First-time house renovation

Shimmyhill

Shimmyhill wrote: »

Famous last words, i only went in for plinth

Ohh and of course, they didn't have the plinth in !!

ooOOoooOoo bit of a result, the plinth came back in stock online, not only that but it was reduced to 97p a length !!! 6 bits ordered !!

latecomer, do you have any pics of the cupboard you built ? We need to do something similar so any inspiration will be great !

latecomer

97p a length is an absolute bargain. I'd order an extra couple of lengths just in case you need them in the future.

I do have some pics so I'll upload them somewhere if I get a chance tonight. Its hard to describe the room but basically its a rectangle apart from the the doorway which is narrow and its above this that the cupboard is built in. Its not that big but as we have very little storage in the house its invaluable at the moment.

KT1985

Hi everyone!

Well, completion of our house went well- we got the keys before Christmas, then basically left it for 3 weeks, and today is my first proper day of renovation!
It isn't going brilliantly at the moment- a few things aren't working that we hoped would, but thats fine; there were no guarantees that anything would work at all.
The boiler has totally 'had it'. Downside is that the whole central heating needs replacing and updating with new radiators, we will also need to move it from its current position (I will lose a kitchen cupboard) but the upside is that it will mean I can have a really good boiler that will feed my shiny new shower cabin that I have planned
I am also banking on needing a total rewire- bit of a nightmare if this is the case. That will severely stunt the budget.
Still glad we have bought it though despite all of this- I love the house, and I can still imagine what it will be like in the end.
Glad everyone elses projects are coming along- just about to catch up on blogs...
K

TomsMom

KT - we also had the shock of having to replace the boiler. Previous owner said it had been serviced every year by British Gas, BG also confirmed this but due to "data protection" could not tell us when the last service was done and of course there was no paperwork left by the previous owners. Some radiators will also be replaced a bit further down the line.

Also a complete rewire was the easiest and cheapest way regarding our electrics rather than the electricians try and trace all the mess the previous owner made when adding to what was there. At least we'll know it's all safe and up to date.

All these things are sent to try us but best not to let it get us down, just plod on and we'll all have our dream homes in the end.

It looks like the steel fairy has been overnight. Or for those that don't believe a couple of the builders snuck back this morning with all the steels for the roof so it looks like they're on track for coming back to start on the refurbishment of the loft conversion next week :T . Hopefully it wont rain and it will be a bit warmer as scaffolding has to go up and the roof has to come off.

I'm just off to try and clean up the carpy original kitchen cupboards which are supposed to be going in the utility room. Not sure how long I'll last as it's freezing over at the house and no heating at the moment.

KT1985

Beth- you call your house the house of doom, but I think that is a more fitting title for ours.
I have learnt this morning that we need a complete rewire on top of needing a completely new central heating system. Feel like I might cry
I guess once it is done it will be wonderful and safe, but it is a huge chunk of budget being spent on stuff I will never see again. It also measn that I can't start actually 'doing' stuff until this is all done
On the upside (every cloud and all that) I have managed to tile a tiny piece of floor which was under the built in cooker that I have ripped out. The nice shiny range cooker will go on top of it.

K

BB1984

Don't think of it in terms of "never seeing it again" - you'll experience the benefits of it every day! Seriously - a rewire will mean that you can set your house up exactly how you want it - plenty of sockets, light switches in the right place, extra light fittings, modern fuseboard, good extractor fans etc etc.
I think you knew it might be necessary already, so whilst annoying it's not entirely unexpected. See it as an investment! (But honestly I do feel your pain, with refurbs it tends to be one thing after another, unfortunately!)

I'm jealous of your range cooker!

BB

KT1985

I know that what you say is true, its just a pain, because they are going to have to dig holes in walls that I hoped could salvage, and probably have to take the kitchen units off the walls... I just wanted to push on with things, but that's not going to happen now.

latecomer

@shimmy - sorry about the delay but here are a couple of pics to give an idea of what we've done.





Sorry about the poor qaulity, I'm not known for steady hands particularly after a long day! I can try and get some better quality pics tonight if you want.

Anyway if you look at the right hand side you'll see how it was constructed. The bottom sits on top of the door frame at the back. The sides are screwed into the walls and have small blocks of MDF attached to screw the bottom and top bar (white wood) onto. The cutout at the top of the side is L shaped to accomodate the cross bar (which sits in horizontally) and top/front panel. The MDF top panel sitting behind the cornice is simply pinned onto these side panels. The cupboard is not intended to have a lot of weight stored in it (normally has a spare duvet and pillows in it).

Door will be mounted by hinges located under the front panel which I've not taken off the old one yet.

hope that gives you enough info. If you want more just let me know and I'll take more pics and do a better description. Also since the pics were taken I've filled round the edges with decorators caulk so it now looks much better!

latecomer

KT1985 wrote: »

I know that what you say is true, its just a pain, because they are going to have to dig holes in walls that I hoped could salvage, and probably have to take the kitchen units off the walls... I just wanted to push on with things, but that's not going to happen now.

As BB said the upside of it is you know that everything will be safe and up to date and you get to add/change sockets and switches to suit. It shouldn't make that much mess of the walls unless you go for a complete change in layout so you will be able to just patch them up.

Also its better for thing to take a little longer and be done right than to be rushed. we've been in our house for 11 months and haven't quite finished any rooms yet :beer:

KT1985

Good news, got quotes through for the central heating and the rewire, and it is going to come in under £10000 by quite a bit. I am very happy with this, I was feeling sad about the budget, but its ok now.
One these things are done, it is going to be like a new house!