First-time house renovation

TomsMom

andrew-b wrote: »

On a different subject Tesco finally had my glasses ready which i picked up yesterday. Fortunately they are ok. Andy

:T Great stuff. One more thing ticked off the list re the wedding. Not long now!

jamtart6

Thanks for the info guys - well Andrew- I am actually very meticulous at finding out what needs to be done. And everytime building regs was mentioned, I assumed I knew what it was about: i.e. the inspector comes to visit every time. Not once was building regs application mentioned.

The builder we have usually works on large commercial contracts but doing this as a favour so I'm not even holding him even slightly responsible.

I agree with the others about the planner. He sounded very worried on the phone.

ONLY because I hauled in the inspector into the house to point out the concrete lintel on the plans did we end up having this conversation *thank god concrete lintel* because he has already said we have too much glass on the plans (???? what the ****??? how can an extension have too much glass but a conservatory can be built out of 90% glass???) and one wall is too short so there are 2 things he's already kicked up a fuss about luckily before we've done them.

Not sure what to say to the planner man really - need to keep him on side until he submits them to the building regs application people and then we'll be having cross words I think. Its going to cost us more for the drains and the lintel at least so hopefully not too costly, but we're going to lose at least amonth - if the roof is on before xmas it will be a miracle. Can't believe we won't be in for Christmas now this is the saddest I've felt about the house since we bought it - I try to remain upbeat when things get me down but we've been at this extension since Feb and I finally thought we were getting somewhere

Anyway I'll stop ranting now!!!

suisidevw

Hi guys,

We are getting there! Did a lot of hammering/bolstering on Monday and fitted our new fireplace. Have chimney swept and inspected on Monday so hopefully it'll be given the 'go ahead' and then will be fitted properly! Not sure what we will do with the surround yet but no rush

Also, we finally picked up some furniture. Due to the size of the alcove we went for the PAX range in Ikea and a Hemnes Chest. We put int he shelves/drawers that we wanted and Lowris really happy! Almost there upstairs. Planing the doors tonight!

Hope you like

jimbugalee

Love the white in the bedroom Susie .... looks so clean Fireplace is fab too .... ours still looks like your first picture grrrrrr Mind you I covered it up with a bit of plasterboard so at least I'm not staring at soot all day!! I'd love our fire in for the winter but that require mucho saving.

I had a thought re winter/xmas and that it may be a good time to get the rest of our windows and patio doors done - do you think we'd get a good price over xmas as no one wants their windows done then!?!

suisidevw

Thanks! Can't wait to have it roaring, really like the granite hearth too

TomsMom

suisidevw wrote: »

Not sure what we will do with the surround

Love the fireplace. Two things come to mind - stain to match the furniture or a complimentary lighter stain, or paint white. Though if you paint it white it might disappear against such a light coloured wall - not sure what colour the wall is, it doesn't seem to be white.

When we put our cream/stone coloured fire on our creamy beige wall it was totally lost, we wallpapered the chimney breast with a dark brown paper and it really made a lovely feature, it definitely needed the contrast.

Before - second photo.

After.

latecomer

I agree with TM - the contrasting background on their wall makes the fire surround look a lot better. I would almost be tempted to try a darker stain.....maybe try on a similar bit of wood first and then rest if on the top of the surround to give you an idea of how it would look.

We've got foundations :j:j
In laws have been at the house today while the concrete was poured. Of course it was raining today but not badly enough to stop the foundations going in. Had a bit of a panic yesterday as a discussion with the structral engineer resulted in him saying filling in with whole bricks wasn't suitable for under foundations but it seems there was a breakdown in communications and everything is fine as the bricks are being laid as a raft. He said he thought I was talking about just lobbing the bricks in any old way........

Hopefully next week they will get it ready for the concrete garage floor and the subfloor under the kitchen. There is talk of not having a suspended floor and going with concrete then wood on top but I dont like the idea of not being able to access underneath if we put down hardwood flooring etc. I suspect its more work for the builders but seeing as thats what he quoted I'm not worried about sticking to the plans on this one.

PS sorry no update on the blog - I've yet again lost the download cable for the camera

Shimmyhill

I had my first DIY accident a couple of weeks back i was sanding and got a splinter, not your normal type.

The splinter went all the way through my finger Oddly it wasnt all that painful but i did go a bit white after it was pulled out and i seem to have recovered now but it has cost 2 weekends of getting on with stuff !

As the weather is getting colder i am back to thinking about the fireplace, who do you go to to find out how good the chimney is ? Currently there is a gas fire and i have had a quote about removing it but im not sure whop to call about the lining. I assume a lining company will tell me it needs to be relined and while i would get it swept can a chimney sweep tell you if its all ok ?

There has been some progress we have the tiles all done in the kitchen now - amazing what a difference that has made, looks much better !

latecomer

Most chimney sweeps can do an inspection too. I'm sure most companies that sell fireplaces would either have someone who could do it or know someone.

jamtart6

lovely fireplace!

sounds like everyone is doing really well!!

how is tomsdad doing tomsmom?

well we drowned our sorrows about the extension with a trip to the paint aisle of b&q on friday night, and spent the first night ever in our home....only 9 months after we bought it! camp beds and a very cold night but great fun! got up early on saturday and did a second coat and it looks brill, glossed last night, need to get the rad hung and then that is the first room done, cant believe it!

Also got a kitchen plan from wickes. Quoted ~£4k for what we wanted which wasn't too bad, then £1700 for fitting which i thought was really really expensive - anyone else agree? they quoted (an additional) £4800 for the granite (*eek face*) [but the bloke was really good and said we should source it ourselves a lot cheaper. Had to compromise and not have my 90cm rangemaster cooker as it won't fit in so fairly reluctant to compromise on my belfast sink and granite although we saw a butler sink like this which wouldn't require granite so we could have granite-style laminate worktops and this and save about £3k which means I could have bedroom wardrobes. Ho hum. Descisions decisions. We aren't moving for at least 15 years (possibly never) so tempted to invest in the granite as it really is gorgeous!