Full House Refurb log - Work in Progress - Dark to Light
Discussion
Awesome thread, thank you for sharing.
Quite similar to what we are doing - bought a 1980's build bungalow in july 2017 - it hadn't been modernised at all - the 'might-as-well-be-single-glazed' windows with their dark stain wood to match the skirting, doors, architrave etc. along with floor to ceiling waredrobes with doors falling off and that horrible varnished wood stink.
Coving, bare lightbulbs, nasty artexed ceilings, matrix style heating with what looked like straws as pipes and the non-rcd consumer unit located in the toilet!
we are probably 60% through, and already killed our £50k budget but we have redone the ceilings, put RGB-C/W/N/White LED downlighters, ceiling speakers, rewired and relocated the consumer unit, flood filled Cat6 back to a coms cab in the office, knocked the kitchen and diner through and put a new shiny white kitchen in, new boiler and rads - everything chased, plastered and then painted in plain white. Everything is white. it looks 10000% better but we still feel we're living in a building site.
Bathrooms next!
Quite similar to what we are doing - bought a 1980's build bungalow in july 2017 - it hadn't been modernised at all - the 'might-as-well-be-single-glazed' windows with their dark stain wood to match the skirting, doors, architrave etc. along with floor to ceiling waredrobes with doors falling off and that horrible varnished wood stink.
Coving, bare lightbulbs, nasty artexed ceilings, matrix style heating with what looked like straws as pipes and the non-rcd consumer unit located in the toilet!
we are probably 60% through, and already killed our £50k budget but we have redone the ceilings, put RGB-C/W/N/White LED downlighters, ceiling speakers, rewired and relocated the consumer unit, flood filled Cat6 back to a coms cab in the office, knocked the kitchen and diner through and put a new shiny white kitchen in, new boiler and rads - everything chased, plastered and then painted in plain white. Everything is white. it looks 10000% better but we still feel we're living in a building site.
Bathrooms next!
PixelpeepS3 said:
Awesome thread, thank you for sharing.
Quite similar to what we are doing - bought a 1980's build bungalow in july 2017 - it hadn't been modernised at all - the 'might-as-well-be-single-glazed' windows with their dark stain wood to match the skirting, doors, architrave etc. along with floor to ceiling waredrobes with doors falling off and that horrible varnished wood stink.
Coving, bare lightbulbs, nasty artexed ceilings, matrix style heating with what looked like straws as pipes and the non-rcd consumer unit located in the toilet!
we are probably 60% through, and already killed our £50k budget but we have redone the ceilings, put RGB-C/W/N/White LED downlighters, ceiling speakers, rewired and relocated the consumer unit, flood filled Cat6 back to a coms cab in the office, knocked the kitchen and diner through and put a new shiny white kitchen in, new boiler and rads - everything chased, plastered and then painted in plain white. Everything is white. it looks 10000% better but we still feel we're living in a building site.
Bathrooms next!
This sounds terribly familiar. Just throw in some structural repairs and you're there!Quite similar to what we are doing - bought a 1980's build bungalow in july 2017 - it hadn't been modernised at all - the 'might-as-well-be-single-glazed' windows with their dark stain wood to match the skirting, doors, architrave etc. along with floor to ceiling waredrobes with doors falling off and that horrible varnished wood stink.
Coving, bare lightbulbs, nasty artexed ceilings, matrix style heating with what looked like straws as pipes and the non-rcd consumer unit located in the toilet!
we are probably 60% through, and already killed our £50k budget but we have redone the ceilings, put RGB-C/W/N/White LED downlighters, ceiling speakers, rewired and relocated the consumer unit, flood filled Cat6 back to a coms cab in the office, knocked the kitchen and diner through and put a new shiny white kitchen in, new boiler and rads - everything chased, plastered and then painted in plain white. Everything is white. it looks 10000% better but we still feel we're living in a building site.
Bathrooms next!
PixelpeepS3 said:
Awesome thread, thank you for sharing.
