First-time house renovation

lisal0u

Hi Latecomer,

Sorry that was meant for you! Currently doing battle with E-On over there failed appointment and I can't think straight ha ha! They have put me through to the compensation department though! Fingers crossed I'll get my days leave paid for!

BB1984

Hello, sorry I haven't been online for a few days - been busy!
Last week we took a day off work and went to Ikea to buy some new furniture - we moved from a semi-furnished one bedroom flat to our 3-bed, so didn't have anywhere to put any clothes...! Spent a small fortune but came home with 2 bedside tables, 1 large (tall boy) chest of drawers, 1 normal-sized chest of drawers, a wardrobe, a shelving unit-type thing, a floor-standing bathroom cabinet, a futon for the 3rd bedroom, a kitchen stool/steps, 2 standard lamps, and various other bits and bobs. David then spent the whole of Friday putting it all together! And then we spent most of the weekend arranging all our belongings into their new homes. Fun fun fun!
Saturday was a DIY non-event as I was out all day being measured up for my wedding dress (eek!). However we do have both our new doors fitted now, which is great - still haven't decided on door knobs yet though.

KT - what type of mortar were you using?! I've had mortar on my hands loads of times but never had that happen...!

BB

TomsMom

Wow - you have all been very busy.

Josepina - hope your feeling a bit more "up" now. I think we all have days when we feel a bit down.

KT - hope your hands are healing well now. Well done on the tiling. Any pictures?

I've got so many blogs I'm following, I'm beginning to get confused. I really must label them all with your forum names!

Latecomer - very naughty of the original timber supplier to not take responsibility. Hope you get sorted with this next supplier. Great that you can hand pick your tiles, no disappointments to be had there then. It will be good if you can get your local supplier to price match your sanitary ware - fingers crossed. We've done this with our local supplier - we always add in what we would have to pay in P+P to make it a fair comparison and, where he can he's matched. With our kitchen appliances (five altogether I think) he was £20 more expensive but we went with him as we know we'll get satisfaction if anything goes wrong and it can be dealt with quickly.

Andrew - it's amazing the difference plastering makes, it begins to look like a room again rather than a building site! We've also got a lot of window frames to clean up. Looking forward to the pictures. Now let me think .......... errrrr........ have you got a blog?

Lisa - OH uses Nitromors, smelly but good! You should be able to get your glass made, no problem. We had a glass top made to go on a chest of drawers, safety glass with rounded corners then they polished all the edges. Lovely job. I expect there's a minimum thickness of safety glass for stairs which I'm sure they can supply. Hope you get sorted with Eon.

Not much to report. We were out on Friday getting more bits and pieces that are needed. OH has taken some photos and I will get around to updating the blog perhaps tonight.

One question for you all which we and the builders have different opinions on.

Do any of you know what I mean when I say quadrant tiles to seal around the edges of showers and baths?

My mum had these put on 35 years ago. The builders want us to have them. OH and I think they are old fashioned and we prefer the clean lines and more modern look of tiling down to the shower tray and a line of silicone. Builders want to use them because it's more "insurance" against shower leaking, silicone behind, quadrant tiles, seal round with silicone again. Our present shower has been in use for about 13 years with just silicone and we've not had a leak, nor has it gone mouldy (another of their arguments against just silicone) as I clean down and wipe off shower when I've finished.

What do you think? Would love to hear your opinions.

Beth - you snuck in whilst I was typing my message! Bet you had a lovely time spending your money - I bought a red casserole for my new kitchen and a tea and sugar canister in red (they only had one wobbly coffee one, I'll have to go back for that). Not as exciting as your shopping trip. Oh, I did get a roll of wallpaper for the feature wall in the dining area. Shame the red flower isn't quite the same as the sample, it's slightly more orangey than in the picture but hope it still goes with our pendant light!

latecomer

@andy - good work on the blog

@tomsmum - I have to say I have no idea what quadrant tiles are but surely if its all done properly then it shouldn't leak. If you dont want them then stick to your guns

I took some pictures before the first plasterer came but cant find them anywhere on the PC. I'm going to have a look on the OH's laptop but I'm not very hopeful. Blog might need to take a fast forward to the present day.

On a slighty better note, I phoned the bathroom place we went to at the weekend and I had asked whether they could match the online price for our suite. She hadn't managed to get the prices sorted out but phoned me back a few minutes later to say that they couldn't offer any better price than discussed due to the contract with the manufacturer. We were looking at a tap which was going to be sold as ex-demo and she said that it would be discounted to £100 but if we went for the suite she would through it in for free. Got her to give me the figures again and she gave me a different price to the one we got at the weekend. I asked her to check and then she said that she'd also added on a softclose seat which comes as standard and hence the price should be less. Price is now only £30 more than online price but includes a nice tap which the cheapest price we could find for it was £90. And they are local so if there is any problems we can go and see them.

