First-time house renovation

Shimmyhill

latecomer wrote: »

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

http://the2yearproject.blogspot.com/

Not much content but we all have to start somewhere. I'll be trying to add stuff to it as I go. I cant seem to find lots of the pictures I took but that hopefully they are on the backup image of the old hardrive so I'll have a look and see what I can find. Failing that it might have to be a couple of posts for the past year and then onto current stuff.

Feel free to tell me if I've screwed anything up on the blog.

Dont say I'm not good to you

:eek:

I have a nice job for you, lots of nests in my loft - i can pay in tea and biscuits

latecomer

@11th Commandment - thanks for uploading all the pics. Thats a fantastic job you're doing there. Thanks for the info on the the travertine too, I'm going to request a sample from stonestoreuk (the cheaper place) and see what it looks like although our friends sample and the main order were substantially different. I also considered doing underfloor heating but decided to stick with conventional heating

@ everyone else - thanks for all the nice comments on the blog. I'm going to have to go through the backup as I'm now annoyed about the missing pictures of the work we did.

Removing wasps nests is easy, just wait until the winter and they are empty. That said I was extremely nervous about removing our big one (as you can tell from the clothing which included sky googles and gloves to be extra safe!) but the other small ones I didn't think twice about. Also removed 2-3 small bee nests which were old/empty too.

Disclaimer - all the above is based on person experience and I take no responsibility for any "issues" you might have if you attempt the same yourself :rotfl:

latecomer

@Shimmy - through in some beer and we can talk :rotfl:

lisal0u

11th Commandment - you have done a fab job! It must have taken some doing as it is a large area. I love looking at piccys as everyone progresses!

Kepp up the good work everyone!

jamtart6

hi guys just on a totally different note. we have a bad parking situation in our road, many drives fit only one car on and there are no real pavements to park along, except along our garden. some of the bigger houses could fit 3 or 4 cars on. Now I've lived in a cul-de-sac for years and appreciate they are a pain for parking, and I also know that it is a public road that anyone can park anywhere.

However one of the big houses (with space for 3 cars) keeps parking his works van outside our house. Whilst it is not pleasant to look out of my front window at a HUGE van every day I realise I cannot change this or do antyhing about it...the thing that bothers me is that he keeps getting out of his van and stepping onto our grass, even when we are they are he knows we are at the window (paper stripping). Obviously we dont want to annoy our neighbours as we are the newbies of the road, and we have tried not-so-subtly to park our car there, but he always managed to squash in.

Whilst annoying that it is there, even if he turned the van around and got out onto the road it wouldnt be bad, but leave my grass alone!! We have this problem when visitors to our house come and park there, but as friends of ours we don't mind. I just think this man has a proper cheek!!

Obviously dont want to say anything to them, but wondered what you would do? SUggestions have been "plant a border" (dont want the hassle and upkeep)," put a small picket fence up about 0.5m high" (possibiliy), "put stones down and stepping stones" (possibility but this surely invites him to step on the grass)

latecomer

Have you considered speaking to him and asking if he would mind parking it the other way round to stop the grass getting trashed?

Failing that the only alterative is to either build or plant something.

PurpleK8

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 :-)

fantastic bargain, and looks brilliant

latecomer - have you looked at marble rather than travetine? i originally fancied travetine, it always looks fantastic in magazines/house programmes but when i went to buy it i didn't like it up close because of the filler. while I was looking for it i came across polished capaccino marble in homebase so decided to get that instead. Its been lovely to work with, OH made the big cuts with angle grinder and diamond tipped blade and the detailed cuts with a dremell (series 300) multi-tool. because its polished its also easier to keep clean. I will get photos up but still can't find my battery charger - could be anywhere in this mad-house!

jamtart - depending on my mood I'd either go with 12' high electric fence connected to the mains or one of those little chain fences a lot of people have!

latecomer

not really as I dont generally like the look and feel of marble which I think is due to the highly polished surface. that said, no decisions have been made yet so we are still considering everything. If you could get a couple of pictures that would be great

11thcommandment

All - thanks for the comments about progress :beer:, I'm just about to go and do some more tiling now.

latecomer wrote: »

not really as I dont generally like the look and feel of marble which I think is due to the highly polished surface. that said, no decisions have been made yet so we are still considering everything. If you could get a couple of pictures that would be great

After having tiles at our old house without UF heating we made sure we installed it this time. We have plumbed UFH in the kitchen for the only heat source (new extension) and electric in utility, WC and en-suite just to take the chill off the tiles.

We are a "shoes off" house and the tiles are a bit cold in winter without heating.

latecomer

The one thing that puts me off underfloor heating is that if it goes wrong then the tiles have to come up. Radiators are much better in that respect