Show us yer house and house-related meddlings

[shakespearegirl]

Very impressed with the builders, cracking on at pace!

 

[Aladdin]

I’m worried that using 150 might remove the beautiful old patina. Am I bring unnecessarily concerned? I only want to take off the burrs and splinters.

You're right to not want to remove the age.
Wonder how it has splinters and burrs? Old tables usually have had so much use that splinters have naturally "smoothed" out.
If you're patient...they will naturally smoothen over use and time.
Or you could hand sand the rough bits carefully. I would suggest using fine sandpaper and a little bees wax. Dark wax if the table is dark

 

[seeformiles]

Cleared away the old garden shed to make a wee sun trap where we can have an outdoor music sesh:

 

[Cloo]

Front door painted, having just been plain, rather battered light brown wood previously

 

[mauvais]

That looks brand new, nice!

 

[Cloo]

Somewhere in next few years we'll be replacing that glass - we want to get stained glass strelitzia flowers (they have significance to my husband's family).

One of the best things is that the surplus doorbell has gone - the house was never flats but the elderly parents of one of the previous owners lived mostly downstairs for years while they lived mostly upstairs and they had separate bells. The consequence for us was that people were frequently confused by the two bells and often either went away without pressing either, or tapped gently on the door as they were worried about pressing the wrong one presumably. We disconnected one and covered it with duct tape which I thought would be clear but, nope, still had missed deliveries when we were in because apparently they still were too concerned about pressing the one available doorbell Decorator took it off at the start of the week and we had a bunch of deliveries the next day who all rang, hurrah!

Door is a bit bluer IRL than it looks in the photo - goes nicely with front doors either side of us as well as one is a grey green and the other a more blue grey-blue. Downside is the rest of the front of the house looks even more shit than ever, but we will get to that as well.

 

[equationgirl]

That's a lovely front door Cloo.

 

[Cloo]

Will be even better with nice glass! Some houses still seem to have original stained glass or versions thereof, but as I said, we hope to add our own design in the next few years.

 

[miss direct]

Can someone help me with curtain poles please? What sort of curtains would work with this pole/fitting? I am bewildered by all the different options :/ Someone is giving these poles away so just want to be sure before I collect them!

 

[mauvais]

Probably hooks like this:



And curtains like this:

 

[miss direct]

Probably hooks like this:

View attachment 269883

And curtains like this:

View attachment 269884

Oh that's perfect as that's exactly the curtains I have. Thanks!

 

[WouldBe]

Oh that's perfect as that's exactly the curtains I have. Thanks!

Make sure the curtain poles are long enough for your windows. You want about 6" (150mm) at either end.

 

[mauvais]

Yes, although those are very compact, no big end pieces (finials?) and it looks like the captive hook can be held exactly in place, so I reckon the overlap requirement might be a bit less.

 

[miss direct]

There are two poles and they're 151cm long. I have no idea how long the new windows are. I did start doing measuring on the last viewing but gave up. The one thing I should have measured was the windows. I'm about 151cm though and pretty sure the windows aren't any longer than I am.

 

[mauvais]

On a different note I mentioned on the Sedgley thread that I found an advert for this house in 1909. I think it was built in 1908 or 1909. It's one of the ones in Lot 2. I'm not sure how to interpret the pricing info, I think it means they expected £120 p.a. rent from the four together, so £30 each which is allegedly about £2,500 now. Wouldn't mind paying that to the bank.

 

[WouldBe]

Yes, although those are very compact, no big end pieces (finials?) and it looks like the captive hook can be held exactly in place, so I reckon the overlap requirement might be a bit less.

Down to personal choice. My windows are 4' wide by 7' high. If I have the curtains open so they partly cover the window it cuts out too much light. Wider windows you might get away with less.

 

[moonsi til]

We sold a fireplace last week & the fella who turned up lived in our house in 1979! He also made bondage furniture.

My partner made shelves.

 

[Boudicca]

We sold a fireplace last week & the fella who turned up lived in our house in 1979! He also made bondage furniture.

My partner made shelves.

Was he buying back his own fireplace?

 

[moonsi til]

Was he buying back his own fireplace?

