Second time refurbishment - 1930's house
Discussion
After moving from my old flat - https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... - last autumn I thought that it is about time to create another build/refurbishment thread to stop me making a new thread to ask a stupid question or source materials each week.
While not as glamorous as Harry's this thread should hopefully chronicle the initial refurbishment, the build of a few garden rooms (2-4 years out) and then a major extension/proper refurbishment in 6-10 years.
Why did we buy it?
Despite our space-efficient layout we had begun to outgrow our old 1.5 bed flat (575sqft) and wanted some outdoor space so begun to look around last summer.
The flat was put on the market and after 19 viewings in 3 days we had a number of offers. It then came down to looking for somewhere new in a very hot market. We wanted somewhere that was:
- Habitable - after doing the last refurb we didn't want to have to do a lot of work initially...how stupid we look now...
- Within 30 mins of parents (Lee/Orpington)
- Garage for the Lotus
- Near a station with good links to London Bridge/City for work
- Room to extend/improve in time
- Nice area (we were very specific in our search - although we would look at a number of areas (Bromley, Beckenham, Petts Wood, Orpington, West Wickham, Hayes, Sanderstead) it was often just a select number of roads in each place. We did briefly consider Kings Hill but ruled it out when realised the reality of the commute.
After initially focusing on Petts Wood East (Kingsway etc for those local) and being astounded by the bidding wars for houses which left the cost/resultant value of each house underwater on materials alone we realised it wasn't affordable and, quite frankly, overpriced considering there are few schools and although improving Petts Wood insn't the foodie heaven we'd ideally like. After a few weeks kissing frogs and me screening out 95% of rightmove/agent alerts before viewing we ended up finding this house and have grown to love the location.
We're at the end of a quiet close, a 15 min walk to the station the gets me to London Bridge in 15 mins, close enough to Croydon to get all the best restaurants on Deliveroo, 5 minutes to my golf club, near some good primary schools for the future and within a few minutes walk of some woods/park. When walking in, although the house was tired (same, now elderly, owner for 53 years) it had great "bones" - big hall, living rooms, high ceilings, room to extend on the side/back and a deceptively wide wedge plot. Although tired it looked like it had been well-cared for - there was government grant insulation everywhere, annual servicing stickers on the boiler etc. but did very obviously need a refurbishment to be properly liveable/brought to our tastes.
Thankfully after viewing on the first weekend our offer was accepted (without the offers-over craziness!) and the house was secured - we moved in at the end of the stamp duty transition, saving a little there in the process.
The house as we bought it:
Front
Hall
Living room (previous owner couldn't get upstairs so was sleeping here)
Dining room
Kitchen
Bathroom
Bedrooms
|https://thumbsnap.com/myzSAMni[/url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/zoWZoWyB[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/efdzPmch[/url][url]
|https://thumbsnap.com/H6GtNBjh[/url]
Garden
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Floor plan so you can visualise the current layout:
While not as glamorous as Harry's this thread should hopefully chronicle the initial refurbishment, the build of a few garden rooms (2-4 years out) and then a major extension/proper refurbishment in 6-10 years.
Why did we buy it?
Despite our space-efficient layout we had begun to outgrow our old 1.5 bed flat (575sqft) and wanted some outdoor space so begun to look around last summer.
The flat was put on the market and after 19 viewings in 3 days we had a number of offers. It then came down to looking for somewhere new in a very hot market. We wanted somewhere that was:
- Habitable - after doing the last refurb we didn't want to have to do a lot of work initially...how stupid we look now...
- Within 30 mins of parents (Lee/Orpington)
- Garage for the Lotus
- Near a station with good links to London Bridge/City for work
- Room to extend/improve in time
- Nice area (we were very specific in our search - although we would look at a number of areas (Bromley, Beckenham, Petts Wood, Orpington, West Wickham, Hayes, Sanderstead) it was often just a select number of roads in each place. We did briefly consider Kings Hill but ruled it out when realised the reality of the commute.
After initially focusing on Petts Wood East (Kingsway etc for those local) and being astounded by the bidding wars for houses which left the cost/resultant value of each house underwater on materials alone we realised it wasn't affordable and, quite frankly, overpriced considering there are few schools and although improving Petts Wood insn't the foodie heaven we'd ideally like. After a few weeks kissing frogs and me screening out 95% of rightmove/agent alerts before viewing we ended up finding this house and have grown to love the location.
