First-time house renovation

aliasojo

redlady_1 wrote: »

I am not sure about the flooring. I am open to suggestions to be honest. What do you suggest? Something that is practical though.

I have tiles with electric underfloor heating. The warmth is lovely BUT it's expensive to run.

Tbh, I wouldn't have a tiled floor again. Already the grout lines are discoloured (the colour was jasmine, not even white) and I feel slightly sick every time I hear something drop in the bathroom in case one of the tiles end up chipped or worse.

I had lino in my bathroom previously, I would go back to that in a heartbeat. It's practical, reasonably warm underfoot and comes in allsorts of weird and wonderful colours and patterns these days.

spirit

Cripes everyone is cracking on with their jobs. :j I'm catching up I think.

re the bathroom floor redlady, Up til yesterday I had planned to put down porcelain floor tiles. a couple of plumbers who deemed to turn up said it had to go on ply first and even then it has to have the special adhesive and grout which is horrendously expensive.

the guy who is going to be doing my bathroom :T:T - at long ferking last, said as I will be selling shortly, to put down vinyl as it is going to be cheaper to buy and have fitted. I've been along to CarpetWrong today and bought it. It's the colour of the tiles I would have got and looks a bit like tiles. Only cost £35 quid too :money:

Ukmaggie, it sounds some project you've got going on there. I hope the council agreed to waivering your tax bill in the interim?

After my interesting day trip to Devon yesterday (about a 400 mile round trip) I've decided it's to be the New forest area. It's not far from where I used to live and there are several properties of interest. There's a couple of fixer-uppers. :eek: Shall i go for another one or play safe with one already done?

I had these awful metal frames wardrobe doors with a kind of acrylic door iykwim - they were a horrid fawn colour. I'd painted the room with Dulux mocha and got some plum coloured curtains, cushions and light shade from IKEA so the doors just didn't go. I had the idea of putting some of that cupboard paint on them (in white). Out came the roller and it's made the world of difference. the metal frames were more a goldy colour so have got some silver spray paint (was ID's for it in B&Q) to do the edges and runners with.

got my ex-neighbours from KW coming over tomorrow with his drill as I have my door number plate to put up and some mirrors (another IKEA purchase). Then that'll leave me with Friday of my hols left and if this rain continues I'll nip down to the Ringwood area. At least that's only an hour's drive max not 4!

andrew-b

Here's my finished workbench (click for bigger):









And to compare here's the original plan:

aliasojo

Looks a solid enough beast andrew. :T

TomsMom

Cracking job Andy, I'm well impressed :T. Ever thought of going into business, custom made rabbit hutches, chicken houses, etc!

andrew-b

It has crossed my mind TomsMom! I might start out small with something like bird boxes and work my way up!

ukmaggie45

latecomer wrote: »

No change with OH - still getting the tightening although it has seemed to ease off a little in the last day or so although I'm not convinced its going away.....more just taking a break!

Every day more is good. Longer the better, so am sending lotsa positive vibes that little Latecomer lives up to Dad's name. ;-) Hope Mrs LC isn't in too much discomfort - couldn't believe the size of DD's ankles towards the end of her pregnancy. :eek: But they went down real fast after delivery, thank goodness.

Really hope the build gets finished for you soon, and all with it is OK without argument, you have more important things to think of at present.

Hugs to you both and the bump!

ukmaggie45

spirit wrote: »

Ukmaggie, it sounds some project you've got going on there. I hope the council agreed to waivering your tax bill in the interim?

Thanks, when I think about it more we should at least get a reduction for second home even if they don't waive it completely. We only live round the corner, and pay full council tax on our current house, where we will continue to live until the work is done.

Maybe we should divorce and then we'd get single person occupancy on each house! :eek: (joke)

spirit wrote: »

After my interesting day trip to Devon yesterday (about a 400 mile round trip) I've decided it's to be the New forest area. It's not far from where I used to live and there are several properties of interest. There's a couple of fixer-uppers. :eek: Shall i go for another one or play safe with one already done?

Sounds to me like you enjoy the fixer-uppers! Would you really want to just buy somewhere and live there? If this is your last move (for the foreseeable future or the next few years) you'd be irritated by any imperfections in the house I feel... But if you do the fix up yourself you can make it perfect for you.

Mind you, we are trying to get our new house perfect for us, and it's a %(^$%&$* nightmare in terms of we are clueless about how to go about it all. Thank goodness we have a builder we trust, but we still have to choose kitchen, bathroom stuff etc and I'm finding it all a bit difficult (to put it mildly!).

Not helped by not being able to get out and view lots of showroom stuff.

Ah well, we'll do the best we can, would be totally scuppered without MSE and the internet!

Good luck with making your decision on next place.

ukmaggie45

andrew-b wrote: »

Here's my finished workbench (click for bigger):

Wow Andy, that's a great bench! :beer: :j OH is knackered today after taking his Mum to the fracture clinic, and has fallen asleep already, but will be showing your pics to him tomorrow. He's pretty useless at carpentry, but maybe it will spur him on to try harder!

Remember we all want to see photos of your first Bench Project!

spirit

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Mind you, we are trying to get our new house perfect for us, and it's a %(^$%&$* nightmare in terms of we are clueless about how to go about it all. Thank goodness we have a builder we trust, but we still have to choose kitchen, bathroom stuff etc and I'm finding it all a bit difficult (to put it mildly!).

Not helped by not being able to get out and view lots of showroom stuff.

Ah well, we'll do the best we can, would be totally scuppered without MSE and the internet!

I was totally clueless at first too, I guess you just learn as you go along and yes, thanks to all the peeps on this forum for hints and tips. The kitchen took longer to choose than the bathroom. I wasn't over keen on Howdens at all, not the 'designer' or the kit itself. At least you get your free trivet though when they come round :rotfl:

The bathroom was easier, I had a good old nosey round at the Ideal Home show earlier this year so had some ideas. I knew what i wanted. Looked round a few showrooms and bought the kit from Buildbase. Well, except for the Mira Platinum shower (which most of the plumbers seemed to know nothing about) which I got from Plumbnation on line. Funny thing is that City Plumbing ended up delivering to me. So I popped in there yesterday and seemingly these internet 'plumbers supplies' just have deals with merchants who supply customers with the stuff.

Anyway, I decided to take the fancy shower with me and just put in a non-electric, thermostatic power shower - also by Mira. I saw it on Plumbnaton and Plumbworld websites for £131 so asked City Plumbing how much they had it for. I said to them that I'd check out their prices before I bought it from one of the above and City deliver it to me

They quoted £160, ah, I said, these other 2 'suppliers' have it for £131, one charges delivery on top but the other one doesn't. So he taps around a bit on his PC and announces they can sell it to me for £129. Result :T