protip if youre living in a place while renovating - put up a tent in the bedroom to keep brick/plaster dust out of your bed. Undress outside of the tent, clean yourself off, and keep the bed a dust-free zone
Ah, we messed up the tempering, and the house snapped apart... On the flip side, now we can make a new one - from damascus! With gold inlays and diamonds! Now, let's just throw this bugger back in the forge, and then hammer out some layers! Meanwhile, Mrs. Steele is taking the truck to the supermarket and getting all the instant coffee they have, so we can get the pattern out nicely...
Agree. The tanks in the attic are 1.) a British thing for sure! and 2.) outmoded. Modern homes have on-demand boilers or cylinders. Science has solved these problems. This is also the origin of the dual taps which drives Americans like me up the actual wall with rage.
@@TheMegaross91 do you remember when they government were pushing diesel cars as better for the environment, I feel heat pumps are gonna be similar to that, in my opinion there isn’t anything wrong with the Combi Boiler.
A combi would be no good for a house that size, a decent system boiler with a large sealed DHW tank would be better. As for heat pumps - go that direction if you have the cash to insulate to high-levels in the roof, walls, underfloor and go triple glazing, as well as ditching radiators in favour of UFH. GSHP gives a better COP than ASHP as well. Think you can still claim domestic RHI for GSHP as well.
The yard is kind of sad to see go, but it takes a lot of upkeep to maintain a garden that large, and if you are really busy with other projects you just cant take the proper time to care for that garden and it would end up an eyesore and a place for your dogs to run amok. Better to downsize the shrubbery to one you can actually find the time for.
It bothered me as well, but it does give the dogs more space to run around. Personally, I'd leave most of it in tact but then cut away a path through and around it that would let the dogs run through it easily. I'd also probably end up hiring someone to help care for it because I know I wouldn't have the time and energy to properly care for it.
The water storage tanks thing is why British homes used to have seperate hot and cold taps. Because the cold water from the mains was guaranteed to be safe, but the same couldn't be said for the hot water (since you had rats and bats getting into them), and so the two weren't allowed to mix before leaving the taps. Not an issue with modern plumbing, but that's why lots of houses still have seperate taps.
@@hplogsdon293 It's not just the British that do that, but it's for a few reasons. The first is that the formula powder might not be sterile, so you want to kill anything that came from there. Also to kill anything that was in the bottle itself. And water (even in modern systems without the risk of open tanks) still might contain some bacteria. Not an issue for adults/children/toddlers (and it could still be considered to be perfectly safe generally and still pass strict water standards), but newborn babies have incredibly fragile systems, so you have to be extremely careful. It's one of those 'it might be fine most of the time, but it's just not worth the risk' things. Even if it only goes wrong in 1% of cases, that would still be a about 7000 dead babies a year in the UK alone.
I just finished completely renovating a 100+ year old farm house. It was a lot of work, blood, sweat, and even tears at time. You will probably reach points where you feel like giving up and nothing is going right but the end result is well worth it. The sense of pride I have and the pleasure I get seeing how much my family loves their home made it all worthwhile. Plan well, don't settle, and embrace the suck.
😂 I just read this and asked myself _„Oh, is he gonna build himself an Underground Bunker?“_ Bevor I remembered that was the thing of another english man.
@@jamesdollar1607 I think there is only one video with them together and that was when Alec moved to America. I mean shouldn't he at least once show up, now that he moved back?
@@JBLewis If you want to get blacked out drunk then it sure would be a drinking game but drinking that much will lead to becoming a alcoholic as the best possible outcome or a spot on the liver/kidney transplant list at worst. So when Demo Matt says "Dang!! Look at that view!" do a push up or something just no drinking!!!!
Realtor: So what do you think of the place? Alec: It’s perfect I love it, except for everything on the inside. I pretty much only like the walls and foundation frankly.
Ive been watching this channel for years now. Ive not missed an episode and honestly i have to say i am extremely happy to see you achieving so much success. You are an inspiration to many Alec. Keep up the great work.
Great to see you getting your house sorted out, can’t say I’m impressed with the amount of waste you are creating when so much could have gone to salvage I.e. the glass wood etc. and you could probably have saved on a couple of skips as well.
Spot on! Gleeful destruction of perfectly good material like those windows really sours it. So many inspiring people on this platform making amazing things out of salvage, I guess he's not watching the right channels.
@@Wolfmancrawley It's obviously a completely different worldview. Re-use for houses is only one of many options for salvage, and just because you can't see a use doesn't mean no-one else would. I've restored much worse looking things, and good panes of glass (as one example) are great for cold frames and glass houses. He destroyed four or five perfectly serviceable pieces of glass for no good reason.
remodeling a house like that is an ass-ton of work as is. It would take three times as much to disassemble everything neatly, add on top of that the work of advertising it online,, storing it until someone comes to get it, and then the hassle of finding enough people to get rid of every single thing! I dont think its reasonable to expect someone to do all that when he already has so much work to do.
