Guy's House Project
Discussion
Feeling like there's been some progress this week. The walls in the older part of the house are just cardboard. Literally. All needs re-doing with proper plaster and insulation but I've been retiscent about starting this lest I find horrors behind. Thankfully, no such dramas uncovered follwing some exploratory holes. Timber frame of the building is nice and dry and sound so very happy that it's just a case now of new insulation, plasterboard and skim to do these parts.
Put theslaves family to work this weekend smashing stuff up stripping out the two front bedrooms. As anyone with young children knows, they have a very short attention span but amazingly, the demolition part of the project really got them going and they actually did a tangibly useful amount of work! Eldest (5yrs) in particular as his is one of the rooms we're working on.
Only the landing, hall and donwstairs front room to go!!
Eldest has also found a good use for the empty downstairs too....
Put the
Only the landing, hall and donwstairs front room to go!!
Eldest has also found a good use for the empty downstairs too....
hadenough! said:
Have you had any sort of asbestos survey before you started smashing the house to pieces?
No but we did a load of experimental holes here and there with a builder before we started smashing in earnest. We were worried we might find something like that in the walls but aside from some old wasps nests, there was nothing behind the cardboard inner skins. Thankfully!pfnsht said:
Ah only just seen your thread, I had this property saved in my rightmove account. Small world, but I've not progressed to sell my house so I was never in the running for it.
I've changed my username since but we're friends with the pub landlords in the village you came from!
PM me for a pint at some point then! We know no-one locally yet apart from an old mate from school that lives in Bassingbourn.I've changed my username since but we're friends with the pub landlords in the village you came from!
ETA, the house next door is for sale but it has and will take a while to sell as they want £100k more than we paid for ours, its actually a slightly smaller house and looks like it needs about the same amount of work!
Edited by E36GUY on Monday 29th February 09:04
To a progress report. Feels so good to have got rid of so much of the skanky old stuff once and for all over the weekend. Had it all collected up in the garage until we had enough for a skip. First skip is away and already we feel cleaner!
Builders start on site today for part A of the project which is to get the older part of the house re-furbished to a point we can move in which is intended for Easter weekend. Got a good price for finishing the stripping, celotex insulation to the exterior walls, replace all ceilings/wall skins in the downstairs front room, halls, stairs, landing and two front bedrooms so that's what's starting today.
In the meantime, we've had a local plumber round re-fitting what will be the boy's shower room following my stripping of the utterly hideous 'blue cheese' tiles etc. It's all looking rather nice. Great to have at least one space nearly finished!
Builders start on site today for part A of the project which is to get the older part of the house re-furbished to a point we can move in which is intended for Easter weekend. Got a good price for finishing the stripping, celotex insulation to the exterior walls, replace all ceilings/wall skins in the downstairs front room, halls, stairs, landing and two front bedrooms so that's what's starting today.
In the meantime, we've had a local plumber round re-fitting what will be the boy's shower room following my stripping of the utterly hideous 'blue cheese' tiles etc. It's all looking rather nice. Great to have at least one space nearly finished!
RalphyM said:
Hi Guy,
Looks great, can I ask what you used to produce the renderings?
A bit cheeky but you may remember that we used your lights for our ground floor renovation a while back. We are finalising the upstairs plans now so will be in touch shortly!
Cheers,
Ralph.
I used the lighting software Dialux. It's not supposed to be photo real as it's calculation software not CAD but you can get some decent effects when you get good at it. I used it mainly just to conceptualise and also to check dimensions such as beds etc in the smaller bedrooms to scale.Looks great, can I ask what you used to produce the renderings?
A bit cheeky but you may remember that we used your lights for our ground floor renovation a while back. We are finalising the upstairs plans now so will be in touch shortly!
Cheers,
Ralph.
BigBen said:
Spuffington said:
Excellent thread. Look forward to seeing it progress.
Bury Lane Farm Shop & Soft Play is great for the kids - just around the corner from you. My little'un loves it.
