First-time house renovation

stolt

yeah that ones horrible:)

might be worth a try but i've always found www.mybuilder.com and www.myhammer.com pretty good for posting a job on there and getting in touch with local builders, they can also submit estimates based on what you have put in your listing so its handy for when other builders come round to give you and idea ofa ball park figure. Its a bit like fleabay in the sense that once someone has been hired the person can leave feedback for them and you can clearly see who can be trusted and what sort of job they have done. Got our builder and also an electrician from there and both were good.

good luck, i hated trying to find the tradesmen for this place, been pretty lucky, find a builder, electrician and a specialist brickie all through those sites.

good luck

latecomer

Thanks for that. We made the decision to go with the local family business so this time we are looking for someone from a personal recommendation. We've had a one and the architect has suggested one of the companies he originally recommended as he says they are coming to the end of a couple of projects and might be able to it quickly. We also asked another one of the other builders who quoted originally to quote for the remaining work. Haven't managed to get in touch with the one that was personally recommended.

We've got 2 of the builders coming round today and someone who does harling. Hopefully they will quote quickly so we can decide what to do.

stolt

Had weekend of it,i'm absolutley knackered, every part of me aches and feels lke i;ve been beaten up, need to update the blog but i've managed to strip the turf off today, 10-7pm with a 10 min lunch, shame i couldnt get the time to put it in the skip but will do that tomorrow. might get a cider and watch the boxing.....

typeractive

Some good graft there Stolt! Looks like a decent day for it weather wise with you too - that always helps!

Pictures really speak a thousand words!

I'm yet to get my blog off the ground, but I have been documenting everything I've done so far (very slow might I add as I'm new to the whole game) with pictures. I will get round to setting it up soon!

Cheers

stolt

thanks typeractive, yeah get a blog up, hard to keep it going ive got into a routine now whereby i update as soon as i have done something otherwise it builds up and i get bored! I cant belive i actually type a new one up, i actually lost the first one to a hacker or virus.

jamtart - have you tried ebay for the unused building materials. ive sold old pallets, andtiles on there etc, always surprises me when you list stuff on there how quickly it sells.

jimbugalee

That looks great stolt - what are you plans for the garden? (sorry if you've already said and I've missed it!)

We're hopefully getting the council out this week to finally sign off the bathroom.

Bank holiday this weekend so we hope to make a start on the new office. We're about 2 months away from getting a puppy so rushing things a bit!

I'd like to try and do a bit more to the garden this summer. Have planted some blueberry bushes and have some carrots to plant indoors for a bit.

We've also just bought an old 1966 land rover so lots to do on that!

TomsMom

Great pics Stolt, well done on all the hard work. I too would be interested to know what you're going to do there. Wouldn't be surprised if you've already said and I've forgotten - memory like a sieve!

JT - don't forget pics of your kitchen when finished - before and after decorating. Sorry I can't help with where you can offload your surplus materials, our builders provided and only charged for what was used. TD is coming on fine - his consultant said last week he's looking the best he's ever seen. He's still got a long way to go with putting weight back on, another 1.5 stones to get back to where he was. He's off to Bristol (at last!) for check up with transplant team on Wednesday. I wont be going with him, they've refused transport on the second day despite offering the flat for an overnight stay. I can't do 9 hours travelling in one day (CFS playing up at the moment) but he's happy to go on his own. Hopefully Bristol will confirm the "in remission" comment the consultant here made. Hopefully they'll drop his check ups to once a fortnight instead of weekly, if they do that then I'm hoping we can book a few days away - we wont go far but it would be nice to have a change of scene.

jimbugalee Sounds like you're keeping busy. Hope you make good progress this weekend with your office. I've spent lots of time in the garden the last few weeks as we've had some nice weather. All tubs are now ready for veggies - potatoes (already in), runner beans (seeds in pots indoors at the moment), sprouts (ditto indoors), parsnips (ditto indoors), leeks (ditto indoors), tomatoes (seedlings growing healthily indoors ATM), red peppers (ditto seedlings), carrots waiting to put seeds straight into tubs outdoors. We've planted a gooseberry bush. Rhubarb has been split so should do better this year. Pots also ready for geraniums etc for the summer. Weeding done so it looks nice and tidy. Daffodils and hyacinths in flower and lots of other stuff bursting into life. Our white camelia has almost finished and the pink one is in full bloom. We have proper primroses under both camelias - we were luck enough to find a garden centre selling real primroses rather than primulas a few years ago and I really like them so I bought them with us when we moved. Maybe I'll do a gardening blog :rotfl: , it would only really be pictures as I don't really know what I'm doing!

You'll have to be careful when your puppy arrives, dogs and gardens don't always mix well. If you're having a female then you'll need to water her puddles on the lawn or the grass will scorch. We've had both male and female dogs and can vouch for scorched lawns!

typeractive Let us know how things are going. Would love to see a blog - but then I'm [STRIKE]nosey[/STRIKE] really interested .

Maggie You're very quiet - what you up to duck?

latecomer

Good work Stolt we cant even see most of our grass due to the amount of building rubbish and of course next doors dismantled shed which combined cover about 75% of our grass.

Ours is at a complete standstill. We decided to make things more formal so will post as things progress.

jimbugalee

Wow TM you have been busy! I've got some carrot seeds - I guess from what you are saying you plant them straight out? I'm going to def do them into tubs as our soil is rubbish!

Our bulbs are coming up nicely too

I think you can get this stuff you put into the dogs drinking water which stops the lawn scorching. I will investigate this and check it's ok for puppy.

TomsMom

jimbugalee wrote: »

Wow TM you have been busy! I've got some carrot seeds - I guess from what you are saying you plant them straight out? I'm going to def do them into tubs as our soil is rubbish!

We put ours straight out into tubs last year. I've checked the packet and it says for outdoor sowing in prepared seed bed March to July. Mine were fine last year. We even sowed some carrot seets really late, August time I think, and they were fine too, we've just finished off the last of them last week. One thing I discovered recently - if putting in tubs try and put the tubs somewhere where they will be 30cm above normal soil level, this should help prevent carrot roof fly. Mine were on our little balcony last year and we had no trouble. Last year we bought bags of compost to fill the tubs. This year we've got enough from all last year's tubs, just had to make sure we rotate, e.g. don't put potatoes in last year's potato compost, etc. Last year's leek and carrot compost is being used for potatoes this year, potato compost for this year's carrots, etc.

I think you can get this stuff you put into the dogs drinking water which stops the lawn scorching. I will investigate this and check it's ok for puppy.

My goodness, I bet my f-i-l wishes that had been around years ago. It used to make me laugh when he followed his lady dog outside with a watering can :rotfl: although he did manage to keep the lawn relatively scorch free and fairly green!