First-time house renovation

ukmaggie45

@aliasojo, glad to hear you sorted out the paint! :j Hope you can get something sorted out for your staircase, we just lost ours (thank goodness) and it makes the hall and landing look so much brighter and lighter (it was one with solid walls rather than spindles). We're hoping to go for glass, but it'll be a while before we have to make a decision I think, as the ground floor is now coming up! (see below)

Waited in all day for a delivery of lights by FedEx, finally turned up around 4.30pm. So OH went to meet builder while I waited in. We were also expecting Washing Machine Repair Man, but when we called him he said he'd come tomorrow morning instead.

Gas fire has been ordered, and hopefully will be here in around 2 weeks.

Things are happening quite fast now! Here's the back part of the living room yesterday evening, with part of the archway showing.


Back living room from front by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

And here's what the back part of the living room looks like today!


Back of living room by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Builder had building control in, and they've signed off the drains.


Drain across back of house by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

There's more pics on Flickr, don't want to take up too much space! ;-) But I did think the 2 photos of the front room were worth posting for the contrast. Glad that we got MiL round last weekend for a picnic in the living room and to see the work so far, as I don't think we'd have got around the house very comfortably now.


Picnic in the living room by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

typeractive

@Maggie and,
@latecomer

Very well done!! Everythign looks to be coming along great!!!

My project is a bit slow at the mo. Doing as much as I can myself production is slow due to more than full time work giving me only weekends. For jobs now I need more than just myself to do bits and bobs. I only have help on a Sunday when ma best mate gets round to give me a hand plasterboarding.

Now I also have the snow to contend with! Grrr. Winter sucks! It's freezing inside the house having no central heating. I want a portable heater of some sorts, but not sure what would be best. If anyone else has advice plese let me know - here's a thread I started the other day. Thread here - please have a look

As for updates on what I'm on with the blog is still going - just slowly. I'm a bit further on than the blog updates. I guess I can try to get caught up on them, though I have a mountain of work I've brought home with me. If anyone else is bored or fancies a peak - here ya go. Blog

Today I've been to Howdens to price up internal doors. They need to be fire rated to please the building inspector. Rather than just picking the exact ones I just thought I'd renew all the doors in the same style (excluding the door in the attic which needs to be cut!). So the total with handles (inc 2 privacy ones for bathrooms), fire strips, door casings, doors (8 in total), hinges (3 per door) comes in at £1,115. I almost fainted! hehehe. When looking at the estimate I have been given a considerable amount of discount on a lot of items which makes me wonder if the prices are just over inflated in the first place - probably so. I'm tempted to shop around on the internet, but the thing with some DIY stuff is - it's better to deal with someone in a shop and ya can touch the handles etc which obviously ya can't online.

hmmm

Keep it up everyone!

Bibbitybob

We were doing so well until OH screwed straight into a central heating pipe. We'd even talked about getting some units fitted this afternoon, but now rain (quite literally, in my kitchen) has stopped play. Luckily my Dad was here at the time so they're now emptying rads and jamming stopcocks or something or other. I've bailed the water from the flooded floor, removed all the brand new units so they don't get damaged and am now thawing out my fingers.

andrew-b

Ooops...sounds like alot of water..is it a combi boiler? Always worth having a few speedfit push-fit fittings in the shed and a bit of pipe for these sort of emergencies so you can quickly piece a new bit of pipe in quickly. I would have left the screw in and quickly tied something around it to stem the flow. If you need some advice on fixing just yell..picture of the damage will help. You don't really need to empty the rads and can just turn them off at the valves both sides. Also don't forget you'll need some central heating inhibitor when you refill the system after fixing.

Still hopefully you've managed to get away with minimal damage.

Bibbitybob

andrew-b wrote: »

Ooops...sounds like alot of water..is it a combi boiler? Always worth having a few speedfit push-fit fittings in the shed and a bit of pipe for these sort of emergencies so you can quickly piece a new bit of pipe in quickly. I would have left the screw in and quickly tied something around it to stem the flow. If you need some advice on fixing just yell..picture of the damage will help. You don't really need to empty the rads and can just turn them off at the valves both sides. Also don't forget you'll need some central heating inhibitor when you refill the system after fixing.

Still hopefully you've managed to get away with minimal damage.