We're at the end of a quiet close, a 15 min walk to the station the gets me to London Bridge in 15 mins, close enough to Croydon to get all the best restaurants on Deliveroo, 5 minutes to my golf club, near some good primary schools for the future and within a few minutes walk of some woods/park. When walking in, although the house was tired (same, now elderly, owner for 53 years) it had great "bones" - big hall, living rooms, high ceilings, room to extend on the side/back and a deceptively wide wedge plot. Although tired it looked like it had been well-cared for - there was government grant insulation everywhere, annual servicing stickers on the boiler etc. but did very obviously need a refurbishment to be properly liveable/brought to our tastes.
Thankfully after viewing on the first weekend our offer was accepted (without the offers-over craziness!) and the house was secured - we moved in at the end of the stamp duty transition, saving a little there in the process.
The house as we bought it:
Front
Hall
Living room (previous owner couldn't get upstairs so was sleeping here)
Dining room
Kitchen
Bathroom
Bedrooms
|https://thumbsnap.com/myzSAMni[/url]|https://thumbsnap.com/zoWZoWyB[/url][url]|https://thumbsnap.com/efdzPmch[/url][url]|https://thumbsnap.com/H6GtNBjh[/url]Garden
[url]
Floor plan so you can visualise the current layout:
Edited by kiethton on Monday 21st February 18:14
wolfracesonic said:
Like the bath and the wash bowl ,is a 70s themed bathroom suite on the cards? 
The exterior’s not going to be covered in K rend and anthracite grey is it?
It will be interesting to see things develop!
Definitely not on any account! haha - intention is modernise, with a very large modern extension at the rear but to be sympathetic to all others (similar design) around it The exterior’s not going to be covered in K rend and anthracite grey is it? It will be interesting to see things develop!
On moving in it soon became more obvious (deep-down I knew) that everything was tired and needed replacing asap.
Door/draw fronts were hanging off or missing in the kitchen, the windows are mix of single/secondary glazed and aluminium double glazing and are all shot, the carpets are both horrible but also threadbare, every isolation valve for all hot and could water systems were ceased and the textured wallpaper (more on this later) was hung everywhere, most likely to avoid getting a plasterer in in the 70's. Thankfully none of the many cracks look structural (well, none were found in the top-cost building survey) with the most major being a crack above a upper floor door in the hall - there is nothing above so its likely a broken/too short lintel.
After moving in my thoughts turned to getting the house liveable. Our stuff was dumped in the dining room and "scary room" (I'll come on to this later) for now and we're living from boxes where possible so we can shift things around easily. Although I'm trying to get the initial refurbishment done for c£10k I'm realistic and, especially if in a room that I don't plan to touch with the major refurbishment/extension, i'll spend the cash if worth it. However, looking at the scale of the house and the cash I have I know that I'll have to do most of this myself and source the best deals on materials wherever possible. Although I'd love to swap doors and windows now there is no point given it'd more than double my target spend but would also create issues trying to find identical matches for the extension when built.
After finally moving into the house in early October I got started.
We laid down our mattress on the floor of the smallest box bedroom and got started on the larger second bedroom, at the back of the house - intention being to keep that as a "safe" space when we'd finished there and sleep in that room for the time being.
Beyond busting a radiator connection all went to plan, the textured wallpaper (just 1 layer here thankfully!) was stripped, walls and numerous small plaster cracks made good (the whole house will be skimmed eventually, I can't justify the cost at the moment), wallpaper paste residue and filler sanded back and all walls/skirting's etc were washed down everywhere multiple times and decorating started. 2 coats of white over what was a darker yellow/orange than anticipated/bare cement board ceiling and the same again for colour - Dulux Goose Down. To keep things simple all bedrooms will end up having the same wall colour, and carpet - we'll differentiate with furnishings in time.
Before:
During:
And done (ish)
Only things that still bug me are a few random patches of where it looks damper than the rest of the wall on the paint, both on external walls/chimney void and exaggerated by condensation when the heating's off/cold nights.
You'll notice that when I say its done the floors are still the bare floorboards - my intention is to finish all of the upstairs rooms and hallway before putting down the carpet/underlay for 4 reasons - the delay builds me some more cash to afford carpets/furniture, I am still regularly pulling up floors and it would be helpful to access lighting in ceilings downstairs (watch this space), they'll be clean, if installed now they would be ruined with dust in no time, and also they'll all be the same throughout upstairs so makes sense to do them all together.
