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Hi C & J
Wonderful home. Well done. we have just got the keys to our Edwardian property today and I have managed to find your site which I’m sure will prove to be a God send. Our property is in a very similar state to how yours had been on arrival, minus the pee stained carpets. Its just old fashioned. Having had the experience now, where you would recommend we start first? Pointing, downstairs living area, kitchen, bedrooms, or bathroom? we are planning to get quotes from 3 builders for help on certain areas like removing the old brick fire place etc but don’t want to appear like we don’t know what we are doing but the whole house will need renovating.
Thank you and congratulations on your new home!
It’s difficult to say where to start as your priorities will probably be different to ours. Having said that it is important to get any structural things or major improvements out of the way first. If you’ve had a more detailed survey done, it can help to narrow down the priorities (we had a few things where it said urgent). We tackled our living room very early on as we realised that we would need at least one room that was in a good condition where we could close the door on all of the dirt and mess in the rest of the house. If your’re not planning any major changes to the kitchen and bathroom (i.e. moving things) they can be done as and when you want to. The general order of things (although it will vary slightly depending on what your house needs doing) is:
1. Sort Electrics (You’ll probably end up with loads of new holes in the wall, so definitely do it before plastering)
2. Sort Plumbing & Heating
3. Windows
4. Fireplaces (Can be a dirty business if you’re reinstating missing ones)
5. Plastering
6. Decorating
7. Flooring
If you’re planning any structural work like knocking down a wall, get it out of the way as soon as possible. Pointing is a really unexciting project, but really important, so it’s best to get that done soon (obviously depends on what the condition of yours is like).
Hope that’s some help! Good luck with your renovation and do let us know if you have any other questions!
Cx
Dear C
That is actually very helpful. I didn’t even think about holes after electrics. Yes we have pointing issues and can now see the inside walls that appear to have been affected -scary looking cracked skirting. The builders are coming this week for quotes. Gulp. Thank you for getting back. Your blog has certainly helped me put into perspective how long the refurb can take. All the best. I’m sure I will be in touch again.
Sounds like you have your work cut out! Good luck! Cx
Hello, I have searched on your blog for a guide to renovate wood floor. I cannot find it. Can you please tell me how you redecorate your floor?
Thanks
Anyela
You can find our guide on how to sand a wood floor here: https://www.littlehouseonthecorner.com/how-to-sand-floorboards/ and we also put together a post with our Floorsanding FAQ’s here: https://www.littlehouseonthecorner.com/diy-guide-professionally-sand-wooden-floors-floorboards/.
Hope that’s some help Anyela.
Cx
Hello there
I came across your website when googling Victorian house renovations (we’re about to buy a terrace built in 1880 which may need a bit of love) – and I’ve now read so many of your posts, all are brilliant! I am very impressed with what you have both achieved. I’d be really interested in knowing more about the contents of your tool bag (suspect it’s a little bigger than a bag… or belongs to Mary Poppins!) – would you consider writing a post on your key tools if you haven’t already?
Best wishes
Emma
Thank you so much for your kind comment, Emma! We’re actually currently working on a tool bag post – it’s been in an unfinished state in our drafts folder for a while, so we’ll definitely get a move on an publish it asap!
We’ve learned a lot about DIY and tools, so we’re more than happy to share our experiences. Hopefully I’ll get it up on the blog in the next week or two.
J
Thank you. We’re trying to restore the wood floor in the living room at the moment and have had to replace some boards with new as they were rotten. I’m not sure how this is going to look after sanding. Did you have this problem?
Yes, we did. We replaced the rotten ones with floorboards from one of the bedrooms in which we knew wouldn’t have sanded floorboards. For us, this means that we’ve used the same floorboards that were in the house anyway and there aren’t any visible changes.
I think that, when you’ve sanded, you shouldn’t notice a difference in the boards too much. Even if the colour is slightly different at first, it’ll probably mellow a bit over time anyway. I personally wouldn’t mind any differences, as it’s all part of the character of a restored old house.
Cx
I love this blog! It’s so helpful seeing how someone else has tackled the same issues me and my partner are facing at the moment. It’s also keeping us motivated in the hope one day it’ll be finished and look just as good!
Thanks Sarah,
Hope everything is going well with your projects!
Jan
Hello
I love your blog – it’s been so helpful as we’ve been renovating our first house (early 1900s) over the last few months. I was just wondering if you thought I could strip and repaint skirting boards and window frames after painting the walls or will stripping the paint cause a huge amount of damage to our paintwork? Reason being we need to move in soon (we’re fortunate enough to have somewhere else to stay while the major work has been going on) and I’d quite like the walls painted when we get in but won’t have time to do all the work that is going to be needed on the woodwork until a few months from now… Would love to know if you had any thoughts from your experience!
Thanks
Kirstyn
So happy to hear that we’ve been some help! Thanks Kirstyn! You can paint your window frames and skirting boards after the walls, but I would really recommend stripping them before you paint your walls. Stripping causes a lot of mess and gunk and will almost definitely end up on your walls. If you’re short on time, I’d recommend (we’ve done this in the past) just stripping the edge right along the wall – everything else can then be done later on. It’s still a pain, but stripping just one line of paint should be a fairly quick thing to do.
Cx
PS. If you check out our post from Friday where we stripped the dado rail in the hallway, you can just about make out some of the mess that stripping leaves around the stripped area.
Hello :-)
I came across your blog/website while researching, on this particular night, “restoring traditional floorboards” and I’ve pretty much found everything my partner and myself have been looking into all in one place – so fantastic! :-)
We’re going through an exciting time at the moment, we’re looking to buy our first home, a 1930’s do up house, so a lot of evenings have been researching into what we can do ourselves (we’re willing to put the hard work and elbow grease in), for when we’re viewing potential properties. I just wanted to take the time to let you know how pleased I am I came across you guys, the transformation is just amazing and your home is so beautiful. It’s just got us more excited at finally finding our home and putting in all the hard work to turn our furniture house into a home.
Continue with your fabulous transformation and witty blogs :-)
Kirstie x
That’s so kind, thank you so much Kirstie! Glad you found your way over to us!
It is a lot of work restoring a house, but the results are well worth it and the feeling of having achieved something yourself is pretty unbeatable!
Good luck with your first home!
Cx
Thanks Christine
Hi! I’ve just come across your blog searching for painting over gloss paint. I’ve recently bought a house in UK pretty much the same as yours and with all the same issues! Your blog is going to come in really useful :) Just a question – how did you test for lead paint? Everything in our house is covered in paint (or wallpaper) :(
Glad you found your way over to us, Sarah! You can use lead testing kit to check if you have lead paint. You just have to swab the surface to test it – couldn’t be easier. We used one like this one
.
Good luck with your new home!
Cx
Hi,
I’ve just found your site and it is a godsend! My boyfriend and I have just purchased a house which has been badly mistreated by the previous owners and in some serious need of TLC! Your post on how to deal with hard floorboards is brilliant as none of the upstairs has any carpets and they’ve had a huge dog in the main bedroom in cage :’-( so I reckon the smell in there may rival yours!
If I have any questions on best ways to do things in certain rooms, may I contact you for some advice as you really seem to know your stuff?
Thanks,
Jessica
Glad you found your way over to us, Jessica! Congratulations on your new home, it sounds like you have your work cut out! Just drop us a line if you have any questions – always happy to help (if we can…).
Cx