Renovation update

So, when I started this renovation project, I wrote this post stating all the things we needed to do to the house. I thought I'd write a little update, and then follow it up with some before and after photos in the next couple of days. So here's where we were - and in red, where we are.

So, the current plan is:

1. Builder bricks up hall window. We did this months ago. It cost less than I thought, and was fairly quick. The problem with this is you must do it before plastering, or you'll have to replaster the area!

2. Carpenter reverses direction of stairs and adds stud walls to make new upstairs room (also needs to level floor where current landing is) Our carpenter was amazing. He created a set of stairs for our house, slightly narrower than standard as it's a small hallway. He spent a long time measuring to get the most amount of bathroom space possible. It's still small but it's definitely workable.

3. Electrician rewires property. This wasn't as easy as I thought. He did have to do it after the stairs but he had to come and go a few times which he wasn't too pleased about. He missed quite a few things and changed things without telling us which was quite annoying, like putting light switches in different places or not being able to turn on certain lights independently of others. It proves you need to be REALLY clear about what you want as he didn't seem to have a lot of common sense.

4. Plumber adds central heating and pipes to new bathroom. Our plumber has been a nightmare. He is really awkward and hard to understand, and didn't fully explain anything. He even made a hole in our beautiful fresh plaster (which I didn't think of  originally - plastering was a big expense) and didn't even tell us! I won't use him again as although he was fairly cheap, he was really hard to work with.

5. Get bathroom tiled and fitted upstairs. We did the tiling ourselves which held up the fitting of the shower for a long time. The tiling still isn't finished and was much harder than we first thought, but we've done an ok job on it. Still some finishing touches to complete in the bathroom though!

6. Remove bathroom downstairs and fit toilet and sink under new stairs. We have put this off for a while. We don't need a downstairs toilet yet, and I'm worried we might not get our sofa out the lounge if we fit a wall under the stairs, so it's still a maybe. The plumbing is in for a downstairs loo though.

7. Knock through old bathroom wall into kitchen. This is the next job. We actually need a steel girder fitting before we do this, or the house might fall down. We're saving now.

8. Change position of kitchen door to make kitchen diner. This will come when we start the next job too. It will be a fair size kitchen diner, but a little bit small.

9. Tile floor in kitchen diner. (Or laminate). I've bounced between the idea of tiles or laminate a number of times, but I think I'm stuck on tiles now. I'd like a flagstone type feel, and it should be cleaner with the dog.

10. Cover ceiling with board and plaster in kitchen diner. This is way off now. We need to save enough for this part of the project - plus a load of plumbing and electrics we hadn't thought of.

11. Add new window in dining are and double glaze whole property. Obviously I should have put this before plastering!! We will be having french doors at one end of the room, but I'm not sure which end yet.

12. Fit new kitchen I've been looking at ikea kitchens. I definitely want white cupboards and a beech worktop. I am thinking of having integrated oven and fridge just to maximise the space in the room. There's no room for a big fridge anyway.

13. Add laminate in hall and lounge. The hall laminate has to wait till we have the wall moved for the kitchen, but we're thinking of doing the lounge laminate first. The problem is we want a wood burner in the lounge now, and this will add to the expense and time it takes.

14. Decorate property. We've painted most of the upstairs now. We were thinking of painting the lounge soon (still have bare plaster!) and then the hallway. We definitely couldn't have lived without carpet upstairs all this time - so that's in the house now.


So that's where we've got to. It's liveable but the kitchen is driving me nuts. I can't wait to live in a finished house with storage and space to relax, but it's still a long way off. I never knew renovating would be such a long process, and so cash-heavy. It's a case of saving more money now, and then getting back into the structural stuff!

I'll post some before and after pictures very soon of the house. It's a real transformation already!!

The motto is - never do it yourself

This weekend I was planning on tackling the bathroom. The aim was to tile the floor and one of the walls ready the plumber to come and fit the toilet, sink and shower. Things did not go to plan. In fact, everything seemed to conspire against us.

Firstly, Mum brought the dog back from having looked after him for the week to give us some space to concentrate on moving house. We had her dog the previous week so it was a fair trade. She brought the dog over Saturday evening as I spent Saturday studying for my MSc. As soon as Mum arrived, so did my boyfriend with his sister and her two kids. His Grandad was ill, and because she doesn't get on with her Aunt, she was staying with us for the night.

