First-time house renovation

latecomer

Fingers crossed it all goes well Spicey

I spent last night cleaning up the mess made by my fireplace antics, its amazing how much dust & dirt you can get everywhere when doing just a little work.

OH picked up our new rug for our front room yesterday which is made by Anta (https://www.anta.co.uk). We had always intended to get one and got vouchers for there as wedding presents. We waited until the January sale this year to get it as 30% makes a huge difference to the price. We had it made to a custom size to fit our room and it looks amazing on the oiled floor with the brown sofas.

Shimmyhill

latecomer wrote: »

the last quote we had I think was around £1000 for the hardware (stove and associated bits) and around £700 for fitting plus £500-600 extra if we needed the chimney lined. I can check when I get home and let you know. We are having another quote hopefully this week and I can give details of that too if you want.

Thanks, any info is great !

The fitting and lining price seems very expensive but then i have no idea how much it should cost !!

My parents have a built into the fireplace opening essee log burner - my dad fitted that himself so i will have to ask him what it involved and whether he had to line the chimney (it was being used as an open fire)

I guess i will also need to pay to have the gas fire disconnected and the pipe removed best ask the gas man how much that will be !

TomsMom

latecomer wrote: »

OH picked up our new rug for our front room yesterday which is made by Anta (https://www.anta.co.uk). We had always intended to get one and got vouchers for there as wedding presents. We waited until the January sale this year to get it as 30% makes a huge difference to the price. We had it made to a custom size to fit our room and it looks amazing on the oiled floor with the brown sofas.

That's a lovely rug Latecomer. Did you have the same colours as in the picture, I like that combination.

latecomer

We went for the Dunvegan which is the one on the front page of the site. We had a bit of trouble ordering it as the local branch wouldn't give the sale price on a custom size so in the end we travelled up to the factory shop up in the highlands and got it sorted out there. We actually decided on a completely different pattern when we were there but despite being assured it was in stock, it wasn't and they were not getting any more in. Hence we went back to the original choice which looks great. Will take some pics tonight.

latecomer

@Shimmeyhill - I'll get the exact prices from the quote when I get home. The lining is expensive as the liner itself isn't cheap to buy. We are hopefully getting another quote this week and I'll let you know the details of that too.

latecomer

Just had a phone call with the guy at the timber yard and he's not sure what can be done. I've explained again what the problem is and while he says he understands and agrees he says he'll need to speak to the saw mill. He was saying that as the wood is all just cut in batches and not everyone understands things like grain and directions and hence you cant guarantee exact matches when its finished.

surely anyone whos job is to custom cut wood must be able to tell the difference between cutting through the grain and across it? I dont think thats unreasonable to expect. I offered to go in person and explain the problems while looking at the wood which he said wasn't necessary.

He also said that the lengths were slightly longer than ordered to allow for slight damage at the edges but we didn't measure so I'm not sure about that.

To say I'm not happy would be an understatement so I'm going to give him until the weekend and if its not sorted I'm going to go up on saturday morning and speak to someone in person. Does anyone think I'm being unreasonable?

TomsMom

latecomer wrote: »

Does anyone think I'm being unreasonable?

No, you're not being unreasonable.

I offered to go in person and explain the problems while looking at the wood which he said wasn't necessary.

Seems to me it might be necessary if the person cutting the wood doesn't know their job properly. If it's someone's job to cut wood then I would think it's not unreasonable for that person to know what they're doing.

You've not bought the cheapest option, you're paying good money for something special and the job should be done properly.

Good luck, I hope you get it sorted.

KT1985

@ latecomer- I would be feeling :mad:

We have had a good day- all of the en suite plumbing is done, ready for me to tile the floor and for them to return next week to fit new shower/toilet/basin. Also, stripped one bedroom and painted the ceiling- might have 'finished' a room by next week!!!

Also, did a huge bit of plastering on a wall, and it is all smooth. It was fun, so am going to try and plaster a room next week why not, this is the only time in my life I am going to get to try this stuff- the trial run went well, so fancy stepping up the challenge...

latecomer

Thanks TM. I'm fed up with poor quality products and bad service, in fact i'm pretty fed up in general at the moment. Perhaps to get decent service you have to shout and swear and make threats to sue people or something......

I think I might take a drive around tomorrow lunchtime and speak to him in person and point out the problems on the wood itself. As for now I'm going home and I'm going to have a beer.

Think I'll maybe finalise the parts for my PC upgrade and order them as that should cheer me up.

TomsMom

Latecomer talking about bad service prompted me to update about the tiles from Wickes.

Big clue: :wall:

Yes, today's delivery didn't turn up, again!

OH rang, apparently the Remedial Dept didn't do what they promised to do, i.e. hand pick 16 boxes and get them delivered today. He's spent almost two hours on the phone trying to get this sorted. Builders aren't exactly twiddling their thumbs but they'll struggle to find something to do at the beginning of next week if they don't arrive. We now have a promise that they will be picked tomorrow and Wickes are paying extra for the courier to drop off between 8am-12noon on Friday (they're usually here around 2pm in our town).

OH suggested they might like to make a gesture of goodwill. They agreed and will discuss this further once the delivery has been made. What a pity we've already bought the doors. I don't think there's anything else we'll be needing from Wickes so hopefully a partial refund rather than credit vouchers will be offered. These tiles were ordered on 6th February with next day delivery and so far 3 separate deliveries have failed to produce 16 boxes with the same batch code, then there have been at least two delivery dates when nothing turned up at all. Poor OH, he's getting so stressed by this, he was in a bit of a state this afternoon and it's not doing his already poor health any good.

We couldn't go out as planned yesterday as OH had an emergency dental appointment for an abcess so we've arranged to go tomorrow, the shopping list is getting longer - paint, light fittings, taps for bathroom, extractor fans - the electricians are coming back on Monday so we need the electrical items.

OK, moan over. At least the builders are cracking on and our house is beginning to look like a home now some of the painting has been done. I'll update the blog a bit later on with a few more pictures, I think OH took some.