Kinda, fireplace was there when he moved in so was his at sometime. He said he was hoping it was the one from the front room which is bit bigger /grander but very similar.

He didn’t come in but through the hall he could see the extension that was built in the 1990s.

 

[moose]

bondage furniture.

I feel I've led a sheltered life.

 

[oryx]

I feel I've led a sheltered life.

Me too.

Hoping to have a complete bathroom refurbishment in the next few months. Looking forward to having a nice new bathroom free of wonky tap/shonky vanity (or should that be shame?) unit and tiles that don't have nail holes from the previous owner's shower and radiator.

Not looking forward at all to actually having it done as we only have one bathroom.

 

[WouldBe]

Me too.

Hoping to have a complete bathroom refurbishment in the next few months. Looking forward to having a nice new bathroom free of wonky tap/shonky vanity (or should that be shame?) unit and tiles that don't have nail holes from the previous owner's shower and radiator.

Not looking forward at all to actually having it done as we only have one bathroom.

Loo and wash basin are easily changed in a day and when the bath is in you can have baths (carefully) until it's all tiled.

 

[oryx]

Loo and wash basin are easily changed in a day and when the bath is in you can have baths (carefully) until it's all tiled.

Thanks for that. I think on That Day we might have to get up mega-early and go out for the day.

 

[Looby]

Thanks for that. I think on That Day we might have to get up mega-early and go out for the day.

We had a complete refurb before Christmas and we didn’t have a flushing loo for over a week I think. Had to flush with a bucket of water. Then we had one night when we couldn’t use the loo at all because of the tiles.
I won’t lie, ours took 2-3 weeks and I hated every second of it but it’s lovely now.

 

[bimble]

My new door is finally happening today. Exciting times.

 

[kabbes]

On a different note I mentioned on the Sedgley thread that I found an advert for this house in 1909. I think it was built in 1908 or 1909. It's one of the ones in Lot 2. I'm not sure how to interpret the pricing info, I think it means they expected £120 p.a. rent from the four together, so £30 each which is allegedly about £2,500 now. Wouldn't mind paying that to the bank.

View attachment 269890

The further back in time you go, the less you can compare prices just by inflating them using some kind of prices index. That’s because the size of the economy shifts, and with it the power associated with the same amount of money like-for-like. Imagine that an economy has grown fifty-fold over a period in real terms. If you had an income of 1% of the economy now, that would be equivalent to owning 50% of the economy at the start. Your power base now would be much lower now despite the fact that it buys you the same items. There are similar problems associated with the fact that the amount of stuff in existence has got much bigger and the fact that price inflation becomes difficult to interpret anyway when the basket of goods has changed so much over time.

I suspect that once you factor those thing in, £30 in 1908 is actually a lot more than the equivalent of £2500 today in true like-for-like terms. Working out what its real equivalent is would be tough, but a good place to start is probably to note that £30 in 1908 rented you a semi-detached house for a year…

 

[oryx]

We had a complete refurb before Christmas and we didn’t have a flushing loo for over a week I think. Had to flush with a bucket of water. Then we had one night when we couldn’t use the loo at all because of the tiles.
I won’t lie, ours took 2-3 weeks and I hated every second of it but it’s lovely now.

Am dreading it to the extent that I've suggested we might want to get a tiny 'cloakroom' in the loft cupboard beforehand, which may be just about doable.

OH is not keen though.

 

[Epona]

Am dreading it to the extent that I've suggested we might want to get a tiny 'cloakroom' in the loft cupboard beforehand, which may be just about doable.

OH is not keen though.

You could rent a chemical toilet for a few days

 

[oryx]

You could rent a chemical toilet for a few days

That was another suggestion I made to Antelope.

He's talking about going to Bluewater every day to hang out and, er, use the toilets...

 

[Epona]

That was another suggestion I made to Antelope.

He's talking about going to Bluewater every day to hang out and, er, use the toilets...

I understand completely, I don't have any physical bladder or bowel issues but my god I am plagued with psychological ones - if I know I am going to not have access to facilities I get the fear (and sometimes an upset stomach!)