Our 1st house - 1930s Semi
Discussion
Thanks to much advice on here & via PMs, we finally bought our first house at the end of May.
It's a 1930s semi, in a nice area of Northampton, with lots of potential.
Because it's our first house, we were naive in the process which resulted in us not having a survey done other than the Mortgage valuation - quite simply it didn't occur to us and wasn't suggested by anyone. I'm sure my parents would have suggested it, or my husband's Dad but mine are dead and my FiL has Alzheimer's Dementia.
As a result, our first home hasn't been without its issues, which have mostly been dealt with in other threads
PH is a wonderful source of knowledge to which we are exceeding grateful 
without you I think we'd have put it straight back on the market and licked our wounds!
As it stands, we're about a month away from moving in and getting quite excited (although budget is now a lot tighter! and so it won't be as finished when we move as we'd hoped
)
I know how picture heavy these threads can be & I'm really lazy so this will be a mix of uploaded pictures & a Flickr account IF I can get the darned app to work!!
To start you off...
The front
The floor plan
Bed 3 will become a bathroom with the washing machine & tumble dryer in a small utility 'cupboard' opposite the window,. The existing bathroom will be just a shower/wc & sink.
The main part of the cellar will be my husbands 'den'. The small room off it will be a pantry area, the rest we plan to house my book collection & the cat litter trays! Bed 2 will be our dressing room. Bed 1 our main bed & bed 4 the guest room/my study.
Day 1 - what we started with
It's a 1930s semi, in a nice area of Northampton, with lots of potential.
Because it's our first house, we were naive in the process which resulted in us not having a survey done other than the Mortgage valuation - quite simply it didn't occur to us and wasn't suggested by anyone. I'm sure my parents would have suggested it, or my husband's Dad but mine are dead and my FiL has Alzheimer's Dementia.
As a result, our first home hasn't been without its issues, which have mostly been dealt with in other threads
PH is a wonderful source of knowledge to which we are exceeding grateful without you I think we'd have put it straight back on the market and licked our wounds!As it stands, we're about a month away from moving in and getting quite excited (although budget is now a lot tighter! and so it won't be as finished when we move as we'd hoped
)I know how picture heavy these threads can be & I'm really lazy
so this will be a mix of uploaded pictures & a Flickr account IF I can get the darned app to work!! To start you off...
The front
The floor plan
Bed 3 will become a bathroom with the washing machine & tumble dryer in a small utility 'cupboard' opposite the window,. The existing bathroom will be just a shower/wc & sink.
The main part of the cellar will be my husbands 'den'. The small room off it will be a pantry area, the rest we plan to house my book collection & the cat litter trays! Bed 2 will be our dressing room. Bed 1 our main bed & bed 4 the guest room/my study.
Day 1 - what we started with
Edited by ali_kat on Thursday 15th June 20:55
We've stripped the wallpaper, I'm stripping tiles & the staircase, husband has stripped the bathroom out completely.
Plumber has finished installing the new boiler & got it working with the single, gravity feed, cast iron radiators. Electrician is busy replacing the electrics.
Lounge, hall, dining room & all 4 (current) bedroom floors are due to be sanded staring at the end of June.
Sofas have arrived but are still wrapped waiting for the floors to be done.
New kitchen floor, my husband laid it, I need to clean the excess grout!
I've had some fun with the kitchen tiles, which has put me back a bit with other tasks, as I had a bit of a hole to fill and my plastering skills were learned from dating a plasterer fur 2 weeks nearly 30 years ago!
I've not done too bad, it will be covered by a splash back
Plumber has finished installing the new boiler & got it working with the single, gravity feed, cast iron radiators
. Electrician is busy replacing the electrics.Lounge, hall, dining room & all 4 (current) bedroom floors are due to be sanded staring at the end of June.
Sofas have arrived
but are still wrapped waiting for the floors to be done.New kitchen floor, my husband laid it, I need to clean the excess grout!
I've had some fun with the kitchen tiles, which has put me back a bit with other tasks, as I had a bit of a hole to fill and my plastering skills were learned from dating a plasterer fur 2 weeks nearly 30 years ago!
I've not done too bad, it will be covered by a splash back
Inkyfingers said:
Lovely house, will look great when done.
Thank you, we saw the potential straight away, it's just a shame our budget has been eaten by plumbing, electrics & replacing the existing double glazing!We home to be in by the middle of July (we'd better be! We've given notice in our rental
)House
Electrics are done, although we need to 'finish' the chases & sockets.
Windows are double glazed & structural issue fixed.
Shower room is stripped
Floors are sanded & oiled.
We moved in on 7/7, still surrounded by boxes!
The shower room is still unfinished, so currently are using a tarpaulin, rubble bucket & shower attachment
Kitchen still needs the new sink, taps etc & work surface to be fitted, along with the splash back, then we can site the oven correctly.
Electrics are done, although we need to 'finish' the chases & sockets.
Windows are double glazed & structural issue fixed.
Shower room is stripped
Floors are sanded & oiled.
We moved in on 7/7, still surrounded by boxes!
The shower room is still unfinished, so currently are using a tarpaulin, rubble bucket & shower attachment
Kitchen still needs the new sink, taps etc & work surface to be fitted, along with the splash back, then we can site the oven correctly.
Simply because like the plumbing, electrics & double glazing, the floors were done by trades & much easier for them to do before we moved in.
The rest of the work, plastering, sorting bathrooms, kitchen, decorating etc can be done now we're in, by us, with plenty of dust sheets (& cardboard) to protect the floors.
The rest of the work, plastering, sorting bathrooms, kitchen, decorating etc can be done now we're in, by us, with plenty of dust sheets (& cardboard) to protect the floors.
In May, I won an eBay auction for a fireplace, to replace the existing one; it was £26 so I was delighted
My delight turned to grateful tears when the Seller realised I had shaved my hair off to raise funds for Marie Curie and he told me to put the payment into Marie Curie rather than pay him for it.
It didn't quite fit, so my husband has been chiseling bits of brick out and it's finally in
(We're not decorating yet)
The cardboard is temporary to stop the cats from climbing up it
My delight turned to grateful tears when the Seller realised I had shaved my hair off to raise funds for Marie Curie and he told me to put the payment into Marie Curie rather than pay him for it.
It didn't quite fit, so my husband has been chiseling bits of brick out and it's finally in
(We're not decorating yet)
The cardboard is temporary to stop the cats from climbing up it
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