2021 renovations

[Skips]

What is everyone planning?

We have the builders in a the moment, the stairs they ordered are too big so there is 1ft at the bottom before you hit a wall - the old staircase had one giant step at the bottom instead of a winder. They ordered them especially so I have no idea what has gone wrong.

They have also put flooring down in the loft and fitted a new hatch/ladder, removed the artex and plastered the front bedroom and they have tiled the splashbacks in the kitchen. We still need to:

paint the front bedroom and get flooring
paint the kitchen, put in new flooring and change the light fitting
get stairs that fit ( ), get carpet put on stairs, plaster the wall that goes from the first floor down to the basement (stair wall) and paint the hallways
lay flooring in the basement
paint living room ceiling (I've been putting this off and will probably do it the same time as the kitchen ceiling)

In the garden I would like to remove the old patio and lay a new, extended one (I removed a horrible stone flower bed so it would replace that)
Get a new, watertight shed (ours leeks water pretty badly and nobody can seem to work out why/how as it's coming up from the ground despite being on a groundsheet
Install a hot tub/gazebo
Put in 6ft fences (this probably won't happen due to £££)

If we end up staying here I would like to do more with the loft, it currently has some really bad Velux windows that I would replace and I'd get it turned into a not room, room as I wouldn't get a permanent staircase put in (maybe a small study if the Wifi could be extended).

[Cosmopolitan]

Builders are such shysters sometimes, they make a mistake in measuring and expecting you to pay for it or live with a shoddy job.

And your secondary list sounds really nice actually, lots of really transformative things that will make you feel like you've made progress and also easily broken down into weekends.

We did a lot of flooring last year using some B&Q laminate and it was both exceptionally easy, still looks very good after a year and was cheap.

We've still go loads to do but I'm trying to break it down into smaller jobs. Plus we need to actually spend some money on furniture which is expensive. Sodding dining room chairs are so spendy.

So, my list is
- the lean to at the side, vinyl flooring down, some decent shelves and storage, plants and paint it all
- paint the front of the house and all the fences and the gates etc.
- garden - move the pond, put in some nicer water features, break up some more concrete.
- build a decent outdoor covered kitchen / eating space for entertaining (ha, wishful thinking maybe?)

[Chicky]

What a pain about the stairs Skips. I hope it gets fixed ASAP.

I have been eyeing up outdoor pizza ovens Cos, but I’m not sure it’s not wishful thinking too!

We’re getting the kitchen extension done and it’s booked to start in April. It’s a huge space already but we want to push the wall out further so we can see more of the view from the kitchen, with big bifolds. We’re also making the utility bigger and putting in a downstairs bathroom with a double shower. I’m ridiculously excited. Mostly about kitchen appliances, but also as it’s going to be an amazing space.

[Shoe]

I'm really hoping to be on here this year, it'll very much depend on finances though.

*Sort the bathroom fan
*new front doors
*decorate hall
*new hall flooring
*re-wire
*insulation in the loft
*shelves in living room

I'm so tempted to see if I can DIY any of it because I don't have the cash for builders.

[Morganna]

I have a long list (starting with the bloody hall that I have been wanting done for actual years!) but I am trying not to dwell on it, as I don't feel happy even having someone in to quote, so it has a chance to be ages before I can have it done. I think that needs to happen before I can think about sorting out the bathroom and possibly making the little spare room into a study/office. The jury is still out on that one, though. I'd like a room to work in, so I could separate a bit, but now that there are just two of us and we have plenty of space, I don't know if it would be a waste of a bedroom, or even if I would bother going upstairs to work in a tiny room when I have the run of downstairs. It never gets used other than as a dumping space, though, so I don't know

Anyway, it's frustrating having so much time to be able to crack on with renovations, but not wanting to risk bringing builders/decorators into the house.

[Livilla]

Rewiring, shoe

Otherwise, some exciting plans though! We currently have planning permission waiting to be approved to do a big renovation on our house. Phases 1 and 2 will hopefully be done this year. Phase 1 is to convert the existing living area into a kitchen/family living area, and the existing (too small for a car ) internal garage into a bedroom and ensuite. Phase 2 is then to turn the existing kitchen into a formal living/tv watching room and study.

If we survive that, and have any money left, Phase 3 is to reconfigure the upstairs. That involves a bit of an extension over an existing balcony, but otherwise only involves moving a couple of internal walls and redecorating.

It's a lot of work, but definitely needed, our house has a huge footprint but is so poorly configured with so much wasted space. We will also have loads and loads of storage int he new plan, hurrah! The phasing should mean that we can camp out in enclosed areas while work is done elsewhere in the house, and we will never be without a kitchen or bathroom to use (we have learned from bitter previous experience here ).

