Novice house renovators - month 3, quarter of the way through

parisdisneyfan · 18 Jan 20, 06:55 PM

A few after photos to be added tomorrow as this took longer than I thought and it is now dark!

Apart from the excitement at the beginning of the month when a German articulated lorry got lost and spent about an hour trying to reverse round the corner it has been a quiet month. Luckily he didn’t hit any power or telegraph poles, our gates (wouldn’t have minded as they need replacing anyway!) or the telephone box! Eventually he got sorted and headed back to the main road – sat nav error or user error, not sure.

We were away for a week of it in Devon for Christmas with family. All the trades were trying to finish projects for the holiday so weren’t interested in coming out to quote. Dh had to do a round trip from Woolacombe on Christmas Eve as all the power went off in the house and we couldn’t risk either the alarm going off or something happening to the boiler. Luckily everything was fine but it has made us wary about leaving the house for a holiday until we have everything sorted, all the more reason to get it done quickly.

The company that delivered our oil very kindly fitted a new sight tube to the oil tank for free and I am keeping a check on it each week, not planning on running out of oil again! The boiler seems to have settled in well, although we do seem to be using quite a bit of oil. As we have had a Nest fitted it may ease off once the Nest has learnt our heating habits (well according to Dh anyway). We did have problems with the pressure in the system dropping which is apparently sign of a leak. We had been warned about this with the old pipework, but the company that fitted it were brilliant and visited twice, firstly to put something called Leak sealant in and then 4 days later when we actually spotted the leak. He spent 2 hours cutting out and replacing the pipe on a Friday evening. The first 2 are before and 3rd after.
Dh rigged up the funnel and a tube into a bucket to catch the water!

Very impressed with this company and will use them again!

With all the rain we have had we discovered another leak in the roof, one of the tiled valleys has failed! We knew they needed to be replaced but the rain just tipped it over the edge. I contacted the chap that did the work before but he hasn’t got back to me, a second company were obviously going to reline them in gold with the price they quoted. Plus he was very derogatory about the work that had been done already. Now in my book, you can think it but you don’t tell the prospective customer they have been fleeced/ripped off. It is not only his price that has put us off him! Luckily I had an appointment for a builder to visit to look at the whole extension project and he gave me the name of his roofer. This chap visited and although I’m still waiting on prices both of these people gave me confidence in them and offered references etc. I’m also having a visit from his plumber for the bathrooms as we really need to move on with these. The builder suggested a new way round our family bathroom which we really like and hope that the plumber can confirm that it is possible. We want to do the main bathroom first so that we have a shower available before we get the ensuite done with the only shower in it! This was the plan, but we are now thinking of a shower cubicle behind where the towel rail is as we have a huge airing cupboard that, although it is great, is wasted space and a free standing bath where current bath is, hopefully making it look very chic

This is the bathroom at the moment, we don't use it at all!

We are finding even using Checkatrade and the various associations that some tradesmen don’t get back to us, and 2 have made appointments and then been no shows with no call/text to give a reason. The first one I did text him back but he never replied, a shame as gets good reviews and apparently is a member of all the relevant associations.

The garage has always had a bad smell in it but we couldn’t find what it was. So the first morning I was on my own again I decided to try and track it down. Dh thinks we have mice so I was concerned that might be the cause. It was actually a lot simpler. The carpets offcuts that the previous owners had put down were nearly all mouldy but the floor underneath was dry. However they also had some of those big rubber backed industrial type mats. When I lifted these they were sodden and the concrete underneath was wet!

We think that maybe the fridge/freezers they had in the garage had leaked and with it being unheated it had never dried out. Or we have noticed that the old double metal garage door gets bad condensation that runs down onto the floor and could have been soaked up. Whatever reason the smell has pretty much gone with the carpets and the concrete has dried out.

