First-time house renovation

TomsMom

Jamtart - I'm so pleased that you can get your dream bath after all. Do push for extra discount for "inconvenience and unacceptably lengthy wait". This is what we did with Wickes when the tiles for the en-suite were (a) not enough sent, (b) missing ones didn't have matching batch codes, (c) wrong batch codes sent for a second time, (d) got them eventually but 19 days after promised "next day delivery". We suggested that this was unacceptable and the customer service guy unreservedly agreed. OH haggled on the amount of discount and eventually agreed on a figure acceptable to both parties.

Shimmyhill

We have hung the new radiator in the bedroom, but thats as far as we got - so many other little things came up and that was another day gone !!

Incidentally we had 2 radiators delivered from wickes - both had slight damage to them, looked like scratched when lifted by a forklift or something. Negotiated £40 discount and will just need to touch the paint up on them - nice saving but hassle i could have done without !!!

Josepina

Jamtart - Glad you finally sorted your bath out!
I went out looking at kitchens yesterday and now don't know what to do.
I have a kitchen and will have a utility room when extension is finished. The plan was to do utility room (cheap) first then use it as temp kitchen while I refit real kitchen which I expect will be more costly. The thing is the existing kitchen units are quite nice and still being sold in Wickes with added bonus of 40% off so 1 idea is to use existing kitchen units in utility room buying the extras we need to complete it in Wickes sale. This will save us lots of money! but will put pressure on to complete the kitchen which I'm not sure we can afford straight after extension. Also has anyone ever re used kitchen units? Are they likely to fall apart? Would I just be able to leave worksurface in kitchen to make it still useable and remove pressure of rushing to finish it? MMM my heads spinning!

jamtart6

thanks TomsMom - I had to get to the bottom of it because (a) I knew I hadn't pointed the wrong one out and (b) the woman in the shop was very knowlegable and helpful and very unlikely to have made a mistake, so I was blaming the supplier! At least now I know the story and the ladies in the shop backed me up 100%. (I might also mention they drew on the toilet cistern in green marker pen so thats going back too :rolleyes:).

Shimmyhill - well done for your £40 discount

Josephina - No idea what to suggest re: kitchen units, but I would say don't put the extra monetary pressure on yourself as you are unlikely to be happy with the result if you compromise because of price

Other news: I have selected a plumber (after seeing 6) and have negotiated the price, just need to negotiate a start date. I can't wait to get it done as it is beginning to bug me!

KT1985

Not much to update here really, I wish there was.

We have finished the bathrooms now, and I am really pleased with the finished result.

One bedroom is decorated and the floor is down- not really happy with the laminate I bought as it doesn't seem to click together properly, but looks ok now it is down.

I plastered a wall on Saturday, I am happy. I was trying to skim over a nasty textured wall (artex type stuff) and I think it is basically smooth, so will eventually, one day, paint it and it will be done

I am supposed to plastering the rest of the room today, but have a dreadful sore throat, so might have a prep/tidying day at the rented house.

Something exciting- I have a job interview tomorrow, so all of this housestuff may soon hve to sidelined...

andrew-b

Shimmyhill wrote: »

Incidentally we had 2 radiators delivered from wickes - both had slight damage to them, looked like scratched when lifted by a forklift or something. Negotiated £40 discount and will just need to touch the paint up on them - nice saving but hassle i could have done without !!!

From comments i saw on the wickes website that sounds like a common problem of being badly packaged. Hopefully Quinn aren't palming wickes off with all their damaged ones!! You'll probably chip them yourself sooner or later but it's annoying buying new goods that are damaged before you've had a chance to damage them yourself! Still at least they compensated you. We all seem to be moaining and getting compensation for things at the moment - would be nice for a change if we didn't have to!!

I've decided to go with a stelrad compact for the bedroom probably from discountedheating as wickes don't do P+ style that i'm after. I need to work out what to do about our kitchen radiator that's too small. I need to drain down the whole system soon anyway as it's been running a couple of weeks with sentinel sludge remover in.

Andy

andrew-b

jamtart6 wrote: »

I had to get to the bottom of it because (a) I knew I hadn't pointed the wrong one out and (b) the woman in the shop was very knowlegable and helpful and very unlikely to have made a mistake, so I was blaming the supplier!

However you look at it B&Q screwed up! I wouldn't have been so forgiving myself and would have gone elsewhere long ago. Still at least you've found a plumber to actually install it!

