House renovation and garage build
Discussion
Well, today is the day!
I'm feeling a lot more confident about the sale after speaking to the estate agent, he had also spoken to the buyers and they seem as annoyed with the solicitors as I am, they wanted to complete before they went on holiday for a month. So both sides are pushing for exchange this week, then completion when the buyers get back. Luckily we are still able to move as we are buying from family. All 3 solicitors telling us everything was OK for the 28th right until the last minute, would have caused loads of trouble on a normal move.
I'm feeling a lot more confident about the sale after speaking to the estate agent, he had also spoken to the buyers and they seem as annoyed with the solicitors as I am, they wanted to complete before they went on holiday for a month. So both sides are pushing for exchange this week, then completion when the buyers get back. Luckily we are still able to move as we are buying from family. All 3 solicitors telling us everything was OK for the 28th right until the last minute, would have caused loads of trouble on a normal move.
We're in!
There hasn't been much progress on the renovation as we've been sorting through boxes. Our first night in the house has highlighted that we need to sort some of the draughts, get some doors hung and radiators back on, it was a bit cold!
Today has been more about admin, updating addresses etc, according to my car insurance company the new house (in a nice residential area of Coventry) is in a band G area, my old flat (next to a rough estate in Rugby) was only band B, so my insurance is £100 extra for 5 months - ouch!
We've also had the TV aerial hooked up to the TV points, possibly a risk to productivity, but without Internet until the 4th April, we need to have something to do in the evening!
There hasn't been much progress on the renovation as we've been sorting through boxes. Our first night in the house has highlighted that we need to sort some of the draughts, get some doors hung and radiators back on, it was a bit cold!
Today has been more about admin, updating addresses etc, according to my car insurance company the new house (in a nice residential area of Coventry) is in a band G area, my old flat (next to a rough estate in Rugby) was only band B, so my insurance is £100 extra for 5 months - ouch!
We've also had the TV aerial hooked up to the TV points, possibly a risk to productivity, but without Internet until the 4th April, we need to have something to do in the evening!
Today has mainly been cleaning, both my old flat and the house, Jen's aunt & uncle also came round in their van to clear some of her granddad's furniture that was still at the house, so now we can get into the front room and the garage.
We got the skirting boards in the bedroom primed (without getting any paint on the new carpet), I got the wired and wireless networks talking to each other (Apple airport express doesn't give IP addresses to wired clients) and I tested the smoke alarm system - a combination of no door on the kitchen and my cooking. However, the best thing is I found the bottle of Talisker I bought when I was at the distillery last year and saved for when we moved in.
We got the skirting boards in the bedroom primed (without getting any paint on the new carpet), I got the wired and wireless networks talking to each other (Apple airport express doesn't give IP addresses to wired clients) and I tested the smoke alarm system - a combination of no door on the kitchen and my cooking. However, the best thing is I found the bottle of Talisker I bought when I was at the distillery last year and saved for when we moved in.
Not really that much progress over the long weekend, mainly unpacking, but we did get the skirting boards paainted, so have been able to unpack the bedroom fully.
The main benefit of moving is that I will be home by 17:00 this evening, and with the lighter evenings we should be able to get the radiators attached again and the system bled/balanced, then I can try to work out how to get the central heating timer programmed properly, as at the moment it has just been set on 18° constantly.
On Friday BT are coming to fit fibre broadband (hopefully), the email I had from them yesterday said that power is needed near the BT master socket and that they can only plug the modem into that socket. The master socket is behind the front door (without a powersocket nearby) and patch panel for the network is in the lounge with the phone extension that was fitted at the rewire. Unless the BT engineer comes up with something better, it seems the options are a long extension lead trailing, or paying BT £130 to move the master socket - neither are ideal, but I guess it is best to get the master socket moved now before the lounge is redecorated. Also on Friday the bebroom doors are beig collected to be dipped, this time we're going to fill the holes, whitewash, then varnish them, as the missus thinks the waxed doors look a bit too dark and the holes from where the hardboard was nailed still show.
If the weather improves our next task is going to be the garden, we want to plant some veg and the lawn pobably needs raking/demossing and probably some treatment too.
The main benefit of moving is that I will be home by 17:00 this evening, and with the lighter evenings we should be able to get the radiators attached again and the system bled/balanced, then I can try to work out how to get the central heating timer programmed properly, as at the moment it has just been set on 18° constantly.
On Friday BT are coming to fit fibre broadband (hopefully), the email I had from them yesterday said that power is needed near the BT master socket and that they can only plug the modem into that socket. The master socket is behind the front door (without a powersocket nearby) and patch panel for the network is in the lounge with the phone extension that was fitted at the rewire. Unless the BT engineer comes up with something better, it seems the options are a long extension lead trailing, or paying BT £130 to move the master socket - neither are ideal, but I guess it is best to get the master socket moved now before the lounge is redecorated. Also on Friday the bebroom doors are beig collected to be dipped, this time we're going to fill the holes, whitewash, then varnish them, as the missus thinks the waxed doors look a bit too dark and the holes from where the hardboard was nailed still show.
