First-time house renovation

typeractive

As usual Stolt - the project is looking awesome!!

Your kids look beautiful, and like they are enjoying those stick insects! Wait until they're in their 20's and ask them to hold one and watch them run! :eek: heheh

stolt

typeractive wrote: »

As usual Stolt - the project is looking awesome!!

Your kids look beautiful, and like they are enjoying those stick insects! Wait until they're in their 20's and ask them to hold one and watch them run! :eek: heheh

cheers, yep been a long time coming and after a few drinks id say it had all been worth it! Finally in my eyes its a room.

Yep i wasnt sure if they would pick them up but they have ben great, granparents not so keen which much to there delight they are using them to torment them! And there just babies, they can grow upto to a mans forearm!!!

ginvzt

Stolt - that looks amazing!!!

I managed to get OH out on Saturday to go and have a look at some doors in Wickes & B&Q (starting point). I loved the idea of sliding-folding patio doors, but once I saw them in B&Q, I am not sure anymore. They are quite heavy and not that comfortable to operate. At the moment we have in-line sliding patio doors, and OH would like the same style again.

As for front and kitchen doors, we were very disappointed with what is available in B&Q ans Wickes. We are both from continent, so of course, we are sued to different things. This summer we were back in Italy and went to Leroy Merlin (B&Q equivalent), and their external doors were amazing - strong (equivalent to armoured), with locks in all directions, so once you locked the door, you can have some hope that it is not that easy to get in (probably just psychological, but still).

Kept reading about the boilers. Talked with my dad what they have (24-27kw combi), and he strongly suggested to get one with small integral tank (15-30l) to cope with instant hot water demand. I am liking Atag Q38C, and also Viesmann 222-W (which looks like is not being sold in UK, so that is it). We have time - as long as we can get these done before winter sets in, would be great (that is, if we complete the purchase first!)

Anyway, surveyor is coming out tomorrow to value the house for the mortgage, will see if things don't change then!

Canucklehead

ginvzt wrote: »

Stolt - that looks amazing!!!

I managed to get OH out on Saturday to go and have a look at some doors in Wickes & B&Q (starting point). I loved the idea of sliding-folding patio doors, but once I saw them in B&Q, I am not sure anymore. They are quite heavy and not that comfortable to operate. At the moment we have in-line sliding patio doors, and OH would like the same style again.

As for front and kitchen doors, we were very disappointed with what is available in B&Q ans Wickes. We are both from continent, so of course, we are sued to different things. This summer we were back in Italy and went to Leroy Merlin (B&Q equivalent), and their external doors were amazing - strong (equivalent to armoured), with locks in all directions, so once you locked the door, you can have some hope that it is not that easy to get in (probably just psychological, but still).

Kept reading about the boilers. Talked with my dad what they have (24-27kw combi), and he strongly suggested to get one with small integral tank (15-30l) to cope with instant hot water demand. I am liking Atag Q38C, and also Viesmann 222-W (which looks like is not being sold in UK, so that is it). We have time - as long as we can get these done before winter sets in, would be great (that is, if we complete the purchase first!)

Anyway, surveyor is coming out tomorrow to value the house for the mortgage, will see if things don't change then!

Good morning...try the Viessmann 222-F..the OH just installed one last week with weather compensation..it is not a cheap option but an excellent product.

HTH

Canucklehead

andrew-b

Stolt..how long you going to keep kitchen as a showpiece though? Needs some dirty dishes for completeness!!

stolt

andrew-b wrote: »

Stolt..how long you going to keep kitchen as a showpiece though? Needs some dirty dishes for completeness!!

electrican has had pneumonia!!! so hasnt connected up the hob and ovens. actually i think only the lights and sockets are working, everything else isnt because he has to use the MCB's in the consumer unit from the old kitchen to work the new one, did say i will need a bigger consumer unit at some stage. chairs for the table should be delivered to us on thrusday! plus all the cream doors are being replaced. Also i gaurantee with my missus (clean a holic) that it will look exactly the same as it does now even with it being used.... shes already thinking about a table cloth to stop that being scratched and then something for the worktops because shes worried about the corian scratching.
Nightmare pointless having all this nice looking stuff if we are going to cove rit up!

shes still debating whether she wants a huge mirror in there to replace the nice bit of artwork i found, pointless arguing I've consigned my painting to the downstairs toilet!!

ginvzt

Canucklehead wrote: »

Good morning...try the Viessmann 222-F..the OH just installed one last week with weather compensation..it is not a cheap option but an excellent product.

