Graham88
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Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
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Always been fun watching other peoples threads so thought I'd post my own.
2 bed semi in Kent. Sale took far longer than it should have done but it was still quite fast at roughly 6 months to go through.
Rightmove pics
So all looked good and having been recently decorated just before it was put up for sale we thought that was that, buy it move in, enjoy 
Until we started to uncover the many DIY madness bits the previous owners had done…
Fridge was advertised as integrated, what that meant was a freestanding fridge was put into a cupboard and the door was screwed to the front using bent brackets and more bent brackets 'fixed' it to the cupboard. It was so well made the door fell off the day we moved in :face palm: Work tops loose etc you get the idea.
We decided to get a kitchen plan drawn up and get an idea of cost of a new one.
This was coming in a lot more expensive than we thought so we decided to leave it for the time being.
The Living Room floor was a bit uneven and we couldn't figure out why. It got so bad one day I actually tripped over a panel that rose up in front of me when walking. Claw hammer came out in frustration…
Yeah, he laid laminate on top of laminate. Brilliant. The plan now was to keep the laminate in the dining room and get carpet in the living room.
Then changed my mind the next day, after me and my father in law spending ages getting a nice straight edge and smoking the house out with a grinder 
So as one job was now leading to another, with 2 layers of underlay & laminate it meant the skirting was sitting really high up the wall, so that came off aswell.
The guy had a solid bit of wood here, so we concreted it right up to the doors.
Wallpaper off too.
Went shopping for new bits, started laying the laminate in the dining room.
Hunted high and low for some edging strip to go from laminate to carpet that isn't the typical gold or silver Z type, found a shop that sold this profiling strip. The other issue is all lengths in wood are 1.8m, our opening was 2.4m. We don't need it to profile just wanted something that had a wood finish instead. It's not bang on but we were very limited on choice due to the length we needed.
In the middle of all this I'd been getting various calls from Benchmarx about reducing the price of the kitchen, we played about with ideas and in the end on the last day of their sale he gave me a last attempt price and just said he'd leave with us to decide. Well…
Now got a load of carcasses in the living room we're trying to decorate as they have to deliver a certain amount of stuff to invoice apparently But that's the next project lined up…
So anyway, this is how the TV setup was looking on the chimney breast
It simply isn't enough shelves for me, I have an Xbox, amp, DVD player, WDTV player, Virgin box. So I decided to drop it down to the floor.
Met a little friend…this must have smelt good when it was decomposing!
Got a mate round to help me run a new socket in, because of the concrete floor downstairs the electrics are all running from upstairs, but nothing was returning to make it a circuit, it was all just spurs. And with the amount of stuff I was going to have plugged in and the computer, printer etc we had to run a return.
There was a 50mm drainpipe in the wall to run wires which was quite handy to hide cables, but it wasn't big enough. I have no idea how he managed to get a scart lead in it but it was never coming out again. I couldn't fit the plug for the TV through so it had to go. 4" core cutter out...
Started rebuilding the box section again, but we used a spirit level this time unlike the previous owner…
Floor was sitting lower so we raised it with some latex.
I wanted another bit for cables at the side for any computer cables I might put in, TV cables etc.
Cleared a space so that sockets can be sunk in
Sunk the drainpipe in and stuck in place
Boxed the inside
Plastered
50/50 with emulsion to seal it before painting. Did all the skirting, what a difficult and fiddly job…I'll never be in a rush to change skirting again!!
Our next issue was we'd bought carpet and arranged fitting. We have a sofa that is due to arrive anyday now so I was in a predicament as to whether to delay the fitting, as we hadn't glossed the skirting yet. In the end we just continued with the fitting.
Love it. It's so soft and nice to walk on. 11mm Cloud 9 underlay too, bad boy.