At the same time as decorating this room it soon became known that all of the radiators throughout the house were full of air, had ceased, imperial, bleed valves, stuck thermostats and were in a minging condition.
And as a result of all of this the house was freezing and the boiler kept cutting out. I pulled the floorboards, bought appropriately sized/BTU rad's, moved the tails and installed them across all soon to be habitable rooms (3 smaller bedrooms, hall and living room). The house was then warm(ish), we stopped waking up with condensation on walls/windows and my wife stopped complaining (as much) - result! - I'll do the remaining rads as we complete these rooms going forward.
There were a few hiccups along the way but after nailing 2 pipes I got there in the end, more hassle but a lot cheaper than hiring somebody (I got quoted £250 a rad labour inc sundries (so all in ex. TRV's/the rads themselves) to do each one!
Door/draw fronts were hanging off or missing in the kitchen, the windows are mix of single/secondary glazed and aluminium double glazing and are all shot, the carpets are both horrible but also threadbare, every isolation valve for all hot and could water systems were ceased and the textured wallpaper (more on this later) was hung everywhere, most likely to avoid getting a plasterer in in the 70's. Thankfully none of the many cracks look structural (well, none were found in the top-cost building survey) with the most major being a crack above a upper floor door in the hall - there is nothing above so its likely a broken/too short lintel.
After moving in my thoughts turned to getting the house liveable. Our stuff was dumped in the dining room and "scary room" (I'll come on to this later) for now and we're living from boxes where possible so we can shift things around easily. Although I'm trying to get the initial refurbishment done for c£10k I'm realistic and, especially if in a room that I don't plan to touch with the major refurbishment/extension, i'll spend the cash if worth it. However, looking at the scale of the house and the cash I have I know that I'll have to do most of this myself and source the best deals on materials wherever possible. Although I'd love to swap doors and windows now there is no point given it'd more than double my target spend but would also create issues trying to find identical matches for the extension when built.
After finally moving into the house in early October I got started.
We laid down our mattress on the floor of the smallest box bedroom and got started on the larger second bedroom, at the back of the house - intention being to keep that as a "safe" space when we'd finished there and sleep in that room for the time being.
Beyond busting a radiator connection all went to plan, the textured wallpaper (just 1 layer here thankfully!) was stripped, walls and numerous small plaster cracks made good (the whole house will be skimmed eventually, I can't justify the cost at the moment), wallpaper paste residue and filler sanded back and all walls/skirting's etc were washed down everywhere multiple times and decorating started. 2 coats of white over what was a darker yellow/orange than anticipated/bare cement board ceiling and the same again for colour - Dulux Goose Down. To keep things simple all bedrooms will end up having the same wall colour, and carpet - we'll differentiate with furnishings in time.
Before:
During:
And done (ish)
Only things that still bug me are a few random patches of where it looks damper than the rest of the wall on the paint, both on external walls/chimney void and exaggerated by condensation when the heating's off/cold nights.
You'll notice that when I say its done the floors are still the bare floorboards - my intention is to finish all of the upstairs rooms and hallway before putting down the carpet/underlay for 4 reasons - the delay builds me some more cash to afford carpets/furniture, I am still regularly pulling up floors and it would be helpful to access lighting in ceilings downstairs (watch this space), they'll be clean, if installed now they would be ruined with dust in no time, and also they'll all be the same throughout upstairs so makes sense to do them all together.
At the same time as decorating this room it soon became known that all of the radiators throughout the house were full of air, had ceased, imperial, bleed valves, stuck thermostats and were in a minging condition.
And as a result of all of this the house was freezing and the boiler kept cutting out. I pulled the floorboards, bought appropriately sized/BTU rad's, moved the tails and installed them across all soon to be habitable rooms (3 smaller bedrooms, hall and living room). The house was then warm(ish), we stopped waking up with condensation on walls/windows and my wife stopped complaining (as much) - result! - I'll do the remaining rads as we complete these rooms going forward.
There were a few hiccups along the way but after nailing 2 pipes I got there in the end, more hassle but a lot cheaper than hiring somebody (I got quoted £250 a rad labour inc sundries (so all in ex. TRV's/the rads themselves) to do each one!
Edited by kiethton on Monday 21st February 18:09
With our bed built and us now based in this bedroom overnight (top left of floor plan upstairs) our thoughts then turned to the other smaller bedrooms - again intention being to start work at the top and work our way down.