Great work! It's such a cool thing to work on your own home. I had the privilege, a few years ago, of completely restoring a family home that has now been in the family for 6 generations. It gives you such pride to know it was your hands that built it. Cheers Alec, and congratulations on the new home!
A lot of house in the uk only have tanks like that for cold water storage . Hot water is stored in a insulated tank normally in an airing cupboard. If you get a combi boiler fitted you dont need any water storage as it heats water on demand
It's episodes like this, where it's just fun and awesome work being done, that I really want to go work for Alec -- or even just have a friendship like those two share. Alec is living the dream!
Great progress though the gardening work were a bit sad to see as a gardener. That area was definatley not shrubs they were beautiful flowering plants and bushes that someone had done over many years. They might not be flowering now but they certainly does in the spring and summer. Saw some dahlias, peonies, lily, Agapantus, caprifols and more. I hope you at least looked up some of the plants and planted them somewhere else.
Thanks for taking us with on this journey. Amazing to see all the changes once you are done. Hope you took some before pictures. Blessings to you your family and all.
I'm pretty sure the reason he was able to buy it was the shear amount of work it needs. Also, I have no idea what the housing market is like in the UK, so I could be completely wrong.
Having just also bought a large house at a cheap price and in desperate need of a LOT of renovation work, it was heart-warming to see your kitchen and bedroom looking very much like ours. Now I can show my wife "See, we're not the only ones living in squalour"
@@DasVERMiT I have to imagine the windows are pretty terrible insulators. They'll save a lot on heat getting more modern windows that trap heat better.
Loving the rebuild. Would totally subscribe to STEELE'S $HITTY KITCHENS. Really looking forward to the interior work. "Right, time to build Mrs. Steele a kitchen island. So...LET'S LIGHT THE FORGE AND CUT SOME STEEL!!!!"
Don't know if the Steeles are planning on starting a family but there's way more childish adventures to be had in a tangled shrubbery than a patch of grass
Depends on the kid. As a child, I was furious every time my dad carved off another section of precious lawn, on which I could kick or throw a ball with my friends or sister, in order to replace it with another bit of boring garden.
The Steele Estate looks just awesome! Congratulations and best of luck to you in your new home, I would've been devastated to find the rot in the walls and floors.
The hearth in an old British house like that was always called a 'Lump' because it would be a huge piece of high density cast concrete or even stone in really old places . A lot of old places had fireplaces in the upper floors too sharing a chimney breast with the lower floor, quite often house owners would get a surprise when removing the lower floor chimney breast to add space, the lump hearth stone from the upper floor would suddenly drop into the room having not been removed when the upper chimney breast was taken out some time before, a whole half a ton of it.
I hope the remodeling videos are more in depth/ how to videos. I enjoy watch building/remodeling videos just as much as I enjoy blacksmith/bladesmith videos. Congrats on the new home by the way
Yes, it could have been redone because it seems old, especially the concret. I think I would have kept at least half of the plants, there are for sure some pretty ones. Lawn is boring, at least meadows are better. The fireplace and the rest of the house had some good style but the rooms are small and it seems old even if some might not be. So I am a little sad...
Alec’s new neighbours: “I just just met the couple that moved into the house next door, they seem really nice” Alec proceeds to throw the whole house out of house window and rip the garden to shreds Alec’s new neighbours: “ er …”
It is hard to find nice old houses in the Midwestern US, so I am a little sad when I see people tear out the old stuff and replace it with a modern style, but I am glad to see you are finding ways to have fun while carrying on the frustrating task of home renovation. Can't wait for season 2 when you get to do it again in the States for your second home. Would be interesting to compare and contrast the process on each continent. A little old world vs new world.
Coming from a professional operator, you did a fine job for your first time with a mini excavator, it is for sure a childhood dream, every day for me :)
This is such a great fresh breath for the channel. Don't get me wrong, your metal works and adventures are fantastic, but have to say that I do like seeing your take on something like this.
A couple questions 1) Is he talking about a hot water tank when he says boiler? 2) And did he says they don’t have strong enough water pressure to keep the boiler (hot water tank?) filled? 3) what is the average water pressure?
1) Depends how you define boiler. A hot water tank is a large tank that gets a huge amount of water heated up so you've got loads of hot water kept hot all the time. Means it can be used for heating/showers etc on demand. There's several things which a non-plumber might mean when they say 'hot water tank' or 'boiler'. 2) It was a standard introduced when indoor plumbing was starting to become more common. Back then at peak demand the overall mains pressure would plummet, so the storage tank helped ensure each house had a buffer to keep their pressure up within the house. It also provided a buffer in the case shoddy plumbing lead to a backwash of contaminated water, to prevent it getting back into the mains system. Both issues have been eliminated nowadays, hence why most people have gotten rid of them, but they were an old holdover from standards set the 1800s. Ignore anything you see online talking about Napoleon, that story is utter nonsense. 3) Legal minimum is 1 bar, but it would usually between 2-4 bar.
Looking very nice young man. Hope you and your wife have many wonderful memories in your humble abode. Stay safe and hope you can get back to the states soon.
