About the House

So, the house is up for sale.

It’s all happening.

But how did we get here?

You may recall, that “doing the house up” was one of the major reasons for the slippage of “London by Thirty” to “London by Thirty Five” was because of the house. So, what did I do?

Well, I bought the house in December 2005. The first three months were intense…

There were rotten floor joists and floorboards in the lounge and hallway. These needed replacing. There was actually a significant amount of flooring taken up and then laid. In order to prevent any further rotting, I had to install a number of additional air bricks. To do this I had to deconstruct a “summer room” on the North side of the house – an asbestos, glass and wood structure constructed on a thick concrete base which covered where the air bricks were needed and breached the damp-proof course. Then the kitchen and the workroom (a little room downstairs which was to be an office) had solid floors which needed a bitumen damp-proof treatment.

In addition the actual damp-proof course needed wax treatment re-proofing. This involved removing the lower levels of plaster all around the ground floor including removing and eventually refitting the kitchen units; and then replastering with a proper damp resistive plaster. As well as having to remove the kitchen units, this also involved removing the downstairs shower room suite; leaving the house with no usable toilet, sink or shower.

Needless to say, I was still living at my parents throughout this time; however I set myself a rather arbitrary date of the Easter of 2006 to move in. I say arbitrary, obviously when you have a van to move furniture it needs to be completed as quickly as possible; and a long weekend like Easter is the best time to sort and settle.

Anyhow, to achieve this I needed floors to walk on in the lounge; a kitchen to cook in; and a bathroom in which to wash. Whilst the kitchen was reasonably decent enough to be reinstalled, the shower suite was not – and was also downstairs. I hated this. So I decided to convert the smallest of the three bedrooms into an upstairs bathroom and install the most basic of bathroom suites alongside some additional plumbing that was required to replace an ancient immersion tank. Anyway, costs and time were both so short that I moved in to a house with an ancient but useable kitchen with patches of wallpaper, plaster and exposed brick walls; a lounge which had patches with all of the previous fifteen styles of redecoration visible and a bathroom fitted against bare plaster walls without a cupboard concealing the tank. Very, very basic.

From hereon after (until things accelerate later) generally I only worked on the house in late autumn, winter and early spring. The reason for this is three-fold. Firstly, there was a very well established garden which took a considerable amount of time to maintain and change; secondly, I travel around a lot more over the summer so have less time at home for significant projects; and finally, despite the travelling around, it was useful to spend the summer saving as much money as possible for the next project.

2006-7

After the previous year, things went a little quiet this year. I saved up to buy the shower tray, cubicle and fitting for the stand-alone shower that I had planned for when arranging the rest of the bathroom; but it couldn’t be fitted until I could afford the tiles and remainder of the bathroom materials. I started in the bedroom that I wasn’t using as a bedroom, stripping the paper off. This pulled off significant amounts of perished plaster, meaning that I needed to remove all of the plaster.

2007-8

The windows throughout the house were all double glazed with the exception of the kitchen which had four windows. My brother was having work done on his house which necessitated the replacement of three of his windows, which pretty much perfectly replaced three of them in my kitchen – one of the existing windows disappeared behind a worktop which was always entertaining when a can of tomatoes rolled down the back; the replacement required the wall building up nicely to the same level as the worktop. My parents bought me the fourth window as a joint birthday and Christmas present. So this season was spent replacing those windows; as well as finishing off the “free” work in the spare bedroom (i.e. the work that didn’t cost any money).

2008-9

This year the porch rotted through and the door fell off onto me (I might’ve had a drink). This meant that the front door needed replacing – and I might as well do the back door at the same time. I had come into some money this year as I had had my face smashed in whilst walking home by some people that didn’t like the look of me. I used this money to replace both doors as well as the huge patio door and window combination that had previously access the “sun room”.

2009-10

This year I could actually afford to buy the tiles for the bathroom. So, this involved the construction of the immersion tank / airing cupboard; installation of the stand-alone shower (bought back in 2006-7, remember that?), doing the lighting, painting and ... eventually ... tiling of the bathroom (including the construction of a rather nifty hinged panel to the bath to allow storage underneath). This meant (just 4 and a half years after buying the house) THAT THE FIRST ROOM WAS DONE.

