One of the jobs, we felt, that had to be completed before we moved into the house was getting all the windows replaced. The front windows(2 large bay windows and a “normal” sized window) were aluminium single glazed windows and at the back(4 “normal” sized windows), they were the original steel single glazed windows from the original build of the house. Although, I was slightly amazed that they survived 60 years, we knew they had to go. So we organized a few people around to give us quotes on all the windows and a set of french doors at the rear. The first people out assured us that they sold the best windows in Ireland. The only company with an A rated window. And boy were they expensive. Priced themselves completely out of the job with a quote for just a hair under a cool 20 grand. Although I reckon we hid our shock well in the end. The person that came out to quote the house, then asked if we had anyone else coming out. We named off the other companies that are calling out and he nonchalantley added that his quote would be around 30-40% more expensive then the others. I’m actually believed that they have the best windows but the premium is just too high. We had a couple more people out and their quotes were much more reasonable, and in the end went with one that was neither the cheapest or the dearest.

Next quotes were for painting. We had two people over and they undercut each other to death. It was actually slightly embarassing to watch. Unfortunatly there are alot of tradesmen out there at the minute with not a whole lot on, and they’re really lowering their prices to try and get work. We were told that during the boom years, it would cost 3750euro to paint the interior of a standard 3bed semi. In the end our quote came to a lot less than that, so happy days.

Electrics have also been a focus on the last two weeks, and I have someone helping me out in realizing my grand scheme. Speaker cable, cat5, and a couple of extra power lines have been put in around the house, which will hopefully allow me to hook the house up with some neat home AV tricks. How that all works out is another thing! Hopefully I’ll write another post about just this, as it’s really the area where I have the most hope for!

Plastering has also moved forward slightly in that all upstairs has been finished. A couple of places had to be patched after the electrics but nothing major and the plasterer was aware that it would be happening.

So last on the agenda this week was what we were going to do with the kitchen. On the table for a while were a couple of suggestions about extending but in these current times I really didn’t want to stretch the budget.  So in the end we went with another idea that we’d had a while back about making the kitchen and dining room open plan, and the kitchen re-arranging that is necessary for that to go ahead. Unfortunately organizing that kind of thing really pushed the girlfriend over the edge, and in the end decided to hire a builder to focus on the rest of the renovation project. In the end its probably a very good thing as with both of us working in busy jobs, we don’t have time to be keeping an eye on carpenters and builders. Plus the contacts that this person brings to the project will always be helpful. So hopefully this doesn’t end up backfiring but hopefully a good bit of work is going to get done in the coming weeks.

It was not without mistakes though so hopefully this helps someone else about to do the same thing…

• Get Masks – On Monday we did alot of carpet lifting and the dust and other rubbish that got thrown into the air was positively disgusting. However at the time we didn’t really notice. The next day however, I woke with and a headache and coughing. Not that bad but can easily be avoided!
• Get Good Gloves – Again, for carpet lifting. You’ll find with older houses that the carpets tend to be tacked down all the way around the room… And well that resulted in about very sore hands for me. My hands are covered in about 20 little cuts that are irritating to say the least. The gloves also help to keep your hands clean – an unappreciated benefit until you find out that some of the taps don’t technically… work.
• Get some Tools – This one I mostly had covered. A good hammer, chisel, crowbar and sledgehammer will get you out of most fixes. I also had hired a nice big steamer to take the wallpaper off the walls so that helped immensely. In fact, I would not have been able to do all the rooms without it. Forget all the other magic wallpaper removal techniques – Get a Steamer. Another tool that I can recommend is an angle grinder as there are many times when you’ll find it handy. I did, when I was trying to take the skirting boards off the walls without removing the radiators.

However the thing that helped the most? Getting Help!

Get Friends, Get Family, Get Help.

Luckily, I was helped in most of the jobs around the house by members of both families and friends that showed up to lend a hand. A few in particular were invaluable and I cant thank them enough. They were a great help in the early stages and enabled us to get rid of the skip out the front quickly as we were able to do all the big jobs quickly and mostly easier with more hands. One thing I can recomend is getting a few friends around early, with the lure of a couple of free drinks down the local. Everyone works like a trojan for half the day and then its off the pub for the match and a food and drink. That way you get maximum productivity and maximum time off! There’s nothing worse then knowing that there’s a good match on and your pulling out wardrobes on your own. Plus it’ll end up cheaper in the long run.

So, what’s on the agenda for next week? Well, we have a few builders lined up to come around and talk about extensions and our options. A friend who’s doing the electrics is also due, and a couple of other tradesmen are coming out to give us quotes and the like. Let’s hope its nice and cheap!