First-time house renovation

spirit

Hello,

UKmaggie, I'm sorry to read about the burglary, I don't know how I missed not reading about it before now. I hope you are getting everything sorted now?

Loving looking at the photo's especially of the dogs/puppies :¬)

I bought this house 11 weeks ago. It is 30 years old (the house not me) and has had pretty much nothing done to it save some awful paint/wallpapering in that time. An old lady lived in it for 28 of those years and her son sold it when she died in January.

So it had some weird and wonderful things here, like the 'granny-ramp' in the garden - so she could go out there with her zimmer. It needs new kitchen and bathroom (will upload pics in a second) It had old fashioned windows that were rotten and something listed as a greenhouse on the building regs thing - a lean to (or leaning over) accessed by a sliding door from the kitchen.

In the first 2 weeks I had the windows, soffits, fascias, guttering, doors replaced and the same guy also took down the wall between the kitchen and dining room. He took downt he lean-to, bricked up the kitchen door to window height and put in a bigger kitchen window. took out the dining room window, cut out the below brickwork and put a french set of doors in. New (rear) garage door and windows. New front door and internal porch door and sidescreen. Bricked up the loo loor, took down the wall between the loo and bathroom. He was recommended on the work intranet and I've not been disappointed. All that lot for £10.5k - I am well pleased.

Last Friday I had all new internal doors - just the Howdens 6 panel moulded ones, so have painted those now. The old doors were those horrid flat hollow ones? they were so horrible that I took most of the old ones off before the new ones arrived.

I've also had a new consumer unit fitted and more sockets and switches replaced. I've been lucky too finding the sparky to do that since he lives at No. 1.

I've had the new bathroom suite delivered and in my spare room for a few weeks now. I'm having real bothers trying to find a fitter. The guy who was going to do it kept saying he will be with me xx date/at the end of the week etc but didn't turn up. In the end he said he would be with me at 7.30 the next Monday morning but I told him not to bother. I've had a couple of people round to quote from Ratedpeople but am a bit nervous about using one of them. their reviews are for things like fixing dripping taps rather than fitting new bathrooms.

The kitchen is due to be delivered on 30th of this month and I have the fitter for that. I went for a Cooke and Lewis in the end. I bought the cooker hood, dishwasher, sink & taps and fridge freezer on line (Boots and ebay). they are sitting in the kitchen ready. I just need to get an oven and hob next.

This morning I need to finish off painting the loft hatch.

will upload some pics now....

If only I could remember how you do it! Help please?

aliasojo

Stolt...where did you get the grey/silver square planters from please?

aliasojo

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Duplicate post removed - I'm having some browser problems.

maggie it's a site issue, been happening all over the site all weekend, it's not you.

stolt

aliasojo wrote: »

Stolt...where did you get the grey/silver square planters from please?

hi, i got them from this company (also sell on ebay so for 6 he did them at £40.00 each (i think that included delivery aswell) they do matt black ones which also look really good.

http://www.floraselect.co.uk/shop/zinc-coated-galvanised-steel-garden-planters/cube-zinc-coated-galvanised-steel-garden-planters-silver/


http://www.floraselect.co.uk/shop/zinc-coated-galvanised-steel-garden-planters/

stolt

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Stolt, now I see your gabions all round the garden they look fantastic! I don't think I got the full effect from your earlier photos as they were more close-ups.

How about a cat as a pet? They can be really friendly (or not, as the case may be), and don't need walking like a dog. (though some cats can be trained to go for walks on a lead) Mind you, cats can also wreck furniture, especially those cute little kittens that your girls would love!

Or a house rabbit? Rabbits can be trained to live in the house. To use a litter tray. (I've met a house rabbit in the past, but have no experience of them myself)

Sorry to hear of your back problems. Mucho sympathy! I know how horrid it is, so enjoy your splashy fountain and the sleep it brings. When my back was bad about 10 years ago (to extent I was considering surgery) I went to a local chiropracter recommended by one of the kids' friends Dads. He helped a lot, but really should go back as having probs again.

Hope your back improves soon, do take care.

All the best from Liverpool, Maggie

thanks maggie, yeah i did think about a cat, although i dont think the missus wants any kind of pet that comes indoors, its hard to convince her about anything. I probably will get them a rabbit or two, next door have some massive lopeared rabbits that are free running around the garden and I quite like that.
with regards to the back, i dont think i ever learn my lessln, after three weeks and i was straight again, first week i moved 1.5 ton of top soil for the planters!!!!

stolt

TomsMom wrote: »

Garden's looking good Stolt. Did the birds eat that strawberry? We've got a female blackbird that is devouring mine even though they're netted and right up by the house, little beggar has had more than me.

I was also going to suggest a cat, but maybe a rescue cat rather than a kitten. A kitten will run up your curtains, they've even been known to run up the wall. We had a rescue cat, 12 months old, and he was wonderful, past the naughty kitten stage and fully house trained and the charity had him checked at the vets and his injections all up to date before we had him. Also, the charity would know the personality of the cat and would choose the right family, i.e. wouldn't put a cat who may have issues with children from, say, problems in it's previous home, with a family where there's young children, etc.

Hope your back improves soon, both OH and I have been there so can sympathise.

hi, yeah it was a blackbird that had it, only had about 4 from the whole plant that have grown and me and the kids had a pea sized one to share as the birds were too quick. managed to net the cherry tree and that meant we got a bowl of cherries form there which were not bad, something about going out to your garden picking the fruit from the tree. next year i want to get a raised wooden planter and try some fruti and veg in that.

andrew-b

Couple of new pictures of my "cut-and-shut" potting shed!
Before:


After:





Oh and nearly forgot, here's wife's potato crop from a patio potato plant. Unfortunately the potato plant died - went leggy then keeled over and shrivelled..not very MSE as it cost us about £4 for them!

