Marky's refurb thread. 1940 run down semi.
Discussion
Ok quick update.
Underfloor heating pipe in and screeded -
Porch knocked down -
New main stopcock outside. Another nightmare. Internal one needed moving but when plumbers went to turn off outside one it was seized and leaking. Ground was flooded under flap. Northumbria water came out and couldn't find main one in street. Said it had been tarmac'd over. Booked another appointment to dig up road and find it. Good lads though. They did me a free repair because it was leaking they also make sure it's done within 5 days due to water waste. Builders dug a channel along back of house to relocate new stopcock in garage.
Bathroom skimmed -
Tiler coming next week.
Underfloor heating pipe in and screeded -
Porch knocked down -
New main stopcock outside. Another nightmare. Internal one needed moving but when plumbers went to turn off outside one it was seized and leaking. Ground was flooded under flap. Northumbria water came out and couldn't find main one in street. Said it had been tarmac'd over. Booked another appointment to dig up road and find it. Good lads though. They did me a free repair because it was leaking they also make sure it's done within 5 days due to water waste. Builders dug a channel along back of house to relocate new stopcock in garage.
Bathroom skimmed -
Tiler coming next week.
Sad day. The GT3 has to go. My wife and I have both put extra coffers in the pot along the way to enable me to keep the car but to be honest it will be a weight off my mind to just sell it and get the house done. It's getting to the point where I didn't want to use the car due to racking the miles up, so what's the point of having one. I'll go back to basics once the house is done and get something I can just use and enjoy and maybe something too nice to use as well, just for shows. Nothing grand just a little classic or an old Ford or something. I still have a bikey itch too, maybe a retro style cafe racer though as I don't trust myself on super bikes anymore.
So it'll be bye bye GT3 soon. I've hardly used it for 2 years now (in fact I've only had it 2 years
) and it's currently hidden away in a mates barn out in the wilderness.
"But what about Bailey the s
tzu!?" I hear you ask. Ok, I don't but I'll tell you anyway. Well he's still been in the wars.
He got bad hay fever which blocked his nasal passages, which meant really goopy eyes. We took him to the vets and they put some drops in to examine him. They turned his eyes bright green and to make matters worse he was also overdue at the groomers so he had not one, but two bobbles in his hair. The pic below is not photoshopped or anything -
Anyway he's all better now. He lost that bottom tooth at the last house chewing on a door frame when we were at work. He thought "You leave me on my own, I give you a door frame to paint."
-
Not into his IT as much as he was at the last house though -
So it'll be bye bye GT3 soon. I've hardly used it for 2 years now (in fact I've only had it 2 years
) and it's currently hidden away in a mates barn out in the wilderness.
"But what about Bailey the s
tzu!?" I hear you ask. Ok, I don't but I'll tell you anyway. Well he's still been in the wars. He got bad hay fever which blocked his nasal passages, which meant really goopy eyes. We took him to the vets and they put some drops in to examine him. They turned his eyes bright green and to make matters worse he was also overdue at the groomers so he had not one, but two bobbles in his hair. The pic below is not photoshopped or anything -
Anyway he's all better now. He lost that bottom tooth at the last house chewing on a door frame when we were at work. He thought "You leave me on my own, I give you a door frame to paint."
- 
Not into his IT as much as he was at the last house though -
Echo! Echo! Echo! 
Phew! That was a tough few weeks. I didn't want to say too much for security reasons, incase any wrong'uns know where the house is, but we had to move out for all the building work. We were losing everything at once such as kitchen, bathroom, electrics, plumbing so had no choice. I ended up back with my parents 15 miles from the house and my wife ended up back at her mums in Newcastle.
Not ideal. Anyway, we got back in last weekend, in a fashion as my wife is a teacher and was back at work on Monday.
We still have no kitchen, seating or anything but we are back in. It actually feels like we've been on a long, stressful journey for not much gain as we still have no kitchen as mentioned and are still using garden furniture inside the house instead of in the garden. Fun and games.
I couldn't keep the thread updated as working full time and managing the project was bloody hard going. Anyway, I'll update over the next few days to try and get to current day.
So, we had planned on keeping the old floor where the kitchen and dining room had been but once we moved the kitchen for the bi-folds to be cut into the back wall we realised the floor was in a poor state. Someone has self-levelled over the asphalt at some point then put lino down. New floor required. That'll be another £3000 out of the budget then. The house has bled us dry.
Old floor -
Dig it up -
New floor down and hole for bi-folds cut into wall. Fortunately our underfloor heating manifold (for the other part of the floor) had a spare port on it so I only had to buy £100's worth of pipe to have underfloor in this floor too. -
Photobucket running painfully slow, like 5 mins to upload one pic, so I'm gonna call it a night. Will get up to date soon, hopefully.
Phew! That was a tough few weeks. I didn't want to say too much for security reasons, incase any wrong'uns know where the house is, but we had to move out for all the building work. We were losing everything at once such as kitchen, bathroom, electrics, plumbing so had no choice. I ended up back with my parents 15 miles from the house and my wife ended up back at her mums in Newcastle.
Not ideal. Anyway, we got back in last weekend, in a fashion as my wife is a teacher and was back at work on Monday.
We still have no kitchen, seating or anything but we are back in. It actually feels like we've been on a long, stressful journey for not much gain as we still have no kitchen as mentioned and are still using garden furniture inside the house instead of in the garden. Fun and games.
I couldn't keep the thread updated as working full time and managing the project was bloody hard going. Anyway, I'll update over the next few days to try and get to current day.
