First-time house renovation

Shimmyhill

Completed the insulation mission last night - Just !!

Started on the garden too, weather has been glorious over the weekend so have cut the front lawn and some of the back (lead isnt long enough on the Flymo !!!!!!!)

jamtart6

My bath came!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :j

11 weeks after I ordered it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:j

Why am I not happy?

Because the holes for the taps are in the wrong place :mad:

So it has to go back

Boo :rolleyes:

Done nothing else on the house all week, we are both slightly cheesed off as we haven't seen any progress, and the bath has just annoyed me! Hopefully get some more stuff done this week :cool:


Edit: TomsMom, I am so sorry to hear of your OH's illness. It is an awful disease which I am also seeing in close family at the moment, my thoughts are with you. It makes holes in the bath seem so inconsequential doesn't it. Wish you both the best of luck. Where abouts are you in the country? We could have an MSE decorate party for you xx

11thcommandment

latecomer wrote: »

Anyone know an approximate cost for good quality oak skirting boards?

Its either that or just paint them all white once more

Hi Latecomer, We went through hoops to find the cheapest good quality Oak skirting. Eventually called local wood place (Huws Gray) and got a bulk price on 125x18mm bevel edge, 70Meters at £8 p/m.

As for maintenance, we don't doing it so applied 2 coats of Danish oil before fitting and touched up the areas that were plugged after screwing to the wall. Using Danish oil means we can invisibly touch up any damaged areas and they never need repainting due to looking "grubby".

latecomer

I'm going to have to start on the garden too but thats going to involve being at home and without higher priority stuff so........ maybe next year

We're going to order our bath tonight so fingers crossed we dont have the same problems. Also need to see about whether the tile place has managed to get a new supplier for their travertine.

TomsMom

Hope you all had a good weekend and those of you that were working managed to do all you planned.

Josepina You must be excited to see your extension taking shape. Do take advantage of going shopping with your builder - we saved a lot of money that way and got some quality stuff at good prices.

Shimmyhill Hope things went well with taking the roof off the bays and glad that your weekend weather was as good as ours. Nothing worse than rain when the slates are off!

latecomer Hope you had a nice time in Bham. That's where we're from originally and we went back in January when all the snow was around for a surprise family get together for my mom's birthday.

jamtart6 Oh, what can I say? How disappointing for you after the long wait. What will they do now? I'd be tempted to tell them I'd waited long enough and go elsewhere.

I hope I haven't missed anyone out.

We got the pendant light glass changed on Friday and picked up a spotlight bar for the kitchen extension bit. Didn't realise we needed something for the sun room too :rolleyes: but not to worry, there's an e-bay seller with ones that match the kitchen one at half the price :eek: (wish we'd known that before we went, but we went not having anything definite in mind so it was spur of the moment).

We've found some vinyl for the kitchen floor too which should go well with the light oak cabinets and the "black granite" laminate worktop. We also found some vinyl for the bathroom in the coffee colour which you can see if you click to enlarge the image (if it works). You might remember we were definite we didn't want a tiled floor, especially in the bathroom as I don't relish cold feet for middle of the night visits to the loo! We're happy with the compromise - easy care and the look of tiles but a lot warmer.

Over the weekend OH finished all 7 of the upstairs doors with two coats of Polyx Oil - they've turned out really nice. He hasn't taken any photos of them yet. The other 4 doors wont be put on until the builders have finished. If anyone is thinking of waxing/oiling any doors, this Polyx Oil is really good - goes on easily, brush or cloth, wipe over and Bob's your uncle. It's a hard wax oil and supposed to be very durable.

Builders have another day or two's work, they should finish the job by Wednesday. Then they are giving us another 5 working days FOC to do the kitchen and any other jobs we want. The kitchen was delivered today, I think the appliances and worktops are coming tomorrow.

