1960's to now : our renovation

[croakey]

Hallelujah the plumber has been and finished.... We now have a functioning kitchen!

In other news I've made a start on tiling...








I THINK my brave choice works?!?!

Just need to keep plodding along!

[croakey]

Welshbeef said:

Looking good - one thing I'd be changing all the internal doors for oak/engineered oak look that will dramatically transform the house.

You're reading the next chapter! They are booked in to be done in the near future

[croakey]

Not had the energy to finish the tiling owing to work commitments but hoping to finish off this week.

Gardener has been and carried on our schedule of making less of an OAP folly and more of a useable space.

[croakey]

Something called progress...

Kitchen is 95% done, waiting for the new back door to go in as the current one leaks (no one likes having a leaky back door!) and the carpenter is due this week to fit all the new internal doors etc. I can then touch up the missing bits of grout, final coat the walls and then get the skirting in and finish.









Baring in mind what we started with I'm incredibly happy with it, and seeing as PH is always curious about costs the total kitchen comes in at just over £5800 and that's inclusive of new appliances, plastering, new floors, tiles etc etc.

Remember my big gaping hole the builders made me?

Here's a very early view of why...






This now gives us more flow to the ground floor and floods the hallway that was previously quite dark with light. It's also nice to see the garden as you come in from the porch.

[croakey]

Also found a photo of the house from the very early 80's



Next up is the bathroom so I've started buying the required bits and pieces when I see a good deal...

£250+ aqualisa mixer shower for £140 delivered

[croakey]

Anyone able to suggest a company to supply door furniture?

[croakey]

It's sat on slate pads,that photo is not a great one to show it!

[croakey]

Long time no updates.... I'll cover why at the end!

So doors are in and have made a massive difference to the standard of the house. Doors are something I've overlooked before but these look great.



The dwarf door is a thing of the past and now is a proper full height one. Obviously will need the gaps filled, door trim etc but that can be done closer to plastering



Repointing was finished this week

Gardener has been working hard to rework the garden on a budget and removed the old rockery and i think it looks so much more welcoming now.






Bathroom is stripped back ready for its makeover next week..
[URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/croakey/media/House/DF0DB80A-01B3-4C76-9C00-620BCFA34E52_zpsvza6xjvn.jpg.html][/



Which will include (some plagiarised ideas off PH)... Showed the wife how good it looked and was told to similar!



Things occurring over the next fortnight..

Electrician is back to finalise jobs and fit Cctv

Rear patio doors and kitchen door being replaced

Kitchen can have woodwork fitted and finished and becomes a completed room

Bathroom will be finished

Doors varnished

Flooring upstairs fixed

Plasterer is cracking on with the upstairs.

... So why the lack of updates?

Well it appears a common enemy has been round

.

Our house of two (plus two cats) is soon to become three.

Timescale shortened considerably.

Edited by croakey on Sunday 15th May 23:15

[croakey]

WokingWedger said:

How did you resolve the cracks by the lintel in the end?

I have a similar issue.

This is a good question.

I've begun to accept we will always have an element of movement in the house as the whole area does. It's mainly heave caused by exceptionally wet London clay and exacerbated by old fashioned "boot" lintels

The attempts to minimise it have meant chasing out the cracks back to brick and the plasterer starting afresh in the hope of them holding off for longer.

I'll be sure to let you know how it progresses

Edited by croakey on Sunday 15th May 23:25

[croakey]

They are howdens doors and from memory Genoa. Come in it around £70 a door

[croakey]

Fortunately I've got (fingers crossed) till late October to be finished... Also having an impact on budgets etc.

Kevin McCloud has a lot to answer for sneaking about in his xc90 inseminating the populous with little thought for others.

[croakey]

I asked the same to the gardener who tells me it will be fine as south facing blah blah blah... He's the ex head greens man or the local golf course whose semi retired after 26 years. I hope he knows his turf!

He did mention that it was flat at that corner so has built in a gradient to drain away any excess water

So far it's out growing the rest of the garden so early signs are good.

[croakey]

So I still need some gates and the options are far and wide... Now I'd love some custom made ones BUT I need to keep the house on budget, not slightly over or even very over.

These caught my eye



Obviously I'll paint them to match the front door etc and they appear to be of decent spec. Not expecting them to last 25 years but if I can get 5-10 out of then I'd be happy.

Thoughts!?

[croakey]

Mates rates on the door and Windows came out around £1400. Currently on second door owing to the first one having substandard paint finish.

Believe the door was from eurocell.

Has made a big difference so far.

I've yet to finish boarding out the inside and getting it plastered as priorities lie elsewhere

[croakey]

Neilsfirst said:

Congratulations to you both.

Thank you Sir...

Having a sort of day off today as this has finished me off

[croakey]

Busy day today...

The cats have lost their bid to recreate a feline cool runnings



And the house has no bathroom.

Removing the bathroom floor to ply it has revealed the reason the living ceiling looks so wavy... None of the boards are particularly well screwed up. Should save some pennies and save on reboarding



Volvo has once again confirmed why a 940 is THE best choice for a renovation bus.

Much to the annoyance of a particularly rude timber merchant who took great pride by rudely voicing that it "won't fit unless you have a van".

1-0 to Croakey



4ft board width no issue and a 3.1m joist inside the car.Boot closed.

Also got the Cctv rigged up, albeit it momentarily worked via my phone and has since decided to get technical. I'll have to post up for some help tomorrow once I can write it down!

But so far so good. Some camera tweaking will be required at some point however.

[croakey]

Bathroom is progressing nicely...






Turns out some of our walls are untrue on all planes... Plasterer was cursing them while trying to bond them out flat.


CCTV teething problems resolved...thanks to PH!

A night view for those interested.



Quality is ok for a cheap domestic system, it suffers when viewed full screen as per a lot of other entry level systems.

[croakey]

Another day of being at work and leaving someone else to do the graft...



Underfloor heating in.





So we've gone from rough floor boards to ripping them up... Putting new floors down... Then putting tiles down that look like even more rough floor boards!

Starting to take shape ever so slowly

[croakey]

Kit stated it was happy to be fitted straight onto exterior graded ply- if you read back the existing floor boards were removed completely and replaced.

Fitment isn't 100% on spec... I over ordered by half a m2 so we've had to squeeze the extra in as it couldn't be cut down.

Bath panel will be more tiled ply so no issue if it does get some passive heat

[croakey]

Kev_Mk3 said:

Epic thread really making me want to actually work on my house rather than cars for a change. As I am away alot have been looking at cctv.


Any chance of a link to your kit at all?

Annke 8CH ProHD 1080N 960*1080 CCTV DVR+ 4x1.30 Megapixels Weatherproof Bullet Camera+1TB HDD Security Camera System, 1080P NVR Hybrid Recorder, Smart Recording, Easy DIY QR Code Scan Remote Access https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00K4WP5LI/ref=cm_sw_r...

According to Amazon it's that one... I think I paid under £140 though.

Like I said... For what it is it's not bad at all