Bringing the internal doors into the 21st Century

So I have been struggling with the internal upstairs doors for a while.  Struggling in the fact that I hate them! Just look at them:

Before

Urgh! So dark, and the brass handles had seen much better days.  In fact the bathroom lock didn't even work.

The trouble is, the style of the doors themselves aren't actually horrendous - it's just the colour I can;t get on board with.  So, I decided to paint them.

I tried to sand one of the doors, using my little mouse sander, but even with a very coarse grit sandpaper, it didn't seem to take off whatever was on the doors.  I'm not sure if it was varnish or lacquer or what... who knows.

This was when I came across Zinsser BIN primer.  A bit pricey at £40 for a 2.5L tin, but here's the magic:

NO PREP REQUIRED! Nope, not even sanding! Yay!!  Apparently it sticks to almost anything. Wow.

I did prep the doors in the fact that I used some wood filler to fill in any knocks in the doors, and I sanded this down once dry so it was smooth.  I also cleaned the doors as they were a bit grubby.

The primer was a really weird paint to use.  It was like water and just fell off the paintbrush and dripped everywhere between the tin and the door.  However, once it made it on the door, it was so thick and hard to spread. Weird.  I decided to do two coats, although I'm not sure it needed it.  It only took 15 mins to be touch dry and 45 mins to re-coat so no hanging about.

I then did one top coat of brilliant white Johnstone's eggshell:  http://www.johnstonestrade.com/products/product-display/eggshell

The handles were what got this whole project started.  I happen to look on the Wickes website one day to find they were having a mega sale on door handles.  I saw some nice Chrome ones, massively reduced to just £3 each, and £5 for the locking bathroom one.  That would be the whole set for five doors for just £17! I also had to buy new chrome latches and hinges which cost more than the handles in the end!

I also had to chisel out a bit of the doors to fit the new latches in as they were ever so slightly different in size (change from imperial to metric I think).  Turns out I'm pretty handy with a chisel.

The screws that came with the handles were absolute rubbish, and I think it was the second one that I used, the head just sheared off completely leaving half the screw in the door.  Marvellous.  So I ditched those screws and just used my own.  Although I guess when you are only pay £3 for a handle, what do you expect?

It's amazing how much brighter they make the hallway.  I'm regretting polished chrome handles a bit as I can see the finger prints on them very easily, especially the bathroom door handle which obviously gets a lot of use.

There was also the incident where the bathroom door got stuck - the latch (not the lock) jammed in the door and wouldn't open. Luckily no one was stuck inside, but I did really need a wee! #firstworldproblems
We had to use hubbies European health card in the end to slot down the edge and push it back in, but it wasn't easy due to the architrave.  I would like to say no European health cards got hurt in the opening of the door, but I would be lying if I did.

It was a normal bathroom latch/lock set up from Wickes, but I got a bit nervous after the incident (just imagine if you were the only one in the house and you got trapped in - eek!), that I went and bought a Yale one to replace it.  There is something about the brand Yale that I inherently trust - I don't know why - good marketing obviously!

Anyway, what so you think?

With some wood filler in a blemish on the wood

Lined up for painting in my workshop *carport**cough*

Left to right: Original, Two coats primer, One coat primer

With top coat - looking better!  I had to bring the doors inside as it was so cold and humid outside I didn't think the paint would dry, at least not in a reasonable time frame that would allow me to get the bathroom door back on before the in-laws came for the weekend!

It's hard to take a photo in such a confined space but you get the idea.  I'm also now aware that the architrave now looks naff and a slightly different white to the doors.  That will need to be done soon.  It never ends!

We have also done a scheme of upgrading to the window handles.  Brass, again(!), was the theme throughout the house, and some of the locks were past serviceable.

On first impressions I thought we would need new windows, or at least a professional in to have a look.  Who knew it would be so easy!  YouTube, where would I be without you?!

This is an example of one of the window handles before:

It really is just a few screws and the job is done! I genuinely think it looks like we have had new windows from the inside.  It makes a huge difference to the look of all the rooms.  We also had to change one of the locking mechanisms.  This is ok for ground floor windows as access is easy - luckily for us, the knackered lock was in the room with the flat roof outside so we could climb out onto that to get access.  The trickiest bit was ordering the right lock - two attempts later and I got there in the end!  But once I had the right one, again it was just a few simple screws.

Doesn't that look better?

Post transformation

Race Bling Medal Holder

I made this little holder for all my husband's race medals. I used a scrap bit of wood I found in the garage and some red gloss paint left over from another project.  I printed the letters off from word and cut them out of sticky back plastic using a craft knife.

