First-time house renovation

BB1984

Hi all, sorry I've been neglectful of this thread for a few days - partly because I had nothing exciting to report at the beginning of the week as I was at work, and partly because the past couple of days I've been busy at the house.

Well, a lot's been done since last weekend. I'll put some photos on my blog when I've got the chance, prob tomorrow evening. The electrician has finished the first-fix. The plumber has put all the new pipework for the heating and bathroom etc under the floor. We've strengthened the ceiling joists in the bathroom...and then knocked down a wall, which will make the bathroom a lot bigger (big enough for our indulgent walk-in shower!) We've removed the lounge fireplace. We've boarded up the hole in the bedroom ceiling left by the chimney breast removal. We've dug a trench along the side of the house that will become a French drain. We've started boarding the kitchen ceiling. And behind the scenes (at work, when I should have been working!) I've sent in an application for the building inspector to come and look at our new doors/lintels/window, got quotes from various people, booked in the plasterer and builders, bought a window, ordered some appliances, and confirmed a date for our gas main installation.

Busy busy!

Glad to see everyone else is getting on well with their work too - Toms Mom - you've done loads!! We've got a bit of woodworm but it's not active - i've thinking of painting on some DIY treatment just in case though...

BB

helping_hubby

Anymore news?

We've been really busy the last 2 weeks. Knocked down the bathroom wall and finally had 2 plumbers round for a quote. Got one for £1170 and waiting on the other.

Our dads and my OH have been digging up the back garden and I've been digging up the front garden.

Our dropped kerb has been started

And the electrician has been and gone - we had all the lights re-wired, some new sockets and other sockets doubled up. My oven is connected finally after 8 weeks of no oven cooking. And we have a new consumer unit.

Now I'm looking for a plasterer to skim the living room. But now that the electrician is finished we can finish off decorating bedroom 2 and 3.

webwalker

paddy's_mum wrote: »

TomsMom - I'm intrigued by the notion of diy woodworm treatment. Care to give us any more information? What product did your hubby use? Facemask or respirator? Was it a hateful job to do? Messy?

Anyone got any views of the wisdom (or not as the case may be!) of tackling loft timbers themselves whether as a treatment of existing woodworm or as a preventative measure?

Late february to early march hang a vapona fly killer in your loft, you may need more than one depending on area, these kill any flying woodworm. Woodworm matures into adulthood in the spring and fly to the next bit of timber to infest. DIY timber treatments are good but the timbers must be soaked to run off point which is why brushing is recommended. Any exposed beams can be coated with limewash which was the traditional method of treatment before chemical liquids.

BB1984

Thanks webwalker for that advice - sounds worthwhile even for people that don't think they have a woodworm infestation.

Well, my renovation is progressing well, albeit with a few hiccups along the way! Details and photos in my blog.
We have now completed the revised structural layout - that included knocking an internal wall down, building a new stud wall, blocking up an internal door and the back door, forming a new back door opening and a new internal door opening.
We were supposed to be enlarging the bathroom window, but the builders discovered that the outer leaf of masonry is so poor that the bricks were literally crumbling to dust when they tried to remove the old lintel. Basically the whole wall above was in danger of collapsing, so I made the decision to leave the original window in place and not disturb the wall further. A pain in the backside but we can't afford to either rebuild the wall or install an extra long lintel

Other bad news was that we discovered some active woodworm under the kitchen floor. I have bought a big can of Ronseal potion that will hopefully kill the little blighters off.

On the plus side, the damp problem is nowhere near as bad as I thought in the bedrooms - only affecting a handful of joists as opposed to every single one! Although we did discover some nasty rotten floorboards and joists in the bathroom, which need to be replaced.

Today the plasterer has started - he's drylining the kitchen which is great as it means the plumber can fit the new boiler.....which means....hot water - woo! Then hopefully tomorrow he'll do the bathroom, and then the plumber can start fitting the suite, and we can tile at the weekend.

