2023 reno support thread

[succulentlove]

Hi, just wondering if there are a few of us who are renovating in 2023 / expecting to start this year? Maybe a thread to chat would be nice?

We are maybe 50% of the way there- not extending but doing work on pretty much every surface of the house, adding in lots of glazing, moving the kitchen, removing chimneys etc.. A bit worried if we are spending too much given we are not adding square footage, just making better use of what is already there.

Hope to hear from others on their Reno journeys!

Some carpet fitters have a special gadget for taking the bottom edges off doors. Anyone who is stuck and has no plane of their own or doesn't fancy having to rehang a door might try their local carpet store/fitters and see if they can help. But the doors do have to be able to take a bit coming off- some modern doors are hollow all over! I have a 'panelled' door (1970s I think) on my workroom, I was putting some battens on it to hang tools on, and found there wasn't even solid wood where the middle crossbars were. That door will get replaced eventually with a solid wood panelled door like the ones in the old part of the house- but I'm not sure where to find one- many that claim to be solid, aren't.

( the gadget I'm on about above means the door can be planed in situ without taking it off its hinges)

DH has managed to trim 3 doors and hopefully another 3 tomorrow, very pleased to have a bedroom door for moving day! I’ve heard from my friend’s DH that gadget to trim doors isn’t that good.

I've never heard of this, sounds ideal for what we've needed. We had to buy a new electric plane and back and forth outside to shave a tiny bit off each time.

How is everyone doing? We have the new heating system working well and rear extension is getting close to the roofing stage. Starting to gear up for second fix and finalising kitchen details, have family coming to stay for an event and booking local travelodge for that, have booked room for myself and DD also so they don't feel abandoned. Still looking forward to being able to do the interiors stuff..

We are in and it is lovely ! Surrounded by loads of boxes. En-suite and kitchen need doing and builder back in tomorrow to get on with en-suite. The new kitchen full of boxes currently so would be hard to work on. We do have a functional kitchen though as making a new one so that really helps.

Well done @Seaitoverthere I hope it all goes well, I have found an airfryer to be a massive help in temporary kitchen land! Today our new log burner went on for the first time and added bonus of building the rear extension up more is that the piles of bricks are disappearing and today rather than garden getting worse I was able to pick over the front garden and I am hopeful that the spring bulbs in the garden will be up next spring. After a year of garden destruction and neglect that was a positive thought. Still not loving reno as it is hard to live with but I realise how lucky we are. There is nothing like what we are building on the market where we live as they are so in demand. Until the carpets are down and everything is back from storeage I won't really love it but I do have my own home office for the first time and have unpacked and have access to all our documents which I finished sorting out recently. Cannot wait for those carpets but I do realise that a roof on the rear extension (we have walls between us and it) etc needs to come first.

Thanks @CountryCob , we are very lucky as it’s a proper kitchen that previous owner used. They must have been tall though as I can barely reach the second shelf in the units.

How lovely to have a fire, been too warm to get ours going yet. You’ve reminded me that I have a load of bulbs to go in . The camellia that was very brown on one side got a big chop and a feed and is looking I’m much better shape with buds on for the spring. Some pink Nerines with a dark stem have appeared.

What’s the time scale for your extension roof?

I suspect it's pricey as it's pretty specialist. DH has a plane and that works but it does mean you have to take the door off and then rehang it, nobody's favourite job. Though with our proper old solid doors, it seems to be easier to rehang than the previous modern house with cheap 60s doors.

@Seaitoverthere the garden sounds nice I love the discovery of new plants when you get a feel for it. Our solid doors @BlueMongoose have been really heavy to manage good that you have found it OK. Roof is steaming ahead and slates start next week for about a month. How have everyone's neighbours been with the work? Our long standing ones have been OK but the newer ones seem to resent it. I think they don't realise what the property was like before or how disruptive the renovations and construction of their homes were before they arrived. I don't enjoy having narky neighbours though, we don't have any especially close but it's a small village. At my more touchy moments I wonder if they were happy with the superior feeling when ours was clearing waiting for work and theirs was finished. I do think there is something in that as the house is looking pretty good now and some people prefer it when they have a house to look down on. I have a friend considering renovations who already has parking issues and a neighbour objection and I don't know how they would manage during the months of building. We are a couple of months off now and then I expect it will blow over but there is nothing worse than neighbourhood ill feeling.

