First-time house renovation

arroli

An update on our cottage renovation too!

Weather has held things up a while, but we eventually have new roof slates in place..should be finished this week (rain permitting)

1 gable wall has old mortar dug out waiting to be re-pointed...

Builders currently working on placing velux windows..2 in kitchen and 1 in bathroom (new hipped roof).

We still need to make decision about floors..cottage is currently 2 different levels, 2 rooms at front slightly lower, with a small step down in hallway..considering raising front floors to be all on same level (room heights are tall enough to accommodate this), and I cannot decide on floor coverings (wood/tile/slate/carpet etc):(

ukmaggie45

Somehow I think they will be working inside the house today! OH called builder, and they've begun some of the pipework, working on the render when the rain stops.

I've updated my Flickr house renovation set, but too knackered to post them on here - sorry!

(Edit: surprised to see that the set now has 349 photos!)

Am a bit stymied by lack of cheques. :mad: My bank used to send a new cheque book when there were about 5 cheques left, so I was waiting for it to arrive. Phoned them yesterday to be told that they don't do that any more (how nice of them to let their customers know) and it'll be 7-10 working days before it'll arrive. I only have one cheque left, so it's going to be a bit difficult to get the stuff needed for bathroom and kitchen sorted. Time for a change of bank I think, though might be a while before I get the time and energy to do it. It's Santander BTW. Oh, and their telephone system is a disgrace. Grrrrr!

suisidevw

Unlucky Maggie, Santander were recently voted the worst bank for CS IIRC!

Really enjoying seeing all the updates all

latecomer

@GSDog - fingers crossed you get good news from the plumbers and electricians. Sounds like a good opportunity to extend. one of the most annoying things about ours is that we originally discounted doing at 1.5 storey extension down the side due to the cost but with all the problems we've had we could have done it (provided of course we'd picked a real builder rather than some muppets!)

@arroli - new roof looks great.

@maggie - had a quick look at the photos - still making great progress. Whats the estimated end date?

ukmaggie45

latecomer wrote: »

@maggie - had a quick look at the photos - still making great progress. Whats the estimated end date?

Haven't a clue! I doubt it will be as fast as the end of the month, but it'd be nice if it was mostly done by the C word... At least we could shift some of our stuff out of home to make enough space for the kids here, they all want a "Last Christmas" here. Though given how fast we usually get things done I foresee several "Last Christmases"!

I wish I had a clearer idea of what we need to be getting in, the trouble is nothing can be kept at the house, but I do feel that the bathroom and shower room tiles should go straight there. Online shopping could be difficult as they'll only deliver to credit card address at most places, and we have NO SPACE!

latecomer

Can you not discuss things with the buillders to allow you to plan better? Also could you not get them to secure one part of the house for storing things? IN fact do they not leave their tools there overnight? I know all of our builders have as that way they are insured (not sure I understand the in and outs of that but they've all done it).

We've said we are having Christmas at home for little LC's first christmas and have invited most immediate family......and they are ALL coming :eek:
If nothing else will be good motivation to get things finished and tidied up

stolt

latecomer wrote: »

Arrghhh dont mention the C word

How did you get on with the electrics problem?


Our shed is still standing despite the gales so I'm quite happy - one of my friends built a new shed a couple of months ago and lost the roof on saturday. Mind you I've seem his previous efforts at DIY and least said the better
Finger on the mend - feels like the pad area that got crushed will come off but will need to wait and see. Can now type again at least

Unfortunately little LC has got my cold and has been snuffling for the last 36 hours and hence isn't sleeping well. OH is shattered as she's not sleeping either.

what christmas,..... i love a bit of christmas!!! they were even playing christmas song on radio one on the way home..... maybe i'm getting too old but i werent really feeling it:o I remember on the lead up to last christmas everyone was coming on posting how they were rushing to get things done on the lead up to christmas. Wont be so hectic for me this year as i'm out of money but perhaps for once i can sit back and enjoy it.... yeah like hell i will, i'm sure i'm be doing something....

electrics were sorted, well sorted in the sense that the receiver is faulty (cant believe we bought that receiver last year and its been in a box since then only when we go to use it, its faulty!!! that kitchen is cursed i tell ya:D electrician is sorting a replacement with GET.


