First House Renovation / Do-er upper
Discussion
Dunclane said:
100% the right choice for going with the grey grout opposed to cream!
Cheers Dunclane - I'm glad I chose to do it in grey now - Grey silicone to seal the edges too blends in nice. Chosen to do inside the fireplace in white metro tiles and grey grout to match.Bottom of the fireplace tiled last night in 10mm thick slate (same as kitchen and bathroom because I had some left over!) leaving 13mm overhang on the front - enough for putting a slate slither on the front and still have a slight overhang.
Went for a 9mm gap on these as it seemed to suit it a little better.
White tiles around the inside of the fireplace next.
Guy coming around tonight to quote laminate flooring for the living room and carpet for the bedrooms, landing area and stairs.
Dion
dumab said:
If you're looking at laminate, consider LVT (luxury viles tiles), they are available at various price points but a world away from laminate.
I have it throughout my downstairs and love it.
My brother has actually just had the vinyl stuff put down in his rented house. Feels very nice and a little 'softer' or 'less harsh' on your heels when you rest them on the floor compared to wood flooring! The floor covering bloke is bringing some samples with him of that type of flooring tonight. I have it throughout my downstairs and love it.
Thank you
So yesterday as it was an absolute scorcher, me, a friend and dad fitted two rear windows and the rear door (I might have measured the windows from the inside and didn't account for the windowsill! oops) so I'll need to mix a little more mortar when I'll be doing the reveals and fill in under the sill too.
So me and dad went on to take out the old ones and cutting the frames etc. out and my friend (Who's a double glazing fitter by trade) fitted the new ones in - Cheap too at mates rates, £70 for two windows and two doors)
Here are the old rear door and the old downstairs toilet window.
No pictures of the new ones fitted just yet - I'll grab some tonight.
The front door is the last thing being fitted. going to take the old one out and frame etc. on the morning of whenever we get the sofa delivered to maximize space and then fit the new one after that. Will also save bashing it bringing stuff in and out of the house.
Also made a start of cutting and fitting the bevel edged tiles in the fireplace (cheapest I could find at £12 per sqM from B&Q) going to use the grey grout on these too so that it doesn't stain with smoke from the stove.
Will probably finish the rear wall tonight if I have a spare hour and then start on the edges. (decided to tile the edges too - didn't like it after I'd plastered it - typical!
Had to use a batten to start the bottom layer as the slates aren't totally flat so wanted a level line to start off with - the amount of stuff I've learnt whilst re-doing this house is unreal!
Not too happy about the centre line on the tiles but the sides of the fireplace isn't perfectly square so the cuts on one side are 10mm longer than the other - this is because i've gone with the centre line of the slate on the hearth so make it look straight to the eye.
As always - ideas and comments welcome.
Dion
So me and dad went on to take out the old ones and cutting the frames etc. out and my friend (Who's a double glazing fitter by trade) fitted the new ones in - Cheap too at mates rates, £70 for two windows and two doors)
Here are the old rear door and the old downstairs toilet window.
No pictures of the new ones fitted just yet - I'll grab some tonight.
The front door is the last thing being fitted. going to take the old one out and frame etc. on the morning of whenever we get the sofa delivered to maximize space and then fit the new one after that. Will also save bashing it bringing stuff in and out of the house.
Also made a start of cutting and fitting the bevel edged tiles in the fireplace (cheapest I could find at £12 per sqM from B&Q) going to use the grey grout on these too so that it doesn't stain with smoke from the stove.
Will probably finish the rear wall tonight if I have a spare hour and then start on the edges. (decided to tile the edges too - didn't like it after I'd plastered it - typical!
Had to use a batten to start the bottom layer as the slates aren't totally flat so wanted a level line to start off with - the amount of stuff I've learnt whilst re-doing this house is unreal!
Not too happy about the centre line on the tiles but the sides of the fireplace isn't perfectly square so the cuts on one side are 10mm longer than the other - this is because i've gone with the centre line of the slate on the hearth so make it look straight to the eye.
As always - ideas and comments welcome.
Dion
Typical really - phone battery went out just as I was about to take pictures of the windows and doors..
So last night it was slightly cooler than it has been so took the opportunity to go in the garden to carry on stripping the paint off the wall ready for re-painting in white.
The amount of flakes and crud that came off the wall was unbelievable - enough to shovel it by the time i was moving on up the wall! crazy.
Also took the opportunity to trim the neighbours tree (my side) to clear it up a little.. it had grown massively in the last month or two.
Quite a big pile of branches and leaves etc. by the end!
Dion.
So last night it was slightly cooler than it has been so took the opportunity to go in the garden to carry on stripping the paint off the wall ready for re-painting in white.
The amount of flakes and crud that came off the wall was unbelievable - enough to shovel it by the time i was moving on up the wall! crazy.
Also took the opportunity to trim the neighbours tree (my side) to clear it up a little.. it had grown massively in the last month or two.
Quite a big pile of branches and leaves etc. by the end!
Dion.
RC1807 said:
You have to give the trimmings back to your neighbour 
I was half tempted to push em back into the middle of the bush! But to be fair - the neighbours are lovely.. Went over to explain and apologize for the noise that I'll have in the next few months etc. and they were cool with it. Always offer a hand when they see me and pop in if they're passing. My guess is that neighbours like that are hard to find and are worth their weight in gold
A little bit of cleaning up last night - cutting up the old doors and windows to logs, taking the copper pipes to scrap and clearing out junk (5 recycling boxes and about 4 full bin bags worth!)
