TheMitchells

Sadly no - it is happily living in Derbyshire, as far as we know. And re the loo - the OH and I came to an agreement years ago that we both put the seat down so no arguments and as @JSHarris always says, it is healthier too! We have had a bit of a hiccup this week. Our solicitor sent draft contracts on 20th Feb yet had heard nothing back, then we were asked if the Mortgge valuer could come round on Tuesday and we learnt that the solicitors were not doing anything till the mortgage offer had come through - which of course was waiting for the valuer to do their thing! Why it has taken a month to get sorted, I dont know. I was not happy and was even less happy when the valuer said she found a bow and crack in the cellar wall. So they then wanted a full structural surveyor to assess the situation. Luckily he arrived yesterday which was very quick. He didnt seem too concerned re the wall and was quite complimentary about our renovation, which was nice. It is possible that the bow occurred when the drain alongside the alley wall was leaking a few years ago. Anglian water lined the drain, which can be seen when looking in the inspection chamber. But we may have to get some sort of paperwork to confirm this. It is an old house and there certainly has not been any movement in the wall since we bought it so we are hopeful that this will not cause too much of a delay. Fingers crossed! I know the cellar has been much drier since we added a second airbrick in that corner and we also make sure the water butt is emptied regularly as there is nowhere for the water to go when it overflows - just straight into the damp corner of the cellar.

Great project! Looking forward to hearing all about it. Whereabouts in the country are you?

What a great opportunity. Yes, please - lots of photo's and plans for us to peruse. And I am sure there will be lots of questions that you can help us with.

Thanks for all the comments - Will let you know whenit all goes through. The champagne will be out that evening! I am working out the hours we have spent there to give us an idea of how much per hour we'll have made. Probably shouldn't, may put us off doing it again!

a cellar the sull size of the house but its not high enough to use properly. You have to stand with your head between the joists and I cannot remember a single time that the OH went down there and didnt bang his head! You'd think he would have learnt after a year and half......

me too! It looks so easy but isnt. and we never have the right screwdriver/drill bit etc! How many drill bits have you got now?

Well, at last we have finished our renovation and have had an offer that we have accepted. It took longer to get here than we ever thought, over 17months, but I think it was worth it. After Christmas and our little party, we had the estate agent in who had already sold one of the neighbours houses and before we knew it, the photographer was there and the next day it was online! we still had a few snags to sort out but we soon had those done, apart from the wooden mantle for the lounge fireplace, which we hadn't found yet. After a couple of weeks, we had a good offer and so we are now in the hands of the solicitors. I am hopeful to have it all completed by end of April. Our buyer was in the middle of selling her place to a first time buyer so I am keeping my fingers crossed that there are not too many problems. We did say we didn't want a chain, prefering a FTB or cash buyer. So here are a few of the photographs of our amazing house, together with the origonal shots, if I have them. The dining room. The lounge. Our lovely bathroom - Am very pleased with this The back bedroom. I am so proud of what we have acheived. it was our first big renovation and we had to take on many challenges that we had not done before. But apart from the builder (who did the structural work on the side gable wall and removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room) and the plasterers, we did the lot ourselves! Poor OH has still not recovered, although his knees are much better now that he is no longer crawling round the floor doing plumbing/electrics/boarding etc. Whenever I mention another nice place I have seen on Rightmove that needs renovating, he turns a strange colour of pale and goes to lie down. I think I shall have to wait for a little while before looking too seriously. I hope you have enjoyed sharing this experience/blog with us and maybe have learnt some things on the way; I know I certainly have. I shall be sad to see the house go - it has always felt a friendly /warm house, even in the middle of winter. But onwards and upwards! Maybe we will eventually find a plot and can build our own house or, if not, a renovation for us rather than for profit. And whatever, I shall make sure there is a blog on Buildhub! Cheers, The Mitchells.

Keep asking the questions and you'll keep receiving lots of help. maybe start a blog for those of us who arent able to build ourselves. I can read on with envy! Good luck.

same here - I used Distinguished windows (a local firm) for the ones in our current houses. They only took payment after the windows were fitted. I liked the company, the workman were very clean, polite and the jobs seemed to be done very well. And they were half the price of that well known double glazed company with the feather on TV.

While I have only just seen some of the questioning posts on this topic, I agree with Jeremy's comment - I think we need to give the FMG a bit of space. Personnaly I am happy to accept their decision and if a post has been removed, there must have been a good reason for it. We all agree that this is one of the best forums on the web and I would hate to see this issue spoiling such a good thing. Can we let it go, please.

Will you all stop it!! I cant get any work done as I am too busy falling off the sofa laughng..... I dont dare look at another one. The OH thinks I am potty. I showed him the Veet for men review but he managed to read it without laughing once He seems to have lost his sense of humour..... I have sent the link to all my friends though.

A friend has a tariff from British Gas which gives her free electricity for one day a week. She chose Sundays and does all her washing/cleaning/tumble drying on that day. She reckons it saves her a fortune. Interestingly, she does not like tumbel dryers as they use electricity to do something the wind does for free, But this way, her washing is washed and dried and put away in a couple of hours. I already use Octopus for our dual fuel and I can say that I really like them. The bills are easy to understand and their emails are polite and informative.

This post is better than the latest box set! Glad to see the BH gang are coming to the rescue and am keeping my fingers crossed that it all gets sorted soon. What a nightmare and a lesson to us all to keep it simple as suggested by many on this forum!

agree with the garage - move the utility to the other side of the hall into the lower part of the dining room and make the kitchen/dining/living space slightly L shaped, or just have a large utulity and storage. You also need to factor in a plant room - part of the new utility? Good luck with the plans.