That “water storage tank” concept is wicked janky. In the UK they also have waste drainpipes on the outside of buildings and mix rain runoff and waste water. Lots of UK stuff is super cool but their plumbing is mental
Building regulations have changed since then. My house was built in the 70's when rainwater would run to storm drains which would eventually find their way to a locla water course. These days new build properties must have a soakaway or some form of system that stops rainwater from being dumped as fast as possible into the nearest watercourse.
Alec I love your videos!! Blacksmithing or home renovation!! Just ordered me Kove speakers!!! Thank you, Thank You!!! As always keep up the FANTASTIC work!!!!!
After being a Glaziers mate for all of 3 weeks, it's incredible what punishment old windows can take... but then also not take. I've seen an aglet (metal bit on your shoe lace) shatter a window as someone walked by it, and I've seen a 4lb hammer bounce off one. From the same house. Nutty.
😰 with such pursuits of learning in his career, I’m surprised he’s going in such a vanilla, unsustainable direction. Lawns are lame, fireplaces are a great asset, plants are expensive and hopefully he re-sold them instead of ruining decades of work, people would love to reuse those windows and other needlessly broken antiques, and a sturdy first floor is priceless… what is he doing? 🤯
Those windows should have been recycled, Alec. Could have become a greenhouse for a vegetable garden with less effort than you put into tearing up your stairs.
If it were just changing out windows and making a greenhouse, yes! it would have been awesome. But during a whole house remodel, it becomes chaos once you start having to manage separate piles of "reuse", "recycle", "trash", "donate", "someone called dibs", etc.
Hey Allec try to not break glass just for the sake of it. Whole glass and large pieces are often an item that dumpster diver look up for as well as they have a much higher chance of being recycled if it's not all shattered in to bit.
I'm genuinely confused at this point. Why didn't you have the whole house torn down and just design and have a new one built? You don't seem to be keeping anything of what was already there.
I'm wondering that too. There were some beautiful built ins and that fire place was amazing. It is all gone now. I know the UK is different than the US and you can't as easily find empty plots to build on but damn man
@@Woodshadow Things like fuel and building materials are a bit........difficult to source, in the UK right now. No reason why, Certainly nothing to do with anything anyone voted for.
I seen similar house renovation from the US, it was Adam Ragusea's new house, and it was also designed around having house servants. And its funny how much living space they lost, just to have a sense of separation between the home owners and their low class house servants.
I found when tearing down walls a garden axe works great! They are heavy enough to rip thru Sheetrock but not too heavy that burn your arms out fast like a big sledge. Also with the big flat digging end of the garden axe you can hook that into a wall and pull out a larger hunk of SR. Good luck!
Alec: gets a hold of heavy equipment with a jackhammer attachment, eyes go reeeeee. Mrs. Steele: oh no, not again! I can hear her holding her breath all the way over here in America.
This whole video just made my day. So funny. Love what you guys are doing. Love that you and your wife are making a place for yourselves. Just the whole thing. Amazing 👏
Fun to watch in the house, but it's a crying shame you destroyed the garden out of ignorance, just planning to get even more dead grass... makes me sad.
To answer your question about hot water. Down here in Texas we usually have a hot water heater which is either natural gas or electrically heated. The gas version which I have because it is far more economical to run is a tank which in my case is 55 gallons that sits in the garage. That tank is heated by natural gas and well insulated to keep the water hot so that you do not use a lot of natural gas. To give you an idea my natural gas bill per month is usually $30 to $40. Boilers are generally used in commercial buildings to heat large amounts of water.
Believe me, the heat in the UK feels way worse than the temperature says. The high humidity and lack of any air conditioning make it hellish. I've known Aussies and Americans come over and scoff at our 'hot weather' then experience it themselves and hate it.
@@mr.grumpy I hear you. The problem is that there is a limited inventory of homes out there and getting the neighborhood and lot that works is perhaps more important than the home itself
@@artor9175 Hmm, hmmm.Not really. Uncomfortable, dangerous and unuseable stuff is another story. That fireplace may be in that category for a couple of reasons - first and foremost that open fires are almost useless at actually heating, most of the heat gets drawn up the stack with the bypass air you need to permit to ensure proper removal of flue gas. But wild Gardens are great, takes years to grow a good one.....im more of a old, half abandoned factory kind of guy than refurb house till squeaking clean....
protip if youre living in a place while renovating - put up a tent in the bedroom to keep brick/plaster dust out of your bed. Undress outside of the tent, clean yourself off, and keep the bed a dust-free zone
That's a great tip
@@billparco8072 id get one of those zip up plastic doors
Cant wait for house renovation part 56 (where alex makes a huge mistake and we have to start all over again)!
Great video! Love it!
"Welp! I guess we'll just burn that house down and start again from scratch. If only I had Will here to do all the hand sanding..."
@@artor9175 Then Will pushes it over ...
