The goodlife -1930 full renovation
Discussion
Morning all, back to some more progress at the house and photos to follow.
We finally got approved planning permission from the council for both ground floor and loft conversion!
We was surprised to find that there was a two-week gap between both being approved when they had both been submitted at the same time. Either way we are both happy and can no start to get the move on with other planning of the built, the size details were sent over to the kitchen design so he can adjust the measurements to suit (we had put the extension out slightly bigger than what we really wanted as if it go rejected on the size of it, we could go smaller if needed. There is a 75ft garden, so space isn't an issue).
Any way with the kitchen getting sorted we moved on to the main bathroom and downstairs utility bathroom. The more we played around with the design and the layout there isn't enough room to fit everything (boiler, hot water cylinder, washing machine, butler sink, toilet, shower) in what was the old kitchen and to keep the layout out useful and suitable (not having to dig up a load of concert to lay the water and waste pipes, boiler flu being correct distance from the window etc). We have decided to remove the shower which frees up a load of space and layouts.
The misses drumming teacher use to work in a high-end bathroom shop so gave use a few brands to take a look at, so a day was spent out at shops looking at different option. We really don't want to go down the cheap & cheerful route only for us to have to replace in a few years' time but equally we don't want to pay through the nose for anything. We decided we like the look of Heritage designs with the more classic design (more in keeping with the house. The other thing that they do that the cheaper brands don't is the ability to get spares for every part (they have exploded diagrams with part numbers). Heritage pretty much allows you to mix and match different designs of units with fixtures and units (1, 2 and 3 holed sinks to suit your preference on tap mixer layout). Loaded with one of the catalog books with all design codes we started to plan what we wanted
Before placing any orders with the shops, we decided to take a look at on FB marketplace and eBay. We ended up get a few bargains where people had bought items that did not fit in (size as well as design) or they bought more than they needed for a big project. We got a sink 1-hole design and pedestal that should have been around £550 for £150! We then found another one with the same design with a 3-hole design and metal stand that should have been £650 for £25 (all brand new). Yes, they were dotted around the country a bit but all within 30mins of family members that could collect for us and store until we see them. Its these savings that will help to keep the cost on track. The taps were a similar experience with getting the best prices from shops online or private sells (just make sure you cheap the mixture conflagration, picture showed 1 tap design, but it came as a 2-tape design and had to be sent back). Any way some pictures to be added below of the purchases.
We finally got approved planning permission from the council for both ground floor and loft conversion!
We was surprised to find that there was a two-week gap between both being approved when they had both been submitted at the same time. Either way we are both happy and can no start to get the move on with other planning of the built, the size details were sent over to the kitchen design so he can adjust the measurements to suit (we had put the extension out slightly bigger than what we really wanted as if it go rejected on the size of it, we could go smaller if needed. There is a 75ft garden, so space isn't an issue).Any way with the kitchen getting sorted we moved on to the main bathroom and downstairs utility bathroom. The more we played around with the design and the layout there isn't enough room to fit everything (boiler, hot water cylinder, washing machine, butler sink, toilet, shower) in what was the old kitchen and to keep the layout out useful and suitable (not having to dig up a load of concert to lay the water and waste pipes, boiler flu being correct distance from the window etc). We have decided to remove the shower which frees up a load of space and layouts.
The misses drumming teacher use to work in a high-end bathroom shop so gave use a few brands to take a look at, so a day was spent out at shops looking at different option. We really don't want to go down the cheap & cheerful route only for us to have to replace in a few years' time but equally we don't want to pay through the nose for anything. We decided we like the look of Heritage designs with the more classic design (more in keeping with the house. The other thing that they do that the cheaper brands don't is the ability to get spares for every part (they have exploded diagrams with part numbers). Heritage pretty much allows you to mix and match different designs of units with fixtures and units (1, 2 and 3 holed sinks to suit your preference on tap mixer layout). Loaded with one of the catalog books with all design codes we started to plan what we wanted
Before placing any orders with the shops, we decided to take a look at on FB marketplace and eBay. We ended up get a few bargains where people had bought items that did not fit in (size as well as design) or they bought more than they needed for a big project. We got a sink 1-hole design and pedestal that should have been around £550 for £150! We then found another one with the same design with a 3-hole design and metal stand that should have been £650 for £25 (all brand new). Yes, they were dotted around the country a bit but all within 30mins of family members that could collect for us and store until we see them. Its these savings that will help to keep the cost on track. The taps were a similar experience with getting the best prices from shops online or private sells (just make sure you cheap the mixture conflagration, picture showed 1 tap design, but it came as a 2-tape design and had to be sent back). Any way some pictures to be added below of the purchases.
|https://thumbsnap.com/YP7G5ZMF[/url]
And now the biggest purchase for the bathroom and bargain...
