First-time house renovation

TomsMom

Robbie_Duck wrote: »

This thread inspired me to join!

I need a house redecoration thread!!

Welcome Robbie.

Yes, a house redecoration thread would be useful. We've got a whole house to decorate when our builders have finished and I'm not looking forward to it. I'm not too good with putting colours together so some ideas would be great.

TomsMom

Well, I'm really excited! Something happened at the house today! Son Neil tiled the floor of the downstairs WC. (I know, a bit sad to get excited over that, but not a lot's happened lately!)

OH has made a tall larder unit out of some of the old kitchen cupboards and that will house the ironing board, etc., in the utility, plus he's put a couple of other cupboards in. I'll need to go over and clean them up over the weekend. It's all a bit temporary until the builders have finished. I'll get OH to take a couple of photos over the weekend and post them on my blog.

The builders are coming back on Monday and the electricians are coming again on Tuesday or Wednesday.

What do you think of this fireplace - scroll down to The Ethos on the right hand side and you can enlarge the picture by clicking on it. I really like it but we have to have a balanced flue fire so wouldn't be able to have this shelf type. Or does anyone know of a similar looking electric fire that would go on a shelf. As we've got central heating it's more of a focal point that a source of heat really.

The other one I like is this scroll down to the 8th line of pictures and it's the middle one, the Apollo. That's a balanced flue one but it needs a hole in the wall of 500mm depth and I'm not sure we can do that, we'll have to talk to the builders. The walls are stone and they've just replastered the whole of the living room, seems a shame to knock it all about again

We've really got to start making some decisions now and we've put the fire/fireplace at the top of the list.

What have you all done now the festive season is behind us?

latecomer

Welcome Robbie

@TomsMum - I quite like both of them despite normally disliking contempory styles. Particulalry like the Ethos.

We've not done that much since we went back to work. Had the in laws on friday and then friends on saturday which didn't leave a huge amount of time for DIY. I did manage to get the walls in the small bedroom all sanded down and then went round the cornice filling the joints again but with polyfiller this time as I wasn't happy with them at all. Sanded the joints last night and they look a lot better. OH put on the primer afterwards so I'm going to try and get the first coat of paint on tonight. Might even go as far as to put a coat of paint on the walls too.

The other thing we did was to look at some wood burners. We've kind of decided that the gas fire and fireplace might look a little odd due to it being offset. OH started thinking about wood burning stoves and its gone on from there. And it will give us a real fire too which we've always wanted. First quotes came in around the £3k mark which was a bit of a shock considering the stove itself is around £700. We're waiting for someone else (from a small local place) to come back from holiday and see what he says. If his quote is the same then it will probably be back to a gas fire and fireplace.

Other thing we (or more correctly OH) did was investigate getting some skirting boards made. The house has douglas fir woodwork throughout and we have stripped most of it back to the bare wood but as some of it was damaged we needed to replace some. Original idea was to just use the skirting from the small bedroom to do the other rooms but we thought we'd try and get some made. First quote came from someone local who had some wood in stock left over from another job and already had the correct profile cutters (hence we stupidly thought it would be reasonably cheap) - £20+VAT/m. OH went round some timber yards and building supplies and one of them will do it as a special order. He said it would be £25/m in small quantities so she asked what it would be in large quanitities and he said he'd have to check but it should around £5-6/m for 100m which makes a bit of a difference! As we've got the loft conversion and potentially an extension to do we could use that much and it would allow us to replace some bits rather than patch. He should be phoning today to confirm the price.

Edit: Just had a call from the guy at the timber yard

50m - £5.05/m
100m - £4.35/m

Bit of a difference from £20/m! Definitely a result!

BB1984

Evenin' all! I was so annoyed last night - wrote a really long post then my internet connection went down and I lost everything I'd spent ages writing! So I gave up...

What I had been saying was that Toms Mom - I like both the fireplaces but especially the Apollo as I like the wood effect (and I love the grey stone surround but don't know if that comes with it).

We had a very expensive weekend! Picked out all our new carpets - for the lounge, 3 bedrooms, and the hall. The guy in the shop outright told us not to get them to fit it, as they'd be much more expensive than a private fitter! So I just need to get a quote from a recommended fitter and hopefully we'll get our carpets down in the next couple of weeks. And then our house really will feel like a home at last!

As well as buying carpet, we also bought a cupboard for the kitchen, to sit in one of the alcoves. We were going to fit shelves, but saw this cupboard and fell in love with it...looks fab, I'm so pleased with how our kitchen has come together.

In terms of actual DIY, I finished rubbing down the bathroom windowcill where I filled the big hole, and slapped on a couple of coats of primer. We boxed in the electricity meter and I painted that; also rubbed down and primed the kitchen window frame and cill. Unfortunately Chester tried to get involved and we now have a trail of little white pawprints across the kitchen floor....!

