Extreme Makeover - Ongoing project (Picture Heavy)

HazardO · 30 Aug 2014 at 19:35

I'm taking this is a 50s semi, some of those rooms look very familiar to me. It's not huge, but I think you'll find its a fairly solid build. If it's engineering bricks on the ground floor like mine was, good luck with putting shelves up!

Edit: It does remind me lots of my last place, only my dining room was straight ahead from the front door and the kitchen in the far corner. I loved my shared outbuilding, your's is a little more integrated mine just had a flat concrete roof and we had lean-toos instead of a fancy pitched roof. I bet it's got a reasonable size garden

Josh · 30 Aug 2014 at 19:39

HazardO said:
I'm taking this is a 50s semi, some of those rooms look very familiar to me. It's not huge, but I think you'll find its a fairly solid build. If it's enginering bricks on the ground floor like mine was, good luck with putting shelves up!

It's not huge but its plenty big enough for the 4 of us!

Yeah I encountered that problem today attempting to fix a shelf, luckily my daddy drill got into them ok but the baby drill just died after it did the plasterboard!

Duke · 30 Aug 2014 at 19:45

Fantastic turnaround and good to see someone putting the effort in, rather than expecting the council to do everything for them.

Quartz · 30 Aug 2014 at 19:47

Wow. Amazing job there. But is the roof sound? From the photos, it looks as if it might need some attention. Or is it just moss and stuff?

I hope you're allowed to put at least some of the money you spent against the rent.

HazardO · 30 Aug 2014 at 19:52

That loftspace is cavernous, get it done!!!

Edit: Even the built in cupboards are the same as mine were.

What's the bathroom like? Has the toilet been knocked into the bathroom yet or are they separate. (I'm guessing they are at the top of the stairs straight ahead.)
Does the outbuilding consist of a half depth toilet, a half depth coal shed and a full depth utility?

More edit: I may be preaching the the converted here, but those 50s builds have good cavity walls, get them done too if they haven't been, it will make a huge difference.

Josh · 30 Aug 2014 at 19:52

Duke said:
Fantastic turnaround and good to see someone putting the effort in, rather than expecting the council to do everything for them.

Thanks Duke.

Quartz said:
Wow. Amazing job there. But is the roof sound? From the photos, it looks as if it might need some attention. Or is it just moss and stuff?

I hope you're allowed to put at least some of the money you spent against the rent.

Yeah the council have to send someone out to review the structure to make sure it is fine to live in before an exchange takes place. Think it is just moss.

And sadly no, even though we have save the council time/money on them doing it up themselves when the previous tenants left we get nothing off the rent.

If you get given a council property then either decorate it for you or give you £1000 to buy the stuff yourself. Not if you exchange.

Money well spent for me personally though. I can sit back and ssay "I did that"!

Jay794 · 30 Aug 2014 at 19:59

I'm amazed you have only have 2 bed house and there's 4 of you in it. Also it's not the mortgage you can't afford, mortgages are nearly always cheaper than renting the equivalent property, it's the deposit that's the crippler

Josh · 30 Aug 2014 at 20:02

Jay794 said:
I'm amazed you have only have 2 bed house and there's 4 of you in it. Also it's not the mortgage you can't afford, mortgages are nearly always cheaper than renting the equivalent property, it's the deposit that's the crippler

Yeah that is the correct bit! a 3 bed house around here costs around £220k plus! Very expensive.

HazardO · 30 Aug 2014 at 20:21

Is it not 2 double + box (box at the front over the front door)?

LeeUK · 30 Aug 2014 at 20:59

JOSH86 said:
If you get given a council property then either decorate it for you or give you £1000 to buy the stuff yourself. Not if you exchange.

Yeah I was going to say that council housing here (outsourced to some association now) give you vouchers for decorating materials if a property they move you into needs it. Not sure if that applies to house swaps as well though.

Django x2 · 30 Aug 2014 at 21:42

new carpets you say...you chose that colour

Josh · 30 Aug 2014 at 23:43

HazardO said:
Is it not 2 double + box (box at the front over the front door)?

Spot on bud, although the box room is bigger than most of my bedrooms growing up.