 

2010-11

Having chipped all of the plaster off and done all the 'free' work in the spare bedroom, and only having to buy tiles, paint and a few bits of electrics the previous year, this year I could sort the spare bedroom out. Doesn't sound much does it - after all, the plaster was already chipped off? As with me, nothing is ever simple. Take the lighting. After the bathroom used GU10 LED spots, I decided I might as well use the same throughout the house, for a number of reasons. Firstly, they last a LONG time. Secondly, they are VERY energy efficient. But thirdly, and perhaps critically, I recall my parents above-the-toilet cupboards. They contained the electric meter, old rechargeable batteries, a supply of candles (though this was the most difficult cupboard to negotiate in the event of a power cut) and every type of bulb you could imagine. Most of the rooms took a standard bayonette fit; although the sitting room and one of the bedroom took the larger of the Edison screw fittings. The kitchen bulbs were totally different. And then, amongst the bayonette bulbs, some rooms had 40W, some 60 and some 100Watts (ask your parents). At any one time in the cupboard there could be well in excess of two dozen bulbs. Not me.

But, the spot-type nature of the bulbs meant there needed to be a dozen fittings (there would have been only ten had the joists been better spaced). But, as I was doing this I might as well make it my own. So the two spots above the head-end of where the bed would go became reading lights, each controllable from their own side of the bed, but also from the door (to save me having to walk over to the bed if I had left them on). So, we had twelve lamps on three circuits, each circuit having two switches (the main lights were also controllable from one side of the bed). 

Then there are the electrics. The room previously only had one double socket - clearly inadequate in this day and age. And so now it has five doubles, all ideally located, all requiring either wiring running down from the loft, or under the floorboards. Oh, and chipping into the brickwork. Which, if you've ever had to do this by hand, you will realise how physically and time demanding this is.

And then you have to re-lay the flooring. And get a plasterer in. I was tempted to turn my hand to plastering, but EVERYONE that I spoke to said if there is one thing I need to get a professional in for it is the plastering (note how they didn't comment when I was doing the electrics myself).

And then paint. With this being my to-be-bedroom (at least for the time being) I wanted it really nice. Nice was white ceilings, a creamy beige ("Cappucino") on the walls, and then a feature wall with the basic cappucino background but then a lot of red and brown stripes. It looks good, believe me. 

But it takes a lot of time. The ceiling needed three coats of paint. At one a night, that's a week. Ditto the walls. Ditto the stripes. And then there's touching up, finishing touches - skirting, architrave, varnishing them and the doors, getting the carpet fitted and - finally - moving my bed in and buying new furniture. Ignoring the cost of the new furniture, what was expected to be a 'cheap' room (in that it didn't need utilities, appliances, tiling, a suite or anything much other than the basics of electrics, lighting, plaster, paint, carpet and ancilliary woodworking) ended up costing well in excess of £2000 - albeit £1000 of that was on plastering and £600 on carpet.

2011-12

Well, I now had a nice bathroom and - MOST IMPORTANTLY - a refuge. The 'spare' bedroom was now my bedroom proper. It was clean, it was decorated, it was where I could LIVE. Next room to do was the big lounge. I say 'big lounge' as though I have so many lounges I have to differentiate. But what I cannot emphasis enough is how big it is - a full front-to-back lounge. Yes, if you've got a long gallery like Hardwick Hall it's perhaps a little different, but for me this was a big lounge.

I still remember back to the hell of being a kid with my parents and how long it took them to do the lounge up. I don't mean hell of being with my parents - anyone who knows me will tell you how much I love them and respect them; but the lounge at their house was a very,very major room; it was a throughfare as well, and it took them around three years to make it habitable.

But, as I'd now managed to move out of the 'big' master bedroom, I could now turn that into a lounge - albeit a temporary one. The sofas went upstairs as did the big tv. And, in fact, all spare furniture. It was a busy room. That, alongside my busy winter, probably explains why I spent little time in there.

My lounge was big; but a lot of the work had been done back in those initial three months - remember the chipping off of the lower levels of plaster to do the damp-proofing? The replacement of a significant amount of floorboards? The replacement of the patio doors? Well, all that his room required was the chipping off of all of the rest of the plaster, tidying up of a significant amount of the flooring that hadn't been replaced, all of the electrics (fortunately with most of this I had been sensible and planned it whilst the floorboards were up and laid the wiring) and chipping in the electric boxes (hadn't been quite so sensible and most of these had been free-hanging from he wall). Then there was the lighting. This would have been SIGNIFICANTLY easier if I had done it before finishing the flooring in the bedroom - again, I was using GU10 downlighters, but again - this being me - there wasn't just a main light, but two, and also four spots around the side to provide a less bright, more sedate environment (for Friday nights just watching movies when you want to concentrate on the movie) and two double switches - one as you entered the room, and another conveniently placed next to the edge of the sofa. These spots caused the problem. With one in each corner, there was no way I could avoid having to drill through some joists; almost all of which were either under the already-tiled bathroom floor, or the already-carpetted bedroom floor. So a lot of the ceiling had to come off.  

