My first Victorian House

[Bathman]

Been reading the forum for a few weeks and thought I would post an introduction. I have recently bought a late Victorian house in Bath which needs quite a bit of repair and refurbishment over the next few years. Seems this forum will be quite a useful source of information once I get started. Having read a few blogs linked from the forum, I have decided to create a blog of my own:

http://victorian-house-refurb.blogspot.com/2013/03/introduction-to-my-victorian-house.html

There is a photo up on my blog of the house, hope to get some more photo's up over the next few weeks. Plan on getting lots done to the house, including: complete re-wire; internal insulation (where practical); roof repairs and new roofs; extend bathroom; new kitchen; complete re-decorating and trying to make the best of the period features that remain (tile floor in the porch and 3 original fire places upstairs currently boarded up).

Hope the blog will be of interest to some of you, and always happy to receive any advice!

 

[MatthewC]

Hi Bathman, welcome. That looks like an interesting house you've got there, albeit with a fair few modern alterations. Is the house listed? You'll need to get up to speed with Building Control in any case, but the possible conflict between the Building Control Officer and the Conservation Officer if it's listed will be even more fun (not).

You probably realise that there are lots of people who will advise you on here, and there are some good guiding principles as well. One of my favourites is that you don't do any significant permanent changes in a hurry - always give serious thought to things that are irreversible before committing yourself. If you are living in the house then what once seemed a good idea may eventually turn into a "thank goodness we didn't do that!"

Looking forward to more photos on your blog, and do keep that going - I found it quite therapeutic, but it also forms a good record of what I actualy did, and when!

Matthew

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Welcome Bathman, lovely house. Good luck, and as above, take your time!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Is that a dressed stone house? How nice if so! Windows, roof, hmm, just think how lovely it would be if those were made right. A warm welcome to the forum and you've always got listening ears here - so do post and repeat the link to your blog as you add to it, it will be lovely to see your progress.

 

[Bathman]

Thanks for the welcome!

MatthewC - no the house isn't listed, which may make my life a bit easier. Been having a good read through the building regulations and been in contact with my LABC to discuss the re-wire already (although no getting very far unfortunately).

JoceAndChris - sorry, not sure what dressed Bath Stone is. The Bath Stone is just standard sawn stone with a flat finish (think I have seen it referred to as Bath Stone ashlar at some reclamation yards).

I have already made a couple of extra posts to my blog, including some history to the house and also some info on the exterior of the house. Grateful for any feedback e.g. too boring, too much detail, too few/many pics. Link to the main blog is here:

http://victorian-house-refurb.blogspot.co.uk

I'm just about to look under the kitchen laminate flooring to see what's underneath before my OH wakes up and catches me. Hope to find some tiles but not holding out much hope!