Quite similar to what we are doing - bought a 1980's build bungalow in july 2017 - it hadn't been modernised at all - the 'might-as-well-be-single-glazed' windows with their dark stain wood to match the skirting, doors, architrave etc. along with floor to ceiling waredrobes with doors falling off and that horrible varnished wood stink.
Coving, bare lightbulbs, nasty artexed ceilings, matrix style heating with what looked like straws as pipes and the non-rcd consumer unit located in the toilet!
we are probably 60% through, and already killed our £50k budget but we have redone the ceilings, put RGB-C/W/N/White LED downlighters, ceiling speakers, rewired and relocated the consumer unit, flood filled Cat6 back to a coms cab in the office, knocked the kitchen and diner through and put a new shiny white kitchen in, new boiler and rads - everything chased, plastered and then painted in plain white. Everything is white. it looks 10000% better but we still feel we're living in a building site.
Bathrooms next!
That gave me a chuckle, sorry for your pain! My sister and her husband bought a house about a year ago now that hadn't been touched since the year nineteen seventy oatcake and went through the same thing. Poor BIL was working full time, then heading to the new house almost every day for six months to get a lot of it done. Think it nearly broke him. Quite similar to what we are doing - bought a 1980's build bungalow in july 2017 - it hadn't been modernised at all - the 'might-as-well-be-single-glazed' windows with their dark stain wood to match the skirting, doors, architrave etc. along with floor to ceiling waredrobes with doors falling off and that horrible varnished wood stink.
Coving, bare lightbulbs, nasty artexed ceilings, matrix style heating with what looked like straws as pipes and the non-rcd consumer unit located in the toilet!
we are probably 60% through, and already killed our £50k budget but we have redone the ceilings, put RGB-C/W/N/White LED downlighters, ceiling speakers, rewired and relocated the consumer unit, flood filled Cat6 back to a coms cab in the office, knocked the kitchen and diner through and put a new shiny white kitchen in, new boiler and rads - everything chased, plastered and then painted in plain white. Everything is white. it looks 10000% better but we still feel we're living in a building site.
Bathrooms next!
I will be eternally grateful, and so will my wallet, that the bathrooms / kitchen and major electrical are alright for now.
Right, end of the week update:
Living room flooring - detail strips on order, temporary "chocolate" strips in place
Porch flooring - walls not straight enough and would compromise the pattern so fitter has ordered more white edging.
Not sure when all that will be available for fitting.
Plumber has been back and finished the pipework for the porch and bathroom downstairs. Radiators not arrived yet as they ordered the wrong finish so also waiting on that. Going to have to find a bit of tile to fill the hole left in the bathroom floor but it's hopefully not going to be so noticeable.
Movers have come and gone, moved the heavier stuff up the stairs and left the rest in the garage for the time being for us to sort through.
Dining table and 'feature' chairs for the living room have been delivered.
Friday morning the roofline chaps turned up and started. Had to get in touch with the electrician to make sure that he was coming on Monday to organise the installation of the new LED security lights, downlighters and NEST cameras on the facing boards.
Living room flooring - detail strips on order, temporary "chocolate" strips in place
Porch flooring - walls not straight enough and would compromise the pattern so fitter has ordered more white edging.
Not sure when all that will be available for fitting.
Plumber has been back and finished the pipework for the porch and bathroom downstairs. Radiators not arrived yet as they ordered the wrong finish so also waiting on that. Going to have to find a bit of tile to fill the hole left in the bathroom floor but it's hopefully not going to be so noticeable.
Movers have come and gone, moved the heavier stuff up the stairs and left the rest in the garage for the time being for us to sort through.
Dining table and 'feature' chairs for the living room have been delivered.
Friday morning the roofline chaps turned up and started. Had to get in touch with the electrician to make sure that he was coming on Monday to organise the installation of the new LED security lights, downlighters and NEST cameras on the facing boards.
Having just recently had an offer accepted on a house that needs some doing up, threads like these both excite me and scare the s
te out of me 
Love what you've done so far and as per others, looking forward to future updates. Definitely given me some ideas.
