First home the OS way!

bodmil

Hi all, I'm new here and having just scrimped and saved for years I'm the proud owner of my first home! It feels very much like I have a blank canvas and a great opportunity start the way I mean to go on, so I'd love some tips on what sort of essentials I will need for an OS home.

It's a top floor flat in a listed terrace building, so although I'm hoping heat will rise from the other flats, it's got single pane windows and is poorly insulated. So my first thought is to get some cracking insulating curtains, any advice on where to go for these?
It also has a fireplace (although is in a smoke free zone), this is something that I have never had before so I'm not sure where to start with that either!
I've also got original floor boards which is again totally new to me so I'm not sure how to clean or maintain them? There are only two small rooms with carpet so I'm wondering if I can get away with not buying a hoover, are there any straightforward ways to keep a carpet clean otherwise?

I'd love the help of some experienced OSers to tell me how it's done!

becca-2012

Hello, congratulations on your new home!

My mum had single glazing in her cottage and would buy these cling film type sheets that you taped on and used a hair dryer to make hard? I'm sure someone else could give you some better advice on that as i have never used them! I have blackout blinds on all my windows and lined curtain, and I think it has helped keep the house warmer than just curtains.

Lucky you having floorboards! Check and see if there are gaps between them. If so then i used a paper mache type mix of newspaper and watered down pva. I just pushed it into the gaps then sanded them and stained them after. To clean I used I fluffy broom type thing to sweep the dust and I mop them once a week with warm water and a small amount of washing up liquid. I would recommend getting some rugs, they make the rooms warmer and stop the echoing that we got before. I always look on ebay for rugs as people seem to change them a lot.

As for the carpets you could sweep them but i would buy a cheap little Hoover. I picked mine up from Tesco or Asda. It was only about 25 pound and is bagless.

Good luck with it. Im sure someone will be along with some better advice than me.

Butterfly_Brain

Firstly congratulations on your first home :T
You didn't say whether you have central heating as well as the open fire. if you are not using the fire make sure you have something to put in front of the hole because you will get a down draught and that will be very nippy in the winter.
I insulated my curtains by buying the cheap Ikea fleeces and lining the curtains with them. Ikea have some lovely room sized rugs from £29 as well. I used the cling film trick, but it marked the frames badly, so now I just put bubble wrap on the glass to insulate it ( I only do this at the back and sides of the house though).
If it is a small flat you could get away with a bissel sweeper like this £9.99 saves on electric as well which is always a bonus.

Fruball

Congratulations!!!

Re the open fire - you can get smokeless fuel I have used it as I am in a smokeless area and it really is good - and less messy than coal.

Might be difficult to get up to your flat though...

If you aren't going to use the fire, block the hole up with something (you could shove a pillow up the chimney, just don't forget it's there!) as it will suck all the heat leaving you freezing.

Book cases on outside walls add extra insulation too.

Get a heavy door curtain from a charity shop and line it with fleeces or even bubblewrap for extra warmth.

Enjoy making your home snuggly for winter!
xx

[Deleted User]

Congratulations on joining the money pit folk:):)Seriously if you want to keep as warm as possible then to help keep the draghts out when I lived in a draughy tall Victorian flat we had our normal curtain and nets up, then my OH got a long broom handle and I bought some thick curtains from a charity shop and turned a hem at the top to run the broom handle though and then we hung the handle on three brass hooks that he screwed one on either end and one in the middle over the top of the existing curtain rail so in the evening it was easy to just pop the thick curtains over the existing ones to keep the winds out Worked well for us .Also before you attempt to light a fire do see that the chimney is swept incase birds or anyone has stuck anything up there to block it off.Re the floorboards I too would fill the gaps with papier mache and nail down any loose ones (taking care not to nail through any wires or pipes then hire a sander and asnd then varnish over the top and have a few rugs.cheaper than carpets and a lot easier to keep swept with a small carpet sweeper.Keep a look out for rugs in wilkinsons they sometimes have some or a decent off cut from a carpet oddments shop .A roll of carpet tape will bind the edges so they don't fray out.and if its cheap and cheerful when you get fed up or want to change the colour scheme then its not as expensive as having to change a whole fitted carpet.
Good luck in your new home by the way I'm sure it will be everything you want.making a new home is so exciting I once sat and hand sewed curtains years ago for my first home and because it was a kitchen diner I made matching drapes to hang on either side of the draining boards to hide up the under the sink pipes because we couldn't afford cupboards :)

