Toushea's Mod-wardian House Renovation

Toushea

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Hi everyone , I've decided to start a thread to document the complete renovation of my Edwardian Semi-Detached house after being inspired by many of the great threads on this forum. Its not truly DIY in that I have contractors handling most of the work but after 18 months of going over everything over and over to get it just right I have certainly done it myself in the overthinking department. Whilst its mainly a full house renovations there will of course be a nice home cinema setup going into the living room which I hope achieves a nice balance of performance, discreetness and affordability. There are also some plans to integrate some smart home technologies throughout the house.

The good news is that the demolition began Monday morning and there will be plans and photos to follow shortly.
 
So time for an update on demolitions so far along with a walk through of the house
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Upon entering the house you are greeted by a very small entrance hall 1*1m with the staircase in front of you , there is no hallway at all which may be unusual but means theres no wasted space so its something I've always been oddly happy with

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Turning left from the "Hallway" you enter the living room. It has good proportions with 9 foot ceilings, footprint of 4.5x4.2m excluding the large bay window. The aim in this room is to retain some of the classical features such as the original fireplace and cornicing whilst including modern touches such as new floors and a 5.1.2 atmos system with 120" drop down projector screen. The builders have cut out the new door position which allows me to make better use of the rooms layout.

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The above shows a panoramic view from the main seating position and shows the movement of the door from the old position to the new.
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Moving through the living room we end up in what was the original kitchen room in this 3 up 2 down arrangement, this was later split with a partition (left of image) that divided the area into a second siting room and a bathroom/utility room. At this time a kitchen extension was added. The partition has been half torn down to remove the utility room and allow for a larger bathroom downstairs as well as some additional space in the kitchen. The wall which has three openings is due to be completely removed to open up these two rooms into one larger open plan kitchen diner.
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This room features a beautiful original tiled floor which unfortunately due to a large number of patches and some glue in other areas is beyond saving.
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Moving out to the kitchen we can see the area that will form the bulk of the kitchen diner. there will be a long run of cabinets along the wall where the cooked is located and an island in the middle of the floor. The roof here is to be removed and a new flat roof is to be raised internally to match the 9 foot ceilings found elsewhere on the ground floor.
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I arrived home on day to to find my kitchen is now topless. The opening in the rear wall is to accommodate the new floor to ceiling bifold doors. Work is temporarily delayed whilst we wait for ESB networks to remove my neighbours mains supply off the back wall of my house. Hopefully they're starting this work tomorrow. Steel going on order this week too.
 

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Just a note that this build is taking place in Ireland and as such certain plumbing/wiring practices may differ from those in the UK , I appreciate any professionals inputs as the work progresses if they see anything they feel is not correct but I do understand that differences in building regs may be the cause of confusion.
 
Whilst work is on hold I thought I would share the all important home cinema plans , I would appreciate any input and constructive criticism on offer.

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Above shows the planned layout of the room , viewing distance is approximately 4.2m from the seating under the projector to the screen which can be seen just left of the rug.

Room will be fully wired for 5.1.2 surround sound with Atmos. Plan for now is to use my current Jamo S606 speakers for front left and right and my S602s for the surround left and right, due to the room shape the surrounds will have to be set at 80 degrees which isn't ideal but I think is an ok compromise. As my budget didn't allow for an acoustically transparent screen I will be disabling the centre channel for now but the room will be wired for it should the screen ever be changed.

Regarding the Atmos speakers I'm open to advice on recommended speakers. Im hoping to keep the spend minimal circa ÂŁ100-150 for a pair of speakers. Im by no means an audiophile so top of the range quality may very well be lost on me. For now I plan to rely on the 8"woofers in the front towers for bass , I always found these to be adequate for my needs in this room before now but will consider moving to a dedicated sub once I have the setup tested and I'm sure my neighbours aren't being affected.
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The screen I have purchased for the project is the eSmart Tab tension 120" Grey Screen. Its a budget option for a tab tensioned screen but its certainly flatter than most non-tensioned screens I've seen at this price and Ive been pleased with it during my testing, the above photo was shortly after reviving the unit so there were still some wrinkles present that have since settled out. For the price I paid I'm very happy with it , it has one small hotspot but its not enough to bother me.

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As you can see in this slightly blurry image the picture when combined with my W1110 isn't bad , and the 120" screen is a big upgrade from my existing 60" Television.
 
Good luck, it's a big job you're undertaking. I would wire for 4 ceiling speakers and 4 surround speakers for future proofing.
 
Good luck, it's a big job you're undertaking. I would wire for 4 ceiling speakers and 4 surround speakers for future proofing.
Thanks for the positive words, it has been quite daunting so far. Regarding the pre wiring for for surrounds and four ceiling speakers I was wondering what benefit it would have in this layout given that the seating area will always realistically have to be up against the back wall. I would have thought this made the idea of rear surrounds and the upper rear atmos speakers a non-runner?
 
You can put the rears a little higher than normal...my room has my seating at the back and the rears still do a great job imo. For the price of few M of speaker cable, it's best to run them just in case of future upgrades :)
 
You can put the rears a little higher than normal...my room has my seating at the back and the rears still do a great job imo. For the price of few M of speaker cable, it's best to run them just in case of future upgrades :)

soupdragon , Ive just finished going through your entire post , amazing stuff , doesn't make my project seem quite so daunting . I will certainly look at running the extra cable now that Ive seen your setup
 
Right after a lot of nothingness due to issues with power and other delays we are making progress again. Needling was completed and signed off by the engineer and the wall came down and steelwork was installed to take the weight of the house.
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The builders then installed the linter over the new sitting room door location and blockwork has commenced, hopefully I will be able to post more regular updates soon.
 
