And still they come!

Yes, I know, someone wanted it! How long ago was that??!

Here we are in the first throws of November, and we can only assume they still haven't sold their house.

At the beginning of September, we signed up with Chamerlains estate agents, and we've had a steady flow of viewings, but not a bite in terms of an offer.

We decided a while ago that the lack of furniture could be making it hard for potential buyers to envisage what the property could look like, and also making it feel cold. So, we've kitted it out with some quality bedroom furniture (which we'll keep for ourselves) and some very cheap sofas, which we'll sell on e-bay!! :-)


We had one viewing last weekend since the house was 'dressed', but you can't please everyone......he wanted to know if the loft was boarded as he wanted it as an office! Honestly, we've done everything else for him!!!

However, the estate agents do seem rejuvenated by the furniture too, and despite the doom and gloom mongers in the news this week, we have a viewing this afternoon, and 3 more tomorrow. Please, please, please may one of them like it enough to view it twice at least!!!

Someone wants it!!

Without us dancing on the ceiling too much, as to be honest it is early days.......but we had an offer, and after some negotiating, we've accepted!!!! Good price and they don't seem to want the kerb drop either so that will save a bit of cash!

Unfortunately they are not 1st time buyers, so they still need to sell theirs, hence we remain on the market, but we'll keep our fingers crossed for them!!!

Would be sooooooo nice to have it all sorted before Christmas....... only 5 months away!!!

Very useful having a second home though. We are doing some renovations on our own bathroom, so at least we can pop round the other one for a shower!!!

Any non washed people from Cheltenham/ Gloucester welcome to use too!!


Sadly Craig has had to remove the fireplace today, in readiness for the correct fitting tomorrow...... tragic to make a mess in there again, but hopefully it will all go ok, and we can make it look beautiful again very quickly!!!!

Can it possibly rain any more???

After Craig's efforts to dig out the driveway, not a lot has happened....too wet!!! We need to level the ground and then order the hardcore, but can't level it at the moment....the leveling plate will just splash everywhere to no effect other than shower mud over South Birmingham!!

But, this hasn't stop to further prospective buyers poking round the place, but no offers yet. web page looks lovely (house), and we just need to hold our nerve through the bad weather, and hope that soon the sun shines on us!..................Please!!!

But on top of this....that gas man is a gonner if I ever meet him again. New Gas man has said we need lintel above the fireplace and a bigger hearth to comply with regulations. Why couldn't that bloody man have told us that months ago. He's been in and out of that house since before we even bought it! When did he think it was a good time to tell us this??? Guess that's why he's become invisible...............idiot! I dread the day the new guy is coming. We have to take out the whole thing, surround and all, they fit the lintel and 'make good', but I suspect we'll need to do a bit of filling and painting again....we thought we were through all that!!!! nightmare...not to mention the extra £450!!!!

I'd name the flipping gas man we had, but it would do no good..............I'll just stalk him probably!!!!

Craig has worked really hard again this week, and the back garden is now complete, nice and tidy, with some bark to neaten up by the white terrace wall. Would have taken a photo, but the rain wouldn't have done it justice!!

So, without complete, all that is left is the small matter of the front garden. Craig began by digging out a massive tree stump, and then has systematically begun removing soil and turf from the area for parking. Today, once the rain stopped, we were back there digging out more. Craig is killing himself wheeling the barrow up a home made ramp to the skip!!!Quite a funny sight though!

While clearing the weeds from between the paving slabs that make up the path, we discovered one slab with a big hole underneath it! Craig nearly fell in! Worked out it was probably because of the roots from the tree stump Craig had removed! it was quite large, but least if was an easy place to dump some of the soil rather than getting another barrow load into the skip!!

Please Miss, can I take your photo??!!

Grand Designs Show live
We had a fantastic day out yesterday at the Grand Designs Live show in London, an dCraig was over the moon to meet his heroine....Ms Beeny herself!!! We didn't ahve chance to discuss the ins and outs, ups and downs of property development with her, but it was fab to meet her! We did sit in on her seminar where she spoke to 2 developers from Property Ladder, and it was quite cool to feel like we knew where they were coming from with things, having been there ourselves. Would they do it again???Jury still out!

Oh to be an Estate Agent!

Well, they came. 2 Estate Agents. Chamberlains were first.....he was OK, and said he really liked the place (we expected nothing less), but he used so many cliches, and little terms, and thought he was really funny..............he wasn't!!! However, he did say the standard of the interior would rival a semi in the area, which was a definite positive. he told us off road parking could add £5k to the property. Then came a girl from Dixons. She has supposedly won awards for her work...not sure what they were!! She kept referring to the house as ex-council and as such, the perceptions of buyers would be that it isn't a nice area and therefore we wouldn't get as much as the same house in another area. We were confused. We didn't know it was ex-council, and it certainly isn't in an area you'd think was ex-council if you saw it. She told us she'd help us find a better house in the future with more potential......we'd hit a ceiling price very quickly, as it's ex-council....blah, blah blah!! She also told us off road parking would make no difference to sale price. Hmmmmm.

