First-time house renovation

maggie111

Jenner, have seen a few decorating things now with an off white that has a 'grey' tone. My latest decorating magazine tells me that achieves a Scandinavian look lol, which would definitely fit in with painted floorboards.

Having been wedding dress shopping, I've been told a hundred times that there isn't just "white" - eggshell, ivory... etc. I could bore you with the colours. I meant a white wedding dress to mean = not pink, but apparently they just don't get it.

Take your fella to B&Q and go mad with the paint colour cards they have. You'll find a hundred variations on white and you can work out which ones hubby likes, and which ones he doesn't. White certainly does work as a colour in a room, if you accent it with bold colours, but I don't think I'd want every single room to be pure white either.

And on the subject of bathroom locks... I was locked out of our lounge after the wind blew our door shut and the mechanism fell down and jammed me in. Locksmith called out at 1am for £30 - bargain. So it's not just locks that jam. And I ditto what someone else said - you only lock the bathroom door when there's someone else in the house, and get one that opens from the other side.... When staying at my inlaws, they have one of those locks, and my OH likes to scare me by opening the door when I'm having a bath lol!

Shimmyhill

Some great updates and welcome to new people to the thread !

We are progressing well - have built a cupboard around the cylinder in the 3rd bedroom, decided to do this and save up to replace the boiler with a combi asap ! Will be decorating the room over the weekend i hope

In far more exciting news i bought a new lawnmower - got an absolute bargain too (very MSE) It is made by Champion but has a Honda engine and i paid £239 for it - is self propelled, steel deck etc and i love it - how i put up with that cra**y flymo i dont know (mind it did die a smoky death ) Cut the lawn with it today and it does a far better job and is about 10 times easier so really chuffed. Until we stumbled on this mower we hadnt seen a Honda engined one for under £300 - focus had £100 off the mower and then 10% off as display model. I was not sure how good a brand champion are ( i assume they are just a rebadge of someone for focus) but it won the Which? test recently so that sealed the deal !

jimbugalee

ow I need a new lawnmower. Mine is rubbish and I have to cut the grass every weekend grrr

Looking forward to nwe decorating pics SH

TomsMom

jenner wrote: »

hmmm, i dont mind white for some things, but not for every room, which is what OH wants.


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

If you want a white that's not stark white, have a look at Timeless (a Dulux colour). Our decorator recommended it as an alternative when I said I don't like normal brilliant white. It is white, but a nice soft white although not cream. We started off having it for the ceilings but then we had the bedroom walls done with it as well. It really is nice and as it's one of Dulux's normal colours that you can buy straight off the shelf it's cheaper than the made up colours.

As for stair runners - I'm old enough to have had them in our first house before fitted carpet on the stairs was the norm. Cleaning the stairs was an absolute pain in the butt, you had to use the normal vacuum stair tool on the carpet bit and either change to the brush tool for the wooden bit or use a duster, takes twice as long just vacuuming the whole carpetted steps. And the dust/dirt really does show up more on the wooden parts more than carpet.

By the way, if you haven't yet discovered it - a damp duster is much more efficient than a dry one. A dry one redistributes the dust, a damp one picks it up. Also, don't screw your damp duster up willy nilly, fold it half, quarters then eighths - this way as you dirty one surface of the duster just fold it over to a new clean surface. Much better than going over everything with a dirty duster which will not clean as efficiently. I'm not really that sad, just been doing it a long time and worked out which way saves time and effort .

suisidevw

I can't imagine white all over looking that great Jenner?!

We had our carpets fitted yesterday, 100% wool jobbies and waking up this morning and treading on them was AMAZING compared with floorboards! Also, so nice to actually have our belongings upstairs rather than boxes down!

They measured for the runner which is off being whipped now and will be back in Wednesday next week so will get some pics up then and let you know how we get on with it, dust etc

helping_hubby

My parents house is brilliant white all over, ceiling, coving, wood work and walls. But I can't say I've ever noticed.

They have nice furniture and coloured carpet/curtains and big pictures that add colour and personality to the rooms.

My colleague came across this website:
http://www.growyourhome.com/

Has anyone used it before and could give an opinion on the estimates they give? He's looking to buy and to build an extension so it using it as a rough guide.

helping_hubby

I got my lawnmower last year, but just a hand mower for £40 It's not as good as electric but it does the job, it's light and so easy to just get out and start mowing (I do all the mowing).

