DI motherfuckin Y

[moomoo]

Tommers I feel your pain. Exactly the situation we were in when we decided to strip the ancient wall paper. It took us a full 8 hours to strip a single wall.

Now listen, don't panic when I suggest this, but have you considered re-plastering yourself? I know this sounds drastic, maybe even impossible, but when faced with this situation in every room we bit the bullet.

Dave learnt to plaster off my uncle, and he absolutely assures me it is not as hard as you think. You can plaster a regular sized room in a day, two tops if you is slow. And the finish, even if not perfect as you is a newbie, is sooooo much better than filling in and sanding a million cracks and holes.

Just be warned about the mess. Nothing can prepare you for plaster dust.

This made me laugh! My husband trained as a plasterer and we lived with an unplastered wall in the kitchen of our old house for 7 years!!!!!

He only got round to doing it when we were selling the house!

 

[Edie]

My DIY low came just a few weeks before our second son was born. Other half had some friends round to fit the new kitchen. I'd been cooking on a camping stove for a year and washing up in the bath for at least a month.

But... My Other Half (in his wisdom and while I was inadvisadly out at the park with number 1 son) decided to tear old the old gas fire whilst the boys were round. He then tore out the 1950's tile surround, then knocked through the wall into the victorian range to expose the original lintel and hauled about a tonne of soot covered ancient rubble into the front room.

I returned with a hungry, cold todder with swollen ankles and a strong nesting instinct to find the men literally sitting on the pile of filthy rubble in the front room drinking tea and no kitchen

I burst into tears and went a bit mental and had to go for a bit of a lie down. It was then my hatred of DIY began in ernest.

 

[aqua]

your house sounds lovely do you still have the range or did they get rid of it?

 

[tommers]

Now listen, don't panic when I suggest this, but have you considered re-plastering yourself? I know this sounds drastic, maybe even impossible, but when faced with this situation in every room we bit the bullet.

well.... the other half has re-plastered the bits that fell off when we took the wallpaper down. We used ready mixed plaster and she said it was easy. Not sure about doing whole walls though.

Thing is, we're beginners and the last thing I want is to do all this and then for it to still look crap. I think that would break me.

 

[tommers]

to find the men literally sitting on the pile of filthy rubble in the front room drinking tea and no kitchen

I burst into tears and went a bit mental and had to go for a bit of a lie down. It was then my hatred of DIY began in ernest.

sorry. but

 

[Edie]

We're fucking beginners, we've had to do it ourselves cos we can't afford otherwise, it does look crap (in places) and it has broken me

Aqua- our house is lovely in proportion. Victorian high ceilings, big windows. But it is very small. A small Leeds back to back with one room downstairs you walk in off the bin yard and a small galley kitchen, bathroom and one bedroom first floor and attick room. Perfectly formed but bloody small

 

[aqua]

one of my friends used to have a back to back in Huddersfield, bloody gorgeous it was but I couldn't get used to it at all I was always looking for the other half on each floor

 

[Edie]

one of my friends used to have a back to back in Huddersfield, bloody gorgeous it was but I couldn't get used to it at all I was always looking for the other half on each floor

Yeah the layout will have been almost identical to ours, they're all very similar. I went into a 'through' the other day, I was amazed at how much more space there was, found myself saying 'wow, it feels twice the size of ours'

Plus they have gardens. I'm so jealous of anyone with a garden. Or what about a dining room! Imagine being able to sit with your family around a table in a room especially designated for eating in. My ambition in life is to own a house with a garden and a dining room.

edit to add: that has been completely done up in a tasteful yet sympathetic manner BY SOME OTHER FUCKER.

 

[moomoo]

one of my friends used to have a back to back in Huddersfield, bloody gorgeous it was but I couldn't get used to it at all I was always looking for the other half on each floor

What's a back to back? What do you mean you were looking for the other half? I'm very (and should be cleaning my own filthy tip )

 

[aqua]

they had the back of a backtoback so had the garden bit which was lovely, but it was just so weird the kitchen in the basement bit was really lovely, but the bedrooms just seemed lonely

 

[aqua]

What's a back to back? What do you mean you were looking for the other half? I'm very (and should be cleaning my own filthy tip )

have you not been to the ones in brum?

it was a design of house where 2 houses (in terraces) are back to back to each other, so one half of the house is one families and the front another families

designed to get as many people into a street as possible

 

[aqua]

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-birmingham_backtobacks/

the brum ones

 

[moomoo]

have you not been to the ones in brum?

it was a design of house where 2 houses (in terraces) are back to back to each other, so one half of the house is one families and the front another families

designed to get as many people into a street as possible

No, never seen one!

How would the people in the back half get into their house?

Would it be like my house chopped in half?

This sounds really interesting! Hmmm, hoover or google back to backs........?


eta: You did it for me - bless!

 

[aqua]

http://www.thorotonsociety.org.uk/gateway/images/places/nottingham/hawksleys-plan.jpg

that might help you

 

[moomoo]

Well, you learn something new every day.

I see a half term trip out is in order here (I didn't know there were any in Brum you could visit), we could merge it with the Mcfly signing at HMV.