Managed to grab some pictures of the door and windows too:
Back door:
Downstairs toilet window in stipolite frosted glass:
Upstairs 'back' bedroom fully opening window now changed too (you can also see the kitchen one we fitted a few months back)
I'm not too sure on how to plaster the outside reveals as the new windows are slightly smaller than the old ones (my mistake) Should I be shuttering them and filling in? Or doing small layers at a time with a trowel and then pebble dashing the outside part?
Joiner is 'round tonight to finish the stairs and/or fit the doors upstairs so that should be done then and heating engineer is coming in the next few weeks hopefully to fit the logburner in.
Dion
Managed to grab some pictures of the door and windows too:
Back door:
Downstairs toilet window in stipolite frosted glass:
Upstairs 'back' bedroom fully opening window now changed too (you can also see the kitchen one we fitted a few months back)
I'm not too sure on how to plaster the outside reveals as the new windows are slightly smaller than the old ones (my mistake) Should I be shuttering them and filling in? Or doing small layers at a time with a trowel and then pebble dashing the outside part?
Joiner is 'round tonight to finish the stairs and/or fit the doors upstairs so that should be done then and heating engineer is coming in the next few weeks hopefully to fit the logburner in.
Dion
Seems like photobucket has died and all the old pictures seem to have been lost! But I'll update regardless..
I've been busy blue gritting the bedrooms ready for the plasterer to visit.
It's now less than a month to the date I set myself to be in by.. 29th of July!!
Ply lined half of the upstairs now too (putting grab adhesive behind the plywood and then a 25mm screw through it and the floorboards at every around 150/200mm distance.
I'll keep you updated when I can host pictures again..
Dion
I've been busy blue gritting the bedrooms ready for the plasterer to visit.
It's now less than a month to the date I set myself to be in by.. 29th of July!!
Ply lined half of the upstairs now too (putting grab adhesive behind the plywood and then a 25mm screw through it and the floorboards at every around 150/200mm distance.
I'll keep you updated when I can host pictures again..
Dion
So now set myself up an IMGUR account that should work with the images.
To recap where we're at - new windows and doors fitted last week ish:
And onto this - Living room emptied (tiling nearly done in the fireplace) and self levelled to the best we could get it (plasterer did it for me for beer tokens) and bottom of stairs finished.
Floor brushed, hoovered, brushed again and hoovered again.. and again.. and again!!
PVA / water mix brushed onto the floor, dried and then self levelled.
Looks a lot better now it's dry.
So Laminate flooring wise - I've been looking at this from B&Q 10mm thick Click fit medium oak styled laminate. Fair price really - I need 22.75sqM for my living room.
Also bought an Ikea chair for the 'breakfast bar' type piece for the kitchen in a cream/white/ivory colour same as the kitchen units and thought it was too light so to match the units I'm in the middle of cutting and shaping an oak top for it instead of the plain white one that came with it!
Dion
To recap where we're at - new windows and doors fitted last week ish:
And onto this - Living room emptied (tiling nearly done in the fireplace) and self levelled to the best we could get it (plasterer did it for me for beer tokens) and bottom of stairs finished.
Floor brushed, hoovered, brushed again and hoovered again.. and again.. and again!!
PVA / water mix brushed onto the floor, dried and then self levelled.
Looks a lot better now it's dry.
So Laminate flooring wise - I've been looking at this from B&Q 10mm thick Click fit medium oak styled laminate. Fair price really - I need 22.75sqM for my living room.
Also bought an Ikea chair for the 'breakfast bar' type piece for the kitchen in a cream/white/ivory colour same as the kitchen units and thought it was too light so to match the units I'm in the middle of cutting and shaping an oak top for it instead of the plain white one that came with it!
Dion
So a fair amount of progress this last week.. Firstly the laminate floor was laid. One 3mm underlay with a DPM and I put another 5mm thick onto that too to make sure all the little lumps and bumps in the floor would not be felt through the floor. Expensive but worth it I thought)
Also all the joints were glued to make sure they don't come apart - very time consuming but again, I thought it was worth doing properly.
Then the skirting and the scotias are being fitted (boxed around the pipes etc.) 18mm thick by 150mm (6") high OGEE profile MDF primed skirting was chosen for the whole house apart from the bathroom.
ALL of the upstairs floors have now been boarded (Waterproof hardiebacker for the landing and the bathroom and 9mm marine ply for the bedrooms) It's made a HUGE difference to the floors, now feels much nicer to walk on and doesn't creak etc. Walls have been also been blue gritted and scraped ready for the plasterer.
Back bedroom:
Then onto my ikea chair again!
Before:
During:
After:
Very happy with it! and it matches the white/cream units with the oak tops.
Looking promising for moving in on the 29th!!
Dion.
Also all the joints were glued to make sure they don't come apart - very time consuming but again, I thought it was worth doing properly.
Then the skirting and the scotias are being fitted (boxed around the pipes etc.) 18mm thick by 150mm (6") high OGEE profile MDF primed skirting was chosen for the whole house apart from the bathroom.
ALL of the upstairs floors have now been boarded (Waterproof hardiebacker for the landing and the bathroom and 9mm marine ply for the bedrooms) It's made a HUGE difference to the floors, now feels much nicer to walk on and doesn't creak etc. Walls have been also been blue gritted and scraped ready for the plasterer.
Back bedroom:
Then onto my ikea chair again!
Before:
During:
After:
Very happy with it! and it matches the white/cream units with the oak tops.
Looking promising for moving in on the 29th!!
Dion.
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