First-time house renovation

TomsMom

Oh JT, you naughty girl, you kept that quiet - anyway congrats on the wedding (although I'm sure we would have all liked to wish you well) and great news that you've finally moved in.

Maggie, nice to hear your update. Have a lovely break at the caravan. Our weather has been wonderful the last few days so fingers crossed it reaches you and lasts while you're there.

Andy, you're making great progress in your garden, it sounds like such hard work. Good idea to keep your tools in the little shed, you'll probably be able to keep the bigger shed more organised and tidy.

Vale Eden Hi and welcome to the thread. Sorry I can't help with insurance whilst renovating. We did enquire and it was very expensive but I can't remember what was covered. In the end, because our builders were camping in our property Mon-Fri and we lived just half a dozen steps away and were there every day including weekends, we just had "normal" insurance from the start. Hopefully those who have renovated whilst not living in their property will see your question and offer a bit more advice.

Latecomer Oh dear, I do so hope you're not going to have a repeat of your builder problems. I hope you sort things out with them at your meeting and only pay when you're satisfied they've kept their end of the bargain!

TD has been working on the inside of the porch this week. There was the most horrendous plasterwork job (DIY by previous owner again). He's sanded off the worst, applied some textured paint to try and get a reasonable finish and then applied two coats of the masonry paint. Looking 100 times better now. He's got to paint the woodwork at the top (under the plasticy type roof) then that's finished. Just got to persuade DS to come and lay the tiles, it's so small it's probably only a couple of metres. If he can't do it soon TD will have a go.

Other than that I'm pottering around in the garden, also wondering if the sun room floor will get levelled this year!

14 months since we moved in and it's amazing how marked the walls are, especially in the hall where the entrance is just the door's width. I don't think we'll have ordinary matt emulsion again, it shows the marks too easily and can't be wiped without it getting more marked. Also lots of little cracks are appearing. Virtually the whole house was replastered and I suppose it's to do with settling/drying out and it's inevitable. I can see the merry go round of repainting starting soon , rather disappointing considering how much we paid for the decorator to do the whole house last year. We can't afford him again so will just have to hope TD has a steady hand for the cutting in.

littlerose12345

TomsMom wrote: »

14 months since we moved in and it's amazing how marked the walls are, especially in the hall where the entrance is just the door's width. I don't think we'll have ordinary matt emulsion again, it shows the marks too easily and can't be wiped without it getting more marked. Also lots of little cracks are appearing. Virtually the whole house was replastered and I suppose it's to do with settling/drying out and it's inevitable. I can see the merry go round of repainting starting soon , rather disappointing considering how much we paid for the decorator to do the whole house last year. We can't afford him again so will just have to hope TD has a steady hand for the cutting in.

Hi TomsMum - I know what you mean, we had most of our house plastered and it's now been painted and we have lots of cracks apprearing too which is really disheartnening. Especially as we used a pollycell undercoat which is supposed to prevent/minimise these cracks. I've been told it's the settling and movement of the house but it's hard to deal with.. especally when you pay for something, you expect it to last longer than a year

TomsMom

jamtart6 wrote: »

Thanks for the good wishes folks!!! We still have the garden to attack so Mr JT won't be slacking any time soon!!!

Oooooh we've got soooooooooo many scuffs on the wall and cracks everywhere, soo disheartening isn't it TM!!! How is TD now? I was warned about matt emulsion but was adamant that it would be fine. It'll be silk from now on I think!!!

We had silk at the last house but it does seem to be out of favour. Ours was on the paintable wallpaper (blown vinyl or anaglypta) and it looked fine, was wipeable and didn't seem to show any scuff marks. I wonder if there's something in between, i.e. not quite so shiny as silk but just as durable?????

TD is doing well, his doctors are very pleased with his progress. Check ups are now monthly :T (we can have some sort of life now rather than working around hospital appts) and he is due in Bristol again at the end of the month for another check up there. Main problem now for him is trying to put weight back on (mine is trying to get a few pounds off :rotfl: ) and the nerve endings in his feet haven't yet started to heal so uncomfortable/painful/cold feet, also he hasn't got his sense of taste back yet so eating isn't very exciting or interesting for him. Other than that he is very thankful that the treatment has worked for him so far and just prays that it continues to do so for a long time to come.

andrew-b

Good to hear TD is doing well!

Here progress continues on the garden though with a few problems. I was replacing the paving slabs over the top of my cable trench and stamped on one to try bed it down further and it broke in half (ooops...though some stronger expletives than that were used!!). Of course i don't have any spare slabs and it's in the most prominent part of the patio. There are already some broken slabs at the other end of the patio so downed tools to consider options. Really don't want to be heaving around 600x600mm slabs (the current size) as there's simply too heavy for me to deal with and even 450x450 slabs are bit too much for me. Didn't really fancy using block paving on the whole area so i've come up with an alternative plan with a block paved path over the top of the cable trench heading towards shed door from the back door - but stopping at the lawn and putting stepping stones to continue the path to the shed door and veggie patch and then decking where the rest of the patio was. Decking all over we think would be too slippery when wet/icy and this way i don't have to walk on the decking when it's wet to get to my shed.

It's complicated by there being a strip of concrete along the back of the house though that will stay (can't deck over the top because of the level relative to DPC) and also somehow i've got to link between all the different levels whilst minimising/eliminating steps any bigger than 2 inches (beyond that i struggle to step up). So the path will also be a slope down from the back door.

Anyway it's all going to have to wait now as the shed is set to turn up on monday so i've had to temporarily put the paving slabs back down and clear everything off the patio ready to stack the shed panels. Luckily i got all the slabs down again yesterday as it rained heavily in the night.

