House refurbishment project. Plenty of pictures.

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Today I finished digging chipping the living room floor magnesite off. I've only chipped the high points off, so I could make it somewhere near level. The hall has a couple of cracks in it but for the most part is level. The kitchen floor will probably get dug up when the extension is done.
20161014_132827.jpg first I swept and coated liberally with a watery pva.
20161014_132814.jpg strange shape i carved out. Some of the magnesite came off in sheets but some was stuck on very well.
20161014_140545.jpg used a bit of concrete under the threshold where the heating pipes were previously buried.
20161014_143833.jpg then used self levelling on the rest of it.
20161014_143836.jpg this is all i got done, need 2 more packs of the stuff.
20161014_082701.jpg in other news, the bath is in and the wall boards too. Plumber unexpectedly turned up yesterday.
 
Its been a productive few days. Had the joiner in on saturday swinging some doors and banging some archi up. I've decided to do the skirting myself due to cost as its a fairly easy job on the surface of it. Going out tomorrow to buy a coping saw and a new blade for my olde manual mitre saw.

Also finished the living room floor.

Today the plumber was fitting rads upstairs and his helper was tiling the bathroom. Starting to come together now. No pictures of the doors but heres a couple of the floor and the bathroom work in progress today.
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No photos today but the bathroom is almost complete, disaster with the toilet though. The pan was sat in a relatives shed (he works for plumbcenter, not sure on what basis he acquired it!) And he ordered what he thought was the matching seat and cistern. They dont match. So he's going to fetch us the right ones on sunday.

All the doors are hung. I had a masterclass in scribing a skirting joint so I've just about finished the skirting. The joiner let me use his mitre saw and gas nail gun too which saved me a lot of time! Surprised just how much power those nail guns have! Fired plenty into house brick too. Glad we went with the mdf skirting though, because my joints are less than brilliant.

That said, I'm surprised just how good the rooms look now with skirting on.

Pictures tomorrow.
 
Sorry for the lack of pictures. Here goes. I've been to the house this morning to rip out the stair rail framework. Now I'm confused. Anyway heres some pretty pictures of bathroom and doors. . .

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The heating system is fully functioning and can be controlled by my phone thanks to the drayton migenie. The bathroom is finished apart from the toilet.
 
20161022_115552.jpg bottom of the stairs
20161022_115612.jpg looking up to the landing
20161022_115629.jpg the landing
20161022_122216.jpg view of the string
20161022_122407.jpglooking up
20161022_122422.jpg looking down
20161022_122452.jpg missed a bathroom pic
20161022_122459.jpg another
20161022_122605.jpg another

Ok my worry with the stairs is with the string. The wall below it protrudes by about an inch. The wall is unnecessary and the area behind is an inaccessible void. It would be a pain to make the transition between wall and string nice. I'm thinking of removing the wall and rebuilding in stud flush with the string with a little door in it, then plasterboarding up to the spindle base rail. Of course this throws up the fact that the understairs void will need plastering and the concrete floor finishing. Argh!
 
In other news cutting those 2x2s flush with the floor has blunted my saw. Nails everywhere!
 
Hells bells its been a while.

I decided to take out that wall. The joiner has fitted the newel posts and now we're waiting for the plasterer to come and refinish the whole stairwell and the new understairs opening. We will put doors on it and frame out an opening etc. Joiner has agreed to make us some triangle doors!

But before all that I need to level the floor. the floor in the understairs is the bottom layer of concrete, the rest of the house appears to have an inch of screed and half inch of magnesite over it, with a bitumen damp proof layer under the screed. So I've bought 8 bags of concrete to level it out, but b&q dont appear to sell any sort of dpm so I will have to source some elsewhere.

The big hole in the concrete - this was framed with bricks and I can only think its purpose has something to do with the electricity cables as they appear to curve in this direction as they leave the service fuse on the other side of the wall. I'm not digging for them though! And I'm not leaving access either - this hole has been inaccessible for 60 years and access hasn't been needed.

I found an empty woodbine packet and a page from a newspaper with markings on it showing what bets the builder was going to place on the horses at Thirsk! Sadly I cant find a year on it. The top of the page is missing.

Pictures to follow.
 
What a good read :)

We are 9 months into something similar in Rochdale.
 
I've had to catch up here myself today to remember where I got up to.

So since the last set of pictures, the joiner has finished the stairs and fitted a door under it. The plasterer has been and made all good. Electrician has first fixed under the stairs (light and socket) but not been to finish yet cos he had all his gear nicked out of his van.

We have been getting busy painting skirting and door frames, and I've taken off all the doors for painting.

We had an issue with the flush on the toilet. The button was faulty so I fitted a replacement today. Its a strange design but seems to work ok.

Anyway, photos:


20161105_092813.jpg 20161106_130013.jpg work I did to finish the concrete floor under the stairs.
20161110_143408.jpg 20161120_152614.jpg 20161128_135945.jpg the new wall under the stairs, and the little elf door.
20161128_141309.jpg showing the plaster finished, and the wall built with a slant off to the left to fit the staircase in! Really!
20161213_163831.jpg 20161213_163858.jpg Painting the doors, I've taken all the metalwork off to prevent them getting painted! I was surprised how dark the doors were to say they were meant to be primed white.

more to follow.
 
20161213_163921.jpg skirting in the master bedroom looking pretty smart painted in satin.
20161213_163906.jpg boiler cupboard looking nicer painted white instead of poo brown.
20161213_164111.jpg bathroom mirror unit. I am capable of putting this up but it needs a hole drilling in the back of it for the lectric to get in, but not sure I have the right kit to drill such a hole.

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received_10210029645670132.jpeg The stairwell looks fantastic now. A hundred times better than before. The hard bit will be painting the damn thing.

Just decorating, carpets and curtains to get now. But money is still tight having not sold our old house yet. Reducing the price on boxing day with both agents, hoping it generates some extra interest. We want to move in February, fingers crossed.
 
Wow its been a while. We agreed a sale on the old house, 4 days before xmas. So hoping that all goes through, whether it does or not we're moving into the new house in February. I have a week off work w/c 12th so we are planning the move then.

So a progress update.
20170117_192437.jpg I've been busy painting the staircase. What a job.
20170117_192352.jpg Daughters bedroom.
20170117_192338.jpg Dado rail.
20170117_192322.jpg Living room.
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20170117_192144.jpg Elf door under the stairs, all finished just needs painting. Daughter has taken a liking to this little room.
20170117_192137.jpg Dado rail by front door.
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20170117_192208.jpg I stuck a 9 watt LED light in the little dwarf room, you could film a tv show in there now.

We have just got a bit of skirting to paint, the hall to finish, hoovering to do, etc etc. The more we look, the more we see needs doing. Carpets are coming the week before moving.
 

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