Misses has had been looking at roll top baths for a while and wanted to get one, it's the one thing she hates with the flat with an all-in-one bath with a shower and would much rather have separate items. She had been looking at more importantly coper roll top baths. There are a number of UK companies that sell them of which they are all very high end and very expensive (from £3500ish), all stating how these British classic designs are so great and regal with union jack flags and royal looking stamps all over their web sites... you get the idea. The thing is, when you go into the specifications of said items it says country of origin is Indian
The misses parents spent some time out in Hong Kong a few years ago and traveled to China quite a bit to set up an import export company of brass items and paintings (one of his very many projects that he put his hand to), so we aren't any impressions that that what you are buying from one shop is different from another. There is a company based out of Bristal way that specializes in metal items and fixtures, they do copper baths from £2100, a hell of a lot cheaper and probability made in the same location, you can see where this is going and why we were looking a as any bargains that we could. Well, it turns out someone was selling one of these baths only down the road on FB marketplace, so we had to go have a look. We get the address and head to it on one of the weekends, it's on a privet road with all the house worth over £1.5/2 million, multiple high-end cars and a few dodgy design choses. This is going to be interesting, turns out the guy had bought it to be used as a cold-water plunge pool for after having worked out in his own gym. He was going to dig a hole in to his garden and sink it in. From having looked at the ad on FB it had been for sale for a while, it had a few marks on it from storage and was only offering a little discount over new, we walk away to have a think. The next day they messaged to offer us with a lot bigger discount which we were happy with, so a deal was done. We can position it in a way, so you don't see the marks. Copper can be polished back up and it will naturally age and change colour so it's not an issue for us.
https://metalhardware.co.uk/showroom
Misses has had been looking at roll top baths for a while and wanted to get one, it's the one thing she hates with the flat with an all-in-one bath with a shower and would much rather have separate items. She had been looking at more importantly coper roll top baths. There are a number of UK companies that sell them of which they are all very high end and very expensive (from £3500ish), all stating how these British classic designs are so great and regal with union jack flags and royal looking stamps all over their web sites... you get the idea. The thing is, when you go into the specifications of said items it says country of origin is Indian
The misses parents spent some time out in Hong Kong a few years ago and traveled to China quite a bit to set up an import export company of brass items and paintings (one of his very many projects that he put his hand to), so we aren't any impressions that that what you are buying from one shop is different from another. There is a company based out of Bristal way that specializes in metal items and fixtures, they do copper baths from £2100, a hell of a lot cheaper and probability made in the same location, you can see where this is going and why we were looking a as any bargains that we could. Well, it turns out someone was selling one of these baths only down the road on FB marketplace, so we had to go have a look. We get the address and head to it on one of the weekends, it's on a privet road with all the house worth over £1.5/2 million, multiple high-end cars and a few dodgy design choses. This is going to be interesting, turns out the guy had bought it to be used as a cold-water plunge pool for after having worked out in his own gym. He was going to dig a hole in to his garden and sink it in. From having looked at the ad on FB it had been for sale for a while, it had a few marks on it from storage and was only offering a little discount over new, we walk away to have a think. The next day they messaged to offer us with a lot bigger discount which we were happy with, so a deal was done. We can position it in a way, so you don't see the marks. Copper can be polished back up and it will naturally age and change colour so it's not an issue for us.https://metalhardware.co.uk/showroom
Edited by mattvanders on Thursday 15th September 13:27
Afternoon all, need/want to get up to speed with the last 6 month of fun and games worth of work I have been having with the house...
We carried on with as much as we could stripping out anything that we knew we needed to get sort, this included removing the central heating boiler and the pipe work that runs around the house (and the old coal store outhouse). More stripping down of the bathroom of anything else we don’t need to make the trades men work any easier and lifting up the floorboards in the downstairs in preparation for installing thermal insulation between the joist and under floor heating. A quick run to the scrap metal man helped to make £350 profit, not bad for a few days’ work.