One of these two smaller rooms (top right of floor plan) has been identified as a temporary office for me when WFH - the awful living room light fitting (with 3/12 bulbs working), stained textured wallpaper, tired curtains and low sun directly behind me wasn't working for zoom meetings.
Similar process to the above saw the rooms stripped back, rads replaced, walls made as good as possible and decorated and completed in a few weekends - with work my hours are generally 7am-7pm with 2 or 3 days WFH so all work is done in the evenings/weekends/holiday days.
Managed to find a picture of the rooms done, my office now has my monitors and beelink set up and the box room was being used as a wallpaper pasting set-up (now clothes storage) as of a few weeks ago.
Versus the before:
The internal doors throughout are not to our tastes but, like the windows, the intention is to look at them when we're in a position to do the whole house.
One of these two smaller rooms (top right of floor plan) has been identified as a temporary office for me when WFH - the awful living room light fitting (with 3/12 bulbs working), stained textured wallpaper, tired curtains and low sun directly behind me wasn't working for zoom meetings.
Similar process to the above saw the rooms stripped back, rads replaced, walls made as good as possible and decorated and completed in a few weekends - with work my hours are generally 7am-7pm with 2 or 3 days WFH so all work is done in the evenings/weekends/holiday days.
Managed to find a picture of the rooms done, my office now has my monitors and beelink set up and the box room was being used as a wallpaper pasting set-up (now clothes storage) as of a few weeks ago.
Versus the before:
The internal doors throughout are not to our tastes but, like the windows, the intention is to look at them when we're in a position to do the whole house.
Edited by kiethton on Monday 21st February 18:19
Next on the list was the upstairs bathroom and separate toilet.
With the en-suite still functional (albeit a saniflo) and master bedroom untouched I ripped out and stripped the paper in the upstairs toilet room - 2 layers of hard, painted textured wallpaper. Under the old vinyl floor tiles was some semi-rotten (urine-smelling) vinyl tiles. After this I was down to the pine floorboards and green painted, crumbling/blown plaster walls.
Although the refurbishment is likely to see this upstairs cloakroom go entirely in time, with no toilet (or appropriately sized waste pipe) in the main bathroom its needed for now. I made the walls/plaster as good as possible, filled in the big holes, sanded it back (took it down to solid blocks on the lower half) and left the lead pipe on the corner as it's only supplying the toilet - had I already done the bathroom piping in hindsight I would have changed it over to polypipe. There isn't a basin in this room which isn't ideal but the logistics of installing one (space/hot water supply) wasn't worth it unfortunately.
The came design - I sourced some new white(ish) tiles from Facebook marketplace paying £70 for 55 boxes (1sqm per box) from a builder as excess stock. Although there are a good few broken tiles it should be enough for both this toilet room, the downstairs cloakroom and the main bathroom. I sourced a cheap toilet/WC vanity (£120 new) and built some boxing to the right height, allowing for floor level changes and started tiling.
We found some nice, subtle but not old fashioned wallpaper in B&Q if all places (on another seasonal offer) and got my FIL to out it up - it came out ok!
I still need to grout the tiles, change the light switch/fitting, run a bead around the top/window frame and install the new radiator but that will all come in time. However, just in case I need to access the wiring in the ceiling below the floor (LVT) won't be going down for a little while. As I don't want to cut the flooring around the toilet I can't install that either. This is not ideal but no big issue as there is just the 2 of us and 2 other toilets in the house.
With the en-suite still functional (albeit a saniflo) and master bedroom untouched I ripped out and stripped the paper in the upstairs toilet room - 2 layers of hard, painted textured wallpaper. Under the old vinyl floor tiles was some semi-rotten (urine-smelling) vinyl tiles. After this I was down to the pine floorboards and green painted, crumbling/blown plaster walls.
Although the refurbishment is likely to see this upstairs cloakroom go entirely in time, with no toilet (or appropriately sized waste pipe) in the main bathroom its needed for now. I made the walls/plaster as good as possible, filled in the big holes, sanded it back (took it down to solid blocks on the lower half) and left the lead pipe on the corner as it's only supplying the toilet - had I already done the bathroom piping in hindsight I would have changed it over to polypipe. There isn't a basin in this room which isn't ideal but the logistics of installing one (space/hot water supply) wasn't worth it unfortunately.
