First-time house renovation

nick.simpson19

What a brillant thread.

I bought my house almost 12 months ago FIRST TIME BUYERS, we had a 1 year old child, we managed to pay 1 months rent at our old house so we knew we had a month to get the house livable and around £8000 to play with.

What was done in a month?

• Front room plasterd and painted with flooring and new fire.
• Double glazing fitted throughout property
• Bathroom fitted and tiled (but not had finishing touches done)
• New central heating system fitted throughout
• All bedrooms decorated and carpet fitted in all three bedrooms landing and stairs.

There is always things you dont expect to happen like me putting my hand through the ceiling when fitting the bathroom as there had been a leak for years and years. Dropping a metal scraper in the bath and putting a whole init.

We moved in bought a new tv etc new bedroom furniture for us the baby had all her stuff allready.

As soon as we moved in it kinda all stopped and it took me until about a month ago to start some jobs again, there is so much to do still but I have realised that its going to take time but we have a lovely house especially the front room. Its not so much the time i need to do it its more the money I need to do these jobs.

Things cant be done overnight just remember and HAPPY RENOVATING!

27col

Well Vansboy, that is a pretty serious bit of renovation. It looks to be almost as much work that I did, in building my house from scratch.

TomsMom

Hey, you lot, I've been off sick for a week and what happens? Pages of updates, you've all done lots of work, and I can't keep up :rotfl:

I've checked the blogs (shimmy, BB and h_h), well done all of you, bloggers and non-bloggers alike, you've all come on so much in a week.

I've whizzed through the posts and will quickly answer what jumps out at me:

helping_hubby wrote: »

TomsMom, what have you done with the shower in the end?

Ermm........ jury still out. From replies on my other thread and my sensible head telling me to be very careful, I'm still convinced the plasterboard needs waterproofing before tiling. Builder is telling OH it doesn't need it as they never do it, always seal shower tray before and after, never had to go back for a leak ........ well there's always a first time....... We probably will go for some sort of waterproofing, just need to get it sorted.

Waveydavey - hello, did I miss you before or have you just joined us? Oh, and ema_o, hello to you too. Welcome. Oh, and KT1985 also, the more the merrier. Actually, is that a clue - 1985? I could just about be your [STRIKE]granny[/STRIKE] mum :rotfl: I think I must be the oldest here (in years although I doubt mentality!) although I do still qualify as a first time renovator, only ever having to decorate previous houses this is the first time we've taken on any major works.

Just read h_h message to ema_o about creating a blog and us two being nosey - so true Look at the google blog ema_o, dead easy or I wouldn't have one!

Andrew-b said

Incidentally what are we going to do when we've all finished...sell up, buy another house.. so we can start the "2nd-time house renovation" thread?!

Andy

Lordy Andy, no way. They'll be carrying me out in a box from this house! If we were young, energetic and enthusiastic then there may have been another one but no, this has to be the place we stay in forever now.

Oooh Shimmy, you're supposed to be moving in today. Hope it all went well.

Hello Nick, glad you could join us too.

(So much has happened in just one week on here, I'll never remember it all!)

Right, I think I've looked at all the posts.

By the way Beth, Chester is adorable. Hope he's settling in OK. Have you discovered yet that cats love to climb Christmas trees, real or artificial, they don't mind, and they find baubles quite fun too :rotfl:

Have updated my blog - not much done but a couple more pictures.

andrew-b

TomsMom wrote: »

Have you discovered yet that cats love to climb Christmas trees, real or artificial, they don't mind, and they find baubles quite fun too

I was thinking that myself! We haven't dared put a big christmas tree up with our pup around - he'd trash it in no time! So this year we are resigned to having a small tree stuck on top of hifi speaker with a few bits of tinsel hanging over pictures. Had to take pup to vets yesterday with what was thought to be a foreign object in his paw causing a small swelling on one of his "toes". After paying out over £100 for him to be sedated for removal they actually found nothing so we are none the wiser. Now his on anti-inflammatory drugs for a week and booked in for a weeks time to be anaesthetised and have the lump removed if the drugs don't work..at an estimated further £285! Thank goodness we have pet insurance ...so we should get everything back except the first £50. Even so it couldn't have come at a worst time in the run up to Christmas when cashflow is always a problem.

So yesterday rather than shopping for tiles and other needed materials was spent looking after a very sleepy dog clumsily bashing into everything with big cone on his head.

