Knowing Mrs P, she'll build her own. She's in the spare bedroom ripping the sink out as I type
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House renovation.
- Thread starter Pow-Lo
- Start date
Remind me to be on my best behaviour if I ever meet her.Knowing Mrs P, she'll build her own. She's in the spare bedroom ripping the sink out as I type
Massive coincidence - just had a phone call to advise that we have onsold our option to buy a parcel of land where we obtained planning permission.
BOOM!!
Happy dancing emoji.
BOOM!!
Happy dancing emoji.
You mean this one (which I’ve just found on my iPad, whilst laying a cable)?
From what I've gleaned from watching Homes under the Hammer, view the property first, read the legal pack. set a realistic budget and stick to it and finally knock down all the internal walls as it seems everyone wants huge open plan houses which cost a fortune to heat
And read the legal pack again.!From what I've gleaned from watching Homes under the Hammer, view the property first, read the legal pack. set a realistic budget and stick to it and finally knock down all the internal walls as it seems everyone wants huge open plan houses which cost a fortune to heat
Tosser emoji
And then stand back and watch the inexperienced developers bid the property way past what makes financial sense......
Personally, I'd avoid the auctions like bubonic plague. Mrs P has been watching The Great House Giveaway that Dezza was banging on about the other day. It's actually pretty good. Anyhoo, watching the auctions bit and I wouldn't be able to sit still if there was a house I really wanted to buy; same reason I don't play poker.
I don't understand why people do this. The whole house ends up stinking of cooking, which is great in a kitchen but not in the bedrooms.From what I've gleaned from watching Homes under the Hammer, view the property first, read the legal pack. set a realistic budget and stick to it and finally knock down all the internal walls as it seems everyone wants huge open plan houses which cost a fortune to heat
One type of property to look out for bargains is one where there is obvious evidence that the occupant(s) were heavy smokers; it really puts people off but the smell and decorative damage is easily dealt with. Bargains to be had with these - my builder chum picked one up where every surface was yellow brown and the place absolutely stunk of smoke, no worse than a normal renovation in ptpractice but, as I said, it puts many off.
And they compound the problem by the following;
- Insufficient extraction to remove cooking smells and vapours
- Noisy extraction which is not good in open plan living
- Even worse - putting one of those 'looks really cool' remote control extractors that come out of the worktop but are absolutely useless
- Not thinking about seeing a messy kitchen from the living area - easily resolved by putting upstands on the work surfaces
- Putting in breakfast bars with high stools that most find uncomfortable in a very short time
- Not having enough power points
- Having tiny fridges and freezers
- Not thinking about how out of place their stand alone microwave/coffee machine/whatever will look in their ridiculously expensive custom built kitchen
- Designing the open plan space to impress friends when they have a party rather than thinking about day to day reality
An open plan space can be brilliant but it has to be well,designed for day to day living and in my view it is essential to have a separate 'snug' where the door can be closed to get away from it.
I moved 5 years ago.
I discovered that the extract over the cooker wasn't ducted to the outside.
There was an overhang on the kitchen presses (cupboards to you) which had downlighters. It made a small kitchen claustrophobic.
I took it down, that's when I discovered the extract wasn't extracting as the panels used for downrighters were coated in grease.
There was about 500 nails in the walls, well it seemed like that when I was removing them. The neighbour told me they seemed to be always hammering on the walls.
As for the painting, 9 year old would have done better.
It's all beautiful now of course
I discovered that the extract over the cooker wasn't ducted to the outside.
There was an overhang on the kitchen presses (cupboards to you) which had downlighters. It made a small kitchen claustrophobic.
I took it down, that's when I discovered the extract wasn't extracting as the panels used for downrighters were coated in grease.
There was about 500 nails in the walls, well it seemed like that when I was removing them. The neighbour told me they seemed to be always hammering on the walls.
As for the painting, 9 year old would have done better.
It's all beautiful now of course
I had a neighbour who I thought was into wood carving, he was hammering all the time. It was only when they moved the new occupants told us everything was nailed together, He obviously had never heard of screws. The house was more likely to rust away rather than suffer wood rot
When we moved here I had to virtually rebuild the place .......
