First-time house renovation

suisidevw

Great TM. What furniture company was it again, pine solutions?

lisal0u

Hi Everyone,

Sorry Ive not been on here in a while. I no longer have internet at the flat as its been transfered to the house :-( Got to use it at work now in my dinner hour.

Not got an awful lot to report Im afraid. The joiner has finally finished so we have 6 working doors! Its great cos I can shut the dust out now!

We spent Saturday paint stripping the last bits on the stairs then Sunday sanding them! It was such hard work and I have never seen so much mess in my life. The sawdust is stuck to everything including the ceilings :eek: Clearing up is not going to be fun.
Just got a few more bits to sand tonight then its done! Its taken weeks!
Ill take some piccy later!

suisidevw - Your house looks lovely and the stairs are very nice! We are doing the same thing and having a stair runner. We went for striped carpet which was a pain to find: http://www.victoriacarpets.com/natural_stripe.html

We went for the mineral stripe so its not too dark!

I think the price of the stairs was about £200 including underlay, grippers and fitting. The carpet was £29.99/m2 (Allied wanted £38.99/m2 so makes sure you shop around!).

Jimbugalee - Aww your bathroom is bringing back memories! It looks lovely! Even though the underfloor heating was a pain you will appreciate it when you have a lovely warm floor to walk on in the morning!

TomsMom - Your curtains look lovely, they look very expensive! Makes the room all lovely and cosy!

Im glad you finally managed to get your furniture! Looking forward to seeing some piccys!

Hope TD is doing ok too! Any news on a new date for Bristol yet?

Right I's better get back to work
ta ta x

suisidevw

Runner looks like it'll be lovely! Are you having carpet upstairs as well? I assume the £200 includes the whipping of the carpet?

TomsMom

suisidevw wrote: »

Great TM. What furniture company was it again, pine solutions?

No Suiside, I think Andy used Pine Solutions. We used FurniturePlus. They have a bricks and mortar shop as well as internet store, and we phoned them up as we always tend to do when internet shopping, we check there is a physical address and phone number otherwise we tend to steer clear.

Everything came boxed and well protected with polystyrene inside, surprised really as it wasn't flat pack furniture, all proper ready made solid oak furniture. We do have some marks on the paintwork on the walls from getting the boxes upstairs and as it's matt paint I doubt if it will come off, we might have to repaint some of the h/s/l. But that's a risk you take when having big stuff delivered.

lisal0u

suisidevw wrote: »

Runner looks like it'll be lovely! Are you having carpet upstairs as well? I assume the £200 includes the whipping of the carpet?

Yeah we are having carpet upstairs too but its just a plain cream on the landing that matches one of the stripes. Didnt want stripes on the landing too because I thought it might be a bit too much!

We decided to have the edges turned under and glued rather then being whipped, not sure how that differs price wise?

Were having 3 bedrooms and landing and stairs done for £1,148. That includes everything and fitting. Allied carpets wanted £1600 and that didnt include underlay or fitting!

TomsMom

lisal0u wrote: »

Clearing up is not going to be fun.

I don't envy you Lisalou, I'm so glad all that is behind us now.

Just got a few more bits to sand tonight then its done! Its taken weeks!
Ill take some piccy later!

Looking forward to seeing them.

We went for striped carpet which was a pain to find: http://www.victoriacarpets.com/natural_stripe.html

We went for the mineral stripe so its not too dark!

That's really nice carpet!

TomsMom - Your curtains look lovely, they look very expensive! Makes the room all lovely and cosy!

We're really happy with the curtains. I think for the size - 100" long and 3 widths in each curtain - they were reasonable. We got them from Dunelm and it was about £280, lined with their basic lining as that was free and there is the sun room behind the window so not as cold a room as if it was the main back wall.

