1960's to now : our renovation

1960's to now : our renovation

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croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 22nd December 2015
quotequote all
Which pipe work? The stuff in the yellow room? I need a universal point to run stuff into the roof so once it's all run it'll be boxed in for ease of access.

Not encountered asbestos yet other than the cold water tank... Touch wood!

Nest is a gen 2 I believe, I have a habit of buying stuff and it being superseded within a matter of weeks. It's a great bit of kit however ours is struggling as we haven't got the hall radiator fitted yet so it's trying to heat the whole house to raise the residual temperature.

It should in the next month or two begin to really take shape, just waiting for some doors to be blocked and new ones cut in, and then the rewire and hopefully then plaster time!

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 22nd December 2015
quotequote all
Also rhino tubs...


We love them

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 22nd December 2015
quotequote all
forgive my absolute naivity... but what is the point of cat5 or indeed cat 6? I've seen it mentioned alot but thought it was aimed more at multi media home automation and offices?

We have 1x sky box, 1x router, and 1x laptop? other than a couple of additional tv's (one of which will mirror the existing sky box and the other a freeview/amazon fire thing) would I gain much benefit?

Anyone experienced BG Nexus sockets and switches? they offer a grey inserted brushed chrome that does my OCD well

https://www.electricalsupplies.co.uk/bg-nexus-meta...

Edited by croakey on Tuesday 22 December 20:27

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 22nd December 2015
quotequote all
Also i've seen these on a design blog...



Cannot for the life of me decide if they're tacky or not.... could run them off a dusk/dawn sensor thats going to run the porch lighting?

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Wednesday 23rd December 2015
quotequote all
Cheers Slagathore - the grey inserts are what I want as they are less fussy in my eyes.

I've ordered a multitude of spot lights for the bathroom, kitchen and porch off eBay so fingers crossed they'll be ok. They're all IP65 and fire resistant so exceed the requirements in 2 of the 3 applications.

Odd question! Any value in a used boiler? We've obviously had our old one replaced with a loft mounted one and have a 5-6 year old Worcester GreenStar left over (conventional boiler. I hate to see waste, just wonder if there's a way to offer it for reuse?

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 5th January 2016
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Kitchen is here.

Won't be able to install it for another couple of weeks though.

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 5th January 2016
quotequote all
Yep!

Sadly I've got to wait for the rewire to be done and some annual leave and I can crack on with it then!

Have someone coming to look at buying the old boiler tonight. Could offset a service I've just had one on the Volvo tip bus

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 5th January 2016
quotequote all
We've gone for a kitchen from diykitchens over howdens, best friend is a designer for howdens but the specification on the diykitchens was markedly higher for not much more money.

Boiler in the loft was a "must do" as it gains us some useful space, trying to do the core jobs first and then make it pretty afterwards

I'm fortunate that our garage is about a third bigger than a single garage, just needs a major sort out first!

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 5th January 2016
quotequote all
Take the board off and reboard, will make it a huge amount easier to re tile, less making good etc etc.


croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Tuesday 5th January 2016
quotequote all
So there is money in secondhand boilers...



£150 back in the pot

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
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The day of reckoning for the grotty old porch...

My installer is sending me updates as he goes





croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
quotequote all
We have a door


croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Wednesday 6th January 2016
quotequote all


Some final finishing required once the inside has been lined out but a massive improvement I think you'll agree

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Saturday 9th January 2016
quotequote all
Rewire is impending and want some advice.

1) have ordered underfloor heating for the porch (frees up space) and for the bathroom. Anyone recommend it for kitchens or is it a likely waste of money?

2) the wife has decided she wants a towel rail that works on both central heating and electricity, conversion valves or specialist make?... Also recommendations welcome

3) I want to have a mirrored sky output in the study running off the box in the living room, I'd like to be able to control it as well?

4) Best place to locate CCTV hard drives? I'd like it hidden away and then viewable on the bedroom tv. My issues would be around the use of a mouse. Would an infrared one with an extended USB source be a good idea?

5) I've got dusk to dawn sensor for external lights- could I have a timer unit prior to this so that I could turn them off after a certain time and then back on? For example On dusk till 0000hrs and then back on at 0430hrs to dawn?

Appreciate any advice, mind is currently going over time!!!

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Saturday 9th January 2016
quotequote all
Emeye said:
croakey said:
Rewire is impending and want some advice.

1) have ordered underfloor heating for the porch (frees up space) and for the bathroom. Anyone recommend it for kitchens or is it a likely waste of money?

2) the wife has decided she wants a towel rail that works on both central heating and electricity, conversion valves or specialist make?... Also recommendations welcome

3) I want to have a mirrored sky output in the study running off the box in the living room, I'd like to be able to control it as well?

4) Best place to locate CCTV hard drives? I'd like it hidden away and then viewable on the bedroom tv. My issues would be around the use of a mouse. Would an infrared one with an extended USB source be a good idea?

5) I've got dusk to dawn sensor for external lights- could I have a timer unit prior to this so that I could turn them off after a certain time and then back on? For example On dusk till 0000hrs and then back on at 0430hrs to dawn?

Appreciate any advice, mind is currently going over time!!!
1) I thought I was being a bit extravagant fitting a radiator in my garage and loft, isn't a heated porch a bit unnecessary? What is your honking on this?

2) We have an electric element that screws in to the bottom of the bathroom radiator. Be aware that this solution can throw out the angle or that valve compared to the other side, so think carefully about it before buying anything.

3) you could run co-ax or even hdmi with a spliter. With the co-ax you can still get an "eye" to control it, or use the wifi app on your phone which is what we use these days.

4) I would have said loft, but there could be overheating issues in summer. May not be an issue depending on the specs?

5) Let us know what you come up with on this one. I want something similar!
We want to use the porch as usable space, nothing is worse than damp shoes and coats. It's currently single skin brick on its external walls. Plan is to insulate thoroughly and install underfloor.

So if I bought an infrared mouse I could run an extender and have it sat alongside the wall mounted tv?

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Saturday 9th January 2016
quotequote all
I'm thinking what we don't need heating in the kitchen... Blocking up the 3 massive air bricks installed from presumably when it had a floor mounted boiler should make it warmer!

I did electronics as part of D&T at school which admittedly is 15 years ago now (Christ I suddenly feel old at nearly 31!). If in theory a timer controlled switch was wired in prior to the dusk dawn would that not resolve my somewhat OCD lighting issue?

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Sunday 10th January 2016
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I'll likely leave it as dusk dawn, just trying to figure if it was possible

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Wednesday 13th January 2016
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Days off work are meant to be.... Days to do work at home.

Decided to make a start on insulating and boarding out our porch.

Now I've never done plasterboard before, I'd imagine starting on something simple and square would of been a sound place to start. The porch is anything but.

Pictures:












...still a bit left to sort before the plasterer can get to work!







croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Wednesday 13th January 2016
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Likely will leave the outside alone,
Would stand out like a sore thumb if we went all out!

croakey

Original Poster:

1,193 posts

189 months

Thursday 14th January 2016
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It's not as exciting as others and there haven't been any major gains yet, however it's a real world refurb being done on a limited budget.

Soon the money will run dry and projects will need to become more creative with budgets etc