[Smunder Woman]

Oh, Shoe

I want to move in the reasonably near future so don't want to do too much, but my kitchen is falling apart. That probably needs to go on the list for when I have a more secure income.

[Skips]

Oh Shoe. We had unexpected rewiring when we moved in here as the previous owners took the fuse box away so we had to do it to get a new one installed. I hope you can get some quotes and it can be done reasonably.

There are some lovely sounding plans here, very exciting!

Cos, I've told them I'm not paying the outstanding balance until we are both happy with what they install, J was saying that they are going to make good with the existing set but I cannot see how they can make anything that isn't worse than what we already had. Not just the space at the bottom of the stairs, but also there is a low headspace bit that I now have to duck for. I'm 5'2".

[happyhighlandcoo]

Wow, some massive plans on here, whole revamps. You are all brave. Cos, I'm with you on the furniture. Most of ours is 10 year old Argos flatpack paid for with Nectar points when we had no money. I remember being really shocked at the price when we got dining chairs.

We've just had some builders round to quote to make our open plan downstairs into a hallway, living room and dining room. We're not 100% about getting it done but need a quote to rule it in or out. But, my plans have been a bit ruined at discovering that our stairs aren't the original and have been brought forwards about a metre which means I can't have a door to the middle room where I wanted it. I had never realised our stairs aren't original. They must be way steeper in all the other houses the same footprint as ours so it is probably a good thing but really impacts my plans.

I've also just bought a shed and am clearing out our back bedroom to make it into a nursery.

I'd love to do the bathroom, get a new kitchen floor and redo our front yard but I think money, time and a new baby will mean those things don't happen.

[F'Artiste]

We have some fairly major plans this year (although I’m mentally shifting it into next year as A doesn’t feel comfortable getting in anyone to quote until lockdown is over - which is fair enough):

1. Carpet the living room, internal hall, upstairs and recarpet the stairs. Living room: repaint and update chimney wallpaper. I’d also like to update our fireplace (guess that might need to happen first?) as it’s pretty dated looking now.
2. The big job we want done is an extension to the kitchen/existing extension and probably change the roof from being flat to slightly pitched. We’d get a new kitchen with island and ideally change up the flooring from the slate tiles to some wood flooring (this would be a pretty big job though as the previous owners tiled everywhere). This is the one we need to quote; I’ve got a rough idea on cost, but want to double check it’s accurate.
3. Simplify our garden, knock down the summerhouse at the back, which is damp and rotting
4. Repair/replace our front drive, which is mostly cracking flagstone tiles (whatever happens, this would happen last as there’s no point repairing it and then a giant skip cracking it again)

If 2. Isn’t possible or ££££££ then we’ll probably just refresh the house/garden and look at moving in the short term.

[Loralei]

There are some exciting plans here. Your house is going to look brilliant when you've finished, Skips.

I need to get the work from 2020 finished first! Our builder had such a dreadful start to the year (he'd just set up his business so wasn't entitled to any support) that when work started to come back in we told him to fit us in around other jobs, but I've run out of patience now. He's promised he'll schedule some time in so firstly I need him to:
- put doors on the new built in units in the sitting room
- paint another coat on the shutters and paint behind them (which got missed first time round)
- plaster around fireplace and fit mantel shelf
- replace the light fitting.
- put a top on the pantry cupboard and box in above it
- finish aligning the surround above the tall cupboards
- touch up paint where tiling was redone
- put up shelves
- install radiator
- change light fitting

Once that is done I need to recarpet the sitting room and HSL and repaint/rearrange our bedroom.

Both bathrooms need new shower trays/doors/tiling and extractor fans fitted/replaced (the latter is booked for next Friday).

I also want to replace our gravel paths/front garden/drive with bonded gravel, knock down an outhouse, build a small outside loo on the side of the house and lay a patio.

Perfect time for me to have given up earning, then

[sally maclennane]

I hope you get it all sorted, Lora.

I would like our hall decorated, it's inoffensive but bland - the walls are all white with hideous blown vinyl wallpaper. It's fine if you don't look at it too closely but it's badly hung (loads of bad joins) and dated so I'd like it all removed and replaced with paint. I quite fancy a pale green, it's quite a light space and I think it would look nice. The banister is all painted with mahogany stain, and I would like that to be painted white. I'd also like a new front door, the current one is white UPVC and I hate it. The hall is always cold so I would want a good solid as our house is high up from the road and the wind comes in through the current door.

However, I am still enjoying not having workies in the house so I'm in no rush to get this done. The painters who did the extension were really good so I have got their details and once things are more relaxed, I'll contact them to get them in.

