First-time house renovation

andrew-b

I take it back..it does look a bit like earthquake carnage! :rotfl: The demolition is always the best bit ..i'd have had to have done that bit myself!
Fresh can of paint today so now i can finish the bathroom door frame and loft hatch frame. Rather than painting the doors themselves next i think i'll move onto the lining paper next so i don't get too bored of painting.

Discussed doors with OH this morning ..it's been decided to go with a plain white veneer door for airing cupboard and cut-in-two/rebuilt as a direct replacement but without the "skirting" bit at the bottom that i've removed. I'm tempted to see if i can butcher the old bedroom door (once replaced) into the new airing cupboard door but would need 6 inches cut off all down side and rebuilding and then splitting into two...probably not worth it for the sake of £20 but might try it anyway! Lounge door...we're going to go with this http://www.wickes.co.uk/4-Panel-Moulded-Glazed-Door/invt/200606 . Need to check whether it's cheaper to go indirectly via Toolstation or directly to wickes...whichever is cheapest included delivery (Edit: only a penny difference for the glazed door so may as well go via wickes).

aliasojo

Well I'm joinerless again today.

It seems to be 1 or 2 days on the trot then he's off doing other things then back to me again for a day then off again etc etc.

He's far from alone in this, most of the tradesmen here do that. I just don't get why they can't do a job until it's finished then move on to the next.

It's not the end of the world, we've lived in a building site for so long now that we're kinda used to it but I just hate the 'in limbo' feeling.

Gives me time to get on with other things I guess.

At least I have walls. :D And no new baby.

latecomer

spirit wrote: »

How's the new baby doing?

Not bad just not being cooperative with his sleeping patterns at the moment.

Think I'll need to make lots of noise doing DIY in the evenings to encourage him to sleep at night instead

latecomer

aliasojo wrote: »

I just don't get why they can't do a job until it's finished then move on to the next.

Its because they dont want to turn down any job so they take them all and then give just enough attention to each to prevent them being replaced. Only time you get dedicated service is when they dont have any other work and hence want your money asap.

typeractive

Looking great Maggie! The deomlition is fun...the tidying ain't! lol :eek:

stolt

looking good maggie, brings back memories as i just said to my missus and showed her the pictures of your job and ours started nearly a year ago to the day. Cant say i envy you one bit to be honest! ha ha, but i remember how exciting it is when they start knocking stuff down and work starts. how long have they planned for the job?

ukmaggie45

Well this is the view that greeted us this evening. As you can see, the morning room is gone!


House from front on 9 September 2010 by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Nice view of the Church through the trees at the back, and you can see the corner of my shed too.


Garage wall and morning room gone by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

This is looking up at the side of the house. We're hoping to extend the porch out further, but need to speak to our builder again about that. It's on the plans, but I don't think it's on our works list.


Looking up at side of house by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Here's the morning room and part of the back garden seen from the ex-garage.


Morning room from ex garage by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Patio and morning room from the ex-garage.


Morning room and patio by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

And here's the morning room from the back garden!


Morning room from the back garden! by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Here's the view from across the road just before we left.


From across the road by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

This is the house almost as it was when it was first built. The porch is a relatively recent addition, 90s I think, I'm very glad the original door and windows each side of it are still in place. We'll be keeping those, and I hope they will be better visible when the new porch is in place.


House almost as it was when originally built by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

We didn't stay very long this evening as we had to get home for OH to have a lift to DD and SiL's house to collect the family car and my dear friend Brodie who is staying for a while :j :T as his family is off for a holiday. He's nestling up against my legs as I write this and seems happy to be back here for a visit. It's lovely to have a cat around the house again. :j

ukmaggie45

Hi Stolt,

stolt wrote: »

how long have they planned for the job?

10-12 weeks, depending partly on things like the weather, though there's plenty to be done in the remaining part of the house too! :eek:

We still haven't made it to the bathroom place to choose a shower tray for the downstairs shower room, maybe tomorrow if I'm not drooling too much after my trip to the dentist midday! :eek:

OH went to see a kitchen firm down the road this morning, and liked them. We're still waiting on drawings from Howdens too. Not too bothered about the kitchen, but looking forward to planning the upstairs bathroom!

How goes the finishing off on your kitchen? Hope it gets sorted out to your liking soon.

stolt

lots planned for the extension this weekend,mainly lights and we have sofa being delivered on sunday! electrician as still been ill so no show from him... want to start looking at geting some bi fold doors for the dining room, promised i wouldnt start another room until the kitchen is finished but the jobs left to do in there cant really be finished by me.

maggie, can i ask where you got you bi fold doors, i need to get black aluminum frames to match the extension, would use the company that we used for the extension but not going to go there....

ukmaggie45

stolt wrote: »

maggie, can i ask where you got you bi fold doors, i need to get black aluminum frames to match the extension, would use the company that we used for the extension but not going to go there....

Urrm that's another thing that we still have to choose... So far we've been asked to choose shower tray and decide where we want the electric stuff to go. Just not had time this week! (mostly because I've been so shattered I've been sleeping for a few hours in the afternoons) Hopefully the weekend will be a bit less frantic.

I think our builder uses someone in Bradford. Or was it Bolton? I think we'd better check with him next week! Though he'll go with anyone we decide I'd prefer to go for somewhere he's dealt with before.

I think DoozerGirl does a lot of house renovations with bifolds, might be worth your while checking out some of her posts?