Need to check about delivery charge and discuss with OH but I think I'll be ordering it tomorrow. Watch this space!

TomsMom

andrew-b wrote: »

As in one like this: http://bungalow-diy.blogspot.com/ ? :j

Work in progress - i'm backdating posts to 2006! Unfortunately I didn't take enough pictures...but that's all changing!

Andy

:T Oh Andy, you've made my day :j

I'm off to have a good read and look forward to seeing lots of photos!

KT1985

It was Wickes Glass Block mortar- it did have a warning on it

TomsMom

latecomer wrote: »

@tomsmum - I have to say I have no idea what quadrant tiles are but surely if its all done properly then it shouldn't leak. If you dont want them then stick to your guns

Quadrant tiles are edging tiles which are fixed between the top of the shower tray/bath and the wall tiles. This is the nearest I can find, top picture, but that is a corner one. The straight ones are sort of triangle shaped with a slightly rounded outer edge. I think the lack of information or places that sell them if you google supports my suggestion that they are old fashioned. The modern equivalent I would say is the plastic bath trim but we don't like that either.

I did ask the builder how he'd sealed the shower tray in the main bathroom which they are using at the moment, and there's no tiles in there yet just the tanking, and it's just been sealed in with silicone. I said in that case if that hasn't leaked then I can't see why the en-suite shower should leak and that I trust them completely to have sealed it in just the same!

So, we stuck to our guns and the shower was used for the first time tonight. Between now and when they leave it will have been used many times so it will be well and truly tested for leaks :rotfl: . By the way, our son never uses anything other than silicone and he's never been called back to a leaking shower yet!

Price is now only £30 more than online price but includes a nice tap which the cheapest price we could find for it was £90. And they are local so if there is any problems we can go and see them.

Need to check about delivery charge and discuss with OH but I think I'll be ordering it tomorrow. Watch this space!

:T That's the way to do it! A good price and a local supplier, great combination!

lisal0u

Afternoon,

Just had a catch up on the blogs and added you Andy! Your pup is lovely! I think as soon as we get moved in we will be getting a puppy. Stuart wants a minature schnauser and I want a labrador so not sure who's gonna win that one!

We could do with a list with everyone blogs on again so that I can check I'm following everyones! I think I've added mine as a signature!

Wasn't getting anywhere with E-On so found an email for the managing director and emailed him yesterday. Got a phone call this morning from his PA to sort it all out. He was very helpful, just a shame I had to go to the top to get them to sort it out. I now have a 2 hour appointment after work (Originally they didn't exist only 8am-6pm ones) on the 27th March and the managing directors office number!

Tomsmom - That wallpaper is lovely! Is it the same one thats in the Orange advert with the witch? I can't wait to see how you decorate it all. I might have to steal some ideas as you will have finished wll before me at this rate!

Lisa

latecomer

Afternoon everyone!

Got everything confirmed for our bathroom quote over the phone and have now ordered it. I've just realised that the place we are going to get the bath from charges £39 for delivery if the order is under £499 (which it will be) but even then they are still the cheapest.

Also watching a tap on ebay which we dont need due to the deal on the ex-demo one but its under £10 at the moment so I'm going to try and get it anyway as it would be ideal for showerroom upstairs.

This is the ex-demo tap we are going to get:

http://www.hudson-reed-taps.co.uk/hudson_reed_kia_monobloc_basin_mixer__sprung_basin_waste=KIA-PT305.htm

The square base and round lever and spout go really well with the basin.

Got to say its frightening how easily the money goes when you start looking at things like bathrooms. Last time we did a bathroom the whole thing, including electric shower, suite and tiles was about £600 although to be fair it was a cheap B&Q suite so hopefully this will be a little step up both aesthetically and in quality

@lisal0u - why not get one of each

We would love a puppy but thats another matter altogether. For now we'll have to settle for playing with other peoples

@ TM - ok I know what you mean. We had used the plastic bath trims the when doing the baths in the flats but this time we are just going to tile down to the bath and then seal with silicon as I prefer that look as I think the plastic trim looks a bit cheap. Of course as I'm not doing the tiling this may all change

TomsMom

lisal0u wrote: »

Tomsmom - That wallpaper is lovely! Is it the same one thats in the Orange advert with the witch? I can't wait to see how you decorate it all. I might have to steal some ideas as you will have finished wll before me at this rate!

Lisa

Lisa, I haven't seen the Orange advert, I'll look out for it.

I think we're going to have to start looking for a decorator now, as OH had some bad news at the hospital today. His treatment has to recommence and will be more invasive this time. They want the new treatment to start before the end of the month and we wont even have moved in. There will be just white on all the replastered rooms so until we can get a decorator in it will have to stay like that. The two bedrooms will need wallpapering, probably paintable paper as we have patterned duvets so don't want to have a pattern on the wall to clash. So it might be a while before I can actually show off any decorating.

Re E-on - go girl! Glad you're getting it sorted, just shows what going to the top does!