First-time house renovation

latecomer

@TM - looks great. I was considering doing it in our garage but thats unlikely now with everything thats happened as its of no value or not that I can see.

@maggie - hows yours getting on?

@stolt - love the wildlife pics - especially the bluetit chicks

@spirit - our multi-fuel stove was about £2500 IIRC fitted including lining the chimney, slate hearth and opening up fireplace.

We are making slow progress but its looking like we will have a fight on our hands with the loss adjuster. trying to sort out some alternative accomodation to make things a little easier until we able to get back in. hoping there is a chance to persuade OH to move back in temporarily until its sold but need to see what happens.

andrew-b

Looks good TM/TD...i guess the moral is if you want a job done do it yourself! Still at least you could borrow the mixing paddle ( i didn't have such luxuries when doing small bit of bathroom floor!). I still need to sort out our bathroom and hall floors but, just like last year, outside stuff has taken over. Our front garden is looking good with everything flowering..roses, heather, low-lying ceanothus, bedding plants are all in bloom. Also there are 4 buds on the Yucca again.. it's supposed to be monocarpic (die after flowering) but it's the 3rd year it's shot up flower stems! Though the giant fuschia is half dead so might have to come out unless i can salvage it by heavy pruning..think the winter finished it off.

TomsMom

Hello Andy

...i guess the moral is if you want a job done do it yourself!

Yep! Trouble is TD needs so much persuading that he can actually do it, then when it's done he's so proud of himself!

How's the gorgeous Oliver? I hope he isn't giving you too many sleepless nights.

I'm not doing much in the garden this year, we planted up some new bulbs and stuff last year and they're doing OK. We lost some stuff to the frost. I've got a few veggies in but nothing like as much as last year. Must admit to spending lots of time on the beach with the dog. Can't imagine what I did with all my time last year :rotfl: .

typeractive

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Thought this was fun - one light tube is on front roof, one on back roof.

Maggie - sorry to drag up a bit of an old post, but could you vouch for these sun tunnels. The reason I ask is - I am thinking of putting one on the back pitch of my roof (the house is South facing, so catches the sun at teh front brilliantly - the back is not as great), so I'm wondering if it is worth it? The back of the house has an extension so there is a valley between the two joining roofs. I was planning to install one of these sun tunnels and feed it into the landing - just to try and get SOME natural light as my corridor is goign to be very dark with all 1st floor doors closed!

I'm meeting the builder now to discuss it, though I'd like to do my research. I think my situation will be similar to the back sun tunnel (oo er) as in you picture - does this differ in the amount of light compared to the first one as it looks like it does in the picture?

Thanks a million!

latecomer

@andyb - how do you have time to do anything? I officially have zero time since LLC was born.
@TM - down on the beach with a dog - beats gardening any day

Speaking of which SIL has just got a rescue dog today who has had a lick at LLC foot much to his amusement.

andrew-b

latecomer wrote: »

@andyb - how do you have time to do anything? I officially have zero time since LLC was born.

Built my own time machine?!:rotfl:

That i'm not working and OH is taking maximum maternity leave until October may be the secret. Not posting as much on MSE gains alot of time for me too! I'm trying to get as much house & garden stuff done as i can before she goes back to work as i know after i will have far less time. It's mainly the afternoons that i get a chance to do anything unless OH has taken baby out or MIL or SIL are around. So i get loads of time with him the rest of the day. Both OH and I get our own "me time" which i think is vital to preserving sanity. So my me-time is DIY/garden stuff.

Oliver only wakes in the night for feeds and gets changed then which can sometimes take upto an hour each time plus a bit more to get back to sleep. So i'm losing 3 hours or more sleep per night in all as night time feeds are my department. As his bottle feeding we use cartons of instant SMA in the night and heat it in the bottle warmer (invested in an Avent digital one..worth every penny) - not very MSE but time & sleep saving!

Hoping to make a start on painting trellis this afternoon so long as it doesn't rain. We haven't had much in the way of rain for weeks here and my lawn is really suffering (have stopped cutting it in an attempt to try give it a bit more drought resistance).

stolt

evening, had nothing to do tonight so bored after trawling through the forums i re read quite a bit of this thread, the people that started it off, i didnt arrive on the scene until page 108!!! amazing to read everyones posts and how they started out, looked over old blogs etc, and one thing ive just done is backed up (or exported the blog) to my hardrive, just in case something happens with the host and i lose the whole blog ive done, dont think i could ever do another. So if you never have, might be worth making a back of it or exported it to your hardrive. One thing i've spotted on many blogs is that its been broken down in rooms etc, wish i had done that as it would have been easier to show people rather than looking though the whole blog. Cant start that now as it will look silly , anyways if its all getting on top of you, have a look through your old posts your be amazed how far you have come...
Seem to have lost some posters aswell which is a shame....

ukmaggie45

typeractive wrote: »

Maggie - sorry to drag up a bit of an old post, but could you vouch for these sun tunnels. The reason I ask is - I am thinking of putting one on the back pitch of my roof (the house is South facing, so catches the sun at teh front brilliantly - the back is not as great), so I'm wondering if it is worth it? The back of the house has an extension so there is a valley between the two joining roofs. I was planning to install one of these sun tunnels and feed it into the landing - just to try and get SOME natural light as my corridor is goign to be very dark with all 1st floor doors closed!

I'm meeting the builder now to discuss it, though I'd like to do my research. I think my situation will be similar to the back sun tunnel (oo er) as in you picture - does this differ in the amount of light compared to the first one as it looks like it does in the picture?

Thanks a million!

Hi Typer, sorry missed this till you PMd me - been totally knackered after lots of visits with the GrandTwins - great fun, but rather a lot all at once!

I'm pretty certain that the back tunnel does give less light than the front one, possibly less so when the weather's like it is at the mo here - been raining more or less solidly for over a week now. Will have a look when we go up to the house this evening. (it's over a week since I've been there) I have a feeling that we may get some sunlight in the back tunnel in the early morning, but we've never been there earlier than midday, so can't really be sure of that! House is roughly South West facing, so back is North East so fingers crossed for a little bit extra till the sun gets round to the front of the house.

I think that you will get less light from it being in a valley, but it's impossible to say how much less. My own feeling is that any extra natural light is better than none! One other thing you might consider that we've done is to have door on a south facing room glazed with frosted glass. This is fine for privacy and lets more light in. We've also gone for glazed doors on all the downstairs rooms, mostly clear, just frosted on shower room door.

The tunnels come with a bendy tube, so other option might be to get an extended tube and run it from the front sunny side of the roof? Or did you have a loft extension to complicate matters? I've lost the link to your blog so can't check! We've got Velux sun tubes, but there are other makers, might be worth checking them all out, some may have better collection and transmission of light than others. If I get a chance I'll post back later with some of the others, just hope I kept them bookmarked on Delicious as old lap top needs attention before can use it again.

Not sure if this makes any sense!

ukmaggie45

Just done a quick google, so here's a few links.

Solatube

sky tunnel kit

This one has a link to a DIY set up. Shame it's American, but have included it as it might be useful for generating ideas?

Here's another random one.

We've got the Velux one, selection of them here.

Or buy on eBay!

There was another maker that I thought looked good, but can't find the link just at the mo. Will post back when I've got laptop fixed and can get access to my bookmarks there.

ukmaggie45

Interesting (though slightly old) discussion here.