Marky's refurb thread. 1940 run down semi.

Marky's refurb thread. 1940 run down semi.

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marky911

Original Poster:

4,417 posts

218 months

Thursday 2nd October 2014
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Pheo said:
Really like the vaulted ceiling! Great feature.
Cheers Pheo.
The extra height certainly makes the room feel bigger. Not looking forward to painting it mind. wink

EggsBenedict

1,770 posts

173 months

Thursday 2nd October 2014
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marky911 said:
Hi Eggs, here are a few quick snaps I took tonight. The builders were going to board straight across the bottom of the 2 purlins to form the flat central part of the ceiling but we thought it would be nice to make a feature of the purlins. The builder went across from the top edge of the purlins instead and we had the purlins plastered as we didn't want exposed wood. They weren't oak or anything.
Nice work. Thanks for posting that. That's a good point to settle at. I mean that you've not got lots of detail stuff in the ceiling to be dustraps and cobweb magnets, but you've still got that "it's been opened up to the roof" thing on the go.

Again, thanks for posting. Food for thought there.



marky911

Original Poster:

4,417 posts

218 months

Thursday 2nd October 2014
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No problem, Eggs. smile

In other news -

Plasterer cracking on as we want all the plastering finished by tomorrow. Oak beam fitted above stove and plastered up to. After that it's the rest of the skirtings, architrave and bits and bobs. I said I'd get my wife a window seat for under the new landing window too.





David my mate/joiner has been doing us a bespoke ash/oak staircase. Getting on well and should be done by the end of next week. He's actually using the original staircase, but cladding the stringers then fitting new posts, handrails, glass etc. Once carpeted it will look like a full oak staircase. It should look really nice when done and will come to about £1500 including labour and materials. David has also worked on the treads and risers to eliminate any creaks. No point in it looking great but creaking like a haunted house. -










P4T

221 posts

142 months

Friday 3rd October 2014
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Staircase is going to look very nice I'm sure. Ash has a very nice grain to it..

You have done well to keep calm with the Parish council and neighbours. I don't think I would have been as understanding. I try to keep my neighbours on side when doing any work and it seems to be working.. I can only imagine how painful it must be dealing with a Parish council!

Pheo

3,324 posts

201 months

Friday 3rd October 2014
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marky911 said:
No problem, Eggs. smile

In other news -

Plasterer cracking on as we want all the plastering finished by tomorrow. Oak beam fitted above stove and plastered up to. After that it's the rest of the skirtings, architrave and bits and bobs. I said I'd get my wife a window seat for under the new landing window too.





David my mate/joiner has been doing us a bespoke ash/oak staircase. Getting on well and should be done by the end of next week. He's actually using the original staircase, but cladding the stringers then fitting new posts, handrails, glass etc. Once carpeted it will look like a full oak staircase. It should look really nice when done and will come to about £1500 including labour and materials. David has also worked on the treads and risers to eliminate any creaks. No point in it looking great but creaking like a haunted house. -





Wow love the staircase, need to do something with our decidely 1970s one - wondering how to manage this as the newell posts are slightly offset, and a thin board at the edge makes it hard to drop any uprights in. Do you have any photos of the original staircase before changes?

marky911

Original Poster:

4,417 posts

218 months

Monday 20th October 2014
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Sorry P4T and Pheo, just seen your posts. Lost our landline and internet for a while the other week and have been busy since.

Yes P4T it's not ideal falling out with the neighbours but they're the ones with the problem. The parish council are just a bit annoying. You never see or hear from them but they just sneak around objecting to everything. You never see them in the village pub but if it were to close down they'd be fussing about, saying "The village needs the pub to give it an identity". They're a strange lot. smile

Hi Pheo, only one picture of staircase below, before the work, although there maybe some earlier in the thread. It was walled up both sides with a full height wall on the landing too. Very dingy and claustrophobic. It's coming on nicely now. Just waiting for glass to arrive next week. French polisher is starting on Friday to get it looking its best.

No major updates, but we have sourced our kitchen which should be in in time for Xmas. Can't cover the floor yet though due to the screed needing 150 days to dry out. We probably won't wait that long but will give it as long as we can.
Final fix on the wiring currently happening, rads being hung in the decorated rooms tomorrow.



RC1

4,096 posts

218 months

Monday 20th October 2014
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mark great work on the vaulted ceilings would never have thought to have had the purlins skimmed but totally get where you're coming from.... will they be emulsioned same as walls or something different to pick them out from the walls??

marky911

Original Poster:

4,417 posts

218 months

Tuesday 21st October 2014
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Hi Ravi, purlins are just white like the ceilings at the moment. We may experiment and change certain colours next year but I just want the bloomin' thing done now. wink -



Good day today. Downstairs lighting and power circuits finish fixed. Up to now we only had upstairs and garage circuits on and were running extensions for fridge etc. With only a couple of LED work lights the house was pretty grim after dark, with nothing to do apart from disappear upstairs into the bedroom, the only finished room. Since it's now getting dark around 6 o'clock things weren't ideal. smile
Walls all need their final coats of paint.







