Farmhouse renovation project
Discussion
5potTurbo said:
What's with all the flies? 
We had a cluster fly invasion. Apparently they hibernate in the gaps between the roof tiles, but the unseasonably warm October saw millions of the little buggers all wake up and invade the loft space. Pest control kills them dead, but they apparently let off a pheromone once killed, so their offspring converge to the same spot next season: it's a difficult cycle to break.The pest guy let off his bomb, and my god! They descended down the loft hatches and completely filled the house. You could hear the buzzing from the outside. No joke, I've hovered up buckets full.
olly755 said:
5potTurbo said:
What's with all the flies?
We had a cluster fly invasion. Apparently they hibernate in the gaps between the roof tiles, but the unseasonably warm October saw millions of the little buggers all wake up and invade the loft space. Pest control kills them dead, but they apparently let off a pheromone once killed, so their offspring converge to the same spot next season: it's a difficult cycle to break.The pest guy let off his bomb, and my god! They descended down the loft hatches and completely filled the house. You could hear the buzzing from the outside. No joke, I've hovered up buckets full.
I remember years ago visiting a friend's house in France, which hwas a holiday home. The living room had to be vaccuumed when they went there as there were thousands of dead flies on the floor, but only in that 1st floor room. I guess it was a similar thing to yours - unless my friends really had a dead body stashed somewhere!!
Maybe time for an update.
We're in. We're not finished. We missed the Xmas deadline. It was possible, but both of us were overworking and too many things would have been unfinished, so we left it until February. A great decision. The house is working very well. It's solid, warm, efficient, economical. And there's still plenty to do: lots of finicky bits, little jobs (that seem to take lots of time) and the gardens are levelled but not landscaped. I'm not resting yet.
A few pics.
New oil boiler in new utility space. I've since built cabinets and installed washer, dryer etc, but no finishes yet.
Some detail where old beams meet new. The beams in the background are the new ones over the kitchen. We didn't like the colour of the timber after blasting: a bit of colour wash had tamed the yellowness.
Patio doors in, kitchen starting to go in. I'm making the kitchen from scratch.
Base units in
Rads on, light fittings starting to go on and I'm laying the floor here.
Fitted one of the wood burners. One moved house with us, and an identical new one was bought for the kitchen.
Painting and skirting our bedroom. Every single wall and surface has been prepped and painted by my lovely and hardworking OH, who has the patience and skill to do a job better than some professionals I have worked with.
She's also stained and polished the floors
Meanwhile I tiled the shower
And was delighted to stumble across a postcard for sale on the Internet from over 100 years ago...
We're in. We're not finished. We missed the Xmas deadline. It was possible, but both of us were overworking and too many things would have been unfinished, so we left it until February. A great decision. The house is working very well. It's solid, warm, efficient, economical. And there's still plenty to do: lots of finicky bits, little jobs (that seem to take lots of time) and the gardens are levelled but not landscaped. I'm not resting yet.
A few pics.
New oil boiler in new utility space. I've since built cabinets and installed washer, dryer etc, but no finishes yet.
Some detail where old beams meet new. The beams in the background are the new ones over the kitchen. We didn't like the colour of the timber after blasting: a bit of colour wash had tamed the yellowness.
Patio doors in, kitchen starting to go in. I'm making the kitchen from scratch.
Base units in
Rads on, light fittings starting to go on and I'm laying the floor here.
Fitted one of the wood burners. One moved house with us, and an identical new one was bought for the kitchen.
Painting and skirting our bedroom. Every single wall and surface has been prepped and painted by my lovely and hardworking OH, who has the patience and skill to do a job better than some professionals I have worked with.
She's also stained and polished the floors
Meanwhile I tiled the shower
And was delighted to stumble across a postcard for sale on the Internet from over 100 years ago...
Edited by olly755 on Thursday 16th June 21:28
Looks amazing, I have just finished similar in Devon, I needed to create a fair sized hearth and didn't want any joins, so I bought a few 6'x3' snooker tables (£25-30 each), slate is all one piece 1" thick, laid on top of cement slab with the "deck" sticking out 1" so the upright bits join flush.
I am looking for a few more so I can have slate shelves in the larder.
Looks awesome, just wish I had the skills to do it myself
I am looking for a few more so I can have slate shelves in the larder.
Looks awesome, just wish I had the skills to do it myself
I thought I'd update this thread for 2019, seeing as the photobucket photos seem to be working again. Guess what? We're not finished.
The worst thing you can do is move into a house that isn't really finished. Prior to moving in, I had a nice routine going whereby I'd finish work around 5, crack on in the empty house until around 8ish, and then head home. Add weekends, and you can easily do 28 hours a week, and the work gets done. It all goes to pot when you've moved in and working around family, the heating's on, and the lure of the telly, chat with the missus, play with the youngster and a beer in the fridge is too great. Plus, I was pretty knackered by this stage. Making everything yourself takes up tons of time. And we've been up to other things too that has kept my attention focused, but not on the house. Still, we're looking at finishing this year. By which time, rooms will need re doing. The cycle of keeping on top of houses.
I did do the lawn at the back, dug the drive, and almost finished the interior of each room. Also done some stuff outside, mostly finished the utility extension, and the oak porch is almost made. Will post some pics as we go.
Wil start with the kitchen. As with pretty much everything in the house, its built, not bought. Pippy European oak, slight wash for a limed effect. Oak island. Rivened granite. Lime washed beams (not original, I put these in to match the existing) Still not finished (need to put in an extractor). Obligatory F&B colour pallette. Table is going, in process of making a new one. Excuse the hostess trolley, there for Xmas. Nearly there.