Garden wise, well the gardener we inherited sacked me! He felt that I was capable of maintaining the garden and as we aren’t going to be redesigning it then it really wasn’t creatively challenging him! If necessary I will look for someone else but going to have a go myself for a few months. I have planted some pots up with bulbs facing the lane. Dh put up new outside lights. I also tidied up the driveway by scraping the moss off and cutting back the verge – got about 3 foot extra of driveway and hopefully when people use our drive entrance as a passing place they won’t chew up the verge quite as much now.

With all the storms we have been worried about an old rotten cherry tree which is already leaning, coming down, so we took it down ourselves. It is to the right of the picture at the end of a path blocking access to the lawn as well as blocking a bit of the view.

Dh did a really good job with the chainsaw and we have stacked the logs to season for next winter.

Waiting for a second quote for the fence and gates as both are in a dreadful state. However the fence I need to check with our neighbour as the fencers would have to go on their garden. We also don’t know who owns them, there are no T marks on the plans and the previous owners said it was unknown. We are happy to replace but due to the issues we had in our previous house need to check first! I hope most can be done from their side as there are a lot of snowdrops and other bulbs coming up in the bed on this side.

Personally, I have tried several classes at the local gym and joined senior ballet classes and been horse riding. I feel really settled and just love the area and views, the house will come as we get it modernised and updated. See you next month

All months are here https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1169030

3disneykids · 18 Jan 20, 07:04 PM

Getting hold of tradesmen seems to be a struggle and decent ones an even greater struggle, Fab updates and love the fact that the gardener sacked you for being too good lol..It made me chuckle... Surely you were just making his work easier

Mr Tom Morrow · 18 Jan 20, 07:43 PM

OP. For the length of time you have been in your progress is good.
Frustrating getting Tradesmen though I agree.
I had my Electrician mate in yesterday. My dining room is like a bomb site!

Couldn’t do this with kids in the house!

Carol_G · 19 Jan 20, 01:12 AM

Its all coming along, you are doing really well. We are just over 1 year into our renovations and I feel we live on a building site constantly, I am hoping 1 more year to finish the house on the inside then we can concentrate on the outside, the grounds and then the barn conversion. Why do we do this to ourselves

. I can't wait to read more and see more photos. Good luck.

judy22 · 20 Jan 20, 02:19 PM

Love progress report Julia. Glad you have settled in well. Hopefully I’ll be round to see you soon x

parisdisneyfan · 20 Jan 20, 04:27 PM

Originally Posted by Carol_G

Its all coming along, you are doing really well. We are just over 1 year into our renovations and I feel we live on a building site constantly, I am hoping 1 more year to finish the house on the inside then we can concentrate on the outside, the grounds and then the barn conversion. Why do we do this to ourselves

. I can't wait to read more and see more photos. Good luck.

Wow, you are far braver than us, love to see some photos of yours! I think this is going to be a bigger project than we anticipated but no way as big as yours!

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

OP. For the length of time you have been in your progress is good.
Frustrating getting Tradesmen though I agree.
I had my Electrician mate in yesterday. My dining room is like a bomb site!

Couldn’t do this with kids in the house!

Agree, no way would we thought about it if our kids were still at home. We have to move a lot of sockets up the wall when we get round to redoing the skirting boards!

Originally Posted by 3disneykids

Getting hold of tradesmen seems to be a struggle and decent ones an even greater struggle, Fab updates and love the fact that the gardener sacked you for being too good lol..It made me chuckle... Surely you were just making his work easier

I may have made his job easier but basically he didn't want to do the boring hard stuff like digging or mowing! We all like the creative stuff!

Anyway here are the after pics that I promised!

