First-time house renovation

andrew-b

Congrats to KT!

Short update from me too though not as cheery a news.. wife's Nan peacefully parted the world early in the morning of Monday 1st. Funeral next week when she will be buried alongside her mum.

On the house...well we now have a new bathroom door though it wasn't without problems and TBH we would have been better off ripping out the entire door lining and starting from scratch before the room was plastered. I had hoped to pretty much finish the decorating last week but my body had other ideas. Managed to get out in the garden at the end of last week and cut back a big bush in the front garden which was heading skywards.

Other than that not much more to report.

TomsMom

Andy - Condolences, so sorry to hear of Nan's passing but a blessing that it was peaceful for her. Are you blogging again yet? We need to see your door .

Lisalou - Glad you're feeling better for the jogging and good news about your second job, hard work but your debts will be paid off quicker. About Stuart - I think we women aren't keen on our men having women friends, (likewise, maybe men don't like their women to have men friends), but as Jammie says women do tend to be better listeners. It would be good if you can stay friends but I think you have to be absolutely sure that you can handle him eventually finding someone new. Probably in time you will, it's early days yet, but it would be awful for both of you if you agree to be friends and then you get all worked up if he starts seeing someone else.

Nothing happening here, just waiting for some people to come and see us about blinds for the sun room. The first chap came on Sunday but I wasn't impressed, he kept contradicting himself - first he said our sun room needed roller blinds but if we didn't like rollers then vertical. In the next breath he said his choice would be verticals. He criticised the original Sandersons pleated blinds (he can criticise all he likes, we didn't pay £0000s for them, the previous owners did :rotfl: ) saying that they should overlap the window not be inside the beading as it lets in chinks of light at the sides, also said that they should never have been fitted with brackets on the beading as it could cause the gas to escape. I think he may be talking twaddle, isn't the gas between the panes of glass, and does all double glazing have gas in or is it just an air gap? We want them in the bedrooms and loft room too so really need it to look the same in all rooms from the outside. I'm not keen on verticals. In the sun room we want to be able to pull the blinds down just to a level where it stops the sun shining in, and as the sun drops further then the blind comes down further. I don't want the view completely obliterated by verticals, even if they're half open you don't get a full view.

We've got four more appts lined up for people to come out over the next couple of weeks and one of them is Sandersons :eek: - no, we're not seriously considering them, we just want to ask them about whether it was right to have the original blinds inside the beading and whether the brackets should have been fixed onto the beading. Should be fun .

We've had gorgeous sunny weather for over a week now so I've been out in the garden most days getting tubs ready for veggies and pots ready for summer bedding, also weeding out the rampant wild garlicky stuff which I thought I'd got rid of last year but obviously missed quite a bit, easy enough to do when the little bulbs are smaller than the size of a peppercorn.

Latecomer - What a nightmare. I hope you builders stick to the new agreement and you can finally get on with your renovations.

Hope everyone is getting on OK.

latecomer

@andyb - sorry to hear that but going peacefully is definitely a good thing.
@lisa - to be honest I suspect that a clean break would be for the best if there is definitely no chance of getting back together. I dont think the friends thing would ever really work unless it was a joint decision to split and even then still pretty unlikely.
@TM - I never thought tha picking blinds would be so complicated but if its any consolation we spent about an hour last night trying to figure out which latch we needed to buy for the bathroom door upstairs. Picking doors has taken ages, as has just about everything else we've done.
@JT - great news - I cant wait for us to get to that stage (mainly cos it means the builders will be finished though!)

The oak has been delayed so wont be delivered until thursday at the earliest so the new schedule has aleady been changed........

Our builders turned up yesterday - kind of. They sent a text to say they were picking up some materials. I phoned to say that the oak wouldn't be there for them to pick up and found they were getting some plumbing stuff but they would be on site for about 9am. one of them got there around 11am with tales of failed brakes on the van. He struggled on his own all day on the ballustrade and even had to ask the MIL for help to hold something for him until he got it fixed in place which must have hurt his pride and he then turned down subsequent offers of help.

They were just arriving as we left this morning so I didn't get a chance to speak to them. I'm just about to phone MIL for an update before phoning them to discuss things. The window for the kitchen hasn't been ordered despite what we have been told (several times) and they have asked if we can pay the supplier directly to get things moving in the same way we did for the oak.

Forgot to take more pictures but I'll take some tonight. We've got some friends coming to visit tonight who are about to start an extension too so will be interesting to see what they make of the state of our house.

I'll probably come back in a few mins and rant some more......

jimbugalee

Hi all,
Feels like I haven't been around for ages .... we've been really busy here.
Who did I promise thermostate instructions to? We've had a nightmare with ours! It suddenly started coming on all day and night and we have to do it manually now till we have time to sit down and work it out.
Exciting news (not house related) is that we're getting a Vizsla pupping in June!!! So much to do before then but it gives us something to work towards.
Hope everyone is doing ok.

latecomer

jimbugalee wrote: »

Vizsla pupping

Whats a pupping? :rotfl:

Just a call (actually 2) with the builders. the first was to ask about the window and why it hadn't been ordered despite what we'd been told. His first and only answer was to tell me it was the same as the oak and needed to be paid for. that would be fine except all the lies etc we've been told about it being ordered, cheques being posted, payments made etc etc. Anyway I had a bit of a rant regarding this and then went onto everything else as I was on a roll. Once I got that off my chest I said that I would phone and make payment by card once I receive an email copy of the quote. End of call.