With the plans approved and builder on board we started running through the list of things we need to sort out before work could start, the main thing that we wasn't queued up about was about party wall notification. In precibal this seems like an easy issue to sort out, unfortunately this is one area that in hindsight I would have defiantly dealt with differently. I bumped into the father of next door and had a quick chat away about getting it the PWN document signed up for the loft conversion, didn't seem an issue with no censers at all and said was happy to sigh it when sent over. A couple of days later on we messaged the eldest son for the exact name spelling of his parents to be bombarded with complaints of how much noise we had been making over the last few month (for the record we had been work at the house only at weekends 10 till 530 which I don't see that being partially unreasonable. I think the issue is he works nights so he wouldn’t be happy with whatever we did). Yes, there had been some noisy jobs but it’s not a constant and only 2 days out of a 7-day week at worst. How are they going to cope when the builders are working there full time. I can't remember if I'd said earlier on but they did look into and put an offer on the house so they should know the state that it was, and the likely work required to bring it up to state.
Anyway, we proceeded to get a small list of issues or questions which at times felt that even they didn't know what they were talking about (my favourite one was that we had to build another wall in the loft if the original wall was a single skinned - turned out they meant a frame & plaster wall if it wasn't a 9" brick wall. We make arrangements for them to talk to the builder about any issues only for them to not turn up to the speak to the builder. In the end the one issue that we agreed we would not do was work the weekends to give a bit of down time - with the builders not working weekend and with us having carried out most of the stripping out work already we didn't see it being an issue and once the building work was completed, I would carry on with DIY work.
One of the other things that we agreed to get done was to get photos of their joining wall area from their side of the property to prove that there was not issues present before work started (as a precaution to try and protect everyone). Two weeks after getting the PWN signed we still hadn’t received any of the photos from them. As a precaution we ended up arranging for a survey to carry out a Schedule of condition of which they basically refused him access (not really surprised by this by the way they had be behaving beforehand), in doing so it would actually go against them if they tried to make a claim at another date.
Anyway, after the one of the hottest summer we have had work on the house by the builders finally started just as I was about to start the shutdown at work working 14-hour days 10 days a week for almost 2 months (got to pay for the work somehow). For the scaffolding we decided to just do scaffolding and not a tin hat to try and keep the price down (as well as not worried about any internal damage if water was to get in). Taking of the water the week that they started it seemed like wettest month of the year with some local flash flooding in the surround areas. The builders in the meantime were able to remove part of the roof to give access to the new beams while keeping the worst of the weather out. No major issues from the builders themselves which is the important thing with. Unfortunately, the neighbours striked again, they called the HSE on the builders for throwing things off of the roof into the skip. I’d popped by a few days after said event and there was only a hand full of things in it so recon it was a one off and was only reported because of the noise (even through there would have been plenty of other banging, drilling, and sawing going on). I have been in contact with the HSE for a copy of the reports and though it was reported anonymously what was communicated easily reads though it was reported by next door). Anyway because of the HSE visit there was a few other issues that had to get resolved (the HSE is self-funded, so they tend to try and find any fault to do a prosecution once on site), they included extra netting above the toe boards of the scaffolding and the potential asbestos in the ceiling – the work site was closed down while the scaffolding was modified and asbestos sample was tested (it came back as negative which was nice as I really different fancy the extra cost to remove it all). Anyway, because of the delay the roofer decided without us knowing to work at the weekend to keep on top of the work so he wouldn’t be late starting any of his other jobs – low and behold threats from the neighbours for when at the weekend… We couldn’t get hold of him on the phone and wasn’t nearby to swing by to chat with him. When he did pick up the phone with us later that day and chat with us, he did pop by next door to apology, but they suddenly weren’t in to answer the door…
Pictures of progress to follow.
We carried on with as much as we could stripping out anything that we knew we needed to get sort, this included removing the central heating boiler and the pipe work that runs around the house (and the old coal store outhouse). More stripping down of the bathroom of anything else we don’t need to make the trades men work any easier and lifting up the floorboards in the downstairs in preparation for installing thermal insulation between the joist and under floor heating. A quick run to the scrap metal man helped to make £350 profit, not bad for a few days’ work.
With the plans approved and builder on board we started running through the list of things we need to sort out before work could start, the main thing that we wasn't queued up about was about party wall notification. In precibal this seems like an easy issue to sort out, unfortunately this is one area that in hindsight I would have defiantly dealt with differently. I bumped into the father of next door and had a quick chat away about getting it the PWN document signed up for the loft conversion, didn't seem an issue with no censers at all and said was happy to sigh it when sent over. A couple of days later on we messaged the eldest son for the exact name spelling of his parents to be bombarded with complaints of how much noise we had been making over the last few month (for the record we had been work at the house only at weekends 10 till 530 which I don't see that being partially unreasonable. I think the issue is he works nights so he wouldn’t be happy with whatever we did). Yes, there had been some noisy jobs but it’s not a constant and only 2 days out of a 7-day week at worst. How are they going to cope when the builders are working there full time. I can't remember if I'd said earlier on but they did look into and put an offer on the house so they should know the state that it was, and the likely work required to bring it up to state.