The hooks are dresser hooks, bargain from Wilko's! 75p  for a pack of 6.

Garden Bench and Table

The owners before us left an assortment of things in the house and the garage, of varying quality! A lot of it went on freecycle/gumtree as we would never make use of it.

A few gems in disguise though, including a garden table and a garden bench. Both had seen much better days.

To be honest, I made the table worse by using it as a work table for a few weeks!

THE TABLE

I started with a wire brush on the wood to get rid of all the algae sort of stuff that was on the table top. I don't know if it was the right thing to do, but it seemed to do the job. Then a sand and I was pretty much back to bare wood.  I did this with a sheet of sand paper wrapped around a block of wood - this was pre mouse sander days!

The base I brushed down with a wire brush, and gave it a bit of a clean.

The base I primed with red oxide paint. I only did this because I had some in the garage, but as I was using hammerite direct to rust paint it probably wasn't necessary. 

Then two coats of hammerite black paint.

The top I used teak oil, which I did three coats of using a brush.

Having lived with the table for a good few months now, I'm a little disappointed with the top. It has tired very quickly and looks like it needs of a spruce up again. That will be another job for next spring.

THE BENCH

The bench had many similar processes.

I had to throw all the wood away as it was all rotten and one of the slats was missing.  I had to saw the old bolts off as they were rusted in place.  I tried spraying with WD40 in advance of undoing them, but no luck! And I prepared and painted the metal in a similar way to the table, although I skipped the red oxide primer this time.

The slats were a bit of a decision for me.  Hardwood would have been ideal, but pretty expensive - I would have been looking at £50ish to replace all the slats.  A bit out of my budget.

Instead I went to B&Q (I did go to the wood reclaim shop first but didn't find anything appropriate), and bought some softwood lengths that were the appropriate thickness and width.  I only needed 4 lengths (which I would saw in half), but it was cheaper to buy a pack of 6 for £12.  I also bought a tin of stain (opened and therefore discounted to £6) to protect the wood.  I know the softwood probably won't last as long as hardwood would have done, but I'm pleased with how it's turned out.

I cut the softwood lengths in half for the slats and did two coats of stain.

I had predrilled holes in each slat too to make sure that the stain protector got in the holes too.

Some new bolts were necessary, and the job was done!

Dining table rennovation

So for years we have used my university desk (a second hand Ikea desk bought from eBay about 6 years ago) as our dining table.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE the dining tables from Indigo Furniture from Matlock (where our bed, coffee table etc. are from) but with finances stretched already to get to where we have, an Indigo Dining Table is just not an option.

We went to Indigo Furniture to drool over the furniture in mid September, and I promised my lovely husband that I would achieve something similar, by Christmas, with a budget of £50.  Challenge accepted!!

Anyone that knows me will know I'm a huge fan of Freecycle, Gumtree freebies, Preloved etc.  I managed to score a farmhouse table on Freecycle but unfortunately the top was rotten (I think it had been left in the garden for sometime).

Table as advertised on Freecycle

This table lived under our carport for months while other projects took precedence and for inspiration to strike on what to do with it.  The trip to Indigo spurred me into action however.

I took the old top off which left me with the base and legs.  The pine stain was a bit nasty and orange and the legs were looking very tired.  I sanded the base right back to the bare wood.  I ummed and aared as to whether to wax or paint the legs.  In the end I decided that the chances of me getting wood for the top that would wax the same finish as the base were slim so I went for the paint option.

Sanded down

Primer coat on

This project was budget focused so I tried to use all paints and materials that I already had.  So I used primer, base coat and a white eggshell paint that I already had in the garage.

I wanted the ability to extend the table so I cut two small squares out of the end without the drawer for my grand plan.  All will be revealed later.

For the new table top, I went to a community wood reclaim shop in Derby and sourced some old scaffold planks:  http://www.eastmidlandswoodrecycling.org.uk/.  It's a fab shop, run by some lovely people, and they even do cuts for a small fee.  For people like me with just a hand saw at home this is a massive plus!  I got all the wood I needed and cuts done for £20.  The planks were dirty and tired though, and certainly needed some sprucing.  Next stop, B&Q to pick up some super rough sandpaper for my mouse sander - £8 investment required here.

Can you tell the difference?! Top sanded, bottom not.

The table already had brackets to attach the top but I added a few more to make sure it was really solid.

I then waxed the top with Fiddes Supreme Wax in Light Pine colour (already had a tin in the cupboard).  I used a firm toothbrush to get into the nooks and crannies, and a microfibre cloth to apply it on the large flat sections.

