Our First Year Being Home Owners: Renovations So Far & What We're Planning to Do Next
I can’t believe it has been a whole year since we’ve bought, and moved into, our house. It has been quite whirlwind I must say because it turned out to be more of a fixer-upper than we first thought.
In fact, it ended up turning into somewhat of a renovation project as opposed to something that we thought needed a lick of paint and a bit of TLC. So I thought, after the first year, I document on here what we’ve been up to since we bought the place and what we plan to do next!
The downstairs WC
This is something we thought would be a breeze, but it was actually a very complex project. It was in really bad condition, with little-to-no care and attention put into it when the previous owners decided to “ modernise” it, and I use that term very loosely.
The walls were in bad nick with plaster missing in places. On top of that there were layers of wallpaper and, on top of that, tiles were added with adhesive. But on top of the tiles we’re stick-on polystyrene tiles that we were told, by the surveyor, were a massive fire hazard.
I wrote an article all about this particular room, detailing it all from start to finish, complete with photos. From building a stud wall to adding a towel warmer when there wasn’t one before, make sure you get all the gritty details over on that blog post! Read about our downstairs loo renovation here :)
Our living room
I’m not sure whether to say that the living room was the hardest one to complete or the downstairs loo. Each one had its challenges but those difficulties weren’t just cutting into the ceiling or glossing the skirting boards.
We had radiators moved from one wall to another, a whole new fireplace hearth fitted, all skirting board and architrave replaced and painted, sanded down the window sill, which was original, fitted an entire new floor and replaced the fire surround entirely.
We also had to put a new door on as there wasn’t one when we moved in. Coving went in as well to help hide the state of the ceiling-to-wall join and we took down the old curtain plinth that ran across the top of the window. Even then, the walls were in an awful state, with over five layers of wallpaper to remove, the last layer of which had been painted over.
Plaster started coming off the walls and we even found old wiring underneath that we had to sort out and make safe, because it wasn’t when we uncovered it. It took about nine months of preparation and renovation but we finally completed it in September this year. Read all about it in this blog post here, which includes progress photos etc, so be sure to sink your teeth into that!
The guest bedroom
We got this room done in just under two weeks, working on it in evenings and weekends. The motivation was so we could have my brother and his girlfriend over to stay and we wanted to make sure they were as comfortable as possible.
So we gutted it, including the skirting boards, architrave, a new radiator and whole new flooring. We also ripped out the old plastic window sill and put in a brand new wooden one. We then took the curtain rail down, filled in the holes, sanded it back and put in a set of blinds.
The paint job in that room was terrible. The previous owners had just slapped it on without a thought. It dried with drips in it and dry flakes, like they’d used a dried out roller instead of rinsing it off after using it, ready for another coat of paint. So all of that needed to be sanded down.
In fact, I think all the walls in that room had been sanded down by hand, including the ceiling. The previous owners had also used expandable foam to fix the old skirting board to the wall, so that needed to be scraped out and filled again as quite a lot of the plaster was missing underneath.
For a room that looked quite straightforward in the beginning, it turned out to be not-so-simple, as usual with our house. I blogged about that renovation project as well, so take a look at that here if you’re interested :)
Some bathroom updates
We haven’t done a whole lot to the bathroom as the previous owners had installed a new bath, sink, loo etc a couple of years ago. But we replaced the floor, which was carpet, we also got a new side panel for the bath as the old one was banjacksed together with two pieces of plastic.
We also put a new cabinet in as the old one wasn’t fixed to the wall properly, was missing a leg and was in a very inconvenient place. We then repainted the room grey (as it was beige before) and replaced the discoloured white shower curtain with a shower screen to make it look more modern.
We also added a splash back to the sink, later on, which I actually don't have a picture of, because there wasn’t one before. We used some tiles the old owners had left in the garage which were the same as the ones on the wall to the right of the photo. I’ll leave some pictures below because I didn’t actually blog about this room specifically. We also put a brand new light fixture up as the old one was ugly, haha.
We had a new boiler fitted
In March of this year, we had our 27 year old floor-standing boiler ripped out and replaced for a brand new Worcester Bosch compact combi-boiler. The old one gave off a gas smell and it took, almost, all day for the house to warm through.
It was so old, the thermostat was in Fahrenheit. The new boiler has enabled us to have an electronic display that we can control from our phones using an app, so it’s far more convenient and it even in degrees Celsius now, haha.
It’s had a whole new central heating system, including pipes and new radiators throughout. That in itself was a huge job and, aside from the boiler fitting, we’ve managed to do absolutely everything ourselves.
Integrated appliances
When we first moved in, the washing machine was outside under a carport shelter. We didn’t want our washing machine outside so we moved it indoors and had an integrated one, we then got rid of the carport shelter to make way for the new boiler flue. We also, recently, fitted an integrated dishwasher, where we used the space that was left behind by our old floor-standing boiler.
A new door on the downstairs loo
There’s a reason why I didn’t include this in the downstairs loo renovation section, and that’s because it’s only recently happened. It wasn’t part of the initial renovation but after a short break we decided to change the horrible old door that was there before and put on a cottage-style door to match the one for the living room. It also has a proper lock on it ow as opposed to the old latch that pulled across. It’s a small change but it’s made a huge difference to the hallway and to the toilet.
What we're planning next
Our next renovation project is the hallway and landing. We’re also having a new front door fitted in January which is really exciting. We have a new door on the downstairs toilet as well now and the under stairs cupboard also needs a new door and a whole new frame as it wasn’t fitted very well to begin with.
Not the mention the door hits the radiator pipes when you close it which concerns us. The whole frame is going to have to be moved forward a few inches as a result. It should be straightforward enough, though. Again, we’re going to do this all ourselves.
I’d also like coving up across the hallway and landing together with new skirting board as well. I also cannot wait to have a new carpet going up the stairs and on to the landing. This will be a project for next year though as we’re wanting a bit of a break on the run up to Christmas :)
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I hope you enjoyed this blog post? Let me know in the comments if you've been doing any home renovations recently and how they're going and I'll see you again with a brand new blog post very soon :)
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