When she'd gone, we talked about it more and we agreed we thought it had been owned privately since being built. We spoke to the neighbours and they agreed. A local guy named Matthews had owned 12 of the houses in the row, since 1944 (from Birmingham and Midland Estates who built them in 1937) I looked up the deeds when we got home to check. So this has obviously blown our confidence in Dixons amazing staff! Blooming cheek telling us we'd made a mistake buying the house and making such an effort with it!!!

Anyway, the upshot is that both agents gave similar valuations, slightly under what we would like to get, but not far off, so we were quite happy. (However, would not being ex-council mean a £5k increase in value??!!)

Tonight we've shown a family round. The parents are looking to buy a pad for their kids. The daughter came with them, but the 30 year old son is too lazy to look!! However, the Dad scrutinised the place and 'interviewed' Craig in detail about the work he'd done etc. On leaving he said he'd let the kids have his house and he'd move in there!! They are going to get the lad round before they move forward, but still positive. Girl really likes it, so lets hope she works on her Dad!

So, just the back garden to finish sorting. Need to get up the rest of the ugly paving slabs to unearth the rest of the crazy paving below, and clean that up. The front garden will be dictated by the response of viewers really.

In an ideal world, we'd love someone to say, knock a couple of thousand off the asking price, and they'll do the driveway themselves........maybe we're just being lazy!!!

The Day of reckoning looms!

Yes I know, we hoped to have valuations last week, but the rain held up play on the decking!!! Craig also suffered a dose of man flu so wasn't as fit as he'd like to have been!

However, the decking is now done, except for the steps which Craig is going to build today. I am going to call the estate agents this morning (while Craig is stretching a nice canvas picture of a flower for the kitchen wall!) and arrange for valuations tomorrow. Then we will call the people who have shown an interest and get them to see the finished article! Fingers crossed.

Got the week off work, so we can carry on tidying the back garden (where we have found some borders and crazy paving...looks a lot better than slabs, so we're going to pull up the slabs and see how far the paving goes!). We then need to tackle the front, but all being well, we'll do that while under offer. We can only hope!!

Sunshine & Decking

10 days since our last posting, and thankfully we have moved on!

The bedrooms are all complete, blinds, lampshades & all. The bathroom needs finishing off with sealant around the bath, a shower screen fitted, and the blind put up. The lounge needs a baton fixing above the window to fit the blinds to, and to cover the gap between the windows and the plaster work! Then the blinds can go up!

The fireplace looks lovely, but the fire isn't yet connected. Apparently our gas man has the flu and has asked a mate to call us to fit it....funnily enough we've not heard from him yet either!!! Never mind, looks nice, so we can have it fitted later if necessary.

The kitchen floor needs a second grout which I'll probably do later today, then we can clean up and 'dress' the place!

Craig has been lucky with the weather and begun on the decking, which is taxing his brain a bit, working out how to best construct it. He's really tired this week too, which isn't helping!

We have instructed a solicitor to act on our behalf so we can sell privately. We thought the HIP's were coming in next week, so we had to declare our house 'on the market' to evade putting one together. Yesterday's announcement of the delay is great!

We are aiming for getting valuations in next Tuesday......please let them be favourable!!

Weather!!

The very poor weather conditions today meant Craig wasn't able to finish fitting the doors upstairs......honestly, there was a good reason! He has to take them into the back garden to plane them so as not to get sawdust everywhere inside, and equally, there isn't the room!

Instead, he got on with other niggling jobs like fitting handles and mortice's to the lounge and kitchen doors, properly fitting a couple of the light fittings, and then set about making a new loft hatch which took a while, but now looks so much better than the old one. Bet no-one who views will even notice it, but there you go!

I did as I'd said and sanded all the woodwork in lounge and hallway, before Craig and and I tidied up the lounge area and brought a few more things home with us. You'll notice from the photo that the loo is still in lounge, in fact sitting on the hearth, as it is holding the hearth down while it sets....which it probably has by now! The fireplace looks great and with our expert filling and sanding, you can't even see where it is attached to the wall!!

I then got on with glossing again, and all the skirts in the hall and lounge are now complete. The doors need a bit of touching up downstairs, but that won't take long.

Be nice if the weather could improve so Craig can start the decking (once the loo has been fitted!). Least the ground will have softened up I suppose!!!

What do normal people do at weekends??

Well, it's Saturday, so it must be project house day for us both. It's ironic that Craig has been quite busy with some good orders for his pictures in the last couple of weeks, so this has meant him needing to take time out from the house to fulfill them. Good for the business though, so can't complain.

