Owning your own home

Pre-emptively bought one of the fancy new Meaco AreteDry dehumidifiers for the new house as it's got damp spots left right and centre.
Have tried it in our current rental and seems to work very well - has a HEPA filter in it too, so cleans to air as it goes which is a nice to have.

Fucking tradesmen...electricians due in 22/11 are weeks behind because of illness, fair enough, but don't keep giving me " we'll be in tomorrow" They finally came in Friday afternoon, did a CU change, but didn't run power out for boiler. So had to push the boiler commissioning back, again. So no hot water.
Jesus christ.

I absolutely can't believe i was considering DIYing my cellar - utter madness.

Builders are on day two of taking out the existing screed and hardcore, looks like I'm going to gain about a foot in head height which will be a massive unexpected bonus.

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Annoying brick column/concrete lintel floor support bodge is staying, ideally I'd get a steel beam but as it is doing the intended job, and the space will just be a workshop it doesn't seem worth spending the cash right now

You'll lose 2/3rds of that though to insulation and screed surely?

Yes sounds like it, any gain will be a bonus tbh.

Is that mostly turning an existing cellar into a workshop or is there any foundations work being done? Have ambitions of turning my coal cellar into something more useful but don't think I've got the height to start with that you have there.

Exactly that, it is an existing cellar but with enough head height to be used already, the previous screed was really badly laid, and someone built an insulated box in the space.

That's been taken down, and screed and hardcore coming up, then insulation and new screed going down.

So, further to my rant about my buyer walking away Friday afternoon - the estate agent had 3 viewers round Saturday, and we got 3 offers, 2 of which were (very slightly) above the original offer.

The offers were identical, but rather than play them off against each other (we've been lucky enough without pushing things), we picked the buyer we think is most solid - mortgage already arranged, had seen the property in Sept and been pipped to an offer by the previous buyer.

This one's Russian. Nobody ever had issues doing business with Russians, right?

Last few posts coming across a bit EDL....

That’s a bit unfair. kl goes into transaction in good will with an open mind, gets fucked over, judges I individual on first hand experience.

Some dark self deprecating humour based on Russia doing whatever the fuck it wants isn’t exactly edl level. The fact that he’s accepted the offer shows willingness to take it on face value again.

Good luck kl, not in a sarcastic way.

Thanks - I'm taking mustardbeak's post as tongue-in-cheek. And yeah, we've chosen the Russian buyer over an English couple with the same offer. Though that's partly because we both hate the English.

I'm taking mustardbeak's post as tongue-in-cheek

Correctly so

we both hate the English

correctly so

coal cellar into something more useful but don't think I've got the height to start with

Idk what your layout is, but what you can potentially do is dig down in the middle to give you extra head height - if that makes sense? Sort of like a channel.

Often you'll have wall storage or maybe a work bench, or tumble dryer, etc. so you don't need "real" standing height in those bits - just getting in/out and moving around to get to those bits.

It's very situational, but worth thinking about.

£2000 to have the stained glass window fixed. The outer window needs to be removed prior to him coming to do his bit. I think he wants whoever sorts/draught proofs my 5 other sash windows to do the frame it'll go into.

Looking at around £1600-2000 to have the original windows fixed up/draught proofed/ re-weighted/outer wood treated and painted.

Got a shop designing me a kitchen in the existing kitchen space to see.

Kitchen/bathroom is stuck. Think I'm going to get a builder in to take all the stud walls out so we can see what can be done.

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Be worth it fixing that thing up.

Yeah, that window is great. Definitely makes the room.

Wonder if anything can be done to make that extractor a little bit less of an eyesore (or move it to the wall as part of the bathroom refurb so that the window doesn't have an ugly plastic circle in the middle)?

I will!

Going to do a CP!

CP?

Quick question, do you want a bath or a shower? a shower would make the room way simpler and easier to design round if you're not the kind who have a bath every now and then.

current project thread!

just a shower really. Also not too fussed about how big the bathroom is as not in there more than 10 mins a day

Changing bath to a shower is my recommendation (I'm biased as you have notice I have already done it!)