First-time house renovation

latecomer

@leekat21 & sharloid - welcome to our little thread - its normally a lot more happy than it has been of late but then thats mostly caused by me ranting about my builders.

@sharloid - definitely fit the laminate before the skirting boards, other way generally looks cheap no matter how well done in my experience. If you've got pics of your project and dont already have a blog then you should think about setting one up. Some of the regulars are very keen on seeing blogs and we all like some pics


I've been trying to sort out the skirting boards in the back room today. Had to mitre several corners and thought I'd be smart and borrow our neighbours compound mitre saw. Wasn't a bad idea until I tried to maych up the cuts and had a terrible time. Seems that as the saw slides on the runners (its a small blade one so I had to use the slide mechanism) it changes the alignment slightly. Anyway ended up spending ages on them but got there in the end. Then had to profile a couple of edges, cocked one up completely so had to do the mitring and profiling again

Had already put in the channels for the wiring to go to the new socket and the tv point. Didn't get as far as going to screwfix to get back boxes and the other bits. Finally got round to nailing them on (using the joiners nailgun) when little LC was feeding. had him at the other end of the house and put dust covers along the bottom of the doors to dampen the noise. Worked well enough that he didn't get upset.

Builder is causing more problems so think its time to take a proper hard line with him and see how he likes it. Will see what tomorrow brings.

Hopeful_5

Hello all . Good to read your news. Maggie, I managed to look at all your photos, what an impressive gallery! Really tells the story of your build. I've charged an old mobile so I can email photos to myself and attach them to a post. I'll have to work out how to do that though as I'm new to this.

I've been rather depressed over the weekend. The roof to my extension was a bit delayed as the roofer wasn't available (great). They put the timbers up on Thursday, about a week after the bricklaying finished, which meant taking the guttering and tiles off where they joined the existing bungalow. Well, we have had torrential rain since Friday and the plastic covering they put over the join of the new timbers and the existing roof weren't adequate. Consequently, there has been rain going on to the old roof timbers and joist, which are all remaining. We have more heavy rain forecast for this week, and it's October, so how are they going to dry out? Needless to say, the new timbers have got absolutely soaking, the breeze blocks too and I'm worried that the insulation has also got wet (it was exposed across the top over the last week or so and the timbers over it now are sodden).

Is this something that happens during building work and it's just bad luck and I'm worrying too much. Or should I be worried?

At this rate I don't know how I'm going to make it to the end of this build :eek:.

Hope

arroli

leekat21 wrote: »

Hi


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

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

just had a nosy peek at your pics on fb...you garden room is fantastic, I am soooo envious! and your temporary kitchen is much better than my proper kitchen will ever be!

Our plan is to install french windows in place of current kitchen window, with 2 velux windows above for extra daylight, very similar to yours

thanks for sharing ideas:)

ukmaggie45

Hopeful_5 wrote: »

Hello all . Good to read your news. Maggie, I managed to look at all your photos, what an impressive gallery! Really tells the story of your build.

Good Lord, Hope! It must have taken you ages to get through them all! They're not all my photos, some are by OH, but he isn't in to putting his photos online, and it's my camera anyway for house photos. (He does have his own camera)

It's been a glorious mostly sunny day here, so I'm hoping the beginnings of forming the roof have gone on as planned.

Sorry haven't put up the photos from last week on here, they are all on my Flickr set, but haven't been feeling very well even when over last Tuesday's violent sickness so sorting out the coding for the pics beyond me still.

Must try to get to the house this evening, if roof is beginning to be done I really want to try and get pictures!

Greetings to Newbies here, been looking at your pics Leekat, wow, looking good, is the temp kitchen stuff able to be transferred to actual kitchen?

Sharloid, where be photos! TomsMum and me won't be happy till we see! We all want to see pics, how about starting a blog?

Hope, we had rain when the walls were open at the top exposing the insulation too. I'm relying on our builder knowing what he's doing. Try not to worry too much about stuff - I spend all of my time worrying, and it doesn't actually help at all or affect outcomes. So I'm working on giving it up now.

ukmaggie45

New roof taking shape.

First view of new roof beginning by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

And here it is from the back.

Back of house with roof beginning by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

I hadn't realised before how big the extension was. Of course some of it was used up before in the old morning room and the garage. But all that space was pretty unusable. This space will be very usable!

Hopeful_5

Maggie, thanks for your words of encouragement. Your house is looking good! And very big.
Leekat, the house is lovely - I'm envious too. Can you tell me what colour the roof tiles are? (Smashing dog).

Hope

leekat21

Greetings to Newbies here, been looking at your pics Leekat, wow, looking good, is the temp kitchen stuff able to be transferred to actual kitchen?

Hi

The temporary kitchen is my old kitchen units (they're in terrible condition with doors falling off.) I'm keeping some work surface for the utility room but the cupboards will be ceremoniously binned because I've hated them since the day we moved in. The cooker has had several components replaced and still doesn't work very well and the hob was an £80 put you past because the existing one died on me! I've always wanted to design my own kitchen space so am now delighted that I've done it and that it looks so good (even when half finished!):j

Leekat

leekat21

Hopeful_5 wrote: »

Maggie, thanks for your words of encouragement. Your house is looking good! And very big.
Leekat, the house is lovely - I'm envious too. Can you tell me what colour the roof tiles are? (Smashing dog).