The Electrician returned yesterday and sorted out the consumer unit, which was just wiggling the fuses, as they obviously have some crap in them...technical stuff!!! Need to give them a good vacuum to stop it happening again, but good to know it was an easy problem to fix. Also good to know that our house is going to be used as an inspection site for his work by his professional body, so this will make sure he is satisfied he's done the best work he can!! E'on also came and certified the work to the external supply, so all good there too.

Anyway, last night we treated ourselves to a night out..................Ikea!!! Wanted shelves for the lounge, blinds for the windows and lampshades. Realised on route we hadn't measure the archway in the lounge where Craig wanted the shelves for, or the living room window which we wanted to get blinds for, so not a good start!! We did manage to buy some lampshades, and a blind for the kitchen and bathroom. Didn't have any we liked for the lounge or bedrooms, and are now contemplating curtains. Not sure.

So, today Craig finished fitting the skirting in the lounge which meant me following him round with a tub of filler to fill the screw holes. Tomorrow I will sand them all down, then we can hoover the floor and generally clean up......I'll take some pics then!

We fitted the lampshades upstairs, but the smaller ones we'd bought for the hallway are for table lamps and so will have to go back.....another great buy by us!!!

Thankfully, we've still got interest in the house. A lady returned the other day having visited previously, looking for a house for her son and daughter. She likes the colours and style, and has even talked about paying cash as her husband thinks the interest rates don't make mortgages an option at present......sure we all feel the same!!!!! She's given Craig her number to call her once the decking is down and the inside finished, and she'll come back (possibly with Son!!)

Carpets!!!

Hooray!!!! The carpets went down today, so the whole place looks much better and a lot less dusty! Progress indeed!

Craig did lay the wood floor in the lounge and hallway over the weekend, but that took longer than hoped. Looks great now, as does the fireplace which has been fitted, bar the major ingredient...the fire itself.. Blooming Gas Man has gone to Magalouf (??) for a few days, so won't be done till next week.

I busied myself with little niggly jobs like odd bits of filling and painting. Also decided to fit the rest of the sockets and light switches upstairs which all look great and work! Unfortunately, turning off various fuses in the fuse box seems to have messed the system and now the downstairs lights and boiler have no power.......oh dear!! Thankfully the electric man is due to visit this week and check all the wiring systems so hopefully he can solve whatever it is I've managed to kill!!

The bathroom is our most unfinished room, but is getting there. Craig has not had an easy time of it, but he should finish fitting the basin tomorrow and the loo maybe. This weekend we will definitely start on the decking....please let the nice weather return!!!!

So near!

With a long bank holiday weekend, and having Friday off normal work too, we should break the back of the beast! The kitchen is done, bar sealant around the worktops and re-grouting the tiled floor. The lounge has been re-painted and the skirts just need final gloss coats, but they won't be fitted till the wooden floor is down. Craig is collecting that today so fingers crossed we'll get it down tomorrow??

Craig has been wrestling with the bathroom all week, as he's had to cut new waste holes in the wall, fitted the bath, and is tiling the floor this morning. Once that has set (48hours) he can fit the basin and loo.....so by Monday????

I'll be painting. The hallway needs a final coat of emulsion and the bedroom walls need touching up. The doors upstairs need a final glossing, but with the superb technique of using a small roller, it is so much quicker and a lovely finish too!!! I'm learning so much, I can now be really, really dull about gloss techniques!!

Craig will need to shave a bit off some of the upstairs doors as they have expanded since they were fitted and no longer close.

We really want the inside to be done by Monday night, so we can concentrate on the garden the next weekened.......will the weather still be nice??

Had a visit from another interested party this week, who knocked on the door and came for a look round. Another property up the road has now sold too, in about 2 weeks, so there is movement in the street...all keeps us going!!

The deadline.........

Yep, well, Sarah would be castigating (??) us by now, as we are about to over-run on our 12 week turn around.

But on the positive side, the end is not too far off (2-3wks??!). The kitchen is almost there (waste pipe for sink needs fitting, the skirts and under stairs cupboard door needs painting, the electrical units need switching to chrome, and some wall paint needs touching up here and there).

Craig is in a dilemma whether to fit the bathroom next or do the decking...think he's worried about someone nicking his decking from the back garden before we've had chance to nail it down, but equally, we want to finish the inside before the gardens.

So, how do you like the Front door? We have a public vote you can participate in. Do you think the doorstep should:

• a) be cleaned and left (it will look OK when not dirty and dusty)
• b) Be painted it's original red colour
• c) Be painted black to match door and bricks below damp course outside

Need to think about the fact that the stone door step goes under the door and is visible in the hallway inside when the door is shut. The hallway is cream with white woodwork and the door is black (inside & out). Thoughts??