Anyway, I dragged Mum out for a meal to get some peace and quiet and then she left and we continued on with the evening. The kids were round till after midday despite my worries that we needed to get started on the bathroom. Eventually we dropped them off at my boyfriend's Mum's house and went to Wickes to get some last minute pieces for tiling.

We bought edging for the bath and drill bits to cut through porcelain tile. Then we went home and started on the bathroom. We had to use a half paint, half water solution on the area round the bath ready for tiling so we did that first. Then we tried to attach our waterproof boards to the floorboard to have something to tile on to. This took way longer than we expected. We had to measure and cut holes round the pipes.

Then we started on the tiles. We tried to use the drill bits to cut a hole out of the tile for it to slot over the pipe. It didn't work. We snapped two tiles trying and spent almost an hour trying to cut a circle out of one. When we finally got near getting a good circle out of it, it also snapped. We gave up and decided to do straight cuts. We also tried to undo a pipe to make it smaller so we use a smaller hole. Turns out it's the valve and water started pouring out of it, so we quickly turned it off again... oops.

Then my boyfriend tried to screw down the boards. We had bought screws that we thought might be a little too long but he tried it anyway. Second screw in, he screws straight through a heating pipe and water starts pouring down under the floorboards, through the lovely new plaster work and into the floor below. It even starts coming through the smoke detector. The electrics go off, we can't find the stop pipe and I'm panicking!

To cut a long story short, we rushed round to the neighbours. We borrowed their phone to call an emergency plumber (we have no landline and signal is terrible on our mobile phones). One of the neighbours then came round to help us find the stop tap, but couldn't, so he turned it off from a manhole. The water stopped trickling. Complete lifesaver! The plumber then arrived and drained the heating system. Finally, the neighbours invited us in for a cup of tea. Thank goodness for kind people!

Anyway, here are some photos of our attempts of retiling (before we screwed through the pipe). Not as easy as I first thought....

 Painting round the bath area and trying to protect the new bath.

 Wet... after attempting to turn the valve

The floor with the boards fitted.. but no tiles yet

Choosing a suite for a tiny bathroom

Our bathroom has now been built, but has no suite installed. It's really small. Basically we have reveresed the direction of the stairs and the bathroom is now where the top of the stairs were. Our only options were to have a very tiny bathroom, or steal some space from the third bedroom. However, even if we had done that we wouldn't have gained much as due to the position of the gas and electrics under the stairs we didn't have much room to play with.
 
So, when deciding on our suite we knew our options were limited. We could either have a toilet, sink and freestanding shower, or a shower over the bath. We chose a shower over the bath as I love a bath when I'm feeling stressed, and future buyers would probably feel the same way, particularly if they had children.
 
I have liked double ended baths for a long time, so we opted for one of these. This isn't to be confused with a free standing bath. That's the dream but it would have been completely pointless putting one in with the amount of floor space we have available, and would have ruled out a shower.
 
We bought a suite from Wickes that included expensive taps but a fairly inexpensive suite. We chose the double-ended bath option and were pleased the suite came with a soft-close toilet. However, we didn't think through the sink and we would tried it in the room, it looked absolutely enormous. It was pretty stupid to buy a sink without thinking of the measurements, but we ended up buying another sink from eBay instead. We're going to try to sell the original sink on gumtree as it wouldn't be worth much if we took it back to Wickes due to the reduced prices in the deal.

The bath is being fitted today, so I no longer have to wash myself in the kitchen sink (which has been horrible!). I then need to start tiling the bathroom ready for the sink, towel rail and toilet to be fitted. I'm really scared about tiling myself but we need to save the money!

How big is your bathroom?

 

 

Lusaka White 450mm Floor Mounted Vanity Unit and Basin we bought from eBay

Suite we bought from Wickes 

 

 

 



Christmas is round the corner...

I know it's early, but I've been thinking about Christmas recently. Partly because Mum has been trying to arrange it, and as it's our second Christmas without Dad it's still quite a sensitive time. But I've also been thinking about it because there are so many things happening in my life at the moment, that I'm setting Christmas in my mind as a time when so many areas of my life will hopefully have calmed down. So here are my hopes for this Christmas:

1. My house will be a home.

We bought our own house about a month ago, and still haven't slept a night in it. It's currently in a state of great change, with new stairs only recently installed and walls being built, dismantled and re-plastered. I'm hoping the house will go from a disaster zone:

To a homely and wonderful place to be:

Photo from spaceforinspiration.blogspot.com

by Christmas time. It would be such a relief and a real achievement to know I've designed and created my own home, just as I like it. I can't wait to get to the stage where we are decorating!