The budget is rapidly diminishing but nearly everything is accouted for now, which is a relief. What I'm amazed at is how quickly all the little bits and pieces add up - I have been on dozens of quick trips to the shops to pick up screws, nails, expanding foam, sharp sand etc etc etc, things that you just don't think about when doing the budget. However, we built in plenty of wiggle room so hopefully we'll be fine.

Hope everyone else's projects are coming along well - do we have target end dates? I have no idea at what point we'll decide that ours is "finished" (probably never!) but we're hoping to move in within a month......whether or not that'll happen I have no idea but fingers crossed.

BB

latecomer

sounds like (I've not checked the blog yet!) you are making really good progress.

We are currently stalled but the architect came back with some plans for the loft conversion which didn't even resemble what we asked him to do. So he's off to start again and we've given him the additional job of doing a side extension the length of the house which is going to involve knocking down the existing garage and building a new one into the extension. Big plans, small budget. Should be interesting if nothing else.

the only thing I have planned to do soon is put an extractor into the bathroom. I've bought the kit but got the wrong cable. also borrowed a core drill off a colleague but he couldn't find the guide so I couldn't do anything. He has now brought it in so the job is back on when I get some cable delivered.

I've got 2 weeks holiday coming up so I'm hoping to make some good progress on the existing jobs then.

TomsMom

Quite a lot has been done at our house this last week and we feel like progress has been made. The french doors/windows have been installed in the lounge which we're really pleased with as we can now enter the conservatory from the lounge rather than walk to the back of the lounge then all down the length of the kitchen (long kitchen/diner runs parallel to lounge).

Work has started on concealing the central heating pipes and the electricians came today to start the rewire. Plasterboarding has been started in various places which makes a difference.

Today the new stud walls have gone up in the bathroom, we've pinched a bit of space from the bathroom where there was an alcove (to be made into a storage cupboard) and will steal some space from the large airing cupboard to form a new shower area within the bathroom. Only nasty surprise was the amount of moult uncovered in the bathroom in the area where the extension is. This extension has a concrete slab flat roof and there are plans to warm line it and waterproof it.

You can see it here.

Additions to the blog will be sketchy this week as Paul is in and out of hospital for tests and chemo all week and I can't do the photo technical bit from camera to computer . Will expand posts and add photos later in the week.

paddy's_mum

I just love that wallpaper in the airing cupboard - it'd go a treat with the 1970's rotting and threadbare curtains in my renovation. Haven't got a roll or two left over, have you?!

Seriously, real progress and a pleasure to see what others are doing, so thank you.

abdulh

Your renovation sound really interesting. We are in the process of having an extension built on our new house after which we will be completely refitting the inside (windows/electrics etc).

You can see our progress so far at http://bellevueextension.blogspot.com/

I am debating whether to buy a van or something like an older Renault Espace, we both have saloon cars so will not be able to carry much in them. Does anyone know a cheap place to get van insurance for domestic use?

Lally

Love the blog, I wish I had photos at the moment as I am right in the middle of something similar! I have made a few mistakes myself but hugely expensive ones, and we will finish about £2000 over budget which isn't too bad. Best of luck!

TomsMom

paddy's_mum wrote: »

I just love that wallpaper in the airing cupboard - it'd go a treat with the 1970's rotting and threadbare curtains in my renovation. Haven't got a roll or two left over, have you?!

Seriously, real progress and a pleasure to see what others are doing, so thank you.

:rotfl:

Sorry paddy's mum, they only left old part-used paint tins, no wallpaper. If I remove it carefully maybe I can get a piece big enough for you to frame and hang on the wall, Kristian Digby does that a lot on Open House!

Anyone else doing a blog? Latecomer? Helping Hubby? Paddy's mum, are you doing one? It's so interesting to see other people's ideas and progress. Lally, just noticed your post. Have you got a digital camera, if so the blog I use is so easy (has to be for me to be able to do it ). Good old Google!

Abdul - I've seen your blog - big job there. It will be interesting to see it when it's finished. Our second house was of a similar era but we weren't lucky enough to have those lovely circular bays and ours was a semi.