And a new soft play at Caxton any month now. But agree for the moment Bury Lane is the one to visit.Bury Lane Farm Shop & Soft Play is great for the kids - just around the corner from you. My little'un loves it.
Not a huge amount to report this week. Strip down is pretty much finished, the celotex exterior insulation is broadly finsihed and re-boarding has begun. Did some electrical work at the weekend with a electrician client/mate/legend which seemed to mostly revolve around removing the ridiculous items the previous lunatic owner had installed such as a full commercial fire alarm system and an old knackered burglar alarm. The wiring in this place is an absolute nightmare. Used 100 wires where two would have done.
It's been good to see the frame is all in good shape having had the interior walls out. Solid and dry as a bone all around the ground level and under the floorboards of the older part of the house. A considerable relief that nothing nasty has been uncovered.
Stair lift has been removed much to the disappointment of my boys who rather enjoyed it.....
.....allowing me to last night installed my stringer lights which are being set as two groups of three, one in the upper half of the stairs and one in the lower. The brick 'keys' for the exterior walls as well as some of the frame prevent me from doing one every other step as originally planned. Have used the ZEP3 In-Ground Dark Lights with Trim (a lip). Nice and small at only 38mm cut out and 44mm overall. These can be run anywhere from 1W (65 lumens) to 10W (over 900) but for my purposes, they will be 1W. If I decide that's not quite bright enough later on, it's just a case of swapping the single driver for one of a higher output.
The purpose of a dark light is that it recesses the light source inside a black non-reflective collar so that you get the output of the light but no line of sight into the light source and thus no glare. This is a theme that shall follow throughout the rest of the house.
Spark is back in tomorrow to finish off the required wiring then the builders shall close up and get plastering. We move on the 24th!!
It's been good to see the frame is all in good shape having had the interior walls out. Solid and dry as a bone all around the ground level and under the floorboards of the older part of the house. A considerable relief that nothing nasty has been uncovered.
Stair lift has been removed much to the disappointment of my boys who rather enjoyed it.....
.....allowing me to last night installed my stringer lights which are being set as two groups of three, one in the upper half of the stairs and one in the lower. The brick 'keys' for the exterior walls as well as some of the frame prevent me from doing one every other step as originally planned. Have used the ZEP3 In-Ground Dark Lights with Trim (a lip). Nice and small at only 38mm cut out and 44mm overall. These can be run anywhere from 1W (65 lumens) to 10W (over 900) but for my purposes, they will be 1W. If I decide that's not quite bright enough later on, it's just a case of swapping the single driver for one of a higher output.
The purpose of a dark light is that it recesses the light source inside a black non-reflective collar so that you get the output of the light but no line of sight into the light source and thus no glare. This is a theme that shall follow throughout the rest of the house.
Spark is back in tomorrow to finish off the required wiring then the builders shall close up and get plastering. We move on the 24th!!
red_slr said:
Looking like good progress. We are just at the end of ours. 3 months of hell. About 10 skips, lots of late nights (almost every night) and thrown more money at it than I care to recall. Carpets went in today, move in on Friday.
Congrats! Can't wait to move in. It's been years since we lived in a home we actually own!!
snobetter said:
Also regarding your stair lights, what depth are they and do they need a void behind?
Thanks.
Well I have used Dark Lights with the 1-4w engine which by their nature have a deeper bezel to recess the light source so these are 38mm cut out and need 80mm behind but they don't have to be as deep if you use the regular bezel which needs 60mm. We also have one imaginatively titled 'Low Profile' which needs 45mm but this would only be used if you're really pushed for space as it's drawback is that the size of the bezel does not allow any optics inside so we can't control the beam angles.Thanks.
Progress report.
It's going rather well. I've been waiting for something to go wrong and yesterday it did. I have not used the contractors for electrical as being in the lighting business I have several sparks that owe me a favour so I have been cashing in. Broadly we can re-use existing wiring circuits so there was no need to carry out any massive re-wiring. Until the builders, instead of simply stuffing the existing pendants from the landings up into the loft, just cut them away so we ended up with a mass of cables that we couldn't identify where they came from or where they went. A large pain the arse but my spark is a legend and now has it all sorted so we are pretty much done now with lighting circuits ready for my to install the fittings and throw the switch.
