First-time house renovation

aliasojo

andrew-b wrote: »

Considering another project on a room that was marked as finished..of a homemade fitted wardrobe for the spare room ..must do something soon before the house begins to subside with all the junk but money is extremely tight now as we are just about broke and the house fund is running on empty apart from money designated for new bed. No way we can afford Christmas this year...but at least we have cake to eat! So maybe we'll have our first christmas on our own as we've never had one yet ..not sure how it will go down with our families though!

Andy

Nooooooo! Stop whilst you're ahead. :rotfl: You dont need a fitted wardrobe...back away from the measuring tape.

Can't beat your first 'on your own and skint' Christmas btw. You'll look back on that fondly in years to come....cos when you're older and still skint, it's never as appealing.

My latest project will involve money gathering...to pay for the repair bills for my leaking roof. :rolleyes: (I've told everyone else on every other thread I've been on so no point in leaving you lot out. )

ukmaggie45

Hi Andy,

andrew-b wrote: »

Maggie, as i suggested to you when you showed me the details before...i'd favour going upwards over going backwards if your extending (my parents did a similar thing to form two extra bedrooms upstairs - existing garage foundations were sufficient - well they thought they were though this may have since been proven otherwise!).

If I was fit and healthy we'd look at doing that. But the problem is I'm already having problems with stairs. At least the hopefully new home has less steep stairs than our current 1905 terraced house, but it would be difficult to make a decent sized room on top of the garage... And the good thing is it already has some grab rails installed on the stairs (if Social Services didn't provide them and want them back! )

I very much suspect the footings wouldn't be sufficient to go upwards - the extension that's there is from the 60s, and isn't insulated properly (polystyrene tiles on ceilings then painted with gloss paint :eek: ) plus it's about a foot lower than the ceilings on rest of ground floor. In other words a bit of a botched mess, but that's what folks did back then I suppose. No building regs! :rolleyes: :rotfl:

andrew-b wrote: »

The property details mentioned views ..so maybe you could have living space upstairs to make the most of them? Personally i would keep the garage..it's something we don't have and something that i'd consider necessity now!

We are pretty certain the garage is too narrow to take my car (Renault Grand Scenic) and even OH's car (Skoda). But wouldn't be practical for his to be in garage and mine on drive anyway as he uses his daily and mine only gets used 2/3 times a week usually. Mind you, garage could be useful for tool storage, lawnmower when we get one etc etc! :eek: If we made it into an extra room it would look almost straight down the road to the river and Welsh hills.

andrew-b wrote: »

I suppose you could extend backwards a few feet (my parents did a similar thing to extend their dining room - ground floor only with a pitched roof) - though to me the back french doors are screaming at me "conservatory"!

Oh yes, scream conservatory at me too, but the back garden is higher than the house so we'd have to shift a lot of earth! :eek: Plus the drains run across the back of the house only a couple of feet or so away from the external wall. I think there are ways to cope with this (been reading this forum as usual!) and it's not the main drain, which is about 4 houses away and under the front road. IYSWIM.

I've been watching a show on More4, The Home Show, where an architect takes folks life savings and makes over their house. Interesting viewing, and I really like a lot of the stuff he's done.

andrew-b wrote: »

Not much to report here. Knee still giving me grief though managed to get up the loft yesterday and finally drain off some water from the heating system to put inhibitor in. Took far longer than anticipated as the old hose i usually use to drain water off with is so kinked it's totally useless. Ended up with a short piece of hose and a big flexible bucket and a damp carpet! Then took ages to get it all back up and running and free of air - suspect there's still some in there that needs bleeding off again from what i can hear.

Oh dear, sorry to hear about the knee. Hope it gets all better soon. And good luck with finishing the bleeding of heating system,

andrew-b wrote: »

Considering another project on a room that was marked as finished..of a homemade fitted wardrobe for the spare room ..must do something soon before the house begins to subside with all the junk but money is extremely tight now as we are just about broke and the house fund is running on empty apart from money designated for new bed.

Try freecycle? You might be lucky enough to get something you could adapt? New bed is good idea - when we got ours 15 years ago it felt wonderful! We'll have to have new if we get this house, as I don't think a king size will fit in either bedroom... Or not if we want to have anything else at all in the rooms!

andrew-b wrote: »

No way we can afford Christmas this year...but at least we have cake to eat! So maybe we'll have our first christmas on our own as we've never had one yet ..not sure how it will go down with our families though!

You just got married! I don't see that your families can complain if you want to spend your first married Crimbole alone in your very own home! Get a nice duck which will be just big enough for 2, and enjoy!

Maggie

PS sorry this is a bit disjointed, had a rather upsetting counselling session, and then got home to find OH had letter from our solicitor (the other one, not the conveyancing one) with more difficulties over parental estates... Just hope won't affect house purchase etc. Ye gods and little fishes, the sol my parents put in place as joint executor with OH sure has a lot to answer for.:eek: Thank goodness we have a decent one working on our behalf now anyway.

