First house :) some improvements

[Bigpig]

This month we have just purchased a 4 bed bungalow. It's the family home which has huge sentimental value to me

Woman wanted new kitchen and I wanted a burner!! So stove sorted first
Old fireplace

Removed and cuting done

Granit Hearth and supports installed

Piping finished

The stove

Plaster and rub done

All plumbed up. Painting is getting done in the morning and carpets on Friday

First light very enjoyable lol

 

[Bigpig]

This is the kitchen. We are busy getting qoutes atm

 

[Bigpig]

Nice

(log burner that is )

cheers it give off some stink when light

The been above your burner how heavy and how did you fix it to the wall?

not sure had to work when that was installed. A local firm did it.

Someone likes ornaments and nic-naks in that house

Way too much clutter for me TBH but each to their own.

hah indeed but those before pictures are before we moved in not our stuff.
Was my mothers we paid off her mortgage and threw her out.
Don't feel to bad she moved into a House twice as big lol

 

[Bigpig]

What are the pipes for behind the burner?

Warming water ?

Yes. we decided to get it hooked up to the heating. Just burning scrap dry wood and pallets and it's getting the water and rads medium warm. Will need coal and better wood in the coldest of months.

That fireplace looks very smart, Me and the wife have just started the purchase process off for our first house (just signed the mortgage papers), I'm planning on having a proper burner similar to yours installed, hope it looks even half as nice as yours

thank you. I just hope we can afford the woman dream kitchen or I be getting my new axe in my back lol

My dad came round and fitted a bit of skirting. Still needs painting. Carpets went down yesterday.
This is it almost finished

 

[Bigpig]

Kitchen design without the double fridge freezer is what we are getting.

The qoute came within budget. Woman is over the moon.
I also feel a little bit bewildered. Home base told us 12grand for their medium priced kitchen with appliances not fitted.
B and q IT range was coming in around 5.5 grand alone for just the flat pack and wooden worktop.
This is sitting In between the 2 closer to the b&q one fitted and appliances and quality is far superior and 10 year guarantee.
We are just seeing atm if we can save money on appliances.

 

[Bigpig]

Little update. Had a budget around 7k for the kitchen but that been threw out the window as we have order a granite work surface as I wanted a Belfast sink and about to order a rangemaster classic!!!

Dint opt for the matching splash back as I prefer just the work surface and tiles.

 

[Bigpig]

Couple of things:

(1) Looks ace and impressed you're doing this yourself.
(2) Tesco sell kitchens? Wat.
(3) Your use of 'woman' makes me laugh far more than it should do

Doing what we can to save costs. My Dad is a joiner who built the house so he's helping out where he can.
Him and a friend hand made the kitchen which is in now and is a little bit miffed to why we are taking it out don't think he realises it's over 20 years old now and done!!

I used to call the woman the other half but people kept asking if I was gay!!

I think tesco is his mobile network/ broadband provider.

Where is the kitchen from? Looks quality!

The kitchen is from starplan here in n.ireland. I really could not believe the price. Was gobsmacked when it was only a few hundred pounds more than a medium to low end range kitchen from b&q.
For an IT kitchen its was coming in around 5.5k not fitted fitting fee was 3k lol

Before we decided to go for granite the bill was around 6.3k fitted from Starplan

 

[Bigpig]

Ugh been making a mess lol
The tiles where a right pain to remove from the floor and made some holes which I have now repaired lol . Was about two days to lift the tiles and take the adhesive off!!! Going to put a levelling layer on before my dad tiles it.

Getting my mate to wire up the sockets but told me to do the chasing lol. 15mins into the job and I realised why he wanted me to do it.... Any ideas how to break into the roofspace without making a total pigs ear of it?

I be glad to see the end of this dust!!

 

[Bigpig]

Lol no worrys the marker lines are making it look worse than it is. The boxes will be level once cemented in. In fact that second one will be more outside of those lines than in lol

My thoughts on the matter was make the holes bigger as it's easier to fill in than to recut!!

Haven't got round to buying the faceplates for the boxes yet thinking of getting all brushed steel. One range cooker one fridge and 1 double socket. The plugs to the right are getting removed as that is where the mantel will be for the range

In a few weeks you never see the mess I had made once it's all filled in and the tiles are up

 

[Bigpig]

I like your fire place, how much did that set you back?

What app did you use for that kitchen design?

I just bought a house (woot!), and plan to do pretty much the same thing you have been doing.

I also plan to knock down a wall to make the kitchen larger/open plan.

it was around 2.6k.
It's a British made one not Chinese. Stratford. Worth every penny imho. It's muti fuel been burning mostly pallets which is enough to heat the living room and take the chill out of the air around the rest of the house.

They burn way to fast and half the time the fire goes out but it takes seconds for the new load of wood to light.

Been trying out different types of coal. Omg never felt heat like it. Nearly puddles of sweat on the sofa and rads piping hot!

