total house renovation

[jenneedshelp]

Hello anybody!, had the keys since friday, bank holiday weekend and I am fed up already lol!. Whole place needs gutting, 90 yr old man from Poland lived there previously and didnt spend anything on the house, bless . However he did leave thousands of pounds and dollars in the house and a old pristine blue corvette in the garage (for his relatives). Lifes like that!!. I have just recently joined this forum as I spotted really good advice/info on it. I am also going to be updating this on a regular basis, if it interests anyone out there, great, but believe me it is also for my own sanity!, you know kind of like a diary and sounding board in one, yippee!.
My plan is to stay in my rented place for at least another 5 months until the semi is habitable, the place has been empty for years and electricity is comin off one socket, no gas and just managed water from a main today.no working loos as yet!, good job i live on the same street!. There seems to be a lot of artex about and woodchip unfortunately , but there you go, still trying to clear out clutter, i have even been cutting ancient rotting carpet into pieces and putting it into black bags as cant get a skip yet!. Almost stripped two rooms over the weekend (except for the woodchip teehee!). walls are rough and cornices and skirtings even worse ie broken, cracked and glossed a hideous brown colour, i,m sure you get the drift!. Hey the floorboards are in really good condition ......so far!. What I need is a plan!. For now its onwards and upwards and see what tomorrow brings! goodnite x

 

[jenneedshelp]

Hello, new to this/any forum as from yesterday (see above). Visited house this evening but did,nt actually get on with anything!, just wandered around in semi-darkness (with brew in hand). Finalised my plan to give myself a month to get rid of everything in the place and get it shifted and to get everywhere stripped. The plumbing, rewiring and heating will come later. Had the luxury of a radio tonite so listened to the Blackpool game!, we won 3-2 on aggregate. I have been offerred the chance of going to Wembley on the 19th May and the return train fare is 80.00, exactly the same price as a skip!, Whats a girl to do?! lol.

 

[highleigh]

Sounds like we are going to share a lot of stories. We are a bit ahead of you in terms of time but we are going very slowly and doing a lot ourselves. Enjoy the journey as I am sure you know there will be ups and downs.

I am sure you have realised you can't do this and have a weekend social life both for time and money.

£80 for a skip. That is a third of the price of a big skip in London.

 

[Mrdjc]

Get lots of pictures up, always interesting to see what people are doing and progress being made and decisions made as to what needs to be done

Take a look at my thread (Also in this "your projects" section) to see what I'm up to, also a full house renovation

 

[TheVictorian]

We're doing a similar thing as well, we bought a 3 storey 4 bed victorian semi with loads of character but where the previous owners didn't look after it at all.

We gutted it and had it rewired in the first month before we moved in and we've been gradually working our way through it every since. The top floor is done as well as the lounge so at least we can sleep/sit somewhere clean!

We filled 3 skips of old lathe and plaster from the top floor in 2 days - that was hard work!

 

[jenneedshelp]

Thank you for your comments, it makes me happy to know that I,m not the only one doing this 'kind of thing' , reading my previous little account, I,ve realised that perhaps I,ve been a little over ambitious teehee, there is no way I will be ready to move in 5mnths time. I am still on with the clearing out of old clutter, stripping walls and removing carpets etc and this week has been one of those weeks that some of the most ridiculous things have slowed me down ie getting the old up and over garage door to operate (stay up for x amounts of time lol and close again!), also having to unscrew and dismantle v large heavy items of photography/enlarging equipment so that i could remove it from the loft. To save money on skips ( they will come for the rubble/concrete stage ), I am recycling everything i can.
I fully understand what you mean re lack of social life!, I am also just trying to fit hours in here and there and feel clean at all other times .Can,t wait to get to stage 1 (the empty shell look!). Sending you all luck and my best wishes.

 

[jenneedshelp]

well been doin a bit of work on the house on/off for last couple of days, making progress with the clearing out and stripping etc, all carpets out now and the place is beginning to smell a little fresher Tonites task has been removing good old polystyrene tiles from a large bedroom ceiling, to my dismay found that each one had been stuck on in five places with some sort of v hard adhesive (a splodge in each corner and one in the middle, possibly for show lol), anyway to cut a long story short, the tiles were not stuck to a perfect ceiling they have been stuck on top of bits of pink ceiling paper!, when i manage to upload some pics u will be able to see that after gettin the tiles off, bit by bit the pattern of glue splodges and pink paper leaves a very interesting design!. Half way thru this little endeavour, a well meaning local visited me and explained i need to prioritise, and instead of struggling, i SHOULD have got a suspended ceiling!, so there you go. Everyday is a school day so they say. I must admit I,m learning so much from these forums and in the space of a week I have been mucking around with artex, breathing in so much attic dust and had polystyrene everywhere. I,m beginning to wonder if i will live to see this project thru! goodnite all

 

[cajar]

FWIW jen, I don't think a suspended ceiling is a good idea - you're doing it the right way and will end up with a proper job, even if it takes a bit longer.

 

[jdpjamesp]

Polystyrene tiles are a fire hazard and should be removed the old-fashioned way, so you're doing it right. Just done the job myself and it's a nightmare, but worth it!

 

[TheVictorian]

Totally agree that you are doing it the right way, remove the problem and start from scratch rather than covering up the problem!

 

[kjacko]

Hi Jen,
do you have anyone helping you? Hubby/partner/friends/family?
Do you do this when you are not working? Or is it a full-time project?

Get some pics up showing all your progress, it's much more interesting to see pics, they do tell a story of their own.

Good luck and keep us informed.

 

[camerart]

Hi Jen,

I also did a 'project'. I tended to just get on with it without much time or money for fun. No-one can tell you 'skip or football game', I always chose skip, and I think the project scarred me for life, so perhaps 'football game' is best for you.

When doing jobs like scraping ceilings tiles etc, I was once told 'just ant away at it' So if you just put your ant head on and a radio, you will soon be on the next bit. It works.

I always tend to do one room up first as a sanctuary.

Depending on funds, it might be more economical to give up your first place and put the rent? money into the new place, A mattress on the floor, and made a makeshift shower. It might make it quicker. Although you might find it better being away from it all.

Think about the plan more than the problems, and you will soon be in!

Best wishes, Camerart.

 

[kjacko]

I'm interested to know how others tackle full house renovations.
Do you:
1. gut everything first, then do one room at a time?
2. gut everything, and do the same job in each room, ie plastering, electrics
3. gut and re-do one room at a time?

I'd dearly love to do property renovation, but life's a little too hectic for that for me, sadly......now at least.

 

[camerart]

1/ You need either skills or money to pay for them or time to learn them.
2/ You need a plan of order of work. As you work out the plan, the way you carry out work will slowly become apparent to you.
3/ You need to account for money the job.

If you can order larger amounts of materials, you should get them cheaper, get quotes.

I worked round the project, doing a sanctuary room first, say Kitchen, where you can sit. (I actually slept in mine too), then I worked round each room in order of importance.

 

[Mrdjc]

In my case I have gutted room by room as far as I need to gut it to be able to work effectively, and build up more or less one room at a time, but since I'm working on a spine wall it kind of ties everything together!

But yes, I try to aim for 1 room at a time, so whilst im waiting for concrete to go off, or stuff like that, I can move onwards with the other room.