TomsMom

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

TomsMum will be pleased to hear you intend to start a blog. I think she's the [STRIKE]most curious[/STRIKE] nosiest of all of us here. Mind you, I come a pretty good second!

Maggie

Can't imagine how I got this reputation . I'm just off to [STRIKE]have a nosey[/STRIKE] admire your intended purchase Maggie .

dottiepeas wrote: »

and will try and start a little blog too!! :T (easier for pics and things!)...can't wait to get started!!...though can see my weekends will be busy from now on!...

Attagirl Dottiepeas. Nice to see you've got your priorities right. Blog, photos, update on forum, do some DIY, feed the OH, in that order :rotfl: . Welcome to our little renovation corner of MSE, looking forward to hearing all about your new home. I can't believe how many are renovating bungalows, Maggie - we're in the minority here!

Result of throat swab was negative - did it have something to do with Dr taking swab from side of throat not affected . Anyway, throat/chest a lot better but ear still badly affected. Been back to Drs today, saw a different one who at least looked in ear and proclaimed it healthy. Reckons it's catarrh in the ear common with cold/throat infection type things. Nothing to do but sit it out and he says it could take 4-6 weeks :eek: blooming heck, the constant rapid drumming sound and feeling of pressure is driving me nuts, and don't you always notice it more when you're trying to get to sleep? Ear drops no good as it's not the outer ear, it's the eustachian tube so affected from inside IYSWIM.

TD managed some soup today - never heard anyone so excited about having soup, suppose it gets you like that when you've had liquid food through a line for a week. He's still high on morphine and it's sometimes difficult to understand him - combination of the swollen tongue/pain/morphine. He can't remember half of what we talk about - oooh, tempting, shall I go and get a nice shiny new laptop for my craft corner in the loft and tell him he told me to buy one , or is that cruel? Just thought, he owes me presents from our 40th wedding anniversary in 2008, last Christmas and birthday last January. He wont be able to get out and do anything about a present this Christmas or birthday either. That just about adds up to the price of a laptop methinks.

DS is taking me to Bristol next Friday, coming back Saturday evening. He has 3 children and needs to be here on Sunday so d-i-l can go to work in the afternoon. Saves me the train journey but he does have a lead foot when he drives so it wont be a sedate or relaxing journey. Still, I'm grateful that I'm getting help with the visiting.

Thanks for all your updates, keep 'em coming. I've nothing to tell you about our house at the moment other than the decorator is coming later in the week to repaint the walls that were scuffed when the bedroom furniture was taken upstairs. It's probably quicker to repaint than to patch paint all the scuffs, at least there wont be any patches of different colour this way.

Oh, and I've got a cauliflower. Despite the caterpillars best efforts to decimate my six plants, they managed to survive and I have one darling little cauliflower the size of my thumbnail (I really must take a photo, I'm so proud).

jimbugalee

Hey all

Apologies I haven't had time to read any new posts but will catch up this week. News from us is we've finally finished the bathroom tiling!! Take a look at the blog http://seatonroad.blogspot.com/

Hope you are all well and catch up properly soon.

TomsMom

Bathroom looks great Jimbugalee. Well done to your Dad :T, I think you owe him a pint or three! I can't wait to see it with all the sanitary ware in, and with lovely thick fluffy towels it'll be like a 5* hotel bathroom!

aliasojo

jimbugalee wrote: »

Hey all

Apologies I haven't had time to read any new posts but will catch up this week. News from us is we've finally finished the bathroom tiling!! Take a look at the blog http://seatonroad.blogspot.com/

Hope you are all well and catch up properly soon.

Bet ya don't. I said that too, but haven't.

Bathroom looks great. :T

aliasojo

Glad TD is on the mend enough to try a little 'solid' food TM. Kinda puts things into perspective a bit when you're moaning about trivialities (I had a 'bra' problem this morning, lol) and you read how happy something as simple as soup, can make a person. I wish more power to his soup spoon!

TomsMom

Psst........ wanna see my cauli?

Breaking news.......... TD enjoyed his soup, today he managed beans on toast and they've started to reduce his morphine :T - he was making a lot more sense when I spoke to him today, bless him!

Edinburghlass_2

I'm a reader/lurker on this thread and just popped in to say how pleased I am too about the soup and beans on toast!!

ps Tesco have a nice laptop for £328 at the moment

jamtart6

very pleased TD is on the mend

the Travertine in Seaton Rd is looking great!! so do the spotlights!

Over at Liberty Cottage we made good progress! We have new fence on 2 of the three sides of our garden. The shed has been painted thrice and has "re-claimed" shelving and waterproof flooring. The garden is still like a quagmire and I grow 2-3 inches every time I go outside due to the amount of clay mud attached to my trainers I like being 5ft 6 !

The drains have been re-done but it has been so wet here that you cant actually see the pipes, we are praying for a dry-ish day so that the inspector can come out and hopefully pass the drains (2nd time lucky).

Almost finished fitting shelves in the cupboard and painted a ceiling (2 hours it took me! wouldnt mind but the room is only about 8m2!!!)