1950s ex council project

[pmanson]

Evening All,

Two years ago we moved into our current house - an ex-council fixer-uper. In the last two years we've decorated my son's room and replaced the family bathroom and all the double glazing at the back of the house. Now it's time for the fun stuff!

Part of the reason for the delay was not knowing where to start but now we have a plan and the money in the bank thanks to a mortgage extension. So to the plan....

1. Replace the windows at the front of the house, knock down the front porch and install a new front door (with full length side window)
2. Remove the chimney (and repair the roof) - it's in the middle of the roof so the whole stack has to come down
3. Re-wire all the original house (four bedrooms) bar the kitchen (which will be phase 2) and recent extension
4. Install new rads though-out the original house with TRVs and install a thermostat in the hall
5. Install CAT6 network points in the lounge and each of the bedrooms (along with tv points)
6. Move door from kitchen to hallway (involves moving cooker point) to allow for a future utility room
7. Rebuild understairs cuboard
8. Replace all internal doors in the house




Porch to come down and lower part of the house to be re-painted black (instead of red). New Rockdoor front door ordered:



Current lounge:


Plan for lounge:


New stud wall for the hallway / lounge will feature a recess for the LG 50" plasma, i'll also keep the existing Jamo A102s but I have updated the Onkyo amp from the 605 to the 626 mainly for the smaller foot print of the amp




Theme in the lounge will be grey walls, white woodwork and a dark oak floor:


Paintings purchased for the lounge:






Plan for master bedroom:



TV mounted on wall to plan for cable runs (network and electric):




Chimney down in the loft:



Chimney should be down to ground level by Friday, windows and new front door being installed next week.
Chippy starts on replacing doors/stud walls next week and Electrician is in on Friday to start first fix (Network and electrics).

Varilight switches have been ordered today (gone for V-Pro Eclipse in brushed steel, 4 gang for the hallway, 2 gang for lounge and bedrooms along with the relevant slaves).

Need to sort out some LED strips from Guy this week to allow the electrician to do first fix.


Plan to be finished in 6-8 weeks.

[pmanson]

scenario8 said:

I hope I don't come across as a complete Philistine here, but should I recognise those paintings?

Regardless, best of luck with the project. Don't forget to keep us posted.

Probably not, only posted to show the colour theme for the lounge. The artist is Leigh Lambert.


Will do, wife is not looking forward to all the mess!

[pmanson]

Mobile Chicane said:

Looks good.

What's the plan for the loft - could you do anything with the space in there, eg. man cave / kids playroom?

Possibly as Phase 3 but that will depend on the ceiling price of the street.

Phase 2 will be to rebuild the porch but with a toilet/shower room, then remove the existing downstairs loo and fully open the original house into the extension (and redo the kitchen):

Existing floorplan:


Revised floorplan:

Edited by pmanson on Tuesday 25th February 21:58

[pmanson]

mercGLowner said:

Good luck to you, seems you have it all planned out.

I do like those pictures, are they limited edition prints?

Yes limited to 50. There seems to be a series of them. Made picking a couple very difficult! One is called "Catch me if you can" and the other is "All in a days play"

[pmanson]

Podie said:

paulwirral said:

pmanson said:

Yes limited to 50. There seems to be a series of them. Made picking a couple very difficult! One is called "Catch me if you can" and the other is "All in a days play"

I was looking at those pics in one of the art shops in Chester last week , I'm pretty sure there's more than 50 in the run now , they were priced around £385 if I remember , they look great in the colour scheme your proposing

Depends on the gallery. Some sell unframed for example. Pretty sure they were limited to 50 on giclee on canvas - each hand signed by the artist.

Also sure the two below are the larger size, so closer to £695 RRP.

I blame Podie for the purchase! Only popped in for some lunch

[pmanson]

Today's progress:




The builder has got it down to the bedroom:




Looks like we'll gain around 1m x 2.7m in the master room and lose 0.3m x 2.7m in the 2nd bedroom (opposite side of the chimney).

Plenty of room for running cables and for the wardrobe!


Todays purchases:
7 x Radiators and TRVs
2 x Outside lights (to go either side of the front door):


New sofa (2 existing sofas are being collected on saturday and the one we wanted was on 25% off until Friday):

[pmanson]

Vex - having seen your place as it is I reckon it will be a great build.

We still have a lot more to do - Kitchen, garden etc but this will be a good start

[pmanson]

roofer said:

Probably the picture,but that loft looks a bit short on bracing ?

Not my area of expertise but I think it's ok... it's been there 60 years or so. Possibly up to modern standards but the survey didn't pick up on anything.