Petros the painter came back with his quote today - blimey :eek: . We had no idea what to expect as we've never had to have a decorator before but he does come highly recommended and I don't think he charges any more than any other tradesman who is experienced in his craft. He thinks it will take 15-18 days altogether and there is a lot of work so looks like our retirement pot will be even more depleted now! Still, needs must and we've got to get in. At least we're lucky that his next job is flexible so he can fit us in quickly.

jamtart6

Hi TomsMom - well I left OH in charge of sorting B&Q out, they said "we will re-order it for you, but there is a wait, is it only slightly offset?" (no its at least 20cm away from the middle!!)...so instead of kicking up a fuss, he just said "OK, thank you" :rolleyes: So I'll be ringing them back tomorrow;). We're still not in a rush (thank god) but it is a bit ridiculous!

Glad your painter is able to fit you in, must be a weight off your mind?

I love the floors, both are REALLY nice. The slate look one is similar to our bathroom floor, very nice :T I like the kitchen one too, nice colour, a lot of wood is orangey isn't it.

We have lost our way on the house at the moment. Need to sort the heating out but its such hard descisions with conflicting advice that we are confused so putting it off :oIwant to get onto the fun part like painting asap!!

Here is a pic of the bath disaster http://libertycottage.blogspot.com/

TomsMom

jamtart6 wrote: »

Hi TomsMom - well I left OH in charge of sorting B&Q out, they said "we will re-order it for you, but there is a wait, is it only slightly offset?" (no its at least 20cm away from the middle!!)...so instead of kicking up a fuss, he just said "OK, thank you" :rolleyes: So I'll be ringing them back tomorrow;). We're still not in a rush (thank god) but it is a bit ridiculous!

Here is a pic of the bath disaster http://libertycottage.blogspot.com/

OMG - that would do my head in :rotfl: .

Is the waste in the middle on the same side? If so, will it be possible to get your taps in the middle?

Our bath has the waste in the middle but not on the side attached to the wall where you'd want the taps. After discussion with the builders they said the opposite side to the waste wasn't wide enough to fix the taps (and they are VERY heavy Bristan taps which the builder who fixed them moaned "why do they make them so heavy, they'd be too heavy for some of the thinner baths") so ours were put on the corner (third picture here).

Thanks for the comments about the flooring. The bathroom one (the coffee coloured) is actually tile effect not wood effect, rectangular ones rather than square. You can't see it until you can see more but I couldn't find another picture. I know a lot of people don't like vinyl, I don't find it a problem and there are some very nice ones about but they can be quite pricey (and not just Karndean and Amtico!).

jamtart6

it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks of vinyl - if you like it, go for it!! i think it looks nice, and i know what you mean about cold tile floors in the night!!

Ah, yes the waste is in the middle if you can see it on the picture on my blog, hmm maybe the taps are going to be too heavy or something, but it was NOT like that in the shop or the brochure!

latecomer

@11thcommandment - thanks for that. I've tried to convince the OH we should maybe just give up on the Douglas Fir but its a non-starter at the moment. Will need to see what next week brings once the manager of the timber yard is back.

@TM - bathroom looks fanastic and I really hope ours turns out so well. I personally like vinyl provided it doesn't look cheap and as you say its a hell of a lot warmer underfoot. The 2 you have picked look lovely.

@jamtart - its amazing how much people can screw up something simple and dont understand when you refuse to accept it.

We put off ordering the bath until we can find a bath tap/shower mixer that we both like to see if we cant get them from the same place. OH is going to go and look at the one we liked before as niether of us can remember the name of it. I think it will go quite well with the basin tap but there is definitely no harm in having another look.

Also just had confirmation that the guy is coming to quote on the stove installation tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed its a good price after all this waiting. If we get that done then we will almost have one room done, only the curtains and those damn skirting boards will be left to do

Spicey

Hi all, Ive missed loads of pages must read back and see what youve all been up to. We been very busy on bungalow so I decided to take a catch up day today. Youll be pleased to see Ive started the blog. Enjoy!:j
http://spice-villa.blogspot.com/

Ive got more photos to put on that show the progress. Wil catch up again soon.