Welcome to our house - a DIY project log

[platypus]

Have seen some awesome DIY projects on here, so I thought it would be fun to stick a few pictures here, a full log will be going up on my blog.

The project? An almost complete overhaul of the house. For the next three weeks, the upstairs will be a building site. Myself and my girlfriends Father Andy, with a little help from my girlfriend (she'll be wall papering, but more importantly making the tea, coffee, food etc) we will be putting in a new bathroom, re-wiring the upstairs (Andy is a certified electrician), new plug sockets, re-wallpapering, re-carpeting, re-painting, everything you can imagine. The whole upstairs is being replaced .

New windows and new central heating have just been fitted, and a new boiler.

And so, let us begin.

Doesn't look too untidy so far, does it?

Our bedroom :

Hallway to the bathroom:

New suite, new tiling (the girlfriend has chosen..well I can only describe them as "I'll have to see what they look like when they go on the wall!"), new shower, new wooden floor.

Now we're going to do the electrics/plumbing under the spare room floor sorted before moving on with the bathroom, including running wiring into the loft for a possible conversion in the future, but for the present just for lighting and a few plug sockets (she doesn't know it yet but my server rack is going in the loft ).

 

[platypus]

Now for the spare room.

I drilled into the wall to bury some plug socket casings in, and typically the wall disintegrated.

So they've been re-mortared and cemented, and the actual wiring will go in tomorrow, then the wall re-plastered and repaired.

This is why we're re-wiring:

Not sure if you can see, but the wiring has been placed over the hot water pipes! Not the safest of decisions really..

TBC..

 

[platypus]

I like those vertically opening windows, what does it say on the back of your t-shirt?

"It's an oarfully long way!" - its a Boston Rowing Marathon t-shirt .

Are you still coming to the theatre this weekend?

Yus, Saturday .

Looking good

Keep us updated (Y)

would have been good to have some "before" and "after" shots of all the rooms

I know, was silly of us not too.

Loving the markers on the wall

Everyone who comes round to dinner has a quote on that wall, as well as a hand print .

 

[platypus]

Wooden floor in the bathroom? That would be a mistake mate, tile it with stone or ceramic.


Will be keeping an eye on this thread, looks interesting.

Hmm really? Andy seems happy with it (We're having some wood shipped in from France, the girlfriends brother-in-law is a wood expert), and she has her heart set on it..

 

[platypus]

Just noticed you're based in Cambridge too. Which area is the house?

Stanley Road, just off Riverside.

Do you know what wood it is?

Teak, I think.

Wood + water?

It can be treated ! Andy seems to think we'll just stick down a click-together laminated wooden floor instead.

 

[platypus]

Yep, it's confirmed. She cancelled the wood to be shipped in, and click-laminate is going down. Nice to be kept in the loop!

 

[platypus]

Aye one engineered to be suitable for bathroom use. I still think the teak is a better idea myself, but meh, I'm doing what I'm told.

In work today, and I'm bloody shattered. Still at least we're making progress. The upstairs has been rewired fully, the floor relaid in the spare room, new carpet to go in early next week. Andy is starting the bathroom today, taking the floor up and then taking the bath and sink out to relay the pipework.

 

[platypus]

Well. Andy just on the blower. He's taken the ceiling off the bathroom, (and the bath and sink have gone), and some of the roof has fallen in apparently. Oh dear .

 

[platypus]

Oh man, what a weekend, and what a day. Tons of photos to go up, and I'll stick a digest up later on tonight but having a breather whilst the wood treatment dries so thought I'd post.

We've almost completed the new ceiling, cosmetics aside. New insulation and plaster board up, with the underlying electrics done; still a few bits to plasterboard, but we're getting there. We've repaired the wall where we exposed brickwork and found a bit needed re-cementing, and then, we got the floor panels up to look at the boards underneath...and found most were rotting away from woodworm.

So guess what we've had to do which we hadn't planned? Yup, we've spent the last few hours ripping up the flooring and popped down to Jewsons to get new floorboards. So another day added to project completion, at least.

I suppose it's a good thing, it means we can treat the joists, get a new floor down, and again relay the underfloor wiring and piping which someone has made an awful job of.