HTH

Canucklehead

Wouldn't mind it, but I am not sure OH will sign-up for the floor standing model. It is quite huge, taller than the normal cabinet and would take up quite a bit of space in the kitchen... Yes, it has a decent tank integrated, and I am sure it would give us as plenty of hot water.

Atag Q series would go on the wall, but as yet I haven't seen the prices. It iw wider than the usual cabinet, but I think we could 'integrate' it in the line of cabinets.

Still a lot of time for the research to do - we don't the house yet.

latecomer

@arroli - congrats, looks like a good project. definitely think a new roof is a priority. Will certainly keep you out of trouble for a "while"

@maggie - must be hard giving up a view of snowdon - given half a chance I'd move up to the highlands just to be near the hills.

@aliasojo - we've still got our shower screen in its wrapper and we've had it for about 6 months!

@andy - glad to see its not only me that is seriously picky about the standard of their work - I reckon I'm more tolerant of other people doing substandard work (in fact I think I expect paid work to substandard and then its less of a disappointment when it is).

@stolt - kitchen looks fasntastic as do the new pets. Thats a pretty impressive harvest of fruit too. Closest we would get is pinching apples from the branch of next doors tree thats hanging over the fence

We didn't get a huge amount done over the weekend. All family left on friday to give us some space and apart from some visitors we had saturday to ourselves. didn't want to do too much but as the carpets are getting fitted in the hall, stairs and landing tomorrow we needed to get some stuff done. I spent an hour or so filling round the velux window over the stairs and round all the door frames upstairs where the plaster had cracked.

Yesterday was planning on quickly fitting the new radiator in the hall. Shoudl have been straight forward but ended up taking the whole afternoon and still didn't get it finished. Mounting the radiator wasn't too bad as it was just replacing the old one. We were always going to have to modify the pipework as the new radiator was slightly shorter than the old one and I want to change the microbore to 15mm pipe. Got everything ready to put in the new pipework and when we drilled the hole in the floor found that one hole just touches a joist but fouls 2 steel conduits that run alongside it, the other was right over it.

Tried to drill right through the joist but the drill bit wasn't long enough. Finally went under the floors and notched the joist to allow the pipe to be bent round. Then found that I'd lost my pipe spring so couldn't bend the new pipe. So I gave up and just cut the old pipework and fitted new 15mm elbows and then blanked these off. OH has been to screwfix today so should have picked up a new spring so I can finish it off tonight.

Got a lot of stuff to get done today before the carpet gets fitted. Want to have a look at the floor on the landing at the top of the stairs as there is a little flex in it. I suspect I've removed a little packer when I removed the board at the top of the stairs to check the stairs were secured properly to the joists so will need to check that out too. Hoping MIL has had or will have time to do the painting over the stairs today.

think its going to be a busy night......might find out when the carpet is being fitted and if its not until the afternoon I might take the morning off to finish things off if we dont get it done tonight.

aliasojo

latecomer wrote: »

@maggie - must be hard giving up a view of snowdon - given half a chance I'd move up to the highlands just to be near the hills.

@aliasojo - we've still got our shower screen in its wrapper and we've had it for about 6 months!

No you really wouldn't like it up here......too many tradesmen issues and too many places that 'don't sell that'.

Far better to get a huge hill mural on your wall. :rotfl:

< Shower screen.

latecomer

You cant put me off that easily. Both me and OH love the hills and I dont particularly like people so the highlands would be perfect. I proposed to OH on top of a wet, windy and foggy hill and we got married up in the highlands. Part of the reason we bought our house is that its on a hill and we get nice views in the winter of Fife and up to the Ochil hills. Unfortunately in summer there are trees that block the view. Views are even better since we got the upstairs done.