So, we had planned on keeping the old floor where the kitchen and dining room had been but once we moved the kitchen for the bi-folds to be cut into the back wall we realised the floor was in a poor state. Someone has self-levelled over the asphalt at some point then put lino down. New floor required. That'll be another £3000 out of the budget then. The house has bled us dry.
Old floor -
Dig it up -
New floor down and hole for bi-folds cut into wall. Fortunately our underfloor heating manifold (for the other part of the floor) had a spare port on it so I only had to buy £100's worth of pipe to have underfloor in this floor too. -
Photobucket running painfully slow, like 5 mins to upload one pic, so I'm gonna call it a night. Will get up to date soon, hopefully.
Edited by marky911 on Saturday 6th September 00:34
New loft hatch and ladder to replace tiny old one. Old hatch was asbestos which was pointed out in the survey so had to go.
We are very carefully working through the buyers survey to remedy everything it mentioned. After all there is no point ending up with our dream house only to find it unsellable later because we focussed on decor rather than the fundamental structure.
That brings us nicely onto the next pic. The survey said there were no lintels above interior doors. It turns out that actually there was but they were rather thin timber items. We therefore decided to fit new concrete items when fitting the new door frames.
We are very carefully working through the buyers survey to remedy everything it mentioned. After all there is no point ending up with our dream house only to find it unsellable later because we focussed on decor rather than the fundamental structure.
That brings us nicely onto the next pic. The survey said there were no lintels above interior doors. It turns out that actually there was but they were rather thin timber items. We therefore decided to fit new concrete items when fitting the new door frames.
The window on the right in the pic below used to be in the separate little room with the loo in it. This is gone now and the shower cubicle is accessed form the bathroom. The wind has now become a landing window in addition to the original one.
We decided to have the nib to the right extended to centralise the windows, then cut the brickwork away to form one large window. -
Window in -
View -
Probably one of the simplest but best things we've done. Makes a huge difference to the landing especially now some of the walls have been taken down. What was a very dingy claustrophobic area is now modern in feeling and light. I'm going to make a window seat for my wife, well and me, for reading or chilling with a bit of music on. Bit to go before we get to the chilling stage mind.
We decided to have the nib to the right extended to centralise the windows, then cut the brickwork away to form one large window. -
Window in -
View -
Probably one of the simplest but best things we've done. Makes a huge difference to the landing especially now some of the walls have been taken down. What was a very dingy claustrophobic area is now modern in feeling and light. I'm going to make a window seat for my wife, well and me, for reading or chilling with a bit of music on. Bit to go before we get to the chilling stage mind.
My plasterer is on holiday for 2 weeks but before he went he made a big push to get the upstairs finished and work his way downstairs. We needed this so that my mate/electrician could get the new consumer unit on and get us the upstairs lighting and sockets on, so we could move back in. The garage is also on so the kitchen stuff like fridge and oven are on extensions from the garage.
It's a bit busy some days.
New porch built -
New windows for front of house coming soon and lighting etc to go either side of porch. The window company we use are a small family firm and are busy at the minute and also short staffed due to the holiday season.
New windows will come in a more traditional style and have glazing bars to try and backdate the property a bit. It looks a bit 70's at the moment.
I also want to clad the old red quarry tile window sills in welsh slate to tie in with the roof. Not perfect but better than old broken tiles in a horrible brown/red. I need planning for that so will have to apply over the winter to do the work in spring.
We are still waiting for a date to attend the committee meeting to argue our case for the gateposts yet. Fitted my lights and number slate anyway. We daren't buy gates yet though.
Anyway, more to follow next week or whenever I get the chance. Thanks.
New porch built -
New windows for front of house coming soon and lighting etc to go either side of porch. The window company we use are a small family firm and are busy at the minute and also short staffed due to the holiday season.
New windows will come in a more traditional style and have glazing bars to try and backdate the property a bit. It looks a bit 70's at the moment.
I also want to clad the old red quarry tile window sills in welsh slate to tie in with the roof. Not perfect but better than old broken tiles in a horrible brown/red. I need planning for that so will have to apply over the winter to do the work in spring.
We are still waiting for a date to attend the committee meeting to argue our case for the gateposts yet. Fitted my lights and number slate anyway. We daren't buy gates yet though.
Anyway, more to follow next week or whenever I get the chance. Thanks.
Edited by marky911 on Saturday 6th September 01:28
Coming on well Marky. The gates thing is a huge f*cking joke. You've made it look a million times better and the lighting and slate sign are bang on. Are you going for UPVC windows or timber? We're going for Georgian sash style in UPVC 'foil' effect and whilst they are clearly not timber, they are pretty convincing until you're very close up. We decided to go with wood on the stuff you touch everyday, like the front door and the back door. Still undecided about the bi-fold doors as to have them in timber is very expensive and they tend to be more troublesome than the aluminium or UPVC ones due to shrinkage, flexing and maintenance etc.
In fact, we're up almost to the top of the second floor so I should really update my thread!
In fact, we're up almost to the top of the second floor so I should really update my thread!
marky911 said:
Firstly wall ties because we are tackling all the issues on the survey whilst also carrying out the new things we want to add -
Old ones isolated and new ones drilled -
Out of interest, how do they tie the new ties from that front skin to the inner skin? I'm thinking of the stainless steel wire things yeah? So if they poke them through those slots, how to they fix to the inside? And if you're going to say they cut slots on the inside too - how do they get them to line up?!!! And then do they just put mortar in around them? taOld ones isolated and new ones drilled -
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