First-time house renovation

jamtart6

Thanks folks We are really happy! We filled in the MASSIVE hole in the extreme rainfall on Friday, our garden is no longer a death trap :j (has been for 4 months!). Agree, an absolute disgrace re: the council and the architect. Luckily now that we know this building inspector, I feel things are going to go more smoothly (but who knows! ). Mr JT will be working overtime this week on the house, he moved 2 tonnes of hardcore on his own this morning 3 hours :T only another 4 to go.

Anyone recommend where to get cheap insulation for the floor, Kingspan or other?

Finished painting a room this weekend as well :T

PLan for this week: lay rest of hardcore Mon/Tue, Whack it, insulate and visquine it on Wed and get the inspector out on Thur, with the concrete arriving on Saturday morning :T whether that happens is anyones guess! :rotfl:

All very quiet on this thread lately? Has everyone finished their renovations?

How was TD this weekend TM?

Bon week everyone :A

edit: thanks latecomer for reminding me the kitchen sale in wickes ends on 19th nov

TomsMom

jamtart6 wrote: »

How was TD this weekend TM?

The latest side effect seems to be calming down a bit. Poor soul, he is so embarassed but the nurses are lovely, "don't you worry, it's no problem" they say to him.

The protein drinks he's having he says are horrible, he's tried every flavour, even adding lemonade to try and make it better, but he says it just tastes like cardboard and not nice at all. They make him feel quite full so when it comes to "proper" food he doesn't feel like it and can't take in enough calories so he gets the protein drinks again. Viscious circle. He says he just wants to be able to taste something, I suggested he try the curry/rice on the menu, something spicy might be a nice change for him - spicy cardboard mmmmmmm!

He looked quite guant yesterday and even using the toilet and washing his hands afterwards exhausts him. But this is only to be expected, it's how it is. It can take up to two years to get energy levels back to normal. The stem cell transplant procedure is very simple but the side effects are very debilitating.

It took DS 4 hours to drive from here to Bristol, and he was very pleased to see his dad, hadn't seen him since 11 October. Getting out of Bristol Saturday afternoon was a pain, very congested but it is the city centre. Once we were on the motorway it was fine.

Drs are pleased with the way things are going and are discussing discharging him from the isolation unit fairly soon. They want him to go into one of the flats (where I'm accommodated at the weekends) but he's pushing to be discharged back to our hospital here in Bangor. Specialist at Bristol will discuss it with specialist at Bangor so fingers crossed they'll agree. It would be nice to have him nearer, only 90 minutes drive to visit instead of 7 hours by train/car, which would mean he would have a visit most days either by me or DS or d-i-l.

JT, you'll have to put a picture of your room on your blog. Hope your plans for the week come to fruition.

jimbugalee

Hi all

Hope you all had good weekends. I can assure you we are still renovating in Hertfordshire

I spent all week cleaning the grout off the tiles ready to be sealed for the last time but didn't quite finish it before the weekend. My boyfriend fitted the sink and bought the bath upstairs. Aaah it's so nice not to have it in the lounge!

Soon we'll be able to put the carpet back upstairs and get new carpet for our bedroom. aaaaaaaaah, can't wait! Need to paint all of the stair etc too.

Next week we can re-arrange the lounge so it's more like a lounge than a dumping ground and remove most of the bathroom 'stuff' .... I hope. I also need to do some work on the garden as it's a little messy after our mini fireworks display and massive fire at the weekend.

We also have the chimney guy coming this week to prep the chimney for the stove. Hopefully he'll say it's a straight forward install and we'll get that booked in before Xmas.

I've been cooking loads recently and now my friends have discovered banana cake I find myself making one every Sunday for them!

We're off to Marrkech at the beginning of Dec so that will be a nice break from the house but hope it doesn't set us back with the bathroom which we really want working before Xmas. I'm looking forward to having all of our friends (16!!) over for Christmas dinner. My oven (built some time last century) is never going to cope!

JT - looking forward to pics of your newly painted room!! Could you use Marmox for your insultation? Actually, I think it's expensive as waterproof. Something like depron?

TM - good to hear about TD. He sounds like he is doing well and being very strong I really hope they move him closer to you soon. That will help immensely

latecomer

Yup we're still going strong here too!

@TM - glad to hear TD is recovering sligthly from the side-effects. i'm sure seeing everyone will have perked him up considerably

@JT - sounds like you have it all planned out - fingers crossed it all goes as expected.
There is a place that does seconds on Kingspan online although I cant remember the name at the moment. I'm sure there are loads of sites that do it, well worth having a search online.