TomsMom

Andy - I think your cut and shut shed more than makes up for the expensive potatoes (I bet they tasted better than any shop bought ones though!). Shed is great and will be so useful. We don't have room in our tiny garden for a shed but we're lucky enough to have what was described as a "workshop" which is a sort of outside downstairs room, only accessed from outside, which is underneath the store room that's off the conservatory. It's very useful but I don't go in it, it's TD's place and I can just image what it's like. Everything gets put in it, bags of compost, redundant garden pots, even the grandchildren's bikes. I don't know how he moves in there!

Stolt - Oh, do try veggies next year, you wont regret it. In our little garden we have a sort of balcony as we step out of the house then three steps down to the garden. On the balcony I've got one big round tub of potatoes, four long tubs of carrots and parsnips, two round tubs of onions, one round tub of runner beans, four small tubs of tomatoes (with a further two of cherry toms down in the garden), two 2-tiered planters of strawberries, some tubs with radishes and lettuces and a couple of tubs with apologies for leeks in them. We have about 4 rhubarb plants and a gooseberry bush in the garden borders. It's amazing what you can grow in tubs and everything tastes nicer than shop bought. It's lovely to just go out and pick what you need when you want it. I've never been a gardener but I'm really enjoying it now and the veggies really haven't taken a lot of work. You can see my efforts on my garden blog if you're interested.

Spirit - Hello and welcome to the thread. You've certain got a lot done in a short time, well done! Sorry I can't help with pics as I've never done it. I think you need a pic hosting site like Photobucket but Stolt, Suiside or Andy can help there. I'm looking forward to seeing them (I'm the nosey one ).

Well done on finding tradespeople who have done a good job up to now. I'd be careful of sites like Rated People. I was watching an episode of Cowboy Builders recently and the people featured had got their builders from one of those sites who had been rated 10/10 but the presenter explained that they can go and put their own ratings on so you can't always trust them. Best way is recommendation and if you find someone who can't do it for a couple of months then you know he's a good 'un. Good tradespeople are always busy!

stolt

TomsMom wrote: »

Stolt - Oh, do try veggies next year, you wont regret it. In our little garden we have a sort of balcony as we step out of the house then three steps down to the garden. On the balcony I've got one big round tub of potatoes, four long tubs of carrots and parsnips, two round tubs of onions, one round tub of runner beans, four small tubs of tomatoes (with a further two of cherry toms down in the garden), two 2-tiered planters of strawberries, some tubs with radishes and lettuces and a couple of tubs with apologies for leeks in them. We have about 4 rhubarb plants and a gooseberry bush in the garden borders. It's amazing what you can grow in tubs and everything tastes nicer than shop bought. It's lovely to just go out and pick what you need when you want it. I've never been a gardener but I'm really enjoying it now and the veggies really haven't taken a lot of work. You can see my efforts on my garden blog if you're interested.


thanks yep will follow the blog on the gardening, had a quick look and i love the backdrop to your flower beds, the silver of the weathered wood looks superb. (could imagine a big line of lavenders against it or blueish plants would really look good). starting to really get into my gardening too, not been too bothered before just wanted something to look nice but now i'm more interested about what growing and where its growing. we have a massive bottle brush bush in the front gardne and due to the hard winter it was completley wrecked, hwoever i trimed it and gave it lots of feed and water and we have had a few flowers on it, last year it was smootered but then it was lovely and green. I will need to give it another prune but worried as you can cut it back too much and kill it off.

a lady at work gave me a couple of tomato plants so i put them in the flower beds and we had some carrots in there, just really to show the kids how veg and that is grown and where it comes from.

TomsMom

stolt wrote: »

thanks yep will follow the blog on the gardening, had a quick look and i love the backdrop to your flower beds, the silver of the weathered wood looks superb. (could imagine a big line of lavenders against it or blueish plants would really look good). starting to really get into my gardening too, not been too bothered before just wanted something to look nice but now i'm more interested about what growing and where its growing. we have a massive bottle brush bush in the front gardne and due to the hard winter it was completley wrecked, hwoever i trimed it and gave it lots of feed and water and we have had a few flowers on it, last year it was smootered but then it was lovely and green. I will need to give it another prune but worried as you can cut it back too much and kill it off.

You might have noticed that fence is railway sleepers. It may have been erected by the railway many years ago as it extends into next door's garden and used to go down the adjoining pedestrian lane but that's been replaced by railings now which the railway did - shame really as all the weeds grow through and over the path now and the railway doesn't clear it up.

We have some lovely lilac allium against it, finished flowering now, but I also have some Echinops Blue Glow seeds which I'll put against the fence next year. I was just looking at lavender too, after seeing Suiside's butterfly lavender on the gardening forum pics, but I'd want one that can be kept in check as a lot of lavender spreads like mad.

I'm always on the lookout for something new and different. We need to replace the old hardy fuschia near the bird feeder. We've had to put slate chippings down because of the amount of wasted seed which started to grow beneath it so wouldn't mind something else in that area but it would need to be pretty sturdy as the pigeons traipse around cleaning up the seed and tend to break branches off branches/stems of anything flimsy.

Your girls should enjoy growing things. A good way to get them interested in the garden - they can sow the seeds, nurture the plants and then taste the fruits of their efforts. Great for getting them to try something they've never tasted before.