Georgian House Renovation Up North - 5 Years and Counting
Discussion
Du1point8 said:
Did they remove the RHS chimney recently? Whats the story as to it being missing as to the picture?
I don't know, my hunch would be it toppled when the rest of the houses came down, the breast is still in the house, just the top stack is awol and it's been sealed up in the loft. Such a pain trying to find history about these things.
Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:
Can I ask how you managed to find these historical photos? Sarah (my one, not yours!) is doing a lot of searching on the history of our (mining) village and house, and has asked me to ask 
A lot of digging around. Have a look at dmm.org.uk as a start, look for old maps of your area on old-maps.co.uk and see if there's anything major nearby.
I also then did some digging on the electoral roll and old census papers (you might need a trial to ancestry.com, findmypast or similar to get to these - but don't forget to cancel before they charge you @30 days) to find who had lived here and then searched their names in the British newspaper archive (another membership/trial jobbie) around the same dstes/times to try and find anything.
The local library is quite good too and we're fortune in Yorkshire to have the West Yorkshire Archive Service that put a lot on the National Archives and local library websites. You my have a similar body near you.
And of course, I also did place name + Google
The ivy was chopped off at the root and once it had died back, I pulled off as much as I could from the ground and then as much as I dared from a wobbly ladder three storeys high.
Squeaky but mode was in full operation as the ladders moved around quite a bit. I didn't buy them, I just found them on top of the garage when I moved in, throbbed a few knackered rungs but were essentially sound(ish).
The door was also painted by the other half, I think she wanted me to do it but my stubborn refusal to have an opinion on any sort of colour at all meant she lost her rag and did it herself. (victory, in my mind).
A major replanting of the border was undertaken to give things time to grow in for the wedding. Hanging baskets were also added to the mix to give us something else to look after but it certainly lifted the front a bit.
Having made it look pretty, as true PHer, I parked the cars in the way.
Squeaky but mode was in full operation as the ladders moved around quite a bit. I didn't buy them, I just found them on top of the garage when I moved in, throbbed a few knackered rungs but were essentially sound(ish).
The door was also painted by the other half, I think she wanted me to do it but my stubborn refusal to have an opinion on any sort of colour at all meant she lost her rag and did it herself. (victory, in my mind).
A major replanting of the border was undertaken to give things time to grow in for the wedding. Hanging baskets were also added to the mix to give us something else to look after but it certainly lifted the front a bit.
Having made it look pretty, as true PHer, I parked the cars in the way.
Also prior to the wedding (and prior to the missus getting a Fiat 500) we were doing the front of the front garden too...
You can see behind the car how overgrown they are. I also needed to fix up the wall where it had collapsed. Fortunately, the capping stones were intact so I could reuse them.
You can see behind the car how overgrown they are. I also needed to fix up the wall where it had collapsed. Fortunately, the capping stones were intact so I could reuse them.
Welshbeef said:
You need to update your PH garage as you have a lovely black F10 5 series m sport unsure if 516d 535d or 535i
Used to have... It's now an Outlander PHEV. It was a 520d.At the time I was picking it I could get a boggo 535d, a 530d sport with a few options or a 520d with loads of options on the company scheme. It lived on the motorway so I didn't think I'd care about the 0-60, I neglected to account for the weight of all the options and spent my time driving it wishing I didn't have soft close doors but a bit more oomph...
Back on to the garden, the front was full of rocks, ivy and dead tree roots so an alpine rockery was decided upon. No points for guessing whether Mr or missus was the one moving the stones
Repairing the wall and replacing capping stones.
Breaking my back moving stupidly large stones. (note to self, when resting a slab on your steel toe capped boots, don't let it slip off the back edge and crush your foot - it bloody kills).
Let the missus do the really hard bit next, placing and planting
Add a feck ton of pea shingle and leave plants to mature for a year...
And another angle
Repairing the wall and replacing capping stones.
Breaking my back moving stupidly large stones. (note to self, when resting a slab on your steel toe capped boots, don't let it slip off the back edge and crush your foot - it bloody kills).
Let the missus do the really hard bit next, placing and planting
Add a feck ton of pea shingle and leave plants to mature for a year...
