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Halfway point…
So in the past few weeks we have made some stellar progress on the house. I think we are officially halfway, with a few more ticks in the box in terms of jobs done.
Its been really exciting watching the progress and I’m normally surprised to see how much work goes on each day as I pop in daily to check on the house, take pictures and fill up the coffee, tea, milk and biscuits.
Since the last post, what’s been done?
Now that the first fix on the electrics has been done and most of the structural work its slowed down a little bit as our contractors have moved on to other jobs whilst the plastering work is completed. So its been the turn of the damp proofing and plastering team from Surrey Hills Preservation to complete a few tasks:
- Skimming Lounge Ceiling (now we’ve had spotlights fitted)
- Filling in the electrical chases in all rooms for plug sockets and switches
- Remedial works required following the water damage
Back to brick work
Living room… Plaster knocked back halfway due to water damage
Hallway
This took 1 day!
Plaster knocked back and ready to be filled
Buckets of water for mixing up the plaster…
Chases to be filled
Chases, filled in with bonding
boiler chimney removed
Filled with bonding
mid way!
mid way!
Kitchen switch…
living room…
Smoothed over and new fresh plaster
freshly plastered
had do the full wall here…
Ceiling now skimmed
Kitchen wall
drying out…
drying out!
The team took about a week to knock the plastering to brick level on the downstairs walls, and apply a number of layers of treatment to ensure there was no additional issues after the flooding. Since then, we have just been waiting for the fresh plastering to dry.
All the radiators have been removed, and the old boiler has been taken out so its been a few weeks now without heating or electricity… so really looking forward to next week when we should be getting the power back on.
We might even be able to move in soon 🙂
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Week one on the big build…
So phase 1 has started, on Monday the house became a hive of activity with both the electricians and building contractors arriving on site to start work. We’ve got a long list of work in this first phase so its great to finally have the work starting.
Whilst the weather has been nice, we have been really lucky the past few days it meant that the builders have already made a great start on some of the jobs we need doing. So far in under a week, we have had all the chasing done for the electrics with some work starting already with the wiring. The old guttering has been been replaced with shiny new guttering and we had the rotten barge boards replaced. We have also had the boiler chimney disconnected and part of the chimney taking from the roof. Most importantly we have also learned that caramel digestives are more popular than the chocolate ones!
Check out the before to see what’s changed, and there are some pictures below of the first week of work
Starting the week with the important things…
Empty Skip!
So dusty…
Chasing out walls
Chimney is no more and new guttering
New Barge boards
“We got…wires…”
new plugs!
slightly fuller skip!
This is just the first week, check out the Phase 1 list to see what our plans are and how well much we’ve got left to do.
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Taking down the “wall” (…and a Tree)
Last weekend we started on our first bit of external “modernisation” and removed the small wall between the house and the back gate. It had been flagged in the survey as dangerous and since our original visit we realised it was one the first jobs that needed to be tackled.
In my official role of site manager I gathered my motley crew of assistants (Ray and Ian) together and we started work. It took them pretty much all day and I got a bad rep for not making enough tea, but the fruits of our labour look pretty good and already makes a big difference…
Before – pretty much being held up by sand.
Removing brick by brick
almost out…
Putting in the last nail
Finished!
and the gate even works!!
Earlier this week we also had arranged for a team from enjoyyourspace to come and take out a two large conifer trees. These trees were huge and blocking a lot of light in both ours and the neighbouring gardens.
It took the team just over 7 hours to take down the tree, chop all the logs and remove much of the debris. A lot of the wood was chipped on site and with the team going back and forth through the garden gate each time so it was lucky we’d replaced the wall the previous weekend .. It would’ve definitely fallen over if we hadn’t!
Before (not the best picture)
During… “No Ian, you could not cut this tree down!”
Making logs!
Gone.. now we have light!
