottiepeas, we had a Vaillant boiler which came in at around £1000 from PTS who were cheapest. Can't tell you plumbing costs as some was done by the builders renovating the house and other bits done by son's friend at mate's rates.

suisidevw wrote: »

Hi guys, thanks for the encouragement. Haven't set up a blog etc so here is a bit of spiel I just wrote with some pics

Suiside - your photos are lovely and would sure look good on a blog, dead easy to do (if I can, anyone can!). I only know Blogger but it's easy. Anyway, your house is lovely too, I love the windows and the floors - what a find!

suisidevw wrote: »

We have a 100% wool berber carpet coming in tomorrow! Mega excited and managed to play 2 companies off against each other for a £180 saving on the original quotation .

Good to know you started well on the haggling front - we saved over £800 on our bedroom furniture that way!

suisidevw wrote: »

I'm after a nice wardrobe and chest of drawers. Can't seem to find anything we really like. Does anyone have any recommendations for good quality companies etc?

We had Devonshire New Oak from this company. We got an even cheaper price by ringing up and speaking to them. They were very helpful as we needed to ask about getting a wardrobe up our dog-leg staircase which has low head room. We're waiting for delivery at the moment (there was a two week shut-down somewhere for holidays - not the shop - so that was bad timing on our part). We've seen the furniture in the flesh at two other shops and it's nice quality with a nice finish. But of course, it's down to personal taste what sort of furniture you like.

Helping Hubby - your "quote's" disappeared but about the toilet lock. We've had the thumb turn ones for years. The trick is - if you're in the house on your own you don't need to lock the door, if someone else is in the house and you get locked in there is a slot which can be turned with a 5p piece or a big screwdriver on the other side so you can be rescued. Ours only get locked if there are visitors in the house, we know when each other has gone to the loo.

Doors - when we chose those doors, we were going to have all waxed wood - skirtings, architraves, the lot. That was until the builders told us that pine skirting and architraves would not match colour-wise with the doors which are oak veneer. When they told us how much oak skirting/architraves were going to cost, we realised that if we lived in a mansion it would be the right thing to do but for a normal house it would be way OTT and the budget wouldn't run to it so we went for pine skirtings/architraves instead. I'd seen them in magazine pictures etc., and realised that they did look fine. When they were painted we didn't have gloss (which we don't like) but eggshell mixed with 20% acrylic gloss, recommended by the decorator and we like the finish very much.

Hopefully I've commented on everything I meant to and am able to. I'm off to order the curtain track today, local shop found one for us that can take the weight of the curtains and is corded with a pully on right hand side only - perfect. And it's not over budget either so now I've check it out with OH now he's back we'll get that sorted today. The roll of wallpaper should also be there but that can't go up until the gas man's been and sorted the bit of pipe sticking out under the fire and despite his promise he hasn't yet turned up :rolleyes: .

suisidevw

TomsMom wrote: »

Suiside - your photos are lovely and would sure look good on a blog, dead easy to do (if I can, anyone can!). I only know Blogger but it's easy. Anyway, your house is lovely too, I love the windows and the floors - what a find!

Good to know you started well on the haggling front - we saved over £800 on our bedroom furniture that way!

We had Devonshire New Oak from this company. We got an even cheaper price by ringing up and speaking to them. They were very helpful as we needed to ask about getting a wardrobe up our dog-leg staircase which has low head room. We're waiting for delivery at the moment (there was a two week shut-down somewhere for holidays - not the shop - so that was bad timing on our part). We've seen the furniture in the flesh at two other shops and it's nice quality with a nice finish. But of course, it's down to personal taste what sort of furniture you like.

Thanks Toms Mum, will try and get a blogger done but going to have a break after the carpets are down and our new bed arrives on Tuesday! For a couple of months anyway! Yes, the floors have come up well, we are really happy wtih them and the windows will do for the time being but a few are misting

Did you save £800 on that websites prices by haggling, i.e. over the phone? If so I'm sure you got a lot of money off. Thanks for the link to the place, will let you know what we decide to go for, it should be the last major purchase I hope!

TomsMom

suisidevw wrote: »

Did you save £800 on that websites prices by haggling, i.e. over the phone? If so I'm sure you got a lot of money off. Thanks for the link to the place, will let you know what we decide to go for, it should be the last major purchase I hope!