Ikea King!

We had a lovely Easter weekend at the house. It started by grouting the kitchen floor, and then getting on with other stuff while we tried not to walk on it!

For me that meant more glossing, for Craig it was fitting the reclaimed door which even with fitting a new lock etc looks so much better than the old one...although exactly the same style, so most people won't even notice!!

Only had a couple of hours on Saturday so we began the kitchen units. This was quite easy when we got into it, and we were knocking them together in about 15 mins each. Sunday we really got stuck in and began attaching them to the walls....then ran out of raw plugs.....no DIY shops open, so continued with some of the smaller niggly jobs again, glossing etc.

Monday.....we had a day off!!! This did mean a small trip to B&Q to get more raw plugs so Craig could continue first thing on Tuesday morning though!

Since then, he's been getting on OK, although we've had a to do a slight re-design again! Can't believe it after all the time we spent! Anyway, decided to buy another wall corner unit to match the other side, but it will mean the door won't completely open, as the cooker hood will stop it, but should mean the cupboard is accessible enough.

Starting to really take shape. I've been round again tonight and done some filling in the new door, and sanding it down ready for painting, and sanded some other woodwork ready for more glossing!

Craig is very proud of his new number too.....some little chrome digits.......i didn't put them on straight, but luckily, Craig spotted this and was able to save the day.....God forbid the slightly squiffy numbers may have put off potential buyers!! Sometimes, I just don't think I take development seriously enough :-)

Few days on the tiles!

Even with a super duper tile cutter, and a super duper husband, the floor in the kitchen has take a while to lay, and we're nervous to rush it, so we'll probably leave grouting till Friday. This is frustrating, because we both really want to get on and fit the kitchen units, but if we want the place to look good, it takes time!

I did manage to crack on with the glossing upstairs, which also seems to have taken forever, but with each door side taking 30 mins, and it needing 4 coats (primer, undercoat and by looking at one side after just one coat of gloss, it will need 2....why do they call it 'Solo'????), that is 16 hours of work just painting the doors, without the skirting and window sills!

Craig has started doing the niceties of fitting the chrome electrical fittings (light switches and sockets) today, as some of them might need filling round and painting. We didn't want to keep the white plastic ones, we think the chrome ones look more stylish, and bought on-line, not too expensive either. I'll take some pics at the weekend and you can judge for yourself.

Craig had another call from an interested party yesterday, so we're hopeful that as soon as it is ready, someone will want it!!

The house is finished and sold in an hour.

Did you really believe me???

But we are getting on well. This week Craig has worked really hard getting the floorboards sorted and fitted properly throughout, and has completed all the painting in the kitchen. Last weekend he had a bit of a game fitting the additional joist under the kitchen floor, but managed it in the end, and got the bards back down in there. This meant he was able to fit the large hardboard panels to the floor, and has begun laying the ceramic tiles on the floor now, which look really good.

The glossing upstairs is coming on, but there is so much!! Most is primed and undercoated now, but the final gloss coat is yet to be done. I'll get there eventually!!

We've had Allied round to measure for the carpets, but they won't be fitted until absolutely everything else is finished, so in about 3 weeks hopefully. We spent 4 hours in Ikea on Friday sorting the kitchen units. We'd played around on their computerised design planner at home, but we wanted to look at the units in real life again and build the little block model to give us an idea if it would look OK (see the Flicker album for our masterpiece!!). amazingly, we ordered at about 3.30 on Friday and the kitchen (all 65 separate items!!) arrived at 5.30 Saturday....amazing! Hopefully its all there, although they did tell us at the time that some items were on order, so Craig will have to go back this week sometime when they come in. I guess we'll be fitting the kitchen next weekend, once Craig has finished the floor and it's had time to harden off.

I decided that with the nice weather, I'd take a break from glossing and see if I could improve the look of the garden. have managed to tidy it quite well, but we're not sure how we will progress and how much to do to it really. The grass is quite lumpy, and there are no defined borders at present, but I'm sure we can do a good job. Unbelievably, at the end of the garden was a compost heap (well that was probably it's original use!), with a carpet it in, lots of bits of wood, and I've yet to extract the old vacuum cleaner I can see poking out!! Our skip is just about bursting, so we'll have to let it go soon, but looking at the rubbish at the end of the garden, we'll need another!!

Looking forward to the long weekend at Easter to get the kitchen in and probably more glossing done!!

8 weeks gone!

Craig confidently put a sign up outside this week.....House for Sale in 4 Weeks, added his mobile number, and we've already had a call from an interested party! Craig had begun stripping the front garden of rose bushes and awful grass (if it could have been called that!), and he's had a couple of people asking questions, and one person who was interested enough to have a guided tour, so we're hopeful there is interest!