Ah, we messed up the tempering, and the house snapped apart... On the flip side, now we can make a new one - from damascus! With gold inlays and diamonds! Now, let's just throw this bugger back in the forge, and then hammer out some layers! Meanwhile, Mrs. Steele is taking the truck to the supermarket and getting all the instant coffee they have, so we can get the pattern out nicely...
@@christophersavignon4191 Which is quite a chore in Britain, because we drink tea here.
@@ng-ht1vx there's no damascus like tea darkened damascus
The water tank thing is only if you have and old boiler. Installing a Combi boilers usually means you can get rid of the water tank in the loft
Best thing is install a heatpump these days. Get the best of both worlds, give it 20 years they'll be the norm in the UK.
Agree. The tanks in the attic are 1.) a British thing for sure! and 2.) outmoded. Modern homes have on-demand boilers or cylinders. Science has solved these problems.
This is also the origin of the dual taps which drives Americans like me up the actual wall with rage.
@@TheMegaross91 do you remember when they government were pushing diesel cars as better for the environment, I feel heat pumps are gonna be similar to that, in my opinion there isn’t anything wrong with the Combi Boiler.
@@TheMegaross91 gov is currently offering grants to change out boilers to heat pumps. Its so they can move towards being cardon neutral
A combi would be no good for a house that size, a decent system boiler with a large sealed DHW tank would be better. As for heat pumps - go that direction if you have the cash to insulate to high-levels in the roof, walls, underfloor and go triple glazing, as well as ditching radiators in favour of UFH. GSHP gives a better COP than ASHP as well. Think you can still claim domestic RHI for GSHP as well.
My poor gardener's heart breaks at the destruction.
Yeah if trimmed a bit it would be a beautiful garden...
Same here! That had the potential to be an amazingly beautiful garden.
The yard is kind of sad to see go, but it takes a lot of upkeep to maintain a garden that large, and if you are really busy with other projects you just cant take the proper time to care for that garden and it would end up an eyesore and a place for your dogs to run amok. Better to downsize the shrubbery to one you can actually find the time for.
think of the BEEESSS
It bothered me as well, but it does give the dogs more space to run around. Personally, I'd leave most of it in tact but then cut away a path through and around it that would let the dogs run through it easily. I'd also probably end up hiring someone to help care for it because I know I wouldn't have the time and energy to properly care for it.
welcome to the 2nd out of 1000 ep of me reforging my house
Sponsored by nord vpn?
@@mrfriedchicken5162 raid shadow legends
@@Thisismycomment. raycon earbuds
No one's forcing you to watch it.
The big question is, will Will be handsanding everything?
"the area of actual green space is quite limited"
Alec, you and me have very different definitions of "limited" 😂
It's amazing how your opinion on the proper size of a lawn changes once you start having to mow it.
@@tyrannosaurusimperator Still better to mow that large area than spend every day weeding and trying to keep all the plants neat and tidy.
@@2dcutout tbh it will look better imo as a big lawn instead of those shrubs.
Well, he was in Montana, space is whatcha got there.
Old windows sell really well at antique stores, a lot of people like using them as decoration.
The water storage tanks thing is why British homes used to have seperate hot and cold taps. Because the cold water from the mains was guaranteed to be safe, but the same couldn't be said for the hot water (since you had rats and bats getting into them), and so the two weren't allowed to mix before leaving the taps.
Not an issue with modern plumbing, but that's why lots of houses still have seperate taps.
Is this also part of the reason it's a British tradition to never fill a baby bottle with warm tap water, but always to boil it?
@@hplogsdon293 It's not just the British that do that, but it's for a few reasons. The first is that the formula powder might not be sterile, so you want to kill anything that came from there. Also to kill anything that was in the bottle itself. And water (even in modern systems without the risk of open tanks) still might contain some bacteria. Not an issue for adults/children/toddlers (and it could still be considered to be perfectly safe generally and still pass strict water standards), but newborn babies have incredibly fragile systems, so you have to be extremely careful.
It's one of those 'it might be fine most of the time, but it's just not worth the risk' things. Even if it only goes wrong in 1% of cases, that would still be a
about 7000 dead babies a year in the UK alone.
Man, your tea making expertise really runs deep.
I wonder if that also has something to do with their teeth?
Its not my house, but I cried a little inside when you destroyed the fireplace and tore up the garden to replace it with grass.
Me too such nostalgic pieces of history
Same when I was watching the first video, and he destroyed all that beautiful cabinetry throughout the house.
@@jlbknives5722 history? That house is like mid to late 70’s
He has a dog, I'm sure it'll enjoy the additional space in the yard
@@Wolfmancrawley you really think it’s that new? It looks pretty old to me but I have no experience with European homes. My house is from 1921
I just finished completely renovating a 100+ year old farm house. It was a lot of work, blood, sweat, and even tears at time. You will probably reach points where you feel like giving up and nothing is going right but the end result is well worth it. The sense of pride I have and the pleasure I get seeing how much my family loves their home made it all worthwhile. Plan well, don't settle, and embrace the suck.
Nooooo not grass! Build yourself an outdoor kitchen and have raised beds for fruit and herbs. I'm projecting. I want that garden!
