Marky's refurb thread. 1940 run down semi.

[marky911]

Another small job before the cold weather was to mouse proof the house. As I've mentioned the house was full of mice when we bought it. All dead mind, we never actually seen one running about. After clearing out the loft and under all the floors (the house is simply the cleanest it's been since new) I set about covering the air bricks. This is where they'd been entering I'm sure as whenever I had access to a cavity wall there would be nests and bits of newspaper in the cavity insulation.

Painted the terracotta vents, grey and covered with mesh guards. Not one mouse in house over winter, although I had to wage war on them in garage. They were in my log pile. Got 6 over 2 days, then no more. I had to silicone up the garage door I don't use. That solved it.

[marky911]

Slightly off topic, but like I always say, anything goes in my threads, my mate Paul (who I bought my MK1 GT3 off a few years ago) popped round in November. He'd literally just collected this from Newcastle OPC. 20 miles on the clock when he got to mine. Awesome bit of kit.

[marky911]

Ok, bathroom now. Probably my favourite room. high pressure water system means great showers and the bath fills really quickly. As with everything else though it wasn't plain sailing. A couple of minor leaks. It took us 4 or 5 basins before we got one we liked or wasn't faulty. Still have water hammer even though I specifically told plumbers before they done it that I've had water hammer before and i didn't want it again.
Also without going into detail the toilet doesn't clear solids very well. Big 3 way discussion with Victoria Plumb, their Technical dept and me. They insisted it's cistern related, but I know its a simple case of physics. Too small an exit to U-bend. To be fair to them they let me choose a totally different loo and sent it free. However when we unpacked it last week the exit is tiny on that and then my plumber dropped the cistern and cracked it whilst fitting so that's the end of that. I've just been shopping yesterday for a loo I can actually see in person to see the exit size. I don't know.
Also my plumber is generally good and comes highly recommended from most of the villagers, but he has let himself down on a few things. No matter...









Bathroom still needs a shelf above door for loo rolls and a mirror/cabinet above sink. And of course another loo.
Kitchen/open plan to follow next time.

Edited by marky911 on Sunday 5th July 23:21

[marky911]

So what has Bailey the stzu been upto then?


Well he's had many baths.




He has chilled on the lawn.




He's had an operation and had to wear a lampshade. Not fun. He's on the mend though. Lampshade off now but he needs to grow his hair in as he still looks scalped.

[Craikeybaby]

Great update! I especially like the stairs, I can't really work out what we will do with our stairs, but I've got some inspiration now!

You weren't the only one who had a mad rush for Christmas, then slowed down a bit.

[hairyben]

marky911 said:

Ok, bathroom now. Probably my favourite room. high pressure water system means great showers and the bath fills really quickly. As with everything else though it wasn't plain sailing. A couple of minor leaks. It took us 4 or 5 basins before we got one we liked or wasn't faulty. Still have water hammer even though I specifically told plumbers before they done it that I've had water hammer before and i didn't want it again.
Also without going into detail the toilet doesn't clear solids very well. Big 3 way discussion with Victoria Plumb, their Technical dept and me. They insisted it's cistern related, but I know its a simple case of physics. Too small an exit to U-bend. To be fair to them they let me choose a totally different loo and sent it free. However when we unpacked it last week the exit is tiny on that and then my plumber dropped the cistern and cracked it whilst fitting so that's the end of that. I've just been shopping yesterday for a loo I can actually see in person to see the exit size. I don't know.
Also my plumber is generally good and comes highly recommended from most of the villagers, but he has let himself down on a few things. No matter...

TBF I've followed "highly recommend" so-called tradesmen from house to house putting their work right. I always advocate recommendations for trades (I've never really advertised) but the "still highly recommended after several years" are the best... I don't see why if your plumber broke the cistern why it's you sorting the replacement?

As for bogs not flushing right it's often a cistern/pan mismatch, often due to pans being designed for higher flush volumes (older or foreign market designs) being used with UK cisterns restricted to smaller flushes. Basically laziness and lack of knowledge on everyone from the manufacturer down, through the retailer to installer.

[maxest]

Great update Mark, neighbours sound like tools lol,, all the work you've carried out is only going to have a positive effect on theirs property.. I've recently found a house that's just about perfect, other than its all done and ready to go, I really wanted a project but reading what you've gone through is making me think differently

[marky911]

Hi Craikey, yeah I guessed you must be either finished or slowing down as I've seen more posts from you in the cycling forum than in here.
I'll have to look on your thread again. Last time I popped on you were doing the garage. Good stuff.