[pmanson]

Luke94 said:

Random question, does the extension to the rear have a flat roof? If so, have you considered putting in skylight windows/a roof lantern?

It's a pitched roof - at some point we'll have it opened up and velux windows put in as the kitchen is currently very dark.


Progress update:

Chimney down to the ground floor (wife came home last night and promptly left due to the dust):



Now we have access the gas pipe can be re-capped upstairs.


Slight confusion in terms of what walls were coming down. Builder now specifying a steel to allow us to move this wall back:



Carpenter has started fitting the new doors:



Today's activity:

• Rest of the chimney to be removed
• Electrican's in to start first fix
• New door way to cut between kitchen and lounge

[pmanson]

All progressing well (bar a leak from an old bodged repair on the landing on Friday night):

Chimney now fully removed (and gas pipe recapped in the landing):


Wall between the two larger bedrooms coming down (Stud wall to be installed);


Network wiring etc. Should give us more than enough space for wardrobes:


Porch coming down (one of the internal windows blocked up ready for the new front door)


The porch was a bigger hazard than we thought. The walls were only tied in in a couple of places and the roof structure included pieces of kitchen worktop!

Just need to work out what to do with the porch base (was thinking about filling the base level then getting some more slabs:



Carpet cut back to show the rough shape and size of what the new hallway will be:


Kitchen door is going to be moved over slightly:



Carpenter is in today to start on the stud walls, builder is hopefully coming to finish windows etc. On Saturday the plumber is coming to run new rad pipework and change on the radiators over.

Plan is to be ready for plastering next week so I will be stripping wallpaper etc!

[pmanson]

Stud wall for hallway in:






New doorway cut for kitchen and radiator mounted ready for the new pipes to be installed:




All the windows have know been replaced at the front of the house and the new front door is being installed today

[pmanson]

A busy few days!

• Wiring first fix completed
• Stud wall in bedroom insulated and boarded
• 6 existing rads replaced
• 1 new rad plumbed in
• New front door installed
• 'Media' Wall in the front wall installed, insulated and boarded
• Virgin Media and Telephone points moved
• Understairs cupboard built

To be completed (up to plastering):

• Door way into kitchen needs completing
• Install LED lights
• Wallpaper stripping

Hoping to have the plasterer start a week today!


New front door:


From the inside (side pane of glass to be changed to a 'milky' one:



'Media' wall:


Had a recess installed (which will be hidden behind a unit) to allow for all the cables (it should mean that the unit we want can sit flush with the wall)

Cables include 2x double sockets, 4x cat 6 network points, 1 x virgin, 2x CAT100, 2x HDMI (to TV), 2x rear surround, 1x sub cable:






The recess looks deep but that includes the area in the hallway that has been stepped back:

[pmanson]

It's a Rockdoor http://www.rockdoor.com/

From memory it was about £1300.

The builder (who did our windows/door) recommended them. It's the Elite series.

Full black frame on the outside and then white on the inside.

[pmanson]

Electricans were without work tomorrow so instead they're coming to strip all the wallpaper for me!

Chippy back on Thursday to do a few more doors etc

Plasterer starts on Monday.


Jobs for me:
1. Run cables for LED lighting
2. Reboard hallway ceiling
3. Lots of painting

[pmanson]

A few pictures as a way of an update:

Replacement frosted glass:


Outside rendered:




Media wall plastered:






TV mounted in master bedroom to prepare for the floating wall to be installed:


Gained quite a bit of space by taking out the chimney:

[pmanson]

Busy day today! Carpenters have finished!

Today's job were fix skirting boards in master bedroom/landing/hallway and lounge, then install the new TV floating wall in the master bedroom:



None of the walls/ceilings in the house are straight (the floating wall/tv are level according to the spirit level) - this will be hidden by painting the walls/ceiling the same colour:



LEDs will be installed along the top & bottom of the floating wall (in a 3" recess that is hidden).


While the guys were hard at work inside I was busy outside painting,

Before:


After:


Need a skip to do a big clear up. Other jobs today - got most of the rads back on the wall.

[pmanson]

Medium term plan (eg next year) is have a proper porch rebuilt so I'm just going to slab over the top of it (mainly to keep the costs down at this stage).

Chimney was in the middle of our roof and not shared with the neighbour so bar the noise of removing it they haven't been affected

[pmanson]

No problem at all Podie!

[pmanson]

jjones said:

pmanson said:

A few pictures as a way of an update:

Replacement frosted glass:

rough area? i see you have wired the door handle to the lighting circuit

[pmanson]

mu0n said:

Good thread.

However, for someone like me who hates painting, there's a lot that needs a couple of coats.

Far too much. Going to take some time!