If the weather improves our next task is going to be the garden, we want to plant some veg and the lawn pobably needs raking/demossing and probably some treatment too.
I was hoping that my next update would have some pictures, but as BT have been a royal PITA I still don't have an Internet connection! BT messed me around so much that I'm going with Virgin, they should be installing the cable next week.
In the meantime progress has been slow - mainly as we've been enjoying living in the house, especially now that we have heating in all rooms! I'm going to have a go at balancing the system as it seems some rooms are getting hotter than others, despite the settings on the TRVs.
Our next tasks are to tidy up the garden a bit and get some doors fitted, the bedroom doors came back from being stripped today, but we're going to try painting these ones, as the waxed ones I posted pictures of before don't look great on close inspection, with visible holes where the hardboard was nailed to them.
In the meantime progress has been slow - mainly as we've been enjoying living in the house, especially now that we have heating in all rooms! I'm going to have a go at balancing the system as it seems some rooms are getting hotter than others, despite the settings on the TRVs.
Our next tasks are to tidy up the garden a bit and get some doors fitted, the bedroom doors came back from being stripped today, but we're going to try painting these ones, as the waxed ones I posted pictures of before don't look great on close inspection, with visible holes where the hardboard was nailed to them.
Got round to doing lots of little jobs over the weekend, mowed the lawn, planted some potatoes/onions in the garden, got the shelving in the office sorted and cleared some space in the master bedroom, which we are currently using to store the boxes we haven't unpacked yet.
I've been told that in a few weeks we have some guests coming with their 2 year old son, so I think I'd better get the nails/carpet grippers removed from the floor boards upstairs and generally make the place a bit safer for a toddler.
Still no broadband - it's getting installed this week, but here's a picture of the garden after I mowed the lawn:
Lawn by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
I've been told that in a few weeks we have some guests coming with their 2 year old son, so I think I'd better get the nails/carpet grippers removed from the floor boards upstairs and generally make the place a bit safer for a toddler.
Still no broadband - it's getting installed this week, but here's a picture of the garden after I mowed the lawn:
Lawn by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
Craikeybaby said:
Got round to doing lots of little jobs over the weekend, mowed the lawn, planted some potatoes/onions in the garden, got the shelving in the office sorted and cleared some space in the master bedroom, which we are currently using to store the boxes we haven't unpacked yet.
I've been told that in a few weeks we have some guests coming with their 2 year old son, so I think I'd better get the nails/carpet grippers removed from the floor boards upstairs and generally make the place a bit safer for a toddler.
Still no broadband - it's getting installed this week, but here's a picture of the garden after I mowed the lawn:
Lawn by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
Like the garden - don't forget to give the lawn a feed - it looks a little undernourished and it'll need feed now that the gowing season is kicking in.I've been told that in a few weeks we have some guests coming with their 2 year old son, so I think I'd better get the nails/carpet grippers removed from the floor boards upstairs and generally make the place a bit safer for a toddler.
Still no broadband - it's getting installed this week, but here's a picture of the garden after I mowed the lawn:
Lawn by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
Yup, that is well up on my to do list, I've been asking lots of questions in the lawn care thread!
We've got our potato bed to the left of the garage, with the main veg bed just in front of where I was standing. We're keeping the garden pretty much the same, but the garage will be replaced by a slightly bigger, less wonky one!
We've got our potato bed to the left of the garage, with the main veg bed just in front of where I was standing. We're keeping the garden pretty much the same, but the garage will be replaced by a slightly bigger, less wonky one!
Craikeybaby said:
The problem is there are holes that need filling, so I think paint would be best to hide them.
My boss mentioned some white varnish that he used, you can still see the grain through the varnish, but blemishes are masked. As fad as I can tell the only problem is that it is permanent.
Did you paint the doors in the end?My boss mentioned some white varnish that he used, you can still see the grain through the varnish, but blemishes are masked. As fad as I can tell the only problem is that it is permanent.
Tempted to do same with ours but would love to have the wood colour (I suspect it will be peppered with holes like yours, wonder if there is a way to fill holes bed it blend in with the wood colour rather than painting?)
Progress has slowed down a bit since getting broadband installed 
, but I thought I'd update anyway.
After all the hassle I got with BT I ended up getting broadband with Virgin, before it was fitted I was told I'd need to decide where I wanted the modem to go and that they would need furniture moved if it would be in the way. I thought from a future-proofing perspective I'd want the cable connection going to where all the other AV sockets are behind the TV - right where the bathroom suite was being stored, so that got moved upstairs into what was the newly cleared spare bedroom.