And another angle
The right hand side needed a little more work as there were a few trees to fell.
The Sycamore at the back was leaning into the wall and cracking it and the Holly trees had grown really wiry trying to find light under the canopy of the massive Beech tree.
Trees chopped down (more or less)
Planting up and another half tonne of pea shingle
Resilient buggers Sycamore trees!
As it looked a few days before the wedding. Just how we like it, not a hint of untidy bush (snigger)
The Sycamore at the back was leaning into the wall and cracking it and the Holly trees had grown really wiry trying to find light under the canopy of the massive Beech tree.
Trees chopped down (more or less)
Planting up and another half tonne of pea shingle
Resilient buggers Sycamore trees!
As it looked a few days before the wedding. Just how we like it, not a hint of untidy bush (snigger)
and finally round the front, we had a pile of spare rocks (all of these were lying around outside the house, didn't have to buy a thing) so added something to an empty corner.
Finished - Although it was a bit temporary for the wedding as the twisted hazel and Acer grow way bigger than that bed and need a proper rooting into the ground, not a pile of soil/compost on concrete.
Finished - Although it was a bit temporary for the wedding as the twisted hazel and Acer grow way bigger than that bed and need a proper rooting into the ground, not a pile of soil/compost on concrete.
With the front sorted, the back needed a bit of work.
There were some dead willows encroaching the garden and they'd been killed by honey fungus - which is a massive pain in the arse to have but at least the wall foundations make a solid barrier to stop it spreading into the garden.
There was also an errant Sycamore that was kind of three trunks that blocked all the mid morning sun over the garden (north facing).
Seemed an appropriate excuse to buy a chainsaw.
Chop chop chop
Turns out trees are a lot bigger when they're on the ground, well, garage roof.
There was a brief moment of realisation as the tree crashed towards the garage roof I was stood on that there were better ways of testing the structural rigidity of a building than felling trees onto it at the same time as using it as a sawing platform
The trusty Galaxy was pressed into service to remove the branches and leaves to the tip. I didn't bother with bags and just piled it all in and took a shovel to the tip, much to the amusement of the attendants there.
It took more than one trip and I timed out on getting it all there before the tip shut, I probably shouldn't have left a full load of most freshly cut leaves in a sealed car overnight.
I got into it in the morning and there was fog in the car, the lcd clock said 86:88 and for the next six months I had to clear cobwebs from my seat before climbing in thanks to the colony of insects and spiders that had established a new ecosystem in the car.
On the plus side, I never needed another magic tree - it smelt like woodland after the rain in autumn for the rest of its serviceable life.
There were some dead willows encroaching the garden and they'd been killed by honey fungus - which is a massive pain in the arse to have but at least the wall foundations make a solid barrier to stop it spreading into the garden.
There was also an errant Sycamore that was kind of three trunks that blocked all the mid morning sun over the garden (north facing).
Seemed an appropriate excuse to buy a chainsaw.
Chop chop chop
Turns out trees are a lot bigger when they're on the ground, well, garage roof.
There was a brief moment of realisation as the tree crashed towards the garage roof I was stood on that there were better ways of testing the structural rigidity of a building than felling trees onto it at the same time as using it as a sawing platform
The trusty Galaxy was pressed into service to remove the branches and leaves to the tip. I didn't bother with bags and just piled it all in and took a shovel to the tip, much to the amusement of the attendants there.
It took more than one trip and I timed out on getting it all there before the tip shut, I probably shouldn't have left a full load of most freshly cut leaves in a sealed car overnight.
I got into it in the morning and there was fog in the car, the lcd clock said 86:88 and for the next six months I had to clear cobwebs from my seat before climbing in thanks to the colony of insects and spiders that had established a new ecosystem in the car.
On the plus side, I never needed another magic tree - it smelt like woodland after the rain in autumn for the rest of its serviceable life.
From what we can work out, the pit managers and chief accountant types used to live in the house at the grace of the company.
We think the salaries or at least a lot of cash was held on the premises as there's an old Milner's Fireproof Safe emblem outside and a wrought iron gate over the back door.
