KINGS ROAD PROJECT

10th August 2017:

At last! After quite a few months we are finally finished, the house is cleaned and dressed and ready to go! We had the photographer round this morning so hopefully it will be live on the internet/ Rightmove/ Zoopla by the weekend ready for a busy open house weekend next.

Just to show you the transformation and hard work, here are the before and afters:

Reception: 

Kitchen: 

Downstairs Bathroom: 

Back Bedroom and New Shower Room and Toilet. We split the back bedroom to get a shower room on the 1st floor. 

Middle bedroom: 

Main Bedroom: 

6th August 2017:

All but a few minor snagging issues left with the house now, and some of that we’ve made moving the dressing furniture in! Just setting up the house now with a few accessories and a few bits of furniture to show it at its best, and hopefully we sell in the first week again! [Touching wood etc!].

1st August 2017:

Nearly there! The carpets are down, the engineered wood flooring is down, we’ve painted inside and out and we’ve even pruned the apple tree! Just a couple of snagging issues to go which I hope to do most later today. Then it is time to dress the house list the property on the market for one lucky new home owner!

14th July 2017:

We continue with the decorating of the house, whilst it seems that we have slowed down but it very much isn’t the case. The last faffy bits are the most time consuming but if you require a finish to a level demanded by MPC then it does take time.

We’ve also finished the tiling in the bathrooms and fitted a ‘feature’ or as I call a fancy light above the stairs.

30th June 2017:

It is always with a project that the last 20% of the job takes 80% of the time, and that is definitely the case with the walls. There has been and still is a lot of filling and sanding and filling and sanding… But the walls will be super smooth!

The kitchen has been delivered and the only hold up to finishing it are all the parts that didn’t get delivered! Hopefully that will be sorted tomorrow.

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We’ve also made a good start on the tiling, the floors are down and the bathrooms have started.

24th June 2017:

With all the boarding and plastering done, we’ve been making great head roads towards completion, we’ve got the upstairs bathroom/ shower room built and plumbed, similarly the down stairs bathroom is all plumbed. Both now just waiting on tiling. The walls have all been painted at least an under coat and with the white walls the house looks so bright and airy. The living space is just white undercoat for now but will go a nice Purbeck Stone colour from Farrar and Ball.

14th June 2017:

The rear extension had an old felt roof and whilst there was nothing actually wrong with the roof i.e. it didn’t leak, I always like to exchange them as their longevity and reliableness are very questionable. SO as we like to ‘make homes for living’ and produce a renovation that will last and be of the highest standard we replaced them with GRP roofs. GRP meaning glass reinforced plastic, and how good a roof does that make? Well they make boats and canoes out of it, so pretty water tight and corrosion free! It should last longer than the house now, the manufacturers reckon over a 100 years and we give a 20 year guarantee on it.

Wedge batens going down to create a sufficent fall on the roof, we’ve got better than the recomended 1:40.

18mm tongue and groove OSB board is attached over the battens to creat a strong and stable roof. 

Trims are attached to the edges. 

Then real magic, the GRP matt is layed over the roof and impregnated with resin. 

After leaving for an hour a graphite grey top coat goes on to leave us with a spectacular roof that will last a lifetime. 

Then finally to make complete watertight ‘lead effect’ trim seals over the roof trim. Job Done! Well except for putting the gutter back and re-rendering the chimney! 

6th June 2017:

We’ve been doing a lot of work with the walls, following the damp proofing we’ve skimmed and boarded over them to create nice straight unblemished walls. The shower room upstairs has pretty much been installed and just waiting on some tiling now. 

20th May 2017:

We been busy installing a new damp proof course throughout the house as many of the walls were wet. Although while hacking away the old ‘render’ we discovered that they used bonding plaster which is just like a big sponge so most of the problems were self inflicted by the previous owner rather than a real damp problem. But as we always like to go above and beyond on all of our projects we will still install a chemical DPC around the perimeter of the house even though it is needed in only a few areas.

We use the Dryrod system from Safeguard Europe for the chemical DPC. These rods, while expensive, provide the most effective rising damp treatment as confirmed he British Board of Agrément (BBA). Dryrods being a rod rather than a cream also ensures the correct dosage each time and no risk of air bubbles as you get with cream injections.

with the rods inserted we then render over, we use the DryZone renovation plaster which are a high performance breathable damp and salt resistant plaster.

Away from the damp proofing works we have done a little structural work, cutting the opening for the new double glazed French door and installing a supporting steel above the door and fitting of the door itself.

We’ve also fitted a new back door.

8th May 2017:

I’ve been on my own over the past week, so not forging ahead quite as fast as I would like to be. However, I have pretty much got all the cables in for the re-wire, so we are ready for the damp proofing to be finished and the boarding of the walls next week. Skip number 3 has arrived, so hopefully this one will take a little longer to fill up.

We’ve also changed the gas meter from a pre-payment meter to a regular billed meter, and we’ve had delivery of the steel ready to add a nice double glazed French door into the garden.

29th April 2017:

A demolition week this week, after the furniture clear out the other week it was the turn of the walls to get stripped out. Upstairs we’ve taken ceilings down and started to remove the old lath and plaster walls, while downstairs we’ve stripped back to the brickwork ready to install a damp proof course all around the ground floor. The sad part of the damp issues is that while the previous owners had tried to do maintenance they had used bonding plaster which is just like a sponge. Once that was hacked away the walls could noticeably be seen to dry out.

As every with any renovation project, waste removal is one of the biggest chores and expenses. We only really started propper this week and we are already on skip number 2, possibly not helped by the fact that we had to knock the front wall down to get the skip on the drivway!.

21st April 2017:

Not much to report except that we’ve now finished our project over in Coulsdon and now we can get started proper on this project.

1st April 2017:

It has been the big clear up this week, a lot of junk to be cleared as you can see from the big pile we made out front.

But as you can see from these before and afters, the house is already transformed from the neglected derelict condition, to one ready for the actual developing work to begin in order to get the hose back to it former glory.

23rd February 2017:

A day late due to complications with the transfer forms not being signed properly… sellers fault but they still got to charge me for being a day late completing, the joy of buying at auction!

But here is the first look at out new auction property renovation project;

22nd February 2017:

With our Coulston project nearing the end, I’ve managed to pick up this great 3 bed terrace in South Norwood. Needs fully gutting and modernising though, but that is what we love to do.