Soon time for some help.......

Morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have been registered on the site for awhile now, just reading post after post after post to gain a little bit of knowledge from all the knowledeable folk.

The reason for this, my first post, is to give everyone a heads up that I will be soon asking lots of silly questions (well to you guys anyway, but it's all rocket science to me).

The better half and I are completing on our first house on the 31st July after years of renting, the house is in a good condition but there are obviously things that we want to do/change to make it our own.

I am a complete DIY novice, the only thing I have ever really done is strip wallpaper from a small bathroom and then make good the walls and then paint - even this ended up being a chore as I stupidly slipped on on the ladder whilst using a steamer and broke my wrist.


The things we are initially looking to do are:

• - Change cylinders on external doors for security
  - Change all internal doors from cheap flush cherry doors to white panelled doors
  - Rip up carpets in two bedrooms and replace damaged chipboard flooring in one
  - Paint most rooms in the house
  - finish a bodge job by previous owners on a large decking area in the garden

All these things we want to do our selves as money is now tight with just buying a house, and we also want to start getting our hands dirty and learning basic DIY skills.


I look forward to hearing all your knowledgeable responses to my future muppet style questions, and sincerily appologise in advance....


Martin

Hi martin, good to see you are giving things a go yourself, i'm in a similar situation, been in my first house with my girlfriend for just over 2 months.

your list seems fairly straight forward, but why is the chipboard floor damaged? is it water damage? make sure any leaks are sorted otherwise you'll have the same problem again.

i can gaurentee that as you start these jobs another 20 jobs that need doing will appear!
remember plan carefully, set a budget (then double it)
and do searches on here before asking questions (some of them get a bit funny answering the same question 30 times!)

good luck

Thanks derv1980

To answer your question about the chipboard flooring - It is cracked on both sides of the double bed in the main bedroom. I have done a bit of research and found out that the flooring put down in the 70's was far from the quality you can get today, and only has a life span of 20yrs or so.

The cracks are in the exact place that you would get out of bed every morning - A couple of "ohhhh no im running late" in the morning et out og bed style jumps could easily crack the boards if they are not joisted properly.

extrememonkey, good luck, but for specific answers post a specific question in the right forum