First-time house renovation

latecomer

ouch! The Ronseal stuff is about £40 in a decent size tin if its any consolation

andrew-b

Looks good TomsMom. I like batenburg but only to eat rather than for my paving! Would get the walls painted like you say to match the house as it does show them up now!

As for hall progress...slowly getting there. The filling and sanding is behind me so now busy painting the skirtings and 6 door frames. So far they have all been undercoated and i'm about half way through the first top coat. Reluctantly I've switched to water-based paint just because it dries that much quicker with the dog about..don't particularly like the stuff though. However i hadn't realised that the white paintwork i've done elsewhere in spare room and bathroom with oil-based paint has already yellowed so it means i might have to do a fresh coat of water-based paint on the woodwork in both rooms so the doors don't look such a different colour!

Still it's surprising how much brighter the hall is looking just with the fresher paintwork. Must go get on with finishing off the first top coat whilst there's decent light levels.

latecomer

Lick of paint makes a huge difference. Our place literally transformed overnight from a building site to the almost finished article when the painting was started. We've still got a bit of painting to do and a lot of varnishing but of course we dont want to subject baby LC to the fumes. Think I'll need to get them out the house for a weekend and just try and blitz everything.

We've had a quote from the builder (from his drainage guy) for replacing the damaged inspection chamber (which I'm going to try and dig out the skip to have another look at) of about £1100 provided we deal with the guy directly. thats not going to happen. I'm 99% sure he's got the guy to quote for all the drainage work - which is his responsibility. We think we could argue that the inspection chamber was fine until they dug down around it with a pick axe as the drains had been inspected by the BCO and passed prior to this. And the thing that puzzles me was why cut it out and leave the drain completely disconnected rather than just leave it in place. Hence why I'm going skip diving to find the old chamber to have a look.

OH is going to screwfix today to get a couple of flexible adaptors and a 90degree bend so I can hopefully connect the pipes back up as a temp fix as I dont like all the grey waste from the kitchen (sink, washing machine and dishwasher) just emptying out and then seeping away. Also hopefully going to speak to the BCO and find out exactly whats required to be put in as we dont see why a shallow depth mini inspection chamber wouldn't be suitable and then we could install it ourselves.

anyone got any experience of drains or inspection chambers?

andrew-b

Low VOC water-based paint might be your best option. Didn't think i'd ever say this but I'm actually starting to like it now i've had a bit more practice with it and now that i've doubled my speed and started slapping it on twice as quick.

Sounds alot to me for just replacing an inspection chamber..assuming it's all still exposed and doesn't need masses of soil digging out.
Don't know a huge amount about drains myself but wickes good idea leaflet might help you: http://www.wickes.co.uk/pcat/74drainage

Will be starting the second coat of hall woodwork painting this afternoon once i've lightly sanded it with between coats sandpaper and wiped down. Had hoped to have had walls and ceilings lined by now but as usual everything takes twice as long as planned.

ginvzt

Ok, I am back. You might remember taht beautiful house we wanted to buy (stone walls, slate roof). Well, we didn't buy it. We put an offer in, "up-ed" it, but someone came in with cash offer and we were not going to fight with that (not that we would have had any chance).

But, we are buying a house we are currently renting and that will need some work doing too. It is built in 1989, and looks like it as last decorated then too. So, we need new boiler, new front door, new back door, new patio doors, eventually new kitchen, all wallpapers stripped off, possibly will need walls re-skimmed, carpets replaced (with wooden floor hopefully downstairs), all repainted, doors repainted/replaced possibly (would like to replace some doors with sliding pocket doors).

So, we 'escaped' one project, and are embarking on another one. It will all be done slowly, as we are living in the house and work will mainly have to be done be me (female) as OH is not keen on DIY (I crave it, on the other hand). We have mortgage agreed subject to valuation, which should be arranged in the next few days hopefully.

Our first priority is new boiler as current one is 20 year old and very inefficient, and then front/back and patio doors. We really hope to have these done before winter, as last one was rather cold in this house (draughty doors, patio door had ice on the inside that did not melt away all day with the heating constantly on).

We know we want to go for combi boiler, but now need to research which one would suit us best (it is a 4-bed house, all doubles, with bathroom, ensuite, etc - so we want to make sure it is powerful enough for our hot water needs and keeping house warm).

Then there is also garden - need to cut down few leylandii type trees (5+), decorative cherry, some random trees in the corner of the garden, trim a big tree in front of the house, the cooking apple tree, crab apple tree, and just tidy up. The garden really is not that big to have all those big trees! Ideally I would put some dwarf fruit trees instead, and create a small veg-patch, but will see how we go.

So, here we go - our new project will start soon (subject to valuation). I think it will cost about £20-25k, although I guess my OH thinks we will do it for a couple of grand. Just the boiler+doors will probably come over £5k!!

ukmaggie45

Before I rant just want to greet baby LC and congrats to the proud parents. Chosen a name yet? How about a photo? Hope you and Mrs LC are coping OK with the broken nights. DD is still finding it hard going, but with them being prem I think these things go on for longer. Just try and get some rest when you can!