In the end the cable socket was put in the far corner of the living room and an extension put round to the AV area, which works for now, but isn't very neat. The alternative was to have the outside cable going across the front of the house, but I think it will be easier to hide the cable inside, especially as the room still needs to be plastered/decorated. My plan is to reroute one of the spare ethernet cables, currently going to the AV area, to next to where the cable comes into the living room, this should only mean that one extra box has to be sunk into the wall and the cables will run under the floorboards. Outside the cable installation isn't great, it is tacked to the wall along the side of the drive, a longer term project will be to lift the block paving to hide the cable underneath and repair part of it where a wall was knocked down, but I'll post a picture of this later as it quite hard to describe.
I have fed the lawn with Scott's Lawnbuilder, applied via drop spreader, and after its latest cut, there is a noticeable improvement (see earlier post for before image):
Treated Lawn by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
My job for this weekend is to start boarding out the loft, as there is already insulation up there I will be using Loftfeet to raise the level of the boards to avoid compacting the insulation.
The most important addition to the garden for 2013 has arrived - a Weber BBQ, so learning to smoke ribs is another job for the weekend!
, but I thought I'd update anyway.After all the hassle I got with BT I ended up getting broadband with Virgin, before it was fitted I was told I'd need to decide where I wanted the modem to go and that they would need furniture moved if it would be in the way. I thought from a future-proofing perspective I'd want the cable connection going to where all the other AV sockets are behind the TV - right where the bathroom suite was being stored, so that got moved upstairs into what was the newly cleared spare bedroom.
In the end the cable socket was put in the far corner of the living room and an extension put round to the AV area, which works for now, but isn't very neat. The alternative was to have the outside cable going across the front of the house, but I think it will be easier to hide the cable inside, especially as the room still needs to be plastered/decorated. My plan is to reroute one of the spare ethernet cables, currently going to the AV area, to next to where the cable comes into the living room, this should only mean that one extra box has to be sunk into the wall and the cables will run under the floorboards. Outside the cable installation isn't great, it is tacked to the wall along the side of the drive, a longer term project will be to lift the block paving to hide the cable underneath and repair part of it where a wall was knocked down, but I'll post a picture of this later as it quite hard to describe.
I have fed the lawn with Scott's Lawnbuilder, applied via drop spreader, and after its latest cut, there is a noticeable improvement (see earlier post for before image):
Treated Lawn by Lewis Craik, on Flickr
My job for this weekend is to start boarding out the loft, as there is already insulation up there I will be using Loftfeet to raise the level of the boards to avoid compacting the insulation.
The most important addition to the garden for 2013 has arrived - a Weber BBQ, so learning to smoke ribs is another job for the weekend!
As of this morning, we now actually own the house! Which is a relief after the time and money we have spent on it already.
Progress has been slow the last few weeks, mainly because we need to save up a bit more cash for the next big jobs (bathroom renovation).
I've partially boarded the loft, at least enough to get most of the crap that was in the loft at my flat stored up there, which should free up enough space for the spare bedroom to be usable. There's also been some progress in the garden, the veg plots have been planted.
Sweeping the drive seems to be a never ending task, I think that because it is the first full width drive on our side of the street all the leaves/litter blow along the street until they get to our drive, which is annoying, but not too difficult to keep on top of. I also need to jet wash the drive and probably resand between the blocks.
Progress has been slow the last few weeks, mainly because we need to save up a bit more cash for the next big jobs (bathroom renovation).
I've partially boarded the loft, at least enough to get most of the crap that was in the loft at my flat stored up there, which should free up enough space for the spare bedroom to be usable. There's also been some progress in the garden, the veg plots have been planted.
Sweeping the drive seems to be a never ending task, I think that because it is the first full width drive on our side of the street all the leaves/litter blow along the street until they get to our drive, which is annoying, but not too difficult to keep on top of. I also need to jet wash the drive and probably resand between the blocks.
More progress today, unfortumately it was only on jobs that seem to take a lot of time, but don't seem to make a big difference. We've now got a functioning spare bedroom - with bed and not too much crap stored in there.
I also started weeding the garden, the soil is meant to be really good for growing veg, which also meant that it was good for weeds the last few years when it hasn't had anyone taking care of it, we've now only got one of the decorative beds to go. I found a pot of white granules label "use to kill weeds, 4oz to 1 gall water", so figuring that it was pre EU/nanny state weed killer I mixed up a spray bottle of that and got all the weeds on the paths, I guess I'll see how effective it was over the next few days.
I also started weeding the garden, the soil is meant to be really good for growing veg, which also meant that it was good for weeds the last few years when it hasn't had anyone taking care of it, we've now only got one of the decorative beds to go. I found a pot of white granules label "use to kill weeds, 4oz to 1 gall water", so figuring that it was pre EU/nanny state weed killer I mixed up a spray bottle of that and got all the weeds on the paths, I guess I'll see how effective it was over the next few days.
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