Spoke to OH immedaitely after and found that they were going to mount one of the radiators in the wrong place despite a discussion I had last week telling them exactly where it was to go. The older brother had said that he and OH had an agreement about its location. Of course the place he wants to put it would be far easier for them and require a lot less pipework. Queue phone call number 2 which was short and to the point. It goes where I told them it was to be located or they leave.

It will mean that we have a long flow and return pipe upstairs but if that does become a problem I'll move it myself.

Anyone want to run a book on how much longer they stay on the job?

jimbugalee

oh bummer .... pupping = puppy!!

latecomer

Whats happening to our great old thread? Everyone finished already

We've made some progress but not much. Another arguement on saturday just asfter lunch as they went to leave having not completed the tasks and saying they would be back on monday - which would have been after the deadline for completing the work. Usual excuses etc OH just lost the plot with the troublesome brother which didn't help. They were asking for one more day to complete the outstanding items which we finally agreed to on the condition that they left with their tools if the jobs were not completed by the time they left.

When they were putting down the concrete for the solum they were using the original dpm that was installed when they were doing the block work but of course its got lots of holes in it now. I voiced my displeasure about it being used but was assured that all holes would be covered to provide a sufficient overlap.

On sunday we were talking about it and realised that they were giong to use old scraps of dpm to do the other half so I sent a text to the "better" brother to say to buy new dpm material and I would pay for it. Went out yesterday morning and saw them about to start pouring concrete over the old stuff and when I challenged they said they knew nothing about it.... . of course. Quick call to the other brother told him to get the new stuff or not to brother.

Anyway he stayed until about 8pm last night fixing the garage roof (which now looks really good) and apparently worked extremely hard all day (once he got there) but the others left at around 3pm with basically none of the plastering work done apart from filling a couple of holes. I'd listed about 8 areas I wasn't happy with on the saturday and they had addressed maybe 3.

Another "discussion" this morning asking why he had ignored my list of complaints regarding the plastering. He said that a lot of them had been addressed and that it had all been rubbed down etc. Anyway I said they had 2 choices - they could fix all the plastering and continue working on the next stage and get payment for this stage when the plastering was fixed OR they could fix the 2 big issues I have with the plastering and then clear the site, sign off the electrics and gas work and be completely off site by friday. There is a little discussion regarding what the payment would actually be as we've deducted various costs from this stage particularly if they are not going to be continuing.

We are getting so close it seems daft to lose the builders but things have just got to the point where I dont see anything changing. the good news is that the next stage would be fairly hard for even them to mess up - soffits and rhones , the only thing that would worry be would be the harling but thats being done by someone else, they are just going to do the labouring.

how is everyone else getting on? Any more doggy pics? Anyone got some good news to report?

littlerose12345

Oh dear latecomer, sounds like you're pulling your hair out!

We've pretty much completed all of the upstairs!! Soo excited that the end is in sight.. just the living room and kitchen to do now. Saving the biggie till last!! eeek!!

jimbugalee

Hi latecomer .... I can assure you we definitely haven't finished!!

I only managed to paint a door frame and plant some blueberry bushes this weekend. We really need to get on with completing my office but it requires sorting the drainage for the kitchen, mains to the kitchen and wiring the office. Such a big job but we really need it done before puppy time in June. I am awake at night worrying about it! aaaargh.

I am loving this great weather and want to get out in the garden more but stuck indoors working during the week.

wow ... your builder issues seems a right PIA!! We may be slow in getting things sorted but I only have to moan at my boyfriend for that!

It's Easter weekend soon and I feel we should make some big plans for that weekend but worried it won't happen. Need to get sorted and council round to sign off bathroom.

How's everyone else?

ukmaggie45

Oh Latecomer, what a horrible mess. :eek: Big hugs to you and your OH coming your way from Liverpool. (((((Latecomer and Latecomer's OH)))))

I guess all you can do is imagine yourself looking back at all of this in a couple of years time, and being able to dine out on your stories of horrid builders.

We have the asbestos removal happening this afternoon, so that takes us a step nearer to beginning properly. Our builder has recommended someone to draw up the plans for us, we've met him briefly once, and like him. He'll contact us when he's got more time, prob later this week, as he was very busy when Steve (builder) got in touch with him.

We've ordered a shed for the garden. Very expensive shed :eek: but we did manage to get an ex-display 8x7 for half price. :money: OH cleared an overgrown buddleia and a 6 foot fir tree last weekend to make space, and we have a couple more bushes to get out, and then lay paving for the base.

Been doing lots of gardening, and taking lots of photos of before and as work progresses. Must load them onto Flickr. Have joined a gardening forum, and keep my gardening blog on there. Anyone who likes to grow veg or garden generally is welcome, and there's lots of chit chat on all sorts of stuff. Very friendly folks, rather like this thread, but covering gardens and allotments rather than houses! I highly recommend joining if you're into gardening.

Gotta go get my bath now, will get back when have more news.

Lisa, hope you are doing OK.