No, it was £800 cheaper than buying at our local furniture shop. Originally the website was about £700 cheaper than the shop, then when we discussed the wardrobe/stairs issue, we had to change from a normal full height door wardrobe to a "gentleman's" wardrobe with 3/4 doors and drawer underneath. This was because when the wardrobe comes apart to get it up the stairs, the full height doors wont go up but the 3/4 doors will as the drawer part is separate. This gentleman's wardrobe was over £100 dearer than the original wardrobe. Local shop wanted to charge £3,100 (there's enough for two rooms here), this place quoted £2400 then knocked another 7.5% off the internet price when OH asked what would be their best price, so we're actually paying just over £2200. It'll last forever, it's the sort of stuff you need to be fairly sure you'll like for a long time as it's not going to fall apart like the self-assembly with flimsy drawer bottom stuff - we had that when the kids were younger, now there's only the two of us we can push the boat out a bit!

andrew-b

I'd meant to mention about bathroom locks.. we got one of these (not sure why listed as new as we bought ours in november i think along with other stuff). Anyway it's far more reliable than some other sorts of lock i think with the bonus over a bolt that you can open it from the outside in emergency. My sister had one of the locks built into a handle that controls a latch and ended up with someone getting stuck in the bathroom as the latch mechanism jammed.

Andy

puddy

hi everyone, we are not doing a renovation as such but we moved to our first house together on 12th june and there are lots of things that we need to get done, new windows, reconfiguration of space around kitchen/utility room, replacing some of the kitchen stuff, restore the wooden floors (remove carpets), bit of electrical stuff, new shed then redecorate.

however, my plan is to do it bit by bit and have it all completed by next june, a year after we moved in.

the last thing that we will do i think, is the floors. at the moment, the kitchen, diner, living room and our bedroom all has acceptable laminate flooring. i dont like it as much as floorboards but it would be a waste oftime and money to pull all that up. however the 2 other bedrooms, the hall, stairs and landing all have carpet and that will go and we want to use the floor boards underneath.

for the hall, i want deep black on the floor boards, the blackest black. then up the stairs i want them painted white, with preferably a red stair runner, then on the landing i want the floor painted white, and in each of the other bedrooms i want the floors to be simply varnished. the boards we have seen so far look like bog standard pine boards, someone has varnised them in the past but very badly finished, paint spilled on them and huge gaps and holes etc.

i anticipate that the floors are the last things that we will do. i have seen some stair runners that i love already, would you order them at this point and keep them for when the place is done? worried about changing my mind on colour and design, but also worried about the carpet not being available in a years time.

i have seen strawberry orsa by roger oates and now brintons in humbug and bell twist, ebony by stonegate carpets. as you may have gathered i like the colours black, white and red

how do you time your buying and organising of stuff when you're doing up a house?

also, any ideas about the colour white? my partner refuses to consider anything remotely 'cream', so ALL the walls will have to be white, but im worried that for some of the rooms the colour will be too stark. for example, our living room is going to be predominately white, but i dont want white furniture, i would rather have cream, or off white, stone etc. im also worried that all the woodwork will simply blend into the walls, there will be no contrast, what would people suggest. ive ordered this http://www.orchidfurniture.co.uk/item.asp?i=2875&d=11
for the living room and am now worrying that when we paint all the walls white, it will jar???

in addition, with the hall being black and the landing being white floors, and white walls in both, what would you do with the original doors that we have in each door way which have been stripped back to the wood by the previous owner, we really like them, but rustic is going to look odd with white black and red?

the house is 1920s btw

thanks

jamtart6

Hi All,
Well spoke to the gutterman today again and can relax, it does appear that we have Over fascia vents so panic over. It is looking really nice, our house looks sparkly bright white now! Hopefully the extension will be started next week so things are finally coming together.

Hi Jenner nice to meet you! I love the idea of a stair runner but I'm sure a few people either on blogs or here have said they drive you nuts with dust? Something to bear in my perhaps. That cabinet is absolutely gorgeous. In my parents house, the whole thing is painted white, its fine, always looks nice and fresh.

puddy

hmmm, i dont mind white for some things, but not for every room, which is what OH wants. i'll give that company a ring if the quote from our other bloke isnt to my liking, thing is he is recommended by my dad and my dad is a really fussy perfectionist, so i know that if he thinks he's ok, then he probably is.

ive seen that victoria flooring but thought they looked a bit ramshackle, may give them a try though.

bit worried about the prospect of dust on the stairs.... along with everywhere else....!