First-time house renovation

latecomer

And we've been put off again...... what a surprise. Arrrggghhhhhhh

ukmaggie45

latecomer wrote: »

And we've been put off again...... what a surprise. Arrrggghhhhhhh

Urghh LC, so sorry to hear that. Hope that they'll come back and sort your probs out soon. Nightmare.

We've had a complicated week so far, money sorting, trying to make house decisions, not helped by I had awful sickness for a couple of hours on Tuesday night. At one point I felt so awful was thinking to myself "Thank God I made my Will". :eek: And also "how the hell will OH pay builder if I drop dead?" :eek: I seem to be on the mend now though. (I wish there was "Phew, wipe brow" emoticon!)

Met with builder on Tuesday after money meeting in town, useful meet, still too shattered to report. Got more photos will put here when can, but if you're impatient you can find on my Flickr House Renovation Set. Which is up to 150 photos now! :eek:

Today OH has 65th birthday, so since we couldn't get to caravan went and visited the GrandTwins this afternoon. I didn't go in case infectious - can't be too careful with littlies!

Tomorrow we'll prob try and both get to house again.

latecomer

Glad you are feeling a little better. Hope your OH had a nice birthday.

Our builder wanted to talk abuot things tonight but I've ignored him. Then he phoned later and left a message saying that he needed to talk about money and remaining work (mainly about money as is always the case with builders). Will see what happens tomorrow.

ukmaggie45

latecomer wrote: »

Glad you are feeling a little better. Hope your OH had a nice birthday.

Thanks LC, he's off at a gig in town. I'm glad he had a fall back position to have some fun on a significant birthday. I think he had a good time with the Grandtwins too, I think he even took photos which I look forward to seeing.

latecomer wrote: »

Our builder wanted to talk abuot things tonight but I've ignored him. Then he phoned later and left a message saying that he needed to talk about money and remaining work (mainly about money as is always the case with builders). Will see what happens tomorrow.

Urk, sending you "positive vibes" (teen of the 60s so what can you expect!) and hoping it all goes your way. Will be thinking of you tomorrow. Just set little LC on him!

latecomer

I'm going to say this very quietly - we have a kitchen window fitted. Discussion with builder has not taken place as he had to do something else and hasn't returned yet. I've been at work since 7:20am to make sure we didn't cross paths before the work was done. Still got to get the rest of the work done but at least thats one big part of it out the way.

Needed to get some more oak for lining round the window opening (to match the way the door was done) and we could only get it at one place today (£11+vat /m and it only comes in 3m lengths:eek:) and the joiner doesn't deal with them so no discounts. The alternative was to get it plastered but that would involve waiting the plasterer to come back and I thought it was better to get it done today if possible while we have them on site.

I'm hoping the discussion goes ok and I'm not entirely happy about not being there.

aliasojo

latecomer wrote: »

Needed to get some more oak for lining round the window opening (to match the way the door was done) and we could only get it at one place today (£11+vat /m and it only comes in 3m lengths:eek:) and the joiner doesn't deal with them so no discounts.

Good grief...is that 20mm thick plate you're talking about for the internal 'reveal' bit of the window or facings for round the outside? How wide is it?

I've been paying £4.80 + Vat per metre for 20mm plate-95mm wide and £5 + vat per metre for facings. That was a discounted price after going in a haggling a bit with them, mind you. Oak's not cheap is it! Will look lovely once you're all finished though.

Good news about the window.

latecomer

I think it was 20mm thick but 200+mm deep. Its obvsiouly meant for window cills as it comes with a bull nose edge. Hopefully there will be enough left to do something nice upstairs in place of the hideous mdf and pine combinations. I'm also going to try and turn round the top piece as its damaged and while this was pointed out to the joiner so he could fit it the other way round he didn't so its on show. If you want something done right.......

Talk with the builder went ok, agreed to compromise on most of the outstanding issues and while I wasn't majorly happy I had to concede that getting it finished was the most important thing. Today got another email saying that there were some more additional costs which got me furious. OH composed an email saying that she thought there was a compromise but as thats obviouslky not the case that we would like the final figures for the subcontractors so we can make the deductions from the outstanding amount and also that we will get quotes to get the remaining work completed by someone else take that into account to. She hasn't sent it yet so it will probably get toned down a little before sending.

Mind you the young joiner did leave his tools as he's coming back to finish the window installation and complete the extractor vetn on monday. HE left his paslode nailer out for us to use so we've put on most of the skirting boards in back room but I've got to cut the rest tomorrow and also make holes in the wall for the sockets. Might take a trip to screwfix first thing and get the back boxes and sockets for the additional double socket, tv and phone/network points. Considering buying a cheap compound mitre saw which screwfix have on offer for £30 just to give it a shot but despite it having reasonable ratings I'm not sure.

sharloid

I've never spotted this thread before!
The OH and I bought our first home in March 2009. So far we've completed 1.5 rooms! We're redecorating from top to bottom. It's going slow due to finances and time. We're doing all the stripping/painting etc ourselves but getting people in for the electric and re-plastering (which is going to be done on every wall and ceiling we have!). I do get annoyed about how long it's taking us but we both work full time, different hours and so find it hard to fit it all in!
We've been waiting a good few weeks now to try and get an electrician in too!

There has been some disagreements such as whether we should replace all the door frames/architrave but he won and I just had to suffer and paint over them after a light sanding. It really bugs me cause I find the 'Brilliant White' eggshell wood paint isn't white at all. It looks yellow next to our Brilliant White silk emulsion walls. Does anyone have any tips?

Another problem we're having is whether to fit the laminate before or after the skirting boards. I think the strips you have to put down if you do the skirting boards first look really ugly but the OH isn't being convinced!

Anyway, I just thought I'd introduce myself. :P

x

leekat21

Hi

I've been lurking following this thread whilst project managing our extension and renovation work. We started on 13th February 2010 and are coming to the end of phase 1.

We bought the house (1901 semi detached cottage, down a single track lane with no neighbours for about half a mile in each direction) in December 2007 always with the intention to extend it. It took us about 12 months consultation with our architect and planning dept to gain permission. Our first plans were decided to be too large and out of keeping with the cottage and they also 'impacted on the street scene' despite being some 50m back from the single track road.

Anyway, permission was granted and we got cracking. We've added a two storey extension to the side which houses a living room, garden room, and bedroom with en suite. We've created a hall way by moving a wall and creating a study area (which was our previous living room.)

We got rid of the horrendous downstairs bathroom and that has allowed me to have a larger kitchen.

The end of phase 1 will be when our kitchen floor is tiled.

Phase 2 will involve the 3 existing bedrooms having their lath plaster knocked off the walls/ceilings to be plaster boarded and re-plastered. The smallest bedroom will become our family bathroom and we'll restore the fireplace in the new study.

You can check out progress here on the public facebook album.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=170187&id=631166058&l=7852a2827f

suisidevw

Great to see some good positive update and welcome to the newbies!

Leekat, I love your springer!