First-time house renovation

typeractive

latecomer wrote: »

PS LLC took his first steps last week - 2 days after 1st bday - and repeated again on sunday in front of Mrs LC and me. me = very proud dad

Awwwh!

andrew-b wrote: »

hiya,

Yes i've been a bit quiet! I've been following but house stuff is at a complete standstill now. I fell over in back garden 2 weeks ago after trying to scare off a neighbours cat with a supersoaker..really badly jarred my back and still not totally better. Wife soaked the cat the next day which i was quite happy about! Then my wife has been quite ill in the last week with gastroenteritis on top of her gallstone/gallbladder issues. We think our beko fridge/freezer having a broken seal on the fridge door and the thermostat set for too high a temperature is to blame and yoghurts that wife ate but i didn't. I noticed ice building up inside then discovered the split in the seal so put the digital thermometer in and it was registered about 13C.

So despite a bad back I've been on baby duty alot of the time plus housework to try avoid falling ill myself. New seal for fridge door should arrive tomorrow hopefully. After a couple of days and throwing out alot of the contents that we daren't eat the fridge is now down to -1C so now it's too cold! Wife can't drive anywhere at moment to buy supplies (too drugged up with a cocktail of painkillers) so we're stranded and reliant on wife's family and online shopping! Still don't have a date for wife's surgery as surgeon is on holiday but we were previously told it would be september sometime...until she is recovered our lives are pretty much on hold and we can't go anywhere beyond a few miles.

The only DIY related thing i've done was yesterday i had to open up the toilet unit to secure the loo seat back in place and I took the flush valve apart as it had been playing up - works right now.

Baby is good and over 5 months old now. We bought him a big playpen so he can play without the dog interfering or running off with his toys. He laughs now and seems to say Mumma or Nanna...much to my annoyance as i want him to say Dadda!

Hey Andrew - sorry to hear about the health! Try and rest up if at all possible?! 5 months?!!! Crikey there's a sign of time flying by!!! I'm sure he'll be shouting dadda sometime soon!

Primrosevilla

Thankyou Typeractive, MaggieBaking, Leif and Latecomer for your thoughtful replies there are so many things to take into consideration.

Nothing much has happened since my last post except I made an offer based on what the value of the house would be if it was ready to just move into and worked back from that. It was not accepted. But to be fair we are not in a good position yet to up our offer as we are still to sell our own home.

One thing I would like advice about in Black Mould.
The house has many areas on the ground floor mostly on the outside walls down by the skirting board climbing up about 18" mainly in corners. I know the house had cavity wall insulation pumped in some years ago and wonder if this is causing the mould? If this is the case how do you get to it (the insulation) to fix it?

TomsMom

Hi guys and girls and :wave: to Andy, Maggie, LC, AJ, Suiside and all those others from way back when we were all renovating together. Sorry I haven't read back so I hope you are all doing OK.

I need some help, thought about posting in the main In My Home forum but wondered if any of my old friends, or new renovators, could offer me some advice. Bear with me if this is a long explanation .

TomsDad is now in hospital and is unlikely to come home or see Christmas and I am left to sort out some unfinished projects. Oldies will probably remember that my DS is full of promises but rarely gets round to helping with the jobs so if I can find solutions I will probably have to try and find someone to carry them out for me.

I have at last got around to ordering the curtains for the two bedrooms, a big investment as they are full length and the one room is wall to wall plus another curtain at 90 degrees as there's a window on that wall too.

This is the important bit -

In Bedroom 1 the radiator is under the window, but the window is so wide that sill length curtains would look odd so I've gone for full length but will use them more or less as dress curtains. To pull them over the radiator in winter would block out most of the heat in there (old temporary curtains up at the moment):



What I thought of doing in that room is having blackout/thermal linings inside the reveal of the window to keep the room dark and also cosy in winter (there is a roller blind but it's not blackout):





I have found some top/ceiling fix curtain rail which looks like it might do the job, fixing it to the underside of the top of the reveal so that the linings will hang just inside the window reveal. Integra Discreet Top Fix yet this site shows a pic for the supposed same rail but it has a bit sticking up at the back forming an L-shape with the screw holes looking like it should fix on a vertical surface like a wall rather than fixing to the underside of the reveal. I'm confused now - I know it doesn't take much!