We've kept the plaque on the wall but the gate was removed and added to the scrap metal pile with the help of an angle grinder.
All my best renovating is done in vinyl slippers my mum gets me from Castleford market.
We think the salaries or at least a lot of cash was held on the premises as there's an old Milner's Fireproof Safe emblem outside and a wrought iron gate over the back door.
We've kept the plaque on the wall but the gate was removed and added to the scrap metal pile with the help of an angle grinder.
All my best renovating is done in vinyl slippers my mum gets me from Castleford market.
Next up for sorting was the old outside toilet. The surveyor had noted minor improvements needed such as "Recommend new roof, new walls and replacement door and window" .
Anyway, it fell down so took care of itself.
There's nothing like destruction for stress relief.
This side path was going to be the way guests came in to the marquee so we needed to make it all lovely...
Soon to be Mrs J set about painting the wall while I sorted the bricks into good and bad.
Little bit of mining trivia, they were all stamped with Ackton Hall colliery which was in nearby Featherstone and was the first to pit to close following the end of the miner's strike.
To fil some empty space, I made a rather lage planter (they're 3m lengths of timber) and plonked some climbing Hydrangea in there as they were due to be in flower when the wedding came around.
Yes, I know the trellis is upside down...
We tidied the toilet area with a Belfast sink we got from auction for a tenner and 'accessorised?!' with a mangle, also from auction and a rusty rat trap I dug up out-of the garden.
To say getting the mangle home was a faff was a bit of an understatement as we had to drive to Evesham and squeeze it in the Beemer. Thank God for company cars is all I'll say
Three weeks before the wedding, Sarah also delighted in telling me she'd bought some urns for a bargain £200 pounds, with the minor problem that they were in Glasgow and we, quite clearly, were not.
Realising the opportunity cost of letting me have a road trip to Scotland to pick them up was a days lost hard labour on the house, we coughed up another £100 for Shiply and I was sent back to the wedding prep coalface.
The finished, in bloom walkway, hose was tidied away for the big day, obviously.
Anyway, it fell down so took care of itself.
There's nothing like destruction for stress relief.
This side path was going to be the way guests came in to the marquee so we needed to make it all lovely...
Soon to be Mrs J set about painting the wall while I sorted the bricks into good and bad.
Little bit of mining trivia, they were all stamped with Ackton Hall colliery which was in nearby Featherstone and was the first to pit to close following the end of the miner's strike.
To fil some empty space, I made a rather lage planter (they're 3m lengths of timber) and plonked some climbing Hydrangea in there as they were due to be in flower when the wedding came around.
Yes, I know the trellis is upside down...
We tidied the toilet area with a Belfast sink we got from auction for a tenner and 'accessorised?!' with a mangle, also from auction and a rusty rat trap I dug up out-of the garden.
To say getting the mangle home was a faff was a bit of an understatement as we had to drive to Evesham and squeeze it in the Beemer. Thank God for company cars is all I'll say
Three weeks before the wedding, Sarah also delighted in telling me she'd bought some urns for a bargain £200 pounds, with the minor problem that they were in Glasgow and we, quite clearly, were not.
Realising the opportunity cost of letting me have a road trip to Scotland to pick them up was a days lost hard labour on the house, we coughed up another £100 for Shiply and I was sent back to the wedding prep coalface.
The finished, in bloom walkway, hose was tidied away for the big day, obviously.
Edited by stewjohnst on Thursday 6th October 09:22
Lifting the old decking had left a patch if ground that looked a bit untidy.
Instead of seeding and grassing it, a convoluted planter bed involving plants, old railway sleepers and yet more gravel was decided upon.
The sleepers were delivered to the front of the house and given the other half struggles to open a jar of jam, I just dragged and caber tossed them round to the back on my own.
The bed was bigger than the original problem it was covering but we wanted a bit of symmetry with the raised area we'd restored on the other side of the path.
Besides, it wasn't as if we'd done anything stupid like measure up for the marquee already and then take a massive bite out of that space with this planter bed
Instead of seeding and grassing it, a convoluted planter bed involving plants, old railway sleepers and yet more gravel was decided upon.