Hope

Tiles are dreadnought red/blue blend. They were the ones that best matched those on the existing roof although we did end up having the existing roof felted and tiled anyway so it wouldn't really have mattered. We spent a lot of time getting sample bricks and tiles to try and match them to existing. I'm pleased that it works.

Dog (Monty) has clocked in the builders and other workmen each day, he'll be lonely once we're all finished. He's loved being able to sniff around for discarded crusts from sandwiches.

andrew-b

Hi all (oldies and newbies!),

Not got to the PC for a few days as been so busy.

Saturday had a cleaning and washing day and spent ages getting the old glass door between hall and lounge off in readiness for sunday. Getting the door off was quite tricky in itself as one particularly resilient screw was spinning in its hole but i managed to lever the hinge out enough to be able to get a hold on the head of the screw and yank it out. When i was getting fed up trying to remove the door i tried to remove the 15 panes of glass held in just with putty..got 4 out but all but one broke to pieces. Certainly didn't seem to be toughened glass so i'm glad we decided to get rid.

Sunday my parents came for my Dad to fit the lounge door (plan was to also fit the bedroom door though that was never likely to happen!). We spent a while trimming the height off the new glazed door (hit a metal staple with saw though we were cutting 10mm off rather than the recommend 5mm - 1mm either way would have been fine) and then got down the new door for the bedroom from the loft and did the same whilst the weather was ok so could work outside.

Then my Dad spent ages planing the lounge door to fit in the hall mainly at the top and bottom along the hinge side. He was doing just a small amount at a time...testing again and so on which with a heavy door i think wore him out quicker. By lunch he'd cut out the hinge rebates on door and frame and drilled out screw holes. We reused 2 existing hinge positions on the frame though the new hinges were a bit thicker so still needed chiselling out.

Big mistake though was to attempt to use three 4inch hinges rather than 2 to hang it which i'd read in Wickes Good Ideas leaflet as being recommended. However once we tried to hang the door everything went wrong because of the middle hinge. Because the door had been trimmed mainly at top and bottom on hinge side but not middle to match the frame there was no way it was ever going to work. Oh and the other thing i hadn't realised was the old door was 10mm thicker so all the door stop timber was in the wrong place.

Eventually i declared he should abandon the middle hinge totally which of course left a hole in door and frame to make good later. Then when it was rehung it was binding on the bottom hinge. My Dad was insistent that if he put in some packing into the hinge it would help. It still didn't work though so eventually i managed to get a look in and could see he'd chiselled out for the hinge on the door too deeply on one side. He insisted because of the way the hinges closed together that it didn't matter. Eventually as he was getting more irritated i took over took out his bit of packing cut it in half and shoved it in, screwed it back on and it worked. By then it was dinner time so after dinner Dad drilled out a hole for the latch and attached the handles. I'd also earlier removed the old bedroom door so had to rehang that. TBH i think i would have been better off getting a chippy in as it just seems like too much for my Dad now.

On monday, despite feeling like i'd done a few rounds in a boxing ring, i spent most of the day on the lounge door again. I packed out the top hinge a bit as the door was a bit tight to the frame for painting, filled in the holes for the middle hinge on the door and frame with hardboard, carefully took off all the door stops and refitted a wonky handle. Then chiselled out the frame on the latch side where the old lock/latch stay was as we have changed from latch and lock to just latch. Then cut out a piece of MDF to fill the chiselled out hole and cut out the shape of the new latch stay by de-laminating the MDF and then nailed and glued the MDF to the frame and screwed on the latch stay.

So now on the lounge door i still need to fit new door stops, do a bit of filling and paint. Not sure what i'm going to do about the bedroom door but i'm considering fitting it myself after Sunday - though it means buying tools.

Because of the doors I'm now way behind schedule on the hall. I really need to be painting the ceiling but i'm too knackered and so anything involving stepladders is a bit of a no-no at the moment.

ukmaggie45

Andy, don't overdo things! If you feel knackered for heaven's sake take a bit of a break! I know you want to get things finished off to a deadline in a few months, but if you overdo you may end up overdone. :eek: IYSWIM.

Leecat, wow, that's some house! Keep us up to date as the work goes on - it's just great to see other folks "grand designs". Makes me feel less alone! (not that I really feel alone here of course )

Hope, looking at the back of our house particularly it does look BIG. But in fact the morning room off the kitchen was almost as big as what we have now, and the garage as was is now a bit wider but not as long. Planning here wants a step back from front of house when extending. I just wish we could have had the up to the rafters in the extension bedroom (forget what that's called) but not allowed.

We had another sort of attempted break-in here (our home we're living in) last night. OH was just getting ready to go to work this morning and decided to take out the recycling before leaving (our bins are inside the Alley Gates, our back gate is outside them). Found that the bolt and padlock had been unscrewed and taken from the gate overnight. Police informed, but not very helpful, just told us there had been a number of break-ins locally and there was an alert in the local free newspaper.

OH taken day off work to try and sort things out. He'll work an extra day later in week (he only does 3 days a week) to make it up.

OH spoke to next door neighbour down the hill (and across side road), and apparently there was uproar about 4/5 houses down from us around midnight. Dog barking, and someone detained somebody trying to break in, later arrested, plus helicopter overhead etc etc. We slept through it all.

OH has now put better lock on the back gate. It won't stop anyone climbing over the back wall (about 10 foot high) but it'll be difficult for them to get anything they might steal out of the house in a hurry.

He's now popped over to the house to take photos, so I may be back later with a house update.

We will be looking at some sort of burglar alarm at the house, not sure where to begin looking. Any recommendations?