First-time house renovation

stolt

andrew-b wrote: »

May I suggest take an activity holiday near the seaside in a wooden cabin...read: camp in my shed and do my decorating for me!!

With the dull and dingy days i just can't seem to motivate myself despite impending fatherhood to panic me into it! I think it's just that time of year with short cold days, yuk weather...recovering from christmas and illnesses etc. I never seem to get much done in January of any year. March when spring is with us, the days are longer and warmer is my most productive part of the year usually. But this year doing sod all until march isn't an option in this household! Wife is on maternity leave as from next week (for the next 9 months) so things should get moving when she starts cracking the whip!

We were supposed to have a maternity appointment yesterday to see obstetrician (midwife didn't know why but we received reminders by post last week)...got up early to be there for just after 9...paid for parking ...then receptionist says she has no record of appointment. It turns out that because of an appointment next week to a diabetic clinic it had been cancelled...just noone actually told us! OH had swapped shifts at work to be there which means she now has to work straight through until saturday. We weren't best pleased but managed to get our parking cost refunded.

yeah i'm with you there, plus everywhere its been about money and the lack of.... just had a lovely letter in the post from e.on telling me my gas and electricity is going up by 10%, from the 10th of January. However ive just noticed if i intend to leave them then i have to give them 20days notice but they can tell me a day before that i;m going to be paying more... gonna get on the case and change suppliers, even if i have to keep moving from one to the other.

oh yeah roof wasnt that bad, its leaking but i had visions of coming home and there are buckets on thefloor everywhere. sheer amount of water (been raining nearly all day) building firm phoned me to say they will try to get someone to me in a couple of weeks they expect that some silicon needs adding near to the skylight. will just have to monitor the situation.

typeractive

Sorry to hear about ya probs there stolt - best of luck to ya fella. I'm positive you'll get it sorted good and proper!

Fingers crossed!!!! :cool:

andrew-b

stolt wrote: »

gonna get on the case and change suppliers, even if i have to keep moving from one to the other.

we are with Atlantic for gas and electric and i've been happy with them for 4 years now. Not sure they are the cheapest deal for us still (gas went up in december) but i'm sticking with them as their customer service is one of the best i've dealt with ..on the odd occassion they've made mistakes they've corrected them with no probs. They always set my direct debits to what i think they should be when i think they've overestimated. Plus by sticking with them i get 1 months worth of direct debits back every year ...which i now use to pay for the boiler service.

stolt wrote: »

oh yeah roof wasnt that bad, its leaking but i had visions of coming home and there are buckets on thefloor everywhere. sheer amount of water (been raining nearly all day) building firm phoned me to say they will try to get someone to me in a couple of weeks they expect that some silicon needs adding near to the skylight. will just have to monitor the situation.

Think i would push them more TBH..another two weeks of rain could do alot more damage. The longer it takes the more the damage is going to be and greater the cost to put right. That they are calling back is progress though. Think i'll stick with pitched roofs if i ever have any extensions!

stolt

andrew-b wrote: »

Think i would push them more TBH..another two weeks of rain could do alot more damage. The longer it takes the more the damage is going to be and greater the cost to put right. That they are calling back is progress though. Think i'll stick with pitched roofs if i ever have any extensions!

yeah trouble is i cant push too much as i dont think i have much power now, been nearly a year since it was all dealt with and not spoke since, but yes ideally i would like to be able to call upon then to fix any issues. Missus thinks its all her fault as she chose the company as i had doubts!!! yes flat roofs are notorious but i assumed as it was one piece of rubber then what issues could you get!!! not only that but theres no gradient to allow the water to run down the hidden drain pipe in one of the corners, bit of a design fault that as really it should have had drain pipes in both front pillars, live and learn i guess. no leak last night, thankfully the rain has stopped today. when i looked at it yesterday it can leaked about the size of half a egg cup, not massive amounts and perhaps like the building guy said due to the volume of water its raised over a certain point and got down that way, still needs sorting though imo.

latecomer

Not so good - hopefully you get it fixed without too much trouble.

