My First Renovation

[Calum95]

So plenty has been going on in the last few weeks...

Firstly, I finally got round to removing all the old lead piping in the house and re-plumbed it using plastic, it was a relatively easy job and makes life much easier to move things around when i'm fitting the bathroom at a later date. Whats the general consensus on adding a separate shower cubical in the bathroom as opposed to an "L" bath with shower and screen? I have plenty of space for one but don't know if it's worth the extra cash and effort to fit one if i'm going to rent?



The next job was the windows, they were practically falling apart and well beyond repair, they also had old school secondary glazing which I was keen to get rid of. The guy doing them was a one man band and seems to have done a neat job, the only one left now is the curved bay which i'm squaring off and adding patio doors to. We removed the plinth bricks as I couldn't find any replacements for the new bay and didn't want it to look different.

Here's the before for the square bay







During







After





To prepare for the work on the bay window I have removed the inner skin of bricks and dug down for the footings to help out the bricky, my window fitter is removing the old windows over the weekend ready for the bricky to start on monday. I'm also due to go away for a 3 week trip soon so with any luck i'll have nice new patio doors when i'm back!



Next I had the task to bring the kitchen floor back up to the wooden floor level, I used a 4:1 sand and cement mix and plan on doing the final 10-20mm with floor leveler. Luckily my next door neighbour had a cement mixer he let me use, otherwise it would have taken a lot of wheel barrow mixes! It's not a perfect finish I know, however its my fist attempt so cut me some slack...





I also gave bricking up the doorway from the hall a go, luckily I didn't need to cut any blocks as I didn't have anything to do this with, I've tied it into the surrounding wall using metal ties. Just have the top two to put in now as it was getting late and I ran out of mortar.



Cheers for reading!
Cal

[Calum95]

richatnort said:

Looks good! I hope you're going to hide those plastic pipes under the floor in the bathroom though?

As for bath & shower idea. If your 100% going to rent it out i'd go for a bath only option, less to go wrong, less for you to have to reseal, less for the tennant to have to clean and keep tidy.

However if your going to live in it and sell it 100% get two. I'm saving to do my bathroom up at the minute and i'm going to get a bath and a separate shower.

I plan on hiding the pipes in the wall, the way they are at the minute is so I could still use the sink.

As i'm going to be living there for about a year I think i'll put one in, just need to figure out the best layout now.

[Calum95]

kiethton said:

thats a brilliant effort - coming on nicely

Thanks!

[Calum95]

richatnort said:

That's the most difficult bit i think! One tip i would suggest is getting this for your bath & shower https://www.ipsluk.co.uk/watertight-trim-sealux.ht...

Will mean if you do rent it out and the sealant goes you don't need to worry about water dripping onto the the floorboards and flooring the house. My dads a plumber and highly suggests them!

Can you tile over it with any tiles or do you need to use their own brand panels? Looks like a good product, thanks for sharing!

lancs16 said:

Good luck with the renovation and watching with interest as I live about 5 mins from there!

Did see that coming up for sale and thought it was well priced and right in the centre of Standish so easy to walk everywhere/go to school. Been to the Beeches yet?

Yeah I got quite a bit off the asking price too so think I got a good deal! Not been to the beeches yet, I've lived in Shevington my whole life though so have been to most of the other restaurants around here.

[Calum95]

Long time no speak!

I've been massively busy with the house recently and had so much to write about I've just been putting it off. Sorry guys.

When we left of last time I hadn't had the patio doors fitted yet:



These have replaced the bay window I had, the bricks that were removed from the bay were all curved, I've been told they could be worth something, does anyone know the best place to sell them?

Next we removed all the plaster back to bare brick in the kitchen prior to dot and dabbing as it made sense to try and make the walls as square as possible for the kitchen units (most of the plaster was falling off anyway). Somewhere in between this and getting the patio doors fitted, we also boarded the ceiling.



We then started the first fix of electrics and got all the spots drilled and sockets in place for the kitchen.




I've also installed CAT6 to every room and finally had my wifi installed, 75mbs is bliss compared to 5mbs at my mum and dads!

Then on to the dot an dabbing.



And then the plastering



At this stage its crazy how fast things seem to change, within a couple of days you go from a building site to something looking more like the finished article. Here's a couple after the first coat of paint.




While all this was going on in the kitchen, we were still cracking on with the bathroom too. We dot and dabbed one side where we are tiling and plastered the other side that's going to be painted. The bare plaster was tanked with a wetroom kit to seal the plasterboard and prepare it for tiling.





The toilet isn't permanently fixed yet as some of the plaster around the window above needs touching up and I want to fit it on top of the vinyl flooring I put in too.

After the kitchen was painted, we fitted the units and started the second fix before the laminate flooring went down.



Then we cut and installed the worktops.



I also made myself a unit to fit a pull out larder internal that I got off the internet. I had to make a door too as I couldn't get one in the required size and style of the ones I already have.




I've taken all of the doors off and given them to my mum to paint as she is way too critical of my own painting, it was much easier this way!

Next we laid the laminate flooring, fitted the ceiling mounted extractor fan and column radiator. This is where we're up to today, all that's left in the kitchen now is to fit the rest of the doors and fit the skirting and window boards.





On to the bathroom, we have just about finished tilling thanks to the help of my girlfriend doing it in her time off. The bath and shower tray are both fitted and hopefully tonight the shower enclosure and shower itself will be finished. We've installed the suspended ceiling frame so we can fit the cladding when we decide on the style we want.




I have also fitted a ladder loft hatch on the landing as the original was ridiculously small and in the bathroom.



Plasterer will be starting on the hall this week.

Thanks for reading!