At least grow a grass and clover mix. Good for the bees and the clover brings out nitrogen from the ground! Big fan of gardens though
bro seeing him tear up that garden hurt NGL. What he destroyed is my goals for the future.
Alec must have looked at the garden and thought that it was the one thing which he hadn’t destroyed yet
😂 I just read this and asked myself _„Oh, is he gonna build himself an Underground Bunker?“_
Bevor I remembered that was the thing of another english man.
Wouldn't that be awesome video with Colin and Alec. Though they both are A.D.D therefore nothing would get accomplished.
@@jamesdollar1607 I think there is only one video with them together and that was when Alec moved to America.
I mean shouldn't he at least once show up, now that he moved back?
I expect they will make a tunnel to connect them.
Well I don't believe Colin will be digging anymore tunnels for a while, but a sky tram between their houses would utilize both of their talents
@@jackwriter1908 and if I'm remembering correctly Alex is Norwich, Colin is in Lincolnshire, they're not too far apart
I question Alec's enthusiasm for this renovation. Not once did I hear him say: "Dang! Look at that view!"
That's pretty much a drinking game with Matt's channel, isn't it?
@@JBLewis If you want to get blacked out drunk then it sure would be a drinking game but drinking that much will lead to becoming a alcoholic as the best possible outcome or a spot on the liver/kidney transplant list at worst. So when Demo Matt says "Dang!! Look at that view!" do a push up or something just no drinking!!!!
@@darcymilligan9289 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Realtor: So what do you think of the place?
Alec: It’s perfect I love it, except for everything on the inside. I pretty much only like the walls and foundation frankly.
The t-slim pump is so nice, especially with the basal-iq. It's made my life so much easier with it.
@msg555 I noticed this too. I love mine
I was changing mine while watching this video, did a double take.
Alec: I bought a house!
Will: Great! What do you like about it?
Alec: Pretty much just the outer walls.
My god, the sheer amount of videos this house is good for will be MADDENING. It's so big and EVERYTHING is being redone. So glad I'm here for this
Me: *goes looking for Steele's Shitty Kitchens* darn, not real
So i was not the only one looking XDDDDDDDD
Same - just went looking for it.
Was very disappointed to find it doesn't exist.
Yet.
Me checking the show notes to see if he put the @ for the second channel….🤦🏻♂️
I went looking too. 100% would watch.
Yeah me too 🤣 😭
Ive been watching this channel for years now. Ive not missed an episode and honestly i have to say i am extremely happy to see you achieving so much success. You are an inspiration to many Alec. Keep up the great work.
Great to see you getting your house sorted out, can’t say I’m impressed with the amount of waste you are creating when so much could have gone to salvage I.e. the glass wood etc. and you could probably have saved on a couple of skips as well.
Spot on! Gleeful destruction of perfectly good material like those windows really sours it. So many inspiring people on this platform making amazing things out of salvage, I guess he's not watching the right channels.
Those windows are old and not worth salvaging. The double glazing in them was most likely in need of replacement too
@@Wolfmancrawley It's obviously a completely different worldview. Re-use for houses is only one of many options for salvage, and just because you can't see a use doesn't mean no-one else would. I've restored much worse looking things, and good panes of glass (as one example) are great for cold frames and glass houses. He destroyed four or five perfectly serviceable pieces of glass for no good reason.
remodeling a house like that is an ass-ton of work as is. It would take three times as much to disassemble everything neatly, add on top of that the work of advertising it online,, storing it until someone comes to get it, and then the hassle of finding enough people to get rid of every single thing! I dont think its reasonable to expect someone to do all that when he already has so much work to do.
I, have to remember when you don't put your recycling in the right bin
Great work!
It's such a cool thing to work on your own home.
I had the privilege, a few years ago, of completely restoring a family home that has now been in the family for 6 generations.
It gives you such pride to know it was your hands that built it.
Cheers Alec, and congratulations on the new home!
Hey, Alec.
I’ve been trying to reach you regarding your car’s extended warranty.
The latest one for me is from "your electric company regarding a disconnect of your power in the next 30-40 minutes due to a delinquent account."
I saw Mrs. Steeler’s T Slim. I myself have a really close friend who’s a type 1 diabetic and I applaud you guys!
A lot of house in the uk only have tanks like that for cold water storage . Hot water is stored in a insulated tank normally in an airing cupboard. If you get a combi boiler fitted you dont need any water storage as it heats water on demand
It's episodes like this, where it's just fun and awesome work being done, that I really want to go work for Alec -- or even just have a friendship like those two share. Alec is living the dream!
Great progress though the gardening work were a bit sad to see as a gardener. That area was definatley not shrubs they were beautiful flowering plants and bushes that someone had done over many years. They might not be flowering now but they certainly does in the spring and summer. Saw some dahlias, peonies, lily, Agapantus, caprifols and more. I hope you at least looked up some of the plants and planted them somewhere else.
With the way he butchered that beautiful fireplace? Don't count on it.
I'm living in a place where i can actually attempt to start a flower meadow, what he destroyed is wicked goals of mine.