Big debate between me and the Mrs about glossing round the carpet, she wanted to masking tape the carpet down and I said I'd rather take it up than risk getting gloss on it, for the sake of paying the carpet fitter a drink to restretch it…thankfully she gave up and just said whatever. Like I said, it's a pain but if the sofa turns up we can now lay the carpet rather than having to try and get a fitting date through the Carpet shop (2 week delay on fitting)
White emulsion layer on the walls, we went with Dulux Cookie Dough. We liked the original colour but it was a discontinued colour, this one is slightly lighter which we wanted rather than making it darker.
Skirting is now all glossed, dining room is also painted. Put some new blinds up in the living room, got some thermal curtains to go up by the french doors as you can feel the cold at that end of the room. Wallpaper to redo the feature wall aswell but that's the last job. Run some decorators caulk round the skirting and it's all done and the carpet can go back down.
Taken a while but I am happy we have done it all properly now
And that's where we're up too at the moment.
[Edited on 16-11-2014 by Graham88]
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Daniel_Corsa
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Registered: 21st Apr 04
Location: Wigton, Cumbria
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Nice place Graham and great work so far!
April '06' Corsasport Feature Car  | Aug '08' Total Vauxhall Feature Car | Spring '09' Fast Car Feature Car
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random dav
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Registered: 7th Jan 04
Location: NSW
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Ace, gotta love it when a 'small job' turns into a full scale redo.
Good call on taking the carpet up, you can never get it taped up right, plus fluff and fibres get in the paint and on the tape so it doesn't stick.
WRLFC !
Project cars
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Ben G
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Registered: 12th Jan 07
Location: Essex
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As soon as you said about not glossing before the carpet was down, I thought it'd be a disaster
I had to do just that and masked up. Never worked properly. Carpets getting swapped for wood flooring anyway so not a big deal.
Lovely place. Are you able to paint the exterior? The grey reminds me of Scottish houses
Btw, the decorating/changing bits never ends. You just move from one room to the next and when it's finished, you end up starting all over again!
[Edited on 16-11-2014 by Ben G]
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pow
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Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Looks really good Graham 
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Chris x
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Registered: 11th Sep 08
Location: Bexhill
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Excellent bud!
Love the garden, massive! Bet the ///M3 looks good tucked away 
at the laminate on laminate!
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Ben G
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Registered: 12th Jan 07
Location: Essex
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Seriously can't believe laminate on laminate was it not incredibly creaky?
[Edited on 16-11-2014 by Ben G]
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Wrighty
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Registered: 28th Feb 04
Location: Howden
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good work
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Graham88
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Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Thanks for comments :-)
That's why the carpet had to come up, I just knew it would go on the carpet somewhere, she admits she's glad I took it up now :-)
Can do whatever we want Ben but it's not grey as the pics may show, it's rendered & pebble dashed! I'll try and get a non grainy pic to show you
Laminate was terrible. It wasn't creaky cause there was underlay between both layers, but it was bowed all over the place, coupled with the fact he'd left no gaps round the edges!
Want to build a garage for that Chris, need to check into planning permission, will start enquiring once the living room & kitchen are done
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--ToM--
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Registered: 23rd Nov 07
Location: Wirral
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My house they had laminated over carpet :/
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VegasPhil
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Registered: 16th Jan 05
Location: Fareham, Hants Drives: Octavia VRS
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Cracking work. Looks like you bought the house off a DIY king then. I expect there will be lots more surprises as you make your way round.
Cloud 9 is something else. I got it after a recommendation on here. Still feels amazing 2 years on!
Corsa 2.0 16v Vegas - Sold
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IvIarkgraham
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Registered: 27th Mar 04
Location: Ellesmere Port, Cheshire
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looks similar to the houses near me.
mine was done by cowboys too. everything you touch instantly cost you a grand to put right
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Graham88
Member
Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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quote:
Originally posted by --ToM--
My house they had laminated over carpet :/
Fucking hell
I'm not minding it at the moment as I feel like I'm making a positive difference, I'm sure it'll get tiring though!
Would you believe me if I said, considering he has just spurred everything instead of keeping it on a ring main, that he is an electrician with his own business? Amazing.
