First-time house renovation

lollol

very interesting thread you got here. I have been a lurker for ages. Bought my place in 2003 and did not do much. Only now have i thought/ felt that i NEED to do it up.

Started with the bathroom. Nearly finished now. Only needs a blind and new light and need to paint the skirting in there as well.

Next thing I want to tackle is the kitchen and one of the bedrooms. I have been looking at a wickes kitchen (inverness) is a white gloss which looks nice but would cost me £5k including appliances.........

TomsMom

Hi Lollol :hello:, glad you could join us. Well done on nearly finishing your bathroom. Now you've told us what you've done, you do realise we need pictures - post on here, start a blog, anything so we can have a nosey :rotfl: .

Wickes have a sale on at the moment, some of the Inverness units are half price on line. Is your £5,000 full price or taking into account the sale prices? If you want it and can get it cheaper in the sale then be quick, I wanted some Wickes units last year for our Utility room and by the time I'd dithered over what cabinets I wanted the sizes I needed had sold out. Mind you they were really cheap, some only £5, no wonder they went quick.

Keep us updated on what you do. Did I mention we need piccies? Blogs are nice too .

jamtart6

love ya tomsmom! you have just reminded me that i need to ring wickes for a kitchen reprice. could kiss you!


hi lollol!

hope you didnt freeze too much jim!

nothing has been done at ours *too cold*too snowy*too icy*

Im in charge of the wedding now, he's in charge of the house. Hoping for some serious movement on the house front soon !

littlerose12345

jamtart6 wrote: »

Im in charge of the wedding now, he's in charge of the house. Hoping for some serious movement on the house front soon !

Hehe we have the same plan too! Got engaged just before Christmas so we have some mega planning and organisation to do! It's going to be a busy year! When are you getting married?

jimbugalee

Hi Lollol! Well done on the bathroom - it took us 6 months!

Talking of Wickes kitchen's the store near us has just opened a whole new floor with a big display - I might have a look We're a long way off that though. I think it's time to prepare my new office this weekend and chip off all the mustard coloured walls ... yuck!

Had some good news last night in that there is a house over the road which is for sale for £55k more than we bought ours for. It is end terrace and has a longer garden than ours and a good decorative state but nothing special and also has a back boiler still. This does mean that prices have already come up and are looking good for when we sell ours (don't worry - not for another couple of years!). We were never in it to make the most amount of money (otherwise we would've done things a lot cheaper!) but I would like to have some equity for our new house and we may even be able to jump a step on the ladder and buy something really nice. Who knows ... but it was good to see

latecomer

welcome lollol - feel free to post pics or start a blog (it will save some nagging )

The builders are back although 2 men down - one out of contact and the other has sliced his hand and isn't going to be able to do anything for about 3 weeks. They were starting on the stud work for the loft yesterday and we've had to re-jig the showerroom to get a shower in. Architect had put it at the roof end (combe ceiling) and there was no way you could fit a shower in there. We've come up with a plan though which should work. Also seeing some layout marked on the floor makes me realise just how small the back bedroom is going to be. I always knew it was going to be small..... maybe it will look better once its finished.

We're off on holiday next week. OH is off this afternoon so is going to agree with the builders what the new schedule is going to be. They were meant to have given us a schedule already (several times) but no sign of it yet.

Also OH got a new camera for xmas so I'll be taking lots of photos soon

latecomer

jimbugalee wrote: »

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

If you are using logs then get yourself a small axe and make your own from the seasoned logs. thats what I've done and it works a treat. Very theraputic too

jimbugalee

We need to buy an axe actually. I got some kindling from B&Q last night as it was on 3 for 2. Bought 6 bags then remembered I had to trek home in the snow with them .... ouch on my arms! Fire going ok this morning but I put coal on

suisidevw

Yup, same as LC, get a hand axe for about a fiver and just make your own kindling, much better than the bought stuff from homebase etc!

TomsMom

jamtart6 wrote: »

Im in charge of the wedding now, he's in charge of the house.

Ooh, lovely. Another wedding. Be sure to let us know when it is though, no sneaking off and doing it and keeping it quiet like someone else . We need cyber celebrations. I don't know, all my cyber children getting married, makes me feel old. Oh, I am old, well sort of, I think :rotfl: .

jimbugalee wrote: »

Had some good news last night in that there is a house over the road which is for sale for £55k more than we bought ours for. It is end terrace and has a longer garden than ours and a good decorative state but nothing special and also has a back boiler still. This does mean that prices have already come up and are looking good for when we sell ours (don't worry - not for another couple of years!). We were never in it to make the most amount of money (otherwise we would've done things a lot cheaper!) but I would like to have some equity for our new house and we may even be able to jump a step on the ladder and buy something really nice. Who knows ... but it was good to see

That's good news Jimmie, makes all your hard work the more rewarding.

latecomer wrote: »

welcome lollol - feel free to post pics or start a blog (it will save some nagging )

Ouch, that hurts :rotfl:

We're off on holiday next week. OH is off this afternoon so is going to agree with the builders what the new schedule is going to be. They were meant to have given us a schedule already (several times) but no sign of it yet.

Also OH got a new camera for xmas so I'll be taking lots of photos soon

Holiday at home or going away? Whichever, enjoy. Make good use of that new camera, can't wait to see some more pics.

We're waiting for the sofa man to come today. This is his third visit to attempt to get bad creases out of the front of the seat cushions. I think I'll lock him in today until it's done properly. Anyone remember the housewife who kept the washing machine repair man prisoner........... that was so funny, she must have been so frustrated. He originally gave us some baloney about the creases being caused by the packaging - my [STRIKE]ars.. [/STRIKE] eye! We'd have asked for a replacement but it would have meant taking out the kitchen window and removing the French doors again to get it in, really couldn't be doing with that with everything else going on. Up to now we've had two inspection visits and two visits to put things right and each time they say he can only come between 7am and 9am :eek:. Well not this time, I didn't know there were two 7 o'clocks in a day and TD can't manage it at the moment so I put my foot down and said "No way", managed to get them to change it till after 2pm.

Sorry, rambling today. On my own with nothing to do, TD not up yet!

PS. Where's Maggie? What's happening in Liverpool?