First-time house renovation

stolt

aliasojo wrote: »

Oh I am sooo familiar with that type of scenario. Step back and forget about it, tomorrow (or the weekend!) is another day. :beer:

wish i took that advice, messed it up and ended up ripping it from the walls... peed off now as my daughter has put the guilt trip on me saying she feels sad it isnt done, more work now as i'm on a course tomorrow now in london so weekend job for me, as it was going to be anyway.... got to ge the wallpaper off now as it was setting and plling plaster off... what a mess... so angry i couldnt even eat any dinner.. helps with the diet:rotfl:

latecomer

dave82 wrote: »

Anyone done a renovation and kept the existing doors and architrave?

We are renovating and have chosen to keep these and restore them as the doors are good quality hard wood.

Everything is a bit bashed up and painted with white gloss.

I am a bit worried that they will stand out too much when everything else is perfect but want to retain some charachter.

We have stripped a lot of our original douglas fir skirting boards and architraves and while they are not perfect condition we love the way they look. We did buy 50m of custom made replacement skirtings to match so we could salvage as much as possible to get rooms complete with original skirtings and then do whole rooms with the new stuff. I think its been worth it but the scraping back of 80 years worth of paint and crud was a job and a half.

We did get a couple of samples dipped but found it bleached all the colour out the wood and given 80 year old douglas fir which has been varnished and painted over the years has a beautiful colour to it, we decided to continue doing it by hand.

In the extension we have solid oak and where they meet have simply put them together and it just works despite them completely different woods. Let em know if you want some pics (I dont think there are any on the blog) and I'll take some.

latecomer

I loath wall papering so much its worth all the effort to strip walls, fill and sand them and then get them painted, mainly as I know I'd never be happy with the finish I'd get by wall papering myself

stolt

latecomer wrote: »

I loath wall papering so much its worth all the effort to strip walls, fill and sand them and then get them painted, mainly as I know I'd never be happy with the finish I'd get by wall papering myself

yeah i'm with you on that one, trouble is we did paint them all about a year agoh, the other two girls headboard walls are plain walls, the third daughters room has a window in the headboard wall whic was casuing me problems, plus a radiator everything you dont want on a wall where your papering.... right old mess now.. waste of a day, waste of wallpaper, waste of money now going have to spend saturday taking that paper off and trying to make good the wall.

aliasojo

latecomer wrote: »

I loath wall papering so much its worth all the effort to strip walls, fill and sand them and then get them painted, mainly as I know I'd never be happy with the finish I'd get by wall papering myself

I've spent my whole life with wallpapered walls. This is the first house that has wall surfaces good enough for paint, so it's paint all round so far.

However, I've been pretty surprised at how paint just doesn't stand up to family life the way wallpaper does. Every painted wall has marks on it, I'm having to wash them off every other day and some wont budge. I didn't have this problem when I had wallpaper, so I don't really think I'm a fan of painted walls now tbh.

It's not even as if I used cheap paint, it was Dulux Endurance. :undecided

dave82_2

Thanks for the ideas on the wood. I have got my self in a mad panic that all the new plaster is going to crack and fall off the walls, that there are serious damp problems (due to the fact the house is dripping from the new plaster) and that all the exisitng wood is going to stick out like a sore thumb.

I need to chill out!

ukmaggie45

dave82 wrote: »

I have got my self in a mad panic that all the new plaster is going to crack and fall off the walls, that there are serious damp problems (due to the fact the house is dripping from the new plaster)

Our plaster has taken ages to dry, it's just been so cold and there's no heat in the house. Drip marks all over the place, windows running with condensation, plus both sets of bifold doors froze shut for about 3 weeks so we couldn't open them to get a decent draught going through the house to air it off at the weekends.

But after a couple of sundays with all the windows really wide open (brrrr!) and OH mopping off all of the windows with rags and kitchen roll and then chucking it in the bin outside it's pretty dry now, and the paint's going on. But I know just what you mean about worrying the plaster is going to fall off. One of the formers round the arch in the living room has obviously had a swipe (I surmise it was when the asphalt was poured) as it looks loose and is coming off. But it'll get fixed eventually, rest of plaster is fine.

I'm just glad we've got a nice centrally heated home to come back to after visiting the freezing cold house!

ukmaggie45

Very quiet round here at the mo - had to search for the thread to find it! :eek:

Friday we went and met with builder mid day. We're up to date on payments (though am a bit sick over the rise in VAT which is adding £250 to each one now) which is a relief.


Living room by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Then we went to see Kitchen Man, his fitter will be going in on Monday to begin work.


Kitchen by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

We're holding back on the design for utility room for now, Kitchen Man will take a look on Monday and have a think about it.


Boiler and pipework in utility by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Builder is getting plasterer back to do the utility ceiling now the wiring and central heating pipes are in. Painter will come back to paint it, and also do finishing coats downstairs - upstairs is mostly finished. It may be completely finished, but I didn't manage the stairs on Friday as vertigo was too bad to get up without the banister.


Bedroom with wardrobes by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Base for the porch has been built, so builder is ordering it now.


Base for porch from front by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

The hallway looks great now it has some white paint on it. :j


Hall from kitchen by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

I'm loving how the detail of the plastering is showing up now that the paint is going on. :j


Bedroom ceiling by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

aliasojo

Looking really good Maggie.

TomsMom

Fab pics Maggie. What a difference a coat of paint makes! I'm still in love with your wardrobes, just wish we could have found someone to do something similar for us.