With the 'connected home' elements, how much did you know/plan yourself and how much was from a professional? I've done a bit of research so far, but a little overwhelmed with the amount of choice/combinations. I'm reasonably techy, but it's trying to figure out what I want/need and how to put it all together.
te out of me Love what you've done so far and as per others, looking forward to future updates. Definitely given me some ideas.
With the 'connected home' elements, how much did you know/plan yourself and how much was from a professional? I've done a bit of research so far, but a little overwhelmed with the amount of choice/combinations. I'm reasonably techy, but it's trying to figure out what I want/need and how to put it all together.
Ruskie said:
Great thread. Some of the best threads on PH are ones like this. If you could work a bit harder and finish though please? 
Hah, well wont be much updates for a few weeks as once I get home I'm almost straight away again. Will be less frequent but bigger updates I guess. All of the first posts covered quite a lot of time period!morgs_ said:
With the 'connected home' elements, how much did you know/plan yourself and how much was from a professional? I've done a bit of research so far, but a little overwhelmed with the amount of choice/combinations. I'm reasonably techy, but it's trying to figure out what I want/need and how to put it all together.
Pretty much planned it all myself including designing the cabinet and tv wall. Google sketchup and some free time was all that was needed. I had Nest thermostat and some Hue lighting in my previous place along with some cable runs hidden in walls. This was the first time I got to fully plan it all but I knew what I wanted. 
Suppose better at least throw up some pictures of the roofline progress. Lads have done quite a bit. Decided to go for a tongue in groove style for under the porch. Electrician on site just yesterday to assist in wiring up ready for downlights and security lights etc.
The porch ceiling is actually the floor of the loft space so got the lads to pack it with some insulation we had in the garage. Hopefully keep a bit of heat in there.
The porch ceiling is actually the floor of the loft space so got the lads to pack it with some insulation we had in the garage. Hopefully keep a bit of heat in there.
morgs_ said:
With the 'connected home' elements, how much did you know/plan yourself and how much was from a professional? I've done a bit of research so far, but a little overwhelmed with the amount of choice/combinations. I'm reasonably techy, but it's trying to figure out what I want/need and how to put it all together.
Pretty much planned it all myself including designing the cabinet and tv wall. Google sketchup and some free time was all that was needed. I had Nest thermostat and some Hue lighting in my previous place along with some cable runs hidden in walls. This was the first time I got to fully plan it all but I knew what I wanted. Thanks for the reply. Haven't come across sketchup so will give that a look. I have a reasonable idea of what I want, but slightly complicated by wanting to extend in the near future and not doing things now that will hinder or not be cost effective when hopefully doing the extension.
morgs_ said:
Thanks for the reply. Haven't come across sketchup so will give that a look. I have a reasonable idea of what I want, but slightly complicated by wanting to extend in the near future and not doing things now that will hinder or not be cost effective when hopefully doing the extension.
Fire me a PM if you need. Although I am a little Google / NEST biased as that's what I've used for the whole house. Sketchup I just used to design the cabinets and draw the floorplan for the house. I actually just used excel a lot to plan the wiring.
RichTT said:
morgs_ said:
Thanks for the reply. Haven't come across sketchup so will give that a look. I have a reasonable idea of what I want, but slightly complicated by wanting to extend in the near future and not doing things now that will hinder or not be cost effective when hopefully doing the extension.
Fire me a PM if you need. Although I am a little Google / NEST biased as that's what I've used for the whole house. Sketchup I just used to design the cabinets and draw the floorplan for the house. I actually just used excel a lot to plan the wiring.
I prefer Google as I've used their systems for years, so makes sense to continue with them.
Right then, looooads to update on the house. Had a month at home, but due to internet upload speed currently sitting at 0.7 mb/s I didn't even bother attempting to start uploading photos whilst I was there.
Had a couple of days after I got back from work before we disappeared to Tenerife with some friends for a quick holiday and some sunshine.
First things first, to get the telly up and running as well as do a dry run for the cabling and wiring in the media unit. Also needed to get the Google Wifi setup and bin the Sky hub internet box for a dedicated setup.
As it was before I started, none of the shelves are screwed in yet as I needed to get a multi tool in and cut out some of the shelf supports in order to run the cable management.
Got rid of the Sky box and then found out that Sky are a crap provider who make it as difficult as possible to change out their hardware for your own. I believe now that under EU legislation they are required to allow you to use your own, but in no way will give you the log on and details needed. Spent a few hours searching through Google to get what I needed and at least get connected. Also setup the 8 port switch to feed everything else in the cabinet.
Needed a whole stack of 0.5m and 0.3m jumper cables.
And the first Wifi hub set up on top of the unit. Planning to have one upstairs, and then the third hard wired out in the garage.
Next up was a nosy behind the TV to sort out the cabling there. I had the cable management stuff on order so primary concern was just to get a signal to the TV and allow us to at least watch some Netflix in the evening. The wall mount really makes moving the television in and out very very easy.
Before I could get the Soundbar set up I needed to put up the floating shelf. It's find and level, very sturdy, but cants toward the rear a little. Also I could have installed it a little higher to try and hide the brush faceplates better. But as it is I can still access everything I need.
Running cabling to and from the soundbar was a PITA. I found out that the electrician had installed the faceplates on standard plastic back boxes, but there wasn't enough access to run the cables through. Also the Soundbar cable is integrated in both the plug and the unit. Had to faff about pulling them off and modifying the back boxes to allow multiple cables and also to be able to fish them through.
Next up, Soundbar time! Ran the HDMI cabling from back of the TV into the brush plate at the shelf, and then the HDMI from the shelf down through the cable run to the media unit. Slightly over estimated the length of cable needed so will just have to coil and hide the rest of it underneath the lower shelf. Also never realised the thickness of the HDMI cabling I bought,. it's a bit unweildy.
Sky box plumbed in but forgot that I don't have any short Co-ax cables, managed to get a length of co-ax and some connectors from the sparky so will have to see if i remember how to build a co-ax cable. Think last time i had a special push fitting crimper and a trimmer.
And the subwoofer in it's temporary home. Will have to see where it fits the best.
And finally, we have light and sound. Although for some reason the ARC HDMI isnt working and I'm using a short optical cable for the time being until I can sort something out. Long term if for some reason there's a compatibility issue I will just run a longer optical cable from behind the TV.
Had a couple of days after I got back from work before we disappeared to Tenerife with some friends for a quick holiday and some sunshine.
First things first, to get the telly up and running as well as do a dry run for the cabling and wiring in the media unit. Also needed to get the Google Wifi setup and bin the Sky hub internet box for a dedicated setup.
As it was before I started, none of the shelves are screwed in yet as I needed to get a multi tool in and cut out some of the shelf supports in order to run the cable management.
Got rid of the Sky box and then found out that Sky are a crap provider who make it as difficult as possible to change out their hardware for your own. I believe now that under EU legislation they are required to allow you to use your own, but in no way will give you the log on and details needed. Spent a few hours searching through Google to get what I needed and at least get connected. Also setup the 8 port switch to feed everything else in the cabinet.
Needed a whole stack of 0.5m and 0.3m jumper cables.
And the first Wifi hub set up on top of the unit. Planning to have one upstairs, and then the third hard wired out in the garage.
Next up was a nosy behind the TV to sort out the cabling there. I had the cable management stuff on order so primary concern was just to get a signal to the TV and allow us to at least watch some Netflix in the evening. The wall mount really makes moving the television in and out very very easy.
Before I could get the Soundbar set up I needed to put up the floating shelf. It's find and level, very sturdy, but cants toward the rear a little. Also I could have installed it a little higher to try and hide the brush faceplates better. But as it is I can still access everything I need.
Running cabling to and from the soundbar was a PITA. I found out that the electrician had installed the faceplates on standard plastic back boxes, but there wasn't enough access to run the cables through. Also the Soundbar cable is integrated in both the plug and the unit. Had to faff about pulling them off and modifying the back boxes to allow multiple cables and also to be able to fish them through.