Living room electrics finished tomorrow and heating guys are back to hang radiators. Will see some big changes over the next few weeks. Aiming to be pretty much done by xmas.







maxest

303 posts

217 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2014
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Great progress, one of my favourite thread on here

marky911

Original Poster:

4,417 posts

218 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2014
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Thanks very much maxest. thumbup

We are now in the fun, speccing the finish stage. Which is also the "Where has all that money gone out of the account since the weekend" stage. hehe

Pferdestarke

7,179 posts

186 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2014
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Will be good to see how it looks at the finish line.

marky911

Original Poster:

4,417 posts

218 months

Wednesday 22nd October 2014
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Thanks Pfer... I'm not even going to try and spell or pronounce that. wink

When I look around the house there are lots of hints at the finished product but equally there are lots of little finishing jobs to do. Money is running out fast. Luckily the good lady surprised me on Saturday by saying she'd stashed away a contingency I didn't know about. Luckily one of us is sensible. That's the last bit of breathing space we'll get though.

God help us next year when we tackle outside. smile

maxest

303 posts

217 months

Monday 11th May 2015
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Any updates Mark.. its been a while

marky911

Original Poster:

4,417 posts

218 months

Sunday 5th July 2015
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I've just seen this maxest, so apologies, I'm 2 months late. Lots of progress upto last Xmas. We had a big push to get house liveable and nice-ish.

This year I've pulled right back as it honestly has been the most stressful thing I've ever done. We have very awkward next door neighbours who made things impossible for us, despite us keeping them informed at every step of the way, from planning, to selecting workmen, all the way to a schedule of works. Then the week the work started they knocked and said they were on holiday for 2 weeks and would like some lie-in's in the morning. There has been loads more than that and unfortunately we don't speak now.
They viewed our house before we bought it, but bought next door as they didn't want to take on a project a like ours, so they knew what was coming when someone else bought it. Anyway, it's in the past and I'm live and let live, so...
Although there's an ongoing discussion about a party fence that has supposedly moved a foot into next doors garden when it was built. They want the foot of land back to aid cleaning their conservatory, even though there are 2 apple trees on the line where the old boundary MAY have been, so it's been like that for a lot of years. It's the only fence I haven't renewed as next door were also trying to dictate the height and style but with me doing the donkey work. Its a shared fence. We look diagonally over the bottom of their garden for the view and I said "I'm easy, you choose the height, although Id like to think you wouldn't go 6ft high and block our view to which he replied "We can talk about you keeping your view, for a price". I just laughed and walked off.

Bloody neighbours eh. wink Another aspect of village life is the politics. That old adage "Familiarity breeds contempt" is very apt. I know enough of the "good" people in the village now though, so me and the wife have pulled back a bit and are living for us, the house, etc. Some great people here mind and it's great having the local pub where you know everyone, and the landlord pulls your usual pint when he sees you crossing the road. Me and a few of the lads have even started a village cycling club and have been doing events etc, so still loving it here with no regrets about moving, I'm just a bit older and wiser and know who to avoid where possible. wink

Anyway, I'll update with some pics soon. Really busy at work and have gone onto new machines, so it is literally like starting again as they use a different programming language. I went on the course last month down in Worcester but I have a steep learning curve for a year or so.

So basically not finished, but totally liveable. Just many rooms with things not finished. It was imperative that we eased off this year and began enjoying our surroundings and took time to appreciate the things we moved here for. It's a beautiful place, with great cycling, walks, local pubs and attractions. Another year like last year would have probably broke us, both mentally and financially. Even now things have calmed down my patience and stress levels aren't quite back to what they were before the project.

For anyone thinking of doing it, I'd still say go for it but be very aware that if you don't have bags of cash (as we didn't), things can get very stressful as money runs out. You end up burning the candle at both ends. You need to work to make money but need to be at home to do the project. To be honest, the scale of our work we could never have worked to earn the money we needed. It was a case of once the money was gone my car had to go.
We currently owe a bit less than 50% of the house's value when finished, so everything we've put in is still there due to the value added. It is just not liquid, for cars etc. We are nearly out of our 2 year tie-in (Oct), that came quickly!, so we will pull another bit out, hopefully no more than £20k to do driveway, landscaping and anything else. Small stuff will come out of our pay, such as garage doors (no point fitting yet though and have them get all chipped when driveway work happens), driveway gates (same applies) and other finishing touches.