2. I will love my job.

I'm currently in a job that I find very stressful, unrewarding and disheartening. With only a week left at my current work, I'm itching to start my new job. Although it's the same position but at another college, I'm really looking forward to the change. The problems with my current work isn't really the actual job. It's the terrible structuring behind it. Timetables, work ethic and lack of support are making me feel more miserable than the actual teaching. So fingers crossed for a more settled work-life balance and happier work environment by Christmas. I have high hopes and I'm feeling really positive that things will change for the better.

3. I will have time to relax.

Currently my life is taken up with working late evenings, studying Psychology or stripping wallpaper. By Christmas I'm hoping it won't be unusual for me to have the time to sit in a quiet corner with a cup of tea and a good book, rather than constantly feeling I've got to be doing something. Once the house and my job have fallen into place, hopefully so will my free time and it'll become much easier to enjoy those quiet moments. In fact, sometimes it's great to go through periods of stress in order to enjoy the relaxing periods after; just like when you're feeling poorly and then appreciate being able to breathe, exercise and have a normal life so much more when you finally recover.

Life is changing, but in a really positive and exciting way. Once my home is ready, I can't wait to get in the Christmas mood and start decorating with some gorgeous Christmas items from the Dotcomgiftshop.

Here are some of my favourite items at the moment:

These festive little mushrooms are so adorable. I love them because they're a little bit unexpected. Christmas decorations can become a little bit bland, but these add a little bit of personality to your tree.

 Quirky mushroom decorations £6.95 for 6

This tea light is so sweet and the angels move when the candle is lit. They're so sweet and would make a great centerpiece on the Christmas dinner table, or add a bit of mood lighting on the mantlepiece.

Rotating silver angels £5.95

Even the birds can enjoy Christmas too! I really want to give the garden a Christmas feel and this is a really original way to do it.

Double Christmas bird house £17.95

And I'm still absolutely loving my Medina tealights. Great for Christmas, and all year round. 

Read more about these here. £14.95

What are your hopes this Christmas?

Latest wish- log burner

How my life is changed. I used to lust after vintage dresses and shoes. Now I lust after home items. I guess my priorities have changed in terms of where I spend my money. I would rather have a lovely home to get back to after a long day than another vintage dress. That's not to say I'm not bothered about clothes or looking good, but right now, home items is what excites me.

My boyfriend and my latest item of the wishlist is a wood burning stove, or log burner as they are sometimes called. I never considered this before my boyfriend suggested it, and now I really really want one. I've been looking on eBay, but unfortunately they hold their value quite well, but there are some new ones for around £200. The problem is, I worry that it is very much 'you get what you pay for', and we'd be better off spending more on a higher quality item.

It's difficult because in the back of my mind I have the idea that we'll be moving out on the next three or four years and I don't want to spend too much on the house if that's the case. However, if we don't end up moving out I don't want to live in a home I don't love. Spending a fair amount on good quality items will hopefully raise the price we could sell the house for, but I'm scared we won't get our money back.

So do we go for the cheaper wood burner options? Here are a few that you can get for under £300.

 Unbranded wood burner

 

 Unbranded wood burner

 

Unbranded wood burner

 

Or a better quality one for over £1000

 

 Firefox wood burner

 

Rosa Wood burner

 

I think with the cost of the flue, harth, fireplace and lining the more expensive ones are out of the question.

 

So my question really is, which of the better quality low price log burners? Does anyone have any answers?

 

How to take a great eBay seller photo

First things first, I'm not professing to be any sort of expert on eBay selling, nor do I do it a great deal. However I have noticed the difference between a good photo and a bad one when buying and selling my own items. http://teainteacher.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/items-for-sale-in-leicester.html?m=0

When I refer to a 'good' photo, I don't mean lighting and focus, although that comes into it. The best way to sell your items on eBay is to sell the lifestyle that comes with them, just as a magazine would. This is something many eBay sellers forget to do.