I'll stick some photos on my blog soon, when I can be bothered to move from the sofa! (have had very stressful time at work just lately - stupid bosses)

Glad you've been progressing Toms Mom, and Latecomer I'm glad you managed to get such a better price for your skirting!

BB

TomsMom

BB1984 wrote: »

What I had been saying was that Toms Mom - I like both the fireplaces but especially the Apollo as I like the wood effect (and I love the grey stone surround but don't know if that comes with it).

No Beth, the stone surround doesn't come with it but we are going to try and get some more info on it, also we've already contact a stone mason about a different design so we could always ask him to quote again. We've been talking to the builders today about the fire. The Apollo needs 500mm depth into the wall (it's a balanced flue, we have no chimney there) and because of the structure (random stone) it looks like it's too much. We're making the fire a priority this week and will try to find a compromise with an acceptable fire with a more shallow box.

Our kitchen has been delivered to the local shop who are storing it for us for a few weeks. We ordered it now as there's going to be a price increase in January. The same local chap is very close to internet prices on the appliances too (only £25 more for five appliances - integrated dishwasher, integrated fridge, gas on glass hob, curved glass chimney hood and a built-in double oven gas cooker) so I'll give him the go ahead later in the week. I feel happier knowing that any problems are more easily sorted by someone whose shop I can walk to rather than an internet site.

The builders came back today and have installed the largest of the steels ready for the dormer. I've put a few words on my blog and will put some pictures on later in the week. The roof timbers are in the garden (all covered and protected from the rain) and the electricians are coming back tomorrow to start putting on sockets/light switches etc. The scaffolding is coming on Wednesday so it's all happening at the moment.

Thanks for the updates Beth (looking forward to the pictures) and latecomer.

KT1985

Well, we have had a busy weekend...
We have cleared out lots of rubbish left by the previous occupants, which is a frustrating, but equally worthwhile job.
I have pencilled in the central heating installer and electricians to start in the next 2 weeks, and have got myself a builder and plasterer.
I have chiselled out the current bathroom floor tiles
Our bathroom order is ready to go, as is our appliances order
I went to Ikea(!) and bought light fittings, curtain poles (£7 each including fitting and finials- bargain!) and material to cover the fitted wardrobe doors
I have measured up for floor tiles and laminate
I have chosen doors and wallpapers
I feel saintly after working so hard!:A

latecomer wrote: »

Didn't realise it was that big a house.

It is a big house, but it had everything that we were looking for- the size, potential for renovation... it just measn that this is my full time job for the next 6 months project managing and getting stuck in with this! I can't wait to get on to the 'creative' stuff... the rewire and new plumbing is going to feel like ard work:p

helping_hubby

Hello RobbieDuck!

Just caught up on all the posts. TomsMom, I like the Ethos best

We've not done much at all. My dad wallpapered the feature wall on the landing and OH has cut all the skirting for the living room, reading to stick down. And we've stripped some more wallpaper in bedroom1.

Plans are to get bedroom 1 done ASAP as I want to move back in there to sleep. I have my painters and decorators (mum and aunt) down on Saturday, so hopefully we should get the first coat of paint on.

Then we'll finally move onto the hallway/landing/stairs. Then we'll be ready for carpeting.

When everything is done then we'll move onto to a mega cheap refurb of the kitchen.

And bring on the spring and light evenings so we can get a move on the garden again.

KT you did have a busy weekend. I never thought I'd hear myself saying this, but when we first started (6 months ago) and I was posting all my busy weekends, someone said to me to wait 6 months and you'll slow down. And it has much to my disappointment I want to get productive again and start working evenings. It's the Christmas break that's broken the flow.

latecomer

Sounds like everyone has been busy and making progress. also sounds like everyone is spending lots of money! Perhaps we can offset this recession thing ourselves

I gave the cornice another coat of primer last night as OH wasn't convinced that she'd put enough on. I just slapped it on everywhere as the instructions say apply generously....

Hoping to get the first coat of paint on tonight but will depend what time I get back from work.

Got a bit of a dilemma too - gots lots of cash for christmas to upgrade the PC but I know that as soon as it gets upgraded and rebuilt then productivity will drop. Defintely need to keep focused but I think the lighter days will help (I know its still dark by 4pm but its getting lighter )

Edit: Just checked out everyones blogs - really going to have to get round to doing one. Might even have a quick shot tonight - no promises though

matt_boro

TomsMom wrote: »

Let's hope the property developer has a ceiling price and that yours is just a bit more than his . Hope you get it.

well the latest is I have had an offer of £92k accepted, with the condition that the vendor accepts no further offers on the property once survey is completed!

Looks like I might be getting there!

Matt

latecomer

Good stuff. Fingers crossed it all goes through fine with nothing bad in the survey.