Can't wait to get some decent hardwood. Can buy plenty of cheap Apple wood as am from the orchard county in N.ireland

That's not an app just a screen shot of an email that was sent to us.
I could not believe the price of the kitchen fitted before I added in the granite. I almost settled for a low end b&q kitchen only really went in star plan for a nosey and the woman fell in love with that kitchen.

what colour is your carpet?

sorry for sad post only i quite like it, any more pics

If I remember correctly is called soft dapple.

Would take more pictures for you but the house is a tip atm lol

 

[Bigpig]

Gahhh I've put around 50 hours into the kitchen to get it ready for fitting. Which was today was pretty hard as I have a full time job but don't think we could afforded to get someone to do it.

Dad will be coming round to tile the floor this or next week.

The granite company should be round soon to make a template then once they are done the kitchen people come back and finish the mantle

 

[Bigpig]

Well the floor is done. Just needs grouted. Know a lot of people will scream you must tile the whole floor and other will say no. My dad likes to tile while the kitchen is in even though it makes his job a lot harder and slower.

Also the last kitchen we had lasted 20 years and the floor was tiled twice. I don't fancy ripping out the cupboards and granite to redo the floor.


Still can't decide on cream or grey.

Cream looks nice but hard to keep.

Grey the tiles have a spec of grey flicks and specks running though them also we doing the walls grey and white. Plus it's easier to keep clean.

 

[Bigpig]

looks really good - I'd go grey tiles on the wall dude.

yeah I was talking about the colour of the grout

Wall tiles with be grey and white brick type tiles or dark grey,light grey and white tiles.

 

[Bigpig]

Nice tiling job, it really lights the room up.

Like the floor tiles, they look really smart. Regards to grouting, I would go with grey, have cream tiles in the kitchen with white grouting and you end up steaming and scrubbing once a year to turn it from black back to white..

thanks I know he my dad but he has a reputation as being a very good joiner. Can't meet anybody on the street without being told that. Any work he has done for me he uses the line.
"It's your choice but it would look best this way!!" Lol


Went went with grey in the end be getting done today.

This is the slab of granite out worktops is getting cut from.

Will be ready for Thursday then the range comes on Friday. We ordered this

Can anyone tell me should the granite company or plumber be cutting the hole for the taps?

 

[Bigpig]

Looking good. I can feel all your pain. Had an extension completed a few weeks ago, builder was going to fit the kitchen, but after 4 days he had only done 3 units and a section of worktop with Sink so sacked him off and done it myself, alongside my normal day job. Just got the cornice, pelmet and wall tiling to do to finish it. Having a quick break on ocuk as I'm in the middle of laying 22m2 of engineered wood floor having done 13m2 of tiling last weekend!... My hands are in bits!

think at one stage I had blisters under blisters!!! Totally underestimated the amount of prep work that was needed!!!

 

[Bigpig]

Granite company has installed the worktop Kitchen fitters coming back on Wednesday to install the mantel

The taps just sat on lol Dam sink has cost us a small fortune.

What do you guys think of the above combination of tiles?

 

[Bigpig]

Nice

thanks

Looks very nice that worktop. How do they fix them to the cabinets?

some very strong glue? Not sure tbh was at work when it was installed haven't had a good nosey yet.

Dunno if I dig the tiles tbh in that scheme, maybe have to see the whole thing to make a proper judgement on it. I reckon if I got back drop tiling on my kitchen worktop I'd go for smaller square tiles of the same colour across the board.

Granite worktop looks very nice though. I'd love a good granite worktop

When the mantel goes in think we be able to get a better idea what to go for.

We are very happy with the granite and in general very happy with how the kitchen is turning out. It's feels and looks huge compared to what it did before.

 

[Bigpig]

I reckon plain white for the back tiling would look good too, and I love big floor tiles think they work fantastically, yours look good

Get a pic up of the tiling with the grout at some point!

So glad my dad basically told us he wanted to tile the floor in a step. Suits the room much better. (floor hasn't been washed since it was grouted just a quick rub down)

Took the day off work waiting on my range to come. It never did Turns out it was getting delivered to the depot in N.Ireland not to me on Friday lol.

Ahh well Mantel getting finished on Wednesday the day the cooker is really coming.

 

[Bigpig]

Thanks!!!

Mantel and cooker in place.

The tiles we had above looked even worse with the cooker and mantel so we going to get a few samples of the tiles below

 

[Bigpig]

We went with the above but a little bit darker. One tile to match the cooker, one to match the work surface and one to match the cupboards.

Love the end product and the other half likes it even more.

I can't get a picture of the tiling round the window because of the sun

My mum give us this table but it badly worn and was too dark. So the woman got a mouse sander and did this in a few days

we are going to Reupholster the chairs in a nice tartan. The table was bigger than that but we removed the centre part.

Kinda flat out broke so any more updates will be slow!

Jobs to finish off the kitchen are replace the lighting with led. Replace the sockets and pick under cabinet lighting.