The sleepers were delivered to the front of the house and given the other half struggles to open a jar of jam, I just dragged and caber tossed them round to the back on my own.
The bed was bigger than the original problem it was covering but we wanted a bit of symmetry with the raised area we'd restored on the other side of the path.
Besides, it wasn't as if we'd done anything stupid like measure up for the marquee already and then take a massive bite out of that space with this planter bed
After cutting the sleepers to size for the bed, I had a couple of offcuts and as this planter box had been destroyed when the decking came up, I made a couple of steps to add another way to get around the garden.
Although we'd painted the garage wall and door, you're never going to make a prefabricated garage attractive so we masked it.
It was another case of make do and mend. We'd kept the old trellis fence panels and I just wedged them against the wall with a few blocks of timber.
I also gave the old wooden gutter that had come down from the roof a lock of black gloss and raised it on some of the old outhouse bricks so we could fill it with bedding plants.
We did spend about £40 on the chimney pot from a local salvage place and about £30 getting a mature ivy we could train over the trellis.
Turned out well if I say so myself.
Although we'd painted the garage wall and door, you're never going to make a prefabricated garage attractive so we masked it.
It was another case of make do and mend. We'd kept the old trellis fence panels and I just wedged them against the wall with a few blocks of timber.
I also gave the old wooden gutter that had come down from the roof a lock of black gloss and raised it on some of the old outhouse bricks so we could fill it with bedding plants.
We did spend about £40 on the chimney pot from a local salvage place and about £30 getting a mature ivy we could train over the trellis.
Turned out well if I say so myself.
Doing all the stuff on the garden meant we'd need places to sit.
Rather than buying a new garden seating set, we bought a bunch of bench ends from ebay and local salvage places for about £20-£25 quid a pair.
We toyed with getting them shot blasted but decided to leave them a bit more rustic as it fitted the current state of the house.
I then got a bundle of pressure treated wood strips and a bag of nuts and bolts to build up a load of benches.
A lick of paint or stain on each and they ended up like this.
The wedding sign on the bench is something I also found time to make. It was an old scaffold board I found rotting over the other side of the garden wall and was a good excuse to try out my (up to then non-existent) routing skills.
Rather than buying a new garden seating set, we bought a bunch of bench ends from ebay and local salvage places for about £20-£25 quid a pair.
We toyed with getting them shot blasted but decided to leave them a bit more rustic as it fitted the current state of the house.
I then got a bundle of pressure treated wood strips and a bag of nuts and bolts to build up a load of benches.
A lick of paint or stain on each and they ended up like this.
The wedding sign on the bench is something I also found time to make. It was an old scaffold board I found rotting over the other side of the garden wall and was a good excuse to try out my (up to then non-existent) routing skills.
The wife and I like to take turns doing something mental that the other of us wants to kill them for.
It was Sarah's turn this time.
There was one cupboard we'd removed and found some old quarry tiles underneath. The suspicion was they'd tiled over the lot with a horrible Spanish style terracotta knock off job.
We could see the quarry tiles at this spot because they'd tiled with the kitchen in situ and only tiles up to the units.
I went to work thinking it was a pity but there's nothing we can do about it. I should have told Sarah the same as I arrived home to this.
She’d decided to take up more of the times to see what they looked like underneath...
The idea they'd be stuck down with adhesive and therefore invisible hadn't occurred to her.
Sweeping brush and a few rubble sacks later, we had this to deal with.
I actually thought they had potential so I suggested we angle grinder the cement away and see what they look like.
After a weekend of grinding, I'd got industrial white finger and a decent line through the floor.
It was Sarah's turn this time.
There was one cupboard we'd removed and found some old quarry tiles underneath. The suspicion was they'd tiled over the lot with a horrible Spanish style terracotta knock off job.
We could see the quarry tiles at this spot because they'd tiled with the kitchen in situ and only tiles up to the units.
I went to work thinking it was a pity but there's nothing we can do about it. I should have told Sarah the same as I arrived home to this.
She’d decided to take up more of the times to see what they looked like underneath...
The idea they'd be stuck down with adhesive and therefore invisible hadn't occurred to her.
Sweeping brush and a few rubble sacks later, we had this to deal with.