And the main table was done :) Looking very good.

I had a break for a few weeks before returning to do the extension.  I had to go back to the wood shop to get some more cuts done as I had incorrectly measured the first time around - doh!  I used two lengths of PSE that I had in the garage leftover from the bathroom renovation for the extension supports.  I screwed two lengths of scaffold to the supports and followed the prep that I had done for the table (sanding, wax etc), and voila! an extra 18 inches of table.  Just need some more chairs now!

Total spend = £30

(Total investment was actually less as I sold our old dining table/desk on Gumtree for £12 so overall a bit of a bargain!)

Total time spent on project = approximately 3-4 days.

What were they thinking?!

One of the horrors in the house when we looked round was the windowsill on the landing.  Someone had smashed a mirror and put it into some sort of grout mixture to decorate a windowsill...!!!

Aarggghhh!

We lived in the house for several weeks before I built up enough energy to tackle it.  But it got to a point where I couldn't bear it any longer and took the bolster chisel to it.

The bolster chisel and hammer took a bit more out of the actual wooden windowsill than I probably would have liked, but oh well!

I used a mouse sander to sand off the old paint underneath all that mirror! And some wood filler to fill in the areas where I had taken chunks out of the wood by accident.  I didn't have to be too worried about the colour of the filler because I was going to paint it anyway.

Primer, base coat and two coats of eggshell later, and now its not the worst element of the stairs!  The trouble is when you make one part of the room look 100 times better it makes the rest look pants!

What to expect when you're expecting... a re-wire

A large outlay of cash is expectation number one.  Ours came in at around £2,500 and this was the cheapest quote that we had.  Part of the reason this was the cheapest is because we went for a recently turned one man band who was below the VAT threshold (another amazing find from www.mybuilder.com ).

However, the important thing to look for when hiring an electrician is to get an NICEIC approved electrician.  This means that they have certain levels of training and certification, as well as the ability to self-certify the works for building regulation approval.  Make sure you fully investigate their declared credentials – an honest person won’t mind you asking questions, and if in doubt you can call the NICEIC themselves to see if your chosen contractor is registered with them (as I did).

As this was a re-wire we would need a Building Regulations certificate at the end to prove that all the works were compliant with current codes of practice, which we duly received a few weeks after the works were completed.

Our original wiring was the stuff they had built the house with in the 60’s so it was in a right old state – and only a double socket per room.  Don’t get me wrong, I grew up with a house with just a single socket in each room, so I’m pretty handy with extension leads! But a re-wire was a condition of the mortgage – so it had to be done.  I’m kind of pleased though, it worked out well – we got exactly what we wanted and no more trailing leads – which is great when we have two house bunnies that like to chomp on things!

The old fuse box

The first thing to expect is mountains of dust. Mountains.  If there is any way at all, literally any way, that you can avoid living in the house whilst you are getting it done – that is the number one preferred option.

We arranged an overlap of our rented property and the new house to allow for these works, and I’m so glad that we did.  It makes it cheaper too, as the electrician doesn’t have to lug furniture about, reinstate the electrics every evening, be constantly tidy… etc.

So, to help with the mountains of dust, we bought a Henry Hoover.  He’s my new best friend.  £100 and he will have my dust needs fully under control for a lifetime of DIY, I’m sure of it.  Plaster dust kills Dysons I hear, so the Dyson took a back seat on this one.  Hopefully your electrician will also do a fair amount of hoovering, but I promise you you will be hoovering it up for weeks afterwards...

We love Henry!

Secondly, expect to take up your entire upstairs floor coverings.  Some of the electricians quoted that we would need to take up all the laminate floor in the kitchen too (argh! Nightmare!) – so I think this depends a bit on your electrician.

Make sure your electrician is fully briefed up on what you want.  I’m an engineer by trade so when I want something doing I’m well versed in preparing a specification and a set of drawings.  I pretty much did this for our electrician.  I drew up simple plans of the house and marked on where I wanted lights, switches and sockets.  The day before work commenced we also had a meeting with the electrician where we walked round the house with the electrician and marked on the walls exactly where we wanted everything as my drawings weren't to scale – but they provided a reference for the electrician in case he needed to look back during the works.  (Top tip: don’t use felt tip for marking the walls, use a pencil else the pen will keep coming through no matter how much you paint over the top.  Last resort was stain blocker paint.  Lesson learned!)

I also detailed what sort of light switches (just plain white ones) that we wanted, and which of our purchased lights were to go where.  