The came design - I sourced some new white(ish) tiles from Facebook marketplace paying £70 for 55 boxes (1sqm per box) from a builder as excess stock. Although there are a good few broken tiles it should be enough for both this toilet room, the downstairs cloakroom and the main bathroom. I sourced a cheap toilet/WC vanity (£120 new) and built some boxing to the right height, allowing for floor level changes and started tiling.
We found some nice, subtle but not old fashioned wallpaper in B&Q if all places (on another seasonal offer) and got my FIL to out it up - it came out ok!
I still need to grout the tiles, change the light switch/fitting, run a bead around the top/window frame and install the new radiator but that will all come in time. However, just in case I need to access the wiring in the ceiling below the floor (LVT) won't be going down for a little while. As I don't want to cut the flooring around the toilet I can't install that either. This is not ideal but no big issue as there is just the 2 of us and 2 other toilets in the house.
Edited by kiethton on Tuesday 22 February 14:26
rustyuk said:
Looking at the fittings I'd say you might want to hold off decorating until you get it re-wired.
Thanks, believe it or not the consumer board is from 2007 so not that bad - rest of the wiring looks to be ok also - as always I'm trying to limit the expense for now, although I know it will all be changed come the big works.More demolition...
With the upstairs toilet done focus now turned to 3 other areas - firstly the bathroom.
Tiles were taken down in a day, over-filing a 1t hippo sack, however with the bath still connected via a very intricate splice of stainless steel and lead pipes, fed from a variety of locations, I didn't fancy messing it up and leaving ourselves without water, again. As a result I took stock and got a pro in to disconnect it all/run new pipes for this room. After that was done I set about the old bath with a sledge hammer and carried it downstairs in numerous (surprisingly heavy) pieces. This bath, the old rads and redundant lead/copper piping will be weighed-in in due course.
There was a strange boxing in the corner, protecting the small angle of the stairs - looking at it I could see potential intrusion was low, yet the boxing was huge. I took a big drill and small touch to take a look and after seeing what I expected smashed it up too
The bathroom now looks like this:
All connections are in place to go, however for the time being we still need to get under the floor so am holding off until the wiring for the hall lighting has been done (we're going for LED strips in modern coving for soft lights there). When that's all wired I'll be getting new P5 chipboard down in the bathroom and hall upstairs as the existing pine planks are past it.
We've sourced a new bath (1800x800) for £40 (somebody ordered one and it was too big so saved £200!) and will be rotating it, building the shower into the boxing on the opposite wall and allowing a proper bath screen to be installed. The basin will be staying in the same place but again, we sourced a new vanity unit (dark gloss grey) for £40 on eBay (£190 saving!) as "the doors don't open properly" - a little adjustment and it's good as new...result! We also found some feature tiles to go behind the bath, on clearance in Homebase - same size and everything! For £50 so trying to be as cost efficient as possible
With the upstairs toilet done focus now turned to 3 other areas - firstly the bathroom.
Tiles were taken down in a day, over-filing a 1t hippo sack, however with the bath still connected via a very intricate splice of stainless steel and lead pipes, fed from a variety of locations, I didn't fancy messing it up and leaving ourselves without water, again. As a result I took stock and got a pro in to disconnect it all/run new pipes for this room. After that was done I set about the old bath with a sledge hammer and carried it downstairs in numerous (surprisingly heavy) pieces. This bath, the old rads and redundant lead/copper piping will be weighed-in in due course.
There was a strange boxing in the corner, protecting the small angle of the stairs - looking at it I could see potential intrusion was low, yet the boxing was huge. I took a big drill and small touch to take a look and after seeing what I expected smashed it up too
The bathroom now looks like this:
All connections are in place to go, however for the time being we still need to get under the floor so am holding off until the wiring for the hall lighting has been done (we're going for LED strips in modern coving for soft lights there). When that's all wired I'll be getting new P5 chipboard down in the bathroom and hall upstairs as the existing pine planks are past it.
We've sourced a new bath (1800x800) for £40 (somebody ordered one and it was too big so saved £200!) and will be rotating it, building the shower into the boxing on the opposite wall and allowing a proper bath screen to be installed. The basin will be staying in the same place but again, we sourced a new vanity unit (dark gloss grey) for £40 on eBay (£190 saving!) as "the doors don't open properly" - a little adjustment and it's good as new...result! We also found some feature tiles to go behind the bath, on clearance in Homebase - same size and everything! For £50 so trying to be as cost efficient as possible
Edited by kiethton on Monday 14th March 21:31
Last bits to take us to where we are now:
Hallway
Before I can get flooring down upstairs I knew that the lighting needs to be done (or at least wired) downstairs. As we liked our lighting set-up in the old flat but don't want the hassle of installing spotlights the intention is to install a modern style of coving, with LED lighting (upstairs and down) to provide the soft light at times we do not want main lights on. The intention is create a look which is a little like this (warm white, non-chav) to provide a half-light for night time toilet trips/soften ceilings as they're quite high.