Remains of the tree

and the logs

Driveway after I cleared the moss and cut back the edges

Plumber been today and thinks the airing cupboard to shower is possible, but maybe not freestanding bath

Just want to start knocking things down and clearing out, the bathroom is just sitting up there mocking me

Gryff · 20 Jan 20, 05:07 PM

What a difference in the drive way
Hope the bathroom works out the way you want

parisdisneyfan · 22 Jan 20, 07:02 PM

Well plumbers quote seems very good even if i have to add building work, plastering, tiling, electrics and the fittings. It will be tight but the bathroom designer has also redone our plan and pictures and it looks pretty much how I imagined. Not quite a freestanding bath but something called a back to the wall and its not cheap but I think it will be worth it. Hoping to get dh to sit down and look at it all this weekend if not before! Here are the new pictures although I'm not so keen on the square loo anymore having had one in the holiday house - anyone got one? Opinions?

**smithlane** · 22 Jan 20, 07:25 PM

Loving this thread, I can’t wait to see it all finished.
The driveway looks fab, what a difference from before.
I like the look of the square toilets but they’re quite uncomfortable to sit on, a bit like American loos, my backside doesn’t mould to it properly 😳

18 Jan 20, 06:55 PM	#1
	18 Jan 20, 06:55 PM parisdisneyfan Imagineer
parisdisneyfan Imagineer Join Date: Feb 08	Novice house renovators - month 3, quarter of the way through A few after photos to be added tomorrow as this took longer than I thought and it is now dark! Apart from the excitement at the beginning of the month when a German articulated lorry got lost and spent about an hour trying to reverse round the corner it has been a quiet month. Luckily he didn’t hit any power or telegraph poles, our gates (wouldn’t have minded as they need replacing anyway!) or the telephone box! Eventually he got sorted and headed back to the main road – sat nav error or user error, not sure. We were away for a week of it in Devon for Christmas with family. All the trades were trying to finish projects for the holiday so weren’t interested in coming out to quote. Dh had to do a round trip from Woolacombe on Christmas Eve as all the power went off in the house and we couldn’t risk either the alarm going off or something happening to the boiler. Luckily everything was fine but it has made us wary about leaving the house for a holiday until we have everything sorted, all the more reason to get it done quickly. The company that delivered our oil very kindly fitted a new sight tube to the oil tank for free and I am keeping a check on it each week, not planning on running out of oil again! The boiler seems to have settled in well, although we do seem to be using quite a bit of oil. As we have had a Nest fitted it may ease off once the Nest has learnt our heating habits (well according to Dh anyway). We did have problems with the pressure in the system dropping which is apparently sign of a leak. We had been warned about this with the old pipework, but the company that fitted it were brilliant and visited twice, firstly to put something called Leak sealant in and then 4 days later when we actually spotted the leak. He spent 2 hours cutting out and replacing the pipe on a Friday evening. The first 2 are before and 3rd after. Dh rigged up the funnel and a tube into a bucket to catch the water! Very impressed with this company and will use them again! With all the rain we have had we discovered another leak in the roof, one of the tiled valleys has failed! We knew they needed to be replaced but the rain just tipped it over the edge. I contacted the chap that did the work before but he hasn’t got back to me, a second company were obviously going to reline them in gold with the price they quoted. Plus he was very derogatory about the work that had been done already. Now in my book, you can think it but you don’t tell the prospective customer they have been fleeced/ripped off. It is not only his price that has put us off him! Luckily I had an appointment for a builder to visit to look at the whole extension project and he gave me the name of his roofer. This chap visited and although I’m still waiting on prices both of these people gave me confidence in them and offered references etc. I’m also having a visit from his plumber for the bathrooms as we really need to move on with these. The builder suggested a new way round our family bathroom which we really like and hope that the plumber can confirm that it is possible. We want to do the main bathroom first so that we have a shower available before we get the ensuite done with the only shower in it! This was the plan, but we are now thinking of a shower cubicle behind where the towel rail is as we have a huge airing cupboard that, although it is great, is wasted space and a free standing bath where current bath is, hopefully making it look very chic This is the bathroom at the moment, we don't use it at all! We are finding even using Checkatrade and the various associations that some tradesmen don’t get back to us, and 2 have made appointments and then been no shows with no call/text to give a reason. The first one I did text him back but he never replied, a shame as gets good reviews and apparently is a member of all the relevant associations. The garage has always had a bad smell in it but we couldn’t find what it was. So the first morning I was on my own again I decided to try and track it down. Dh thinks we have mice so I was concerned that might be the cause. It was actually a lot simpler. The carpets offcuts that the previous owners had put down were nearly all mouldy but the floor underneath was dry. However they also had some of those big rubber backed industrial type mats. When I lifted these they were sodden and the concrete underneath was wet! We think that maybe the fridge/freezers they had in the garage had leaked and with it being unheated it had never dried out. Or we have noticed that the old double metal garage door gets bad condensation that runs down onto the floor and could have been soaked up. Whatever reason the smell has pretty much gone with the carpets and the concrete has dried out. Garden wise, well the gardener we inherited sacked me! He felt that I was capable of maintaining the garden and as we aren’t going to be redesigning it then it really wasn’t creatively challenging him! If necessary I will look for someone else but going to have a go myself for a few months. I have planted some pots up with bulbs facing the lane. Dh put up new outside lights. I also tidied up the driveway by scraping the moss off and cutting back the verge – got about 3 foot extra of driveway and hopefully when people use our drive entrance as a passing place they won’t chew up the verge quite as much now. With all the storms we have been worried about an old rotten cherry tree which is already leaning, coming down, so we took it down ourselves. It is to the right of the picture at the end of a path blocking access to the lawn as well as blocking a bit of the view. Dh did a really good job with the chainsaw and we have stacked the logs to season for next winter. Waiting for a second quote for the fence and gates as both are in a dreadful state. However the fence I need to check with our neighbour as the fencers would have to go on their garden. We also don’t know who owns them, there are no T marks on the plans and the previous owners said it was unknown. We are happy to replace but due to the issues we had in our previous house need to check first! I hope most can be done from their side as there are a lot of snowdrops and other bulbs coming up in the bed on this side. Personally, I have tried several classes at the local gym and joined senior ballet classes and been horse riding. I feel really settled and just love the area and views, the house will come as we get it modernised and updated. See you next month All months are here https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1169030 __________________ Edited at 11:32 AM.

