First-time house renovation

PurpleK8

:T well done everybody, you've all been so busy this weekend:T

scary, massive wasps nest latecomer! we had a good assortment of nests here including 6 starlings nests all from one chimney with remains in each (obviously not the brightest birds!) and voids in the sash windows full of hunnycomb

I finally finished grouting my bathroom last night, I must have a real knack for dragging a job out as long as possible! the oh is actually connecting the loo as I type and then it can finally become a place I can escape to rather than the place i've been escaping from!

Josepina

Latecomer - nice blog I'm also a follower
OH going to look into our blog - he thinks it might be a bug cause he's tried a few things already
I've had a nice glass of wine and feel much more chilled out now, rain and gale force winds forcast 2moz hope my builders will be ok - I must buy biscuits!
nn all

lisal0u

latecomer wrote: »

Now TM and co, make sure you are all sitting down........ I've got a surprise for you:

http://the2yearproject.blogspot.com/

Yey, I am also a follower! I have quite a collection on blogs to follow now! This is definitely the best forum thread ever!

Josepina - Good news on the builders, they seem keen which is a good thing! Looking forward to seeing what they get up to!

Popped to our house tonight and Stuart finished grouting the floor tiles in the bathroom. They look lovely and he's done such a good job for saying he's never done it before. We might actually have a room finished soon! Cant wait!

11thcommandment

Hi Latecomer - Thought I would reply to your mail here so everyone can see:-

Quote
Thanks for the pics. Looks like a great job you are doing and far fancier than what I had in mind for ours. I sent you another PM on the MSE site when I was at work. Anyway I was just asking about which style you went for. We need something light due to it being a dark bathroom at the best of times so I think it would have to be the ivory if any. One thing I did notice was a pretty big price difference between the 2 places for the light ones, did you notice any real difference in quality between them. Also what were the back of the tiles like? You hear about some of them having huge gaps on the back which people say can be a sign of lower quality.

Thanks for the comment, it helps spur me on to finish! We used light/ivory but we had some classic for the kitchen floor too (we got about 70sqM in total). To be honest, there isn't much in it where the darkness is concerned - the only big difference I have seen is when you get to the Noce/Walnut variety.

As for gaps/voids, you are right there - the rubbish stuff has lots of gaps. I can honestly say that out of the tiles we had from stonestyleuk I have had maybe 5 tiles with voids worth mentioning in the whole batch and even then they weren't all the way through. 50% of the tiles we had from TopsTiles at our other house had big voids and that was after sorting through a whole pallet to get the best.
I bought the mosaics for the shower floor from stonestoreuk and saw their travertine but as I wasn't buying any from them I didn't inspect the rear of the tiles, however, I had a long chat with the owner and he said he refuses to sell the rubbish stuff 'cos it cost him more in breakages and complaints when he first started out selling "cheap luxury travertine". He imports it direct now and gets a better price on the best quality gear.

You can expect to get a couple of breakages due to natural fault lines but I only had a few (maybe 6) of these when cutting thin strips or the point of a triangle piece but in most cases I used superglue to fix the broken bit back on for an invisible repair!!

Top tip for cutting, I bought a watercooled radial tile saw (£130 from www.axminster.co.uk but there are loads similar on the internet) and intend to sell it when I have finished, it's almost like a "knife thru butter" and as I decided to do diamond pattern with a border on the kitchen floor it has been invaluable.

Here is the link to the full set of pics so far:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16031496@N02/sets/72157614578611392/

Glad to help if you need any more info.

PurpleK8

Here is the link to the full set of pics so far:-
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16031496@N02/sets/72157614578611392/

just had a good nosey at your pics, excellent job (so glad theres another insomniac still up too!). did you make the star pattern yourself?

jamtart6

hello *waves* Im up making a power point diary of the house progress. why i thought this was a good idea at 11.59pm I have no idea! Its like a blog on powerpoint!

BB1984

josepina - I have managed to follow your blog ok....shed looks great by the way!
latecomer - thank you! Well done for finally venturing into blogdom, and now we will all shut up and stop pestering you!

Quick progress report from me - Bruce had a job just around the corner from me, and in a spare hour beforehand, he fitted one of my new doors! (He's a useful guy to have around!) He fitted the front one (the kitchen door needs planing down so will take a bit longer) and I'm really plased with what it looks like. Only problem is that the clear glass shows the front porch in all its terrible glory! Oh well, it gives us more of an incentive to get that sorted out.
RE door knobs, we saw these ones in Wickes. I know they're not expensive, as these things go, but I still resent paying £70 just on door knobs! Also not sure what to do - we prefer the silver ones, but the original door furniture that we're keeping (lock and catch) is brass. This has been painted over, so you hardly see any brass apart from on the bits prone to the paint wearing off. Not sure whether to go for the brass coloured knobs, and strip the paint off the catches, or to re-paint over the catches, and go for the silver ones.
Such a small but important detail!
BB

11thcommandment

PurpleK8 wrote: »

just had a good nosey at your pics, excellent job (so glad theres another insomniac still up too!). did you make the star pattern yourself?

Yeah - so many things & ideas whizzing around my head with work/en-suite/shed build plans it's difficult to get to sleep!

I didn't originally plan to have the star/compass pattern but I was snooping around Ebay for mosaics and saw it. It came assembled on a mesh backing, just needed offering up to a flat bed of adhesive and all the gaps grouting.

FYI it is 630x630mm and cost £35 delivered on a buy-it-now so I snapped it up :-)

11thcommandment

Hi Latecomer, I just uploaded a couple more pics of where I used Travertine e.g. kitchen & util floor & bathroom :- http://www.flickr.com/photos/1603149...7614578611392/


Cheers!

TomsMom

11th Commandment I've had a look at your pictures - stunning - well done!

Josepina Great start to your blog.

BB Just my opinion, but I think if your place has some original features/character, then it's worth sticking to it. If it was me, I'd go for the brass ones and then clean up the painted ones.

The tiling in our en-suite was started yesterday - only managed a couple of photos so wont update the blog until there is a bit more to put on. The electricians were back and they've started to fix some of the lights. We're taking some from our present house too so I now have low energy bulbs dangling from ceiling roses on the H/S/L - 3 altogether - where flush fittings once were, very swish! Goodness knows what'll happen when the wall lights in the bedroom come off! Just realised that perhaps bedside lamps are the more modern thing , but can't change our minds as the wiring is already there sticking out of the wall.