The worst thing you can do is move into a house that isn't really finished. Prior to moving in, I had a nice routine going whereby I'd finish work around 5, crack on in the empty house until around 8ish, and then head home. Add weekends, and you can easily do 28 hours a week, and the work gets done. It all goes to pot when you've moved in and working around family, the heating's on, and the lure of the telly, chat with the missus, play with the youngster and a beer in the fridge is too great. Plus, I was pretty knackered by this stage. Making everything yourself takes up tons of time. And we've been up to other things too that has kept my attention focused, but not on the house. Still, we're looking at finishing this year. By which time, rooms will need re doing. The cycle of keeping on top of houses.
I did do the lawn at the back, dug the drive, and almost finished the interior of each room. Also done some stuff outside, mostly finished the utility extension, and the oak porch is almost made. Will post some pics as we go.
Wil start with the kitchen. As with pretty much everything in the house, its built, not bought. Pippy European oak, slight wash for a limed effect. Oak island. Rivened granite. Lime washed beams (not original, I put these in to match the existing) Still not finished (need to put in an extractor). Obligatory F&B colour pallette. Table is going, in process of making a new one. Excuse the hostess trolley, there for Xmas. Nearly there.
Kind works, thanks. Not Mouseman stools, plain old olly ones that I made a few years ago.
Another job I had to tackle were the gable ends. They had all suffered from a poor maintenance/lack of repair. I'd already restored one when part of the roof came off early on. Straight away after the move it became apparent that we were sharing our bedroom with tweety birds in the roof somewhere. Then a flea type thing was found crawling on my phone screen whilst lay in bed early one morning, and the OH went ape s
t. Turned out to be bird mites. So I phoned for the scaffolder and work commenced.
Not in good shape. The bird st tells the story.
Around 4x builders bucketfulls of nests, old and new
Before and after. The before is on the left...
New end spars, laths, mortar pointed verges, redid the tiling with some new reclaimed handmades, larch fascias, soffits, 2 coats of primer, 2x undercoat and 2x gloss black. Pointed the brickwork above scaffolding. Result:
Another job I had to tackle were the gable ends. They had all suffered from a poor maintenance/lack of repair. I'd already restored one when part of the roof came off early on. Straight away after the move it became apparent that we were sharing our bedroom with tweety birds in the roof somewhere. Then a flea type thing was found crawling on my phone screen whilst lay in bed early one morning, and the OH went ape s
t. Turned out to be bird mites. So I phoned for the scaffolder and work commenced.Not in good shape. The bird s
t tells the story.Around 4x builders bucketfulls of nests, old and new
Before and after. The before is on the left...
New end spars, laths, mortar pointed verges, redid the tiling with some new reclaimed handmades, larch fascias, soffits, 2 coats of primer, 2x undercoat and 2x gloss black. Pointed the brickwork above scaffolding. Result:
This looks lovely - many jobs well done!
We are currently renovating a house that we moved in to mid September. I agree with your sentiment that it's much harder to do when living there. We are a family of 5 with 3 young kids (7,5 and 10mths).
Hoping to just blast everything and get finished by this summer.
We are currently renovating a house that we moved in to mid September. I agree with your sentiment that it's much harder to do when living there. We are a family of 5 with 3 young kids (7,5 and 10mths).
Hoping to just blast everything and get finished by this summer.
A couple more pictures to update. Taken advantage of the lovely weather to get my porch up. Knocked it up ages ago and it's been lying around: it just needed some finishing. The brick pillars were the very first job I did on the house. Just tiling to go.
|https://thumbsnap.com/uXKzwfPP[/url]
Also a shot of the front of the house now that it's almost there. The flagging has been done, and I've done the paths in cobbles and setts reclaimed from other areas of the house. I'll admit I'm not touching the garden: a friend is planting out a cottage garden at the front. I've also put on the fence pails this morning but forgot to take a photo.
|https://thumbsnap.com/uXKzwfPP[/url]Also a shot of the front of the house now that it's almost there. The flagging has been done, and I've done the paths in cobbles and setts reclaimed from other areas of the house. I'll admit I'm not touching the garden: a friend is planting out a cottage garden at the front. I've also put on the fence pails this morning but forgot to take a photo.
^^ Thanks very much. I agonised for weeks over going biomass over conventional. The grants were generous and available at the time, and being rural it made sense.
In the end I’m really glad we didn’t. The costs were telephone numbers to install, the reliability not great, and your average Joe Plumber knows nothing about them. I don’t think the house is big enough to warrant it. We would have lost the utility to a big hopper and pellet store. And the house is really well insulated and now very warm and efficient. A simple, robust Grant oil boiler and a tank went in for under 2 grand, around a tenth of the cost of a sophisticated pellet and hopper system. And of course we have 2x Clearview stoves (the best) that burn free fuel (all kiln dried oak offcuts from work) all winter. The boiler ‘stat remains on the lowest setting all winter. Our oil bill is just under a grand a year. It would have taken longer than the serviceable life of a biomass boiler just to break even.
In the end I’m really glad we didn’t. The costs were telephone numbers to install, the reliability not great, and your average Joe Plumber knows nothing about them. I don’t think the house is big enough to warrant it. We would have lost the utility to a big hopper and pellet store. And the house is really well insulated and now very warm and efficient. A simple, robust Grant oil boiler and a tank went in for under 2 grand, around a tenth of the cost of a sophisticated pellet and hopper system. And of course we have 2x Clearview stoves (the best) that burn free fuel (all kiln dried oak offcuts from work) all winter. The boiler ‘stat remains on the lowest setting all winter. Our oil bill is just under a grand a year. It would have taken longer than the serviceable life of a biomass boiler just to break even.
Edited by olly755 on Monday 25th February 21:12
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