I did have time to cut out another 50x100cm of concrete near the back door for the top end of the path....which again attracted the attention of neighbour's head popping-up over wall . I actually waited until he was out before i started but he had come back. Getting a bit fed up of it now as i can't do anyhing without him wanting to know what i'm upto! It's bad enough him ringing at the door bell but now his started to climbing up on something to look over i can't escape. I had ear plugs in so didn't hear him calling until i happened to look up. Anyway he asked me if i'd looked into the distance of the shed invalidating my insurance. He didn't seem that happy when i told him i had and that no such rule existed! He was adamant the rule existed because he "worked in the trade" so he knows the rules ...urm ok if u say so!

latecomer

Vale_Eden wrote: »

Hi All!

First time posting here, had a bit of a trawl through the thread but couldn't find the answer to my question!

We're in the process of buying a property to renovate, due to complete asap. The problem is we won't be living in the property whilst the renovation is taking place and the best level of buildings insurance we can get is for Fire, Lightning, Explosion and Aircraft. Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem? Just a bit worried about floods (not that it's in a flood risk area) and break-ins especially once the renovation commences (probably in a few months).

Many Thanks!!

Welcome! I'm sure some of the others have had insurance while doing their renovations but I dont know the level of cover - hopefully you'll get some details from them.

Have you tried searching?

latecomer

@JT - congrats on getting married and moving in - 2 great events

@ukmaggie - fingers crossed the plans go through the system wihtout any issues. Definitely worth keeping the neighbours informed and getting them on side. Ours have been fantastic!

@TM - glad to hear TD is well. Cant believe its 14 months since you moved in. I'm hoping we dont have the same problems with the plaster but then if thats the only problem we have I wont complain too much.

@andyb - sounds like your neighbour is just being a pain because they dont like it. Next time just say you've discussed it with your insurers and they dont have a problem so you have no plans to move it. fingers crossed your shed turns up today.

I did nothing over the weekend. I completely did my back in on thursday which meant I could barely walk. It was so bad I even ended up at the doctors to see about getting it investigated. He even signed me off for a week - which I didn't ask for (or want tbh!). He's going to refer me for an MRI scan to see if we can figure out whats causing all the problems.

Got an updated schedule for this week over the weekend and will be relatively happy if they stick to it. Will speak to him on wednesday about the overall schedule and the fact there is no way they are going to be finished next week and hence the payments will need changed to reflect it.

The kitchen floor was laid on friday and looks pretty good with the exception of one area where it dips slightly. They are going to look at that this week. Electrician completed his first fix too.

the plasterer is going to start in the loft today and should be finished by thursday morning which would be fantastic. He's then meant to get onto rendering the outside but thats weather dependent.

Joiners were starting on the fascia boards this morning so hopefully they should be done today if they dont get rained off.

andrew-b

Shed turned up as planned (Well almost was thirty minutes late). Their van was broken down so it came in the back of a hatchback!! Still i suppose some companies would have cancelled the delivery altogether so can't fault them for effort! I can't quite get my head around how they managed to fit the entire shed in two car loads and still close the boot! They had to go back to get floor, windows, roof felt and miscellaneous bits - but the rest fitted in just one car load! At the moment it's all piled up on the patio under a tarpaulin. I was hoping i might get to start on the wood treatment today but it's been threatening to rain all day and meant to rain here tonight too. Trouble is being an oil-based preserver it takes a long time to dry so it's not really worth chancing it if rain is expected.

Anyway shed looks decent quality and well built. I'd paid extra for 16mm cladding (that's the finished size rather than nominal size) so it looks pretty sturdy.

ukmaggie45

Went away to the caravan this weekend and came home to find we'd been burgled. Took 32" Panasonic HD TV with built in freesat and freeview, but more distressing the Victorian silver coffee pot left to elder daughter by my Dad. Gutted over that.

Glazing company who installed back door for us have already replaced the panel with the broken cat flap (way they got in - we are usually so careful, but I'd just had emergency dental trip followed by planting stuff at new garden before we left) which was OKd by our insurers.

Loss adjuster will be here on Friday morning. (oh joy :rolleyes)

Police very kind and helpful.

We're still trying to sort out list of stolen stuff as everything in my knicker drawers scattered everywhere and we had to wait till the crime scene person came for fingerprints before we could touch anything shiny. Turns out the perps wore gloves, so no fingerprints.

Got go ahead to begin clearing up about 9.30 this morning. So still haven't finished finding what's missing IYSWIM as am knackered from journey back from caravan and then finding been burgled.

Could have been worse. They left John's laptop (too old to bother with?) and the camcorder (deffo too old to bother with)...

We will be looking at CCTV in new house now.

TomsMom

Oh goodness Maggie, how dreadful! In the grand scheme of things they're only "things" but the silver coffee pot obviously had emotional attachments for you. So sorry to hear this. Hope you get everything sorted soon and can get things back on an even keel again.

Vale_Eden

Hi TomsMum and Latecomer

Thanks for your replies. We've searched all over the net it seems!! We've settled for FLEA cover but ideally would like something better. We're still in our 14 day period of the insurance, so if we can find something better then we would be willing to cancel it even though it may cost us to do so (not very MSE we know!!).

We completed on Friday on the house and are very excited about it all, though friends and family we've taken on a lot. We've got in touch with an architect to get our plans drawn up and finalise the design We spent Saturday clearing some of the garden so it did look so unloved anymore. Sure this forum will help us lots x