Owning your own home

Best answer ever.

I can't believe there is a debate on this. Fuck me.

Are you seriously not going to let them use the access because you are a miffed at a presumptuously worded text?

That's not really what I've said if you read back.

We had a proper sit-down meeting with our builder last night and went through the budget with him. Looks like we're still on budget (from last time, not from when we started, due to some nasty chimney and kitchen floor surprises) and we should be finished within three weeks. Which probably means 6-8 weeks, but still. Light at the end of the tunnel!

nice one. any more pics to update us then? what is it you're having done again? if i can remember rightly i think it was the kitchen you were having ripped out and decorating the whole downstairs?

We're doing a complete refurb, we bought a mid terrace which had been rented for 10-15 years, the tenants got kicked out and the place sold when the landlord discovered they'd built their own stud walls downstairs to create a new corridor and two rooms out of the living room/diner.

Basically:

-remove stud walls downstairs to recreate living room/diner (done)
-demolish downstairs bathroom, replace with new kitchen (half done)

• open walls to make kitchen/diner open plan (done)
  -French windows downstairs (mostly done)
  -new windows upstairs (done)
  -new bay window (not yet)
  -new bathroom upstairs in half of the old back bedroom (done)
  -new boiler/heating/electrics (done upstairs)
  -replaster and redecorate everywhere (done upstairs, downstairs booked in next week)
  -wood floors sanded and refinished (done upstairs, downstairs will have insulation too)
  -new stairs (not yet)
  
  

Surprises:
Three poorly supported chimneys
Wet rot downstairs
Kitchen floor built directly onto soil

Here is a picture from last week, the back of the house is so light and airy now despite being north-facing:

wow you're basically doing the same as me but i got half the money so getting the loft and roof done instead! plus moving the bathroom upstairs. are you living there also whilst it is going on?

Kitchen floor built directly onto soil

very common, if you could squeeze the extra funds, digging out a basement at this stage would make sense

Sounds and looks exciting. I'm trying to un-fuck-up everything that the previous owners did in our house, which seems to be just about everything.

-I've re-wired the whole house (end of terrace three bed Victorian).
-Got a plumber to fit central heating (it never had any).
Removed ancient electric heaters from each, and mental mercury tilt-switch timer/controller and wiring.
-Removed hideous sliding doors from rooms and replaced with four-panel doors that swing in the Victorian way.
-Moved lightswitches in rooms to "correct" location for new doors.
-Repaired and sanded double bedroom floor and decorated walls. Our only habitable room so far.
-Removed vile 50's fireplece from livingroom. Fitted original coal fireplace which I renovated. Screwed and plastered onto chimney breast with bonding plaster. Back filled fireplace it so it can be used. Removed top 2" of structural hearth and levelled with concrete. Tiled hearth with fireproof tiles.
-Pulled down a large portion of lath and plaster living room ceiling as it was bowing down near the joists due to plaster delaminating from laths. Adhered remaining loose plaster with Gripfill and screws, and used bonding plaster against the bare laths.
-Paying a plasterer today to skim living room (beyond my skill level).
-Got a roofing firm to replace one leaky roof valley and cap off a leaky chimney. Top floor walls now dried out.
-Fitted new bathroom upstairs at great expense. Fitted a compact set as its a small room. Had to replace bathroom ceiling as it was rotten lath and plaster (leaky roof valley mentioned above led to wet rot).
-Capped off ground floor "wet room". Its like the bathroom at the end of the film Saw. Need to smash out the horrible old toilet and sink.

What's concerning is that I have much more than that still to do. Once I've repaired and sanded the living room floor then I can move into it, and this will give me space to start working on the dining room, which is currently full of all of our belongings in boxes.

We moved in at the start of February, by which time almost everything upstairs had been done.

Even with all this work, it should still work out £10-15k cheaper than another house on the same road just went for, and that was pretty tired in terms of decor, and still had the staircase bisecting the downstairs, and a downstairs bathroom. We had a look at some proper poky 2-bed flats in the same area which went for more than ours.

I think it's just the amount of work that put people off it, I can't wait for it to be done.

@rive_gauche I was going to say too late already, but I suppose we could still dig under the suspended wood floor which is coming up to be insulated. But I don't think extra funds are available.

@rodabod Ace that you're doing so much yourself, up to plastering. Are you in the trade, or just very handy?

^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2997163/Couple-s-dream-home-collapsed-rubble-botched-basement-dig-sending-eight-months-pregnant-fiancee-early-labour.html ?

I worked with the girl who lived in the upstairs flat of this story!
It happened a couple of years ago and they have been fighting it through the courts since.

She woke up to a creaking sound and a growing chink of light behind her wardrobe - like soe Dr Who shit.
She went outside in her nighty to see WTF was happening, then all the authorities arrived and she was never allowed back in.

They demolished it with all her belongings inside. She had to bribe the demolition lads to fish out her passport from the cherry picker before they brought it down.

Might avoid the basement work for now then. We already have small cracks upstairs above where the walls were taken out and the steels put in, though I was expecting that really.

On the subject of DM links of houses collapsing, this is on the street at the end of mine:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2386707/London-hoarder-Wendy-Towers-feared-dead-ceiling-collapses-20-tonnes-rubbish.html

I just like DIY, and I've been disappointed in the past by the workmanship of some tradesmen, so if I know I can do a good job of something, then I'll do it myself. I reckon anyone can do just about anything with practice. My tiling and plastering certainly isn't as good as a professional. My wiring is probably better than your average spark as I have a background in electronics, so I'm quite neat at that.

Apologies for the boring list of jobs; I didn't realise how long it was. It'll probably triple in size though....

Plus you get to do it all the way you like it, not buy it how someone else has done it.

Well done for keeping it on track/on budget so far. Nearly every building project ever seems to go over the original budget.

Bit scared about your cracks as upstairs for us is our upstairs neighbours and I think we're taking out more wall than you...

What's concerning is that I have much more than that still to do.

Welcome to home ownership, it never ends! ;)

@rive_gauche I was going to say too late already, but I suppose we could still dig under the suspended wood floor which is coming up to be insulated. But I don't think extra funds are available.

Basements are also incredibly expensive (minimum £4k/sqm, although it can be higher on small digs), which is why you only tend to see them built when the value of the extra sqm is at least equal to the cost of the work or the market in that area for basements is there. Given that they're still pretty rare in Hackney I think it'll be a while until Forest Gate reaches that stage.

basements = excess liquidity

Just throwing this out there.

I work for one of the biggest owners of freeholds in London (mostly residential but some big commercial stuff)

If you need any advice in regards to the freehold of your building just shoot me a message and i'll try to help.

Cheers :)

nice one ediemon. i can't really offer anyone anything. just do the opposite of what i do and you'll be alright

Mortgage confirmed, forum's favourite solicitor on the case. After some horror stories from other forumers, It'll be a miracle if I don't find that Southwark Council plan to replace the whole roof/communal boiler/electrics or demolish it as soon as i buy it. Here's hoping!

spacuzzisexdungeon

Congrats. If the wind is all blowing in the same direction, you could be in by the end of June.

Does the fact we now have a forum conveyancing solicitor represent a tipping point?

Movement at last, hopefully setting dates for just before Easter weekend.