First-time house renovation

ukmaggie45

Hey Stolt, forgot to say yesterday that I like your choice of the grey door. :j Well done on the blinds - looking good.

TM, good luck with choosing the carpet tiles! :eek:

Went to the house yesterday afternoon and did my back in (as usual ) but did a bit of pruning and a bit of digging and a bit of lawn scarifying - loads and loads of moss coming out! Oh, removed the old rotten obelisk too (found it surprisingly difficult ) and replaced it with the new one we bought last year. Today I'm hoping we can get to the far end of the shed to liberate flower pots for the tuberoses that arrived yesterday.

Took a few photos of the doors. This one of the kitchen door shows where the vinyl doesn't go all the way to the door. The space to the right of the door will have a custom built panel to match the doors.


kitchen and living room doors by ukmaggie45, on Flickr


utility door by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

This door has frosted glass for privacy.


Shower room door by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

I finally remembered to get a photo of the blind in the shower room. Think I'll try with flash as colour not that good. Oh that thing on the window ledge is the toilet seat which hasn't been put on yet. Will be glad when it's fitted, as I'm not very good at "hovering" and the porcelain is a bit chilly! :eek:


blind in shower room by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Spent a fair amount of time just sitting on the patio watching the birds, and heard a VERY LOUD buzzing behind me... Bit un-nerving, but here's the culprit.


Bumble bee on pieris by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

We're hoping that Kitchen Man will come to the house today to finish off the plinths and commission the electrical stuff. OH forgot to phone him yesterday to check it's still on, so fingers crossed!

TomsMom

Oooh, I do like your blind Maggie, looks as though it goes well with the border tiles - good choice!

LOL at the bumble bee - we've come across several large ones recently, not sure if they'd survive as it was still going very cold, especially at night. Weather has warmed up the last couple of days :T.

andrew-b

Maggie what floor covering are you having in the hall? Could you not use on of these : http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Hardware/Metal+Edging/Wide+Carpet+Plate+810x60mm+Silver/d170/sd3009/p44175 to hide the vinyl gap...i bought the narrower version of these from Toolstation for when i finally get round to doing the hall flooring.

Spent every day this week pottering in the garden. Got the 2nd cut of the season of the lawn done and gave it a light rolling with the old push mower. Trimmed back a broken edge of the lawn and used the offcuts to fill a few bare patches. Dug over the veggie patch area as it was turning to lawn there was that much grass weed there.

Had clinic at maternity yesterday morning..... Friday (tomorrow) going in for induction now so we're in for a long/stressful/exciting weekend! So baby should be appearing on the census! Plus of course we lose an hour because of the clock change!

stolt

evening all, andrew what do they cal those things i need one to meet the slight height different between our wooden floors and granite tiles. Ive got next week off work, getting a skip in 6yrd should do it, clearing some stuff out of the garage, taking tiles up from the old kitchen floor and downstairs toilet, and also wall tiles off downstairs toilet.
Got to put some trellis up on a vunerable bit of the garden plus paiint stain on some fence i didnt get round to doing last year. Electrician round wednesday/thursday next week to remove the old sockets etc and change the layout of the utility room, i want to get something like this http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Manufacturers/GET_Ultimate/Ulimate_Grid_Metal/index.html replace all the spur switches in the utility room for the washing machine, boiler, freezer etc

lastly i ve got to replace the flashing around the skylight, GLASSBOX.CO.UK have lied to me again and seen reports that the new company that they set up GLASSBOX prefab has gone bust so he lied to me and kept me waiting for weeks i guess to get some more payments from clients without me coming on here and telling everyone to keep away from him. will keep a eye on the net for his product, he will pop up again and ive made it my mission to sniff him out and expose every company he starts or works for.....

spirit

andrew-b wrote: »

Had clinic at maternity yesterday morning..... Friday (tomorrow) going in for induction now so we're in for a long/stressful/exciting weekend! So baby should be appearing on the census! Plus of course we lose an hour because of the clock change!