When the chap who fixed our blinds drilled into the underside of the reveal he said it was very hard solid concrete and he had to drill quite large holes (TD told me this).

I suppose my questions are, (1) do you think the top fix rail will do the job and (2) how do I get around the fact that the concrete is so hard and what sort of fixings would I need to successfully screw the rail to the underside of the top of the reveal and (3) does anyone know of any other rail that will do the job.

Sorry for the length of post, I know I ramble on but I hope you get the gist. Would be so grateful for any thoughts or advice.

P.S. Just noticed: LC - how exciting and a lovely moment for you all, you'll have to watch little LC like a hawk now, he'll be getting into everything. Andy - so sorry about your fall and your wife's illness, get well soon to you both and hugs for Oliver.

ukmaggie45

TomsMom wrote: »

Hi guys and girls and :wave: to Andy, Maggie, LC, AJ, Suiside and all those others from way back when we were all renovating together. Sorry I haven't read back so I hope you are all doing OK.

Hi TM, :wave: right back at you!

TomsMom wrote: »

TomsDad is now in hospital and is unlikely to come home or see Christmas and I am left to sort out some unfinished projects. Oldies will probably remember that my DS is full of promises but rarely gets round to helping with the jobs so if I can find solutions I will probably have to try and find someone to carry them out for me.

Oh dear, I'm so sorry to hear your news. Had been wondering over the summer how things had been going for you. :grouphug: Hope that TD is near enough that you can get to visit often.

TomsMom wrote: »

I have at last got around to ordering the curtains for the two bedrooms, a big investment as they are full length and the one room is wall to wall plus another curtain at 90 degrees as there's a window on that wall too.

What I thought of doing in that room is having blackout/thermal linings inside the reveal of the window to keep the room dark and also cosy in winter (there is a roller blind but it's not blackout):

I have found some top/ceiling fix curtain rail which looks like it might do the job, fixing it to the underside of the top of the reveal so that the linings will hang just inside the window reveal.

I don't think that curtain rail you've found looks as if it would work, it does look as if it needs fixing at the back.

We're currently having probs trying to get curtains as we've got rather awkward bay windows that need 2 bends in the living room, so have been trying to look at what's available. We've got a steel curtain pole and eyelet curtains on the living room bifold door, but will need to get curtains made to fit the bay and we want to get it done while we can still get the matching fabric. Will try and get some photos of the curtains up sometime as both OH and I like them, very unusual! :rotfl:

Anyway, we went to John Lewis for the steel pole and they were very helpful and gave us lots of help. I know it's too far for you to travel (though should you want to visit our local branch you would be very welcome to come and stay at the new house) but their website has lots of good advice on curtain poles, tracks etc.

Here's the Curtain Tracks Buying Guide, and there's a selection of tracks here including several that say they have a universal system that means they can be ceiling mounted. Here's one example.

P&P is free on the John Lewis site if you're spending over £30, so it might be possible for you to get what you need from them?

aliasojo

TM...got no helpful theories about your curtains but am really sad at your news. I wish you strength and hope you can make the next few months as bearable as possible. Thoughts will be with you and TD. x

TomsMom

Thanks both.

Andy - can't tuck new curtains behind rad, those curtains in the pic are the old ones (which I am tucking behind ), new ones haven't arrived yet. New ones will be right to the floor so can't be tucked behind, also a heavier weight than the current ones so a lot more thickness. Will have a look at those rods for nets, we had something similar at old house and there were little L-shaped hooks that held the rod in place. Just would have to make sure that weight of blackout linings wouldn't be too heavy.

Have just spoken to DS and asked him to come to local shop with me sometime soon to look at rails and see if any are suitable. He thinks the top of the reveal is some kind of reinforced concrete so very hard and that's why the man who fixed the blinds had a job doing so but he didn't make an ugly mess, it all looks quite neat. Will show DS and see if he can shift his butt into some kind of gear to help his mom - I did get a "Yeah" to my suggestion of coming to the shop with me!

Poor Oliver teething, hope he's not suffering too much.

