First-time house renovation

suisidevw

ahhhh! Interesting TM! Hows TD btw?

Andrew, why wouldn't you just carpet the hallway? Back to my log store, you mentioned slate roof, why would that be?

andrew-b

TomsMom wrote: »

Did you finish the bathroom .

you are joking the day that room is finished is the day hell freezes over lol...it's on hold until i've painted the bathroom door frame which i intend to do at the same time as all the hall woodwork then just need 2 coats of emulsion on the walls and sort out the floor.

TomsMom wrote: »

The ones we had were actually being discontinued and replaced with something similar. We had Simply Soft which I think were recommended for a bedroom but I don't know the name of the newer one that replaced them. For a hallway you'd probably want one from a different range, their brochure recommends different ones for different situations.

Thanks yes i've perused their brochure online already and i'm pretty sure it was still the same name.

TomsMom wrote: »

They were £4.77 plus VAT per tile :eek: (gosh, I wish TD hadn't just told me that) but we got the cheapest internet price and went back to our trusty local independent shop and asked him to price match, which he did.

Ouch i need about 40 for the hall (allowing for spares as the cuts are quite complicated) and 15 for the bathroom...so that's £225 for the hall and £84 for the bathroom at that price. The B&Q tiles are a fair bit cheaper but i think it would be false economy.

Hall is 4.2m long (lounge to bedroom) by 2.5m wide (spare room to bathroom) at maximum dimensions. For carpet/underlay would mean i'm looking at 15square metres rather than 10square metres of carpet tiles which would likely make it more expensive than carpet tiles because of all the wastage from the odd shape.

Bathroom floor area is roughly 2m x 2m but shower in corner.

TomsMom wrote: »

You might think for that price some good quality by the sq metre is better - shruggy shoulders??? The only reason we had carpet tiles was because we couldn't get a roll up the dog-leg staircase plus the restricted head height would have made it difficult also, it would have had to be from 5m wide carpet as the room is so big.

My reasoning for considering carpet tiles is partly because i can fit them myself (allegedly ....wait until you hear me cursing!!), partly carpet fitter won't muck up all my paintwork (no experience of any fitters round here) and i can replace individual tiles if necessary (in bathroom might be preferable than having to replace entire carpet if it turns yuk). Haven't totally ruled out other options in the bathroom..still got aquastep waterproof laminate at the back of my mind which may be preferable for similar price but i'm concerned on possibly slippyness - though alot of the floor area will likely be occupied by bath mat anyway.

andrew-b

suisidevw wrote: »

Back to my log store, you mentioned slate roof, why would that be?

Ahh i did read your question never got to replying! Just suspect if you felt/slate/tile it might last a bit longer and be more maintenance free - don't think i'd pay out for it though as replacing the roof timbers would be cheaper....keep an eye out for people doing loft conversions to scrounge some! Might be more of an issue for snow left standing on it than rain. Maybe stolt has got some artificial grass left over

suisidevw

Yes, disguised log store!

stolt

ha ha, i do have some turf left over, i still need some to cover the extension roof (that was supposed to be sorted this year but another thing to get around to do)

update on the kitchen front, the corian company came to finish off the worktops but where they use to a rotary polisher to sand down the worktops they left swirls, called them back and what was supposed to be an hours job turned into 6 hour job and although better its not perfect so the kitchen company are coming round tuesday to inspect, its much better now but the guy that was doing it was angry with himself as he has to do the whole worktop if there is a patch not just that patch that can be sanded, on the third time there was some tiny swirls he tried to get rid of them and nded up having to do the whole thing again....., hes saying because the room is so light its always going to show imperfections, however the small sample they give you is quite glossy and ours is matt. thats not bad in itself but its looks as if someone has cleaned it but not buffed off the residue if that makes sense. we were hoping to pay a bit less but i dont know how thats going to go tuesday as they have said thats the best they can do!!

we have decided to raid the kids money banks to help us do a few other things before christmas *yes i've mentioned that word now. and of course we will give it back, but ts earning 0.000000000001% of interest for them and ive got 10 years plus before they are going to touch it.


Going to get breakfast bar lights, lights for the playroom, some wallpaper for the lounge (one wall) and we want to put some french doors in the old kitchen where there are windows, any idea how much they would cost 2k?????? we also need a back door, actuall we need a need front door but if i get the french doors and back door in i can rip out the old kitchen and then just have the shell to play around with. oh yeah electrican said i need a larger consumer unit really as its now getting difficult to put wires into the board itself and he prefers to have less against each MCB etc which makes sense. oh yeah might get a cheap sofa for the new kitchen aswell.

