Support thread for House Renovators/DIYers

[LPlateFlyer]

Was wondering if anyone wanted to join me in a support thread for all of us doing lots of renovating, odd jobs, diy etc. This can be somewhere we can do some well deserved bragging on a job well done!

I have sooooo much DIY that needs to get done.

I almost finished the downstairs loo yesterday. All that needs to be done is a second coat of paint on the door and a towel rail and toilet roll holder to be put up.

Yesterday's Tada list:
Painted skirtings in loo 2x coats
Painted door frame in loo 2x coats
Painted door in loo 1 x coat
Put together and installed a small bathroom cabinet

I'm about to start putting together an Ikea book case so that I can get some of the books out of storage!

Well, maybe someone will join me after the weekend!

Ta da for today:
Put together book case
Sand lots of edges of stair case
Fill along skirting and wall join
Putty some nail holes in skirtings
Treat the knots in the wood of the balustrades

and this ^ is why I hate this stage of DIY. The sanding is never ending, backbreaking, hand ruining and doesn't actually LOOK like you've done anything!!

I have just booked a week off work in the hope i can finally do some finishing bits., e.g. plinths under kitchen units, fix new skirting to wall, finish stripping a door and repaint.

Oh, a solid week, that would be great! Do you have to do school runs in that? I find that's what really cuts into the time, having to finish in time for a school run instead of working right through the day.

Not actually doing any diy myself at present but will be in due course. I am in the middle of renovating though and currently sorting out getting quotes to fix the sash windows and get a new front door.

The loft extension is almost finished, so loads of dust and chaos. It's only being done to first fix so then the work we'll be doing begins. (then new kitchen, knocking through walls, plastering and shed loads of decoration etc)

I hope this thread keeps going as I suspect lots of support over the upcoming months.

Building work and quotes, you DEFINITELY need support for that!!!!

I'll be here for at least a few months. Every job seems to take 3 times longer than I expect it to. How on earth are you supposed to budget time for a job when you've never done it before?

nice, once we get the keys I'll be back"

We'll keep your seat warm!!

It's endless. The builders think they've finished - I don't! I have enough to do without doing all their finishing!!

So far I've patched repaired, stripped and lined walls that looked as though they should be replastered. The prep took ages, but with the lining paper in place it now looks great and ready for painting.

Have also painted 2 bedrooms and bathroom including wood panelling....

Need to get on with making curtains and blinds next.

My builders were a pain. Their standard comment was 'That's a decorating issue, not a building one'. Grrrr.....

At least our walls have been nicely plastered, that's one job we don't have to do now.

All the building work has been done, including plastering, new room built, bathrooms relocated, new windows, new roof, new flooring ground floor.

Bedroom 1- 80% done
Bedroom 2 - 90% done
Bedroom 3 - 90 % done
Lounge room and dining - 90% done
Stair well and landing - 40% done
Downstairs toilet - 98% done
Kitchen - untouched (by us, builders put in new kitchen and tiled)
Utility room - untouched
Main bathroom - untouched (by us, new suite and tiled)
ensuite bathroom - 40% done

Wow, that's depressing.....

Haha! Are they the same builders?? Er, no, it's not a decorating issue if I have actually see through the gap on the door frame to the other room, that's a fitting issue.

The other one: "it's within tolerances". My response - "well that depends on whose tolerances.... and my levels of tolerence are fast depleting"

Today has been on the more fun end of the spectrum - choosing tiles for the shower room that's going in the loft. It seems DP and I have potentially agreed on some tiles. The problem is they won't go with the flooring I was thinking of so it's back to the drawing board on that.

Hello! We recently moved into our "maybe forever house" what turned out to be a lot more of a "do-up" than originally envisaged! It's nearly all minor repairs and loads of finishinng-type-stuff rather than taking out walls. (just don't mention the showers)... Can't promise to post loads but it's nice to have a place to say "yay" or "arg"! Plus I'm hoping your impressive list will motivate me as there is SO much to do. Are you childfree or have childcare? I'd never get that much done in a day with my three DC around!

God I need this thread! Having discovered that my ex (kids dad) was cheating on me, in my own home, with a friend of mine (ha some friend) I need to rip out everything and make it MINE! So far I have stripped and plastered and decorated my bedroom (including removing my bed), redecorated bathroom and laid new bathroom floor, stripped and redecorated kids room, redecorated and laid new carpet in spare room, stripped hall and stairs, redecorated living room, stripped dining room and waiting to get kitchen done. I have virtually no money (3k to do everything) so am doing most of it myself, while attempting to bring up two small boys and at the same time have to get rid of all my belongings as having been with him for 12 years everything reminds me of him. I am doing pretty well but I am about half way through the work, and am starting to flag a bit. I am sick of the dust and the mess and the chaos, I just want it to be finished so I can relax in my own home and get on with my life! But its an old house so everything takes forever. Although I'm glad now that we never did any of this work while we were together because now I can make it feel like a different house I am really struggling, and it was not helped this weekend by the discovery that sons are riddled with nits for the second time this year! Grrrrrr! So anyone doing DIY I totally feel your pain!
xx

Good luck Olive - you deserve a space that's your own. Just try not to be too hard on yourself to get it all done!
We haven't started yet but have plans for our house which we're returning to after renting. I want to move the bathroom, extend a bedroom into the old bathroom space, install a megaflo, do a loft conversion (where megaflo will go), extend the family room and fit a new kitchen.

