First-time house renovation

TomsMom

jamtart6 wrote: »

At work so only quickly read that post TomsMOm but I am exactly the same with interior design - I am freaking out about hating colours and haven't even been to the paint shop yet!

Gotta dash chat properly later

Actually, I'm happy with my choice for the kitchen, it's still a creamy colour but goes nicely with the units and the accent wall down in the dining area. I've just got to find some wall tiles for the kitchen now. We've so little time now as OH's treatment starts mid April and once he's started chances of going out for a day's shopping are not good. Local shop can get tiles but he's quite expensive and doesn't carry many samples.

KT1985

Back- not sure how it went, will find out tomorrow!

Not doing any plastering today, I am worn out from the exertion, lol. Also, need to cook hubby a nice dinner, as he has been away and is probably malnourished:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

robkwal

Not long done my kitchen and found styled kitchens to be a great resource for kitchen worktops, sinks, taps and appliances!

27col

Darn it!!. I was hoping to be the 1000th poster.

BB1984

Can't believe we've got to 1000 posts - well done everyone! Not bad at all for the DIY board. Is post #1000 spam, though? If so, grrrr.

Nothing to report today, other than I got home early and went out into the front garden to do a bit of pruning. Gardening is such a great way to meet the neighbours! Had a good old chin wag with the old lady next door, and the guy who lives opposite came over to introduce himself. Everyone's so happy we cut those trees down!
LC - bummer about the architect, seems very odd that they don't want your custom (but I work with them all the time and they are a funny lot!). But every cloud has a silver lining, and you may find that this was the best thing that could have happened - hopefully you'll get on much better with your new architect.

Right, I've got a headache coming on, early night for me I think...so long!

BB

jamtart6

TomsMom wrote: »

Actually, I'm happy with my choice for the kitchen, it's still a creamy colour but goes nicely with the units and the accent wall down in the dining area. I've just got to find some wall tiles for the kitchen now. We've so little time now as OH's treatment starts mid April and once he's started chances of going out for a day's shopping are not good. Local shop can get tiles but he's quite expensive and doesn't carry many samples.

I can't wait to see the finished pics

Just written my letter to B&Q after their best offer today was £45 off the bath. The manager couldn't even be bothered to ring me himself as he had promised. It is 3 pages long and I'm proud of it :T It is firm but fair, and I praise the good staff and slate the bads ones equally. I have outlined my concerns and also 8 action points that I think they should act on (including staff training of managers )Hopefully we will get a better outcome than £45.

Edit to add: We are still sending the whole thing bath hence why the £45 off the bath isn't covering what I would have hoped

Had the kitchen quote £6500 :eek: all applicances in that though (dishwasher, cooker, sink, fridge) and I know they are good quality. That is for vinyl OR solid timber he said he would do either at the same price. Am I wrong to think thats slightly high for a room that is 6 square meters? I don't know as it is the first quote (cupboards on 2 walls too)

TomsMom

jamtart6 wrote: »

Just written my letter to B&Q after their best offer today was £45 off the bath. The manager couldn't even be bothered to ring me himself as he had promised.

That's really poor. I hope your letter brings about a better outcome.

Had the kitchen quote £6500 :eek: all applicances in that though (dishwasher, cooker, sink, fridge) and I know they are good quality. That is for vinyl OR solid timber he said he would do either at the same price. Am I wrong to think thats slightly high for a room that is 6 square meters? I don't know as it is the first quote (cupboards on 2 walls too)

Depends on where you've gone for your units, what the quality is like, what type of worktop, make of appliances, etc.

I've had:

13 Base units: 2 x 300mm, 4 x 400mm, 2 x 600mm, 1 x 1000mm, 1 x 1000mm corner unit, 1 x 500mm drawer unit, 1 x 900mm pan drawer unit, 1 x 600mm mid height oven housing.

3 Wall units: 1 x 500mm, 1 x 400mm, 1 x 1000mm.

Workstops: 3 lengths good quality laminated

These came to approx £3,300. They are price band 3 in a range of 1-5. They are very nice quality, backs are either 12mm or 15mm (can't remember), soft close doors and drawers, solid wood doors with wood veneer panel, matching carcasses (as in backs, interior and sides).

We ended up having to buy an extra length of worktop plus some decor end panels which weren't included originally (shop owner who designs kitchens doesn't really have a clue :rolleyes: ).

My appliances are:

90cm cooker hood
Built under larder fridge
Gas on glass hob
Dishwasher
Double oven (gas)

These came to approx £1,500. Most of them have a 5 year parts and labour guarantee.

Sink bought separately, it's a good quality Franke at £260. Tap was a nice quality freebie .

My flooring was bought separately and we got the local supplier down from £18.90 per sq metre (not fitted) to £14 per sq. metre by telling him that Armstrong's website said the retail price is between £14-16 (he didn't like that and said he was going to complain to Armstrong about price fixing!).

Some mine comes to £5,060 plus extra worktop and panels (don't know how much yet) plus flooring. I expect the total will be nearer £5,300/£5,400. Blimey, I wish I hadn't added all that up now. I'm not telling OH :rotfl: .

So how does that compare to what you've been quoted for? How many units are you having, how many lengths and what type of worktop.

My wall units were put up today. We're going to clean them all up tomorrow and start moving some of our kitchen cupboard contents over. I'll get OH to take the cardboard off the worktops (keeping them covered while decorator is in so he doesn't use the worktops or sink) and take some photos and update the blog. Can't do the dining end yet as decorator is concentrating on bedrooms and loft at the moment.

jamtart6

thanks for the info I suppose not bad actually compared to ours 2 larger corner units with 2 doors on , 6 wall units, stove, one and a half cooker, hood, fridge, dishwasher, - all middle of the road to cheap (we can upgrade) can't work out the exact measurements from the scribble. perhaps still a tad on the expensive side

ETA: Bosch dishwasher, bosch fridge, blanco sink

latecomer

I have to say I noticed we were at 999 replies and was going to post just to break the 1000 barrier but couldn't bring myself to do it.

On the house front not much has happened. I've taped and filled the joins in the boards and spent last night sanding them back a little. I'm hoping to put on the last layer of joint plaster tonight and hopefully it will start looking better. Actually it doesn't look that bad unless you are up the ladders but using the proper trowel to do it (only got one size and it was too big for filling in the tapered bits). Will also maybe take some tiles off the wall too but that depends on how long the rest of it takes.

No reply back from the new architect to my email asking if there were interested. hopefully it doesn't mean that they are not.

jamtart6

latecomer wrote: »

I have to say I noticed we were at 999 replies and was going to post just to break the 1000 barrier but couldn't bring myself to do it.

On the house front not much has happened. I've taped and filled the joins in the boards and spent last night sanding them back a little. I'm hoping to put on the last layer of joint plaster tonight and hopefully it will start looking better. Actually it doesn't look that bad unless you are up the ladders but using the proper trowel to do it (only got one size and it was too big for filling in the tapered bits). Will also maybe take some tiles off the wall too but that depends on how long the rest of it takes.

No reply back from the new architect to my email asking if there were interested. hopefully it doesn't mean that they are not.

If you are in the NW I would happily reccommend our architect, he was very good and cheap.

Regarding the plasterboard - do you fill the gaps with something like polyfilla then tape them? We don't know what to do next (nor have asked the Dad's yet!)! Our plasterer said he would tidy up the bathroom, so is it worth filling the gaps or just letting him skim over it?