That’s good news on the roof @CountryCob . We are lucky with our neighbours. The guy opposite did ask one builder to move car once saying where he was parked was an optical illusion and blocking his drive, it wasn’t. One side is really lovely and lent us tools to get us out of a door trimming hole. The other side we haven’t really met and I feel bad as one of them is undergoing cancer treatment.

I think they are all taking the view that the house hadn’t been touched for years and it really needed doing which I’m really grateful for and we’re going to have a housewarming.

The progress here is all on the planning side - meetings with the project manager and the plumber, things being ordered, etc. The windows and doors arrive on 30th October and some preparatory work has to be done before that, so something should actually happen soon!

In the meantime, we need to empty the garden shed (loads of crap was left in it by the previous owner) but weekends are packed for the foreseeable future so I’m not sure when we’ll get round to it…there’s also the garden - we should be spending every spare minute gardening but we are very not green-fingered and, again, we never seem to have time…the neighbours will not be happy if we don’t start tidying it up soon!

Update and question...

Three months on, and new builders have started, and I have a project manager, which is a relief, although the costs of finishing the works are much more than I anticipated, so I'm saving money where I can. IKEA wardrobes will do just fine, and laminate instead of EW flooring etc.

The latest issue is that, having extended to the rear, the gas meter needs to be moved...

The gas network operator says that it can't go on the outside wall near the kitchen door (where it was previously on the old extension), and has to be moved several metres to the front of the property. They claim there are 3rd party pipes (unclear what) that mean they need to get consents to dig a trench, which could take several weeks. Also, it will potentially mean having to reinstate the shared drive at the front. They said they will do this but don't guarantee it will match! I googled the regulations and it talks about needing to be a certain distance from the corner of a property, but no mention of it having to be at the front of the house (I have a side gate with access to the rear).

I realise that I should leave the worrying to my project manager, but I know my neighbours are going to be very alarmed and will insist on it being put back exactly as it was, which will mean more costs... Has anyone else had to deal with this?

How are others doing?

Hi folks,
Pleased to have found a current DIY/renovation forum as it is changed times for us renovators! We have a fixer upper north of the border and are a family with twins who are 7 almost 8. Detached 2/3 bed cottage with large garden, over 100 yo. Lovely views of river and forest. Bought in 2022 when house prices were mental - paid value only but probably still over paid in hindsight. DID NOT want a renovation but couldn't't get anywhere near 'done' properties with our budget. Old couple lived in it for 40 years and obviously just couldn't manage the upkeep. They didn't use the heating and everything was dripping in condensation. It needed new roof tiles, new windows, doors, flooring, amazingly only a tiny damp issue in one room. We were 'fortunate' that we were in a rental so didn't have to move in straight away but this also took a massive chunk of our budget with the double cost of rent/mortgage for 6 months. There is no way we could have lived in it while work was happening. We relocated the kitchen to a sunnier south side bedroom to make it open plan to the dining room and living room. It's 100% better. The old kitchen will now become the third bedroom, en-suite, laundry and boot room.
Main challenges have been time and money - no surprises. I naively didn't appreciate the impact the cost of living crisis would have as we took on this house. We now have credit card debt that doesn't seem to be getting smaller and the quote for bedroom refit is £30k! I was expecting around £20k. We live comfortably and can pay the bills but I just don't see how we are going to get the house finished. Our mortgage is due for re-newal in March 2024 - we only took a 2-year deal so that we had the flexibility to release equity to finish the house but now with the mortgage rates being so horrific we're not sure if we should. It's a real scunner! The heating bills are astronomical, though we installed an air-to-air heat pump for living areas and it's made a huge difference.
We are considering whether we should just sell it in a year or two as both of us are working two jobs, earning more than we ever have but also seeing less of our wage than ever wtf?! Don't want to make a short-sighted decision but not sure how long we can go on hustling and not seeing progress. Anyone relate??