First-time house renovation

lisal0u

Hi Everyone,

Just had a quick catch up! Glad to see you are all working hard!

TomsMom - I hope your husband is ok and that the treatment isn't too hard on him! I'm sure having a lovely house to live in will definately help! Need to have a catch up woth your blog to see your flooring! Working really does get in the way!

jamtart6 - How annoying about your bath! That really is appalling! If you dont get anwhere I can highly reccomend writing to the managing director. I did that with E-On and got the PA ring me the next morning and sort it all out. Just annoying that you have to go to the top to get the service you always should get!

Josepina - Your renovation is looking good and they are cracking on! I'm loving keeping up to date with the progress!

latecomer - I really want to start on my garden too! I bought a mini greenhouse so I could grow a few things to cut down costs a bit. Kept getting told off for not doing jobs in the house though :-( Hope you get a good quote for your stove!

Spicey - Yey another blog to add to my list! I think I'm gonna need to become part time so I can keep up with everyone!

Not a lot to report from this weekend. We have however finally finished the consumer unit :j . Just got a few time consuming little jobs to do then the plasterers can come back! I bet they think we've got someone else in as its taking so long!

The plumber came back and replaced the outside waterpipe so we are now lead free.

I'm having a change of heart on the kitchen which is making Stuart pull his hair out! We we're originally gonna go for light ash units from Ikea (Askhome I think) with a black granite work surface. The trouble I have is that the floor is a darkish oak and I think thats too many colours! What do you think? I am now thinking white gloss units with a wooden work surface which would tie in with the floor. Arghhh there are too many decisions!

latecomer

@spicey - good work on the blog thats a proper old back boiler you have there!

@lisal0u - whats the mini-greenhouse like? Any pics? I really fancy growing some of our own stuff but not sure where to start.

lisal0u

Hi Latecomer,

Its this one http://www.dobbies.co.uk/acatalog/gardman-4-tier-mini-greenhouse-08715.html but I got it from the range for £20.

I still need to germinate the seeds inside as its not warm enough outside but it will be handy when they are potted on!

I'm thinking of subscribing to a gardening magazine for ideas and even looked at courses in gardening and design. I'm so excited about having a garden to sit in as I've lived in an upstairs flat for 8 years!

jamtart6

the bath saga continues!

B&Q have rang us back to say "this is how the bath is supposed to be" - apparently it is offset in the catalogue, but not in the shop display (which is apparently a spa bath thing).

When we ordered I said "we want that bath without the spa things" and pointed to the bath so as far as I was concerned it was supposed to have the taps in the middle - as in identical to the bath I am pointing to, without the spa things.

Is this just a misunderstanding or do I have a justifiable right to feel as though I've been completely missold the bath!?

Sorry for boring you all with the bath!!

lisalou - love the mini greenhouse, think I might have to invest!!

latecomer

It is a bit of both but there probably isn't much that can be done. B&Q will buy them in with the holes ready cut and hence its probably a case of take it or leave it. You could ask whether the spa bath comes with the spa holes ready cut and if not then ask whether its possible to get one of those instead?

jamtart6

latecomer wrote: »

It is a bit of both but there probably isn't much that can be done. B&Q will buy them in with the holes ready cut and hence its probably a case of take it or leave it. You could ask whether the spa bath comes with the spa holes ready cut and if not then ask whether its possible to get one of those instead?

I'm quite miffed about the whole lot of messing (including my own oversight!). I might ask if we can have a spa bath at the same price Will keep you posted!

latecomer

Why not. nothing to lose by asking

helping_hubby

Hello everyone,

Good to see a fair bit of progress going on.

@jamtart - I think the offset would annoy me. Shame it's meant to be like that. Bit wierd I think. Keep us posted.

@tomsmom - very sorry about your OH. I know I don't know you really, but send on my best wishes anyway

I think I'm overworking. I keep coming down ill...after lots of deductions I think it must be the stress of the house, so I've agreed with OH to have 1 day off each weekend.

I'm at that point now where I haven't updated the blog much as it's similar to others where it's just minor changes and I think people won't be interested in a bit of painted skirting I stuck a piccy of my architrave as I am very proud of that - did it all myself. And my bunnies cos they are cute.

Hope you all have nice mothers days those of you that are mums. I've got both sets of parents coming to mine for dinner

TomsMom

Well, we're almost there! Two of our builders finished today, three are coming back next week to fit the kitchen and finish off painting the undercoat inside but there's not that much to do.

There's been a bit of a hiccup with the kitchen. We didn't realise "integrated" wasn't the same as "built under" when we ordered the fridge so when it came to sorting the units out today it was realised we'd got the wrong one. The kitchen has come from a small independent local DIY/home centre and the owner designs the kitchen (but not very well, we ended up designing it ourselves). I asked him to make sure that the appliance doors would fit the dishwasher and fridge that we'd ordered but he just went ahead and ordered the ones we'd said without checking. So both our faults really but he's having the fridge back and the correct one should come on Tuesday. They also sent one wrong base unit which will have to go back and be replaced.

Apart from that everything else seems to be OK except that the builders have advised us to take the sink back to Wickes as they don't reckon it's very good quality, the bottom of the sink flexes quite a bit when given a push and they're worried it wouldn't stand up to, say, a saucepan being dropped into it - not that I'm in the habit of doing that but accidents do happen (don't ask me how many glasses of OJ I manage to knock over or how many glasses I drop in the sink ). So we're on the lookout for a better quality sink for the kitchen, we'll keep the one Wickes sink for the utility as that wont get so much use. I've seen a Franke one I like, just got to get it at the right price now .

The electricians should be coming on Monday to fit the remaining lights, bathroom fan, test everything and give us whatever paperwork we have to have.

The vinyl for the kitchen and bathroom is being delivered on Tuesday although we're not getting that shop's fitters to lay it, they're right miserable so and so's and didn't make a very good job of our present kitchen. Both rooms are basically rectangles so no tricky bits other than the architrave in the bathroom but our son has a special saw to take just enough of the bottom to lay the vinyl underneath.

We've been given our marching orders to leave our present place which we sold and have been renting back from the new owners. We have to be out by mid-April so have about 3 weeks or so to try and organise the decorator and possibly the carpets. Not sure we'll get it all done in time as the decorator wants 15-18 working days but we can live without carpets for a while.

Have a good weekend everyone, hope you all manage to do everything you've planned.

Josepina

Hi all, well a busy week for me at work and it was so nice to have a lie in this morning - luckily the builders take the weekends off!
The work is progressing nicely with the fab weather. The walls are built up to the first floor and yesterday they fitted the joists which will form the upstairs floor
I found some of the old joists which they had removed in the skip and so I got OH to pull them out, I'm hoping to be able to use them to build a raised bed for growing veggies.
JamTart - I got cheapo seed propagors for Aldi, not heated or anything posh 5 for about £2.50 if you don't go with a green house. I've got tomatoes chillis peppers herbs and marigolds popping up in them now. They also do a long one that fits on windowsils which is handy.
TM I like the look of the vinyl i might consider something like that
I'm also off to Home Renovation show at NEC tomorrow mainly to check out folding sliding doors and underfloor heating but I'm bound to get loads more ideas for things I want.
Have fun all Happy Mothers Day