Thanks andrew. It's not a combi boiler, it's a hot water tank and a huge beast of a boiler...bigger than my washing machine! Unfortunately OH didn't realise what had happened until he unscrewed the screw, he did put it back whilst they fiddled with bits. All fixed now and even got some units in the end, although we also discovered that Magnet have sent us the wrong fridge. Hopefully we'll progress better soon!

andrew-b

Reason i asked is non-combi vented systems there's a little trick you could have tried..namely a root vegetable (carrot or parsnip) into the feed outlet of the header tank and cap off the vent pipe too. Not tried it myself as header tank is hard to get your arm into but it's a neat trick to avoid having to drain the system down...you still lose water but nowhere near as much (assuming your quick enough!).
Still not a mistake your OH will want to repeat in a hurry i doubt and at least no harm was done! Least you know what you can get him for Christmas...a pipe/cable detector!

Bibbitybob

andrew-b wrote: »

Least you know what you can get him for Christmas...a pipe/cable detector!

:rotfl: Bless him - he'd marked where not to drill all the way up but forgot new pipes joined in at the top. Just told him your tip and he says he knew it already but hadn't thought to use a carrot

latecomer

@typeractive - all howdens prices are like B&Q kitchens prices - seriously inflated. Can you get a tradesman to get you a quote? If its any help we got oak veneered doors which worked out about £90 each (probably +VAT) and the fire door was about £170 IIRC.

A 2kw electric heater would heat a room no problem - when we had no heating last winter we used electric heaters and a calor gas one which did the job.

@bobbity - its amazing what you forget until its too late. Glad you got it sorted though

@maggie - looks great. Any reason they didn't take the floor up before plastering? Seems the wrong way round to me but what do i know?

no news on our front - other than we got the boiler work all completed on friday which involved a new flue piece. He's taken all the paperwork away and is going to fill in the guarantee card too to see whether they will honour it. Only the bill to go now

We had a plasterer lined up to come round at 5:30pm on friday but there was no sign of him and I started playing on Pc around 6pm as I'd forgot he was coming and it seems like I missed him as when I checked at 6:30pm there was a business card through the door saying he''d called around 6pm. Tried phoning him but no response and OH tried calling him again yesterday too but still nothing. hoping he's not taken the hump and ignoring us

Ended up going to inlaws on friday night for the weekend but ended up coming home on saturday night after seeing the forecast for 12 hours of heavy snow. woke up to about 6" so it was a good move. Had about 10" on sunday night so worked from home yesterday and there has been a little more overnight so will be working from home again today. Not getting any DIY done so need to make an extra effort, mind you LLC isn't himself following his jags last week so not getting much time off.

aliasojo

Snow has affected play here too. Joiner hasn't turned up all weekend, said the snow was a problem. It probably was but I would say that out of every 4 arrangements we make, he turns up for only one of them. He does always seem to have good reasons, but I really need this stuff finished so it's becoming really depressing now.

Hope LLC brightens up soon, poor wee mite.

andrew-b

Bit of snow and the whole country grinds to a halt..though i don't leave the house when it snows (not that i do much anyway!!) as one slip and i''ll probably break something as my balance isn't that great. Though we've only got about an inch or so here overnight so the grass is still showing through.

Talking of breaking things..i had my fair share over the weekend. Saturday, i put lunch and glass of ribena on table, turned round to close hatch...legs vanished under me..fell into table...table leg snapped cleanly off on other side of table, me, piles of books/magazines etc on table, 3-legged table, lunch, 4chairs crashed to floor. Ribena flew all over the place..carpet, wall, back door, and some puddled ontop of my toolbox. Total carnage and looked like a bomb had hit! No damage to me ..not so much as a bruise. Dog ran to the rescue..checked i was alright...then went to try and retrieve available cheese! Took all saturday afternoon to clear up. Managed to repair the table too as i found that the bolts weren't far enough into the legs. Thank goodness for the bissell carpet cleaner which got all the ribena stains out. The cleaning solution i used has scotchguard protection so i suspect previous treatments with it made all the difference. If i'd had the heating on sooner my leg muscles probably wouldn't have given away on me..lesson learnt! At least we've got a clean carpet!

Then Sunday morning i was wiping condensation off bathroom window and managed to knock small mirror onto floor (currently concrete) which smashed to pieces...so now i've got 7 years of bad luck to deal with i guess!

Aliasojo ..take some time out , wrap up warm, get your wellies on and go build a snowman...we want pictures! You can always smash it up after if it makes you feel better! You've lived in a mess for long enough..another day or two won't make much of a difference. Sure you want things finished but you'll come back to it refreshed, things will go more smoothly and it'll get done quicker..you know it makes sense!