Sorry not been updating for so long - only came back from Bwlchtocyn on Sunday, got back very late due to hell on the A55 Coast Road. I told OH we should go through Bala but he wanted to get back earlier than if we'd done that? :mad:

I think it was the week before the bank holiday weekend the council came to inspect the house to see if it was inhabitable. OH says the chap was pleasant and said in his view the house was uninhabitable, but that it wasn't his decision. Not heard anything more yet. (we had a summons for non payment of council tax, but that's too long a story to go into just now except to say it was the council who f***** up.)

I shoulda come home a week earlier, but fancied having my birthday at the caravan, especially since we were having the best weather I've seen since April/May, and certainly the best weather I've seen in Abersoch this year.

Yesterday we went and cleared all the stuff we might want from the garage, OH had taken some curtains down last week when he was back for work. Tried to begin to sort out the neglected garden, toms are some blighted but not sure if true blight or blossom end rot from being neglected...

OH insists he watered them, but suspect he didn't give them enough as the ones I was ripping out of pots were totally dry all the way through the compost. He is a useless gardener, and what's more he won't ever listen to me when I ask him to do things a certain way but just does it his way and then things die. :mad:

I think they may be starting the demolition today, we'll find out this evening if I can summon the energy to get out of bed and get dressed. I really over did things yesterday trying to get at least some of the toms sorted, and the other stuff in the garage. Plus the journey home was hell and even if it's relatively OK it still leaves me knackered for several days after.

Really could do with going back to sleep for a while (bad night and couldn't sleep after 4am), but if I do won't find out what's happening. Don't trust OH to give me any proper information any more after his complete non info on the dreadful state of the garden. We need a scythe for the lawn I think :eek: - no way will our lawnmower cut it! :mad:

I honestly am beginning to regret buying this house - the build is going to be horribly expensive, and that's even before stuff like the kitchen and bathroom and central heating is factored in. Hoping am just overtired from the journey and things will look better tomorrow or next week!

jimbugalee

Hey all! Long time no speak. We're still here but been super busy all summer (not really with the house!).

We're currently still working on the office which was the bathroom. Major turning point as I can then move out of the lounge and we can fingers crossed get the lounge done for Xmas

Still got little Chester puppy here. He takes up a lot of time but super fun and so glad he's part of the family now.

Hope everyone is ok.

LilacPixie

I will return to this shortly and read the whole thing. we have found a house, 1920's and like yours needs a total gutting.

arroli

Please may I join your postings too?
Just about to exchange contracts on an old stone single storey cottage built about 1890...needs a new roof, before any internal renovation work starts...not been lived in for years!
We too have estimated our budget (will probably be far too low, as hubby keeps telling me I need to double it!!- dont have funds to increase by much)
We had a shocking survey report, which initially persuaded us it was too much to take on by ourselves (first timers for renovation although done some DIY), however, further visits and inspections by building contracters, roofing experts etc...and here we are, cannot wait to make a start when I get the key!

ukmaggie45

Welcome arroli and LilacPixie. :beer: I hope you realise that we will all be nagging you to start a blog or at the very least to post lots of photos as we are all incredibly [STRIKE]interested in[/STRIKE] nosy about peoples' progress, especially one or two of us more elderly ones (waves to TM :hello: )

Had a nice nap since my earlier post, and when OH arrived home from work (he's on earlies this week so home around 4.30) was fast asleep. When I woke up he said he was really relieved I hadn't want to go straight to the house as he's shattered too. Phew!

Oh yeah, our other piece of news is that the service centre OH works (RBS) is closing in 2012. He just got allowed to not retire at 65 (end of this month), here's hoping he manages the extra 2 years they said he could stay on. They are going to give them a year's notice of when the closure will happen.

We are lucky that when it closes OH can just claim his state pension. I really feel for his colleagues who are younger, there's not a lot of work around at present. Must dig out the Work supplement to The Grauniad from Saturday as there's a section on setting up a business to supplement income. I have tons of [STRIKE]interesting stuff[/STRIKE] clutter I should be eBaying, but not sure I can face that at the mo. This will be the 4th time OH has been made redundant. :eek:

We also have some good news - dear Brodie (DD and SiL's cat for newbies to this thread) is coming to stay for a week while his Ma and Pa and human siblings go on their hols. It'll be nice to have a purring cat sleeping on our bed and taking up more space than the pair of us together. Good thing we have a king size bed, but even so he tries to push us off the edges! :rotfl:

Thursday we have to go to choose shower tray for the downstairs cloakroom, not looking forward to that. At least we have a really nice bathroom place local to us with really friendly and knowledgeable folks, long established family business. :j We've chosen the bath we want for the upstairs bathroom already, think we'll go for the 1900mm size, but still need to choose the rest of bathroom stuff and also basin and loo for downstairs cloakroom.

Our other chore for the week is to work out where we want the sockets etc to go for the rewire. And I have the dentist on Friday lunchtime too. Oh joy. _pale_