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Graham88
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Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
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Changed the gashy sockets for brushed stainless steel ones
Glossing all done so carpet went back down
New blinds up
Prepped wall ready for wallpaper
All done
Cut the plasterboard out for the wiring in the fireplace
Got the edging strip down to separate laminate and carpet between dining room & living room, bit of a story in this one…
It's lots of rawl plugs that slide into the strip and you just drill roughly every 10cm for each plug. Was drilling away from one end to the other and got to the 3rd hole from the end when it got a little bit harder than normal, removed the drill and got a sudden recognisable smell, gas :face palm:
Called Gas Emergency Services and they capped it off, pain in the arse. My mate came round the next day to have a look and the old steel pipe that goes into the floor only fed the cooker, old gas fire & old boiler, so he connected the feed to the new boiler pipe and will run a new pipe in for the cooker. Pain in the arse but just one of those things really. The pipe should be 50mm down apparently and it was within 10mm, an inch either side and I wouldn't have hit the pipe, oh well!
Removed the old kitchen…
Got the spot lights drilled then my mate plastered it to get rid of the holes we'd made running the cables under the joists and to get rid of the artex ceiling.
Considering the bloke was an electrician I question his ability to do anything electrical. The sockets in the whole house, including the kitchen, are all running of the one RCD, so my mate is rewiring as we decorate, due to the concrete floors all the wires needed to go upstairs so we made quite a mess chasing the new ring main in.
Finished the electrics late Friday night and bonded the holes up ready for kitchen fitting today…I've never done it before so it was a learning curve but got there in the end!
So kitchen fitting started today…got a 600 base missing which is frustrating as limited him to getting all carcasses fitted today
Blue kitchen
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flybikeslee
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Registered: 2nd Jan 07
Location: Liverpool
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looks boss!
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Graham88
Member
Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Seriously exhausted though, can see why people just suffer the cost of getting people to do it all, so much less hassle!
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flybikeslee
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Registered: 2nd Jan 07
Location: Liverpool
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yeah i'm in the same boat, progress is slow and steady. too jewish to pay someone
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AndyKent
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Registered: 3rd Sep 05
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Good work! Not so sure on the blue units but each to their own
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Chris x
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Registered: 11th Sep 08
Location: Bexhill
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Its protective film!
Looks great Graham, bet you can't wait to get it done!
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Ben G
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Registered: 12th Jan 07
Location: Essex
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quote:
Originally posted by flybikeslee
yeah i'm in the same boat, progress is slow and steady. too jewish to pay someone
Perks of having a handy dad
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Graham88
Member
Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
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Haha Andy I was winding my Mrs up saying I'd bought blue accidentally!
Yesterdays progress
Loving it. So happy we have done it now.
Got to finish bonding up, get it plastered. Want to paint it this week as I haven't got to cut in so much so we'll go paint & tile shopping.
Ordered all my socket fronts, brushed stainless steel, also the plinth lights. Still looking at pellet lights but I am going to get an LED strip I think with a dimmable transformer so they're not too overpowering.
Did look at underfloor heating but after reading reviews it's very hit and miss. Seeing someone say it costs them 40p an hour put me off to be honest.
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VegasPhil
Premium Member
Registered: 16th Jan 05
Location: Fareham, Hants Drives: Octavia VRS
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Well done .
Is the strip stuck down now then? I used Gripfill on mine to stick it to concrete beneath and it has been fine.
Corsa 2.0 16v Vegas - Sold
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Graham88
Member
Registered: 16th Apr 07
Location: South East Kent Drives: E46 M3
User status: Offline
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Thanks
Yeah it's all down now. Finished drilling the holes and got it down. Not a bad idea with the gripfill though
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Ian W
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Registered: 8th Nov 03
Location: Wirral, Merseyside
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Looking good, love the blue doors
I did my place in the summer, every room one after the other, hard going and can't say I would want to go through it again, kitchen was definitely the most rewarding job though
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pow
Premium Member
Registered: 11th Sep 06
Location: Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire
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Love the kitchen, do yo mind sharing figures? It's one of the first things I want to do in my house when I start!
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