August | DIY Heavan

August

I remember my first day on the job as a carpenter for a flat refurbish

Published Saturday, 8th Aug 21:54 BST

I remember my first day on the job as a carpenter for a flat refurbishment company. It felt like the worst day of my life. I didn't really do any work, all they wanted me to do was shadow the other workers. I can't even remember the amount of times that i had the feeling of just wanting to walk out from the job and never go back. The only bit of work that i actually did was phone up for the skip hire prices and dealing with the on site waste management. I decided to go and see the manager at the end of the day to voice my opinions about the work or the no work that i had been given. He didn't seem even a little bit amused and i even thought he was going to sack me but then he said ok and that he would sort me out more work for the following day.

With new residential areas being developed within the City limits, bui

Published Saturday, 8th Aug 21:51 BST

With new residential areas being developed within the City limits, builders are getting very busy these days. It is becoming more of a builders' market than a buyers' market. This no doubt is a very positive sign of growth for the City, and all residents are very happyabout it.

One of my favourite pass times as a child was playing around with my p

Published Saturday, 8th Aug 17:30 BST

One of my favourite pass times as a child was playing around with my parents design builder programme on our oldfamily computer. I would spend hours after schooldesigning my ideal house, experimenting with layouts and interiors, so it seemed only natural thatI would end up with a career in house refurbishment, I started out by helping my father, who worked in construction, following him around the sites picking up various aspects of the trade, it was through one of my fathers friend on the site thatI ended up on my first real job, i was asked to help out with a flat refurbishment in an estate near my home, I willingly agreed,I wasenthralled, helping tear out fittings and deconstruct walls so we would be able to adapt the layout. The other workers noticed my enthusiasm and encouraged me to help out withanother house refurbishment the next day. I wasn't long beforeIwas hired full time. I was in my element. then one day on a particular flat refurbishment the waste collection company we dealt withcouldn'tdeliver a skipdue to transport issues, so i took the initiative, got out the phone book and organised the delivery of a skipfrom a different company, because of this was appointed principal contractor and given responsibilities such as contacting clients and designers, co-ordinate health and safety and managing waste collection.After some time though,I became quite bored with this post, and considered branching out into a career with more creative aspects, over the yearsIhad became quite friendly withvarious designers, they would often fill me in on various duties and responsibilities involved in there line of work, I asked their advice about a possible career change, they said that the design aspect actually involved alot ofplanning and consideration and that this often limited their creativity.My parents design builder programme had made it look allot simpler than it really is. It made me realiseI was definitelyon the right career pathfor me, So I'll stick with my flat refurbishment and waste collection plans and leave the grand designs of house refurbishment to the experts for now.

The lives of luxury home builders are hard. They always have to do ref

Published Saturday, 8th Aug 04:52 BST

The lives of luxury home builders are hard. They always have to do refurbishment projects, and every once in a while, an extension building. The bricks they use become their best friends, because they have no time outside of their projects.

Uncle Dave was in the house building business. He was one of those fam

Published Saturday, 8th Aug 04:36 BST

Uncle Dave was in the house building business. He was one of those famous house builders that you never hear about. However, what is not often considered, when talking about refurbishment projects (i.e. breaking a house down and rebuilding it) is that of waste disposal. Waste disposal is one of the many missed things about refurbishing houses.

I was very glad that I was offered a job by the Company I had been ver

Published Saturday, 8th Aug 01:54 BST

I was very glad that I was offered a job by the Company I had been very impressed with. It required for me to move to the City where the head office of that Company was. It was a very nice City too, with the population growing fast.

As the housing market keeps growing, the building contractors get real

Published Friday, 7th Aug 23:20 BST

As the housing market keeps growing, the building contractors get really busy, and at times even unable to accept new projects.There can be months or even years of delay waiting for the availability of a contractor, depending on the location desired.

It has been about 6 years now that me and my wife have lived in our ho

Published Friday, 7th Aug 21:42 BST

It has been about 6 years now that me and my wife have lived in our house. It is a three bed-roomed, two bath-roomed semi-detached house and its beautiful. I am a builder by trade but currently training as a carpenter. I am always working on plans for my next extension on the house. I think that the amount of waste that gets thrown out when i make an extension, i might as well buy my own waste lorry instead of keep paying to have it all removed just remove it myself.

