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!

[Aethelfleda]

What are your frames made of mum2F? i had similar issues with my net curtains not affixing to the uPVC frames (had sticky hooks that weren't). I eventually screwed several mini cuphooks into the plaster and hung the net hangers from that. Seemed to work...

[Mum2Fergus]

Its uPVC window frames.

[LPlateFlyer]

Wow, lots going on here in the last week!

Aethelfleda - I completely agree re downlights. My builder tried to persuade me to have them and I refused. They are so expensive to run! And if the wiring isn't perfect you can be constantly replacing them. In the last house we rented there were a few sockets we gave up on because the lights would only last a couple of months.

Besides with all the new gorgeous light fixtures to choose from, why would you limit yourself so much? Which? magazine has a review on low energy bulbs and I used that to go and choose different ones. You have to be really careful because 1 brand might have X wattage one which is brilliant, but then Y wattage would be really bad.

On Saturday I did more sanding and puttying on the stairs and in the upstairs landing. Took the door off the DS's room and DH undercoated it. DH also did some puttying in the main bathroom, to get it ready for painting. Today I have started to undercoat the bannisters - such a slow job, so much to do! But I am really look forward to a lovely entrance so will persevere.

[Aethelfleda]

Today I have rehung the front door lock so that it actually deadlocks properly. We have also got our fence panels for replacing the fence, so the next job with that is to remove the other theree panels and screw in the holding brackets for our new lovely panels to go in. Baby steps!

[Mum2Fergus]

Evening all quiet couple of days from me! DS lives his new room so it was all worth the effort! Some wee jobs to get round to:
-cabinet to put up in bathroom (do I really need a tile bit, or will a normal one do?)
-remove rawlplugs left behind from removing shower cubicle
-find some tiles to match gap left by said cubicle
-new stopcock in storage tank in loft (hopefully will resolve constant drip from outside overflow)
-proper plan and start getting in supplies for main bedroom
-plan and supplies/equipment for garden works (in the hope of a few more nice days lol)

[MoreBeta]

Oh Gawd!

I have now owned this house for a whole 43 hours and its gone pear shaped already! I just want to send it back and get a refund.

I have discovered an entire walled off room inside the house. Not on the plans, totally walled up. No door, no window and it is about 2/3 full of 'stuff' right up the walls. A proper big room as well, not an understairs cupboard. The builder was with me and confirmed I was not going loopy. We both saw in to it through the air brick. The room above smells awful.

The west wall is running with water from an unkown source and the upper floor has mysterious circular cracks in the plaster symptomatic of a collapsing structure but the builder can't see why.

I just wanted to buy a house, slap a bit of paint about, mow the lawn and live happily ever after but this is going to take a bit more than a Farrow and Ball Colour chart and some curtains.

[MrsMangoBiscuit]

Done nothing here the last few days as I've managed to catch some bug or other. Driving me potty not being able to crack on, I'm a bad patient!

DD has decided that she would like to have the ex-kitchen for her bedroom, and the new baby can have her room, which is still decorated as a nursery. So I'm having fun planning how we can decorate it, and which furniture to get. We will hopefully be doing green and blue walls, hills and sky, with wall stickers to make fairytale castle/dragon scenes. Also means I won't have to redecorate DDs bedroom anytime soon.

Mum2Fergus, I posted on MN a while back asking about drill bits for tiles. 3 said get a tile bit, 2 said a masonry bit was all I needed. I chickened out and bought a cheap tile bit, but it was really easy, very neat holes and no damaged tiles. I was warned about making sure they weren't porcelain tiles too.

I know it's early, but it sounds like you need it. On the upside, extra room! Think of all the things you could do with it, pantry, utility room, walk in wardrobe, games room, playroom for children.

[MoreBeta]

Upside? Upside!!!

I'm thinking forensic squads with face masks and white overalls, blue and white tape flapping in the breeze, Sky News helicopters, lurid tabloid headlines 'HOUSE OF HORRORS SLOWLY GIVES UP ITS SECRETS!'.

Meanwhile burly looking blokes with West Country accents stood about sucking their teeth and shuffling pencils behind their ears saying things like 'its cost a bit more than we thought for the girders and the scaffolding'.

[TerrysNo2]

More did you have a survey done.

Have been lurking on this thread as we are in the process of buying a doer-upper and so I hope to join you all soon.

Just curious about the downlighter comments, DH loves them. Can someone explain fully to me the issues with them and the alternatives, I'm not entirely sure I follow what you've said above.

Thanks!

[MrsMangoBiscuit]

[LPlateFlyer]

MoreBeta - don't panic, you'll be fine! Perhaps it was a miser who stashed his /her valuables so his/her family couldn't get them?