Shimmyhill

We did indeed move in today, just !

Do not have a fully functioning kitchen yet - should do by tues evening tho and we have plenty of take-away options

Will update the blog as soon as the imac is unpacked, the place is full of boxes and will be for a while as we have 2 bedrooms to finish (1 is jst about done but not ready for today)

Moving is as stressful as they say, moreso when moving into an unfinished place but we have had great support and help from friends and family so that has all been a great help.

I start a new job on Jan 12th so have a month off to [STRIKE]bum around [/STRIKE]carry on with the bungalow project - amazing how different the place looks with our stuff in !!

TomsMom

andrew-b wrote: »

So yesterday rather than shopping for tiles and other needed materials was spent looking after a very sleepy dog clumsily bashing into everything with big cone on his head.

Awww, poor cone head. Hope his pawly toe (pun intended ) is better soon.

Seriously, I always feel so sorry for animals who need to wear those cones for a while. We understand why they need them but I'm sure they must find it very confusing. Imagine having an itchy snout and you can't get your paw up to scratch it, must be maddening!

andrew-b

TomsMom wrote: »

I'm sure they must find it very confusing. Imagine having an itchy snout and you can't get your paw up to scratch it, must be maddening!

Daddy's little soldier soon worked that one out...he got [STRIKE]his servant[/STRIKE] me to do it instead! Couldn't help but laugh when his cone got wedged firmly between table and chair...he wasn't impressed and looked at me in disgust! We've had to remove the cone today as he worked out how to lick the wound anyway and was getting upset at not being able to chew his bone as well as knocking things over! He just barged through things regardless of whether the cone would fit!

Andy

BB1984

Hi All, wow looks like everyone's been v busy!
I'm really happy as at the weekend we managed to "finish" our lounge - so now we can veg out in front of the tv/internet to our hearts content!
It still needs new carpet and curtains, and the alcoves need wallpapering (only 2 small areas), but all the painting is done so it looks reasonably presentable for xmas guests.
Chester hasn't attacked the xmas tree yet! Although he is a bit upset with us for moving the tree from the kitchen table into the lounge - we've stolen his favourite hiding space!
I've updated the blog http://thehouseofdoom.wordpress.org with latest photos, if you're interested. I stupidly left OH unattended last week, during which time he managed to spontaneously buy a £200 lamp for the kitchen......! Here we are with no carpet, and he's spending that on lamps?! Was a bit cross at his irresponsibility, but it was his money, and it is a very nice lamp....!
Have subscribed to all of your blogs now (helping hubby see if you can subscribe to mine now - I think i've managed to put an RSS link on my homepage!) so am up to date with you all. Looking great - love the new bathroom h_h!

BB

TomsMom

Well done Beth and David :T it all looks lovely. I like the colour schemes and you seem to have made a nice job of the painting. Lamp looks good David! Chester is getting more handsome by the day and he certainly looks as though he's settled in - lording over everything as cats are meant to do :rotfl: Is that his true colour in the photo? Such a lovely pale colour.

I forgot to mention that we had approval of our plans last week :j . The builder has ordered the steels for the loft and they will be made this side of Christmas, then they will be back after their Christmas break to continue with the refurb of the loft conversion and finishing off the bathroom.

And we've made a decision on the shower - ordered the BAL waterproof shower kit last night, in fact we ordered two - one for the bathroom and one for the ensuite when it's done. Worked out a lot cheaper, it was £70ish for one but if you ordered two the price came down to £50ish each and free shipping. So we got the BAL ones with 25 year guarantee for only £5 more than the Dunlop one.

BB1984

TomsMom wrote: »

Chester is getting more handsome by the day and he certainly looks as though he's settled in - lording over everything as cats are meant to do :rotfl: Is that his true colour in the photo? Such a lovely pale colour.

Yes indeed he is a handsome chap, and that is his true colour - he's strawberry blonde rather than ginger...! :rotfl:

Congratulations on getting planning approval - an important step! All steam ahead then after Christmas...

Oh I forgot to say congrats also to Shimmy - well done for moving in! It's hard to keep up the momentum sometimes, but equally I think living in the house makes it easier to make decisions about layouts, colours, etc, as you get a better feel for the place. (You'll have to put up with the dust though - it gets everywhere no matter how hard you try to keep things clean!)

BB