First-time house renovation

latecomer

Thanks TM & Andrew. I dont have any pictures at the moment but I'm planning on taking plenty. The skirting boards were custom made for the timber yard by a supplier so they shouldn't have been sat outside or been wet but I guess the original source wood could well have been.

I've been trying to find a good picutre of what Douglas Fir looks like. This should give you an idea of what we've got at the moment:

Link

Spicey

:hello: madmonkey hi, look forward to your blog :rotfl:


latecomer how disappointing, hope you dont have to much trouble replacing or getting refund.

:j We exchanging today and completing on 20th. Wont be moving in till May 3rd so will have to get cracking on the work. Studied planning portal again and discussed with several people, I now confident we do not require planning permission, so going straight to building regs.
Off to Jewsons to find out how much meter box and ducting will cost as we have to supply them to move the electric meter. The Gas do everything and for 1/2 the cost but I already ranted about that so wont bore you all again!:D

TomsMom

Spicey wrote: »

:hello: madmonkey hi, look forward to your blog :rotfl:

:rotfl: Come on MadMonkey, that's two of us, we'll nag you 'till you do one :rotfl: wont we Andy?

:j We exchanging today

Oooh, exciting. Bet you're waiting anxiously for the phone call.

Off to Jewsons to find out how much meter box and ducting will cost as we have to supply them to move the electric meter.

When we went to get a quote for a kitchen from Jewsons, we got talking to the manager and told him we were renovating a house. He said "Would you like me to open a trade account for you?". Just a thought, it might save you a bit if you can get trade discount - worth a try, just mention it to them.

MadMonkey

How do i blog then ?

We already have some pretty good photos - although we forgot to do "before" of the kids rooms !!

ETA - I have a blog !!:j

It should be here

Don't all rush at once though as currently there is nothing on it :rotfl:

TomsMom

MadMonkey wrote: »

How do i blog then ?

We already have some pretty good photos - although we forgot to do "before" of the kids rooms !!

ETA - I have a blog !!:j

It should be here

Don't all rush at once though as currently there is nothing on it :rotfl:

Oooh, MadMonkey, what a lovely house! Love the staircase and if it was me I'd leave it natural wood but we're all different and must do as we want. I'm so looking forward to seeing more pictures and progress.

andrew-b

Blog? :whistle:

Glad your nearly there Spicey! I remember the relief and weight off your mind of exchanging - followed by the madness of the big rush to move out of the old flat within a week! We were waiting for months on our vendor. There was no chain involved but the vendor couldn't make up her mind so we went from March when we placed the offer until August waiting to exchange with most of our possessions already boxed up - and only then because we threatened to bail out!

Make sure you have building's insurance from exchange of contracts.

Nice stairs MadMonkey - rather you than me painting all those spindles. Now i get why some people just panel them over!

Andy

latecomer

Just phoned the timber supplier up and he said they wouldn't have been checked between the supplier and being delivered and would have been packaged. So it could be they were already damaged or its been done while being delivered.

Anyway they are going to be picked up on saturday morning and then inspected. to be fair the guy seemed genuinely puzzled abuot the whole situation. I'm going to take lots of pictures before they go just to make sure its all documented. Last resort will be the credit card company but hopefully its not going to come to that.

MadMonkey

TomsMom wrote: »

Oooh, MadMonkey, what a lovely house! Love the staircase and if it was me I'd leave it natural wood but we're all different and must do as we want. I'm so looking forward to seeing more pictures and progress.

It's not "natural" wood though - it;'s been stained with an horrific stain that has orangey undertones and really dated the house

latecomer

what you really want to do is strip it all back to the bare wood....... just like we've been doing for the last 12 months

I've found all sorts of paint and stains underneath and sometimes wonder whether its worth the effort, particularly given the latest problems.

MadMonkey

latecomer wrote: »

what you really want to do is strip it all back to the bare wood....... just like we've been doing for the last 12 months

I've found all sorts of paint and stains underneath and sometimes wonder whether its worth the effort, particularly given the latest problems.

I am NEVER touching another spindle as long as i live !