So, for example. My chair receiveded much more interest from eBay buyers when it was displayed like this: 

 Than this:

Although the lighting is also better in the first photo, what the first one does is to sell the use of the chair. Buyers can imagine snuggling up under the blanket and reading a book with a cup of tea. Of course I also include the plain photo, but your first photo of the item is the most important.

Similarly, instead of displaying a blank bookcase or one crammed with books, I displayed a few select pieces that show the bookcase at its best:

This shows the bookcase showcasing my best items and makes it look stylish and spacious.

It works the same way with clothes. You are more likely to sell an oversized mans shirt if it's being worn by a small vintage style girl as a dress than just hanging on a hanger. Putting some choice accessories and shoes to sell the look also increases your sale price. 

So don't forget, it's all about selling the lifestyle rather than selling the item. Be honest but also show the item in its best light in order to get the most interest.

 As you were.

Renovating like a hole in the head

I went to the Leciester bloggers event yesterday (photos to come soon) but had to cut my day short because I was very aware that the first steps of renovating the new house were happening.

The boyfriend invited his friends to help him out with removing floorboards and the stairs. I was terrified! Particularly when I had a voicemail message (whilst sitting in Bella Italia with the girls) asking whether they should remove the wall. Which wall? Is the house going to fall down? I quickly texted back, 'NO!'. Walls weren't in the removing plan!

I returned to this: 

 

The stairs had almost completely been removed (smashed wildly at until they fell off the wall) and there was debris and dust everywhere. I was quickly sent off to make burgers for the boys and to buy bin bags for cleaning up, but not before I had a little go at smashing things myself. It's actually more difficult and less enjoyable than it sounds. And it's very very noisy. I'm sure our new neighbours were less than impressed.

The good news is, we have cleared the way for brand new flooring and new stairs and saved £200 doing it ourselves. The bad news is, we left a window open upstairs and can't go up to close it. The good news is, there's nothing to steal and no floor for potential burglars to stand on!

So Monday will involve the joiners coming and cracking on with the job, joined by the plumber and electrician. It's getting real now!

How did you spend your Saturday?

Colour palette for the new property

I've been looking at home decoration and have decided on a rough colour palette for my project.


I want the colours in each room to compliment each other. I am thinking of using colours from the palette for key parts of the house - the front door, walls in some rooms, tiles in the kitchen and bathroom and soft furnishings.

Some of the colours aren't quite right, but that's the general feel of the colours. I would only use brighter ones as accents, and the more neutral colours for bigger spaces on walls and floors. What do you think?

Plywood Flooring

After deliberating over flooring a lot over the last few weeks, my boyfriend and I have gone through a number of different stages of acceptance. At the beginning we both wanted real wood flooring. We thought buyers would pay more if they knew that flooring was real wood, and that it was the best most gorgeous flooring we could get. However, after taking a look at our budget, and doing lots of research online, we decided that we would struggle to afford the real deal, and even if we did stretch to it, the dog's claws might ruin it anyway. I reached this resolution first, convinced the boyfriend, then changed my mind back, and he convinced me. Either way, we've decided against expensive hardwood flooring.

Hardwood floor image - Wikipedia

 

Our next choice was engineered floor. Cheaper and possible slightly stronger. However, again the dog's nails might mean we'd end up with scratched and fairly expensive flooring that was even less practical because it couldn't be sanded and re-finished. There goes that idea.

 

 



 Engineered wood - Wickes

 

So then we figured we were left with laminate. We had a look at the laminates on offer and decided we would stretch to a more expensive brand like Quick-step so the flooring would look as near to real wood as possible. Laminate is more durable and stronger. Yet, at £23 a square meter and £10 extra per square meter to lay it, it didn't look so attractive.

 

Laminate - Quick Step

 

Then, after looking on Pinterest I noticed my friend had pinned a picture of plywood used as flooring. It looked gorgeous. I did some research and you can build your own plywood floor for roughly half the cost of laminate, and plywood is really strong due to the layers of wood. You can get it cut into planks and finish it in whichever colour you desire. You can even paint it if you like. You can't use it anywhere it might get wet, like a bathroom or kitchen, but for a hallway and lounge it would work well. My boyfriend isn't currently convinced but I'm hope he'll be persuaded. It'll be hugely cheaper as we'll lay it outselves and it looks gorgeous. Here are a few photos:

 



 

 Plywood floor - picklee.com

 

Plywood - Designdazzle.com

 

What type of flooring do you have? How do you rate it?