managed to sell our old kitchen on ebay, so i have to take it apart this weekend for the buyer to collect, money will go towards paying the electrician for fitting a new bigger consumer unit. handy as i would have had to pay £200 for skip, this way something gives me money to take it away - genius:j

this way it will force us into using the new kitchen, ovens all connected, the elica star cooker hood looks really good, will have to stick some photos up.... table and chairs in, just the kitchen table light (receiver) and its all done, although i havent found the leak in the rubber roof yet.

colds and kids go hand in hand dont they, i have thre girls and or the last 6 weeks always one has had a cold or cough.....

ukmaggie45

latecomer wrote: »

Can you not discuss things with the buillders to allow you to plan better? Also could you not get them to secure one part of the house for storing things? IN fact do they not leave their tools there overnight? I know all of our builders have as that way they are insured (not sure I understand the in and outs of that but they've all done it).

Hi LC, the house is pretty secure, and I think we'll be OK for the gas fire to be stored there (though if we buy online it'll have to come here first as they'll only send to card holder's address), but soon all of the old ground floor will be drilled up and the concrete repoured. So everything would have to be stored upstairs.

I think the tiles for shower room would be OK in utility, since that's got new floor already from being part of the extension IYSWIM.

Bathroom stuff is OK as the firm concerned has warehouse capacity at their place to keep stuff for a while once it arrives. We've paid 20% of that (£775 :eek: ) this afternoon, so now it'll all be ordered. Managed it by paying via debit card over the phone so no cheque required. Sounds a horrendous amount, but that's for both bathroom and shower room stuff, and the bath alone is a horrendous price (Kaldewai).

latecomer wrote: »

We've said we are having Christmas at home for little LC's first christmas and have invited most immediate family......and they are ALL coming :eek:

Better hire a marquee to put in the garden! When we've gone to visit DD1 in London before she and fiance got their house (which we haven't had a chance to visit yet as so busy here with our house) we always slept on the living room floor. I've got back probs, so sleeping on the floor was rather better than sleeping in our bed at home! (roll eyes) Maybe some of your rellies will like to do that? The marquee idea might be a bit draughty over Xmas time!

I hope your family are all willing and able to pitch in to give a hand. Christmas dinner etc is hard work even without a young baby. Remember at less than 1 little LC won't remember a thing, so don't go too mad on expensive prezzies. :money:

latecomer wrote: »

If nothing else will be good motivation to get things finished and tidied up

Hmm, yes, what usually happens here is DD1 arrives from London and "tidies" up all my stuff so I can't find it for the next X years... I'm still looking for some stuff that "disappeared" 4 years ago! :eek: So it may be good motivation, but sometimes time just runs out.

Stolt, good to hear someone still likes Christmas! I must look out my special badge that the girls gave me some years ago - "Protect me from Christmas"! Sorry to hear your light fitting thingy is shot, but great you've managed to sell your old kitchen. I bet the person who is buying is made up too, kitchens are so horribly expensive, so it's really great to recycle them. :j

Well today we went to look at the house. The render on the outside is all finished, so we were despatched to Taskers to get masonry paint. Saved £32 by choosing magnolia as it's on special. (saving of £8 per 5L can) Plus we needed it soon as builder will get someone in to paint as soon as render is fully dry.

Builder reckons it'll be 2 weeks plastering inside. Plasterer has just started, and is forming the tiny lip at top of walls where it joins the curve of the ceiling coming down (about 2 foot down from ceiling height). Not explained that very well! Will try and take photos over the weekend or tomorrow if the light's good enough. This is a feature in the hall and living room downstairs, so we're repeating it upstairs and in the extension rooms. Possibly not in the kitchen diner though, can't remember! We prefer it to having picture rails, which was our other option for upstairs. Before the little lip wasn't there upstairs, just the wallpaper cut to match the height of it downstairs.

Plus Builder and OH are meeting in Harrogate on Saturday to visit the Harrogate Homebuilding & Renovating Show to visit the Thermaskirt Stand (stand 140) to chat to them about our installation. There are still a few bits need clarifying I think, not sure what as was too shattered to discuss much after viewing the outside of the house and visiting all the rooms.