Finally, in preparation for the work to start soon, we have taken out all of the carpet yes sadly the pub carpet is no more and we don’t have the bizarre lino bedrooms or retro tiles in the bathroom. We are undecided on keeping that bath panel though…
Gone is the pub carpet…
Tiles, gone! Might keep that panel
blank canvas
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Bills… Bills… Bills
Having never had to renovate a house before and our our only knowledge of interior design having been gleaned from the myriad of home improvement programmes. We spent the last few weeks have this week being trying to nail down the costs for all the work we need to do during this first phase of work.
Now all we have read says to get 3 quotes and compare them… We have quite tight budget, having recently purchased the house, so its been really tricky to balance the books especially as there seems to be so much disparity between all the the different quotes. makes sense, but is actually impossible to do for a number of reasons:
- Tradesmen are very busy. So hard to get through to on the phone, hard to get appointments with and in some cases, some fail to even show up even after you have managed the first two tasks.
- Quotes are not in plain English. We tried to make it simple for us to compare by putting together a spec of what it was we were asking each of the contractors for (it also included pictures and locations of where plugs, switches, radiators etc needed to go.
- Some can start soon others the waiting list can be really long!!
Despite this, we still managed to get a few quotes that were not within range of each other!
Cheapest doesn’t always mean the best, and we’ve found long lead times for some contractors.
Hopefully, we’ll be in a position to confirm everything soon… really keen to get a start date!
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We won the battle… now starting the war!
After almost a month of debating and arguing. We finally got the news this week that we had been awarded the full retention for the full amount to pay towards the re-plastering costs.
It’s been a massive relief that we are finally rid of these horrid people and we can start to move on.
So now the war begins….
Not literally, but it feels as if getting the house and finally being rid of the vendors is just one of the tasks on the world’s longest to do list. At this point we have yet to have a confirmed start date for our building work. This is a biggest piece of the jigsaw puzzle that we need to slot into place and it feels as if we are on pause. Navigating through all the quotes and start dates is very daunting but we know we need to start soon other wise we will be living at the mother in law for ever!
Our first upcycling…
After the all of the drama we’ve still had time to start preparing the house for the upcoming work… and even managed a bit of freshening up of the old kitchen cupboards…
Before on the left… After on the right
Coving down and floor tiles up…
Like I said… start of the war against bad taste 🙂
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Three Sisters, One Husband and a damp meter…
As part of the compensation we had to hold a second inspection of the water damage a few weeks after completion. In all honesty I hoped that we’d been able to avoid re-plastering given the difficulties we’d had negotiating the settlement in the first place, but as in instructed I arranged for the expert to come out to do a further assessment.
I arrived at 2 pm and our expert was already there. We waited for the vendor to arrive and expected the building expert from the other side. Around five minutes later they pulled up and we began.
Essentially the readings hadn’t improved significantly and the recommendation was to re plaster. Surprise surprise the “builder” – who I am sure rocked up in a gypsy wagon and had actually no damp prevention experience what so ever didn’t agree. Rather he proceed to debate that we should just let it dry out… even though it might be months before it would do so and re decorate.
My Surveyor was astonished… and remained calm in the face of the attack as he had to defend his recommendation and his qualifications – even his day rates to this complete loon.
On top of this, the sisters even tried to start the “well we’ll have to negotiate on what we offer card…” Sorry no, we already did that – two weeks ago, you changed it three times and the final agreement is that you pay 50% of the costs based on the results of this survey…. divs.
Argggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh neeeeeeed wine now!
Cal (my guy) then said it could have been mitigated slightly by removing the skirting boards, which he advised them to do to weeks ago….. they then questioned me as to why did I not take them off, I said :
1) I only got the keys last Wednesday, up until that point it was your house
2) As if I am going to make any changes which you would have then said I caused the need for re-plastering.
It sounds like estate agency haven’t been very helpful to them with telling them who had access and when… but honestly that’s not my issue, and if they want to pursue them for damages feel free, but give me a flipping dry house why they do it.