Today was a Good news bad news day.
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Good news is the back door opening with lintel is now complete.
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Bad news is that the lintel was inserted a row of blocks too low. :(:(
Thankfully it can be corrected tomorrow and the rep for Origin Doors In Ireland is coming down to measure the windows and doors, he is talking about a one week lead time but Ill believe it when I see them get fitted.


Dragging things back to the av side briefly Ive been looking for a whole home audio solution for a while and was leaning towards Sonos but the price was a bit much for me. Was in Dixons in Dublin Airport last week travelling on business when I spotted a bargain I couldn't say no to. Libraotone Zipp speakers marked down to €139 each, was going to buy two when the staff member scanned them to find out they were actually €109 each :clap:. So naturally I had to buy the lot that were left.
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4 Libratone Zipps for the price of 1.5 on amazon uk , ill call that a win
 
Finally some progress. As you can see the roof structure is now in place. The door and windows were installed on Saturday morning and to say Im thrilled is an understatement. I still cannot believe that these were ordered from a factory in Buckinghamshire on a Monday morning and custom made and delivered and fitted on the west coast of Ireland the following Saturday.

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Fitters were on site 9am Saturday morning after crossing the country from Dublin. They made an immediate start on the door, manoeuvring the 2.7m high frames into position was heavy going but they made it look effortless.
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Not long after they were finished with the door and for the first time in 3 months the house was weathertight again.
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With that completed swift work was made of the five windows that needed fitting.It has been a relief to finally see some new parts going in , still hopeful to be home for Christmas.
 
Having to make a big push now on finishes , meeting the plumber and electrician tomorrow regarding the first fixes. Electrical is mostly nailed down and I ended up going with lightwave rf for home automation where I wanted lighting control. It suited me because I prefer smart switch technology at this point in time as It is less confusing for guests. I also like that i can integrate the lightwave relays for blind control and most likely going to go down this route for the projector screen also, going to check the controller in the morning but I'm fairly certain it will be possible to replace it with a blind control relay.

Regarding the plumbing I'm still open to advice. Initial plan was a combination boiler since its only a 2 bathroom household and space is a premium but the more I think about it the more i realised that I like my long warm showers and the biggest issue has never been flow but pressure. I had a cursory look at the mains and Im getting approx 18l/min flow which isn't bad but pressure is hovering around a bar which I'm not happy with. Considered a unvented hot water cylinder but felt it would still be a little bit of a halfway solution.

Current thought is to have both the hot and cold water tanks in the attic where there is plenty of space and good insulation as it is a converted space. I would think approximately 200 -250 l capacity in both tanks with a twin impeller pump to provide pressurised water to the rest of the house. I feel with the flow I have this should be viable and it would provide a good pressure to the whole property. By placing the hot water tank in the attic it would simplify issues should I decide to add solar water heating in the future.

Ive also been finalising layouts with the Kitchen Fitters so progress being made there, currently looking at the below colours. Grey for the main wall of cabinets with the island in navy.

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Having to make a big push now on finishes , meeting the plumber and electrician tomorrow regarding the first fixes. Electrical is mostly nailed down and I ended up going with lightwave rf for home automation where I wanted lighting control. It suited me because I prefer smart switch technology at this point in time as It is less confusing for guests. I also like that i can integrate the lightwave relays for blind control and most likely going to go down this route for the projector screen also, going to check the controller in the morning but I'm fairly certain it will be possible to replace it with a blind control relay.

Regarding the plumbing I'm still open to advice. Initial plan was a combination boiler since its only a 2 bathroom household and space is a premium but the more I think about it the more i realised that I like my long warm showers and the biggest issue has never been flow but pressure. I had a cursory look at the mains and Im getting approx 18l/min flow which isn't bad but pressure is hovering around a bar which I'm not happy with. Considered a unvented hot water cylinder but felt it would still be a little bit of a halfway solution.

Current thought is to have both the hot and cold water tanks in the attic where there is plenty of space and good insulation as it is a converted space. I would think approximately 200 -250 l capacity in both tanks with a twin impeller pump to provide pressurised water to the rest of the house. I feel with the flow I have this should be viable and it would provide a good pressure to the whole property. By placing the hot water tank in the attic it would simplify issues should I decide to add solar water heating in the future.

Ive also been finalising layouts with the Kitchen Fitters so progress being made there, currently looking at the below colours. Grey for the main wall of cabinets with the island in navy.

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They look identical to my kitchen cabinet doors. Where are you getting them from?
 
They’re being supplied through a local kitchen fitter but I’m fairly certain they’re from the kitchen stori range
Yes, pretty sure ours are from there too. We're happy with ours :)
Nice colour choices you made. I kind of think I should have picked another colour for the island but we ended up with it all the same. 2 colours would give a nice pop.

Ous fitted.

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Work done so far looks really good. Could you please pm me the Origin's rep's contact details I am helping a friend with a project he needs a lot of help. His build is in Sligo.

Many thanks

M
 
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Work done so far looks really good. Could you please pm me the Origin's rep's contact details I am helping a friend with a project he needs a lot of help. His build is in Sligo.

Many thanks

M
Sent those on there Minty, if either yourself or a friend are in Limerick at any stage and would like to see the doors PM me and we can try arrange something.
 
Received the info many thanks.

I'll let him know about your kind offer.

M
 
Any updates. Hope all is going well.

M
 

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