My aunt hired some builders to build an extension building on to her p

Published Friday, 7th Aug 20:43 BST

My aunt hired some builders to build an extension building on to her property a few years ago. She didn't want a massive extension building, as her garden is not that big, and she is very much into gardening, so she just requested a little sun room that she could go and sit in on nice days.

A week ago my dad hired some new home builders to put a house extensio

Published Thursday, 6th Aug 19:34 BST

A week ago my dad hired some new home builders to put a house extension or two on our house. He also wanted them to build a waste recycling system to cut down on the amount of trash we wasted.

With the current financial crisis the whole country is in, alot of peo

Published Thursday, 6th Aug 19:28 BST

With the current financial crisis the whole country is in, alot of people are extension building and under going refurbishment projects, as a pose to buying a new house. Just before the crisis we were due to be finished with paying our mortgage so we had planned on taking out another mortgage, selling our current house and buying a much bigger house in a different area. Unfortunately things happened, the country fell into massive debt and we could not get the mortgage. Plus I very much doubt we would have had much joy selling the house, as quickly as we had hoped.

When you embark on a house refurbishment project, the first thing you

Published Thursday, 6th Aug 19:28 BST

When you embark on a house refurbishment project, the first thing you should investigate is where you will hire a skip. house refurbishment always produces a lot of debris in its wake, bricks, mortar, bits of the ceiling that fall in on you when you destroy what you didn't realise was a load-bearing wall... so it's best to be prepared in advance.

I've recently hired a builder to build a patio for my mum. She's alway

Published Thursday, 6th Aug 18:27 BST

I've recently hired a builder to build a patio for my mum. She's always wanted one and I wanted to surprise her for her 60th birthday. So far, it's going OK. The builder's working to schedule.

Do you know how hard it is to find good house builders. It's even hard

Published Thursday, 6th Aug 17:36 BST

Do you know how hard it is to find good house builders. It's even harder when you start a project and then tell them they will need to correct what you have done.

After ten years of marriage, our small family of two members had grown

Published Thursday, 6th Aug 17:30 BST

After ten years of marriage, our small family of two members had grown to a big family of six members. We decided to have a house extension to give the children each a room of their own since they will soon be stepping into their teens.

I own a small building firm and although the recession has slowed down

Published Thursday, 6th Aug 17:17 BST

I own a small building firm and although the recession has slowed down work slightly we are finding that we are getting a lot of enquiries regarding extensions. Home owners are realising the full potential of extensions. Not only will an extension give you the desired living space that you are after but if done to a high standard many extensions can add a much needed increase to the value of the property.

My parents own a home that has the most beautiful cedar paneling in it

Published Thursday, 6th Aug 16:42 BST

My parents own a home that has the most beautiful cedar paneling in it you have ever seen. This house is more than 80 years old. It has been remodeled quite a few times; of course it's been leveled numerous times. My mom wants to make some changes to the old homestead and an extension or two is on her mind. This house comes with a problem to adding an extension on the backside of the kitchen. The ground just on the edge under that end of the house has a huge well or cistern and the constant wet ground will mean problems for a builder to go in and add an extension on that side.

Once upon a time there were three little pigs who lived on the same st

Published Thursday, 6th Aug 16:40 BST

Once upon a time there were three little pigs who lived on the same street. They were very good friends, and got along wonderfully. But one day a big bad wolf came along. He went to the first little pig's house.

I recently had some good news in fact some fantastic news, I was pregn

Published Thursday, 6th Aug 16:08 BST

I recently had some good news in fact some fantastic news, I was pregnant again, I had always wanted a large family from such a young age, I was part of a large family myself and luckily so was my husband we found out very early on in our relationship that we both wanted a lot of children which was great as it saved a lot of arguments later on.

