My House Reno (Pics and things!)

R.O.S.S.I · 2 May 2015 at 16:19

And the kitchen was skimmed yesterday, really impressed with his final skim coat, absolutely smooth and drying nicely. Nearing ever closer to the finish line now!

Plasterer still has a few other areas to do though - he needs to finish boarding and skimming the area around the new french doors, skim over the fireplace thats been boarded, give a skim to my other fireplace thats been opened up and then do all the skirting areas where they've been removed!

Besides that it's just the gutters and dry verges outside, the new waste pipe for the sink, the new boiler and new rad to go on then its done.

R.O.S.S.I · 17 May 2015 at 08:27

Wahey all the plastering is done now finally, boiler is fitted and just waiting for the plumber to come back on Monday to refit all the rads, fit 2 new ones in the lounge/dining room and get the boiler set up and tested!

Already made a start on cleaning and getting things tidy. Next job is to arrange for landing/stairs and downstairs to be decorated as I want to get some flooring in there before the new kitchen arrives!

Upstairs bedrooms have all been lined and painted too so thats another job off the list. Decided to go with 1400 lining paper just for that added thickness to hide any minor imperfections. Kept the tones quite neutral in the bedrooms too, Mushroom and Fawn on the walls with Brilliant White woodwork, picture isn't the greatest but you get the idea! Looks 100000000x better than it did before.

Feels like we're getting somewhere with it all now!

Next job is to get downstairs cracked off with decorating urgently and to think about carpets for all bedrooms, landing and stairs now.

bowey · 18 May 2015 at 16:15

love a renovation, looking really good

R.O.S.S.I · 18 May 2015 at 22:39

Thanks mate. I'm hoping the next round of pictures will be once downstairs has been lined and painted and i've got the new flooring down!

Been up there tonight tidying up a bit, replaced a couple of broken floorboards and prepped a small area of concrete floor for some self-levelling compound that I plan to put down this weekend. Had my dad undercoat the woodwork on the stairs and landing so it can be glossed shortly too.

FinglisHobbit · 7 Jun 2015 at 14:18

Hi ROSSI any chance of an update on this?

How does your Kitchen look now. I remembered the layout was similar to our house so this would be a great thing for me to see.

R.O.S.S.I · 7 Jun 2015 at 21:54

Sorry for lack of updates. Been busy decorating!!

Couple pics of the kitchen which was going in last Weds/Thurs but ive been away Thurs-today so only just got back to check out where everything is up to.

I've managed to line, paper and paint the hallway, stairs and landing along with glossing the woodwork.

All of the downstairs has been lined (where needed) and painted so i'll grab some more pics during the week once the appliances are in and out of the way and the plumber has been back to fit the sink waste pipe and tap etc.

Theres not much more left to do really thankfully. Just a couple of small bits of touching up is needed on the coving, I need to fit some window cills next to the new french doors. The main big jobs left are getting the new flooring down downstairs and then fitting new skirtings and architraves then we're done. Carpets have been ordered for upstairs, we're just waiting for them to fit us in.

Can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and i'm hoping we can get in by the end of the month!

FinglisHobbit · 7 Jun 2015 at 22:16

Looks good. However why dont you have a window on the side of the kitchen?

I see you arent attached to a house on that side, so a window above where your cutout for washing machine(?) is would surely add more light?

edit : Oh I see you had one originally.. why did you brick that up? Seems odd.

R.O.S.S.I · 7 Jun 2015 at 22:31

That empty space is where the new oven is going and above that the extractor fan for it so couldn't put one there. I bricked it up so I could go with that layout as I wanted the fridge to the left in a tall unit, the sink down at the far end under the new window and the oven somewhere in the middle which falls roughly inline with the "kitchen work triangle".

There is no space to have a window anywhere else really and i'm happy enough with the light from the new window at the end, granted it could maybe be a couple inches wider but no bigger really as the French doors let a lot of light in too.

R.O.S.S.I · 7 Jul 2015 at 22:20

Couple more progress pics, finally getting there! Feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

All of the dirty jobs are done now so its a case of getting everything clean and making a start on the list of little jobs we've got such as fitting a new dining room light, putting a new door handle on the understairs cupboard, planing the side of the dining room door to make it close properly, giving the sofas a good cleaning, wax the worktops with osmo, clean the bathroom, clean all the windows/frames, refit vertical blinds etc etc the list goes on.

Managed to paint the skirtings allright by myself. My friend whos a joiner fit them all for me on the cheap and then I spent a day or so going round the room painting them up. I had some lining paper leftover from when I was papering which I cut into strips and slid under the skirting and just painted onto that which worked a treat. When it was dry it was fairly easy to prise it out et voila no paint on the floor!