You're right Ben the cistern is down to the plumber who said straight away "I'll pay for a new one" but having looked at the tiny outlet on the new Victoria Plumb loo it still looks pathetic so I am cutting my losses and buying a quality loo that I can actually go and see in a showroom to check exit size etc. Yes you're right about recommendations, my plumber lives in the next village and has done work for nearly everyone in our village but I'll admit a few things have let him down. Never mind.

Thanks maxest. Regarding your prospective purchase. If you can afford a house you want in the location you want without the need to do any work to it then I'd say jump at the blooming' thing!
The only reason we took this on is because 1) I always change things anyway so why not just do the house from scratch to your own spec and more importantly 2) It was the only way we could afford to get a house in this village and it's very very rare to get a garage at all, let alone a double one, as even the more period properties round the corner don't have garages or off street parking.

At the minute I'm in the "Never again!" camp, but give me a few years and I'll be prepared to do it again. We fully plan on staying here. We would 100% be here for life if it was detached but it's semi-detached. I work shifts and sometimes can't sleep at night. If we were detached I would go down and watch a film or something but I'm always wary of waking next door and have them complaining. Everyone says I'm daft and I should just live how I want to live in my house, but its about being considerate isn't it. Even though next door would bang on my door when my joiner started hammering at 8.50 am on a Tuesday, yet we've been woken by his electric guitar at 8.30 am on a Saturday. Go figure.

Anyway, like I say if you can get the house you want, have a couple of stressful days from moving day, then resume normal life, then do it! I've had no life for a year and a half really, although this year is better but only because I'm putting things off.

Edited by marky911 on Thursday 9th July 18:57

[r1flyguy1]

Great thread Mark,

I'm in the midst of an extension build, not to the same size that's for sure, but reading your thread and seeing your ideas provides 'inspiration'

I'm doing as much as I can myself with the help of my dad who's a chippy by trade but used to building factories and houses, he should also be retired but refuses to give up which is good for me

I'd love a double garage but have to make do with extending forward at present

Loving the staircase, looks great

[lufbramatt]

Interesting thread, just spent longer than I should have reading through, Looks superb now!

Re. the toilet pan, I used to work for Geberit when they first entered the UK market. They make a range of concealed toilet cisterns amongst other things. We used to have to approve toilet pans to ensure they worked with our cisterns- the test was "quite realistic" with a mixture of fake poos and sawdust being dropped in the pan on a test rig and a series of flushes carried out to ensure they clear properly.

Often the ones that failed were from the discount bathroom places, and come from places like Brazil that are allowed to flush with much higher water volumes. Often we'd get customers moaning that our cisterns were to blame when it was actually dodgy pan designs, as at the end of the day all the cistern does it drop a couple of litres of water through a hole.

http://www.geberit.co.uk/media/local_media/Geberit...

[Craikeybaby]

marky911 said:

Hi Craikey, yeah I guessed you must be either finished or slowing down as I've seen more posts from you in the cycling forum than in here.
I'll have to look on your thread again. Last time I popped on you were doing the garage. Good stuff.

There haven't been many updates since then to be fair, this year has been pretty quiet. I've mostly been out on my bike, while Jen has been emptying her crap out of what will be the master bedroom, so we can do that up.

[marky911]

Evening chaps,
Long overdue post on this old thread of mine. It basically proved too hard to keep it updated whilst working long hours and doing the work on the house at weekends. Plus Photobucket killed all the links to my pics and I simply wouldn’t have time to re-do them. I see they are kind of visible now.

Anyway, I thought I’d round it up at long last, as I received a lot of good info and moral support throughout the work.
We did eventually get it finished obviously and we enjoyed our time there but ultimately we still had a wish list that would be better suited to another house, eg larger than double garage but most importantly, detached for a bit more privacy etc.


So we put the house up for sale last January I think it was and agreed a sale in February. Of course Covid then struck so it didn’t complete until July. We weren’t sure where to go next so decided to rent to have an easy life for a while and to find the ideal house/plot.

So as I say, this is basically a final round up post. I’ll post a few fresh before, during and after pics of each room/area. I may have to split it into a few posts.
I’ll know doubt be duplicating some info but anyway…

The bulk of the work was complete by 2015, with the gardens and driveway being done during ’16/’17.

I’ll start with the inside. The best room in the house was the open plan kitchen diner, which had previously been a few rooms combined.
You’d come in the front door from the porch and be standing in a pokey hallway with the stairs in front, a door to the right into living room and a door to the left into the dining room.






So left into dining room -





Then from dining room into galley kitchen -




Looking back along kitchen. Door on left is from dining room. Door ahead is in external wall of house out into store.





Out of that door into store and there was an old loo, passageway to garage foot door and a door to left into the front of main store. (Plus door to right out into back garden)





Main store






Bare roof in old store, which was re-roofed and veluxes added.





So going back to front door to go through the work.
Left hand stair wall taken down with beam put in. Can now see into dining room.




Then all other walls taken out, so kitchen/dining room wall, main dining room end wall/chimney breast wall plus all walls in the store and store to garage window bricked up/





View from other end back towards front door including floor being dug out to 15 inches -





The largest beam being trimmed for fitting.





Thought we’d save the floor at the stairs end of the room but we couldn’t so that came up too.





Underfloor runs laid out, then floors screeded -





French doors, bi-folds and veluxes installed,





All finished -














So that’s that room done. The rest won’t be as long, as they didn’t get as much structural work or flors dug up etc.

[marky911]

The only room on the ground floor after that was the living room.

It hadn’t looked too bad at purchase but the floor was ruined and there was a bit to do regarding fireplace etc.






Old door from end of kitchen bricked up.




Fireplace ripped out including back boiler etc.








Room finished.







Upstairs now then -

Not only did we take out the stair wall on the ground floor but we removed it upstairs too.
Seen here on the right, before the work.





On the right here too, taken 180 degrees round. You’ll also see the small landing window too. More on that in a minute.





You can also see across to the bathroom door (right) and a separate loo (door on left).






Wall removed and also old loo walls taken down. New walls were then built to form a shower cubicle accessed from the bathroom. There was now another small window which used to be in the loo. A large window was formed from the 2 small ones to bring much more light in.







Landing finished

[marky911]

Bedrooms
Minor work to the bedrooms by comparison. Rewire, plumbing, lighting, sockets, brick up a doorway here and there, etc. Oh and concrete lintels fitted above every door as they were flagged up during survey as being absent.

Main bedroom

When purchased -






During -

First thing to do was block up the door way into an old boiler cupboard. It ran along back wall of bathroom so was incorporated into bathroom.






My joiner mate did the skirtings, doors and window sills in oak.




Lights/electrics progressing




Finished, although never got around to fitting decent wardrobes etc.








Second bedroom

When purchased -







Chimney breast had been removed downstairs in open plan room, so another beam was fitted with a support plate. Fireplace then covered up, etc.





Finished





Bedroom 3
This room became an office/craft room for Mrs Marky. We had a load of spare kitchen units left, thanks to Wren kitchens, so I used them with a different worktop and different handles.







Bathroom

As mentioned earlier, that old boiler cupboard that was accessed from the bedroom ran along the back of the bathroom. So we removed the wall to let us move the bath further back and incorporate a loo into the bathroom.









Then the old separate loo was knocked down and rebuilt to house a separate shower cubicle.





Shower plumbed and alcove built into wall.





Bath Tv wiring in and alcove.





Finished

[marky911]

Just the external stuff now, of which there was a lot over the years but I’ll just post up the basics.

I can’t find any pictures of the rear garden when done but it was very nice. Multi level with a large patio outside of kitchen bi-folds etc.
I‘ll just cover the front garden and driveway though. That’s where a lot of the work went.

Various views of the old garden, fences, etc. -









So first job was to fence it all off, then sort the planter along main road. -







The above projects and the one below were done a good while before the main works. I should have waited to do the next part, for when we had the digger, as it took a while digging it out by hand.

There were dwarf walls down either side of the driveway with garden to right and a planted area to left. These contained huge out of control conifers, etc. As seen in one of the above pics.

I’d be concentrating on the left side section seen here.





A one of the lads from the pub chopped all the trees down for us, then I set about getting the roots out.





After that me and a friend (local farmer) dug out the soil by hand and dumped it on another farmers yard as he was building a ridge to break the wind a bit.





All done, all be it leaving the fence posts slightly exposed.




That’s how it stayed for a little while until the main works went ahead for the main garden area.
We wanted this wall down and most of the trees down.