The central heating is now complete and working beautifully. We've only had it on very low, so the whole place doesn't get too much of a shock...some plaster is probably still drying too, so it's gently as she goes!

The heating has brought a few other jobs to light. One of the beams under the kitchen floor broke under Steve the gas man, so needs replacing. Obviously this needs doing before the flooring can be sorted, so the large hardboard sheets waiting to go on the floor are still taking up space in the lounge. The gas fire couldn't be fitted because there needs to be a concrete base for it to sit on, so that is the next job. Then Steve can come back, fit the fire, and also fit the plumbing for the bathroom. We also need to sort the floor boards upstairs because they've all been distrurbed from the electrics and pipework, and some will need replacing completely.

Craig started on the garden, cause with Steve and his son working in the house with floorboards up everywhere, he couldn't really get on in there, and the weather has been quite dry. He's done well getting the most offending items out! The neighbour had a rotivator that he's going to let us use to flatten the lawn area before turfing part and pebbling part. Still no news on the dropped kerb, because the tree at the front has to be assessed. Could take weeks!

Meanwhile the painting continues, and I've managed to do a couple of hours this week to undercoat the lounge and kitchen doors, no mean feat as they are the type with lots of little glass panes that take ages to go round!

Plan this weekend is to get the bedrooms finished, ie last coat of colour on walls and gloss work done. We'll see!

Warmer conditions on the way!

I know the forecast is for the cold weather to return next week, but we'll be OK....the central heating man is there today fitting boiler and downstairs radiators, and will return on Monday to do upstairs! We mustn't get carried away with the warmth, after all, we don't want any plaster cracking, but it has got to help to make the place feel more homely!

Kev, you'll be pleased we reconsidered the positioning of the rad in the lounge, and it will now be on the back wall, not in the bay!

Craig has been lonely this week, been there on his own except Tuesday evening, when I continued priming the woodwork......takes about half an hour to do each side of a door!!

The kitchen is looking slick now, all white, and will just need a final coat. All the rooms now just need one more coat of colour once the heating is in to finish them. The hallway is having it's first coat of cream today (Yum!! :-) ), so it is coming on!

Half way!

We're 6 weeks into a 12 week (max) project, and we now feel like we're making progress.

With some brilliant help from Craig's brother and his wife, and myself having some time off this week, we've really moved on with the painting. Most of the upstairs is done bar the final coat (which we'll do after the central heating has been fitted). The small front bedroom and the back bedroom are buttermilk and the master bedroom is soft cream (B&Q paint!). The cream is continued in the hall, stairs and landing.

Downstairs, the kitchen and lounge have been white washed, and hopefully by the end of today we'll have the first colour coat on the lounge (nearly lichen). The kitchen is going to be plain white. Not sure on the bathroom colour yet. Most of the woodwork upstairs has had primer and undercoat, but downstairs hasn't really been touched yet, so plenty still to do (we'll be back round there in a bit!)

Starting to think about outside. off road parking would certainly help to sell the property as it is quite a busy road, and most of the neighbours have driveways. We've paid our £35 to Birmingham City Council for a kerb drop quote, so we'll see how extortionate they are! Think we'll have to plan the front garden as though it were going to be used for parking even if we can't get the kerb drop done in enough time. We'll have to see. Money is also tight, so need to make savings where we can!

Took a trip to Allied yesterday, and Craig was surprised how reasonable they were. Can have all 3 bedrooms and the stairs and landing done for around £650 (including underlay, grippers and fitting. Couldn't believe the quote of £100 just for gripper rods and door bars!!). Going to have wood/laminate flooring in the lounge and hallway, and Allied had some for about £7.99 m2. Craig had already bought the floor tiles for the kitchen and bathroom, and they came in under budget, and every time we can do that now, it goes towards that drop kerb!!

I'll upload some pictures later!

5 Weeks!

The Builders have left us at last!!

We now have a fully plastered house, although they were rushing a bit towards the end, so some neatening up to be done, however, it is looking like a proper house again now! The scaffolding has gone, and the newly painted exterior, clean windows and sparkling guttering can really be appreciated (yes, we know the colour isn't much different to what was there before, but it is cleaner!!!)

I've now got some time off work this week to help with the mammoth painting task. We have already begun priming the woodwork, but this will take a while to do, and we need to get the white wash emulsion on the walls to seal the plaster. We're trying to do this as quickly as possible so the central heating can be fitted, but don't want to have to paint behind radiators, be easier to paint before!!

Feels like we are still on target. The bathroom has been delivered, so just the kitchen to order, then the fitting to do, once the painting is complete! Simple!