Django x2 said:
new carpets you say...you chose that colour

With x2 messy kids,a dog and x2 cats blue hides all stains! Its a good hard wearing carpet, colour isnt great but it was a needs must sort of fitting.

Be good for 5-7 years!

FinglisHobbit · 31 Aug 2014 at 07:45

Well done fella!

It highlights some flaws in the housing system. It can't be easy raising an autistic lad when battling with limited space. I'm glad you got into a more suitable house for your family :-)

Good work on doing the place up. You have the right attitude. Gonna be a nice place for your family!

pepp77 · 31 Aug 2014 at 08:39

If it is just the deposit that is putting you off buying have you considered the right to buy scheme.

https://www.gov.uk/right-to-buy-buying-your-council-home/overview

You can get a fairly nice discount off the cost of the house and quite a few mortgage lenders will allow you to use the discount as the deposit.

As an example I am in the process of doing this now and my discount was £102,700 which allowed me an LTV of 60% even with no deposit (Nationwide and Halifax were definitely willing to use the discount as the whole deposit, whereas the Woolwich will only give 90% of the purchase price so you have to find 10% of the discounted price).

And the best bit the mortgage is £17 a month less than the rent and after 5 years I will have a £225000 (current value) home I paid only £122000 for.

Josh · 31 Aug 2014 at 12:06

pepp77 said:
If it is just the deposit that is putting you off buying have you considered the right to buy scheme.

https://www.gov.uk/right-to-buy-buying-your-council-home/overview

You can get a fairly nice discount off the cost of the house and quite a few mortgage lenders will allow you to use the discount as the deposit.

As an example I am in the process of doing this now and my discount was £102,700 which allowed me an LTV of 60% even with no deposit (Nationwide and Halifax were definitely willing to use the discount as the whole deposit, whereas the Woolwich will only give 90% of the purchase price so you have to find 10% of the discounted price).

And the best bit the mortgage is £17 a month less than the rent and after 5 years I will have a £225000 (current value) home I paid only £122000 for.

I looked into it when I was in the Prison Servce as we got the "Key Worker scheme" stuff, the drama is it would be a single mortgage as my wife was in an IVA 5 years ago, which means according some the last mortgage adviser we spoke too would mean that for at least 10 years she wouldn't get considered.

And on my wage alone I could only afford a shoe box in Surrey.

We do however via the council have the right to buy after 5 years. This is an avenue I will be exploring closer to the time. I have put too much work in to not own this house now!

~Mike~ · 31 Aug 2014 at 12:19

Wow what a grim place can't understand why people live like that.

Great work Josh certainly a lovely transformation. How did you fix the front windows?

Josh · 31 Aug 2014 at 15:04

~Mike~ said:
Wow what a grim place can't understand why people live like that.

Great work Josh certainly a lovely transformation. How did you fix the front windows?

Opened them up fully and banged the top edge really hard, they had never been opened before I think as they snapped into the correct position and now open properly.

Looked very odd on day 1. I asked the people leaving if that was normal and they said "dunno never open em up before"

Enough said!

setter · 31 Aug 2014 at 15:18

Amazing transformation on the staircase Josh. Did you strip it back to bare wood? As trying to cover over red with white is a nightmare.

LeeUK · 31 Aug 2014 at 15:31

What horrors were lurking in the bathroom?

Josh · 31 Aug 2014 at 16:10

setter said:
Amazing transformation on the staircase Josh. Did you strip it back to bare wood? As trying to cover over red with white is a nightmare.

Yeah we first used some Nitrmors to remove the worst and then used a power sander to strip it back, then undercoat, sand, undercoat and gloss! Very happy with the finish.

Kudos to my old man, he spent about 18h on that!

LeeUK said:
What horrors were lurking in the bathroom?

All walls and ceilngs were blue with little shells and crap painted on them. Did x2 coats of white but then a load of pink lines showed up through the paint, stripped the paint back to reveal a boat had been drawn in felt tip marker so was coming through the paint. Stripped the wall back to plaster board and undercoated. X2 more coats of white and it is just waiting for the Lucious Lime paint to go on now. Aoart from that the bathroom believe it or not, was the cleanest bit of the house. The power shower is brand new and the bath looks like it has been never used. White tile paint will cover the dodgy coloured tiles.

Thats this weeks job! Pics to follow.