Not everyone likes to garden.
Agreed Martin, a real shame as that whole bed looked to be a great habitat for wildlife and good biodiversity, now it's just going to be a lawn 😭
In fairness he does have several dogs that would love the big yard to play in
Thanks for taking us with on this journey. Amazing to see all the changes once you are done. Hope you took some before pictures. Blessings to you your family and all.
Living vicariously through people who can actually find houses they can afford that aren't already sold.
I love how he says the grass area is "quite limited"!
1 like is one cry
I'm pretty sure the reason he was able to buy it was the shear amount of work it needs. Also, I have no idea what the housing market is like in the UK, so I could be completely wrong.
@@TurinAlexander even with the work this kind of property around the location it presumably is, is worth a hell of a lot. UK housing market is nuts.
@@TurinAlexander its worth alot guys. even dump holes. idont know why
Having just also bought a large house at a cheap price and in desperate need of a LOT of renovation work, it was heart-warming to see your kitchen and bedroom looking very much like ours. Now I can show my wife "See, we're not the only ones living in squalour"
NGL, I cried a bit inside when you tore up that fireplace.
Agreed, though I was even more terrified to hear he wants to replace those beautiful old windows!
Glad I wasn't the only one
@@DasVERMiT I have to imagine the windows are pretty terrible insulators. They'll save a lot on heat getting more modern windows that trap heat better.
Also his house
Nah. Fireplaces are the worst for heat loss. Get rid of em.
Mrs Steele's hesitance in repeating kitchen island was wonderful!!
Loving the rebuild. Would totally subscribe to STEELE'S $HITTY KITCHENS. Really looking forward to the interior work. "Right, time to build Mrs. Steele a kitchen island. So...LET'S LIGHT THE FORGE AND CUT SOME STEEL!!!!"
It needs to be wood or marble slab.
But it can have iron legs
The main channel is better anyway
@@Whiskey12snakebites yep. It would look awesome
same, spent a good 2-3 mins looking for said channel in the description...
Hope the house project is going well, would love to watch another update video when you're able to make one
Don't know if the Steeles are planning on starting a family but there's way more childish adventures to be had in a tangled shrubbery than a patch of grass
Depends on the kid. As a child, I was furious every time my dad carved off another section of precious lawn, on which I could kick or throw a ball with my friends or sister, in order to replace it with another bit of boring garden.
He looked so happy with the digger. Like genuine bliss.
I wish I could get my hands on all those glass panels. They would be very useful to me.
The Steele Estate looks just awesome! Congratulations and best of luck to you in your new home, I would've been devastated to find the rot in the walls and floors.
House: *has interior*
Alec: ...and I took that personally
The hearth in an old British house like that was always called a 'Lump' because it would be a huge piece of high density cast concrete or even stone in really old places .
A lot of old places had fireplaces in the upper floors too sharing a chimney breast with the lower floor, quite often house owners would get a surprise when removing the lower floor chimney breast to add space, the lump hearth stone from the upper floor would suddenly drop into the room having not been removed when the upper chimney breast was taken out some time before, a whole half a ton of it.
I know it's subjective but I actually got a little annoyed when he started destroying the brick fireplace
Next episode, he'll drive the excavator into the house to use the jackhammer attachment to break those bricks loose.
@@ng-ht1vx do NOT bring up ideas...
I hope the remodeling videos are more in depth/ how to videos. I enjoy watch building/remodeling videos just as much as I enjoy blacksmith/bladesmith videos. Congrats on the new home by the way
Will admit... really sad to see actual garden go for the sake of just lawn.
Yes, it could have been redone because it seems old, especially the concret. I think I would have kept at least half of the plants, there are for sure some pretty ones. Lawn is boring, at least meadows are better.
The fireplace and the rest of the house had some good style but the rooms are small and it seems old even if some might not be. So I am a little sad...
you have to remember with dogs and the amount of time these two may spend away from the house a large garden just isn't practical.
I'm so happy for you and Mrs. Steele. That house is going to look spectacular!!!
*Me looking at you ripping aparts everything in this house*
Wouldn't it be easier to just blow it up and start building from scratch?
With a real brick exterior not really. Not to mention the paperwork for new construction.
In america where you have cardboard houses yes it would be easier. Everywhere else we build with bricks and concrete.
@@jernejarko965 Two things not exactly super easy to come by right now.
Glad to see so much progress on your soon to be family home! Keep up the energy Alec!
Alec’s new neighbours: “I just just met the couple that moved into the house next door, they seem really nice”
Alec proceeds to throw the whole house out of house window and rip the garden to shreds
Alec’s new neighbours: “ er …”
Love the renovations! That place is really opening up. Excited to see what the final layout will be!
RIP to the garden. :( they could have at least put in sensible groundcover rather than More Grass when making room for the doggos to run around.
It is hard to find nice old houses in the Midwestern US, so I am a little sad when I see people tear out the old stuff and replace it with a modern style, but I am glad to see you are finding ways to have fun while carrying on the frustrating task of home renovation. Can't wait for season 2 when you get to do it again in the States for your second home. Would be interesting to compare and contrast the process on each continent. A little old world vs new world.