We intend to replicate this in the living room/dining room too so that we don't need wall-lights and can settle in to watch TV/a film with some very dim background lighting.
As I looked at this I've currently got about 80% of the wallpaper in the hallway off and all of the coving (was plaster coving downstairs only). Although we like the Picture rail, with it covered in god knows how many layers of paint this will likely be removed in time. The other issue is that the removal of the plaster coving and historic leaks from above have left the perimeter edges of the old cement boards in a poor condition, with clear gaps through into the ceiling board and the bathroom above (now the boards are up). After we've run the new cables for the lighting my intention is to overboard the ceilings downstairs, move the pull-chord for the loft light upstairs (next to the hatch), strip the wood from the stairs/HWC cupboard and get a plasterer in for a quick skim (likely same needed in living/dining rooms too!)
As the hall was:
As it is now:
|https://thumbsnap.com/tiiwxGLh[/url]
Master bedroom
How it was:
The last remaining major room upstairs is the master bedroom. To give my wife something to work on as I fit bathrooms/run cables I've also stripped off all the wallpaper off the walls and windows in here - this (or different patterns was on every wall, often in multiple layers and painted liberally).
I've also smashed out the old wardrobes, taken off and capped the old radiator pipes (I'll fit a new one after its decorated), taken up the carpet and filled the worst holes. Of note I even had to take the trim pieces off around the sides of the window as they were so off-square it was jarring me
In doing so I couldn't believe that the previous owners had these two floor coverings together in the same room
It now stands like this
The last of the rubbish here will get carried down to the garage this evening. The black on the walls just looks to be harmless condensation from spending 50 years behind the cupboards on an internal wall - I even know the date the carpet was fitted as I found a newspaper to bulk up the (now collapsed) rubber underlay.
Last is the garden
The front of the house was dominated by a clump of confiers. Although they had already been chopped a little by the previous owner they blocked nearly all of the light (south).
A chainsaw (tiny Bosch battery powered jobby) was acquired and I set-about them. Now just 4 main trunks remain, too wide for my chainsaw. I'll get the pro's in to take these down (and a number of other very wide stumps left within the hedges/out back) come the spring.
Half way:
Now:
The back garden was overgrown, majorly, with each of the borders being 3-5m deep with various self-sown vegetation, including a huge number of Xmas trees, small oaks, roses and ivy everywhere. Similar happened here. Although the garden looked nice in the photos the reality was the opposite, dead apples all over the grass, well moss as it never saw light due to shade) and all the borders collapsing inward. Again our came the chainsaw and much devastation was had...and some inquisitive neighbours were met...
Click for video:
The biggest issues are now:
1) The ivy which is taking over everything, I've tried to save the main tree (which also needs a prune - one for the pro's)
|https://thumbsnap.com/FpLAFzLa[/url]
2) the quantum of waste - I've got a pile which is about 3m wide, 1.5-3m tall and snakes to about 20m in length of green chopped wood/bushes. I tried a fire but it didn't really work...
I'll try again in a week or 2, else I'll try hiring a commercial shredder/chipper which should do it over a weekend.
Current pressing jobs are to do a dump run - my garage is full so I'm borrowing a minibus this weekend - great as a van with all the seats removed - and then I'll be trying to wire as much as I can, starting with the hall so that the bathroom can be installed! The builder that helped with the pipes has a tiler subby and has said it'll be £600-700 labour to tile the bathroom (floor-ceiling)and another £100 to replicate what I've done in the cloakroom downstairs, I'm tempted to get the pro in for this one!
Hallway
Before I can get flooring down upstairs I knew that the lighting needs to be done (or at least wired) downstairs. As we liked our lighting set-up in the old flat but don't want the hassle of installing spotlights the intention is to install a modern style of coving, with LED lighting (upstairs and down) to provide the soft light at times we do not want main lights on. The intention is create a look which is a little like this (warm white, non-chav) to provide a half-light for night time toilet trips/soften ceilings as they're quite high.
