I've avoided the 'R' word up until recently, but I'm slowly coming to terms with it! Anyway - on December the 11th Jane and I got the keys to our first home. Neither of us have been house owners before, so I was very very excited.

We always knew it needed a bit of TLC (Which was, frankly, the reason we could afford the place in the area that it's in) - but things escalated, and I'm kind of glad. So far I'm having lots and lots of fun.

For those interested, I'm going to be lazy and post to Flickr where I've uploaded all the pics. The pre-renovation pics are all from the Estate Agent - the place was "okay" before, but it was a rental home and the general fit and finish was just crap. It had been rewired at some point in the 90's, and they obviously cheaped out by fitting lots of surface mounted patress boxes. We also uncovered some real nasties when we started pulling the old wiring.

And, naturally, the more you dig the more you find - so we're pretty much going all out. It's not intended to be some kind of masterpiece or anything clever, we're just trying to build a nice 3 bed semi to live in!

The main aesthetic issues all stem simply from the age of the building and that's the plaster! Most of it is original from 1939 and it's simply started to debond from the lath and the walls, meaning that any small chip sees it coming off in great chunks!

The immediate task list is pretty simple, if time consuming:

1. Remove all lath and plaster ceilings (Messy - very, very messy! I really can't describe it - Google it and most peoples advice is simply "don't")
2. Remove all lath and plaster partition walls (As above!)
2. Chase and rewire the entire house
3. Replumb the central heating, moving radiators as required
4. Plasterboard everywhere where the old lath was

At that point, I'm engaging a plasterer to come round and make good the walls and ceilings. Then it'll be onto getting the kitchen sorted.

After that, I'm not really sure yet - I think we'll look to move in as having two houses and not being an MP is pretty fucking expensive. Either way, the slightly more mid-term plans include:

Replace/repair floorboards
New flooring / carpets
New woodwork - architraves, skirting board etc

To date, the only professional we've engaged is the builder who knocked out a wall, installed the RSJ and bricked up the kitchen doorway. Everything else is me and whoever else I can cajole into giving up their free time!

I've got a sparky who'll hopefully check and sign off our electrical work and I'm getting a plumber in to do his thing!

Link: https://www.flickr.com/gp/vwdanh/16c962

Cool :)

Having the ceilings down and boards up makes the whole thing much easier. Any idea how long it'll take yet?

Having somewhere else to live is a massive plus while you're doing a place up. We had that luxury with the first house we had and renovated it from top to bottom in a few months. We've been in our current one 4 and half years that needs a fair bit if work and have only painted about half the rooms.


 

I honestly don't know - I'm just going to keep pushing as hard as I can. I'm waiting for the plasterer to quote, so that I can get him booked - that'll be a major deadline then!

I'm hoping to rally the troops this weekend and get some more ceilings out - to be honest, the biggest issue I'm having day to day is waste disposal. The drive entrance is too small to get a skip on (And too big a task to sort right now due to concrete posts and tees!)

Good work. Plumbing easy though, get a blow torch and solder ring fittings and give it a bash!

I've cheated - I helped a plumber friend of mine fit a mahoosive RSJ across the whole width of his house last summer (Big open plan extension) and now I've called in the favour ;)

Else yeah, I'd have had a shot - but to be honest, doing the electrics has given me enough to think about!

Lath and plaster is horrible stuff to take down. Done that a few times and it just makes so much black dust. Good to be rid of it though.

I haven't looked at your pics because I fell asleep watching a YouTube video and my WiFi disconnected and bite I've used almost all my data allowance til next month.

It's so filthy. I only extended my loft hatch in August but the amount of black dust and shite that came down was ridiculous.
 

Yep - that's the stuff, absolutely crazy stuff. Think we're going to overboard the upstairs bedrooms

I reskimmed two rooms last summer on top of lath and plaster. It was not good.

have you spoken to any skip companies? most can come up with something - lots will drop over a garden wall if that's possible (actually easy if it's low enough)

You skimmed it yourself?

Yes. Badly. And then sold it before the cracks showed through :C

Borrowed a small scaffold tower off a mate to do it - 12 foot high ceilings, NOT FUN!

From some of those photos it looks like it's half done - which I'm guessing is wrong, and that's all the "before" shots  :-D

I know I've already said it, but I'll say it again - get everything done. Not extensions etc, but everything you realistically can. The massive clean-up of removing the ceilings, wall coverings etc is worth it in the long run. Also, I believe you have a suspended ground floor - so insulate it, just do it well.

Removing walls and ceilings is going to make all the electrics, plumbing and insulation a LOT easier, so yay!

Run plenty of electrical points, network cables (I used CAT5e FTP because overkill) and if you need it coax (WF100). You can use a full CAT5e cable with active adapters to carry HDMI if you want, or two with passive adapters. If you want to carry analog audio, that's a bit different.

I didn't run quite as many sockets and light switches as I should've unfortunately, but enough...

Plumbing isn't terribly hard, just make sure you pressure check - it has been known *cough* to find floor boards screwed through copper pipes. No, it wasn't me, thanks - but it was our house. Oh, we used Spax flooring screws for the boards - they just seem a bit more secure.

I'm sure you have plenty of people to draw on for advice, but if we can help, ask away.

Definitely ethernet everywhere. I also ran some building type string (?) with all cables in case I need to run more another time.

I didn't do the renovation on mine (bought already renovated) so couldn't get network cables everywhere without ruining brand new carpet. Thankfully due to it being rewired homeplugs work very well where needed.

Sockets and light under the stairs, in the meter cupboard if indoors (I've got my satellite receiver and cables coming into there), in the attic. Sockets both sides of the bed. On the chimney breast with cable management if you like TVs there.

Haha, oh dear. Have you plastered some houses down here too? :) Plasterers make it look so easy.

Aye, I'm not bad at most DIY jobs (though I try to avoid anything with live electricity) and plastering's always been something that eluded me. I wonder if I could do a part time course in it on an evening? The cost of that would massively offset what I'd need to pay a plasterer to sort out our house.

I'm sure a course would help, but I'll suspect experience is worth a lot more.

Also don't skimp on the preparation work.

I'd agree with Kos. Do a course then practise on other people's walls and ceilings :)

Heh, not a bad idea. I was having a word with the guy we got in to plaster one of our attic rooms, and he said it takes about a years worth of experience to get good with a trowel (Possibly John).

 

So you'll have to practise for a year on other people's houses then do your own :)