First-time house renovation

lisal0u

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

Hiya,

Can't remember if I've already said this or its been discussed (I can't keep track ha ha) but we have opted for porcelain tiles that look like travertine. Ive got a piccy of them here but it was taken with my phone so its not brilliant: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3wfd3O7FGa4/SXyac7rxcZI/AAAAAAAAAHk/VzANOSbOUgg/s1600-h/DSC00342.JPG

I've got some better ones that have been grouted on my camera so I'll upload them later!

latecomer

thanks for that, I'll definitely check back later if you are putting up more pics. We have looked at some porcelain tiles but the one I really liked was just too light for our room.

jamtart6

latecomer wrote: »

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.

Not chatted to him properly yet, and going to monitor the situation, just dont want to stir up trouble really.

chain fence is a great idea. i have tripped over so many of them, maybe he will trip over ours and get the hint that parking the other way is the answer!! :rotfl:

thanks for the replies

Josepina

OH has sorted out the blog, he said something about having to delete it and do it again! still I think people can now follow it.

He has put an update on it again but im too tired to post!

TomsMom

Looky, Looky, we've got a working shower in the en-suite :j . I'm so excited.

The shower cubicle is an offset quadrant, 1000 x 800, made by Lakes. It's lovely quality. The two walls the shower's set on have been grouted today so that the builders can start using this shower to free up the one in the bathroom so that one can be tiled. It's amazing the difference grouting makes (which I'm sure you all know anyway), we're really pleased with how it's turned out.

The toilet is a Tavistock short projection one, projects just 370mm so it's ideal for an en-suite or cloakroom and doesn't encroach too much onto the floor space or make the room seem overcrowded. The door opens into the bedroom, not the en-suite, to give as much room in there as possible.

You can see the tiles (click on picture to see better) that we had from Wickes which ended up costing £38 - must chase them for the cheque for the goodwill gesture . The border tiles were <cough> a bit more expensive <cough> :rotfl:

PurpleK8

Looky, Looky, we've got a working shower in the en-suite :j . I'm so excited.

:T exciting stuff TM-its so lovely to see it coming on:T
have you any idea how long its going to be before its finished? x

TomsMom

PurpleK8 wrote: »

have you any idea how long its going to be before its finished? x

I think maybe another couple of weeks before the builders have finished. Then we'll have an empty shell. There'll be decorating to do - painting top coats on H/S/L, utility, lounge, sun room, kitchen. The two bedrooms need wallpapering also all doors, skirtings, architraves need finishing. Our son has booked us in first 3 weeks in April for him to tile utility and downstairs WC walls plus fit and tile the kitchen.

OH wants to move in as soon as builders finish and continue with the decorating once we're in. But I want carpets down before we move the furniture over so as not to have to move it again later. Also it would mean having no proper kitchen and just a microwave in the utility for cooking. Carpet man is coming to measure up tomorrow. We've no curtains yet, we have to make our minds up and order for the lounge but bedrooms I'll have to shorten what we already have.

Maybe I can ask you all for suggestions. We still have to make up our minds about flooring for the hall, kitchen, sun room. The hall is really small as can be seen here, pictures 3 and 4. The arch has now gone so it's opened it up a bit (that's the WC door you can see, you can just about see lounge doorway on right). The front door (2nd picture, stairs to the right immediately as you walk in) is directly opposite the kitchen door so the floor flows from the hall, through the kitchen (2nd picture looks back to the hall and front door, 4th picture looks from hall to kitchen extension) then round in an L-shape to the sun room (2nd picture - looking from sun room back into kitchen) without any breaks.

We think the carpet in the hall will get too mucky too quickly and will need replacing before the stair carpet. So we're thinking of having one flooring all through from hall to sun room as it can virtually all be seen from the front door. We don't want tiles because we think it will make everywhere too cold (don't want to go the underfloor heating route), and the conservatory has been made into a sun room to hopefully be comfortable enough to use all year round. Laminate flooring can be a bit iffy for a kitchen as it's not properly waterproof and I'm not 100% sure that floor board effect is the way to go - if it was I've seen some cracking vinyl that could easily be mistaken for floorboards.

So we're struggling at the moment to come up with a solution. Decor-wise the house will be more modern and contemporary rather than keeping to any character which was lost when the extensions were done. Any ideas anyone might like to throw our way very welcome.

If you managed to stick with it and read all that, and understand it, well done :rotfl:

lisal0u

latecomer wrote: »

thanks for that, I'll definitely check back later if you are putting up more pics. We have looked at some porcelain tiles but the one I really liked was just too light for our room.

I've finally uploaded them! (http://stuartandlisashouse.blogspot.com/2009/03/bathroom-flood-tiled-3rd-march-2009.html)

Tomsmom - Your tiling looks fab and so does the shower, it really is coming together very nicely!
For your flooring have you considered engineered wood? This is what we are having downstairs including the kitchen. By having it all downstairs we are hoping it makes the place look more open and bigger. We got ours from http://www.carpentersofyork.com/ at £26m2. They do different offers all the time! Maybe a bit far for you to go visit but they do send out samples!

Josepina - I'm now a follower! I look forward to your updates!

Having a bit of a nightmare at the minute with the electrics, trying to make sure they are all inline with the 17th edition wiring regs. I'm hoping we don't have to split the ring main into 2 but its looking likely. 1 step forward and 20 back at the minute! Ah well we will move in one day!

latecomer

@ TM - blog not working at the moment for me, will check it later.

@lisal0u - they look really nice and its amazing the difference between the shots with and without the flash. didn't realise you had a showerbath too. What make/model is it?

surely splitting the ring is a fairly trivial task provided you can get access to the wiring?

I've done nothing this week. Went up into the loft last night to see if I could find where the wires from the extractor isolator switch is going to come up but of course its under the only bit of boarding which has stuff on it and I didn't fancy starting to move everything last night. Will be trying to get home early tonight to get that done and hopefully the channeling for the wiring in the bathroom too.

One thing I did do was check under the bath as part of the silicon I replaced has come off. We have one of those bath sealing strips and I thought there should be enough silicon underneath to stop any leaks even if didn't seal perfectly at the front but its wet so something isn't right. I might try and do it again on saturday as although its going to be replaced pretty soon I want the plaster and wall to get a chance to dry out. 1 step forward........

latecomer

@TomsMum - managed to get to the blog from one of the other links and then navigate to the other posts. still cant get to the home page though?

Anyway the tiles look great. I looked back a few pages to find out what they were called but gave up and decided to ask instead. What are they called?