First-time house renovation

jimbugalee

Oh no TomsMom but that sounds like good news? In a roundabout way .......

Good luck with the curtain track!!

We still don't have any tiles Had I of not rung up a min ago to check they were on their way I don't expect they would've come today. We wait until 4:30 when apparently another lorry is coming and I really hope they can unload them. I wonder if anyone would steal tiles from our driveway? We'll cover them up

Spicey

Building inpector came this morning, not my usual one that usually has a quick look and then says thats fine carry on, no today we had Mr awkward! first he said I would have liked to have seen it at hardcore level to which I replied that I had phoned Geoff (usual guy) last week and he had told me to take it to vapour layer, therefore he couldnt argue. Then he was wanting to know what kind of blocks we were usuing and insulation and Lintels. We agreed on steel cavity lintels and he supposed to be phoning me regards blocks and insulation. We want to use 7N blocks inside and out, but he thinks we should use thermalite one on the inside wall. But it depends on the insulation (cavity). So waiting for phone call, its not a major problem just dont like thermalite blocks as they have a tendancy to crack and take the plaster with them.
I shut the french door at lunch time when I went out to make my weekly order at Travis perkins and feed my DD1 rabbits. Came home and now the door wont open it seems stuck at the bottom. It is very hot here today so not sure if thats the problem. Unfortunetly DH working in Slovakia for a couple of days, so will have to leave till he is home.

jamtart6

EEK whats this about thermalite blocks??? they crack? yikes hope not, thats what we are using!

jimbugalee

Oh gosh Spicey - that sounds stressful!! I'm worried about the council inspecting our bathroom move but fingers crossed they won't bother.

My blog is updated http://seatonroad.blogspot.com/ ... nothing too exciting.

aliasojo

Sorry to read of all your ups and downs TM...or should that be 'downs and downs'. :rolleyes: You gotta just keep on plodding on don't you? Thoughts are with you, my Mum had Non Hodgekins Lymphoma and I remember well how tiring the disease AND the treatment was. I'm a firm believer in positivity working wonders....just a shame I can't apply that to my own life, lol.

Andy, I didn't realise you had your own health issues to contend with too, hats off to you for dealing with all your house stuff, you too put me to shame, lol.

I've (we've) moved out now as I've had enough of not having a bathroom. Everything is moving far too slowly and the longer it goes on, the slower I get. We've had more delays and the fact we live in the Highlands holds everything up as I either just can't get hold of what I need or I'm charged a premium delivery cost and it takes days to get here. I finally found a holiday let not too far from me so we've got a fortnight to get stuff done.

The last lot of tiles turned out to be a mixed batch so they have to be returned to get a 'same batch number' load. I can't get Ditra matting unless I pay £35 to get it delivered and my underfloor heating and thermostat was delivered when we were out and was left in the garden in the rain. Oh the joys. :rolleyes:

latecomer

Just a very quick update - we've got planning permission :j

The drawings needed changed as we fell foul of a regulation so we have a standard square dormer at the back. We didn't know anything about this until I noticed the revised drawings on the council website which was a bit naughty of him but then he said if he hadn't done it immediately they would have rejected the application. Mind you he could have phoned afterwards........

Anyway thats a big step in the right direction. We should be getting our final quote in today but I suspect it wont be as competitive as our existing quotes. If we do go with the existing best quote then they want to start in just over a week :j

So a weekend of clearing out the rest of the stuff in the garage is ahead of us. Also spoke to our neighbours who are fine with the scaffolding being on their land and also for their lean-to shed to be taken down and rebuilt (it would prevent the scaffolding going up) which is really nice of them considering they dont even have to let us on their land at all. I've said that we'll sort out the extra wood to finish their shed off (it was missing one side) and do something in the small gap between us to make it look good. Think we'll need to treat them once its all done too

I'll definitely try and get an update on the blog with pics of the bathroom cupboard.....

jimbugalee

Great news latecomer!! Your neighbours sound great also .. looking foward to updated blog

