First-time house renovation

TomsMom

Wickedkitten wrote: »

I'm actually following yours along with pretty much everyone else's via the rss feed which work fine.

Thanks Kitten. Good to know it's working for everyone else too. It must have been a blip but it seems to be OK from my normal way of getting in now. Boy, did I panic :rotfl: . I'll update again in the next day or two and hopefully it wont happen again, but if it does I'll know what to do next time .

latecomer

Well I spent an hour or so trying to break from the channel I chiseled out of the wall through into the loft without damaging the cornice. Couldn't get the drill up all that very far due to the angles. Swapped to small/large screwdriver and eventually managed to get through or so I thought. I'd measured roughly and wasn't near any cables or anything so I wasn't too concerned about the actual location. Big mistake as it turns out. I was certain I should be through the lathe and plaster and hence visible in the loft but I cant find it. I can push the long screwdriver up a reasonable distance so I know I'm not under a beam........

Spend a while pulling back the insulation in the general area and then do what I should have done in the first place and get the measuring tape out. Some more accurate measurements put me rather close to a beam but still cant figure it out. Get OH to go up steps and wiggle the screwdriver and finally it dawns on me. There is a short section where the 2 beams overlap and its come up in the small (approx screwdriver sized of course) space between them. :rolleyes:

Managed to clear a little of the plaster from under the beam and I think I should be able to feed the wire up although this remains to be tested. Thats a job for tomorrow or the weekend, perhaps once I've stocked up on beer :rotfl:

lisal0u

Hi Everyone!

latecomer - Yeah when I took the piccys I thought I had better do both. The one without flash shows the detail a bit better and the one with show the true colour, well almost.

The bath we have is this one: http://www.bathstore.com/_application/bathstore/products/baths/liberty-baths/.
I'm really pleased with it cos its such a nice shape. Looked at lots of them but this was the nicest I thought!

Almost sorted the ring main so we are back to about -1 steps ha ha. It was pretty easy, we just took the cable out from upstairs and pulled the excess out. Just got to put a ring back in upstairs.

Very very angry today though! Waited in for 10 hours for E-On to come and hook the meter up to the new consumer unit and they never turned up. I even rang them at half 3 to confirm they were still coming and they said yes! 6pm came and went so I rang again to be told that my appointment is Monday :mad: They will be getting an angry worded letter and an invoice for my day off too! I've also told them that they can only come between 4-6pm on Monday as I am not taking another day off!

Sorry for the rant! On a good note being at the house for so long meant I almost got the banister stripped!

helping_hubby - Whats your blog address so I can follow?

Hope you all have productive weekends!

lisal0u

Has anyone thought about or installed glass balustrade panels in their staircase? My staircase currently looks like this:


But I would like it to look like this:

I was wondering if I could cut out the square panels and replace with glass? Anyone know who I would need to talk to about having it done or do you think you can buy a kit and do it yourself?

Thanks
Lisa

Josepina

Sorry I've not updated blog for a few days but work has been moving on but I've been very busy and not home much, hopefully we'll catch up over weekend! its so exciting!

TM - I'm thinking similar about hall / kitchen floor....really not sure what I fancy saw previous post about ? amtico looks like tiles
Lisa - stairs look interesting but can't help you contacts
H-Hubby quite like your floor good colour

Got busy weekend ahead as we need to declutter house, move bedrooms and empty loft - we have speedy builders!

Josepina

Just as expected a busy day sorting out cupboards and packing stuff up. The extension will mean we have to empty the loft and we have decided to move into a different bedroom to avoid the dust. I have also decided to pack up as much of our stuff as we can such in the hope that it will be easier to keep clean. It looks a bit like we are about to move out!
I know I should be feeling really excited but today I just feel a bit down, oh well hope everyone else has had a productive day.

KT1985

Haven't posted for ages, sorry... been v busy...

We now have 2 bathrooms which are finished (well, nearly, I have to put one mirror up) and a bedroom which is well on the way. All of the sanitaryware went in a treat, I love our new shower (which leaked like a sieve to start with, but is doing well now) and our steel bath, feel like we got some real bargains

I did all of the tiling myself, and am really pleased with it. Even the plumber was impressed... goes to show that someone as lacking in manual dexterity as me can do it Seriously though, I really enjoyed it,and am looking forward to the next tiling project.