Not much else in these pics other than i fitted the skirting board andworktops finished. #

Wondering whether to put the old kitchen on ebay, perhaps i might get a £100 or so for it which would go towards something else rather than just skip the lot, theres a neff cooker and dishwasher which are new by new i mean they were only installed a couple of months before we moved in.

andrew-b

7 pages down...either your all finished (!) or your all too busy lol

Still making slow progess on the hall with lots of filling and sanding over the weekend. Need to sand down all the last batch of filling of ceiling, walls and woodwork and probaby refill then it's on with painting the woodwork and hopefully can begin hanging the lining paper this week.

Drained down the hall rad and removed it ...saved all the water in a container with lid so the idea is when i reconnect the rad to turn off the cold supply to the header tank and pour it back into the system as no dirt was in it as we previously cleaned it out when removing it for the rerouting of bathroom towal rail pipework. Need to clean up behind the rad where remnants of an old wallpaper remain.

Also relocated the phone socket into the airing cupboard (previously next to the door frame of the cupboard)..i needed to remove it to clean up the wall around it and thought whilst i was doing that i may as well move it out of view as it's about the first thing you see when you walk through the front door. We never use that socket other than to hook up a corded phone when the power is out. Despite being careful i still managed to get a small electric shock in the process ..through my elbow by accidentally touching the terminals or capacitor while it was sat on the airing cupboard shelf whilst i was drilling a hole in the wall for the backing box! Just enough to feel a tingling and cause a reflex in my arm...felt a bit like a muscle strenghtening machine i have! Had a few issues with the extension wiring but it all works now. Took a while reclipping the cable inside the cupboard as the nails bounce off the hard plaster but got there eventually.

Any news on baby LC?

jamtart6

stolt your kitchen is gorgeous! we have vaguely decided what to do in the garden but money is not being kind to us right now boo the recession. I still want to glam the garden up like stolt's posh garden but perhaps next year for all the lights etc!

How is TD these days?

Little rose hope you have a fab honeymoon. We couldnt afford one so went on a day out to the zoo instead!!! Next year if money picks up we're hoping to go to the USA but we'll wait and see before booking it!

aliasojo

andrew-b wrote: »

Still making slow progess on the hall with lots of filling and sanding over the weekend.

Ditto. 'Tis getting to be a pain.

My airing cupboard now has coving.

It wasn't in an attempt to be posh, it was just as an extra defence against any heat rising into the loft.

We had quite bad condensation probs in the loft last year and I read somewhere about heat rising and escaping through the area where wall and ceiling meet especially in walls that are taped and filled rather than plastered (as most homes are, up my neck of the woods). Don't know if that has any basis in truth or not but I figured it would do no harm to guard against it if poss. I have a small rad in the cupboard so it does tend to get quite warm.

There was a hole in the airing cupboard ceiling where a pipe once passed through and there were a couple of bits that clearly had never been filled properly when the house was built so I re-taped and filled the joins, filled the hole, put Fire & Acoustic sealant all round the join between wall and ceiling, and put up a bit of coving I had spare and was lying around doing nothing.

Let any warm air try to get through all that! :rotfl:

Of course I ended up having to sand it all as well.

TomsMom

Hi peeps

TD is doing OK, thanks for asking. He's at the hospital for check up today, they've knocked it down to 6-weekly at the moment. He feels and looks better than he has for years! He thinks his blood results may be down this time but they give him booster injections now rather than transfusions so that's better than being in overnight. He's booked in for reflexology with the complimentary therapy nurse as he's still got problems with the dead nerve endings in his feet, very uncomfortable and a bit painful if he's on his feet too long. His consultant was hoping this would right itself in time but he's getting a bit doubtful now. Small price to pay though in the grand scheme of things.

Garden is coming on, should be finished tomorrow then we have to plant up the things we've bought and are waiting. Some plants have suffered so hope they come back next year.

I'm on my own here and just looked at the mortar joints on the dwarf wall, they look rather wide and a bit messy on the side we can see. I thought the mess would be at the back????? I wonder if they'll tidy them up. Hope so 'cos by the time TD comes home tonight the mortar would have gone off.

DS asked how much this garden makeover is costing, I said "Your inheritance" .

I'm keeping up with everyone's progress, so keep posting.

Maggie How are things going with your house?

TomsMom

URGENT REQUEST - NEED YOUR OPINIONS BY WEDNESDAY MORNING

Garden makeover should be finished tomorrow with a bit of luck.

Difference of opinion here, my preference might not be possible now without upsetting the landscaper as this wasn't discussed with us but please take a look at my garden blog and let me know what you think.