Your successes, your failures?

golfergirl28

I looked for but couldn't find an old thread about our good ideas and our mistakes in the home......so I'm resurrecting it.

My successes........
oak flooring
Ikea kitchen with 9200mm wall units. I can't reach the top shelves without steps but they're great for storage.
concealing the bins behind a brightly painted fence with climbers growing over.

Not so good ideas
oak French doors. They weathered very quickly and need lots of maintenance.
Ikea sinks and taps
cheap carpeting

FattyBettyBoo

My not so good ideas

Getting carpets when my front door opens into the lounge and I have a dog
Replacing the lino kitchen floor (that the dog ripped) with more lino (guess what happened)
Buying a round kitchen table (with one centre supporting post) and no longer having anywhere to put the dog's bed
BUYING A DOG!!!! (No joking)

foxymum1977_2

our good ideas (well mine hubbys has to say yes!!) granite worktops, will hopefully never date and look fab.
neutral colours everywhere
paid more for an expensive boiler rather that a cheaper version


not so good: dado rails in most rooms :-(
coving in every room, in my opinion is now dated.
cheap laminate wood flooring in the dining room, now chipped and looks rubbish!
tilies in the porch (floor) wish i'd gone for proper wood flooring but the porch joins the downstairs loo floor wich is tiles so we did the two rooms the same.

will try to think of more.

capeverde

golfergirl28 wrote: »

I looked for but couldn't find an old thread about our good ideas and our mistakes in the home......so I'm resurrecting it.

My successes........
oak flooring
Ikea kitchen with 9200mm wall units. I can't reach the top shelves without steps but they're great for storage.
concealing the bins behind a brightly painted fence with climbers growing over.

Not so good ideas
oak French doors. They weathered very quickly and need lots of maintenance.
Ikea sinks and taps
cheap carpeting

I wouldnt have expected you to!!

HelenDaveKids

successes
5 1930's 4 panel hemlock doors for 99p on ebay followed by £2.30 for an electric tile cutter.
My gorgeous red composite door, was over budget but can't believe its gorgeousness.
Learning to tile and saving oodles of money.

Failures
Letting middle daughter and OH shop together for blue paint for her room. All i can say is its definitely blue!
Buying another dyson after the previous 2 packed up!
Buying a back door 2 monthas before extension and not realising that after extension it doesnt fit as floor levels are wrong, its too big, what were we thinking, it was soooo obvious!!

swimsink

Cream carpet in 2 year old's bedroom.... need I say more?

kmmr

Successes:
Big tiles in the bathroom. They were more expensive, but not massively so, and everyone comments on how 'luxury' the bathroom looks. I don't think they realise it's the tiles that are making it look so posh.

Jatoba flooring. OH fought long and hard for this, and against my judgement we went for it. I thought it would be too dark. It looks great, and really warms up the house. Everytime I walk on it I love the look and feel.

Red glass splashback. Again, a simple thing that wasn't too expensive that looks very expensive, and very striking.

Applying for a much larger extension than we wanted on our planning permission, with an intention of scaling it back - and then getting the permission! So we have a beautiful big extension.

Good MSE thing is to look out for Brita Filter specials. They do a regular special where you buy three filters and they give you one of their three way tap things. Looks stylish, and I was looking to get a filter anyway. I know you are then stuck with them for the filters, but I would have done it regardless. And the tap is very nice. We got this one for free, with the purchase of three filters. I have seen the deal around since. http://www.instantbrita.co.uk/productdetail/55/246/Struana.htm

Negatives: Nothing really major but a few wasted things:
Electric UFH in the bathroom. We just don't need it. Bathroom generally warm enough as it's in the middle of the house, so we never use it.

Regrets:

Be careful will laying out UFH. We have water UFH in the kitchen under the tiles and they missed a bit! Just where you stand to cut things up... I end up slightly stretched from the warm spot to the counter! The kitchen wasn't installed, and they mis-measured where the breakfast bar was. So it's nicely heated under the cupboards.

And finally... Vincent Brown Party Wall surveyors. Do whatever you can never to be involved with them in any way. Ignore the good sales patter, ignore the fixed costs, in general ignore these time wasting, dispute causing individuals. nuff said.

Hobsons_Choice

Success: Neutral colours around the house
Making a collage of old family (and ancestral) photographs and framing them.
Installing a top of the range CH boiler - we really notice the difference.
Failure: Having beige all wool carpet in the lounge /dining room. It gets filthy, even though shoes are
banned (not for visitors though) and the pile has flattened.
Not boarding over hexagonal tiles in the fitted before having vinyl fitted.

devotee

Positives: Glass splashbacks in the kitchen in white. So easy to clean.
Tiles in the hallway - have a dog so that was a good idea on my part.
Getting a posh filter tap from ebay for a fraction of the price. And Blanco sink too. And wooden worktops.

Negatives: Getting a kitchen from Homebase and not factoring in that I really like drawers everywhere and not the usual cabinets.
Worked out expensive putting them in at a later stage. Next time going to Ikea.
Letting the designer talk me into putting a dishwasher in the corner next to the sink so the sink cupboard has to be well shut to open the dishwasher and when dishwasher door open can't access the sink.
Buying textured floor tiles for the kitchen, a nightmare to keep clean and buying glossy floor tiles for the bathroom, slippery as hell.
Wish I managed to hide the kitchen sockets somewhere so I'd get no cutouts around the splashback.
Wish I've hidden the washing machine in a hallway cupboard, it's annoying as I have open plan kitchen lounge.

Well moving soon hopefully so I'll know what to do next time!

Edit: Another mistake was getting a puppy before we moved, she pees on my lovely oak floor.....Lol

golfergirl28

Reminded by Devotee of another success. Choosing nearly all drawers and larder cupboards for base units in kitchen. They're so much easier to access than cupboards.
Getting rid of the lawn was a good idea.....no need for mower taking up room in shed.

Failure
Have failed to find any kind of shelf/container that I like to successfully hold shampoo etc in shower. Suggestions? I wish I had asked builder to build in a cut out area like the ones in hotels.

MaggieBaking

Our home is still a work in progress but so far:

Successes:

Our Howden's kitchen - I love it.
Putting our boiler in the attic when we put in central heating. It doesn't take up any valuable storage space in the kitchen or elsewhere.
Moving the kitchen door to make the kitchen much bigger and being able to have a washing machine and dishwasher.
My husband deciding he would try himself to board out the loft after we got a bigger hatch put in. Very simple to do and very cheap - and so much value to us in storage.
Our leather sofas for £600, bought 6 years ago, they still look great.
Getting a rewire meaning we have more lighting, plug sockets wherever we like etc.

Failures:

The biggest is easily Wickes Trade Magnolia Matt paint which we chose to do the hall stairs landing in. Then 7 days of ladders and planks and 3 coats before we realised it wasn't us making it look crappy, it was the paint After we paid to get it re-plastered so it would look good.
Thinking I'd enjoy doing a house up. I really really don't and it's taking us far too long to update it. I don't mind the DIY but there's too much to do everywhere, it's overwhelming.
Not putting a radiator on the half landing which I fought with the plumber and my husband about. It's so cold with the lounge door open.
My husband moving the furniture in and doing himself a serious injury which caused 6 months + of delays to doing anything to the house