I'm going to get an architect in to help with the planning of the loft and kitchen but would like to move the bathroom quickly so can anyone offer advice on project planning? Whether to do it in stages? What needs to come first etc - I'm a bit clueless!

Hello - can I join ?

Our never ending extension is almost done (don't get me started on builders and completion dates. Last bit of roofing this week. Then

Boiler to be moved
Windows fitted
Steels so that walls can be knocked down to create kitchen/dining space
rebuild wall to make lounge
New bedroom/ensuite almost ready for plastering - when door knocked through
Then create new bathroom,
Then new ensuite for our room
Then decorate and carpet throughout
Then ?new kitchen finally ready to be fitted.
Oh and then extend porch.

At least we chose bathroom tiles today - the list is endless (and dread to tot up cost)

Wow Olive! You've done so much. Yay you!!! I also de-nitted and de-wormed the household on the weekend. (De-nitted was needed, de-worming was precautionary).

Aethelfleda - I have 2 DSs, 3 and 6. I call it loving neglect and abandoned them in the lounge room with all their toys - they may be bored for awhile, but they soon find ways of entertaining themselves. They were in the 48 hour clearance zone after a stomach bug.

Last time I tried to paint with them around DS2 left green hand and foot prints everywhere. This time I set up their paints, with loads of towels down, and let them paint their own pictures on some boards.

It was too nice to be stuck indoors this weekend, so over the weekend we bought a chiminea and burnt lots of old rubbish timber lying around, and I put up on of those plastic walk in greenhouses, potted up some tomatoes, and cleaned out the pond, which was REALLY overgrown. Had to be careful because we have newts in there (bird ate the fish when we didn't put the netting back fast enough, so the newts moved in). Counted 20 grown up newts and about 6 small ones which were the babies from the end of last season who had managed to survive winter in the pond. Technically not supposed to handle them as they're an endangered variety, but with a small overgrown pond something had to be done.

Papalazaru - the architect might give you a heads up, but I think it goes lie this:

Design bathroom and work out where the plumbing and power points will need to go (don't forget electrics for a fan, and for shaver/toothbrush plug)
New/fix window
Plumbing and electrics go first, doesn't matter which of the 2
Flooring base needs to be fixed if it needs redoing
Re -plaster walls
Fix door frames/doors
Floor tiling could be done here
Bathtub, handbasin inc vanity unit base, electric towel rail.
Tile walls
Put in shower (shower needs to go OVER the tiles usually)
Flooring could be done here
Bathtub surround (if you need one)
Taps and faucets
Vanity unit and mirrors on wall
Painting

Oh and Papalazaru - if you're going to get someone to put it in, get a specialised bathroom installer. Judging from the efforts of our builder general builders are pretty crap at installing bathrooms and kitchens.

On the DC question, we were child free when we moved into this house 18 months ago. The house had been empty for about 10 years and needed complete most modernisation (no central heating, only a sink in the kitchen). We also wanted to extend and then change the layout. So far most of the work has been making the place basically habitable on a temporary basis and planning. During that time DS arrived and is now 11 weeks old. It means I can't really do anything practical right now but am around while the builders are here and have time to do research, chase up quotes and do the other admin. I just hope we manage to get the majority of the bigger jobs done before he is mobile.

I think dust and fumes can be the biggest problem with DC. Mine are old enough now that when the weather warms up I can kick encourage them outside and they will avoid the worst of it. Much harder with babies.

So far it's been ok and there hasn't been too much dust and any files have been up on the roof. The bedroom and sitting room can be shut off and DS and I mainly stay there when in the house. We'll shortly be taking out 3 chimney breasts which will be a nightmare dust and mess wise. When that happens (DP will be doing the work) DS and I will go and stay at my parents, who handily live near.

Files = fumes

We've put up five (!) Ikea bookcases and painted our homemade squares for raised beds. Have also been thinking about getting some Romex to re-point the patio, though realistically that is waaay down the list as it's not too bad and there is so much else to do!

Tomorrow need to ring our plumber to see when he can start on doing our showers....

Well done Aethelfleda! It's nice doing some outdoor things when the weather is nice though, it's almost a reward for the rubbish indoor jobs!

Next expensive job - get our 18 month old washing machine repaired .

Sigh.... on top of everything else that needs doing.

Ooh yes lplate, I know that what-else-can-go-wrong feeling!

We've got a non-comprehensive rolling list of things to do, I'm a SAHM since the move, so have some time in the day but it always gets eaten up by housework and necessaries. What I WANT to be doing now is more DIY. What I AM doing is folding the EU washing mountain while cuddling a grumpy won't-nap DS.....

Tonight is finalising the shower plus sink/bidet order, we're getting them put in but are sourcing them ourselves to save a few ££.