First-time house renovation

ukmaggie45

kabayiri wrote: »

@ukmaggie45 : I think you have the same internal doors we have just had fitted.

Were they from Howdens?

They are nice.

Hi kabayiri, not sure where they came from. I think they're a fairly generic door that lots of places do. Our Builder had recommended a place fairly local that I think may be cheaper than Howdens. We'll prob be seeing him soon so if I can remember (usually forget half the stuff I want to ask!) will ask him. We now have to seal them, since they're engineered wood (I did remember to ask about that!) I think we have to use varnish rather than oil. Must try and find out! Will be really glad when the whole thing is finished and we can think of actually moving in rather than just taking over a few bits and pieces! At least we have a couple of camp beds so can sleep over if I can remember to sort out some bedding!

TomsMom

Goodness, how time flies Andy, Oliver is three months old already :eek:.

Sorry to hear Mrs Andy is poorly, I hope she gets sorted and back to health very soon.

Maggie Looking forward to photos of your staircase.

kabayiri

@Maggie : we were advised to use either Danish oil or beeswax.

I have used Danish oil on a solid oak front door in the past, but this time we tried beeswax. It works well.

I think ours are slightly wider (2'9" door) so a price comparison may not quite work.

ukmaggie45

@kabayiri thanks for the hint about beeswax. Think we'll use that on the handrail too. Will consult with OH. Is that beeswax like what you get in candles? Just I've got a couple knocking around so it would be quite MSE to use them... Hmm, maybe I'll do a google for a recipe for beeswax polish.

Andy, so sorry to hear Mrs Andy has to have an op. A friend of mine just had the same one with keyhole, she made it to DD's wedding which was about 3 weeks after, but was still feeling a trifle delicate I think. Please give Mrs Andy a gently cyper hug from me and tell her I send my sympathy. Good to hear Littleun is doing well - the Twins are still not crawling, but seem to move around a lot somehow! :rotfl: They seem to kind of roll backwards, it's funny to watch. :rotfl:

Here's the photos of the staircase. OH took these when he went up to the house this evening before Builder comes in tomorrow.


Hallway by ukmaggie45, on Flickr


looking up the stairs by ukmaggie45, on Flickr


Landing by ukmaggie45, on Flickr


looking down the stairs by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

Staircase Man is going to make us some brushed steel caps for the raw ends of the banisters so that it's finished off nicely.

The view from the hall will have oak veneer going up diagonally (over where the old solid balustrade was fixed) under the stainless steel fixings IYSWIM, not sure about the staircase side, that's pretty rough too, but might just try and sand and gloss paint it there.

typeractive

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

.....show off




looks AWESOME!

Scuba_Steve

We got all our furniture and bathroom fittings second hand saved a packet and added more to the re sale value than buying new as we could get much better spec bathroom fittings e.g taps

TomsMom

Just beautiful Maggie!

suisidevw

Looks incredible Maggie! Lovely!

ukmaggie45

Builder has been back and put the oak veneer up the hall side of the stairs and done various other odd bits. Still waiting for the glass screen for beside the kitchen door as person making it has had problems sourcing suitable oak. Hopefully it will be ready sometime next week.

Finally made a decision on broadband etc - have gone for a bundle from Virgin, will be installed mid July. So I guess we'll prob try and do the major part of the move in September, though we're taking some stuff over already just to make a bit more space here so we can begin to declutter seriously.


Stairs with veneer by ukmaggie45, on Flickr


Oak veneer in place by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

kr15snw

Hello all, thought I'd come and join

We've just bought a huge 1930's semi with masses of room to extend.

It required a re-wire and currently has no central heating. It's the only house in the street without a loft conversion (all others we have seen have 1 huge master suite with bathroom, but we are led to believe we could fit 2 small doubles which would suit us more). It's also the only house without a rear extension to fit a larger kitchen / sun room onto the back of the dining room.

We have a budget of £25k up front with a further £10k coming next year. We are lucky that my husband is a builder and has lots of friends in the trade who have offered help for minimal pay. The only thing we don't have on hand is a plumber (although we have recently made friends with one who said he could do us a 'deal' but obviously it's not mates rates).

Other than that the house is ok but hasn't been decorated in about 40 years, but it is very clean and the woman who lived there obviously cared for it very very much

We also have a large garage (wider than normal) and many others in the street have extended this forward so that it connects onto the back end of the side of the house (does this make sense?) so that we can put a utility in there and then convert the garage into a family room (although hubby is convinced this will become his man cave, we shall see!!! lol).

So we're hoping to move in about 6 weeks and we will be living there while we work. The big plans are:

* Loft extension (lucky that the hall is big enough to fit another set of stairs in)
* Build the rear extension downstairs and extend the garage forward to link into this.
* Convert the 3rd bedroom (small) into an ensuite for the master bedroom and block off the door from the hallway.
* Knock the kitchen into the dining room and have one large room
* Re-wire
* Install central heating throughout
* New kitchen

And then as and when we can we'll decorate (I can live with bare plaster for a few years if we have to, lol) and as we're going to get the ensuite done early on the family bathroom can wait (it is only just the 2 of us )

So all this for 25k? Yeh we know it means doing 99% of it oursleves. Ah well, there goes the next 5 years.....