Doing up house - stressful or fun?

[reren]

Over the last few years we have moved house a lot and done up a number of places - and its become something of a passionate hobby - i've spent enough on interior design books and magazines to fund a small flat :-) we now have a small baby and my husbands run out of patience to put up with moving / living w builders etc!

I know some people dont enjoy choosing paint colours, flooring, worktops etc and lots find it stressful - i'm thinking maybe i'd enjoy helping people through that process. I thought i could offer my services (i.e. a couple of hours consultancy/ development of mood boards?) for free to a few people - to see how much i enjoy it? And maybe start to build a portfolio?

I wonder if people thought there might be a call for this kind of thing? Maybe overstretched mums trying to manage an extension being built/ new kitchen installed etc? I'm thinking it could be something for someone who wouldnt ever think to pay for an interior designer - but might want a little help figuring out how to rearrange spaces (knocking down walls etc) or finding interesting finishes / unusual objects / bouncing ideas off someone.

[onefifty]

What a great idea! I have a friend who set up exactly the same business in San Francisco and got to it in the same way you are starting. We've just moved into a new place and are at the begining stages of exploring rennovation ideas and design so I'd be interested in being a guinea pig. Feel free to PM me.

[Mick Mac]

Offering your advice for free. Seems a very odd strategy to me. Good luck with it though.

[maxxi]

Mick Mac Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Offering your advice for free. Seems a very odd

> strategy to me.

Oh I don't know, I'm always offering people free advice. They usually tell me to fuck off but it doesn't deter me.

[Sue]

The most stressful thing in doing up a house, in my experience, is not making decisions about colours, worktops etc - that's fun!

It's having the "I can do that" tradesmen/women in your house for months who - it turns out after you've given them chance after chance - can't actually "do" much of what they confidently say they can.

But they still charge you an arm and a leg for not doing it. And then add insult to injury by charging you for rectifying what they've not done properly in the first place.

And what they can actually do, they take three times as long as anybody else would. And charge you by the hour. If they actually turn up.

Fingers burned? Not me :))

So reren, if you were also able to recommend local competent tradespeople to do the work, with genuine checkable references, that would be a great addition to your design advice!

[SueOrr0103]

Hi Reren,

I'm running out of my patient nerves with the building and decorating in my property. Like Sue above mentioned, would your services also include minding builders to ensure they do what they promise to do? If so then Yes would love to have someone like you around. So yes, great idea. Happy to be a guniea pig as well.

Sue x

[red devil]

...and get some professional input before advising on ''knocking down walls''

My advice to you would be to carry some imdemnity insurance...just in case ;-)

[hpsaucey]

Hhhm. I'd just like to be able to afford to buy somewhere to get stressed about doing up ...

Good luck though - sure there will be lots of interested people.

H

[Annette Curtain]

I work in the business. It's lovely going through the "I like that" stage, choosing, dreaming & ordering. The real & gritty bit is the regulations. Where do you want the water mains coming in, the RCD circuit board located, the intumescent paints and finishes. Why L.e.d not L.v. biomass or high pressure systems. Even double or quadruple argon filled sealed units, aluminium or Iroko bi-fold of tri-fold. Architect or building control? If you want the respect professionally from the trades that matter, the ones that get things done, then you'll need to up your game, know your stuff.

I'm on a "money's no object" site at the moment. (15k or there about for handmade tiles anyone?) A job run by professionals with years of experience but 6+ weeks behind the schedule and at least 20 trades on site at any one time. It is being driven relentlessly & quite frankly it's hard frikkin work for everyone trying to achieve a job of the right quality. Each day throws a curved and often costly curved ball. Yesterday the glass arrived x 30 pieces of toughened = ?600. Each piece has distorted in the process by 10mm. So do we force it to fit an engineered metal frame with a 3mm tolerance or do we send it back and suffer a cost penalty for overrunning ?

I could go on, i've got 27 years worth of what's happened stories. Oh my & before I forget, the adult tantrums are legendary. I've seen lawyers & meltdowns in equal measure BUT that given, I strangely love the business. The end result is amazing at times & the path to it is often one of near biblical stoniness. In fact I wouldn't change it for the world.

However, I do wish you good luck. You'll need it ( in buckets ).

Nette:-S

[MrBen]

It's fun. Well at least my first one is. I've struck a decent balance between doing some of it myself and getting the pro's in for the harder stuff. Plastering for example is a magic art and life is too short for me to ever be able to do it well. Ditto roofing. Most roofers are slightly crazed it would seem and second only to scaffolders.

The basics of renovation planning are easy enough, it's the interiors /fittings selection bit that takes up the time and is driving me slightly mad. You can spend a whole saturday driving round London to look at taps for example, as the web alone is not enough. I'd happily pay someone to do that all for me with a basic brief.

So reren..... You already have the experience, the motivation to try it and by starting small you can test the waters gently without massive risk. You have the option to build a flexible business to hours that suit if you're a mum. Most people don't ever take that risk and are stuck slaving away for The Man in jobs they hate. You have a good and positive attitude which puts you ahead of many so good luck and above all... go for it.

[Annette Curtain]

I agree with Mr Ben.

His upbeat positivity is infectious & if you can, then I'd say go for it. There are a few key suppliers that make buying stuff like taps & white goods way simpler, pm me if you like & i'll forward the contacts.

Theres also a couple of free trade magazines that are worth getting Like Designer and one kitchen & bathroom mag too. The american magazine Dwell is great. Architectural Digest is good & strangely not about architecture but interiors.

Nette:)

[red devil]

That explains his recent visit to the Clap Clinic...

[MrBen]

Boom tsh.

Here's one for you. I have inherited a standard open vent heating system (Boiler out the back + hot water cylinder 1st floor + cw tank in the loft). The main issues with this are (i) takes up too much space (ii) HW pressure is crap. (iii) it's old and noisy and the HW cylinder is taking up a bedroom wardrobe. I have 4 bar of mains water pressure at ground level.

I basically want: a max of 2 components not 3 to save space, stored HW, decent pressure for 2 bathrooms and close to noiseless operation. I've heard Megaflo stuff is not all its cracked up to be and is heavily dependent on a homes mains flow rate (rather than mains pressure) which is not generally great in SE22.

I ask a few plumbers but they're only interested in connecting pipes and the usual vague cliches "Bosch make good boilers" and "combies are good for flats but not houses".

So I almost need a heating designer to help me. Someone who knows the latest systems and can then recommend something that works for my house, my space, on my street. I can do all the research myself OR I'd happily pay a small fee for someone who knows this stuff inside out to do the research, check my house out, plan a design and then give me some price options and someone good to fit it. So.....any ideas?

[Senor Chevalier]

Not an expert by any means, but Megaflow should work very well with your presure. If the flow rate is a particular problem for you then this can be addressed by upgrading your mains inlet pipe to a 28mm or 32mm pipe. This does require paying Thames Water to dig up the road. When we did mine, we got as far as the front boundary wall and just used the existing (14mm?) connection to test things out. The flow was perfectly good enough so we saved the expense of upgrading the street connection with Thames Water as we had been intending.

[red devil]

Mr Ben, can you please clarify...has the 4 bar pressure been recorded at ground level mains supply, or at ground level via from the water tank, i.e. gravity?

[MrBen]

The mains comes in (15mm pipe) and splits two ways, one to the kitchen tap, the other feeds the CW tank in the loft. 4 MB has been measured at kitchen mains branch only (ground level).

[red devil]

Thanks, sent you a PM...