No joke, you start a kitchen remodel channel, I'll sub! ♥
You don't want that, stick to the main channel
Coming from a professional operator, you did a fine job for your first time with a mini excavator, it is for sure a childhood dream, every day for me :)
As someone who loves gardening... you tearing up that garden made my heart break... Q_Q
Lets hope he plants a garden all his own to make up for it.
@@timhill5764 he said he's replacing it with grass...
For soulless grass of all things.
Even if he replaces it with a garden, the soil biology will take years to recover.
This is such a great fresh breath for the channel. Don't get me wrong, your metal works and adventures are fantastic, but have to say that I do like seeing your take on something like this.
A couple questions
1) Is he talking about a hot water tank when he says boiler?
2) And did he says they don’t have strong enough water pressure to keep the boiler (hot water tank?) filled?
3) what is the average water pressure?
1) Depends how you define boiler. A hot water tank is a large tank that gets a huge amount of water heated up so you've got loads of hot water kept hot all the time. Means it can be used for heating/showers etc on demand. There's several things which a non-plumber might mean when they say 'hot water tank' or 'boiler'.
2) It was a standard introduced when indoor plumbing was starting to become more common. Back then at peak demand the overall mains pressure would plummet, so the storage tank helped ensure each house had a buffer to keep their pressure up within the house. It also provided a buffer in the case shoddy plumbing lead to a backwash of contaminated water, to prevent it getting back into the mains system. Both issues have been eliminated nowadays, hence why most people have gotten rid of them, but they were an old holdover from standards set the 1800s. Ignore anything you see online talking about Napoleon, that story is utter nonsense.
3) Legal minimum is 1 bar, but it would usually between 2-4 bar.
@@BritishTeaLover thank you. when I hear boiler I just assume for home heat.
Excellent vid sir, glad to have you touch base!
Alec: Says, "Scorching 85 degrees" in English.
Me: Says, "Confused" in Texan.
Floridian here, I thought the same thing. That sounds like a nice day.
I’m glad Alec’s having fun back in the UK.
What did they actually like about this house?
The side “green house patio” is awesome though
Looking very nice young man. Hope you and your wife have many wonderful memories in your humble abode. Stay safe and hope you can get back to the states soon.
"The amount of green grass is quite limited."... Just the shrubbery part of your garden is bigger than my entire appartement.
You finally gave in and didn't resist a "The Shining" reference. Thank you.
That “water storage tank” concept is wicked janky. In the UK they also have waste drainpipes on the outside of buildings and mix rain runoff and waste water. Lots of UK stuff is super cool but their plumbing is mental
They got the basic concepts from the Romans... who thought lead was a good thing to make water pipes from.
Building regulations have changed since then. My house was built in the 70's when rainwater would run to storm drains which would eventually find their way to a locla water course. These days new build properties must have a soakaway or some form of system that stops rainwater from being dumped as fast as possible into the nearest watercourse.
Alec I love your videos!! Blacksmithing or home renovation!! Just ordered me Kove speakers!!! Thank you, Thank You!!! As always keep up the FANTASTIC work!!!!!
Alec loves hammers 🤣❤
Enjoying the journey.keep us with the smiles
"I had been having baths in bat soup for several years"
theres a covid joke somewhere in there for people smarter than me to make
After being a Glaziers mate for all of 3 weeks, it's incredible what punishment old windows can take... but then also not take. I've seen an aglet (metal bit on your shoe lace) shatter a window as someone walked by it, and I've seen a 4lb hammer bounce off one. From the same house. Nutty.
While one may not agree with all of Alec's poor choices, it sure is enjoyable watching them.
Need more home reno videos!!
😰 with such pursuits of learning in his career, I’m surprised he’s going in such a vanilla, unsustainable direction. Lawns are lame, fireplaces are a great asset, plants are expensive and hopefully he re-sold them instead of ruining decades of work, people would love to reuse those windows and other needlessly broken antiques, and a sturdy first floor is priceless… what is he doing? 🤯
Mrs. Steele has a beautiful voice. Alec you did good my friend. 😁
You've taken on the second most problematic task for most new home owners. Then you went outside and took on problem #1.
These videos are super refreshing! It’s exciting to see this come together see your range of skills!
Those windows should have been recycled, Alec. Could have become a greenhouse for a vegetable garden with less effort than you put into tearing up your stairs.
If it were just changing out windows and making a greenhouse, yes! it would have been awesome. But during a whole house remodel, it becomes chaos once you start having to manage separate piles of "reuse", "recycle", "trash", "donate", "someone called dibs", etc.
@@d3lsl0w that really is just being lazy. Either a job's worth doing properly or don't do it.
Please more of this content Alec its awesome!!! Jamie is always a great laugh too, he should definitely be on camera more.
Hey Allec try to not break glass just for the sake of it.