We spent the weekend trying to find a kitchen. Didn't find anything we liked in howdens or Magnet trade. Found something we really liked in an independent showroom but I've just had the furst estimate back and its very very expensive, due to the amount of granite as much as anything else. Extremely expensive in fact so there will need to be lots of discussion about it. We did get some pictures so we have an idea of what it would look like. We are going to try and cost it ourselves by ordering online to see what the difference is.

Does anyone have any idea what the general price of granite is per metre length? Just a very rough idea would be great. We did try and find a granite supplier I'd found on the net while we were out on sunday but gave up as we didn't have an exact location and couldn't fund it. might try sending them an email or phone and see what they say.

One thing we did figure out is that we want to change the layout of the extension slightly but I've run it past the architect this morning and he's happy with it. Its basically just moving a partition wall but does have some other impacts so need to make sure the builder is happy with the change as it shouldn't make a huge difference to him other than it involves bricking up a window rather than removing that part of the wall.

lisal0u

Hi Everyone and welcome dottiepeas!

As I type the carpets are getting fitted upstairs! Im so excited, cant wait to see what they look like finished! We are having the stair runner fitted later as we havent got the flooring finished downstairs yet. The fitter said we would get a better finish once it was done and also we wouldnt be dragging dirt onto our lovely new carpet!

Weve been painting since last Wednesday till 10:30pm most evenings to get upstairs ready for today! Its been such hard work. Still got little touching up jobs to do on the woodwork, but its basically done :j:j

Ill take lots of piccys when its done and update my blog later!

TM - Your caullis look fab! Im very impressed! I might have a go at them next year. Im so glad TD is doing better and its great news that they are going to move him out of isolation. I bet he's going bonkers in there.

jamtart6 - I love the colour of your feature wall! Very nice! Ive just finished the feature wall in our spare bedroom, its called scarlet ribbon from crown and is a darkish raspberry colour! I love it!

latecomer - hope you find the kitchen you are after! Youll have to upload some pics once you do!

jimbugalee - Cant wait to see piccys of your bathroom suite installed! Its going to look amazing I bet! I hope all goes well with the chimney inspection too!

Right Im off to go have a nosey at whats going on upstairs!

Ta ta x

jamtart6

ooh exciting stuff lisal0u! i dream about the day i get carpet! scarlet ribbon sounds great!

glad you got to see TD, TM! Do they have an idea for when he might get home?

latecomer - wickes have a kitchen sale until 19th nov, but I havent seen any I liked anywhere else! really poor choices


Well we managed to barrow and rake 4 tonnes of hardcore last night. That's six in total but we need another 2 at least the tight schedule is still going to plan. Everyone pray for a sunny day on Saturday so we can get the concrete in!

TomsMom

Lisalou - Just wait till your carpets are finished, they will transform your house and keep the dirt/dust down too. Can't wait to see some pics. Well done on getting the paintwork done too.

JT - fingers crossed for a sunny Saturday.

We had bonfire on the beach last night, postponed from last Thursday when the weather was foul, it was rearranged for Saturday but again the weather was awful. We had a lovely day yesterday so I bet the organisers were glad to get it going at last. Lovely firework display too. I had the most fantastic view from the bedroom window, saved me being out in the cold and dark .

Just had a call from TD, nurse just been in and said they're arranging transport for tomorrow to bring him to Bangor hospital. Can't believe it. They're normally discharged to a flat in Bristol for a few weeks and he's told them I can't go down on a permanent basis and he wouldn't be able to look after himself.

His blood results show everything is going well, his latest side effect has slowed down considerably and no accidents since Saturday, so they must think he is well enough to be moved. He wont be coming home but to be closer is good enough for the moment. They're waiting to find out if Bangor hospital has a bed for him and if so it's all systems go :j .

latecomer

Thats fantasic news TM. :j .

lisal0u

That is brillian news :T Im so happy for you! I bet TD is very happy too! He'll get lots more visitors now and that will help him mend quicker!

A bonfire on the beach sounds fab! I didnt do anything this year apart from watch a few fireworks out of the window! Will have to have my own next year!

The carpet man has nearly finished, it looks like an actual house with rooms now hahahah! I cant believe how quickly he is doing it, all alone too! Im just making sure he has a constant supply of coffee!

x

lisal0u

Blog updated!

I cant tell you how happy I am with the carpets, the colours are perfect! I could cry ha ha!

Having a night off tonight but back diy-ing again tomorrow!

x