Anyway, we proceeded to get a small list of issues or questions which at times felt that even they didn't know what they were talking about (my favourite one was that we had to build another wall in the loft if the original wall was a single skinned - turned out they meant a frame & plaster wall if it wasn't a 9" brick wall. We make arrangements for them to talk to the builder about any issues only for them to not turn up to the speak to the builder. In the end the one issue that we agreed we would not do was work the weekends to give a bit of down time - with the builders not working weekend and with us having carried out most of the stripping out work already we didn't see it being an issue and once the building work was completed, I would carry on with DIY work.
One of the other things that we agreed to get done was to get photos of their joining wall area from their side of the property to prove that there was not issues present before work started (as a precaution to try and protect everyone). Two weeks after getting the PWN signed we still hadn’t received any of the photos from them. As a precaution we ended up arranging for a survey to carry out a Schedule of condition of which they basically refused him access (not really surprised by this by the way they had be behaving beforehand), in doing so it would actually go against them if they tried to make a claim at another date.
Anyway, after the one of the hottest summer we have had work on the house by the builders finally started just as I was about to start the shutdown at work working 14-hour days 10 days a week for almost 2 months (got to pay for the work somehow). For the scaffolding we decided to just do scaffolding and not a tin hat to try and keep the price down (as well as not worried about any internal damage if water was to get in). Taking of the water the week that they started it seemed like wettest month of the year with some local flash flooding in the surround areas. The builders in the meantime were able to remove part of the roof to give access to the new beams while keeping the worst of the weather out. No major issues from the builders themselves which is the important thing with. Unfortunately, the neighbours striked again, they called the HSE on the builders for throwing things off of the roof into the skip. I’d popped by a few days after said event and there was only a hand full of things in it so recon it was a one off and was only reported because of the noise (even through there would have been plenty of other banging, drilling, and sawing going on). I have been in contact with the HSE for a copy of the reports and though it was reported anonymously what was communicated easily reads though it was reported by next door). Anyway because of the HSE visit there was a few other issues that had to get resolved (the HSE is self-funded, so they tend to try and find any fault to do a prosecution once on site), they included extra netting above the toe boards of the scaffolding and the potential asbestos in the ceiling – the work site was closed down while the scaffolding was modified and asbestos sample was tested (it came back as negative which was nice as I really different fancy the extra cost to remove it all). Anyway, because of the delay the roofer decided without us knowing to work at the weekend to keep on top of the work so he wouldn’t be late starting any of his other jobs – low and behold threats from the neighbours for when at the weekend… We couldn’t get hold of him on the phone and wasn’t nearby to swing by to chat with him. When he did pick up the phone with us later that day and chat with us, he did pop by next door to apology, but they suddenly weren’t in to answer the door…
Pictures of progress to follow.
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/Dwi4FNJg.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/R6t29Hmv" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/R6t29Hmv.jpg)
[quote=mattvanders(unhappy neighbours)
[/quote]You might be making a reasonable amount of noise for a DIY renovation, but you've no idea how loud the previous owner was to understand their comparative perception.
My house was a second home for a long time - so the perfect neighbour as normally empty. When I moved in, my neighbours had to adjust to having cars there, deliveries, noise etc.
[/quote]You might be making a reasonable amount of noise for a DIY renovation, but you've no idea how loud the previous owner was to understand their comparative perception.
My house was a second home for a long time - so the perfect neighbour as normally empty. When I moved in, my neighbours had to adjust to having cars there, deliveries, noise etc.
Anyways back to more house and life progress…
With a couple of weeks in and my outage at work coming to an end I was looking forward to getting over to see what was going on. Unfortunately, both me and the misses ended up going down with the rona, this definitely knocked me for 6 more than the misses but also put it down to the longer stressful hours I had been doing in the outage. Both were the first time going down with it which was more surprising due to it had been over 2 and half years living with it at that point. This limited us going over to the house to run through things with the builders but with the advances of technology with was able to be in contact with them and they had been great with the communication.
The work on the roof was taking shape nicely with the framework of the conversion going well. We ended up using the old tiles on the front of the roof and new on the back to keep the cost of materials down as there was nothing wrong with them. The roofer did say that when next door had retiled their roof, they hadn’t done a very good job of it at all (we knew that from surveyor’s report when buying but knew we was doing the loft conversion so it would get sorted) with not just the overlap of the tiles but also missing out the under tray. While we was getting the roof sorted, we also decide for the roof line to be extended so the overhang was longer and the fascia boards deeper to consider the thickness of external thermal insulation we plan to fit. Another thing we arranged to happen at the same time as the scaffolding was up for the loft was to get a new flue installed in the chimney to try and make the job safer as well as hopefully save a bit of money from the fitter having to spend more time on site building their hop up for access. We will sort out the log burner another time nearer to the end of the project.