Once that was done, obviously everything else was easy - all I had to do was get the plastering done, sand down the massive expanse of floorboards that there was, vacuum, wash and clean it all down, spend a good week staining a LOT of wood, spend even more than a week varnishing the floor, painting the room, painting and, eventually, buying that sofa that finished the room. Oh, and then the finishing bits - curtains and stuff. It's a room.

2012-13

Well, having finished the loung the previous year, there wasn't much to do unless I wanted to start on the kitchen - realistically that was the next room to do - it was a biggy, and therefore needed all of my saving. But, whilst I had been able to move into the lounge there was still a niggle - the alcove. My piano occupied one; the other was vacant. I wanted shelves in there. They would look nice, classy, and they would provide me with much needed storage for my books. So - albeit minor - that was this year's job whilst I saved as much money as I could. But I did it, I bought the wood, I stained it, I fitted it, I filled it. And it looks lovely.

2013-14

This was another year where I took a bit of a back-step. Having completed the lounge and moved in down there, I just needed a year off. And, again, when you look how much these things cost, I probably spent over £100 in sanding belts on the lounge floor alone, then there was the stain, the varnish, the plaster, the paint. Whilst the lighting was not expensive individually, accumulatively it cost ver £100. And that's before you consider how much a reel of cabling costs. That's not cheap. I know the paint is cheap, bright white - it's £20 a tub. But that's four tubs worth. The shelves cost in excess of £100 in pure wood and fittings (there's actually a lot of battening). And then there's a £600 sofa. And do you know how much curtains are? Over a hunderd quid when you look at the length you need for that room. And the poles. There's a lot goes on, so a bit of a fallow year was needed. That said, it wasn't entirely fallow. I started chipping off the plaster in the big bedroom - by now, any furniture that needed returning to the lounge was back down there, anything that wasn't wanted had gone to a homeless charity.

2014-15

GO GO GO! at this point I had my new job. This meant new money. New, significant money. Which meant that I could get that most major, most expensive of jobs done - the kitchen. I had saved heartily (helped by the previous 'cheap' year) and over the summer got quotes such that at the end of September they started fitting. In order to keep costs to a minimum, I did a significant amount of preparation and finishing work myself. So, whilst the kitchen was on order the old one got stripped out. I then set to removing all of the old plaster ahead of the plasterers coming in. The plasterers plastered, the fitters fitted. Whilst they were doing this, I worked up in the big bedroom on the lighting and electrics (having by now finished stripping off the plaster). I then painted, tiled, grouted, sealed and laid the kitchen floor, as well as doing the skirting, architrave and general woodworkery. Whilst I worked downstairs, the plasterer plastered the big bedroom. 

And so, immediately that I finished the kitchen, I was straight on to the big bedroom, doing the painting, woodwork and getting the carpet fitted. Again, I painted more than I needed to - the stripes returned.

And then the last room to do was the hall and landing. This was the worst room. You can't avoid the dust and the much and the filth. Much though you try not to tread it into the refuge that is your bedroom, it gets there. And, worse still, if you are keeping floorboards (indeed, naked but stained stairs) then the whole idea of staining and varnishing them - when you are supposed to leave it two hours before walking on it, but need to walk on it to get upstairs - is impossible for someone who only gets home at 7pm. But I worked hard on this room - I had to. I knew that sanding the floorboards and stairs irritated my neighbour, so I had to crack on with that and get it over with as quickly as possible, but with the number of stairs, and bits (banister, ballustraids, treads, backboards, sides and the actually floorboards at the bottom) this still took a good few weeks. Electrics and lighting were all sorted (well, aside from simply swapping light fittings over - I say simply, it still took a full evening to do both), so it was technically just staining and varnishing the floors, getting the plasterer in then painting the walls and those few finishing touches.

And as a final point to the whole thing - finishing touches take evenings. It can be tiny bits of filler, little bits of stain you had missed, painting where the masking tape pulled off the paint - it all takes time. Evenings here, there - when you have just three or four a week, and only a couple of weekends a month at home, that's why things take so long.

As well as the cost.

But it's done - moving on.