Including
Repair badly dry lined walls as most boards were floating around, re-plaster 30% of the place
Replace all downstairs doors + skirting etc in the front room
Replace bathroom complete as its was crap & had more leaks than the titanic
Repair numerous electrics, the PO was a sparky but had obviously never read the book of all things electrical
Repair central heating
Repair or replace floors, stairs & just about every other piece of timber in the place ( eg an architrave above one door was in 3 pieces & that was the straightest of the lot)
Every wall had a minimum of 30 nails in it
Shite fireplace was bricked solid behind & that took 2 days to hack out as we wanted it open as it was originally
Fitted new front door as the old one was a back door from somewhere, fitted new back door as there wasn't one at all
Re plumbed the kitchen as it had more leaks than the bathroom & moved some base units around as not even the smallest washing machine would fit
Fitted downstairs loo as a hole in the floor looked unsightly
Stopped the conservatory leaking eventually
And about a million other jobs that I shouldn't have had to do...... just the garden took 2 years as it was all trees mostly 20 to 40' tall & every bit of hardcore for the 12x23' shed base came out of that garden (its 2' thick in places)
No wonder i'm fooked And now the enemy has me decorating again & talking about a new kitchen
Including
Repair badly dry lined walls as most boards were floating around, re-plaster 30% of the place
Replace all downstairs doors + skirting etc in the front room
Replace bathroom complete as its was crap & had more leaks than the titanic
Repair numerous electrics, the PO was a sparky but had obviously never read the book of all things electrical
Repair central heating
Repair or replace floors, stairs & just about every other piece of timber in the place ( eg an architrave above one door was in 3 pieces & that was the straightest of the lot)
Every wall had a minimum of 30 nails in it
Shite fireplace was bricked solid behind & that took 2 days to hack out as we wanted it open as it was originally
Fitted new front door as the old one was a back door from somewhere, fitted new back door as there wasn't one at all
Re plumbed the kitchen as it had more leaks than the bathroom & moved some base units around as not even the smallest washing machine would fit
Fitted downstairs loo as a hole in the floor looked unsightly
Stopped the conservatory leaking eventually
And about a million other jobs that I shouldn't have had to do...... just the garden took 2 years as it was all trees mostly 20 to 40' tall & every bit of hardcore for the 12x23' shed base came out of that garden (its 2' thick in places)
No wonder i'm fooked
And now the enemy has me decorating again & talking about a new kitchen
If renovating to sell why knock down walls downstairs? I would only move walls upstairs to maybe provide an extra bedroom or to maybe make a bedroom bigger (if it needed it)
Paint all walls white.
Often people look at a kitchen & think “replace” when sometimes renovate is all that is required.
I remember some friends who’s house had been on the market for over 18 Months, viewings had waned to the odd dribs & drabs of weekend viewers, we went to see them & they told us they were getting desperate, Bev suggested they rip up the lounge carpet & change some of the light fittings, they took her advice & sold within a Month, five years ago & Bev still gets a bottle of wine from them at Christmas.
Paint all walls white.
Often people look at a kitchen & think “replace” when sometimes renovate is all that is required.
I remember some friends who’s house had been on the market for over 18 Months, viewings had waned to the odd dribs & drabs of weekend viewers, we went to see them & they told us they were getting desperate, Bev suggested they rip up the lounge carpet & change some of the light fittings, they took her advice & sold within a Month, five years ago & Bev still gets a bottle of wine from them at Christmas.
There was only one leak in the TitanicWhen we moved here I had to virtually rebuild the place .......
Including
Repair badly dry lined walls as most boards were floating around, re-plaster 30% of the place
Replace all downstairs doors + skirting etc in the front room
Replace bathroom complete as its was crap & had more leaks than the titanic
Repair numerous electrics, the PO was a sparky but had obviously never read the book of all things electrical
Repair central heating
Repair or replace floors, stairs & just about every other piece of timber in the place ( eg an architrave above one door was in 3 pieces & that was the straightest of the lot)
Every wall had a minimum of 30 nails in it
Shite fireplace was bricked solid behind & that took 2 days to hack out as we wanted it open as it was originally
Fitted new front door as the old one was a back door from somewhere, fitted new back door as there wasn't one at all
Re plumbed the kitchen as it had more leaks than the bathroom & moved some base units around as not even the smallest washing machine would fit
Fitted downstairs loo as a hole in the floor looked unsightly
Stopped the conservatory leaking eventually
And about a million other jobs that I shouldn't have had to do...... just the garden took 2 years as it was all trees mostly 20 to 40' tall & every bit of hardcore for the 12x23' shed base came out of that garden (its 2' thick in places)
No wonder i'm fooked
There were loads in the kitchenThere was only one leak in the Titanic
Probably loads in the dry stores too, but they were leeks.
Mrs Powlo has been busy.When we moved here I had to virtually rebuild the place .......
Including
Repair badly dry lined walls as most boards were floating around, re-plaster 30% of the place
Replace all downstairs doors + skirting etc in the front room
Replace bathroom complete as its was crap & had more leaks than the titanic
Repair numerous electrics, the PO was a sparky but had obviously never read the book of all things electrical
Repair central heating
Repair or replace floors, stairs & just about every other piece of timber in the place ( eg an architrave above one door was in 3 pieces & that was the straightest of the lot)
Every wall had a minimum of 30 nails in it
Shite fireplace was bricked solid behind & that took 2 days to hack out as we wanted it open as it was originally
Fitted new front door as the old one was a back door from somewhere, fitted new back door as there wasn't one at all
Re plumbed the kitchen as it had more leaks than the bathroom & moved some base units around as not even the smallest washing machine would fit
Fitted downstairs loo as a hole in the floor looked unsightly
Stopped the conservatory leaking eventually
And about a million other jobs that I shouldn't have had to do...... just the garden took 2 years as it was all trees mostly 20 to 40' tall & every bit of hardcore for the 12x23' shed base came out of that garden (its 2' thick in places)
No wonder i'm fooked