We got an early Christmas present - a Dyson Ball DC24 from my parents for our new carpet It's so dinky and I love it. It's sad how we get excited over lawn mowers and hoovers

Thanks for all your opinions on bathroom locks. I've decided to try and get one thats on the handle but has a way of opening it from the outside too. If not, I'll go for a bolt.

We're off to B&Q tonight to buy the doors Any tips for fitting them would be much appreciated as I'll be doing a lot of it myself I think.

One problem I have is one of the architraves it not square. I do not know if I should cut the door at an angle, or add a strip of wood the architrave to make it square?

jimbugalee

Let us know which doors you get HH - I'm interested in some from b&Q. Don't forget your 15% off voucher! Luckily we have a carpender who owes us a few favours so will prob hang out doors.

andrew-b

helping_hubby wrote: »

I've decided to try and get one thats on the handle but has a way of opening it from the outside too. If not, I'll go for a bolt.

Weak point is still the mortice lock that it's controlling. If you spend a decent amount on the lock it might not be such a problem i guess.

helping_hubby wrote: »

One problem I have is one of the architraves it not square. I do not know if I should cut the door at an angle, or add a strip of wood the architrave to make it square?

Not sure i understand what you mean here..what isn't square the angle between top and left/right architraves and by how much? Is the door frame itself square as architraves are usually set back about 5mm or so from the edge of the frame? Wouldn't cut the door at an angle though.

We've got a problem that one side of our bathroom door frame isn't plumb so it kicks in slightly at the bottom...considered adding timber but probably won't bother ..though i know it will bug me!

My Dad has fitted a couple of doors of us so far ...both took a day each (kitchen took longer as B&Q supplied wrong screws with the hinges that stood proud of the hinges!) and his quite experienced in door fitting. Still got another 3 to be fitted (bathroom, bedroom and glazed one for lounge) - considering giving the bathroom one a go myself though i need to get a plane and need a sharpening stone for my chisels that are a bit blunt now. Apart from the glazed door (not bought yet - unfortunately it would need to be delivered so don't think i can use 15% off discount ) they are all B&Q 6-panel moulded pre-primed doors...no complaints ..but don't buy B&Q georgian handle sets thats a different story!

Make sure before you start fitting you identify which side has the lock block in (usually marked along the edge - pencil mark the face of the door before you plane the mark off though!!). As well as plane and chisels you'll need some decent flat wood bits of suitable size to drill out the holes for the lock. It's worth making a couple of wedges too as it makes hanging the door easier. Plane down the leading edge of the door (the bit that closes against the door stop) at a slight angle to allow the door to close and don't forget to allow a couple of millimetre gap round the edge of the door for future layers of paint.

Andy

jamtart6

Just want to draw everyone's attention to what happened today (there always seems to be a drama at the moment!)

From another post that I posted earlier:

[FONT=&quot]Hi there,
You would have thought we would have been OK with skip hire as this is our 3rd one in as many months but here is the story in brief:[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]skip 1 = 5 ton £80 quoted, £80 paid by cheque - no probs[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]skip 2 = 12 ton £150 quoted, wanted £175 when they realised i was paying by cheque so went to the bank to get cash. £150 paid. Then a family member said "that looks like an 8 ton" - didn't question just got on with it[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]skip 3= currently ringing around for another skip, wanted a 12 ton again. Getting quoted £172.50 with VAT or if paying by cheque or £150 cash again as per skip 2. Rang another firm who said "no one does 12 ton love, biggest they do is 8 ton and the cowboys say they are 12 ton and charge you extra" - is he just saying this as his company don't have 12 ton skips??[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]So now I'm totally confused (especially after what family member said). Can you get 12 ton skips?

We either risk getting (a) ripped off by paying for a 12 ton which is an 8 ton OR (b) getting the 8 ton skip and finding he was lying and the skip is now too small


Please help skip experts!![/FONT]

hmm all of the ones around here seem to be in tons. i do understand the density thing. Just rang the alleged cowboys for dimensions of 8 and 12 tonne and they don't have the dimensions???? just "the size of a small car"

rang the 8 tonne man who told us about the cowboys and he said the 8 tonne is approx 10ft L x 6ft W x 3.5ft H

Just like to follow this up and say yes indeed skip 2 company had ripped us off! Beware people!

For future reference, an 8 tonne skip is 10ft L x 6ft W x 3.5H - I have one on my path and it is the same size as the "12 tonne" we paid for last time.

So I'm hopping mad but luckily last time the difference was only £12 - this time it would have been £32. :mad: Beware skip hire!