I'm utterly filthy at present, and have to go 5 minutes across town to get a shower later .

 

[platypus]

My god, what a gruelling two days I've had off work.

After the annoyance and irritation of having to redo both the ceiling and the floor, it's a rewarding finish to my time off work. I will naturally be working in the evenings when I get home, but for now my full time DIY work is done until next week. Andy will be carrying on (he's here for three weeks in total).

I'm getting to be somewhat of an expert at putting in new floors, suspiciously every time I see Andy. When we went out there for a holiday I ended up helping to put in a huge new floor .

And the culmination of two days hard slog:

Pipe work all laid? Check:

Electrics all done? Save one light at the far wall, check:

[Old] toilet reconnected? Definitely check :

Obviously, lots of filling left to do, lots of trimming, tidying and a whole lot else yet, but sod it for now - I'm off to the pub for a thai green curry. I'm starving .

 

[platypus]

Just got home from work, and Andy has been trés busy. It's a relief to see it getting there .

 

[platypus]

Are you still coming to the theatre this weekend?

Shakespeare was amazing, and the food at the Oppo was fantastic, thanks for your recommendation .

looking good you will get a great sense of acheivement when its done

Like you wouldn't believe! We've painted the walls where the shower is going up, and we are already beginning to think about how it will look when finished. Such a relief after the setback with the ceiling and floor!

 

[platypus]

Crikey. A plumbed and working shower. Bliss!

 

[platypus]

Thanks for all the kind words of support people . Being new to this kind of thing, it's amazing how demoralising aspects of it can be.

And simply for posterity - although not of myself in the shower - here it is!

Andy connecting the waste pipe:

And here it is in its full glory - transported all the way from the Bricoman depot in Poitiers.

Still loads to do, but at least we don't have to go across town to get clean now !

 

[platypus]

Quick update whilst I can. Much has been going on of course, our new radiator arrived today and quite beyond my expectations looks pretty damned good!

Step put in by Andy:

And the bathroom from the other angle:

Everything is plumbed, wired and fully working now. Just the cosmetics to fix .

 

[platypus]

im no builder, but wouldnt it have been easier to have all the walls plasterd and floor finished before putting in the shower and toilet etc?

Yes it would, but Andy is the qualified plumber, and he has a maximum amount of time he can contribute to the project.

How much longer do you think the whole project will take you Platypus?

Now you're asking . We're hoping to have the bathroom finished by next weekend, and then we can get to work on the spare room, so..November at the absolute latest. Fingers crossed .

 

[platypus]

A long overdue update; one room is now finished*!

*Of course it isn't finished, but it's pretty much there. The curtains are being delivered tomorrow, and she wants to paint the wall with the fireplace a strong green...but other then that, we're moving the bed in tonight .

And here's me trying out my very expensive new waterproofs:

They bloody well worked too. Five minutes in a heavy shower and I was bone dry underneath, went in with my clothes on .

 

[platypus]

Yep, very simple but time consuming process.

Slot the board in place, tighten strap so its as tight as it can possibly get locked into the next floorboard, and then nail in place. Rinse and repeat .

 

[platypus]

You have no idea, living in a building site has been a strain. Especially as I've just had a week long theatre run. Can't wait. The bathroom is virtually there now, but still fiddly bits to do. And I found a leak in the plumbing - easy to fix - but about an hours job .

 

[platypus]

I thought feature walls were no longer en vogue - and a strong green will be a pain to paint over if you decide to change colours in the future - a patterned green wallpaper may be better in that regard.

Just doing as ordered phil, just doing as ordered .

hehe, tell me about it. When we moved into our current house 3 years ago it needed every room redoing. I ripped the kitchen out the first night in there and we ordered the new one the next day (the kitchen was not usable so no sense keeping it until the new one arrived - plus it gave me time to sort out the awful job the previous fitter had made of the plumbing). Added to this my wife was 3 months pregnant and work was very busy, not the best 6 months of my life and we still have loads of little jobs to finish all this time later, but definitely less stressful to have a few unfinished jobs than to live on a dusty building site.

Sounds like a great story to have come through though . Can't wait until the bathroom is complete, that will feel like such a relief - and then we can start on the second bedroom, the downstairs front room, and then the living room...