The following day, I supplied the quote to the solicitors for review. This was challenged by the expert from other side who supplied a break down akin to “War & Peace” as it disputed the drying properties of timber and gypsum plaster. I was surprised he’d been able to make such a detailed assessment. Considering he only visually inspected the walls and bought no actual equipment to take any readings?!
Unfortunately for them this was inadmissible as this independent expert was the husband of one vendors!! The solicitors of both sides could not believe they’d even had the cheek to try this. They have even gone so far as to stop responding to correspondence?!?
So as things stand, as results indicate the work is needed we should be receiving our retention in full next week.
Let’s see if that actually happens!!
Now we are past the survey. We’ve taken the decision to remove the skirting boards. O M G…. It was completely gross….
So….You think this will dry out ” Mr Husband / Builder???” I don’t think so….
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“I have the power….”
…Well technically it’s just wifi, tivo tv service and a phone line, but writing that dosen’t sound as cool.
Yesterday we had Virgin Media installation booked between 8 and 1. Nothing like a fixed appointment! I needn’t have worried the team from Virgin Media were very organised and gave me a much needed phone call 30 mins out to say I was next on the list…. shame I has forgotten about this when I asked my poor brother to stay in all morning… oops!!
After a few hours it was all installed… 150 mbs all over the house…. most importantly this meant our Tivo box was back online and able to record my must see shows… ex on the beach & celebrity big brother etc 🙂
All in all it was fairly pain free and we are now connected… the installation team were great, friendly and left an easy to do understand guide to explain the new set up.
One job ticked off the massive list at last…
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“In out In out shake it all about…”
Well as I pen this, it’s the morning after the 4 days before and I’m still wired, tired and a little dazed!
However after many dump trips, cleaning until our hands are red raw we have finally managed since Thursday to:
1) Hire a van and move the large objects from house A to new house aka B.
2) Have the windows cleaned on house A and a new TV aerial fitted for tennents and a new washing machine!
3)Thanks to an army of helpers empty and clean from top to bottom house A so it is now sparkling…ready for the inventory check.
4) Show friends and family house B and believably describe the potential and our future plans whilst moving some of the other items in that won’t be damaged during building work…
5) Move into our temporary home… let’s call that house C for the next month or so.
And some through it all make sure to eat, sleep and shower – well just about!
It’s an end of an era to have closed the door on our very first home. Here we stand excitededly about start on our new adventure…
HOUSE A
Ready for tennants…. out with the old they say… although that looks pretty new to me!
HOUSE B
The not so new… what have we done??
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Getting the key’s!
We’ve finally completed!
It took some doing, broken promises, tears and all and a mere 10 days later than planned we have finally completed.
On the 28th, at around 10:30 I took a call from my solicitor to confim that finally after 13 weeks the house we’d chose above all others was finally ours.
What have we done??!!!
As we’d been down this road before I hadn’t even booked a day off work.. I was half expecting it to fall through again so I took the call.. text my husband the news then carried on with my busy day of meetings and presentations. At around 14:00 it crossed my my mind that I should probably make plans to pick up the keys. So I picked up the phone (well it was a “Madonna like ” headset as handhelds are so ’80s and dialled the agents. What else could go wrong…
Alas, my premonition was well founded. On ringing the agents I was told that… even though it was a good few hours since I had been told, that I couldn’t pick up the keys… they hadn’t heard it had completed! So from there I call my solicitor who speaks with the other side and says this is not true and that they’ve known since 11 am! I had no choice then but to wait to hear from them… finally at 4.30 I got a call… “congratulations you’ve completed” I thanked them for this of date information and booked into pick up my keys. After a few minutes of formalities… (we are renting out our first house so needed to sign contracts etc) I headed to my new home…
It had happened, I had the keys in hand… my first thought having entered was more like… oh crap! What do we do next vs leaping over the threshold with glee….
Teaching an old house new tricks... 