Digger in. Let’s get clearing -





A different farmer took our waste away. He charged £100 per load but that’s cheaper than skips. 19 loads went though.





The plot was on clay soil so the lawns always had a mote around them when it rained, so we cleared the whole plot to install proper drainage, then new top soil etc.




Trying to leave the borders in tact as my wife had planted a lot in there -





Stoned up for driveway and path, plus railway sleepers to define borders and make planters/walls out of -





Block edges and paths laid. (Field drains yet to go in behind car) -





Top soil in (with fields drains) and driveway laid -







Lawn laid -




We built a sleeper wall down the other side, where I’d dug out above -





You get the idea in this photo. Taken when the farmer was chasing the bulls out from the back field into the truck.




Another job worth mentioning that took way longer than expected was to clad over the old quarry tile window sills outside, using welsh slate like the roof. I couldn’t stand the old brown clay colour and some of them were cracked etc.





It made such a difference once done though and tied them into the roof -






Then I built a pergola -









So that’s about it.
The main works were done by 2016, but I was always pottering on with something or other until we moved out last summer.

So some before and afters of outside -

Driveway entrance before -







Driveway entrance after. (We’d been for a drive out in the cars. Mine isn’t the Performante unfortunately ) -







Garage before -



Garage after. (Car is a friends.). -





House before -










House after -

Edited by marky911 on Tuesday 9th February 20:53

Edited by marky911 on Tuesday 9th February 20:56

[marky911]

Conclusion

So was it worth it?
Well it was a lot of hard work and many a time I uttered the words “I wish I’d never seen this place”.

But ultimately, of course it was worth it. It was the only way we could afford to buy in the village it was in and by doing so I realised a 20 year ambition. We also got to have a brand new house technically, that we’d spec’d ourselves.

It was however meant to be our forever home, which unfortunately didn’t happen. Having said that we chose to move out so it’s not like that part went horribly wrong or anything. I guess it’s just human nature and once you get finished, you get complacent and look at what isn’t perfect about the house and village, rather than being grateful.

I am grateful, mega grateful, but as I said in my opening post earlier, ultimately we’d like a detached on a nice private plot with room for a big garage.
So it’s onwards and upwards and on to the next one. We’ve been renting since last July and are completing on our new one (1920’s bungalow) next week.

I may start a thread, as like I say, it’s great getting info and feedback from you guys that have done it all before.
I should be able to keep the next thread updated a bit better as the project is a lot easier, well, initially it will be, but more on that later.

Anyway, that’s my project done. Small-fry compared to some on here, but an achievement for us.

Thanks gents. :thumb:


PS. I can't finish without a dog pic.

We lost Bailey the stzu in March 2016. Awesome little dog and a huge miss. It’s a given we’ll probably outlive our dogs though, so it’s inevitable we’ll have to part ways at some point.

RIP Bailey.





We weren’t going to get another dog but the house was just horribly empty without him. We didn’t want another stzu as we’d probably always be comparing it to Bailey, even though they’re all different. Anyway, I was at Croft with a mate one day and when I came home Mrs Marky had bought two Maltese.

Enter, Alfie and Charlie. They’re bonkers.




So all’s well that ends well.
As I say, onwards and upwards. Roll the dice and onto the next one.
Cheers.



PPS. We will miss the views out of the upstairs windows. Like I say, the next place is a bungalow (for now) so although it's surrounded by countryside we won't have great views for a while.

Edited by marky911 on Tuesday 9th February 21:06

[Brother D]

Awesome thread - thanks for documenting it. Looking forward to the next project : )

[Morningside]

That is utterly wonderful and I really wish I had the talent to do that. I would certainly love to see your next venture.

I'm sorry to say seeing the loss of Bailey did give me a bit of a missed heart beat as he looked a tiny bit like our Poppy and I know what it's like to lose a dog (well many) and it is always an end of an era as they are always there.

[rustyuk]

Great thread - we are just coming to the end of a 5 year project and I'm starting to get itchy feet. Lots of hard work (and bloody money) but we couldn't have afforded to buy this house now 5 years ago.

I'm starting to think the perfect house within budget doesn't exist.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Well done, knew you'd moved some how but nice to see this thread tied up! Just got planning permission for my latest dev through yesterday as it happens...



Designed it tale end of last year and got it in for planning in December, should break ground in April and hopefully get it ready to market end of year/early '22. Itching to get started as finished the last one in bloody August, sale took forever.