"Honey, don't you think we should do something with the kitchen?" were

Published Thursday, 6th Aug 15:44 BST

"Honey, don't you think we should do something with the kitchen?" were my wife's first words one sunday morning, earlier than usual. I knew I was doomed; there was no escape, if I was ever to find peace of mind again, from a total flat refurbishment. Because I know my wife, and I knew then that the kitchen would only be the beginning. She'd done it before, I'd done it before. The thing is, I foot-drag the first week and then she gets me going as well.At that point, I start having ideas myself of what we could do with this, and why that's not necesary, and how not to makesuch a mess when cutting mortar and brick to make a new door frame.

We have a couple of local builders in our area. One of them is a build

Published Thursday, 6th Aug 15:20 BST

We have a couple of local builders in our area. One of them is a builder that will sit down with you and change any floor plan they use or take a blueprint and make changes. While talking one day to a couple we know, I found out the other builder here in town doesn’t do custom jobs, but they are by the book about deadlines and the work is impeccable.

We had been living in our small house for three years and for three ye

Published Thursday, 6th Aug 14:17 BST

We had been living in our small house for three years and for three years I had moaned. We didn't realise when we bought it how small it would be once all our furniture and three kids were in it.

Daniel was 17. He had just achieved a pass for his driving theory test

Published Wednesday, 5th Aug 23:42 BST

Daniel was 17. He had just achieved a pass for his driving theory test, and his teacher had just contacted dsa to arrange his practical.Daniel went online and found every single online test possible to help prepare him forit. They included questions like 'what would you do if during your test an emergency vehicle came up behind you?'. His older brother Tommy laughed. "An online test wont help you pass! You need practical experience, not this! Online tests are only good for your theory! Go and drive around a bit." Daniel frowned. His brother knew full well that he wasn't allowed to drive his parents cars, and only had access to the driving school one for 1 hour a week. Slowly Daniel got up and went downstairs. Sitting at the kitchen table with some milkshake he formed a plan. It wasn't a very good plan. It was sure to get him into trouble, and even if he pulled it off it would be hard to hide it from everyone. He smiled, got up, put on his coat, checked that his mum was in the bath, dad at work,and hisbrother watching TV. Hetookhis mothers car keys.As hestarted his mums car,he noticed thateverythingfelt alot different to the dsa one that he normally drove. The reverse gear was in a different place, the headlight switch was different, and the bite was in a completely different place. "Oh well" he thought, "how hard can it be?! I'm obviously a good driver or I wouldn't be entered for my test." He put the car into reverse and tried to back up and out of the steepdrive way. Suddenly the car lurched forwards, throwing Daniel forwards where he hit his head on the steering wheel. Dazed and confused, he looked up and noticed the driveway moving backwards. No, he was moving forwards!He sat up and tried to stop the car, but only succeeded in pressing down the clutch instead of the break, causing the car to go shooting down the driveway towards the house. SMASH. Then silence.Tommy came racing out of the house and the noise, and stopped and looked in amazement at his brother lying on the airbag from the steering wheel in his mothers car, crashed into the side of his house. He quickly opened Daniels door calling his name. Daniel groaned and sat up, a thin trickle of blood running down his head. "I put it in 1st instead of reverse by mistake Tom! It was in a different place!". Later that day Daniels father came to see him in his room. "Well," he said sternly "Ive contacted the insurance people, and they will pay for the car and the house, but you will have to pay for skip hire costsfor the house bricks." Daniel sighed. "But I need my money to paydsa for my test!" His father looked at him "You've failed Dan. You wont pass now. Not for a long time. Look what you've done! What were you thinking! You know you aren't allowed in our cars! That's why you have those online test things!". Without a word, Daniel turned round, lay on his bed, and stayed there face down until his father left the room. Then he picked up his provisional license, glared at it,threw it across the room, and sat on his bed to make another plan.

I'm not looking forward to my driving practice test. I really hope I p

Published Tuesday, 4th Aug 04:58 BST

I'm not looking forward to my driving practice test. I really hope I pass first time, I can't wait to be on the open road driving everywhere. I was driving my sister home today to get some practice in, it was going well until we turned a corner and I nearly hit a skip hire uk van. Luckily we were all safe, but it has put me off driving my partner’s car for a while. It would be different if he had the pedals on his side of the car too but he doesn't.