Plastering is now in full swing and is about 70% there and the rooms feel like rooms again. Already I can feel the difference the new insulation is making. Electrical should be finished tomorrow and then its the remains of the plastering and decorating the latter of which is already underway. Much to do in a week but we seem to be on track to move next Thursday!
In more PH oriented news, with my commute going from 5 miles to 24, it is time to retire the thirsty daily V8 for the weekends and I am awaiting delivery of my new commuter vehicle
It's going rather well. I've been waiting for something to go wrong and yesterday it did. I have not used the contractors for electrical as being in the lighting business I have several sparks that owe me a favour so I have been cashing in. Broadly we can re-use existing wiring circuits so there was no need to carry out any massive re-wiring. Until the builders, instead of simply stuffing the existing pendants from the landings up into the loft, just cut them away so we ended up with a mass of cables that we couldn't identify where they came from or where they went. A large pain the arse but my spark is a legend and now has it all sorted so we are pretty much done now with lighting circuits ready for my to install the fittings and throw the switch.
Plastering is now in full swing and is about 70% there and the rooms feel like rooms again. Already I can feel the difference the new insulation is making. Electrical should be finished tomorrow and then its the remains of the plastering and decorating the latter of which is already underway. Much to do in a week but we seem to be on track to move next Thursday!
In more PH oriented news, with my commute going from 5 miles to 24, it is time to retire the thirsty daily V8 for the weekends and I am awaiting delivery of my new commuter vehicle
5potTurbo said:
It's Thursday!!!
Are you in???
Ye of little faith. Yes we areAre you in???
It's not finished but our bedroom, the boys's and spare bedrooms, downstairs front rooms are all finsihed and carpeted. Landing, hall and stairs finsihed but not yet carpeted. But we're in and it's excellent. Pics to follow.
Muncher said:
That's cheating, we all want to see months of blood, sweat, injuries and disputes with builders!
I have to say, the builders were utterly fantastic. Given the tight timescales and how smoothly it's all gone, I have literally been worrying just waiting for something to go wrong! But it hasn't and I'm delighted. A first class service from start to finish. Given the work we've done which has been extensive, including carpets and bathroom fitting (and sanitaryware) I'm chuffed that we'll have done the lot on just a tiny smidge over £15k so far.
That's a complete strip down of the older part of the house back to its skeleton, celotex & rockwool insulation, plasterboard, skim, decorating, carpets, tiles, bathroom furniture.
Just carpet for hall, landing, stairs and small spare bedroom now to order and for me to finish lighting and electrical.
The following were taken pre-carpets and boxes coming in. Will post some more 'finished' shots tomorrow.
Downstairs Front Room (will be boys playroom in due course - our living room for now):
Urchin 1's room:
Urchin 2's room:
Landing:
From another angle
The old man helping with a bunk bed:
Bob the cat taking his new territory:
Spuffington said:
That's an impressive turnaround for the time and money. Job well done!
Also like the look of the bike. Am just beginning to dip my toe into the two-wheeled territory too.
I am enjoying being back on 2 wheels. Last time I had a bike was 2002 so it's taking a while to re-learn but I'm getting there. Commute is 25-30 mins each way which is good for 24 miles and yesterday the traffic on the A1 north from Hatfield was savage due to an accident but I still got home at 6.15. Perfect.Also like the look of the bike. Am just beginning to dip my toe into the two-wheeled territory too.
Two weeks after move and house is starting to feel like home. Finally finished off the electrics barring a couple of plug sockets. Now just waiting on carpets for stairs and landing and tiling for the hall downstairs but we can't afford the latter right now so it's going to have to wait. Otherwise, we're broadly finished part a and shall enjoy a few months of mortgage and rent free living before starting part B which shall be the addition of an ensuite bathroom in the room next to the bedroom and the great big extension.
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