1960's to now : our renovation

1960's to now : our renovation

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croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Sunday 5th February 2017
quotequote all
Thanks! Start a thread... everyone loves a build thread.

We're still weighing up decking over patio and getting some quotes back, entirely not sure eitherway.

Decking would have to be composite as we had soft wood decking before in our old place which rotted in the 4 years we were there.


croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Monday 6th February 2017
quotequote all
the slow down is a culmination of several things

1) Baby - albeit she is the easiest baby to deal with ever its hard to ignore her even when she's asleep
2) Work - I've got studying i'm doing for work at the moment which is taking up most of my free time.
3) Money - We'd run out!

So i've been playing with a garden planner software and sort of have more of an idea what we are aiming for now...



There are certain things that are unmovable/restricted. The house & garage obviously have to remain in situ. There is a well established apple tree far right of the garden, and there has to be a provision for our poncey indoor cats to be relocated outside.

I'm not a garden designer but think this layout maintains some defined zones child area (detailed below) , herbs/veg/fruit, lawn, patio.

Now as for the child zone...

the levels are off infront of the garage so there would need to be a drop in levels... my plan is to do this and then restrict access to the level side only and then drop something like this in there.



As per usual ideas and feedback welcome because essentially I'm winging it!

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Monday 6th February 2017
quotequote all
This is the one I used

http://www.smallblueprinter.com/garden/planner.htm...

Avoid the online one and just download the free trial... online one deleted my plans 3 times with no option to save!

Fairly straightforward even without the instruction manual

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 14th February 2017
quotequote all
That bit of over grown garden turned out to be deceptive - it's filled a 6yd skip and is a lot bigger than we initially gave it credit for.

Some current pictures







In other news I've noticed a lot of what appear to be drying cracks in the plaster work done, I'm hoping this is down to the seasonal movement we already know this area suffers from and the fact a new baby has meant the heating has been at 21 degrees the whole winter! Dragging the plasterer back this week to discuss a plan of action, albeit I'm thinking that I'll always have at least one hairline crack to filler at anyone time!

Still waiting for quotes for the relevant work to be done , just thought I'd show the couple of people still interested where we currently are.

(well aware my crappy pics make it look 10x bleaker than it is!)

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Wednesday 15th February 2017
quotequote all
Welshbeef said:
It also annoyingly for you two manholes so you'd not be able to block them with he Wendy house.


PS it looks MUCH bigger and so much better now
As far as I can see they've not been accessed for years. Concrete around them and then Wendy house on top me thinks!


Edited by croakey on Wednesday 15th February 12:54

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Wednesday 22nd February 2017
quotequote all
As you may have seen by my other post sense checking a paving quote we are now making solid plans to get the garden looking upto scratch.

We have done some digging out with the drains and discovered that the two troublesome drains 1) is a land drain/soakaway and 2) the other is inline with the drain in the centre of the garden. This by virtue of the fact one is purely for run off and the other is able to be accessed from another manhole less than 3m we are going to dump the playhouse over the top and worry less!

I think that we are going to go for slab similar to

It is an indian sandstone and seems to be the best option given our budget (not much) and my desire to have something nicer than the standard concrete pressed muck that B&Q flog.



i do quite like the idea of using some cobble setts to build in some other colours - sadly our house is one brick, the garage another, and the garden wall different again, so could be a nifty way to bring some cohesion to the whole garden.



Ive confirmed the finer details with the builder, i.e. full bed mortar, no crappy silly cuts - end it on a whole slab etc, and timescales... and he's booked for around the 1st March.


croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Wednesday 22nd February 2017
quotequote all
As you may have seen by my other post sense checking a paving quote we are now making solid plans to get the garden looking upto scratch.

We have done some digging out with the drains and discovered that the two troublesome drains 1) is a land drain/soakaway and 2) the other is inline with the drain in the centre of the garden. This by virtue of the fact one is purely for run off and the other is able to be accessed from another manhole less than 3m we are going to dump the playhouse over the top and worry less!

I think that we are going to go for slab similar to

It is an indian sandstone and seems to be the best option given our budget (not much) and my desire to have something nicer than the standard concrete pressed muck that B&Q flog.



i do quite like the idea of using some cobble setts to build in some other colours - sadly our house is one brick, the garage another, and the garden wall different again, so could be a nifty way to bring some cohesion to the whole garden.



