First-time house renovation

lisal0u

littlerose12345 wrote: »

Filler is amazing, makes such a difference!

Did you skim the rest of the room in your bedroom?

We ended up knocking all the old plaster off the walls and ceilings and had the whole place boarded and skimmed. The only places we didnt do this was the box room (and downstairs bay) as boarding means you lose a bit of space in the rooms. I wish we had now though as the cracks have just come through the skim in the box room!

I agree filler is amazing! Stuarts favourite job is caulking ha ha!

ukmaggie45

TomsMom wrote: »

We did think of having a slate hearth in this house but in the end didn't need one with the hang on the wall fire. It would have been very easy to get slate here as we're not that far from a couple of slate mines in N.Wales.

We've got a slate hearth under the gas fire in our living room (not used for many years now so wouldn't ever light it now!)

We took a piece of gash slate from a pile near Blaenau Ffestiniog back in the 70s. I'd quite like to get it out, but I think a mistake was made in the cement mix, so it'll be a major job! One for when we move out I think! :rolleyes:

Maggie

latecomer

jimbugalee wrote: »

. We were thinking slate - anyone know any good/cheap?! suppliers?! I am thinking tiles would be cheaper but not have such a nice effect?

Not sure whether you've seen our blog but it has some pictures of our stove with a slate hearth. We love the look, it just complements the stove perfectly.

http://the2yearproject.blogspot.com/2009/08/quick-update.html

It looks much better now that the skirting boards are on and the wall has been filled and painted. Must take another pic and get it uploaded.

lisal0u

TM how is TD doing? Did he get settled in ok?

Nothing much to report since the carpets on Tuesday. Stuarts being going in the evenings to finish staining the stairs, he's a good boy!

This weekend we are going to lay the rest of the underfloor heating downstairs and start on the flooring then we can get the carpet man back to fit the stair runner.

Still need to do a little bit more decorating and skirting downstairs and also finish the bathroom tiling! Once that is done we can finally move! I think another couple of weeks! It will have taken us 1 year and 4 months to do it!

Next project will be the garden :rolleyes:

xxx

latecomer

We've had a full weeks worth of building work which has made a huge difference to the outside. The long wall between us and next door is basically at full height, just a little building up on the corners as the front and back walls are built up.

The loft conversion is going well but there have been some issues with the existing joists and roof timbers not being parallel with each other. they've had to change the structure in a couple of places and get the structural engineer to sign off the new plan. Still its starting to get to the point where we can imagine what its going to look like. They've also had to remove some of the old wiring conduit and replace with new wiring which is an added bonus

Had a change of plan with the front elevation as the standard door thats on the plans would be extremely tight for the car at around 2.2m and hence the builder was proposing we go for a larger door in the region of 2.9m. This means that we cant have a side door but this wasn't something I was too concerned about in the first place. We are going to have a back door to the kitchen and there is already another one to the sitting room so we can just use those. Alternatively we can always use the garage door itself if we want to.

I'll try and get an update on the blog over the weekend and I really want to get the last piece of skirting board stuck on the wall in the front room. Not sure we'll get time for anything else due to family visits. Certainly doesn't look like its going to be the weather for anything external.

lisal0u

latecomer you should get your family to help while they are visiting! My rule is if youre coming in for a nose you can do a little job before you leave hahahah

Sounds like lots has happened at your house, im looking forward to a blog update!

How did the skirting sticking go? Instant grab is a bit of a lie as I had to hold most bits in place while it set! The walls wern't particularly straight either so we had to do lots of filling! Looks good now they are painted though!

latecomer

Trouble is that there isn't a lot that people can help with at the moment. There isn't even a lot we can do, just a few small things. Plus my gran is 96 so probably isn't up to too much DIY

Sticking the skirting boards was a slow process as we could only really fit one section at a time. We had to use the left over boxes of tiles to press them to the wall until the grab adhesive cured. We still have some (ok a lot ) of filling to do behind the boards although I've not yet figured out how best to do this without caking the skirting boards in filler/caulk. As we are not painting them we have to be really careful whatever we decide to do. All ideas welcome

TomsMom

lisal0u wrote: »

TM how is TD doing? Did he get settled in ok?

xxx

TD is so happy to be nearer home. In a room on his own but he now has the freedom to move about, go in and out, in Bristol in isolation he wasn't even allowed to go to the door of the room as it was a sterile room with specially filtered air. D-i-l and I went to visit last night for an hour or so and he was looking good and had eaten a lunch and an evening meal so food-wise he's coming on, he still has to have the protein stuff though to keep his calories up.

I sent him a text this morning about 10am and he replied that he was totally drained today and that it had woken him up. I think he will be up and down with recovering his energy, but he seems to want to run before he can walk. I suggested he arranges for Social Services to get him a stool so he can use the shower when he comes home, but he thinks he'll be fine getting in and out of the bath. Our bath is quite deep and d-i-l and I think it will be impossible. He does as he's told in hospital and I think I might have a bit of a problem persuading him that some things he just can't do yet. I've told him he can't come home until he promises to do as he's told! But it's early days and I don't mind how slow progress is as long as the treatment has been worth it.

Loving the updates everyone.

Maggie - are you around? What's happening with the house you've offered on? Any progress yet?

jimbugalee

Thanks latecomer that gives us a good idea of what it will look like. I ordered the slate from somewhere in Wales today . We really wanted the riven effect but we don't have enough time before the stove is being installed. All a bit of a rush!

Sorry I haven't had time to read everyone elses updates today.

TomsMom

andrew-b wrote: »

TM, would suggest TD not attempting the bath (least not unaided)..the getting in is the easy bit..it's the getting out is the problem ..i find this bit very tricky myself. You can get bath lifts without having to drill holes in your precious new bath! A relaxing soak in the bath may be more beneficial than a shower anyway. I'd ask social services to come round and discuss what they can provide - if they can't provide things for free they may be able to tell you where you can hire equipment.

Thanks Andy, I'll [STRIKE]be sure to nag him[/STRIKE] make sure we discuss this with Social Services when the time comes.