Maggie - TD is in local cottage hospital at the moment in Dolgellau so about 20 mins drive, he was transferred there on Thursday. They only give care there, anything else he will have transport to Bangor (50 miles) and it has been so difficult getting up there. He was in Bangor for 3 weeks prior to moving to Dolgellau and it was taking about 2 hours to get there with all the holiday traffic at the moment, so a one hour visit was taking about 5 hours altogether.

Thanks both for your good wishes.

Just seen your post AJ, thank you also for kind thoughts also. Last week they were talking days and hoping to give him a bit longer but they've given him some chemo before transferring him to local hospital. We are getting conflicting and confusing information but all this is coming from TD so DD is going to ring consultant this coming week to try and get a clearer picture. It's all a roller coaster. And for the first time I'm having to arrange house insurance, speak to Broadband/phone supplier, etc., and it's doing my head in. Had a big meltdown the other day (first one) but I'm OK again now.

TomsMom

Thanks Andy, will look at the spring loaded telescopic. DS actually suggested glueing a batten so we can look at that too.

I sorted the house insurance yesterday. We were with Privilege who sent a ridiculous renewal quote through. Did all the comparison sites and realised I could get it much cheaper. Rang Privilege, got passed from pillar to post and eventually ended up telling them to scrap the current policy when it finishes in a few days' time and went back as a brand new customer and got it for less than half of their renewal quote, which compared well to the others. Looks like I'll be doing that annually from now on. I wonder how many people just pay the renewal?

Phone/Broadband - was mopping up after some recent negotiations with BT went spectacularly wrong (lied to by BT salesman), moved phone over to Virgin (our ISP) who promised a good deal. Bill came through for wrong amount, TD spoke to them and they promised this, that and the other (nothing in writing though!) then billed for wrong amount again, TD spoke to them again who assured him it was now all sorted. Miscommunication between TD and me, I rang Virgin, different CA (aren't they always!!) said previous CA shouldn't have said this, that and the other and now supposed to be sorted again. We'll see!

Hopefully these two things are now sorted for the next 12 months and then I'll be in a better place to look again. Car insurance was transferred to my name a few weeks ago, nice of them to give me the whole of TD's NCD considering I haven't had my own policy for about 17 years . Not even sure if I'll keep the car after the year's up, it rarely gets used.

Off to cook a curry now, making a big one so I can freeze some for easy meals another day.

GSDog

I haven't posted in here for a while so here's an update on my bungalow renovation:

The kitchen has almost been finished, we literally just have the worktop to fit and the tiling to do. We fitted it ourselves and I'm very pleased with the results. It did take us a long time but it's handy having a brother who is a mechanical engineer and can work things out in seconds; he's also very particular and is not happy until something is 100%. It looks brilliant.

We finally found some nice tiles for the bathroom on tilehq which were delivered yesterday. We immediately started tiling and managed to do half of the bathroom yesterday. I love tiling because it can completely change a room so quickly. The bathroom looked terrible before but now it's got some tiles on it and the shower tray and bath installed it's beginning to look good!

The next job is to get the electricians back to finish off the electrics and also get a new boiler installed - both will be expensive jobs! We also have lots of decorating to do and flooring to install, so we're far from, but I'm started to get excited. I hope we can move in within 6 weeks.

stolt

evening all, will have to try to read through the thread as i've kind of lost track of where everyone is. I took last week off work to fit a kitchen in our utility room, probably 7 units and a freezer and washing machine, and its been the ktichen from hell, hated every moment of it, things going wrong,not the right tools (honestly)

Will post up some pics, got 2 days off to finish it, wanted to get out in my new car but that will have to wait!!

tomorrow is going to be full of joy, need to put doors on and ive got to scribe the filler panels, and i havent got a clue, basically the filler panel is 600mm wide and i have a filler of about 7cm wide and the walls are out! deep joy, i'll probably end up kicking it up garden!! lol

stolt

evening all, well 7 days later and is nearly done, smallest room in the house, and the hardest, close to tears installing this, problems every step of the way, measuring down to 1mm has never been my strongest attribute!! still nearly done, got the fillers to do, skirting boards and a hole in a ceiling where i've took the fan out.


cut that sink hole (undermounted using a jigsaw....... took me ages..)