Been discussing off road parking. The road is a bit of a nightmare in terms of cars, and many houses have a driveway, so we'll probably have to consider it. Have the kerb drop application sitting on the coffee table...guess we should fill it in. We'll have to do something with the front garden anyway, so spending the money on some kind of parking area will hopefully not be that much more!!

Plaster, plaster!!

Well, we're so close to the builder going, it is quite frustrating!! The plastering is getting there, with all 3 bedrooms finished including door frames and doors fitted! Craig went round this afternoon and found the plasterer had had personal issues again, and gone home without doing any work, so George had carried on fitting skirting boards, which Craig had wanted to fit himself. Finishing the plastering was more of a priority.

Difficult though, as George is effectively working for half price this week, saving us money, but then spending time doing jobs we can do ourselves!! We think he is a perfectionist and may be thinking we can 't do as good a job as him!!! he may be right, but he can't stay on the job beyond this weekend, so the plastering has to be finished by then.

The hallway and bathroom have to be skimmed, and there are still patches in the lounge and kitchen that need finishing. And we want to be painting next week!!

I'm sure it will all come together, just seems this week is going so slow!

Craig has bought the exterior paint, but the weather was shocking today. hopefully it maybe better tomorrow as the scaffolding is going either Friday or Saturday, so be nice if we could do the painting before that went, make it easier. Will make a big difference once the scaffolding is gone...make it look more like a proper house again!

Openplan!

The upstairs yesterday took on an open plan appearance, as the bathroom walls came down......not entirely planned!!! But putting in stud walls is easy enough (and in fact they have been put up today!) and did mean we could move one wall slightly out, taking a couple of inches from the back bedroom, which should help vastly fitting the bath and pipes for the shower!! So, all very fortuitous in the end!

In the meantime, this was the view as you came up the stairs!!!

The builder had called in an additional plasterer today, as they had fallen behind as they'd not been there all week. On plasterer was having some personal problems, so George got another guy in, but kicked him off the job after a couple of hours as he wasn't happy with the quality of the work. George is very particular, especially when it's his reputation on the line, which is good for us mostly, just means things can take a bit more time!! Anyway, with 2 guys there, things have moved on quite quickly. May over-run from the estimate of finishing tomorrow, but only another day or so we reckon. Bathroom may be held up by gas man, and him needing to fit pipes before plastering!

The gas man has been a headache. Been promising to come since Monday, turned up this morning, fitted 2 pipes in the kitchen for the boiler and buggered off again!! Craig has been leaving him messages all day. Shame, as he is someone we've used here, and he's been very reliable. Not sure what is going on, but he's not telling us! Builder has someone he knows, so if Steve doesn't get his act together he'll be off the job!!

Seeing lady lucks pearly whites!

God bless our builder. After cogitating on the kitchen floor issue over the weekend, he'd come up with a better, quicker solution. Rather than rebuild the supporting wall, he'd put in some more joists, fixed into the external wall for the floor to sit on. By early afternoon the job was finished!!! We have a complete kitchen floor!!

So, the electrician can now return to fix the extra 2 downlights for the kitchen (in the 'new' bit), and Steve the gas man is returning tomorrow afternoon to start fitting the central heating!

What a difference a few days make!!! :-)

Frustrations!!

Well, it has been a bugger of week......we just want a bit of luck to come our way!!!!

The builders have continued slowly with the plastering, and have now managed half a bedroom upstairs. They are doing a fantastic job, it looks great.

They were about to extend the floor boarding across where the old outside loo had been, when the supporting wall underneath gave way! Big hole. Unsafe to walk in one corner of kitchen. not good!!!! Now the rubble needs to come out to avoid drawing moisture apparently, so Craig is going to do that to save as much builders time as possible. They reckon it could take 4 days to repair the wall......this is too long, bearing in mind the money, so we have to save their time as much as we can.



Craig then yesterday managed to put his foot through the loft floor into the back bedroom ceiling...luckily it hadn't been plastered yet, so George will have to sort that for us too!!


This weekend, as good weather was forecast, we decided to replace the guttering. Yesterday (after a 5 mile run!!) we stripped off the old guttering, rubbed down and repainted the fascia boards and it was amazing how much better the place began to look. Today, we were back up the scaffolding again (heights,...yuk!!), to put the new stuff on...but the guttering was too deep for the clips!!

Not sure who to blame, the builder as he was the one who bought all the stuff, or Platform for selling clips that were too small for the guttering!! So, the guttering will have to go back and hopefully some less industrial looking stuff will replace it! Unfortunately this means Craig fitting it on his own when I'm back at work, but I'm not sure what help I'd be anyway!!!

So we spent today cleaning the grubby window frames, which didn't look like they'd been cleaned since they were fitted, so not a completely wasted day, just a bit of added frustration!

Next week.......some good news and luck please!!!

Love is in the air!

