Outside Painting

 

Despite summer wind and rain, a brave and agile man called "Kola" has now painted the outside of the house on the first floor.

Old vs New

How the back of the house has changed since March as seen from the top of our shed!

Fire places are out!

Taking out fire places was a very dusty operation but it had to be done.
We want to put in a woodburning stove in the front room. In the back room, we are keeping the space open for storage.
We found various interesting items lost inside these fire places including a bottle of O-Cedar Polish for cleaning and polishing hardwood floors, furniture, pianos, automobiles, carriages and mops!

Windows At Last

Danish made, Vrogum double glazed sash windows finally arrived on a juggernaut from Denmark last week and are now being fitted throughout the house by the marvellous Paul. Suddenly there's a lot more light in this place! And quite a bit of dodgy previous building revealed.

Sunflex sliding doors

Finally, we are getting the doors we wanted installed! It's taken nearly 9 weeks for them to arrive but they are finally here.

Front rooms

The second stage of our renovation started at the beginning of a long weekend towards the end of July. We began by stripping the wall paper in the front two rooms. We have decided to do these rooms ourselves for cost reasons and to see what we can achieve by doing it ourselves. It might be a total mistake but if you don't try you never know.

The wallpaper was relatively easy to take off in the back room and the plaster work seemed quite good. It was a different story in the front room and we realised quite quickly that this room would need a total re plaster as the walls were in a state.

Kitchen

Finally, I have a working kitchen after weeks of delay with the cupboard supplier. It's still not completed by the work top is now in and I have a kitchen I can use.

Sinks and bathrooms revisted

I have changed my bathroom sinks twice now! First time, it was the wrong kind of sink and the second time, it was the cloakroom sink that had to go back because it was far too large for the size of the room.

The sink now sits on top of a piece of wood I was given by a kind 86 year old man who had been in the lumber trade for over 70 years! I had it polished and varnished and it looks quite cool with the bowl and tall tap.

My supplier - Potter Perrin of Streatham have been marvellous. I have been able to swap things around and exchange things without too much hassle and always with a friendly smile!

Energy Efficient Boilers

We have decided to go for a Vaillant Ecotec Plus condensing system boiler. It is SEDBUK band A rated for fuel efficiency, so it is one of the best. It is also solar compatible so it will work with solar panels if we decide to install these in the future. Max heat output 35-39w.

Bathroom sinks

The mistake I made was to order a semi recessed sink without the cabinet underneath and this has led to no end of problems. The cabinet it came with was not to my liking and I thought it would not be too difficult to get the builder to make something up for me. Wrong! My builder does not employ carpenters so he can only get a mdf cupboard put together which again might not achieve the look I am trying to achieve.
On top of that, I would have to order the work top separately and the colours would have to coordinate with the tiles and pebbles I'd ordered for the rest of the bathroom. I knew I had a problem.

Not wanting to hold up on the completion of the bathroom, I found a cheap but effective solution without compromising on style or quality. Take a look at Ikea's ceramic sinks and some of their fairly good quality cabinets. They come with soft close draws, water resistant cupboard doors in high gloss and carry a 10 year guarantee!

Kitchens and bathrooms

Very annoyingly, we have a two week delay on the kitchen now because the kitchen designer miscalculated the amount of panels we needed. This means that the kitchen work top people had to be put off, Russ the fitter can't finish his job and we can't use our kitchen! It's not good and I am not very happy about it. The kitchen company have promised to do all they can to hurry the process a long and have promised to throw in a few things to keep me sweet. It still doesn't make up for being able to move in and use my kitchen.We also have a delay in the bathroom as the fitters have discovered a few scratches in the tub. This has to be ordered and fitted before the tiler can get on with his job. As soon as we have a bath/shower, a loo and a sink in place we are ready to move in.

Problems with kitchens

Our kitchen was delivered far too early and it's only now we are finding out about all the missing bits. Never pay the full amount until you know it's all there. Luckily for us, they delivered the whole lot before we had paid for it.