Danni-R

If you're at the top do you have access to the loft/ ceiling space?

Might be worth putting down some insulations in there to stop all the heat leaving.
:-)

bodmil

Thanks all! Yes I do have central gas heating as well as the fire, it's just a bit of a feature but I hope to have some fun with it over winter.

Is it ok just to buy standard curtains and just sew on the extra fleece? I'm rubbish at sewing but as long as it's on the back I'm sure it's a good place to hide my practising! I suppose the curtain rails just need to be sturdy to take the extra weight. As it's such a small flat I don't think bubble wrap would go down to well, there's only 4 windows anyway! They're all big sash windows so I expect they will be particularly draughty. I might just put some sand filled door draught excluder on the top panel where the windows slide past each other. That seemed to work ok at my rented place.

Bissel sweeper! That's what I was picturing but I couldn't think what it was called, that should do fine, it's such a small area to hoover.

The loft space has been converted as a second bedroom and seems to be quite well insulated, there's no radiator up there but the boiler is there so I hope is should be quite snug as it is.


You're probably wondering why on earth I bought the place but I just can't resist a bit of character!

quintwins

check theres no gaps in your window frames, this tends to happen with old sash windows, you can silcone or tape them up in winter

thriftwizard

Congratulations on your new home - it sounds lovely! We live in an older house with chimneys, ill-fitting sash windows & floorboards; we've laid inexpensive laminate over some of the floors (pets & kids - much more practical than carpet anyway) and used the paper-mache & rug trick in other rooms. Well-lined curtains or even window-quilts have kept the worst of the draughts out in winter and the two chimneys we don't currently use are blocked off. But I'm hoping to invest in some perspex-type panels to make secondary double glazing for the main rooms for next winter; we had them in one house before, and they're great in that you can benefit from the coolness of not having them there in summer!

Re hoovers - if you have somewhere to keep one, they do often come up on our local Freecycle & I've heard that of other places, too - carpet sweepers are great for surface stuff but won't pull up the little particles that actually damage the weave of a good carpet like a hoover does.

Anyway - well done you - enjoy your investment to the full!

camelot1001

Congratulations!
If you are not using the fire, bubble wrap up the chimney helps to keep the draughts out or you can buy a chimney balloon. As others have said, remember what you put up there before you try to light the fire!!

Ik£a quite often have heavy rugs in the scratch and dent bit.

Candles make a place feel warmer and throws or cheap fleeces on the chairs and settees are there for you to snuggle up in when it gets cold.

Enjoy your new home.

Pooky

Wilkinsons do a great rubber bristled broom for around £6, great at gathering the dust bunnies from hard floors and gets all kids of stuff out of a rug or carpet.

Make sure you get the chimney cleaned and checked before you use it, sooner rather than later as sweeps get booked up nearer winter. If you've got any outside storage for smokeless fuel then it's cheaper to buy in bulk.

Don't seel the windows with anything that could put you at risk of escaping a fire. In the long run it would pay to have them restored and draft proofed. You may find that thermal curtain linings are more apt for single pane windows, they're heavy enough to keep the drafts at bay and fit easily onto your curtain header tape with curtain hooks. You can still have them if you've got poles and ring top curtains, it will show you how on the pack (it's hard to explain but very easy).

Floorboards look great but unless they're sealed and the gaps filled you'll get all sorts of drafts and dust blowing around.

Congrats on your new home :beer: