The ridiculous Edwardian...
Discussion
Ace-T said:
Good news everyone!
The cabinets (as mentioned above) under the right hand window will go as it gives a little more space into the loo/laundry
We are going for a solid wood shaker style door in a dark blue teal. That way we can paint the doors if we get bored/need to refresh to sell. Worktops in white marble effect quartz. Dunno about backsplashes yet, need suggestions/advice on that if anyone cares to weigh in. Flooring likely to be a wood effect porcelain tile with underfloor heating.
Top tip/food for thought.The cabinets (as mentioned above) under the right hand window will go as it gives a little more space into the loo/laundry
We are going for a solid wood shaker style door in a dark blue teal. That way we can paint the doors if we get bored/need to refresh to sell. Worktops in white marble effect quartz. Dunno about backsplashes yet, need suggestions/advice on that if anyone cares to weigh in. Flooring likely to be a wood effect porcelain tile with underfloor heating.
Edited by Ace-T on Friday 15th April 18:09
When they fit the kitchen, make sure they install the tall cabinets 30MM (Or whatever the overhang of the worktop is going to be) forward of the base cabinets so the worktop runs up to the near front of the tall cabinets..
Its all personal, but to me its a sign of a bad install when the worktop finishes forward of tall cabinets.
^^ Many thanks for the suggestions and replies folks. 
One technical question though. What JCT should we expect the builder to bring to sign? I have had a look but it's not clear if it's the Homeowner one or the next one up.
For clarity. One wall and one chimney breast coming down. One new steel, one replacement steel, new roof with veluxes and original slates, new floor with ufh, new kitchen.
Any thoughts?
One technical question though. What JCT should we expect the builder to bring to sign? I have had a look but it's not clear if it's the Homeowner one or the next one up.
For clarity. One wall and one chimney breast coming down. One new steel, one replacement steel, new roof with veluxes and original slates, new floor with ufh, new kitchen.
Any thoughts?
Had a meeting this morning with the builder, who told us the work can't start on Monday as we'd agreed weeks ago. Fair enough, s
t happens - but deeply unimpressed to be finding out only two days beforehand, especially as we'd told him we'd be booking time off work so we're not trying to work through all the really noisy demolition work (we both work from home).
And breath...
t happens - but deeply unimpressed to be finding out only two days beforehand, especially as we'd told him we'd be booking time off work so we're not trying to work through all the really noisy demolition work (we both work from home).And breath...
Well, things have taken a decidedly pear-shaped turn. This afternoon we fired the builder before he’d even bothered to make a start. After delays, mistakes, key things being missed on the quote, more delays, price increases, him dropping a bombshell about going off on holiday two days into the build, and the final straw of leaving the structural calcs to the last minute and finding out removing the wall between the kitchen and dining room was going to be much, much complicated yet unable to get a price for additional work we’d had enough. We’d lost all confidence that the job would be done anywhere near remotely on time or on budget.
Back to the drawing board. fk 
Back to the drawing board. f
k 
21st Century Man said:
Can you imagine any other business/industry operating like that? What is it with tradespeople?
I know; it’s incomprehensible. If my company operated like that, or any of our partner companies, it would be a fast track to bankruptcy. Maybe the looming recession will provide the much needed kick in the pants to the various trades.
Hi folks, long time, no update.
After the not good times with the proposed kitchen build, we decided to focus elsewhere. We decided to knock down the 50s concrete garage and get a new one sorted so we could have somewhere to keep the cars.
With funds not going as far as they used to, a compromise had to be made, so a brick built one was pretty out of the question. We decided on a concrete sectional one. It's really not pretty (it will make your teeth ache!) but is functional and pretty spacious so I am not unhappy with the end result.
We had to start with clearing the site. We had removed the 40ft leylandii last winter, but stuff had started to grow back. Also we had not realised the tree surgeons had not taken out the 2ft thick roots.
You will notice there is a tree next to the space. This is a very old magnolia that I wanted to keep. It is a stunning tree and is in the most stupidly inconvenient place, but we are keeping it so worked around it.
Even the digger sent in to flatten the site couldn't pull the roots out so we resorted to hiring an industrial stump grinder and operator who made pretty short work of it!
Demolition of old garage
Getting the site ready
Site ready
Slab laid (with obligatory paw prints)
New garage going up
Yes, we know the door is offset and looks weird.
However it gives us a better space inside.
Garage up and TVR in.
Next steps were getting power to the garage and sorting the gates.
After the not good times with the proposed kitchen build, we decided to focus elsewhere. We decided to knock down the 50s concrete garage and get a new one sorted so we could have somewhere to keep the cars.
