First-time house renovation

ukmaggie45

KT1985 wrote: »

Here is a pic: http://community.babycentre.co.uk/photos/kt022010/3157835

Ooooh KT, he's gorgeous!

Sorry you had a hard time, but I'm sure you now feel it was worth it. And how nice to have the bedrooms finished - nice to come home to - presumable you can get up the stairs now to see the finished rooms (albeit rather gingerly from what I remember post birth!).

TomsMom

KT - he is beautiful. Thank you so much for letting us know and the link to the photo. You'll soon forget the birth and Alex will be worth all the hard work. Enjoy every minute of this time, it goes all too quickly. Oh - and mums usually know best, go by your instinct rather than what everyone else tells you, they'll all have a different version of what you should be doing :rotfl: . Well done to Mr KT for finishing off the bedrooms before Alex arrived :T.

latecomer

Congrats!

Cant view the pics from work but will have a look next tume I'm online at home.

We've got a meeting with the builders tonight as they are not making any progress at all any more. Over the last 2 weeks there has been approx 4-5 man days of work done. They got the full skip removed but not replaced with an empty one, which to me suggests they either dont intend to be working or expect to be fired.

Will update tomorrow.......

suisidevw

Congrats KT, beautiful boy!

LC - Sounds like they need to 'sling their 'ook'! Let us know how you get on!


Looking forward to updates!

It's my birthday today so done everything but work which has been nice then out for dinner and theater to see 'to kill a mockingbird' with Lowri, which will be fun!

I know this is geeky, (I'm like a proud father) and I won't do it often but a couple of pics from a walk last week on the beach in Porthcawl.

TomsMom

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Suiside :bdaycake:

Enjoy the theatre tonight.

Not geeky at all, you are a proud father (we've always been mommy and daddy to our dogs and cats ). Gorgeous pictures, looks like lots of lovely messy wet fun.

suisidevw

Pics of the house JT!

Thanks guys, his name is Alfie

booty40uk

Happy birthday for yesterday Sam. Hope all is ok.

Andy

latecomer

Belated happy birthday! Love the soggy doggy pics too. We used to go to the beach regularly mainly so we could play with other peoples dogs or at least watch them playing. How sad is that

Our chat with the builders went better than expected. We had a slagging match for about 30 mins and then managed to make some progress. We told them what we need and they have in return asked for commitments from us in terms of paying them on time etc. The head builder seemed quite delusional about some of the stuff but then as the room stank of alcohol after they left, he'd obviously been in the pub for a couple of hours prior to the meeting.

We didn't have any problems agreeing to his demands as its no change for us as despite his arguments, he's always been paid promptly once he's finished a stage. He's said he's looking for assurances that he'll get paid at the end of the week which we dont have a problem with provided he does the work. One thing in the original quote that he keeps coming back to is that they dont take responsibility for delays due to weather, labour shortages or problems with material supply in terms of delays to the schedule. Which we dont have a problem but he doesn't seem to understand that if its payment on completion of a stage then its when it gets finished, not half way through because he's had his guys working somewhere else. Anyone think we are out of line or missing something fundamental?

They are going to come back to us with their new proposed schedule by tomorrow with a view to getting back on site either friday or monday depending on when the oak standards and skirtings etc arrive.

latecomer

Down on page 10 - come on folks lets hear what you are up to

We've had further negotiations with the builders and they will be back on site tomorrow morning apparently. We have agreed to a new schedule which they have to stick to and have said they will work all the hours required to complete stages to the new dates. Will be interesting to see what happens.

Our oak skirtings and facings should arrive tomorrow at the merchants and will be sent out immediately. I've also been on and added some plasterboard to the order (and hopefully get the builders discount) so I can start boarding the hall ceiling. Not entirely sure what I'm going to do on the walls as the panneling that was there was rather thin and mounted on wooden straps and by replacing it with plasterboard will make it sit proud of the plaster above where the panneling was.

one thing I did over the weekend was to put some support under the new wooden lintel supports in the hall as it was just resting on the floorboards with a little support at one corner as the bricks had been removed to pass through pipes. Cut down a length of wood and got it screwed to the existng joist. Trivial in theory but took me about 5 hours in total as I had to modify it 3 times just to get it in place as its got to the one of the least accessible bits of the entire house - just my luck!

We also went out looking at doors at the weekend and found some that we liked but they were expensive. Dropped in to Travis Perkins to ask about the oak delivery and found that they can supply some of the doors for a good price but unfortunately not all of them. however as the doors are different upstairs to downstairs it doesn't matter that they are not an exact match in colour or style.

Also had a quote for removing the asbestos which we've not made a decision on yet.

And I must get some pics uploaded to the blog to show what it looks like now. Despite all the problems its changed a lot since the last update.

lisal0u

Hi Everyone,

Congratulations on the baby news latecomer! I hope youre builders pull their fingers out now!

KT - Aww hes just lovely! Congratulations to you!

Sam - Hope you had a lovely birthday too!

Havent had much chance to catch up or a lot to add I'm afraid. Feel a bit lost with no DIY to do.

Nothing much has changed in my world :-( I have started jogging and feel much better for that and have got a second job to start paying off those debts.

Can I ask you guys an off topic question? Havent seen Stuart for a week then got myself all worked up yesterday and went to see him. Hes got a work friend he's confiding in and unfortunately shes a she so it was driving me mad. I know its not my business anymore but he'd been to spend the weekend with her and I just had to know if there was more to it.

After a fraught conversation I believe there isnt anything going on just wish she wasnt a she!

He rang me last night to suggest us meeting up every couple of weeks for a catch up which I would like cos then I have an oppotunity to ask him anything if I really need to, rather then bottle it up and go visit him unannounced!

I know we're not getting back together and Im still sad but do you think its a good idea to try and be friends?

Sorry for going on but you guys! Hopefully Ill have some DIY news when Stuart does a bit more and I get moved back in!
xxx