Show us yer house and house-related meddlings

[equationgirl]

We pick up the keys to chez BalFrog tomorrow, and have a week of renovating to play with before we move all our stuff out our current flat

It's a 1950s weatherboard three bedroom, with a kitchen that looks original. We're going to rip out the kitchen, prise up the cork tiles in there that are covering native hardwood floorboards and get them sanded and oiled, ready for the kitchen install next Monday. Need to get carpets in the bedrooms cleaned, paint all the rooms and move a doorway from the kitchen into the dining area that's in a really weird place. It also has no heating so we have a heatpump company coming in on Friday to give us a quote and organise installation.

There's a load more stuff that needs doing but it'll happen over time as needed.

Sounds lovely, are you sure you'll be able to get the Cork tiles up without damaging the hardwood too much?

Congratulations to you both on your house

 

[peterkro]

We pick up the keys to chez BalFrog tomorrow, and have a week of renovating to play with before we move all our stuff out our current flat

It's a 1950s weatherboard three bedroom, with a kitchen that looks original. We're going to rip out the kitchen, prise up the cork tiles in there that are covering native hardwood floorboards and get them sanded and oiled, ready for the kitchen install next Monday. Need to get carpets in the bedrooms cleaned, paint all the rooms and move a doorway from the kitchen into the dining area that's in a really weird place. It also has no heating so we have a heatpump company coming in on Friday to give us a quote and organise installation.

There's a load more stuff that needs doing but it'll happen over time as needed.

It's not an ex-state house perchance.Those from the fifties were built to very high standards much more so than modern houses, native hardwood floors sounds about right.

 

[wayward bob]

i have no pics but i do have a "tap reviver" kit on the way. our kitchen hot tap's been bust for... about 5 years limping along sometimes better sometimes worse, but now permanently dripping. wasting water is shit. audibly wasting water down the drain drives me insane... it's jumped up my priority list since we've had the windows open 24/7. mr b is officially the maintenance person in this respect, hopefully he'll have a clue what to do with the kit

 

[teuchter]

It's a 1950s weatherboard three bedroom, with a kitchen that looks original.

We're going to rip out the kitchen,

 

[treefrog]

Yeah, nah. It's manky with no work surfaces.

 

[wayward bob]

we have a ?40's? kitchen that in my naivety i asked the vendor whether she'd be leaving it has the angled/sliding door under-cabinets that make the absolute best of a very limited space. tbf we're still on the gas cooker she left too, 18 years later

 

[Glitter]

In an episode of what I shall call cross-thread décoratif I bring to your attention that you seem to have the same fireplace surround as Glitter .

post a picture of your front room

Excellent, and slightly disturbing, matching

 

[teuchter]

Excellent, and slightly disturbing, matching

All of urban75's home decor decisions are carefully stored and updated on my extensive database.

 

[wayward bob]

tap win \o/ it's bodged, natch, but doesn't drip

 

[treefrog]

So the old kitchen is out, happily the two floor-mounted cupboards (one with a sink) came out in one piece so I now have them in the shed where they'll be used for potting and various shed-related fixing and making

Cork floor has been taken up and the mātai flooring sanded back ready for varnishing. I also ripped out the manky carpet in the hall and bedrooms and discovered it's the same floor all the way through so our flooring guy is going to sand and varnish them too!

 

[mauvais]

Bathroom's started. Some interesting wall going on here. Stud? Brick? Why not both?



Also the lounge plastering is underway, the guy is very good:

 

[Callie]

Blue??

 

[mauvais]

It's whatever preparatory voodoo they have underneath the finish.

 

[teuchter]

Bathroom's started. Some interesting wall going on here. Stud? Brick? Why not both?

View attachment 141562

Brick nogging. Might have replaced an earlier infill material or might have been built like that for extra thermal/sound insulation. Can use lower quality/lightweight bricks as they aren't structural.

This prompted me to do some reading. Apparently the appearance of the brown rat in Britain in the 1700s prompted many timber framed barns to have their panels infilled with brick noggin in an attempt to keep out these new rats which had sharper teeth than the native ones.

 

[not-bono-ever]

Kitchen extension begins. I do not have the money yet for this

 

[Poi E]

Tip. When you've re-packed and rescrewed your stairs to stop the creaks, and it doesn't, and you're fucking fuming, and you're wife says "when you oiled that bench it stopped creaking"...Coat the underside of the stairs (if you can access them) with boiled linseed oil or a similar oil. This stops most of the creaking. Fucking around and pulling apart the structure does not.

 

[kabbes]

So far, bat surveys have cost almost as much as architect fees.

Another £840 to be shelled out now because the surveys over two days found a whopping three bats, so the site has to be licensed and we have to pay for somebody to come and supervise the demolition of the wall.

I think that will take us up to £3000 spent on bats -- £1000 per bat.

Anyway, work is kicking off in September, all being well. It's taken about two years to get to this point, so it's weird to actually be starting. I feel a disturbance, as if thousands of pound notes suddenly cried out in terror and were silenced.

 

[teuchter]

I think that will take us up to £3000 spent on bats -- £1000 per bat.

Surely many generations of bats will now be assured a safe home over the coming centuries/millennia.

 

[kabbes]

Surely many generations of bats will now be assured a safe home over the coming centuries/millennia.

Money well spent

 

[mauvais]

I'm hoping this is going to become a theme. Smashed up our old bathroom today, found a page from The Daily Mirror. June 6, 1950.

A heartwarming story about a man called Lucien.

 

[mauvais]

Bathroom's almost done, needs some paint and a few bits & pieces.

 

[Callie]

I hope that light fitting complies with the required standards

 

[teuchter]

Nice mirror.

I note the backup downlight in case the chandelier gets destroyed during the revolution.

 

[mauvais]

I hope that light fitting complies with the required standards

IP44 innit.

 

[mauvais]

[double post]

 

[mauvais]

Nice mirror.

I note the backup downlight in case the chandelier gets destroyed during the revolution.

The spots turned out to be unnecessary in a way, but it was hard to predict the amount and quality of light from the chandelier. Also since the fan is wired into the spot circuit, it means we can have light without the racket. It's populated with 1.5W G9 LEDs which is about as weak as we could get.

Mirror is an IKEA Stockholm with a demister fitted to the back.

 

[mauvais]

Also I hadn't finished adding the frills to the chandelier yet. It's even more bourgeois. £150.

 

[Cloo]

Lovely mauvais - what colour will the walls be?

Hallway is underway. Anaglypta paper is gone, oppressive brown woodwork on its way out (stair rail and bottom post staying dark due to likely wear) Most woodwork will be light grey, upper walls white, lower a nice speckly grey/blue.

 

[mauvais]

Lovely mauvais - what colour will the walls be?

A grey/blue, specifically Farrow & Ball Stiff Key Blue, or actually, the B&Q Valspar match of the same, as recommended by the decorator. The ceiling will be white.

 

[kabbes]

Bathroom's almost done, needs some paint and a few bits & pieces.

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Gorgeous!