Today may be a day of romance, but before the lovely dinner and bottle of wine I've been promised, I did do a little bit of work at the house to earn my treats!

The weather has been great the past few days, so the pointing of the bricks is almost complete, and they look so much better. The roofer came today and re pointed the hip tiles (that sit along the roof edge) and replaced the flashing around the chimney.

The plaster has made good headway and the kitchen is almost fully boarded and has been skimmed on 3 of the 4 sides, so looking good. Craig has been stripping off the plaster round the windows of the bedrooms, which are the worst areas of plaster, so hopefully most of the other bedroom walls will just need a skim. They will start on them tomorrow probably, once the kitchen is complete. I helped tonight by stripping the remnants of wallpaper from the small bedroom and the bathroom, and tidying the walls as much as possible before skimming.

Steve, our gas man, is coming tomorrow, to fit the boiler, central heating and shower for us, so the progress continues!

Happy Valentines Everyone!!

2 weeks down!

Rather than Sunday being a day of rest, today we were back at the house.

The builders returned on Friday, after the snow sent them home Thursday, and they had cracked on bricking up the loo door and and knocking down the wall. . Craig helped on Friday morning putting in the lintel to support the stairs. The scaffolding arrived and was erected all round the house. This will be needed to help replace the guttering, paint the rendering on the front, re point the bricks and replace some flashing on the chimney. Craig came home for lunch but couldn't get back to the house as the snow came down again and the car wouldn't make it up the little hills (blooming rear wheel drive German cars!!). The builders stayed on till 4 then left too.

Yesterday we popped round to measure the terrace so we could price up some decking. The neighbour appeared, and was not too happy about the scaffolding as it was resting on his house, which didn't seem right. They had also put a pole right outside his back gate, so he couldn't open it! Luckily the scaffolder had been and sawn that one off, so he could now open his gate, but understandably was that it was resting on his property. Craig rang the builder and he's going to sort it Monday Morning, and make sure the scaffolding isn't' used until it is not resting against the other house. Hopefully that should be OK. Last thing we want is to upset the neighbours!

Today Sarah came to visit and helped us to strip wallpaper off the hall, stairs and landing, as well as the bedrooms. just one bedroom left to strip now, which is great. Are some very bad patches of plaster, which will need to be sorted, and is the biggest concern in terms of time and money really. The plaster is being very proficient, but we could do with a bit more 'efficiency' I guess!!

The house attached to ours in the terrace went up for sale the weekend we got the keys, and has already had an offer at asking price, which is fantastic. We think they have undersold in terms of price, although we don't know what it is like inside. This is good for us though, as it has sold so quick, we're probably right with our valuation. Clearly having a building site next door hasn't put off any buyers!!

Snowcat!

Snow stopped work, and started play! If Craig's snowcat building is anything to go by, he'd be a bossy builder, and we'd have a lop sided house!!!

Starting to feel better, so was good to get some fresh air!

Brrrrrrr!

The cold weather is not going to help this week, especially with snow forecast for tomorrow, but things are moving on.

Yesterday Craig had fun (while I am still nursing this damned flu thing!!), by going with Paula (builders wife) to the reclemation yard to get 150 bricks, needed to brick up the outside loo door (to the left of the back door if you look at the photos). He loved the place and came home speaking of lovely solid wood furniture made from sleepers etc. Just takes time to hunt out what you need amongst the stuff there.

In the meantime, the plasterer has almost completed the lounge, but the cold weather was impacting on it setting right. Craig says the walls are like glass, they are so smooth, so sounds like he's done a great job.

The builders are also repointing the gable end, and they've done about quarter so far. They need some scaffolding to do the rest, and while they have it they will replace the guttering too. Not sure when that's coming.

The snow tomorrow may impact though, as cement etc is hard to work with in freezing conditions (apparently!). If it falls heavily, it might be difficult to work outside anyway, so the inside will move on instead.

Craig is getting bored stripping woodchip wallpaper off the walls in the bedrooms. Did promise to help, but instead I'm getting bored watching daytime TV and seeing how many coughs I can acheive in an hour!! Great fun!

The builders move in!

Day 10 - and it's time for the heavy mob!

Sunday was spent trying to neaten up the garden a bit, while the weather was nice, then Craig finished removing all the remnants of plaster from the kitchen. I stripped paint from the door frame into the lounge and front door frame with a handy 'hot air gun'. Much fun, but much fumes! Smoke alarms the electrician kindly fitted didn't take too well to their first use!

But today (while I lay in bed and on the sofa...which quite frankly is calling again...though I could escape these flu type things!!) the builders began on plaster boarding the lounge (which is almost finished), they've properly bricked up the outside door on one side (which was only half bricked before, with just plaster board over a 'window' protecting the kitchen from the elements! They've also started digging out the footings for the terrace at the back which we're extending about 80cm to make it a more usable space, to sit and look out over the garden.