The Big Lunch - Street Party

What a wonderful event we had on Sunday with the Big Lunch street party held on Ramsden Road. Not only did the event raise money for charity but it was the perfect opportunity to get to know the neighbours.
Shame about the rain but it didn't stop people coming out to enjoy some delicious home cooking and splashing around in the puddles.

Reduce, reuse and recycle...

...the mantra of an eco person.

I am doing my bit by ebaying all my old kitchen appliances, windows, furniture and even vintage wallpaper left behind in the house. I am making money and feeling good knowing that someone else is making use of something that otherwise could have gone into land fill. Everyone should try this, you will be surprised at what you will find for sale on ebay.

The tiler takes over

Gerrardo the Italian tiler was not happy with the state of the floor when he came this morning. It is not level and does not level up with the new door that has been fitted. The concrete will have to be shaved off to rectify this situation - back to Kevin and his men then.

Breaking into the dining room

One minute we have a window into the dining room and the next - it's gone!

Ed the plasterer moves in

Ed the plasterer has always looked a bit off colour to me, he has a ghostly palour of powdery off white about him. I am assured this is not a physical condition but a thick coating of plaster dust! Poor man.



The back bedroom with 60mm of Gyproc Super insulation boards.

Doors continued...

The door company was very apologetic, they had ordered an express door because I had asked for a quick turn around unfortunately, no one informed me that this would be at the expense of the door I really wanted. They are now changing the door and ordering the one I wanted. It would take another 6-7 weeks - oh god! never mind, bear the pain for a bit longer. At least we will be able to keep the existing doors in situ until the new doors arrive.

Sliding doors

The sliding doors arrived early this morning along with my kitchen units! This is not what I was expecting as delivery was not confirmed and the floor is still to be finished, it is most inconvenient for the builders. As a result, an unfortunate person from the kitchen suppliers had to listen to an earful of my unhappiness.


The worst was yet to come - it was only after the doors were fitted we realise that they had in fact delivered the wrong door! Could this be a case of being duped by a double glazing company with a cheaper door? I don't know and I was not able to find out until the following week as they had all gone home for the weekend.

What fine specimens!

The men in all their glory stopping to pose for a snap with the bewildered home owner.

Come on lads - there's a lot to be done by tomorrow, the doors are arriving and there is a lot of screed and concrete to be laid.

Nearly there lads - put that shirt back on Vlad what will the neighbours say!

Spaghetti of underfloor heating pipes

Vlad the builder clipping together the heating pipes.

Floor insulation

Julien the electrician on top of the floor insulation. There is over 120mm of Celotex there, it should keep my feet warm in the winter months!

Things are taking shape

After a very stressful week and a half in which I was in no mood to post a blog, we are now finally seeing things take shape and feeling a lot better for it.

It took us a whole week to decide on the type of window to have at the back and what to do about the rendering. Instead of the super duper triple glazed, low maintenance all glass Svarre windows we liked we have now opted for the traditional double glazed sash from Solberg in Denmark. It's easier to fit and less costly.

It's taken an age to work out the type of insulation to install for the internal walls in the back bedroom. I have now decided on 60mm of Gyproc Super with Gyp Liner Universal. As space is an issue for us in this room, we are using a lower thickness than that recommended by specifiers. At least British Gypsum offered me advice unlike the hard to get hold of people at Knauf Insulation who are not good at returning phone calls.

Stress and worries

The stress is now getting to us.

With no windows on the top floor and no sign of us being able to make a decision on what to do here, we are getting more and more frustrated about the whole situation.

Big mistake!

If you are doing a whole house refurb, never start from the bottom and work your way up – do it the logical way and start from the top and go down.

We are now in a situation where we have the builders working on the top floor of our house and they have had to take out two windows! What a mistake. The lead time for windows is between 7-8 weeks and we are struggling to decide on the windows to buy. Do we go for the triple glazed modern option for the back of the house or do we stay with the traditional sash look. It's all a balancing act between the type of window and how much work is involved in making it look good once installed.