Graduates of Sellers/Buyers - we are in! What do we do now?

[Karcheer]

I had so much support from the sellers and buyers thread I thought it would be nice to set up one for the moving in/decorating/renovating etc After the big move.

We’ve a lot to do making a 1980s custard yellow house in the country Our home and will need help 🙂

@Karcheer - this new thread is a great idea! Where are you going to start with your house? Will you be doing structural work or is it mainly cosmetic and the garden?

We've found the most difficult thing after our move is sourcing good tradespeople. Our first success has been our fantastic lady plumber who sorted out a constantly running toilet and replacing a dripping tap. We've decorated our black kitchen(!!!!), and the master bedroom and that's it so far. We've got someone coming to clear the guttering and repair as necessary. And are about to source a good tree surveyor/surgeon to sort out our many large trees. Most of my time has been spent creating the new garden, growing lots of plants from seed. My absolute joy and I escape out there whenever I can. It's fairly small - we downshifted from a cottage with lots of land which would have got too much for us to cope with in a few years.

What's your first job going to be? Exciting, isn't it? At least now it's all under our control rather than the scary random vagaries of the house buying/selling system!!!!!

My first job will be writing a long list haha!

We need to get a plumber and an electrician in because we only appear to have hot water in part of the house and you can’t use the oven and hob at the same time with out it shorting the circuit!
The house was empty for 18months and I think a few things have just given up!
So far all I’ve done is had broadband installed...

Thought I'd join even though we are 18 months after buying but living in a building site! Extended due to lockdown but things are moving again!

@Karcheer We prioritised broadband too!!!!! Essential and don't you feel lost even if you don't have it for a few days?! Hopefully the plumber and electrician will be able to source and solve the problem.

@TheHandStandBand - that must have been frustrating, but great that things are moving again. What are your long term aims for your house?

We've been here a year now - but it's absolutely flown by. We could have probably done more during lockdown but I found it really hard to motivate myself then. Our next project is decorating a bedroom for our grandson for when he comes to stay. Three walls are ok and in pale green, one wall is decimated by wallcals (it took my husband ages to get rid of the adhesive) - in the end washing powder did the trick) and huge holes drilled for rawlplugs, so we're going to paint that a dark green feature wall which should be fairly forgiving. I'll upcycle an old Lloyd loom chair with white chalk paint and likewise an old pine chest of drawers and bedside table. I thought I'd get some of those roadtype playmats from Ikea to cover the carpet, goes with the green theme!

Start at the top, especially as it's summer. If the roof is good, get your loft insulated and boarded. It's not a glamorous job but you'll thank me in the winter, plus you don't need to get trades in to lay insulation.

Helloooo!

Congratulations on the move @Karcheer

We have owned the house 4 days and in that time we have has 8 skips of garden rubbish/rubble swapped over, 12 overgrown and frankly dangerous trees, 3.8 tonnes of household waste removed by a house clearance guy! DH and his uncle have used 50lt of white paint and almost painted the whole place through, the plumber comes tomorrow to upgrade the hot water system which we discovered was dripping into the fuse box, which in turn the electricians replaced today as they check and condemned many light sockets! So they'll be back at 9am! The builders have fitted out the utility room and reshelved the pantry. The landscaper has another 10days work before the garden is useable. They left their chickens but they were s distressed at all the work going on, we dropped them down to a local community farm where they will live in luxury!

One neighbour popped over with a bottle of fizz to thank us for removing the leylandii and giving them back sunshine, his other side neighbour also came by with cake to say the same! We've given 4 people back the sunshine they haven't had in 10 years! Another neighbour came by and asked us to remove trees their side too but there are houses that side so we've said no, as they can look into our bedrooms from their gardens.

So we may well be on track to move in later in the week!

Just popped over as I’ve lost the buyers/sellers thread to say congratulations @Karcheer. Hopefully I’ll be joining you all here soon.

Congratulations @Karcheer and @GherkinsOnToast!! Just marking my place really and hoping to join you over here in a couple of months (or maybe a bit sooner if miracles happen and various solicitors pull their fingers out!)

Congrats to you both @Karcheer + @GherkinsOnToast

Hopefully i will be joining you at some point today..once / if the completion happens as expected.

I am a bag of nerves..anyway as i say hopefully i'll see you on the other side!

@GherkinsOnToast you’ve managed to make me feel really lazy!
Dh is back working today and I’ve got to pick the cat up - which I’m dreading as she prefers life outside, not stuck in doors for 3 weeks!
But my plan Today is my initial to do list.

@Karcheer - I'd like it to be noted that all I have done is tell people what to do and pay them stupid sums of my savings! I'm back at the old house trying to pack, persuade 2 children that I'm not hauling out all their crap treasured belongings for them to play with and deal with an 11 week old puppy who has discovered he has the ability to chase everyone and eat their toes/boxes/anything that moves!

Having our current house isn't the blessing I hoped it would be, its just made me lazy about packing as I know there is no rush and anything left behind can be collected at some point!

Having only posted a little bit on the other thread, I shall be lurking here to hear how you are all getting on.
We will move out of our house at the end of the month, this house was a major refurbishment so we went through it all, however for now, we aren’t buying but moving to Montreal Canada with my DH work for a few years. It’s going to be weird being in rented having always refurbished homes.
I’ve definately got one more house renovation in me, probably when we come back, in the meantime I will enjoy hearing how you are all getting on.
Have fun everyone.