With funds not going as far as they used to, a compromise had to be made, so a brick built one was pretty out of the question. We decided on a concrete sectional one. It's really not pretty (it will make your teeth ache!) but is functional and pretty spacious so I am not unhappy with the end result.
We had to start with clearing the site. We had removed the 40ft leylandii last winter, but stuff had started to grow back. Also we had not realised the tree surgeons had not taken out the 2ft thick roots.
You will notice there is a tree next to the space. This is a very old magnolia that I wanted to keep. It is a stunning tree and is in the most stupidly inconvenient place, but we are keeping it so worked around it.
Even the digger sent in to flatten the site couldn't pull the roots out so we resorted to hiring an industrial stump grinder and operator who made pretty short work of it!
Demolition of old garage
Getting the site ready
Site ready
Slab laid (with obligatory paw prints)
New garage going up
Yes, we know the door is offset and looks weird.
However it gives us a better space inside. Garage up and TVR in.
Next steps were getting power to the garage and sorting the gates.
Looks great.
To get into our drive we have to reverse along a narrow shared drive and dogleg into our driveway. This has been very challenging, especially at night in the cold and wet when a banksman is required to make sure the gates are open and we don't scrape the car corners!
To solve this, we have treated ourselves to a set of widened electric gates! They are awesome!
We had to remove the old fence panel and wall to widen the opening back to where the neighbours garage is. Luckily we have fabulous neighbours and they gave us written permission to do this.
Once removed we then had to reprofile the drive into a weird slope. A mix on site concrete lorry turned up and the buliders did their thing.
To be honest, there were problems with the mix and it is not going to win any awards for concrete perfection. But it works and it's not slippery.
Now for the exciting bit. Gate installation! They took our original gates, refurbished them, added a bit extra on, then brought them back and installed them.
To solve this, we have treated ourselves to a set of widened electric gates! They are awesome!
We had to remove the old fence panel and wall to widen the opening back to where the neighbours garage is. Luckily we have fabulous neighbours and they gave us written permission to do this.
Once removed we then had to reprofile the drive into a weird slope. A mix on site concrete lorry turned up and the buliders did their thing.
To be honest, there were problems with the mix and it is not going to win any awards for concrete perfection. But it works and it's not slippery.
Now for the exciting bit. Gate installation! They took our original gates, refurbished them, added a bit extra on, then brought them back and installed them.
Next job, garage electrics and flooring.
Who knew that you can't drill into concrete garage panels? We didn't In order to not miss the electrician slot we had to figure out a way of putting something on the walls for sockets to me mounted on.
OSB panels glued to the walls seems to work well!
Concrete floors, as you will know, are very dusty, so we needed a floor down. Painting was an option but one that would need more time than we had. Floor tiles were a better option for us.
Delivered. There's a lot there!
Pretty easy to put down once the floor was swept, vacuumed, swept again and vacuumed again. Then figuring out the pattern
We need to finish the sides and back. That involves cutting the remaining tiles. Will do that when it gets a bit warmer.
Who knew that you can't drill into concrete garage panels? We didn't
In order to not miss the electrician slot we had to figure out a way of putting something on the walls for sockets to me mounted on.OSB panels glued to the walls seems to work well!
Concrete floors, as you will know, are very dusty, so we needed a floor down. Painting was an option but one that would need more time than we had. Floor tiles were a better option for us.
Delivered. There's a lot there!
Pretty easy to put down once the floor was swept, vacuumed, swept again and vacuumed again. Then figuring out the pattern
We need to finish the sides and back. That involves cutting the remaining tiles. Will do that when it gets a bit warmer.
Now on to demolishing the en suite.
We wondered why they put a weird full height backsplash behind the sink
Upon removal we discovered why.
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/9x5fvawu.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/ASoEdzoN" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/ASoEdzoN.jpg)
Clearly the wall (loadbearing by the way) has been removed. There is even a suspicion of a lintel above, thank goodness. But to patch the wall only halfway up. Absolute fking bodgers. I should be surprised. But I'm not. Just fked off that now I have to fix their bodges again. fkers, hope they choke to death on engineering bricks. Gah!
Any suggestions on what I can fill that with other than the ground up bones of bodgers past?
We wondered why they put a weird full height backsplash behind the sink
Upon removal we discovered why.
Clearly the wall (loadbearing by the way) has been removed. There is even a suspicion of a lintel above, thank goodness. But to patch the wall only halfway up. Absolute f
king bodgers. I should be surprised. But I'm not. Just fked off that now I have to fix their bodges again. fkers, hope they choke to death on engineering bricks. Gah!Any suggestions on what I can fill that with other than the ground up bones of bodgers past?
Edited by Ace-T on Sunday 28th May 16:50
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