I have hit a snag though. I decided that I wanted a glass block wall for the wal separating the en-suite and master bedroom. Am now regretting it- it looks ok, but I managed to seriously burn my hands on the mortar. i had gloves on for most of the time, but used my fingers to neaten a few bits up after I took the gloves off, and then rinsd them off in the bucket I was using to rinse my sponge in. i have never had pain like it... the skin has now peeled off both hands at least once, I have an open wound on a finger, and a burst blister Moral of the story, wear gloves at all times, it is so not worth it. And, the wall isn't finished. :(

This week I am going to get a chance to lay some laminate, grout the tiles on the window sill, and hopefully take delivery of all of the internal doors

What has everyone else been up to??

K

latecomer

@KT - sounds painful, hope it heals quickly.

@Josepina - looks like they are making good progress and congrats on the rosettes at crufts!

@lisalou - we did consider that exact bath from bathstore but wanted one where the screen wraps a bit further round. OH has a habit of flooding the bathroom so we need as much protection as we can get
No idea about stairs but I would imagine there must be someone who does kits. Failing that you could make it yourself if you get the right tools...

Nothing much to report here. Was at the timber yard on saturday morning to find out whats going on after getting a message on friday to say that they are at a stalemate with the saw mill. The saw mill are refusing to acknowledge there is a problem with the wood and the timber yard have refused to pay the bill until its been resolved. The head of the group was in and was informed of the problem and after inspecting the wood agreed that the bill should not be paid. I've been offered a full refund but they have another supplier who they deal with a lot and they can apparently do it although they were slightly more expensive which is why they were not chosen initially. They wont match the grain either but I'm now at the stage of not caring that much as long as they are good quality.
So I'm going to drop in a sample of the wood at lunchtime and they are going to get them ordered up.:j

Also managed to speak to the architect who apparently hasn't been well but has promised to post us the plans within the next week or so.

Decided we were going to go with travertine for the floor and went into see about ordering it only to be told that their supplier has gone into administration. One branch has enough for our needs but when we phoned were told there was a large colour variation. they are expecting a new supplier in a couple of weeks so we'll just wait and see what theirs is like. the good thing about this place is that for small quantities they will allow us to hand pick the tiles we like so we can ensure we get a good match.

Also found a local supplier of the toilet and basin that we like and have asked if they can match the online price. They also had a really nice tap to go with it which they will be selling as ex-display so we're waiting for prices on these which we should get today.

Final thing we did to stick plastic round the bath. I was going to try and reseal it but as its only for 4 weeks or so OH did see the point. So I took some plastic sheeting and taped it round the tiles to stop the water running down the back. Took the side panel off to let air in underneath and then put a board over the big hole and stuffed rags round the pipes. Hopefully that will allow it to dry out.

Actually it seems that we have been quite busy this weekend

I've got a question about false ceilings but I'm going to post that in a new thread.

lisal0u

Hi Everyone!

Been at the house all weekend but not really a lot to report. Almost got the ring main split into upstairs, downstairs and kitchen, should get it done this week as my Dad is gonna pop after work!

Almost finished stripping the banister. I'd originally bought a polycell version of nitromors thinking they would all do the same job but how wrong was I! It didn't really work taking 3 coats to get the paint off. So after reading on here about nitromors I bought a big tub! Its brilliant, stripped off all the paint and varnish in one coat!

Hoping to be ready for the plasteres to come back and finish this weekend then we can get on with laying the flooring and decorating! They certainly are messy bug*ers! I seem to spend all my time tidying up after them. Plaster gets everywhere, but having watched them do it I can understand why! Still shouldn't stop them clearing up after themselves!

andrew-b - Did you see that they do a straight screen to go across the back of the curved screen? It basically makes it into a shower cubicle. Not cheap though but may be worth looking out for when they have a sale on, which is most of the time!

I think I'm gonna pop to a local glazier and see what they have to say about my stairs. Like you say I might be able to get the glass made and then buy the fixing kits which I have seen on the internet.

latecomer

lisal0u wrote: »

H
andrew-b - Did you see that they do a straight screen to go across the back of the curved screen? It basically makes it into a shower cubicle. Not cheap though but may be worth looking out for when they have a sale on, which is most of the time!

I presume that intended for me. Yeah we saw the full enclosure style ones but preferred the standard one but with a bigger screen. I'm 99% sure we will go with the Pheonix one we like.