So today I’ve employed a tree surgeon whose coming in a couple of weeks time. Had an electrician over who says there’s an issue with the oven. Ordered change of address cards. Asked a burglar alarm company to come and quote. Arranged for a gardener to come and quote for the weeds. Employed a window cleaner. And sent my pile of ironing off to a lady in the next village because, well I can’t be bothered to do it.
I’ve cleared the hall and porch of cr@ p

Were in..

What a day yesterday was. Everyone aches all over this morning + tiredness has set in.

Beds are up, washing machine is plumbed in, wifi + Sky fitted but upstairs looks like a bombs gone off!
Thats todays job - i have 5 days off work so i intend to hit as much as i can.

The best thing about this house is the peace having lived directly opposite a pub for 10 years ive decided peace is underated 😀

@bellyislikejelly congratulations! I know what you mean, it’s so quiet here it’s lovely. Good luck with the unpacking!

Checking in. No where near to exchange and completion but I will be joining in.

@DaphneduM I just realised I didn’t reply to you.
We are planning on doing 2 small structural things, we are going to convert the small bedroom next to ours into a dressing room, so will block a door and make a door. Downstairs the dining room is L shaped, they had am extension and moved the kitchen and the L was the old small kitchen, this will work better for us as a boot room, so we are building a wall and putting in a door to the newly created room.
We are putting in a new en-suite.
Kitchen is ok, but I’m replacing the work top and doing something with the breakfast bar... it’s odd.
Apart from that... I think just decorating, new carpets etc...

@Karcheer - those ideas sound a great way of making your space work for you. Not too daunting either. I certainly envy you your boot room!!!!! I love a nice dressing room too! One of the things that I love about our house is that the previous owner reconfigured the upstairs space and there is a narrow-ish 17' long room fitted out as a dressing room. Good that you can just tweak the kitchen too. You sound as though you're certainly getting on with it - it's a great feeling to finally get going isn't it?

I followed the last thread but dropped out as our move was about to fall through.
Resurrected by our wonderful solicitor and we are in! Happened a few days ago.
Nothing much to do in new house apart from buy some new bigger furniture and new kettle etc.
I have flushing toilets on this house which delights me. (2 out of 3 in our old wreck didn't!)
Good luck everyone.

Today’s achievements were getting the windows cleaned, 18months of grime gone!
Pets registered at the local vet.
Finally found what I hope will be a good beautician - booked a pedicure as a treat in a few weeks time.
Pest control came and checked, we don’t have rats in the loft it’s bats 🦇 so that’s fine.
Arranged for a man to come and look at the oven.
Called gate company to give me a quote to change the gate so it opens automatically right now I have to open it for them and so far I’ve forgotten and locked the postman, tree surgeon and window cleaner in... its driving me insane.

Sofas being delivered tomorrow...

Today electrician came over to quote all set to start 18th
New plug sockets
New light switches
Removal of the old sockets
Removal of the worst light fixture ive ever seen in the master
Spotlights for hallway, stairs + landing plus x2 bedrooms

Carpenter booked for Monday to quote
Plumber booked for Monday also to quote

Once them 3 jobs are complete we will more on to replastering from entrance all the way up, ceilings + all bedrooms.

Knackered 😴

@bellyislikejelly we’ve two kitchen lights that look like jelly fish.
I’ve been for a lovely walk in the farmers fields behind the house today, bliss!
Booked gardener in to start weeding on Monday. We’ve some amazing thistles, they are taller than me.

So 10days after exchanging the whole places has been painted inside, we’ve had tree surgeons, stump removers, landscapers plumbers, electricians, Builders, AO (many times) and the Amazon man who know knows my name and waves when he sees me, we are in!

We got a plumber in to check the boiler/showers/heating etc. He came in condemed the boiler (we had a receipt from the previous owners ‘friend’ saying it was serviced!) and the 2 jacuzzi shower cabinets, had to replace the old gravity fed hot water system, discovered a chimney had been removed and the bracing holding it up wasn’t actually connected to anything. So that brought the builders and the electricians who have to remove and rewire a number of ‘homemade’ sockets. The landscapers haven’t dug up any bodies so that’s a bonus!

We’ve managed to turn the inside from pure filth to spotless with a cleaning company who sent 3 ladies for 6 hours a day for 3 days! There is so much more to do, new carpets have been delayed but will be here soon, kids are settled in their new rooms and I have the most amazing view from my bed!

Tomorrow brings a day of rest in amongst the chaos that only remains in our bedroom and investigating the best way to restore the most beautiful 1930’s tiles.

Karcheer - you seem to be making great progress!

Belly - congratulations!

@GherkinsOnToast Putting us all to shame
Sounds great though 👍🏻

Last 2 days have been spent painting our rental in the hope we get our full deposit back.

Next weekend we need to clean the carpets then window cleaner, oven cleaner + end of tenancy clean all booked for Monday.

Then finally we can hand the keys back and concentrate solely on this place.
Graft, graft, graft 🥵

Today I've had a lady come round and measure up for some cabinets etc that we are having made and the gardener started clearing the front of weeds. Hows everyone else progress been?