My renovation project...

[croakey]

Intending on using this to help myself (and anyone else interested) keep track of an upcoming renovation.

So some background!

Its a detached mid 60's 3 bed in South East England and needs some TLC and reconfiguring to make it work.

Heres some really amateur floorplans i've done from memory (why people dont pay the minor cost when advertising a house for a floor plan i do not know!)

Ground Floor




First Floor



The plan:

1) The house has some issues with some minor cracks above the upstairs windows, awaiting the surveyors report but my builder thinks its either poorly fitted UPVC windows, or owing to it having concrete lintels that may need repair/replacing





Hoping this comes back as a relatively simple fix as we're planning on having the whole place plastered anyway.

2) The existing boiler is around 7 or 8 years old, we're intending on removing this (and the hot water tank in the airing cupboard) and replacing it with a combi boiler, where it is going to be located is yet to be confirmed.

3) New bathroom - by removing/shallowing the airing cupboard we gain a decent amount of space in the bathroom that can then allow the bathroom to be moved around and a shower bath fitted.

4) New kitchen - also links into the questions below, but the existing kitchen is more than likely original and very very very tired! Looking for anyone with reviews for diykitchens.com as they seem to be a decent choice.

5) A log burner, the missus' only major thing is she wants a log burner! Property has an existing brick chimney behind the gas fire so in theory quite a simple job and we'll build a decorative chimney breast to give the room some character.

6) Possibly new windows all round, this will be based on the issues with the lintels, should they need work and windows removed it makes sense in my mind to put new ones back in.

7) Fully redecorate (the pictures above dont really show how naff the decor is!)

My main gripe is the existing downfloors layout - anyone have any suggestions on how to improve this? Looking at moving the entrance door to the living room to make it more usable.

And seeing as everyone likes pictures heres some of our old house - hoping to achieve a similar level of finish on the new one.

 

[croakey]

As it was when we first viewed it...

Kitchen




Living room





Bathroom



One of the bedrooms...



Unfortunately the "drive" was designed for a 60's car which presumably were narrow bodied as the wife's mini will fit but you can't open the doors!




Had a quote for a replacement boiler locating it in the airing cupboard, this will coincide with cutting the aircupbord depth down to maximise bathroom space. Ontop of this he's going to relocate and replace a couple of radiators. To go with this my Nest v3 arrived this afternoon... Keen to see if it lives up to the hype! Had another quote to move the boiler to the loft but was significantly higher.

Had a quote for Windows and doors which came in a lot higher than I imagined and will probably mean we need to wait a period of time to do them. On the plus side the windows are still serviceable just old.

Will be getting the porch glazing and door replaced ASAP and a radiator fitted out there alongside some insulated plasterboard.

Had a quote of 2.1k to replace the patio doors (which are ancient) with bifolds. My gut feeling is that this expensive but would appreciate some feedback.

Kitchen is planned :


But now need to decide whether to go with howdens or diy-kitchens? Likely to go with Bosch appliances if anyone has a source ??

 

[croakey]

So some progress...

Before...


Some cleaning (by someone else) later...


And the gardeners begun to put a dent in our overgrown but well stocked garden.

 

[croakey]

Always keen to have a go and see where it leads i began seeking the source of the cracks...







The wife is NOT happy ... apparently days off are for rest not demolition.

 

[SittingBull]

Good start!

Looking forward to following your progress - any update? And your wife will just have to accept mess for progress!

 

[cjard]

Without going too crazy, moving stairs etc, consider removing most of the hall and make the lounge/kitchen an open lounge/family/dining/kitchen, turn the dining room into a study. Bedroom door opening over the stairs is a regs no-no if you're bothered.. really the stairs should have been installed the other way round (upper flight adjacent to bed 2) as bed3's maybe too small to have the door open in. Could consider a sliding door though. Tell her she can have a log burner if she cleans and empties the ash, stocks it, lights it and dusts and cleans the house of all the smoke particles that settle on everything. She'll soon wish is was a gas burner with a few concrete logs and then when you have kids the darn thing won't be lit at all lest one of the cherubs burns their face off on the glass and it'll just sit there letting cold air into the room. It's not that I don't like log burners, it's just that they're prehistoric and tug at the primitive fireloving caveman romantic in us. There are better ways of heating a house than filling the district with smoke and having most of the heat go out of the chimney..

Going crazy, the loft could convert well into a bedroom as the stairs come up in the high point of a nice steep pitch on the roof. If you did that then you could consider making bed3 the bathroom, ditch the existing bathroom for a wardrobe to bed2 and an ensuite to the master bed, and also rob some of the hallway to make bed1 bigger or have a wardrobe. If the driveway doesn't do it for you, replace it with an extension, bigger study/extra bed, understairs toilet and bigger kitchen.

2.1k for your bifolds, inc vat and fitting - you didn't mention how big the opening is, but bifolds these days come in around 600-800 per pane supply only, fitting is around 10% the price of the window

I'll be using diy-k for my kitchen simply because I want supply only, their prices are better, sometimes less than half what local kitchen shops are after (I was staggered to receive an 11K quote for a 15 cabinet flat pack kitchen. That quote was no-vat, no-taps, no-appliances, no-delivery, no-installation, no-worktops, no-accessories too). It's internet, no relationship with them, something is bound to be a screwup, can't jsut march down to their store and get 3 missing handles and a metre of edging strip but I'm not really bothered - i'm in no rush if they take weeks to sort their stuff out. They came recommended from people here in the joinery forum so can't be 100% bad. They do color coordinated carcasses too, and noone else I've found does that.
Try your local sheds too - Benchmarx/Wickes (benchmarx are often in travis perkins branches) are the same thing and do nice gear. Wickes flat pack the kitchens, BM build them. BM can buy missing bits off the shelf instantly, Wickes have a lead time and ordering process, but Wickes are retail and BM are "trade" (i.e. you pretend to be a trade and they happily sign you up). Howdens are a pain in the ass because you deal with them through your fitter, they dont disclose their prices to anyone other than the fitter and their prices are quite variable depending on who is fitting. The invoice will have some crazy random discount applied to make a bogus RRP come into line with what the fitter said he will charge and youre never quite sure how much the fitter is loading on top of the materials price in addition to his day rate/price for fitting the kitchen. Free market economics may well mean that ultimately it doesn't matter, and if youre happy with the price of the kitchen then great, but I prefer to buy my materials at a price I'm happy with and then pay a guy I'm happy with (or do myself) a rate I'm happy with.