Money makes the world go around.

In the words of Liza Minelli, 'Money makes the world go around'. Since signing a contract committing to buy my own home, I've found myself more concerned than ever about the amount in my bank account. I used to have a healthy couple of thousand saved, steady income and outgoings and enough money at the end of the month for an outfit or night out. Now, I can cover the mortgage, but I'm worried I won't have enough cash to cover the work needed for the property. 

That famous song from Cabaret

My boyfriend and I consider ourselves to have fairly decent jobs. He's a social worker and I'm a teacher. Yet in our quest to get on the property ladder we have had to resort to handouts and loans from family members. We bought a cheap house in a good area in order to keep costs down, but the house is unliveable without having a certain amount spent on it.

It makes me wonder how others cope. Gone are the days of a 100% mortgage, and people are starting to learn the dangers of signing up to numerous credit cards. How do others manage to afford to live? Particularly single parents or those on lower incomes.

 

There are so many things that I have to pay for each month.

• Rent
• Food
• Petrol (£200 a month just to go to work and back each day and my Mum's now and then!)
• Dog walker
• Travel to London for foot treatment
• Foot treatment
• Car insurance
• Contents insurance
• Car servicing/MOT/upkeep
• Electric and gas

I was sitting at home a few days ago, and the phone rang. I answered and it was the gas company asking for £200 to cover gas bills at my previous rental property! It seems that there is no rest from people asking for money.

 

In order to help the house renovations I'm planning to advertise my services as an English tutor. It's around £20 an hour and would be something that would be fairly easy to do on the side of work without extra stress. I was thinking of doing some bar work in the evenings but with the Master's and full-time teaching I just wouldn't be able to cope.

How do you make ends meet at the end of each month?

Kitchen lighting

As we are getting an electrician in soon after we get the keys to our new place, I've been trying to think about lighting. The kitchen is where I was keen to make a lighting statement. As it's a kitchen diner I wanted some lighting that would make an impression, but not be so individual it would put off potential future buyers.

I also wanted something that would fit with our intended colour scheme of cream cabinets, wood counters and pale blue walls. I know spotlights are popular, but I just don't like the look they give. Here are my favourite pieces for sale at the moment.

Debenhams spotlights £29

Debenhams spotlights £27.60

John Lewis lampshade £140

John Lewis lampshade - cheaper version at £45

Next vintage style lights £65

Historic Lighting wall lamp £132

My vision is a line of spotlights over the kitchen area, and then one or two enamel lights hanging over the dining table, with a wall light to match on the opposite wall. I think lighting will make a huge difference to the look and feel of the kitchen-diner.

What do you think of my choices? What lighting do you have in the kitchen?

Our renovation project

It's starting to dawn on me what a big job we've taken on when we bought this house. It's such a shame we didn't spend a year saving, because although the mortgage is fairly low, we're going to need a lot of cash available for the work. To view the house in it's current state, click here.

This is the little beauty. It has three bedrooms upstairs, a downstairs bathroom and a small kitchen. We've decided to change the direction of the staircase, which would mean we could fit an extra room upstairs (bathroom) and then we could make the current bathroom into a dining room attached to the kitchen. 

So, the current plan is:

1. Builder bricks up hall window.

2. Carpenter reverses direction of stairs and adds stud walls to make new upstairs room (also needs to level floor where current landing is)

3. Electrician rewires property.

4. Plumber adds central heating and pipes to new bathroom.

5. Get bathroom tiled and fitted upstairs.

6. Remove bathroom downstairs and for toilet and sink under new stairs.

7. Knock through old bathroom wall into kitchen.

8. Change position of kitchen door to make kitchen diner.

9. Tile floor in kitchen diner. (Or laminate).

10. Cover ceiling with board and plaster in kitchen diner.

11. Add new window in dining are and double glaze whole property.

12. Fit new kitchen

13. Add laminate in hall and lounge.

14. Decorate property.

A lot bigger job than we first thought! The agent said if we out it on as it is we would make more money (we got a bargain) and if we do the double glazing and central heating we'd make £20,000 (minus the cost of this). So when the work is done we should definitely make money, but having the cash to do it is the hard part. Better start phoning the relatives..... 

Any thoughts or tips on the project?