Home renovation complete

Russinating · 1 Nov 2016 at 17:58

I thought I'd start a new thread just to save people trawling to the end but after 23 months our house renovation is FINISHED! It's such an amazing relief. I've got a whole free weekend coming up and I'm so looking forward to sitting in my pants, eating cereal and playing PS4 with zero guilt.

The original thread is at https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18636615. I stopped posting updates because you just lose track and there's just so many to post. But basically every room went back to bare brick/stud and no ceiling, plus all the other revelations and extra work that reveals.

So some before and afters...

And then just generals...

We had the garden done too but the weather has been pants since it's been totally finished so I've not taken any 'proper' photos. But this is just before finish:

Obviously we're super chuffed. Especially with the revaluation and remortgage, which is pretty much why anyone would go through hell to do this

.

For everyone who's still going through pain, living out of one room, cooking off a camping stove and going without a working shower for months, there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel!

Edit: And the garden...

rodders · 1 Nov 2016 at 18:25

That's a pretty damn cool turn around!!!!

dobbsy · 1 Nov 2016 at 19:04

Fantastic finish there mate - well done!

We bought a property in Nov 10, moved in Xmas eve 2011. It's worth the graft in the end!

kona786 · 1 Nov 2016 at 19:09

Top marks!

Dolly · 1 Nov 2016 at 19:11

Awesome - well done. Looks fantastic.

the_r_sole · 1 Nov 2016 at 20:18

Nicely done, hopefully we'll get somewhere near that level, if you don't mind me being nosey, what kind of budget did you get through doing everything?

Valo · 1 Nov 2016 at 20:59

Looks fantastic! Loving the wood-fired pizza oven in the garden

The side extension looks great, must have made a massive difference to the layout and flow of that part of your house?

Uther · 1 Nov 2016 at 21:22

Lovely job! Is that a pic of Mary Berry in the kitchen...

Tummy · 1 Nov 2016 at 21:22

Lovely!

Schizo · 1 Nov 2016 at 21:36

That is a house i would live in,very very nice decor.

Jokester · 1 Nov 2016 at 21:44

That reminds me, those Pullman posters make would make a great gift for someone.

Siliconslave · 1 Nov 2016 at 21:47

very nicely done

Whats the pizza oven if you don't mind me asking? and how are you getting on with it - i've heard varying reviews on how long they take to get up to cooking temp and how well you can use them - but seems to vary a lot with users and makes

Do you have a cover for it?

BigBoy · 1 Nov 2016 at 21:49

Nice work, we have the same sofas

I must get around to posting the nearly finished pics I have of my house, I say nearly finished as there are still two rooms to do and a few little jobs to finish off as well as the garden to finish landscaping (I've removed 28ton of concrete and slabs so far!!)

mark66 · 2 Nov 2016 at 07:43

Very nice! Can I ask where you got the picture of the elephant from?

Russinating · 2 Nov 2016 at 09:16

Thanks guys. Just to answer the q's

the_r_sole said:
Nicely done, hopefully we'll get somewhere near that level, if you don't mind me being nosey, what kind of budget did you get through doing everything?

I still haven't worked that out yet, but a lot more than we thought. Mainly because when we bought it we had a vague 'do it up, sell it on' plan/budget in mind until loads of our friends moved to the same area and we got settled. So we did it up as we wanted, which isn't budget. The extension was also more than we thought because we paid for quality and decent tradesmen - that was 27k including the kitchen.

The garden was 9k including everything (ie plants, electrics).

No accurate idea about the rest because it was all different tradesmen. Becomes a point when money becomes meaningless too, with anything under £5k seeming cheap and just disappearing in an instant. The front door was £1k alone which is also good value but you can see how it adds up fast.

Valo said:
Looks fantastic! Loving the wood-fired pizza oven in the garden

The side extension looks great, must have made a massive difference to the layout and flow of that part of your house?

Yeah although weirdly it's just a corridor, and the actual kitchen is technically where the old kitchen was, the old layout/size of the kitchen was just totally unworkable. We toyed with keeping it as it was for ages but it was just silly. This is what it was before:

As you can see the worktops have been cut back by how much the oven and washing machine stick out, and the fridge is under the stairs. Was so tiny. I haven't posted any photos but we converted the outbuilding too so that's where our washing machine and tumble dryer our, plus loads of space for all my tools etc etc.

Uther said:
Lovely job! Is that a pic of Mary Berry in the kitchen...

Ha yes, it's signed by here and says congratulations for winning our friend's wedding bake off.

Jokester said:
That reminds me, those Pullman posters make would make a great gift for someone.

I didn't even know that's what they were called :rolleyes:

. But yeah we love them, we've got a few more in the style but haven't got round to finding the a space yet.

Siliconslave said:
very nicely done
Whats the pizza oven if you don't mind me asking? and how are you getting on with it - i've heard varying reviews on how long they take to get up to cooking temp and how well you can use them - but seems to vary a lot with users and makes Do you have a cover for it?

The pizza oven is the Morso Forno. We opted for it over a traditional brick one for a few reasons - it looks cool, easier to install, can be moved/turned around and just become a chimenea, and we can take it with us if we move.

It's been great so far, we've cooked pizzas (obviously) and some big hunks of pork for 8 hours. Still getting used to how to use it though. It can get kinda hot enough after 15-20 minutes if you build a bigish fire and don't mind waiting for 10 for the pizza. But at a party we had it going for 8 hours all day (with the pork in), and then everything is super hot as the iron retains a lot of the heat so much easier to cook pizzas in.

No cover for it yet, they sell one but it's expensive so I've just been looking for a normal BBQ cover that'll fit.

mark66 said:
Very nice! Can I ask where you got the picture of the elephant from?

It's original I'm afraid, she painted it at a festival (Upfest) as a one off but she's done a couple of reproductions since and I think one of them is being turned into prints. Artist is Sophie Long: https://sophielongart.co.uk

Skiddley · 2 Nov 2016 at 09:25

Looks great!

Loads of wood everywhere, any log burners?

scrivz69 · 2 Nov 2016 at 09:26

Wow that looks awesome.

a1ex2001 · 2 Nov 2016 at 10:23

fantastic finish, you've got a great eye and I really like the style, totally get where you coming from budget wise if your happy living there and plan to stay for a while it is always worth paying that bit extra to have it exactly the way you want and the peace of mind of decent tradesmen is certainly worth a little extra.

dirtychinchilla · 2 Nov 2016 at 11:15

That is ridiculously nice

Buffman · 3 Nov 2016 at 18:31

Looks very nice OP! Im doing similar and updating a 60s bungalow at the minute and will need to get up some pics...