Hoping to be able to move in in the next couple of weeks. Got a few appointments next week for blinds and fitted bedroom furniture people so will see what they say and if our budget will allow them! In all likelihood thought i'll probably just take the measurements off the blinds salesman and order and fit them myself!

joelk2 · 8 Jul 2015 at 09:29

looks nice buddy,

mind me asking where the beam above the fireplace is from and did you fit it yourself?

R.O.S.S.I · 8 Jul 2015 at 10:00

joelk2 said:
looks nice buddy,

mind me asking where the beam above the fireplace is from and did you fit it yourself?

The beam was provided by a friend who repointed the inside of the fireplace and fit the hearth. It's just an old sleeper that he cut to size then a family friend sand blasted it and gave a coat of clear varnish.

It's held in place by two really long bolts that go into the chimney breast. It isn't permanently fixed or anything, the bolts go far into the brickwork and if I permanently fixed it it would have been a bitxh to remove should I want to later down the line. It's perfectly fine without any adhesive holding it in place!

joelk2 · 8 Jul 2015 at 10:28

R.O.S.S.I said:
The beam was provided by a friend who repointed the inside of the fireplace and fit the hearth. It's just an old sleeper that he cut to size then a family friend sand blasted it and gave a coat of clear varnish.

It's held in place by two really long bolts that go into the chimney breast. It isn't permanently fixed or anything, the bolts go far into the brickwork and if I permanently fixed it it would have been a bitxh to remove should I want to later down the line. It's perfectly fine without any adhesive holding it in place!

cheers.

seem to be a lot fixed like that tbh.

looks smart.

Kimi · 8 Jul 2015 at 10:45

Great work mate, looks fantastic.

What paint is that in the kitchen?

covenantuk · 8 Jul 2015 at 10:57

I'd definitely be boxing that boiler in somehow - spoils the look of the kitchen imo

a1ex2001 · 8 Jul 2015 at 12:49

covenantuk said:
I'd definitely be boxing that boiler in somehow - spoils the look of the kitchen imo

I'd find it a bit annoying to but would live with it modern boilers at least aren't as ugly as those they were making ten or fifteen years ago and they last longer not boxed in. One thing I'd certainly have to deal with is the trailing mains lead for the boiler as that would really do my head in!

Overall though a fantastic job being done the place looks transformed and tasteful!

R.O.S.S.I · 8 Jul 2015 at 18:28

Kimi said:
Great work mate, looks fantastic.

What paint is that in the kitchen?

Aran I think the colour is called from Johnstone/Leyland paints.

covenantuk said:
I'd definitely be boxing that boiler in somehow - spoils the look of the kitchen imo

I'm not too fussed about it to be fair. If anything I think having a cupboard boxing it in that wasn't in line with the rest would make it all look a bit odd.

a1ex2001 said:
I'd find it a bit annoying to but would live with it modern boilers at least aren't as ugly as those they were making ten or fifteen years ago and they last longer not boxed in. One thing I'd certainly have to deal with is the trailing mains lead for the boiler as that would really do my head in!

Overall though a fantastic job being done the place looks transformed and tasteful!

Yeh theres a couple of things I need to ask the electrician to sort before he signs it off, i.e another one of the sockets we can't screw back in as the screw keeps going through the hole as if it can't grip anything.

I'll definitely be having words with him about that cable for the boiler too, its not actually a plug its hardwired straight into the back of the switch which means we can't screw the switch flush to the wall because the wire is in the way!

All of the work is done now by the builder, just waiting for his plasterer to mobilise and sort out some rough plastering under the stairs. It's like he doesn't want paying for the remainder of the work with how slow he's getting his guys there.

Terrier_Jimlad · 8 Jul 2015 at 23:49

Cracking job there fella!

Bigpig · 9 Jul 2015 at 06:58

What's going into the fireplace

?

covenantuk · 9 Jul 2015 at 08:47

Ouch, the sparky probably didn't want to cut a channel in your new tiling (which should have been done afterwards) but I don't think you'll have any choice if you want to hide that cable - you'll have to retile unless he comes out sideways and you hide it behind the thing you made to cover the pipes?

R.O.S.S.I · 9 Jul 2015 at 09:14

Bigpig said:
What's going into the fireplace ?

Log burner eventually but thats at the bottom of the list of priorities so far haha!

covenantuk said:
Ouch, the sparky probably didn't want to cut a channel in your new tiling (which should have been done afterwards) but I don't think you'll have any choice if you want to hide that cable - you'll have to retile unless he comes out sideways and you hide it behind the thing you made to cover the pipes?

Well the sockets were left loose after plastering so i didnt even clock the cable was going in like that until the tiler came to tile and he'd put every socket back on bar that one so i've asked the electrician why it has been done that way.

I'm not really that bothered that its on show as long as the socket can be fixed in place properly.