Good luck for today for you and mrs AB. :A

aliasojo

Ditto andy! Good luck, hope all goes well (and quickly!)

ukmaggie45

Oooh, Andy, fingers crossed for a safe and easy birth. How exciting! :cool: Hugs to both of you, and one for LittleAndy when s/he arrives.

andrew-b wrote: »

Maggie what floor covering are you having in the hall? Could you not use on of these : http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Hardware/Metal+Edging/Wide+Carpet+Plate+810x60mm+Silver/d170/sd3009/p44175 to hide the vinyl gap...i bought the narrower version of these from Toolstation for when i finally get round to doing the hall flooring.

Spent every day this week pottering in the garden. Got the 2nd cut of the season of the lawn done and gave it a light rolling with the old push mower. Trimmed back a broken edge of the lawn and used the offcuts to fill a few bare patches. Dug over the veggie patch area as it was turning to lawn there was that much grass weed there.

We're having carpet in the hall, same carpet throughout the house apart from where the vinyl is IYSWIM. The metal edging looks good, will have to ask the carpet fitters about that as a possibility. Thanks for that. :T

Done the first cut of the season, am now scarifying with my Crimbole Prezzy from OH. It's very slow going, as can only do about a square yard before needing to sit down and have a rest. But the moss is coming out much easier than last year when I had to use a rake. :j

Know what you mean about veggie patch turning to lawn. There's load of our borders seem to be turning to lawn, but neither of us are fit enough to do digging at present - I've caught OH's cold and am beginning to feel a bit rough, and he's still not fully up to par, though did manage to get into work on Tuesday and Wednesday. Did some more pruning yesterday, and we've begun to sort out the shed a bit, can barely move today! :eek:

My Counsellor is hoping to get up to the house this afternoon, as she's wanting to get some building work done to her house, so is keen to see the bifold doors (and the garden! ). I'm hoping we'll be fit enough to manage to get up there later, as I've got 42 lavender plugs to pot on as well as the lobelias I didn't get around to yesterday! And the tuberoses too - we've found the right size of pots for them at the back of the shed. :j

My Favourite Visitor is here with us for a week too. :j Woke up in the middle of the night to find him cuddled up to OH.

Bit of a leak from the Thermaskirt yesterday afternoon, so we've turned off the central heating. Not sure when plumber will come to fix it, I'm hoping he'll install the gas fire when he comes, as would prefer it to be done before the carpets arrive (next Friday unless we ask them to put it off for longer).

Craftyscholar

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Done the first cut of the season, am now scarifying with my Crimbole Prezzy from OH. It's very slow going, as can only do about a square yard before needing to sit down and have a rest. But the moss is coming out much easier than last year when I had to use a rake. :j

I didn't realise you could get a scarifier as cheap as that.
I know you said you had to do it in sections and rest, but did you find it easier to use than the long-tine rake?

ukmaggie45

Craftyscholar wrote: »

I didn't realise you could get a scarifier as cheap as that.
I know you said you had to do it in sections and rest, but did you find it easier to use than the long-tine rake?

A lot easier, and more effective. I gave up on the long tine rake (it wasn't doing anything much when I used it last year) and just used an ordinary garden rake, which at least got the moss out. We have a VERY mossy lawn! :eek: I'm thinking I'll try sitting down and using the scarifier, and then moving the chair when I've done as much as I can reach.

Once OH is over his cold I'm hoping to persuade him to dig the bean trench so I can chuck all the moss and thatch stuff into it along with some of the compost from the Dalek at home. We've got 4 composters at the house (2 from Lidl and 2 from Aldi) but they don't seem to be that effective, and one of them has come to pieces already - we only bought them last year. The other 3 are just about holding together, but could do with some gaffer tape or similar to strengthen them. I think our council have stopped doing cheap composters now, not that I'd want to use the company they used again anyway, they just left the composter on the doorstep without knocking (we live on a very busy road with lots of pedestrians going past) and to add insult to injury never sent me the compost turning thing that I PAID FOR. :eek: They took the money and never sent it. Grrrrrrr!

Bibbitybob

I love those doors Maggie. We've opted to keep the originals but I'm really really tempted to replace them with something more modern and with glass in. Not sure OH is so convinced though, he just pulled a face when I suggested it

It's been very slow since Xmas for various reasons, but we've made a big step and almost finished the kitchen floor today. It's going to run all the way through to the living room too which I can't wait for (no pleasing me, is there?!). There are some during pics on my blog, but here's how it's looking right this minute...