Tomorrow it's try and sort out tiles I think. Plus OH needs to phone kitchen chap again to try and arrange him to meet with builder at the house for measuring up and discussion on time frames. He can't go in until the new concrete floor is in, not sure when that's happening yet.

All in all I think we got through a fair amount of stuff today. Be nice if the weather was good enough on Sunday to plant the 2 kilo of garlic I bought in the veg patch... No vampires on our patch!

Oh yeah, the bifold doors will come end of next week (or was it the week after? ) so we need the render painting before then. Plus builder will get someone in to install TV aerial and satellite dish before the scaffold goes too. Scaffold has to go at back before bifold doors can be fitted as it's in the way. Where we're widening the opening as well as converting from a window to a bifold door in Living room the outer skin of brick has gone already. Inner skin still there for security purposes.

Hmm, I think that's about it for today! Sausage and mash and onion gravy for tea and then OH is off out for Free Rock n Roll in town. :beer:

latecomer

@stolt - result on selling the old kitchen. Wonder if anyone would have been interested in our 50 year old hand crafted built in kicthen cupboards

@maggie - I wish we'd had builders like you appear to have. Sounds like an expensive bathroom....

Not done anything here at all. Been nursing little LC after work and into the early hours to try and give OH some sleep. He seems better tonight but then maybe thats going to mean he wont sleep so well over night? Maybe I should give him a prod

We had contact from joiners to restate that the guarantee is only going to cover the roofing work that was done despite it being a lot less than quoted for. Also asked whether skip had been removed - nice of him to check when he was meant to get it removed 6 weeks ago now. Not sure if I mentioned but OH got fed up and phoned the company and spoke to the administrators as the company stopped trading. Told him it hadn't and didn't say anything about the roofing work/guarantee yet. Then got a message from OH to say skip had been removed :j

Re: Christmas - thankfully MIL and my Mum are both very happy to get stuck in in the kitchen. SIL is also great at that kind of stuff but she tends to take over.......

I did have to tell my mum that little LC is a bit small for his first train set.

Going to try and do some more scraping in the dining room tonight but will see what happens with little LC after tea.

andrew-b

That getting the house done by christmas thing is back with me ! After a couple of weeks of doing nothing on the hall i emulsioned half the hall walls this week. I seem to have lost the knack/confidence doing cutting-in which isn't good considering the amount of cutting-in involved in the hall around door frames, skirting, ceiling ...so it took a while to do just half of the room. I wasn't sure about the colour at first but it's growing on me now and we both like it..will post pics up when it's done.

Also finally bought (off ebay) and fitted two weatherproof 2ft fluorescent strip lights in the shed so now i've got light in there that doesn't involve plugging in an inspection lamp. Makes the shed a bit more useable. Got some cheap sealing strip from Lidl that i'm going to use to draught proof the shed windows.

I've also been planning the bedroom redecoration..typically the one radiator i wanted to buy from wickes online was out of stock when i was going to order yesterday!

On the baby front..we had a bit of a scare last night as wife was complaining of feeling dizzy and the room spinning ...bit like if she were drunk..and then was sick too. Neither of us got much sleep as both worried which i don't think helped much. Phoned NHS direct this morning as she still wasn't feeling too good (before doctors was open) and they said to phone midwife or maternity. Phoned maternity who said to go in. So my father-in-law drove us to maternity for 9 and we spent over an hour in the day care ward for blood test, blood pressure, check baby heartbeat etc. Literally walked straight in to get seen to! They think it was vertigo (never any similar thing b4) and maybe a water infection so she has taken their advise to take a couple of days off work to rest Fortunately she has holiday booked in next week so has much more time to recover. Still otherwise all is ok and bubba could be heard fidgeting about when listening for heartbeat. OH's now asleep on sofa with the dog.


Have been following the thread despite not posting much here for a couple of weeks! Maggie your house is really coming on now...will look like a new house by the time it's done! The old and new looks like it's going to all blend together nicely. I hate to think what your spending on it but sure it will be worth waiting for!