Typical Spec for one room

We sourced all the light fittings ourselves, and I would probably do it this way again.  I also purchased a whole house full of LED light bulbs too, to save on our energy costs (from LEDHut – often offers on and big Quidco cashback too).  At around £200 for the whole house, they weren't cheap, but this included fittings for both the bathroom and kitchen too.  One of my favourite products from them that we purchased was the LED strip lighting on a roll.  We used this underneath the kitchen cabinets and it’s just fab.

Finally, be prepared for the noise!  Our electrician, along with some assistants he had draughted in, started at 7am on a Saturday morning, ripping through the walls with the chases almost immediately.  We only got the keys Friday afternoon and had yet to introduce ourselves to the adjoining neighbor…  The horror!  When I finally met her she said it was fine, but I felt and still feel dreadful about it!

A chase ready for wiring up 

The whole re-wire (3 bed semi) took approximately 1 week; however, this did not include plastering and we had to separately price and plan this work.  The plastering was another £300-400 and took 2 days.

The living room chases post plaster

When thinking about how many sockets you want, think about how you currently use the room, and how you might possibly use the room in the future. We ended up with 10 double sockets in the living room (hey, I was talked down from 11!) – which everyone thought was balmy, but I don’t regret a single one.  By the time you have the tv, sky box, router, PlayStation, laptop charger, hoover points, Christmas tree lights etc. it soon adds up.  The more sockets you have the more flexibility it gives you too.  It sounds really daft, but imagine where you are going to put your Christmas tree, imagine where you are likely to want to plug in your hoover in an easily accessible spot (not into a socket tucked away behind that oaf of a chair…).

Guest Bedroom Renovation

Whilst the whole house was my baby (my husband was fully aware that this was my baby rather than ours!); the second bedroom was my room.  (The third bedroom was to be my husband’s room so I’m not a complete monster!).

Whilst this was technically going to be the Guest Bedroom for when we have guests, it was also destined to be my dressing room.

It had a long way to come though, as it started out as a teenage boys bedroom… including graffiti, spider man stickers, and holes in the wall from a terrible darts player!  It did have some great built in wardrobes though, albeit melamine, but they were an asset I was keen to put to good use.

The colour scheme was going to be a contemporary grey (I can be trendy if I try!).

The following paints were used:
• Dulux Warm Pewter
• Dulux Engraved Locket
• Little Greene Traditional Oil Eggshell in Grey Teal for the wardrobes.

The wardrobes required the Spiderman stickers to be striped off, and the melamine to be repaired in places with some filler (turns out that spiderman stickers had been very strategically placed!). I used a melamine/tile primer (bought from The Range as that was the cheapest place I could find it, but also freely available in the likes of B&Q etc.).  I then did two coats of the Little Greene paint with a gloss mini roller.

The damaged melamine cupboard doors

Primer

On goes the grey

For the handles I settled on some glass cut looking handles from eBay – about £10 for 8 I think and they look smashing.

The finished product - looking a tad better than they started!

Apart from filling in the dart holes, and using a stain remover on the delightful graffiti, the wall decoration was quite straightforward.  There were two tones of grey - one lighter used on 3 walls, and then a darker shade which closely matched the wardrobes on the facing wall to the wardrobes.

Once again we had the light fitting moved to the middle of the room as well, and lots more sockets fitted.
The floor was white painted floorboards – they looked pretty tired but we have left them as they are for now.  I think we will eventually put carpet down, but for now it suits the décor as it is.

For the furniture, I always knew my Singer sewing machine (see post here) would be my dressing table, and the mirror that I made for my husband out of one of his old carbon race wheel would be my dressing table.

We already had a double mattress for this room, but no bed, as our last rented property had come with a bed but no mattress!

I had seen a lovely bed in Ikea but was a bit shocked at the price as I knew that wasn’t something our budget could stretch to.  Until I found a used one in great condition on Gumtree that was a snap at £35 and just a few miles away.  Marvellous.

The bedding was from Wilkinson’s.  Great value at £19.50 in the sale for a 400TC cotton double duvet cover.  It is so smooth and soft I kind of wish it was my bedding, and not the guest bedrooms!  As the walls were a bit dark with all the grey I wanted to keep the rest of the room light with lots of white.

The accent colour in this room was yellow to keep it nice and bright.  The curtains were a steal from eBay.  Brand new Ikea curtains RRP £25, and I picked them up for £7 (very local so no postage costs). I bought some dye from Wilkos (two packs for £10) and the job was a good’un. I even managed to get two cushion covers from the leftover curtain fabric as they were so long, and I dyed those with the curtains too.

The rooms not quite finished yet.  I’d still like to sort out some bedside tables, but I’m really pleased with how it has turned out so far.