Andy

andrew-b

KT1985 wrote: »

I plastered a wall on Saturday, I am happy. I was trying to skim over a nasty textured wall (artex type stuff) and I think it is basically smooth, so will eventually, one day, paint it and it will be done

Well done...i wouldn't even attempt plastering anything wider than my trowel myself and patching up existing surfaces is much more difficult than starting with a blank piece of plasterboard! Whatever you do don't paint any of it with International 3in1!
Feel free to post your bathroom pictures so was can have [STRIKE]nose[/STRIKE] look. I need some inspiration to get beyond the 3in1 fiasco! Good luck with the job interview

Andy

latecomer

michelle183 wrote: »

I purchased manufactured in Germany which comes with a 5 yr guaretee i paid the supplier for the kitchen in full. The supplier has now dissolved his kitchen company and he has not paid the manufacturer for my kitchen even though i paid him. The company i bought the kitchen from did not accept payment my credit card so i used my switch card do the German manufacturers still need to honour their 5 year guarentee to me even though the company did not pass on my payment to them.

i would be grateful for some advice.

I have no idea but you are far more likely to get replies if you post a new thread. Was the company you ordered from in the UK?

latecomer

Jamtart - Result on the bath:j:j. Just shows its worth persevering sometimes. Good luck on getting an extra discount for the trouble caused

@Shimmyhill - everything we get delivered seems to be damaged in transit. It annoys the hell out of me. At least its only some cosmetic damage.

@Josepina - reusing the units will be fine as long as they are not damaged. Work surface could be reused provided you are having exactly the same layout.

@KT - sounds like you are making loads of progress. Need to get some pics up for use to admire!. Good luck with the interview!

We've had a busy weekend. Had the inlaws over for the weekend and the plan of work was
1. stripdown and replace all wood around bathroom window (mouldy and badly
fitted)
2. board over the bathrooms ceiling
3. remove floorboards and put in new section of joist.
4. Get some/all of the new floor down
5. inspect replacement skirting boards


Started off on friday night bu removing the wooden facings off around the window. Badly fitted and mouldly, hence the desire to replace them. Got as far as the boards around the actual window and got stuck as it appears that at least some of them were fitted before the window was. Didn't feel brave enough to try and remove the whole window as it looked like it would need disassembled to be removed. Decided to try and sand all the wood instead and if it came up ok we would keep it. A couple of hours of sanding later and the wood looks pretty good so its staying. All the other wood gets cleaned up and put back on. Its now early afternoon.....

Forgot to mention we had the replacement skirting boards delivered along with the ply wood, plaster board and joist. Shame they only brought 5 out of the original 10 boards back so we've not got 9/14 and hence no idea how many replacements we'll need. I've sent the manager an email this morning.....
Also learned not to take OH's word for measurements as the bathroom is in fact 2.45m long, not 2.4 which can present a problem when the boards are 2.4m long........

Anyway remove the light in the bathroom and find that the wiring is in steel conduit and the wires are firmly stuck. End up having to cut the conduit from the light fitting to free the wires and at the back of mind I'm sure I've seen another bit of conduit heading to where the pull switch is located......but I choose to ignore that for now

Finally get the plasterboard cut to size and ready to go up. Its amazing how difficult it can be to get a 2.4x1.2m board up to ceiling height even with 4 people (albeit 2 of them short!) Get there in the end and get it fastened up. We cut the second board and make an attempt to get it up but its just too tight due to the walls not being straight so has to come back down. Everyone has had enough by this point and we call it a night.

In the morning its decided that the bath should be removed to make getting the other board up. All sorts of issues ensue including MIL not being well (seems to have caught tummy bug that nephew had during the week). Finally get the board up and fastened and the in-laws leave. Over the rest of the day the vinyl and ply floor is taken up and I removed one of the floor boards to determine the location of the joists. Cut the grass to get out of the house for a while. Then cut the remaining bits of plasterboard and get them up. Finally start filling and taping the joints. Mix what turns out to be a rather large amount of joint filler which thankfully is workable for about an hour. Get all the joints and gaps filled just in time for the rest of the plaster to set just as I start the taping. Typical! Clean out bucket and mix a small amount to get it finished. Doesn't actually look that bad. Will need to fill again tonight and see about sanding it once its dried.