We intend to replicate this in the living room/dining room too so that we don't need wall-lights and can settle in to watch TV/a film with some very dim background lighting.
As I looked at this I've currently got about 80% of the wallpaper in the hallway off and all of the coving (was plaster coving downstairs only). Although we like the Picture rail, with it covered in god knows how many layers of paint this will likely be removed in time. The other issue is that the removal of the plaster coving and historic leaks from above have left the perimeter edges of the old cement boards in a poor condition, with clear gaps through into the ceiling board and the bathroom above (now the boards are up). After we've run the new cables for the lighting my intention is to overboard the ceilings downstairs, move the pull-chord for the loft light upstairs (next to the hatch), strip the wood from the stairs/HWC cupboard and get a plasterer in for a quick skim (likely same needed in living/dining rooms too!)
As the hall was:
As it is now:
|https://thumbsnap.com/tiiwxGLh[/url]Master bedroom
How it was:
The last remaining major room upstairs is the master bedroom. To give my wife something to work on as I fit bathrooms/run cables I've also stripped off all the wallpaper off the walls and windows in here - this (or different patterns was on every wall, often in multiple layers and painted liberally).
I've also smashed out the old wardrobes, taken off and capped the old radiator pipes (I'll fit a new one after its decorated), taken up the carpet and filled the worst holes. Of note I even had to take the trim pieces off around the sides of the window as they were so off-square it was jarring me
In doing so I couldn't believe that the previous owners had these two floor coverings together in the same room
It now stands like this
The last of the rubbish here will get carried down to the garage this evening. The black on the walls just looks to be harmless condensation from spending 50 years behind the cupboards on an internal wall - I even know the date the carpet was fitted as I found a newspaper to bulk up the (now collapsed) rubber underlay.
Last is the garden
The front of the house was dominated by a clump of confiers. Although they had already been chopped a little by the previous owner they blocked nearly all of the light (south).
A chainsaw (tiny Bosch battery powered jobby) was acquired and I set-about them. Now just 4 main trunks remain, too wide for my chainsaw. I'll get the pro's in to take these down (and a number of other very wide stumps left within the hedges/out back) come the spring.
Half way:
Now:
The back garden was overgrown, majorly, with each of the borders being 3-5m deep with various self-sown vegetation, including a huge number of Xmas trees, small oaks, roses and ivy everywhere. Similar happened here. Although the garden looked nice in the photos the reality was the opposite, dead apples all over the grass, well moss as it never saw light due to shade) and all the borders collapsing inward. Again our came the chainsaw and much devastation was had...and some inquisitive neighbours were met...
Click for video:
The biggest issues are now:
1) The ivy which is taking over everything, I've tried to save the main tree (which also needs a prune - one for the pro's)
|https://thumbsnap.com/FpLAFzLa[/url]2) the quantum of waste - I've got a pile which is about 3m wide, 1.5-3m tall and snakes to about 20m in length of green chopped wood/bushes. I tried a fire but it didn't really work...
I'll try again in a week or 2, else I'll try hiring a commercial shredder/chipper which should do it over a weekend.
Current pressing jobs are to do a dump run - my garage is full so I'm borrowing a minibus this weekend - great as a van with all the seats removed - and then I'll be trying to wire as much as I can, starting with the hall so that the bathroom can be installed! The builder that helped with the pipes has a tiler subby and has said it'll be £600-700 labour to tile the bathroom (floor-ceiling)and another £100 to replicate what I've done in the cloakroom downstairs, I'm tempted to get the pro in for this one!
Edited by kiethton on Tuesday 22 February 14:35
TimmyMallett said:
That's a very tame fox!
Yes very! - kept on coming up to me, sitting around me as I was chopping - totally oblivious to the sound of the (battery) saw. I now just wish it would be quiet overnight...The main thing that's taking my (thinking) time right now is the LED lighting to go into the coving. I'd like a strip which is able to cast a warm/neutral white light (having other colours could be a bonus e.g. Xmas) but not essential. I think a continuous strip would give the best output?
As each run will be long - I think 15-20m depending on room - from looking I think that need to power it from each end - as it is likely to loop around the full room in all but one application this should not be an issue. I would also like to control these lights from a standard light switch (so dimmable) and power them directly from the lighting circuit if possible (hall needs to be controlled by 2 switches but work together upstairs and down) - does anybody have any suggestions/recommendations for strips/drivers?
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