I actually did some DIY last night
OH and LLC are at MILs so I sanded where I'd filled the walls in the dining room (had to use power sander for some the patches done by the second "plasterer" as they were pretty/very poor. Filled the room with dust and then decided just to get the first coat of paint on. Hoovered up and then just started splashing it on. finished at around 11:30pm so wasn't quite the restful night I had in mind. Still its a good start as now I'll be able to see exactly which areas need attention and of course all the bits I didn't fill first time round (and there are lots!)

Still its progress and thats the main thing. We also got notification that the amendment to warrant is ready for submission but I have told the architect that the removable panel in the wall to get access to the admittance valve/vent that he allowed the builders to embed in the wall isn't acceptable and have proposed an alternative - just waiting to see what response it gets. No way I'm making a removable panel on the wall right next to where the sink is.

latecomer

andrew-b wrote: »

With the dull and dingy days i just can't seem to motivate myself despite impending fatherhood to panic me into it!

All I can say is if you dont do it now, it will take years to finish. Look at our (lack of) progress these days...... :rotfl:

latecomer

Down on page 10 - was everyones new year resolution to give up posting?

We had a busy weekend of DIY but unfortunately not on our house. Was helping inlaws finish plumbing in their extension and then insulate between the joists and get the flooring down. Managed to get it about 90% complete before having to head home as LLC wasn't too well although he seems to have settled down a little.

Hoping to get some filling done on the dining room tonight so its ready for sanding tomorrow and maybe a second coat of paint. Or thats the plan but will be wholely dependent on LLC as usual

aliasojo

I seriously, seriously have no motivation. It's gone. Can't see it coming back tbh. Am mulling over options at the mo' (yes, including the holiday one, lol.)

My dining table arrived and 2 blokes put the top on the legs for me as it was so heavy. They left it sited centrally in the room and I had a huge panic when I saw it as the thing was just far too big. Once I'd shoved the short end up against one wall though it was fine. I love it now. Sure, there's no room to be partying around it, but there is plenty room to sit at the thing and that's all that matters. (To me at least, lol.)

Got my benches but one arrived damaged so am waiting to hear what's going to happen about that. Company is happy to replace, it's just the logistics of changing it that's the prob (because of where I am). Just using the old chairs until the other one is exchanged.

I need something nice for the centre of it but not sure what. Suggestions on a postcard to.......:D

stolt

motivation and money for me.... booke dsome window companies to come round and despite there promises two never turned up, cant be that bad out there if there not turning up to appoinments. i suppose i'm wasting there time too because its just for budget purposes at the mo!!

Instead I wallpapered the headboard walls in two of my daughters rooms, got one more to do this week, plus because we have plasterboard walls, i changed the single sockets to doubles.... cant belive in a 10 year old house that they put singles in a bedroom, anyway very easy to do using the dry lining socket boxes and looks much better as i used the GET screwless flat sockets that we used downstairs and it smartens it up a bit.

Roof still elaking, had another downpour last night, in fact it was so bad it took me 2.5hours to get to work when at most should be 1hr, due to the police closing roads because fo the floods.... its essex !!!! Dont think ive ever seen it like that.

latecomer

@aliaojo - looks lovely, did wonder about the white chairs until I read that you are waiting for a replacement As for what to put in the middle, how about all the junk you have lying somewhere else....thats what we do,. shuffle junk about due to lack of storage

@stolt - I think windows and doors companies are a law unto themselves but I do know why they are always late - they spend so long at every appointment doing that whole hard sell, "let me phone my boss and see if he can do anything on the price" etc etc that they cant make more than a couple of appointments a day.

Nothing done here although I've started thinking about storage - we're going to turn the shallow and fairly useless hall cupboard into a linen cupboard so need to put in a load of shelves although I'll have to empty it first and then strip off the wall paper.......

Been getting insurance quotes - everything has gone up by £200 ~I guess mainly due to having more rooms and a section of flat roof. Have got one decent quote but need to check out the details. Also said no building work was being done as it is just about finished.....only DIY work left
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