With the loft work moving along nicely we ended up getting the first fix electrical work and plumbing with wall chasing out. With us changing the hinge side for most of the doors though out the house the light switches would be moving around to suit, we are also knocking through between the bathroom and separate toilet (of which we made a start of taking the lava & plaster wall out our selves) so had to find a location for the light switch to site on the landing which took way too much thinking about especially with the landing lights themselves. Que up a bit of drawing on the walls to mark up where we thought things should go and discussions on set up of three-way light switches between the levels. One of the things that that surprised me and is worth knowing is on new builds you must have pugs and switches a certain high (for elderly or disabled people), but you can get away with whatever high you like on a renovation work.
With a couple of weeks in and my outage at work coming to an end I was looking forward to getting over to see what was going on. Unfortunately, both me and the misses ended up going down with the rona, this definitely knocked me for 6 more than the misses but also put it down to the longer stressful hours I had been doing in the outage. Both were the first time going down with it which was more surprising due to it had been over 2 and half years living with it at that point. This limited us going over to the house to run through things with the builders but with the advances of technology with was able to be in contact with them and they had been great with the communication.
The work on the roof was taking shape nicely with the framework of the conversion going well. We ended up using the old tiles on the front of the roof and new on the back to keep the cost of materials down as there was nothing wrong with them. The roofer did say that when next door had retiled their roof, they hadn’t done a very good job of it at all (we knew that from surveyor’s report when buying but knew we was doing the loft conversion so it would get sorted) with not just the overlap of the tiles but also missing out the under tray. While we was getting the roof sorted, we also decide for the roof line to be extended so the overhang was longer and the fascia boards deeper to consider the thickness of external thermal insulation we plan to fit. Another thing we arranged to happen at the same time as the scaffolding was up for the loft was to get a new flue installed in the chimney to try and make the job safer as well as hopefully save a bit of money from the fitter having to spend more time on site building their hop up for access. We will sort out the log burner another time nearer to the end of the project.
With the loft work moving along nicely we ended up getting the first fix electrical work and plumbing with wall chasing out. With us changing the hinge side for most of the doors though out the house the light switches would be moving around to suit, we are also knocking through between the bathroom and separate toilet (of which we made a start of taking the lava & plaster wall out our selves) so had to find a location for the light switch to site on the landing which took way too much thinking about especially with the landing lights themselves. Que up a bit of drawing on the walls to mark up where we thought things should go and discussions on set up of three-way light switches between the levels. One of the things that that surprised me and is worth knowing is on new builds you must have pugs and switches a certain high (for elderly or disabled people), but you can get away with whatever high you like on a renovation work.
Jakg said:
ou might be making a reasonable amount of noise for a DIY renovation, but you've no idea how loud the previous owner was to understand their comparative perception.
My house was a second home for a long time - so the perfect neighbour as normally empty. When I moved in, my neighbours had to adjust to having cars there, deliveries, noise etc.
I completely agree, noise levels are a very personal thing. The old owners at one point had up to 4 dogs in the property which I would imagen would of been very noisy at times. They did comment that when the old owner removed the fire place a few years back the noise levels seamed to increase but I've spoke to a few people about this and think it would be more to the change in use of the room. I don't think it helps that they live on the end of the street so don't have to deal with another neighbour and where most of the family doesn't work they are at the home in the day time most of the time. I had spoken with a number of other people in the street and every one else don't seam too bothered by the noise due to either having done work for them selves at one point (so have had to deal with a complaining neighbour themselves) or look at it as I'm bringing up the area with the renovation work. As i said the fact they put an offer on the house means they should/would of looked at the house to know how much work the house would required.My house was a second home for a long time - so the perfect neighbour as normally empty. When I moved in, my neighbours had to adjust to having cars there, deliveries, noise etc.
Not sure if you’re going for a 30s vibe to the house OP but I fitted some of these, repro bakelite handles, for a customer last week, who were after the period look, very good they looked too.
The customer sourced them from here, Reborn Bakelite, they do more Art Deco styles as well, though the company in my first link, Broughtons actually make them. I got my brass Art Deco handles from there, they seem to have gone up in price!
Gassing Station | Homes, Gardens and DIY | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff