First-time house renovation

typeractive

jimbugalee, I really like your bathroom!! it looks like you've made a great use of the space. My bathroom isn't that great a size, and I REALLY want to be able to have a seperate shower to the bath - I don't really like showers over a bath as I find the water just goes everywhere anyway. I think your open shower makes the room look larger / gives good space - I wonder if I can do mine similar? hmmm Do you have underfloor heating in there as well?

I just popped on here by the off chance and what a great thread!! I'd love to read through all the posts but I think that would take forever!!!! lol. I am also in the middle...actually retract that - I'm at the beginning of renovating my first house. It's a BIG project, which has really slowed down over Christmas for a variety of reasons and excuses.

I've been photographing as I go along, all the work so far is pretty much just dismantling the place. Think I need to setup one of these little blogs for everyone to see. It's a great way of sharing ideas and tips.

Thanks!

lisal0u

Hi guys and gals!

Appologies for neglecting the thread at the minute! Ive been stupidly busy and have only had chance for a fleeting visit every now and again!

We made our Christmas move in deadline but wow was it hard work! Did a tiny blog update. I managed to get a tree up at 01:30am Christmas morning ha ha! We have been renting for 10 years and what a LOT of stuff we have accumulated!

We didn't have chance to thin it out either so it all got moved to the house. We are currently in the process of sorting through it all and should be done by the end of the weekend. (Im never moving again!)

I will take some finished house piccys then (well almost finished) and do some before and afters. Need to get curtains ordered but Im not sure what to do with our bay windows and french doors. Currently we have obscured plastic curtains ha ha!

I need your help for this one! We have a bay window that is 3m wide but the windowsill goes around the corner of the window so the curtains would have to do the same meaning about 3.5m wide. I think I will have to get them made but I cant really afford to have them going to the floor unfortunately. Do curtains sit on the windowsill or just below it and how far away from the window does the curtain track need to be? (it has to be ceiling hung as the windows go right to the ceiling).

Here is a piccy but its a bit rubbish as its from my phone:


These are the curtains I have fallen in love with:


But they will cost around £450 to have made and thats with 25% off eek :eek:
Also we have french doors that need something. Stuart is keen on vertical blinds but Im not so sure, whatever I choose they need to fit inside the recess as there isnt room either side to draw curtains etc back.

Any help on this would be muchly appreciated!

jimbugalee - We have lots of snow in North Lincolnshire, the roads were terrible when we went out earlier! I think Ill be working at home tomorrow!

TM - Im so glad TD is doing well! He's a fighter that one Did you manage to get all your leaks fixed or has the bad weather been stopping the builders coming?

typeractive, pawpurrs and any other new people I may have missed - A BIG welcome! Im looking forward to more blogs to look at. Hopefully will have more time to keep track soon!

Heres the blog list for you guys:
http://bungalow-diy.blogspot.com/ (andrew-b)
http://housetart.blogspot.com
http://libertycottage.blogspot.com/ (jamtart6)
http://olwaysmoanin.blogspot.com/ Jo and Radi
http://diybungalow.blogspot.com
http://rizzo-renovations.blogspot.com/
http://seatonroad.blogspot.com (jimbugalee)
http://spice-villa.blogspot.com/ (Spicey)
http://the2yearproject.blogspot.com/ (latecomer)
http://thehouserenovationinsurrey.blogspot.com/ Sam (Helping Hubby) http://westbroke.blogspot.com/ (TomsMom)
http://stuartandlisashouse.blogspot.com/ (Me)
http://thehouseofdoom.wordpress.com (Beth)
http://web.me.com/shimmyhill/House/B...w_Project.html (Shimmyhill)

I cant remember if Ive already said but if not Happy New Year xxx

TomsMom

lisal0u wrote: »

I will take some finished house piccys then (well almost finished) and do some before and afters. Need to get curtains ordered but Im not sure what to do with our bay windows and french doors. Currently we have obscured plastic curtains ha ha!

I need your help for this one! We have a bay window that is 3m wide but the windowsill goes around the corner of the window so the curtains would have to do the same meaning about 3.5m wide. I think I will have to get them made but I cant really afford to have them going to the floor unfortunately. Do curtains sit on the windowsill or just below it and how far away from the window does the curtain track need to be? (it has to be ceiling hung as the windows go right to the ceiling).

Hi LisaLou

The curtains you like are lovely. Can you not put cheapy temporary ones up for a while and save up for the ones you really like?

Short curtains can either just reach the windowsill or just below, it's a matter of personal choice. If there is to be a radiator under the bay then I would go for just reaching the sill otherwise heat may be lost up the back of the curtains. I wouldn't go for them half way between floor and sill though, I think that way it looks as though you've bought the wrong size. And, my opinion only, I think curtains with a fairly bold pattern look better full length. In my before and after pics on the blog, in the loft you can just about see the curtains I bought (click on pic to enlarge) - ready mades for cheapness up there and shortened by a local lady. They have a small leaf pattern on, very subtle and almost the same colour as the background. I wouldn't have gone for a bigger pattern with them that length. I really wanted no pattern but nothing available at a price I wanted to pay!

Also we have french doors that need something. Stuart is keen on vertical blinds but Im not so sure, whatever I choose they need to fit inside the recess as there isnt room either side to draw curtains etc back.

Are they in the same room as the bay? I think it's nice to match the door curtains to the window if you can. I think vertical blinds can look a bit "officey" if you're not careful, although we did have them in the kitchen at our previous house, we only had a door, no window, so it was a practical solution but looked OK and did fit inside the recess.

We had a ceiling hung track round our bay in the previous house. The track needs to be far enough away from the window for you to be able to accommodate the curtains when drawn back as they bunch up quite a bit, especially with wide curtains like you need.

TM - Im so glad TD is doing well! He's a fighter that one Did you manage to get all your leaks fixed or has the bad weather been stopping the builders coming?

Yep, he's not one for giving up! The builders did come back and fix the leaks (and brought us a Christmas pressy of chocolates to boot!). We had some sunny and dry, but cold, weather a couple of weeks before Christmas. We haven't had such bad weather again so it's not been tested but from what they say and what they did it should be fine.

stolt

jimbugalee wrote: »

Hi all,
Are we all snowed in? About 5 inches here down in Herts and still snowing. Think it is worse in some places though.

I measured my towel rail - it's 500mm x 1000mm. I would say the height is ok (it has 3 sections) but it's just not wide enough. If you can fit a wider one in, go for it.

Got some piccies of the finished bathroom too and updated blog:

http://seatonroad.blogspot.com

bathroom looks good, think the missus fancies those kind of tiles (in her words she wants i kind of hotel bathroom look :money:) not entirely sure what that means!! but i'm light years away from sorting our bathroom.

stolt

lisal0u wrote: »

Hi guys and gals!

Appologies for neglecting the thread at the minute! Ive been stupidly busy and have only had chance for a fleeting visit every now and again!

We made our Christmas move in deadline but wow was it hard work! Did a tiny blog update. I managed to get a tree up at 01:30am Christmas morning ha ha! We have been renting for 10 years and what a LOT of stuff we have accumulated!

We didn't have chance to thin it out either so it all got moved to the house. We are currently in the process of sorting through it all and should be done by the end of the weekend. (Im never moving again!)

I will take some finished house piccys then (well almost finished) and do some before and afters. Need to get curtains ordered but Im not sure what to do with our bay windows and french doors. Currently we have obscured plastic curtains ha ha!

I need your help for this one! We have a bay window that is 3m wide but the windowsill goes around the corner of the window so the curtains would have to do the same meaning about 3.5m wide. I think I will have to get them made but I cant really afford to have them going to the floor unfortunately. Do curtains sit on the windowsill or just below it and how far away from the window does the curtain track need to be? (it has to be ceiling hung as the windows go right to the ceiling).

Here is a piccy but its a bit rubbish as its from my phone:


These are the curtains I have fallen in love with:


But they will cost around £450 to have made and thats with 25% off eek :eek:
Also we have french doors that need something. Stuart is keen on vertical blinds but Im not so sure, whatever I choose they need to fit inside the recess as there isnt room either side to draw curtains etc back.

Any help on this would be muchly appreciated!

jimbugalee - We have lots of snow in North Lincolnshire, the roads were terrible when we went out earlier! I think Ill be working at home tomorrow!

TM - Im so glad TD is doing well! He's a fighter that one Did you manage to get all your leaks fixed or has the bad weather been stopping the builders coming?

typeractive, pawpurrs and any other new people I may have missed - A BIG welcome! Im looking forward to more blogs to look at. Hopefully will have more time to keep track soon!

Heres the blog list for you guys:
http://bungalow-diy.blogspot.com/ (andrew-b)
http://housetart.blogspot.com
http://libertycottage.blogspot.com/ (jamtart6)
http://olwaysmoanin.blogspot.com/ Jo and Radi
http://diybungalow.blogspot.com
http://rizzo-renovations.blogspot.com/
http://seatonroad.blogspot.com (jimbugalee)
http://spice-villa.blogspot.com/ (Spicey)
http://the2yearproject.blogspot.com/ (latecomer)
http://thehouserenovationinsurrey.blogspot.com/ Sam (Helping Hubby) http://westbroke.blogspot.com/ (TomsMom)
http://stuartandlisashouse.blogspot.com/ (Me)
http://thehouseofdoom.wordpress.com (Beth)
http://web.me.com/shimmyhill/House/B...w_Project.html (Shimmyhill)

I cant remember if Ive already said but if not Happy New Year xxx

i'm over here dont leave me out:D:D:D:D:D

can i go on the list aswell...
http://projectneverending.blogspot.com/

jimbugalee

Wow Lisa - you've done so much!! How lucky that you weren't living there through it all, although I know it also has it's disadvatages. Well done on the Xmas dinner I love those curtains too although (do you watch Eastenders?!) In Jack's house he has a bay window with some lovely vinetian blinds which seem to fit in sections in the window. Maybe not suitable for the lounge as a bit chilly but they look good.

I bought some lined curtains in the sale from Dunelm Mill for £20 for our french doors in the lounge to try and keep some of the heat in. Only problem is the pole is more expensive at £29.99!! so they're still sitting in the packet.

Typeractive and stolt - the bathroom is fully tiled in classic travertine tiles. They are expensive in places like Topps Tiles but from the right place on the net we ended up paying about £22 per sqm. Not exceptionally cheap but quite a lot of 'normal' tiles are just as much. My dad did all the tiling - it took him about 8-9 weekends works. It also took a lot of pre-work to create the wetroom. We bought everything from here and they were really useful http://www.diywetroom.com/ We do have under floor heating too which really helps to dry the floor after a shower. I think we'll have to get a screen soon because the building inspector probably won't like the fact that water could splash on the shaver socket.

Shout if you have any more questions Thank you for your nice comments.

lisal0u

"i'm over here dont leave me out

can i go on the list aswell...
http://projectneverending.blogspot.com/"

sorry stolt I didn't mean to leave you out! I copied a list before you had posted your blog!

If I've missed anyone else please add yours too :-)

Jim - you're bathroom does look amazing! I wish ours was a little bigger!
We did look at shutters for the bay window but they were going to cost a lot of money!

Working at home again today as the weather is terrible! Just seen on the news it's going to last another 2 weeks eek!

X

stolt

lisal0u wrote: »

"i'm over here dont leave me out

can i go on the list aswell...
http://projectneverending.blogspot.com/"

sorry stolt I didn't mean to leave you out! I copied a list before you had posted your blog!

If I've missed anyone else please add yours too :-)

Jim - you're bathroom does look amazing! I wish ours was a little bigger!
We did look at shutters for the bay window but they were going to cost a lot of money!

Working at home again today as the weather is terrible! Just seen on the news it's going to last another 2 weeks eek!

X

no problems, i love reading everyone elses...

two weeks for this weather, we have snow but as i type this looking out my office window we have sunshine:rolleyes:

stolt

jimbugalee wrote: »

Typeractive and stolt - the bathroom is fully tiled in classic travertine tiles. They are expensive in places like Topps Tiles but from the right place on the net we ended up paying about £22 per sqm. Not exceptionally cheap but quite a lot of 'normal' tiles are just as much. My dad did all the tiling - it took him about 8-9 weekends works. It also took a lot of pre-work to create the wetroom. We bought everything from here and they were really useful http://www.diywetroom.com/ We do have under floor heating too which really helps to dry the floor after a shower. I think we'll have to get a screen soon because the building inspector probably won't like the fact that water could splash on the shaver socket.

Shout if you have any more questions Thank you for your nice comments.

we see travertine in topps when we were going to do our kitchen floor (is that the one that over time they have to fill with resin or something? you get little holes in it or something?)

I personalyl would never buy online again with tiles, especially as i'm still sorting the mess out with www.tilesporcelain.com. Just wish i had listend to others rather than thinking we were gettign a good deal, biggest load of shisters going.

would love a wet room though (perhaps i could convert out ensuite!:rotfl:)

jimbugalee

I'd buy again from the same place (Kudos Flooring) but I had so many samples sent from other online places which were just rubbish and really poor quality.

I've just spent most of this morning trying to light out fire/stove with no success. Ran out of kindling wood grrrrrr