I actually thought they had potential so I suggested we angle grinder the cement away and see what they look like.
After a weekend of grinding, I'd got industrial white finger and a decent line through the floor.
Edited by stewjohnst on Saturday 4th January 23:35
To be fair to the missus, I did buy a second angle grinder and she mucked in to and eventually we had as much of the cement off as we could and she declared that they "Don't look nice enough".
I tried to persuade her that th is kind of battered old quarry tile look was a 'thing' and quit hip but she didn't buy it.
What we did buy was some lino from BM Bargains because with a wedding looming, I didn't fancy shelling out to relay an entire floor of quarry tiles, including damp proofing, etc.
Naturally, the other half just assumed I could lay it. I should either be flattered at the belief seems has in my abilities or dismayed with her naivety that everything is just a five minute job.
The utility room is w quare and was piss easy, but the kitchen was a lot fiddlier with cutouts and a full width join to sort out too.
You can also see, this became the catalyst to do the kitchen properly as we'd taken the wall cupboards down as they were too oppressive and too low for the worktop. I'd also finally got round after a year to putting hands on th e drawers and cupboards.
I tried to persuade her that th is kind of battered old quarry tile look was a 'thing' and quit hip but she didn't buy it.
What we did buy was some lino from BM Bargains because with a wedding looming, I didn't fancy shelling out to relay an entire floor of quarry tiles, including damp proofing, etc.
Naturally, the other half just assumed I could lay it. I should either be flattered at the belief seems has in my abilities or dismayed with her naivety that everything is just a five minute job.
The utility room is w quare and was piss easy, but the kitchen was a lot fiddlier with cutouts and a full width join to sort out too.
You can also see, this became the catalyst to do the kitchen properly as we'd taken the wall cupboards down as they were too oppressive and too low for the worktop. I'd also finally got round after a year to putting hands on th e drawers and cupboards.
This is the first house I've ever owned so my first renovation.
I work in IT so am used to managing big projects so the prospect of a million things to do didn't really faze me but at the point of buying the house, I had no practical diy experience to speak of.
One of the biggest costs of the renovation was the buying of tools every time I started a new task. I think I've kept Toolstation in business the last few years.
As it's so different from my day job, I found this to easier to come home and do something totally different, talking to my builder, he's got a similar project on the go but because it's the same as his day job, he can never muster the motivation.
It isn't always marital bliss either, it's more good fortune than anything that we haven't disagreed when one of us had hold of anything deadly like a nail gun...
The only downside to all this is that even doing it ourselves, it hoovers up cash so my garage is very unph since I bought the house.
I work in IT so am used to managing big projects so the prospect of a million things to do didn't really faze me but at the point of buying the house, I had no practical diy experience to speak of.
One of the biggest costs of the renovation was the buying of tools every time I started a new task. I think I've kept Toolstation in business the last few years.
As it's so different from my day job, I found this to easier to come home and do something totally different, talking to my builder, he's got a similar project on the go but because it's the same as his day job, he can never muster the motivation.
It isn't always marital bliss either, it's more good fortune than anything that we haven't disagreed when one of us had hold of anything deadly like a nail gun...
The only downside to all this is that even doing it ourselves, it hoovers up cash so my garage is very unph since I bought the house.
As we'd kind of started doing the kitchen properly, we finally ordered a range.
On a tip from the electrician, we found an Iranian guy had a lockup in Bradford that specialises in refurbishing ranges and reselling them.
After a bit of driving around what seemed the middle of nowhere one Sunday morning we managed to find him. A token bit of haggling ensued and we got our range for £900 instead of the £1800 for a new one.
It has lasted about four years so far with only an oven bulb needing replacement so I'm happy enough with that.
Unfortunately, tips on where to find a cheap range was all the sparky was good for. I left him with two simple jobs to do and went to work.
1. Add a new consumer unit to get shot of the old 'make your own fuse and try not to die' thing.
2. Run a separate supply to the cooker point ready for the range.
I don't have a photo of how the consumer tails were left first time around but trust me there was about another metre of tail on each feed from the meter to the unit. There was so much spare cable hanging down, I could have used it as a washing line.