I'll be working on things for the rest of my days, but now the heat is off I can enjoy projects again. I need to make a log store, patios, a pergola along the back of the house over the bi-folds, etc and last but not least board my garage out, tile the floor etc. But that is a long way off. There'll alway be something to do but I like that. It's still our forever home, short of a lottery win that is.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. smile

PS. We could wait and save up for the driveway etc, but we are impatient and just want to have things done and get back to a normal life. Hopefully we'll plan the driveway etc over winter and have it all done by this time next year. Will have low LTV and the money we spent will be sitting in the property in equity. It was never going to be a big money spinner, but it's our home not a business venture. We have specced things right up, so the costs spiralled. At the moment we would break even if we sold, but only half of that is mortgaged and the other half is what we have put in. So at least we aren't lying awake at night worrying because we are mortgaged up to the hilt. smile

The house still fights us every step of the way though and we've had some real freaky things go wrong. Currently the only room that was totally finished in time for xmas was the living room, however the plaster has all cracked and sounds hollow when tapped, so the plasterer is coming back when I can be bothered with the hassle and is smashing it all off and redoing it. Not ideal when there's a cream carpet in there and wallpaper on the adjacent walls to the effected ones. Never mind.

Also last month the bathroom floor tiles nearest the shower and nearest the door came loose. I noticed crumbling grout and the tiles rocking. My tilers say the adhesive must be the wrong one. Ive rang the store and they say it isn't, so I'm on my own. The tilers came and refitted the tiles, using some of their adhesive but time will tell. The adhesive was stuck fast to the floor but nothing on back of tile which suggests my tiler is correct. So I may have to pull the whole floor up in the future and relay it. The tiles were bloody expensive though. More money.


One thing I've learnt is don't sweat the small stuff. everything will be done over time. If it doesn't massively disrupt everyday life then it will be done when it's done.
Anyway, that is it for now. Pics to follow soon. Thanks. smile



Edited to add - I realise I've already mentioned the neighbours. Thought I'd kept it to myself. That's what happens when you leave it over 6 months between updates. hehe






Edited by marky911 on Sunday 5th July 21:22

marky911

Original Poster:

4,417 posts

218 months

Sunday 5th July 2015
quotequote all
OK, big problem with photos. Updated Mac and now iPhoto not working, hence I'll have to email myself all the photos. Mammoth task. Will update soon though.

marky911

Original Poster:

4,417 posts

218 months

Sunday 5th July 2015
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Quick first lot of pics here - Nothing exciting but I used the last of the decent weather last October to get my shed rebuilt. We had bought it about a year before moving so I thought the hassle of taking it down was worth the £600 or £700 we had paid for it. Got it up in front of the oil tank and just around the corner of the garage. We built the paved area for the oil tank with the shed in mind, so it lines up with the rear edge of the garage perfectly. The fit is "snug" to say the least.







Wozy68

5,387 posts

169 months

Sunday 5th July 2015
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Marky me old mate .......... In the same boat as you, got one room finished for Christmas 2012, house had been ripped a part. Still not finished, tiles have come off walls, plaster has cracked and we also have cream carpets in certain rooms, oh and the kitchen sink leaks, and the brand new dishwasher failed in the new kitchen one week out of warranty.

Its a bloody nightmare mate. Just thought I'd tell you so you don't feel your the only one it happens too.

Just to finish off. Worcester? My Manor, where was the pint invite?

All the best smile

marky911

Original Poster:

4,417 posts

218 months

Sunday 5th July 2015
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Hi Wozy! Glad to see you're still about on here. Hope you're well and at least you've kept your car through it all eh. smile

Yeah, everyone goes through it. One step forward, two back. I didn't know you were near Worcester. Would have happily bought you a beer or two on my expenses. wink I was at Mazak just off the M5. Sunday to Thursday. Took my bike down and got some miles in. Some lovely places around there. Flyford Flavell or something like that was nice.

Speaking of 2012, that was the year I had my most recent holiday. Ahh the memories. hehe

marky911

Original Poster:

4,417 posts

218 months

Sunday 5th July 2015
quotequote all
I'll just say before I post various pics, none of the rooms are truly finished. We haven't made it homely by dressing rooms and also things like curtains etc, are quite often just what we had from the last house or cheap ones to get us going. So as such, the rooms will still be improved on eventually.

Living room -






You can see in this one that the door that used to lead into kitchen has gone. This enabled us to fit a sofa in properly. -




Ready in time for Xmas 2014. We had a lovely new tree in kitchen area. This is old one. And, yes the TV is a bit high. wink -




marky911

Original Poster:

4,417 posts

218 months

Sunday 5th July 2015
quotequote all
Staircase - Still not carpeted due to kitchen floor not being tiled. We need to tile floor so we can carpet down the stairs to the tiles. Can't carpet down to the floor then tile upto the carpet. Will be done soon. Still haven't found any that we like that don't cost the earth. 40 square meters, plus fitting and adhesive adds up if they're £50 per metre. wink

Once the staircase was finished it looked lovely in ash, but since all the other woodwork is oak, we had a french polisher stain it to match. Has a lovely satin sheen to it too. We may get him back to do all the doors.














The lights have all been caulked around now and painted. They hadn't been in the pics above. They were another minor detail that turned into a mamoth task due to the solid brick wall they were going in.