Craig has started stripping the wallpaper off the front bedroom. Need to strip all the walls while the plaster is around so he can make good any dodgy bits!!

Week 1

Friday 26th Jan was a momentous day. After putting an offer in on a house 'in need of modernisation' back in October, we finally collected the keys or our little palace!

First job was to empty the loft. No mean task as about 50 bags of rags, clothes, books, shoes and other odd items (like a bag of mini dressmakers dolls!!!) were acting as insulation! They filled the back bedroom until we figured out how to dispose of so much stuff.

Later the builder and his wife came round for a cuppa (first use of new kettle, £5 from Woollies!!) and discussed plan of action. Going to a be a bit of guess work on how much time, materials and money is required to do the jobs needed, as not a standard build. Seem genuine couple, so fingers crossed our gut feelings are not proved wrong.

Main jobs for builders are:

• Put a lintel in above the UPVC back door and window, and rebuild brick work above (so it doesn't move anymore!!);
• knock through from the kitchen into outside toilet, brick up old loo door and level the floor throughout kitchen;
• rebuild retaining wall for terrace outside back door (extending terrace out about another meter to allow it to be used as seating area overlooking the garden);
• board and skim the walls in lounge, kitchen and bathroom;
• rewire whole house.

By Saturday, the skip had arrived, and we began wrecking. Craig stripped out what was left of the kitchen, and I ripped out the fireplace and some dodgy brick built TV unit. Very satisfying.

Our visitors on that first fully day (Craig's brother and his wife, and my mates Karen & Paul) thought we were a little mad I think, but ultimately we know we can make this shell look lovely!

Paul knows of a Scout Group collecting rags & clothes to raise money, so he's going to sort out having some of the loft stuff collected, which will be brilliant. Be good for someone to make use of it all.

Sunday was a day of rest (Craig had hangover from Wendy's cocktail party so no loud banging our wrecking could be done!). Instead, we looked back at our kitchen plan on the Ikea planning site to make sure we got it just right. Looks fab on the 3D plan!

Monday, and work began in earnest, with the electricians beginning the re-wiring. By the end of Thursday, this was pretty much all done, bar one socket in the kitchen, 2 downlights in the kitchen (which have to wait until after the wall to the loo has been knocked through) and moving the switch in the bathroom, cause it is the wrong side of the door!

In their work to gauge out the plaster to fit sunken sockets, the leccy fitter rang the builder in a panic, who in turn rang Craig, who felt sick, so waited till I got home from work to tell me potentially bad news. A brick was loose in the party wall. Was this an indicator all the brickwork is bad? Builder started discussing need to prop up upstairs rooms, and rebuild downstairs walls. Now I felt sick too. Had we just wasted money on a house that needed too much work??!!

We hadn't gone into this lightly. Our original survey had picked up some 'movement' in the house, so we'd paid £470 for a structural survey, which picked up a few things, but nothing major. Movement may have occurred, but if it did, it was a long time ago, and wasn't continuing, and was of no concern. We were re-assured. His survey (he told us) would over ride any normal survey, and he'd stand by his assessment.

We were considering legal action and everything, until Craig met with builder on Wednesday who had thumped his leccy mate, as the brick work wasn't so bad, and after Craig had taken all the plaster off to give a good look, was decided that a bit of remedial shoring up below the plaster would be fine. They probably will do considerable re-pointing outside, which may add some time, but Craig can help them, to keep costs down. Panic over!

By Thursday, the skip was taken away, containing remnants of house, fireplace, kitchen, bathroom, shelving units, all sorts. House now dusty shell, with lovely new wiring, but no plaster on downstairs wall or bathroom, no floor coverings downstairs, and looking very bare.

Thursday evening, Pauls mate (& Paul & Karen) came to take the rags etc, and anything they didn't want, Craig bagged up for charity (collections on Monday).

The new cooker arrived on Thursday, but is still boxed to avoid it being covered in dust too, and we ordered the bathroom suite from Homebase. Debated long and hard about getting a shorter bath. Standard bath is 170cm. Bathroom is 166cm wide, and previous bath was fitted by digging 4cm out of the wall. Had options of 2 smaller baths, 168.5cm or 148.5cm. Ordered larger one, then Craig panicked, wanted to change his mind. Thought being we could build false wall to hide shower pipes, and this would fill the extra 18cm or so, but he changed his mind again, and stuck with the longer bath. Hope this works out OK. May mean playing with the shower pipes a bit to hide them!! We'll see. Should be delivered within 4 weeks.

Friday - 1 week gone, and Craig finished stripping plaster from kitchen, and removing architraves from around downstairs doors. Plaster comes on Monday to start lounge, so should make big improvement on dusty environment round there!!