He'd also managed to fit the consumer unit on the meter board, sort of. See if you think there's anything odd here.
I made him come back and put a board behind as I wasn't happy with hanging the unit with two screws on the end
As for job 2, to give him credit, he did route the cable as instructed so I could conceal it behind skirting but when I was wiring the range into the supply point, I noticed he'd got the blue wire wired into the live and brown into neutral on the socket.
This meant I didn't know whether he'd wired it wrong or been lazy, so I had to stop what I was doing, squeeze my fat arse back out from behind the range and check the wiring from the isolator switch to the range point to see if it was crossed. Then check the wire in to the isolator and out of the consumer unit to make sure the polarity was right all the way through.
It wasn't a big job, just a pain in the arse when I'd paid someone to not cock it up in the first place.
On a tip from the electrician, we found an Iranian guy had a lockup in Bradford that specialises in refurbishing ranges and reselling them.
After a bit of driving around what seemed the middle of nowhere one Sunday morning we managed to find him. A token bit of haggling ensued and we got our range for £900 instead of the £1800 for a new one.
It has lasted about four years so far with only an oven bulb needing replacement so I'm happy enough with that.
Unfortunately, tips on where to find a cheap range was all the sparky was good for. I left him with two simple jobs to do and went to work.
1. Add a new consumer unit to get shot of the old 'make your own fuse and try not to die' thing.
2. Run a separate supply to the cooker point ready for the range.
I don't have a photo of how the consumer tails were left first time around but trust me there was about another metre of tail on each feed from the meter to the unit. There was so much spare cable hanging down, I could have used it as a washing line.
He'd also managed to fit the consumer unit on the meter board, sort of. See if you think there's anything odd here.
I made him come back and put a board behind as I wasn't happy with hanging the unit with two screws on the end
As for job 2, to give him credit, he did route the cable as instructed so I could conceal it behind skirting but when I was wiring the range into the supply point, I noticed he'd got the blue wire wired into the live and brown into neutral on the socket.
This meant I didn't know whether he'd wired it wrong or been lazy, so I had to stop what I was doing, squeeze my fat arse back out from behind the range and check the wiring from the isolator switch to the range point to see if it was crossed. Then check the wire in to the isolator and out of the consumer unit to make sure the polarity was right all the way through.
It wasn't a big job, just a pain in the arse when I'd paid someone to not cock it up in the first place.
Inkyfingers said:
I've done plenty of projects, but never in my actual home.
Love the idea of quitting my job doing a full blown renovation for the family to live in. I would never aim to do it all myself, but i'd do as much as I could.
Would be easier if I had quit my job, this was all done on evenings and weekends (and a couple of weeks of holiday when there were too many things that were tight in the the schedule). Love the idea of quitting my job doing a full blown renovation for the family to live in. I would never aim to do it all myself, but i'd do as much as I could.
Cracking on, we took out the old wall units and I'm guessing whoever installed them must have got the shock of their life.
I'm quite please I'd had the consumer unit done. When pulling one of the units off the wall, it pulled the mains cable out along from behind the wall as one of the screws holding the units on hand been screwed through the cable
The old extractor hole wasn't needed anymore but I took the opportunity to use the isolator for the extractor as an extra circuit for a set of outside plugs and chucked a run of cable through the wall before sealing it up.
We got our plasterer, Steve back to do a skim over the wall to make good and Sarah spent some time restoring the dresser that was covered in dust a few photos back.
We got it at auction for about £120 - the missus is a dab hand at sprucing that sort of thing up.
I'm quite please I'd had the consumer unit done. When pulling one of the units off the wall, it pulled the mains cable out along from behind the wall as one of the screws holding the units on hand been screwed through the cable
The old extractor hole wasn't needed anymore but I took the opportunity to use the isolator for the extractor as an extra circuit for a set of outside plugs and chucked a run of cable through the wall before sealing it up.
We got our plasterer, Steve back to do a skim over the wall to make good and Sarah spent some time restoring the dresser that was covered in dust a few photos back.
We got it at auction for about £120 - the missus is a dab hand at sprucing that sort of thing up.
Edited by stewjohnst on Sunday 9th October 22:13
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