Ive confirmed the finer details with the builder, i.e. full bed mortar, no crappy silly cuts - end it on a whole slab etc, and timescales... and he's booked for around the 1st March.


croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Saturday 25th February 2017
quotequote all
Ordered 56m2 of 900x600 sandstone and a pallet of cobbles from infinite paving.

Delivery is due this week!

Now to figure out what else we need!

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
WokingWedger said:
How did you get on with the cracks above the lintels ?

I have yet to do mine !
Having taken lots of advice we've filled some, hacked all the plaster off and boarded and plastered over... some cracks have appeared again but only very fine and more likely to be settlement. We shall see!


croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
Garden is now fully underway!



Old patio up... and there was ALOT of it (I say that like I know.. but I don't as I was at work!)








Albeit our plot looked level(ish) it's turned out to be all over the shop so the builder has had to work hard to get the levels we need.





The "play" area is stepped down and we are going to build a picket fence to prevent any accidents and keep daughter in once she's old enough and we've bought a play house/ astro Turf etc etc etc.

We decided against having a step down to the path / lawn and are going to slope both to suit. Not everyone's choice, handily we like it, and think less sharp edges to trip over the better







Progress is looking good and I think the cobbles will really set it off.

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
As always I'll keep this updated - I'm liking it so far, always good to see the finished result

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
Chris Type R said:
Did the old paving/skirt take much effort to knock out ?
I have no idea, think it took one guy a day to get the old slabs up, and remove the cast concrete.

I was at work.

Reality is it would have taken me days... seeing as I'm 32 with a bad back, a dodgy ankle and now a blown knee (joy)

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Wednesday 29th March 2017
quotequote all
Emeye said:
Welshbeef said:
Chris Type R said:
Looking to do something similar in our 60s/70s place this year. We have loads of concrete and old slabs to come up though. Paying someone to do the heavy lifting seems sensible.
It so is.
Damage to your back zero
Effort/pulling muscles zero
Fact you don't do it often so learning on the job taking longer
During my 60s house renovation, all the heavy lifting and demolition got me fit! And I enjoy destroying stuff.

Fitting and levelling flags drove me nuts, steel toe capped boot and decent gloves are a must - everytime I've done it, I wish I'd paid someone else to do it! But like my wife giving birth, I seem to forget how painful it was last time! biggrin
As the thread shows we did all the grunt work we could on the rest of the house , however the garden was a different ball game!

Also in sad news I sold my beloved 940 as it was sat doing nothing a majority of the time

Also they're rising in value so I made my money back including all the repairs I had done.

Still stand by that they are unbeatable as a house renovation tool.



croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Wednesday 29th March 2017
quotequote all
Phill_1981 said:
Have enjoyed flicking through this thread this morning! Top work!

Completing on my renovation on Friday and have the same sort of work to do!

Probably been asked before but I love that bathroom - Could you possible tell me where you got the tiles from and the colour/range name.

Thanks
they're from HR Johnsons and called Leaf, i think topps tiles sell them as seagrass for a fair bit more money

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 11th April 2017
quotequote all
The patio/path continues... money is running low so once this is done it's over me to do the other bits and pieces!
(Ignore the washing... it was the only chance I'd had to take some pictures!)







This forum still doesn't seem to like photobucket links it seems!



croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Friday 21st April 2017
quotequote all
Patio is literally just finished and is looking damn good if I say so myself.









... next up (when I have some money!) is the raised planters, fencing around the hardstanfing and a tidy up of the rest of the garden!!!

A very expensive experience but overall think it's made the best use of our south facing garden!




croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Friday 21st April 2017
quotequote all
Chris Type R said:
Looking good. If it were my place, I'd get the garage/outbuilding rendered and painted white.
Suggested it but the wife likes her "cute" garage. This was the reason for the cobbles to tie the varying brick colours in.

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 23rd May 2017
quotequote all
Not much progress to speak to recently, life , work, maternity pay (or lack of) have all played their part.

After my old chiminea bit the dust we've upgraded.






It's a beast!




croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 23rd May 2017
quotequote all
It's called a "ball of fire" from memory, that was offcuts of timber and some barn dried birch we've got knocking about.

The mesh screen stops 90% of spat out wood

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 23rd May 2017
quotequote all
spikedjack said:
Patio looks great, can you advise where you got these from? Just what I need but around 32sqm!
Cheers!
I should be on commission... infinitepaving.
Kandala grey and then somethinganother green cobb setts of which I have bloody loads left!