18 Jan 20, 07:04 PM	#2
	18 Jan 20, 07:04 PM 3disneykids Imagineer
3disneykids Imagineer Join Date: Jun 18 Location: Yorkshire	Getting hold of tradesmen seems to be a struggle and decent ones an even greater struggle, Fab updates and love the fact that the gardener sacked you for being too good lol..It made me chuckle... Surely you were just making his work easier __________________ 21 Night QSDP Food Report - Mar/Apr 2019

18 Jan 20, 07:43 PM	#3
	18 Jan 20, 07:43 PM Mr Tom Morrow Imagineer
Mr Tom Morrow Imagineer Join Date: Jul 14 Location: The Tiki Room. theDIBB Guidebook Pages Created: 3	OP. For the length of time you have been in your progress is good. Frustrating getting Tradesmen though I agree. I had my Electrician mate in yesterday. My dining room is like a bomb site! Couldn’t do this with kids in the house! Edited at 07:44 PM.

22 Jan 20, 07:02 PM	#8
	22 Jan 20, 07:02 PM parisdisneyfan Imagineer Thread Starter
parisdisneyfan Thread Starter Imagineer Join Date: Feb 08	Well plumbers quote seems very good even if i have to add building work, plastering, tiling, electrics and the fittings. It will be tight but the bathroom designer has also redone our plan and pictures and it looks pretty much how I imagined. Not quite a freestanding bath but something called a back to the wall and its not cheap but I think it will be worth it. Hoping to get dh to sit down and look at it all this weekend if not before! Here are the new pictures although I'm not so keen on the square loo anymore having had one in the holiday house - anyone got one? Opinions? __________________