[Heebie Jeebie]

1. Upstairs tv room to be turned into a cosy room for reading. I want to get bookcases built in under the sloping ceiling where it's too low to be of any use, the entire length of that wall. I might paint the room as well. It was painted what we thought was sage green 3 years ago, but turned out quite pale and insipid.

2. Subject to flat sale, renovate the family bathroom. I want to rip out the hideous shower and cheap sink, toilet and bath, and replace with nice bath, toilet and sink.

3. Spare room to be re-wallpapered. The red floral paper I put up 8 years ago was a mistake and has been up long enough to come down without guilt. I'd quite like to sell the dark furniture as well and replace with something lighter.

4. Living room. I'd like to make it mine. I don't know how much I can afford to do but in an ideal world would build in some shelves to hide a weird boxed in pipe, maybe do a rejig so the dining table is beside the kitchen and has 3 lights overhead and get new furniture. In reality I will probably just paint the walls a new colour.

[happyhighlandcoo]

We've booked in with the builder to make our giant open-plan downstairs room into a hallway, box in the open stairs and put in "nib" walls to sort of separate the front and middle room and give us nice alcoves whilst still being open to maximise light. I'm hoping to convince Mr Coo that we need to do the fire at the same time as we have a modern TV type of fire on the wall and I want to put in a traditional cast iron (gas) fire. Starting on 26th April and it will take around a week and a half, probably whilst we both try to work from home upstairs, eek! The builders don't decorate so we might do that ourselves, maybe we help from Mr Coo's dad who used to do it for a living. I think it'll make a huge difference to our house, although it is a big spend.

[Skips]

Brace yourself for it taking longer, I don't know anyone's building work that stuck to the initial timeframe, ours was meant to be 2-3 weeks and took nearly 6. Exciting though, the stairs we've had put in look a million times better, although I'm dreading all the painting (we got a quote but can't stretch to it as it's a lot of painting).

[happyhighlandcoo]

Ha, if it takes six weeks I might go actual mad as we need to get sorted for a baby arriving! It is mostly just stud walls and moving a few electrical switches and sockets so I really hope it won't be a huge or messy job. We've never had any kind of building work so we're pretty naive and a bit scared too.

Stairs painting scares me too, our ceilings are so high. We'll definitely need to paint the landing and stairs, living room, middle room and hallway after it is all done. I'm not sure Mr Coo has realised quite how much painting will be needed and I'll be 34 weeks pregnant. Argh, what are we doing... Anyone for a painting party?!

[Livilla]

Exciting that you have a date for your work starting, HHC!

We've had our planning permission approved, yay. Next is to get the structural engineer in and then once we know a couple of key things (whether we'll need a pillar in the middle of our new kitchen basically - or rather how much it will cost to remove it and whether we think it's worth the cost) then we can get it properly priced and proceed!

[F'Artiste]

I hope it goes well HHC. We had our loft conversion done when I was about 6-7 months pregnant, and I spent the month after doing all the painting and wallpaper hanging.

We’ve had it confirmed we need planning permission, so we’re getting some plans drawn up first. We’ve also had some rough costs (pretty much bang on what I thought), although a couple of builders have been a bit mardy at there being no side return to access the back.

If worse comes to worse and planning is turned down, I have a back up plan to make the most of the space before selling.

[Jupiter]

Fingers crossed the work is done on time, HHC.

Will it be tough getting planning, F'arty?

We are aiming towards April start for our work. We have started looking for somewhere to live for approx four months of the build. This all depends on construction being allowed reopen in March

[bramblerose]

Some lovely and massive sounding plans!

We are planning on moving but maybe only in the next year or two - the house itself is fine and big enough but there's no way to expand our outside space and we will need a bit more for our plans for retirement We're looking a buying a caravan/camper/trailer tent and have nowhere to put one plus I'd like just a bit more outside space in the back for a shed and a garage and I'd like to move from a main road.

However, we will need to spend a bit of money on the house to get it through a sale so we may as well make it nice for the next couple of years, so:

Remove the chimney breast from the second bedroom which may sort out the damp issue from the loft. This will also show the room as a proper double bedroom (It is but the space is tight)
Get the damp issue sorted in the loft
Get the damp issue sorted on the front upstairs wall
New window throughout and a new front door - this may be problematic in the bathroom due to a damp issue on the wall
Possibly new flooring downstairs
Redecoration inside and some painting outside
New bedroom/landing/stairs carpet
Maybe new radiators in second bedroom and landing

In the grand scheme of things, it's not a lot but nothing has been done for about five years. I reckon, unless there are real structural issues on the back wall, then it won't cost huge amounts of money