Sounds like a job for @Nickfromwales. Jude - he's the man for your design! Give him a PM.

Looks like a really interesting build! We did a renovation recently which did not have vehicle access - we had to barrow everything in and out of an alley for 80metres. The OH said never again! It did add to the costs and a huge amount of time and effort. Sounds like your build will need even more planning and effort - good luck.

welcome to BuildHub and we look forward to picking your brains. Not heard about Class Q house before. - just googled it. Conversion of agriculture to residential??

We have been using Jeremy's recommended Screwfix no nonsense silicone free adhesive to fix the skirting and that worked great but we have some largish gaps behind due to the uneven walls. So we need to use something to fill the gap which I can smooth and paint to finish it all off. Was looking at Screwfix No Nonsense General Purpose silicon sealant in white at £28 for a pack of 12 but is this the right stuff? Which is best to avoid shrinkage and cracking? Have 60m worth of skirting to fill. Is that different from decorators caulk? Screwfix do a few and they seem cheaper than sealant. No Nonsense decorators caulk for £1.39. Should I use that instead?

Can you provide a photograph please as I am struggling to work out what you mean - apologies.

We've just finished our Howdens kitchen and the OH, who fitted, it was impressed by the quaility and ease of installation. much better since the last one we did a few years ago. I thiink you can acheive a lovely kitchen by using fairly standard carcasses then use better quality worktops and appliances. Its was only a small kitchen for our renovation house but came in at around £4k. That was units, appliances, handles and oak worktops, a; from Howdens, in their Oct sale.

I like the house plans - simple and certainly has everything we would need. And the rooms are a good size so I doubt it will feel cramped. I am looking forward to hearing about, and hopefully seeing photo 's, of the build. will you have time to do a blog??

Yes, we need to stay here for a few years at least - elderly parents need me nearby and the OH is in the RAF reserves and is enjoying it. When he retires from that, we can reconsider our location. We have looked at Shropshire/Herefordshire areas but cannot do anything serious about it yet. I found some lovely plots in Bishops Castle but its just not the right time and I think by then, we wil definately be past doing it. But its always going to be my lifes wish, to build my own house. And i can dream!

I am really hoping that this will be the penultimate blog on our renovation! The Kitchen is finished (apart from a couple of things) and the place is really starting to look nearly finished. As we aproached Christmas, we decided to have a nibbles and drinks for the neighbours on Christmas Eve, to give everyone a nose around and say hi properly. we say hello as we pass but thats usually as far as it goes. It was a good thing to do as we then had the incentive to crack on with the tiling and finish the kitchen as well as tidy the place up. The OH did two runs to the local tip with his car choc-a-bloc with wood/plasterboard/rubble. We think there should only be one more tip run before we sell - unless we can just keep adding it to the wheelie bin. He had a huge session in the cellar with his DeWalt Chopsaw and chopped up all the spare wood into little bits for the woodburner. All the treated stuff went to the tip but he filled a builders bag! Then he tidied up the cellar and took quite a lot of the stuff home - we're hoping that we will not need it as it will be a pain to bring things back. He also fixed the handrail into the cellar and rubbed down the paintwork before giving it a coat of paint. what a difference a lick of paint makes! So here it is ready for the neighbours. The kitchen flooring cleaned up really well and once we had coated it in Topps Tiles Enhancing Oil, it looked great. we also used the oil on the fireplace, which has eventually had the back painted too. Still not sure about whether to fit a mantle over it?? And this is the view from the lounge corner into the kitchen. before it was a very tight, solid right angle corner but opening it up has made such a difference. the light from the front door gets into the middle room and I love the way the view opens up. The oak posts are great - still deciding whether to oil them or leave them as is...... So now I have to get on with the coving in the lounge and fixing the stone fireplace. We have always planned to use bamboo flooring on the ground floor but now we are having second thoughts. Our Interior designer (sister in law) thinks we should just put carpet down. It will be cosier, possibly cheaper, and means we can get on with fixing the skirting without worrying about gaps due to the uneven floor. The carpet will cover any gaps. Hopefully the next post will be all the finished photographs. And hopefully it will be in the next month................................... or two.......................

Just thought I would update our Intro post. Its now over 18 months since we bought our renovation property and its almost ready for selling. Just another few weeks of snagging then the flooring can be laid and we'll get the estate agents round. Most houses in our row sell really quick so we will be trying to get a good price. With regard the house build, we are thinking more and more that it is unlikely to happen for us. Apart from the silly prices of land round here, I am doubting that we could actually do it. The OH is not interested in any part of the project managing/organising. So it would be down to me and I dont think I could do it any more. Unless I have things on a list, I forget them, and if anything is on my mind, I end up awake most of the night. I dont think I could cope with a year or two on 3-4 hours sleep a night. And the more I read on Buildhub, the more I know I dont know and would have to find out - its very scary thinking of all the things the build involves. I admire all of you guys who are doing it and I really would like to do it myself but I have to be sensible and know my limitations. I shall continue to dip into the forum and I shall follow blogs with interest (and envy, to be honest). And you never know - we may find another renovation to take on. I have enjoyed doing Scooby Cottage and we have both learnt lots. so once the OH has recovered from this one, I shall maybe be able to find another one to do - hopefully this one for us, rather than to sell. Happy New Year to everyone and thanks for all the help and encouragement I have always received.

love the place - will be watching the progress.