House renovation and garage build

[Craikeybaby]

Had a really productive day at the house today, only just got back in time for Top Gear!

We've both got tomorrow off, so should get more done tomorrow, we're planning on doing the first proper coat of paint in what will be my office and the spare bedroom.

[Craikeybaby]

I haven't updated the thread as the only progress has been painting. Although when we got to the house today there was a strange beeping, after checking every room it turned out to be the mains smoke alarm in the lounge. It sounds like a battery smoke alarm with a flat battery, but meant to be mains powered, so Rutherford investigation is needed.

[Craikeybaby]

Thanks, he really did care about his house, and we did feel a bit bad at the state it was in, especially as the rewire was happening. We had to go back to the house last night as the alarm was going off and when we were looking around to make sure there hadn't been a break in the rooms we've been decorating over the weekend looked really good!

[Craikeybaby]

This week I have learnt that not all matt magnolia emulsion is equal, Crown in what will be my office looks patchy with generally poor coverage, whereas Dulux in the back bedroom looks great. Both are going to get a second coat anyway, but I was surprised at the difference.

[Craikeybaby]

Last few days have been a bit rubbish - had a wisdom tooth removed, hopefully I'll be feeling better for a full weekend on the house.

The MIL has been off work and has painted some of the woodwork, so at least there has been some progress this week.

[Craikeybaby]

Made good progress today, finished the walls/ceilings in the rooms we had plastered and went out with my mate to buy a Z4 (he'd only been looking for 11 months).

Next jobs are cutting skirting boards, the refitting the radiators. I've been told that it is best to paint the rear side black, and fit a reflective sheet on the wall behind the radiator. Is t worth it? The logic behind it makes sense, but would it make a noticeable difference?

[Craikeybaby]

Slower progress today, got the skirting board for the office cut, which tok a while as I did a lot of measuring before cutting - something I've learnt from past experience. Despite my best measuring the longer runs of skirting don't fit flush to the wall, which I don't think is bang on straight, should I trust the grip fill to hold the wood against the wall? I'm not really sure how else to do it, as it is only a thin layer of plaster, then bricks.

Another lesson learnt is that sockets etc really need masked up, cleaning them up after takes a lot longer than doing the masking in the first place!

Sorry for the lack of pictures, its been dark by the time we've finished this weekend, hopefully I'll get some pictures when the skirting boards are on so there will be a decent change from the before!

[Craikeybaby]

paulrockliffe said:

Isolate the sockets, unscrew the faceplates and wrap in clingfilm. Much quicker than masking them!

Thanks, I'll try that next time!

scottri said:

Assuming the gaps are not too big then just stick/screw the skirting to the wall and then run decorators chaulk along the top of the skirting to hide the gaps. I just no-nails mine to the wall, blobs of it on the back of the skirting takes up any uneven walls.

Thanks! I think I've just got to have faith in the grip fill. I was planning to run a bead of caulk along the top anyway, so will see how it goes.

[Craikeybaby]

After getting stranded in Paris last weekend, we're back at the house now, as we're allegedly moving in in less than 2 weeks!

Really struggling with cutting the skirting boards around the fireplace in the back bedroom:


Back bedroom by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

I'm not sure that the floor is flat, which isn't helping with the mitre joins lining up. Should the bottom of the skirting be on the floor? Or should we be leaving a couple of mm anyway to allow for this sort of thing?

On a more positive note the skirting for the office has been glossed & will be fitted this afternoon when the gloss has dried.

[Craikeybaby]

Had another few productive days on the house - all the skirting boards are now cut and primed. The ones for my office have also had a coat of gloss and have been fitted, unfortunately neither the skirting boards or the walls were straight, so we've had to nail them to the walls to keep them flat while the grip fill dries, the moment of truth will be when I pull the nails out tomorrow! If that is successful, we'll use the same method in the back bedroom, if not I'm not too sure how we'll attach them!

We've also sugar soaped and sanded the radiators ready for painting tomorrow, so hopefully the weather holds out, the MIL dug the veg patch for us and finished the non skirting glossing in the two rooms, so we should have the rooms ready for carpet next weekend. Which is good as we bought carpets today and they're getting fitted on the 26th!

We'd tried the local places recommended on a PH thread, but in the end Carpet Right seemed to be significantly cheaper (even with charging for grippers etc) with their 70% off sale - I certainly wouldn't pay full price though!

Gingerbread Man said:

Quite often skirting has a slight gap between the bottom edge and the floor boards. I think the carpet gets tucked into it after going over the gripper.

You ideally want the skirting level and to fill any slight gaps from an undulating floor with decorators corking if you haven't a floor covering going on top of the floor boards. But if the floor is miles out then you'll have to go with it a bit.

Thanks, that's what we ended up doing in the end, the floorboards aren't actually out by much, if was just a bit of a panic yesterday when we were cutting skirting and it wasn't fitting together.

[Craikeybaby]

Good shout! I think I'm going to need to get plugs/screws etc (and more than likely a better drill ) to fit the radiators and curtain rails anyway.

[Craikeybaby]

On to plan B (or is it C now?) skirting boards weren't stuck on when we arrived this morning, removing the nails made it worse. So will borrow the FIL's hammer drill and go down the drill, plug & screw route.

On a more positive note, I've painted one of the radiators and it looks a lot better.

[Craikeybaby]

Thanks for the tip, it sounds quicker than how we were doing it - 6mm drill all the way through, remove skirting, insert plugs into wall, 8mm drill halfway through skirting to countersink screw head. Does 7mm correspond to the screw head or the hole needed for the plug?

[Craikeybaby]

Thanks, I'll try that, it should be quicker than drilling the skiting again to countersink the screws.

[Craikeybaby]

Managed to get round to the house for an hour after work, and made more progress than al day yesterday! Buying more power tools and advice from PH must be the key! All the skirting boards in what will be my office are screwed to the wall, we even managed it before the neighbours little boy went to bed the other sideif the wall. There's one corner where there's a bit of a gap, I think it's due to the screw pulling through the wood where I'd countersunk it, but that will be maskable with caulk and behind the desk anyway.

One reason I've let this go rather than cut a new bit of skirting board is that we have booked the removal firm for Wednesday next week so we need to get cracking!

[Craikeybaby]

More progress after work yesterday, all the skirting boards fitted, bar the ones we couldn't get to with the drill without an extension lead - will be finished today after work. Screw holes in the skirting board in the office have been filled, we may even get the final coat of paint on them today too.

Hopefully the final coat of paint on the bedroom radiator is on, I'll post a picture later/tomorrow, to show just how much difference it made.

We now also have a new bathroom suite, in the lounge.

3 days to go before the carpets get fitted and 4 days to go before we move in, but we may have to wait a bit before we own the house as solicitors are being a pain.

[Craikeybaby]

After the positive update yesterday it was a bit Ida disaster after work. The second coat of paint on the radiator looked worse than just one coat and the MIL thought the skirting boards in the back bedroom were so bad she wants to get a carpenter friend in to do it again. I didn't think it was THAT bad, but what we don't need, with carpes being fitted on Tuesday, is more delays.

That combined with the bad weather, not being able to shake the cold I've had since last weekend, the buyers of my flat (asking to delay by a few weeks due to holiday, despite part of the reason I accepted their low offer was that they said they wanted to move quickly), buyers solicitors (leaving queries to the last minute, after doing nothing for months) and sellers solicitors (spelling every name wrong on contracts and instead of saying they don't have documents, they just send something else, needlessly delaying the process), means that I'm getting a bit fed up of the house before we've even moved in.

[Craikeybaby]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

Stick with it. This is the worst, and everything will get better. Trust me, it's often like this!

Thanks, I'm more positive this evening.

The third coat of paint on the radiator left it with a good finish, better light when it was applied and a warmer room while it dried probably both helped. I also cut the reflectors to go behind the radiators when we fit them.

The picture from my iPhone doesn't really do justice to how much better the painted radiator looks:

Radiators by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

The skirting boards in the office also got their final coat of paint, they need caulking, but that is a job for tomorrow as the missus was too keen to paint and forgot. The carpenter the MIL insisted on getting to redo the skirting in the bedroom is going to reuse the original skirting, he wasn't surprised that we struggled with the uneven floor and the skirting boards we used as they're much thinner than the old stuff. He's coming to do the job on Monday, so hopefully we can get them painted before the carpet is fitted.

I'm not worrying about solicitors etc until Monday, as it is out of my hands now.

[Craikeybaby]

Thanks! It's also good to know people are reading this.

This morning has been mainly spent packing up my flat and filling holes in the plaster.

[Craikeybaby]

Yup, the conveyancing process is annoying, I'm using a good firm of solicitors, but the other parties aren't. We're lucky in that we can move in before we've bought the house, but have a £500 service charge to pay for the flat if we still own it on the 1st April, which would be useful to have to spend on the house, rather than waiting to get it back through solicitors.

On a more positive note we had a productive few hours at the house. On the way over we stopped to get curtains & a curtain rail for the bedroom as we only have 3 sleeps left in the flat! After spending £90 to cover the windows in one room I thought I go for the cheaper option of fitting the blind I'd bought for my old office when I moved to the fat (5 years ago), but didn't get round to fitting. I wasn't sure if I should fit it inside the frame or over the frame, but I went with over the frame, it probably doesn't look as good, but I didn't fancy trimming the blind to fit inside the frame.


Office by Lewis Craik, on Flickr


Office by Lewis Craik, on Flickr

We went around the skirting with caulk, it doesn't look bad at all now, all that's left to do in the office before the carpet is fitted on Tuesday, is fit the radiator, which it another coat of paint this afternoon. Then I need to find a vent cover that looks better than the cheap plastic offs in the DIY sheds, I'm sure Wickes had a nice wooden one last year hat would have been perfect, but I can't find it in store or online.