That's something folks, if you're rooms have direct strong sunlight for any part of the day I'd suggest a heavy lining such as thermal or blackout as the sun will rot a lightweight lining or unlined curtains (been there, done that in a previous house!). Also, it's worth closing the curtains for the part of the day strong sun shines into your room as it will not only bleach the curtains (they end up stripey where the folds are) it affects carpets and the heat can dry out furniture too. As we're at home all day I close our bedroom curtains and pull down the blinds in the sun room when the sun is strongest. I now need to get blinds for the two velux windows in the sun room roof as that shines through to the lounge.

Hope TD is doing ok too! Any news on a new date for Bristol yet?

No date for Bristol yet, keeping fingers crossed for first couple of weeks of October. His chemo last week was less agressive than the others he's had this year as they only need to stop the lymphoma taking a hold again at the moment rather than kill it off. He's in for stem cell harvest this week providing his blood results are good enough. Previous time only harvested 1.2 units and they need 2 units to freeze as backup in case the donor transplant fails. I'm beginning to wonder if this was the cause of the cancellation????? They didn't arrange another harvest after they failed to reach the required amount a few months ago. Did they forget it and couldn't do the transplant without the proper amount for backup? Then as the arrangements were being made last minute checks highlighted this fact??? Told you I think too much :rotfl: .

ukmaggie45

jimbugalee wrote: »

Hi all,
Good weekend? We carried on tiling (see blog http://seatonroad.blogspot.com/) and almost finished the bathroom floor. Wow only 4 walls to go ...

Wow, those tiles are looking good! :beer: Can't wait to see the finished project - bet you can't too!

I'm beginning to dream renovation now - had the legal pack for our possible purchase on Friday, OH is trying to arrange a drain survey (lots of trees) etc so it's definitely reaching the scary stage. Next stage is to see about raising the cash! :eek: I am scared of financial stuff like brokers so it will definitely be an education!

Plan is if we get the house we will move in gradually, decluttering as best we can as we go. May need to get new boiler and stuff like that done first. Then we might renovate our current house rather than selling immediately. It's all a bit in the air at present, but I'm trying to think what might need doing to both houses!

Sassers

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helping_hubby

@suiside - house is looking good. Your carpets are very similar to ours, good taste

@Tomsmom, thanks for the blog update - saw that last week.

Our doors have remained untouched

Instead I've been doing more gardening - got some Shrubs and bushes, got a rose bush for £2 And planted 51 violas and 40 tulips yesterday. Got another 70 odd bulbs still to plant.

Also learning guitar and started my card making hobby again, on top of watching Prison Break (on season 4 now and it's great)

We've bought a bargain Sofa Bed...a £440 one for £224 It was in Tesco Direct and on offer (3rd off until Sep 28th), plus we got 10% off staff discount, and a further 10% off because I sent for a swatch and they sent me a coupon. Not to mention £11 Quidco cashback Love a bargain.

OH is off to Ikea this week to buy bookshelves for the living room.

If anyone is about furniture shopping can you let me know if you see a small side table, ideally in beech, or something close to beech. It needs to be a maximum of 35cm in diameter. Preferably round Not at all fussy me Oh and less than £100.

I'm also looking at getting these blinds for the living room:
http://www.johnlewis.com/Home+and+Garden/Curtains_2c+Poles+and+Blinds/Ready+Made+Blinds/Made+to+Measure+Blinds/6099/6098/M2MChooseOption.aspx?Fabric=230415853&TypeId=3
Think when I got it quoted it was about £95.
We already have curtains and don't want nets, so this seems to be a great solution to get some privacy during the day without drawing the curtains.

TomsMom

helping_hubby I like those blinds HH, a nice modern alternative to nets. Nice bargain with the sofa :T . Keep up the good work in the garden - addictive isn't it? I'm out there most days checking to see if those pesky nasturtiums are still coming up, I must have dug up hundreds of them and still they keep coming. The ones I really hate are the ones coming through the middle of plants I've put in as you can't dig down to get the little bulb out so I have to just break them off knowing they'll come back again.

maggie Hope your drain survey turns out OK and things go well with the finance. You've certainly got your work cut out thinking about what to do with two houses, it's all we could do to think about one!

I had to recharge the batteries for the camera but have now managed to take some pictures of the bedroom furniture so have done an update on my blog.