Sorry to derail Claire!

 

[chinchillazilla]

claire - I cannot tell you how much I feel your pain. we're in almost exactly the same boat, right down to the two smalls. And when you're a bit strapped for cash and you decide to do a job and you buy the materials to do it (that you can't really afford), that feeling when you get home with the stuff and you REALLY don't want to do it but you've bought the damn stuff so you HAVE to is about my least favourite in the world.

I do love my hammer drill though.

 

[chinchillazilla]

p.s. I love nail guns too

 

[Dillinger4]

Damn I thought this was a Princess Di thread.

*is disappointed*

 

[London_Calling]

Aqua- our house is lovely in proportion. Victorian high ceilings, big windows. But it is very small. A small Leeds back to back with one room downstairs you walk in off the bin yard and a small galley kitchen, bathroom and one bedroom first floor and attick room. Perfectly formed but bloody small

Well, bin yard or no bin yard, you know the job isn't complete without the BBC style garden decking and BBC mid-blue sunken lighting. Get cracking , luv.

 

[nadia]

I hate glossing with a passion. Paint stripping is particularly soul destroying, I desided the stair case would look great stripped down to bare wood in my old house. It would have been easier to rebuild the thing (and it would have looked better). Emulsion painting is ok, tiling can be ok. Next year I am planning a new kitchen

 

[Edie]

claire - I cannot tell you how much I feel your pain. we're in almost exactly the same boat, right down to the two smalls. And when you're a bit strapped for cash and you decide to do a job and you buy the materials to do it (that you can't really afford), that feeling when you get home with the stuff and you REALLY don't want to do it but you've bought the damn stuff so you HAVE to is about my least favourite in the world.

I do love my hammer drill though.

((chinchillazilla)) maybe we could set up some kind of support group! How old are your little uns and what stage of the DIY hell are you in??!

Moomoo- can't believe you don't know what a back2back is! I also cannot believe there is actually a museum in Birmingham showing how people "used" to live in back2backs! Just come on up to leeds and we'll fucking show you! There are thousands of us all slumming it right now in back2 backs ha!

Edit: this house is very, very, very close to ours: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-15917779.rsp?pa_n=2&tr_t=buy

 

[Edie]

Oh but the one redeeming feature of DI motherfuckin Y? We bought our house 4 years ago for 80 grand. House on next street just sold at £145 grand Maybe it's worth it!

 

[chymaera]

Oh but the one redeeming feature of DI motherfuckin Y? We bought our house 4 years ago for 80 grand. House on next street just sold at £145 grand Maybe it's worth it!

IF you have the practical knowledge, a DIY refurbishment or a self-build is the way to either save a lot of money or make a lot. (Or end up divorced).

 

[moomoo]

((chinchillazilla)) maybe we could set up some kind of support group! How old are your little uns and what stage of the DIY hell are you in??!

Moomoo- can't believe you don't know what a back2back is! I also cannot believe there is actually a museum in Birmingham showing how people "used" to live in back2backs! Just come on up to leeds and we'll fucking show you! There are thousands of us all slumming it right now in back2 backs ha!

Edit: this house is very, very, very close to ours: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-15917779.rsp?pa_n=2&tr_t=buy

I've never seen one. Is it a northern thing? That house is beautiful btw! I wouldn't say you are slumming it at all.

 

[Superape]

I've never seen one. Is it a northern thing? That house is beautiful btw! I wouldn't say you are slumming it at all.

[temporary diversion]

It may well be Northern - imagine a terrace house which, instead of going all the way from the front to the back, only goes half way. Thus the front entrance is to one house, the back to another. Cheap, high density housing for factory mine & mill workers.

Other housing novelties include 'through by light', and 'underdwellings' & overdwellings'.

[diversion ends]

 

[Edie]

Nah it was a joke! Although they are at the bottom end of the house market ladder, you live very ummmm intimately with your neighbours cos you have them on both sides, and on the back so you get to hear everything! Plus cos no outside space to speak of everyone lives in the street in the summer, and even in the winter it's common to sit in your front room with the front door open. I dunno why but we do it a lot too. Glad you think it's lovely

 

[beeboo]

Last week my other half decided to spray the tacky gold fireplace with a black aerosol stove paint. He masking taped the mantlepiece, put a dust sheet out in front, and got spraying.

Came home to find him just finishing off. Admired the classy new black fireplace. Helped him move the dust sheets...which is when we discovered that there was distinct pale patch on the floor where the dust sheet had been - everywhere else in the room had been veiled with thin layer of black paint. Lifted the empty tea-mug from the floor revealed a cream circle on the slightly-less cream rug.

Thankfully some serious hoovering and scrubbing has removed the worst of it.

 

[Edie]

That post largely sums up DIY to me. Expensive, time consuming and involving disproportionate effort with results that at best are always annoyingly below standard or at worst near disastorous.

I need an attitude adjustment about all this I think. Think of the £££ girl!

 

[_pH_]

but have you considered re-plastering yourself?

Isn't the plaster supposed to go on the wall though?

 

[Nixon]

I like DIY