Next up, Soundbar time! Ran the HDMI cabling from back of the TV into the brush plate at the shelf, and then the HDMI from the shelf down through the cable run to the media unit. Slightly over estimated the length of cable needed so will just have to coil and hide the rest of it underneath the lower shelf. Also never realised the thickness of the HDMI cabling I bought,. it's a bit unweildy.
Sky box plumbed in but forgot that I don't have any short Co-ax cables, managed to get a length of co-ax and some connectors from the sparky so will have to see if i remember how to build a co-ax cable. Think last time i had a special push fitting crimper and a trimmer.
And the subwoofer in it's temporary home. Will have to see where it fits the best.
And finally, we have light and sound. Although for some reason the ARC HDMI isnt working and I'm using a short optical cable for the time being until I can sort something out. Long term if for some reason there's a compatibility issue I will just run a longer optical cable from behind the TV.
So, back from holiday and whilst away the boiler decided to play up and wouldn't fire up. It had previously given a warning light that needed resetting, but the SSE engineer went through every part of the system to ensure it was working correctly. Final conclusion was that it was the wiring for the NEST that needed changed.
When the electrician first wired it up he used the cabling that was originally used for the HIVE system in place, but that was routed through an old Scottish Gas timer box and was causing issues. The boiler wasn't getting through the 240V needed to kick over and supply hot water. Anyway, had to get the sparkies back out (different chaps) to removed the SG system and just directly wire up the NEST so it's working fine now.
Wee treat to myself as John Lewis were doing 250 quid off the new Pixel 3 and my Pixel 1 battery was dieing on it's arse, only lasting 9 hours use during the day. Set up the charging stand and the first Google Home up in the bedroom.
Next up was also starting to plan the lighting system for the house. First little Hue accent light set up in the living room.
Testing the side LED setup for the TV wall. It's a bit rough and ready behind the access panel but not a lot I can do about that right now. It's all hidden anyway. Very happy how this has turned out for ambient lighting and contrast for the TV when it's on.
When the electrician first wired it up he used the cabling that was originally used for the HIVE system in place, but that was routed through an old Scottish Gas timer box and was causing issues. The boiler wasn't getting through the 240V needed to kick over and supply hot water. Anyway, had to get the sparkies back out (different chaps) to removed the SG system and just directly wire up the NEST so it's working fine now.
Wee treat to myself as John Lewis were doing 250 quid off the new Pixel 3 and my Pixel 1 battery was dieing on it's arse, only lasting 9 hours use during the day. Set up the charging stand and the first Google Home up in the bedroom.
Next up was also starting to plan the lighting system for the house. First little Hue accent light set up in the living room.
Testing the side LED setup for the TV wall. It's a bit rough and ready behind the access panel but not a lot I can do about that right now. It's all hidden anyway. Very happy how this has turned out for ambient lighting and contrast for the TV when it's on.
Lovely stuff! I'm a big fan of all this smart home stuff - I run a mixture of Alexa and Hive, with a little bit of Nest as well. Which has reminded me that I never documented it on my build thread...
Love the Hue gear - I'm a sucker for coloured, ambient light.
I went for Hive lights though. The Hue lights are much better than Hive, the colours are just so intense and pure. They have a much better app as well. But much as I'd have liked to go with Hue I couldn't justify the added expense.
The first time you get google to turn on a light just by asking is a properly cool moment. I remember watching Tomorrow's World years ago when they'd do a house of the future spot - this is where we are today, living in that future, and it's great!
Love the Hue gear - I'm a sucker for coloured, ambient light.
I went for Hive lights though. The Hue lights are much better than Hive, the colours are just so intense and pure. They have a much better app as well. But much as I'd have liked to go with Hue I couldn't justify the added expense.
The first time you get google to turn on a light just by asking is a properly cool moment. I remember watching Tomorrow's World years ago when they'd do a house of the future spot - this is where we are today, living in that future, and it's great!
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