Whole glass and large pieces are often an item that dumpster diver look up for as well as they have a much higher chance of being recycled if it's not all shattered in to bit.
too bad
Almost everything they tore out could have been recycled. Shame
SO COOL!! Really proud of you bud! Great to see how far you’ve come!
I'm genuinely confused at this point. Why didn't you have the whole house torn down and just design and have a new one built? You don't seem to be keeping anything of what was already there.
I'm wondering that too. There were some beautiful built ins and that fire place was amazing. It is all gone now. I know the UK is different than the US and you can't as easily find empty plots to build on but damn man
@@Woodshadow Things like fuel and building materials are a bit........difficult to source, in the UK right now.
No reason why, Certainly nothing to do with anything anyone voted for.
I seen similar house renovation from the US, it was Adam Ragusea's new house, and it was also designed around having house servants. And its funny how much living space they lost, just to have a sense of separation between the home owners and their low class house servants.
Such a shame to see the divers plantlife get teared out in favor of a lawn. :-/
I completely agree.
Green desert meta
I found when tearing down walls a garden axe works great! They are heavy enough to rip thru Sheetrock but not too heavy that burn your arms out fast like a big sledge. Also with the big flat digging end of the garden axe you can hook that into a wall and pull out a larger hunk of SR.
Good luck!
Alec I dare you to make a sword without any Power tools
Or just make another sword or anything with a blade.
Im really enjoying watching the progress on your home, hope its everything you ever wanted once you get it done
Alec: gets a hold of heavy equipment with a jackhammer attachment, eyes go reeeeee.
Mrs. Steele: oh no, not again!
I can hear her holding her breath all the way over here in America.
This whole video just made my day. So funny. Love what you guys are doing. Love that you and your wife are making a place for yourselves. Just the whole thing. Amazing 👏
Fun to watch in the house, but it's a crying shame you destroyed the garden out of ignorance, just planning to get even more dead grass... makes me sad.
Get over yourself.
@@Guysm1l3y what an elaborate opinion, I will internalise it.
To answer your question about hot water. Down here in Texas we usually have a hot water heater which is either natural gas or electrically heated. The gas version which I have because it is far more economical to run is a tank which in my case is 55 gallons that sits in the garage. That tank is heated by natural gas and well insulated to keep the water hot so that you do not use a lot of natural gas. To give you an idea my natural gas bill per month is usually $30 to $40. Boilers are generally used in commercial buildings to heat large amounts of water.
Bathing in bat soup, that explains why you can be bat-s**t crazy at times 🤣
4:50 that’s why they used to tell you not to drink from the hot tap 🙂 Not so much an issue now with a combination system 🙂
So are y'all just playing a game of "Find the load bearing wall" with a sledge hammer? Or is there some undocumented research phase in this teardown?
a game of whack f*ck with the walls
In a good, older European house, anything wood/cardboard/drywall is non load bearing....
Probably looked from above to check beforehand
@@Zonkotron In an American house any of those things are structural
When you buy a house in the uk, you get a survey and a set of plans. These plans contain the load bearing and non load bearing walls.
Oh the energy of youth. I remodeled three homes while living in them when I was closer to your age, but I can’t imagine doing it now. Have fun.
Alec: It’s scorching hot out! Like 85°F!
Me: *Laughs in Florida*
cries in Michigan
Laughs in SoCal...
Laughs In Cairo
Cries in Norway
Believe me, the heat in the UK feels way worse than the temperature says. The high humidity and lack of any air conditioning make it hellish. I've known Aussies and Americans come over and scoff at our 'hot weather' then experience it themselves and hate it.
That woman is a keeper lol. She let you drag her into that project and has the sense of humor to go along with the kitchen island bit.
I feel the pain that a nice old and pretty house has turned into a Russian abandoned house
Why do people buy older homes with character and then gut them? Why don't they just buy something newer or build their own to order...
@@mr.grumpy I hear you. The problem is that there is a limited inventory of homes out there and getting the neighborhood and lot that works is perhaps more important than the home itself
@@jeffhreid You bring up some good points. 😃
I really wish he'd post more than just one episode a week. It's cool watching him do all this
Milenial knows stereo for the first time: "it's a 360 like sound!!!!"
Always fun to watch how houses are build in other countrys. Especially the water tanks leaves me speechless...
after the third unbroken glass I'd be so impressed that I'd save them somewhere for a future project! Quite impressive, those pannels!
Or at least note down the manufacturer.
wtf, has a nice fireplace and a magnificent garden....tears it out. I am a fan of no solution solutions....leave it alone...fixed.
I expect to see a *very* nice fireplace in the future. If you have something perfectly good, but it's not what you want, is it really that good?
@@artor9175 Hmm, hmmm.Not really. Uncomfortable, dangerous and unuseable stuff is another story. That fireplace may be in that category for a couple of reasons - first and foremost that open fires are almost useless at actually heating, most of the heat gets drawn up the stack with the bypass air you need to permit to ensure proper removal of flue gas. But wild Gardens are great, takes years to grow a good one.....im more of a old, half abandoned factory kind of guy than refurb house till squeaking clean....