Terrys - you need to add up how many downlighters go into a room. If you have 9 downlighters, then that's 9 x the energy use = a heck of a lot of expensive electricity + lots of expensive bulbs. They are hot, so should only be put in if there's good ventilation between the ceiling and the upstairs floor. If there is anything wrong with the wiring, that is a LOT of wiring to work through. You won't know if it's done well or not until you start blowing bulbs regularly. The alternative is a single or multibulb light fixture in the middle of the room, perhaps some wall lights, etc.

I managed to get one undercoat onto about 3/4 of staircase on Tue. Working Wed and today, so won't be able to do anymore until tomorrow. Staircases are a real sod - all those blooming spindles........

[FlowersBlown]

You can use LED down lighters which don't have these problems. Very cheap to run, although quite expensive to buy in the first place and you need a lot as the beam doesn't have a wide spread. We are putting 14 in our not particularly large kitchen on the advice of the electrician.

[MoreBeta]

Terrys - be warned. Add 25% to whatever you think you need to do up a house.

Yes we had a survey from a Listed building specialist.

The cracks were behind furniture and dont show on the outside of the house or the chimney stacks. The builder thinks collapsing timbers under the tiles - possibly? The wetness goes through two floors and is behind built in cupboards.

The hidden room is truely hidden. I only became aware of it by standing in the back yard and looking at the ground near the back wall of the house and after a while I vaguely became aware of the outline of a filled in staircase leading down under the diining room.

We need to dig down about 4m through stone, earth and riubbish to get to what I assume will be a door and then tunnel in to the room which we can see has tightly packed household goods, what looks like neatly stacked bricks in front of what I hope will be the door and various unidentified piles of material in there almost up to my eye level. I can only see a tiny bit of the room though and I need to get in as the smell is terrible and I think is something slowly rotting away.

[LPlateFlyer]

MoreBeta - So it's a basement room? Interesting.

You will never believe some of the prices old forgotten things can get. I once sold 5 Hardy fishing catalogues and price lists for £80 to a dealer, so be careful about ditching things without having a good look see!

[mamapants]

Need to come back and update properly but have to comment that a secret room has got to be the most exciting thing ever. Shame its smelly! But think of the mystery. Me and DP would be so excited if we found a hidden room.
Right think I'm going to have to drive to my house and start digging in hope... Am sure my 10mth old won't mind hanging out in the garden while I shovel.

[Mum2Fergus]

How mysterious...cant wait to hear more!! Going to be a quiet and unproductive few days from me now Im back at work. Concentrating on researching/shopping for what I need for next room

[TerrysNo2]

more surely the surveyor should have picked that up?? I would be consisting a claim on his PI insurance if it causes you any issues!

[TerrysNo2]

consisting = considering. darn phone

[TerrysNo2]

more we have around £40k to start with which is for, in order of priority:

• gutting the place, carpets, wall paper, built in wardrobes
• potential rewiring (although I think this might not need doing)
• new floors (although hopefully restoring original floorboards)
• knocking down one internal wall and rebuilding
• new kitchen
• one new bathroom

everything else will have to wait if necessary. not budgeted fully yet as waiting to get our builder in but I think we'll be OK to start.

what do you think?

[TerrysNo2]

oh, I forgot replastering the place and over the artex ceilings.

[MoreBeta]

Terrys - yes pretty much that is what we are doing but I think you will struggle to keep below £40k unless you are doing most of the work yourself and you get lucky on a few things like floorboards.

[Tizwozliz]

I think a 40k budget should easily allow you renovate a house with no major structural work (removing a wall is fairly minor) and assuming you're not in London or nearby.

We won't spend anywhere near that much (good job seeing as it would be 40% of the house value) and even getting professionals in for some jobs that we did ourselves would not have added up to that sort of budget.

[TerrysNo2]

Hmm, two very different responses! I prefer yours tizwoz (sorry More )

More do you mind telling me your expected cost for each of those things?

[doglover]

Watching this with interest because our proposed renovation list is remarkably similar ........................ Our budget is £35k.

[MoreBeta]

Terrys - well I suppose it is how long is a piece of string question.

They say a kitchen should be 10% of the renovated property value, add on 5% more for bathrooms. Then its £3k for rewiring a fairly small house I heard, then its down to you how much you spend on paint, carpets, cupboards, tiling.

Hopefully you won't need a new boiler or heating system, new roof, replacement windows but things like that can be a nasty surprise. We have had a few already and we have owned our house for only 2 days.

How big is your house, is it a Listed Building?