We had an uber stressful weekend. Knew tiling was going to start on Sunday so Friday had the plasterer round to smooth over the artex. He did a fab job!
Then Saturday evening we started the underfloor heating. I did the calculations to work out the room size minus all the bits and peices and we spaced the cable 6.4cm apart. Got to pretty much the end to find we had 11m of cable left!! AAAARGH!!!! How could it be so far out?! It was now midnight and OH very stressed.
We decided to get up early early on Sun and start again. We were going to try and calculate the area again but it's just impossible as until you lay the cable you can't see where it's going to go i.e. you might miss out the bit between bath and loo which could lose you a metre in cable. So .... we guessed the spacing at 5.5cm and it worked!! A bit of tweaking at the end but PHEW 3 hours later.

My Dad came round and we managed to lay 16 floor tiles who hooooooo. We used 2 bags of adhesive as the floor is so un-level (can't use self levelling because of the wetroom). We're really pleased but realise it's going to be a very long process. Think we'll have the whole floor including wetroom area finished by the end of next weekend.

Desperate to update blog but I think OH has taken camera to work!!

How was everyone else's weekend?

latecomer

Neighbours have been great so far..... fingers crossed it stays that way. Think we might need to remove one of their bushes too but guy said he didn't like them anyway so it might not be an issue.

We were trying to make good around our fireplace in ther front room and put in a socket on the wall for the Virgin cable tv which came up through a hole in the floor! That went ok but needed to leave time for the filler to set so decided to dig a hole in the drive to find out whether we have a lead mains pipe or not. As our plot is on a slope I decided the best place to dig was as close to the stop valve as possible but missing the slabs. Started digging down and found it rather hard work due ot the amount of stones. Then of course I found the mother of all rocks about 2 feet down and had to give up. Couldn't even find more than one edge of it to try and give it a pull.

Decided finding the mains pipe where it entered the house might be a better idea. Took a while scrambling around under the floor but finally determined its definitely lead. Not good news as the builder seems reluctant to take on the job of replacing it due to problems he's had with scottish water in the past. I decided to check that it was lead external to the house so did some measurements and started digging. Came across what initially appeared to be a thin slab of concrete but as I worked towards where I wanted to dig became about 12" thick. No way I was getting through that so I had to give up on that too.

So the builder is going to get the job of digging it up. He's going to have to have some plant machinery to dig up the existing garage's foundations and get down to the new level so I dont think its that much more work to expose the mains pipe and lay another a new one. And I'm going to want it on the contract before its signed so there is no debate later on. Ok getting the connection done might be a pain but it has to be done.

Apart from that we got the garage cleared ready for being demolished, just a few things to sort out. British Heart Foundation are going to come and take away the old washing machine which is great as it works and I didn't want to just take it to the tip.

going to try and get a mist coat on the plasterwork around the fireplace tonight and maybe even finish off the cable socket if the filler is set. going away on business next week so need to get everything ready for the builders this week.

jimbugalee

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

Spicey

Hi all, quick update on the inpector, he phoned back the same day and said it was fine to use the 7n blocks for in and outside of walls with celotex insulation, so that big relief!
Unfortunetly FIL lost his battle last week and passed away peacefully while listening to his fav music. DH has thrown himself into concreting the oversite ready for blockwork. The funeral isnt till October as it has taken alot of planning with him being a local celeb where he lived, I think there will be around 500+ expected. Its sad that he wont see the finished work his son has been doing, I think he would have been very proud.

Inspector isnt due back now till the roof structure starts, we went over what lintels etc we are using just to confirm they agree and will go over roof structure again with them before we start it. I find differant inspectors have thier own way of doing things so always keep notes of conversations etc. In fact i've become quiet obsessed with facts and details, not sure what I will do with myself once we are finished.:rotfl:

Re- the french door not opening, turned out the bolt that goes down had broken and stayed down, after taking the thing apart it is now fixed, but its no longer hot anymore just sunny and very windy.