Renovation - Day 16 - Final

Sunday .. and a glorious day it is too!  Way too excited to sleep in - did a little walk thru of the renovated rooms ... lit some candles, smiled and grinned and felt so good inside.  Isn't it silly how such a simple thing as new paint and carpets can lift you and make the world seem all ok after all?

Had a lot planned to do today, so got in early with some housework (even this is easier and more enjoyable now that we are more organised).  Finished packing the trailer with junk to throw out ready to take to the tip later today.  Loaded the shelving for Mr D on top.

Mr K and I then headed out (I dont think I have been out of the house in well over a week!) to visit a few shops:

• Freedom Furniture - to look at chairs, a sofa and end tables as well as lots of other lovely things

The wingback I am ordering

The 2 seater sofa I have picked out

• Beacon Lighting - an ever so brief look in here to get a globe for Mr K's bakelite lamp, but I had my eyes scanned for when we do the lighting properly.
• A few other (not so nice) furniture shops - two of which had closing down sales.  If you saw the stuff they had in there you would not doubt why they were clossing down.  It was just awful
• Guildford - antique shops strip.  Still looking for a few old pieces for Mr K's office.
• Guildford bakery - Lunch and a scrummy chocolate roulade to take to friends for dinner tonight.

By this time, we were late for our plans to head up to Chittering and drop off furniture to friends, the boys to take the trailer to the tip and for Mrs A and I to put a lamb roast in the oven.

Tommy and Minty came up with us, these friends are the owners of Tom Dogs most favorite girl dog in the whole world!  They run and play and play and run for hours.

Lovely evening, spent eating roast and watching the Olympic dressage with great company.  Home by 9pm and not long out of bed I can tell you.

Was excited about tomorrow and the start of working from my spanking new office.  Did I say I was excited about work?  Well yes I was actually, it was a damn good feeeling to have my very own, well set up, space to work in.

Oh, and quietly, between you and me - I was glad my 'holiday' was over.  I am knackered!



Our Tommy after a afternoon's crazy playdate with Keela

Renovation - Day 15

Home stretch.  Saturday sleep in was a pipe dream as the front gate bell went at 7.30am, but I guess we did get 30mins extra.  Took a few coffee's for us and Chris, who was on his own with no sidekick - Ryan we found out was only 17 and still on the weekend sport phase of his boyhood.

Got warmed up by moving piles of books and magazines to my office and craft room.  Must have walked up that hallway 1000 times! Found 2 more boxes of books out in the carport.  Think I 'might' have a bit of a book addiction?  I then just moved from room to room, unpacking things, setting things up, preening, cleaning, with lots of admiring and smiling at how it has all turned out.  To say that I am happy with the result is a huge understatement - I am thrilled.

In the coming week, I will post in detail what each room is like, what I have plans to do there, how to decorate it etc.  For now, here is a brief photo update:

The bookcase in my office.  Have room to acquire here :-)

Reading (and obviously TV) room.  No capacity to add any books here - will have to be disciplined with the one in one out rule here.



Hall table in the reading room.  Will get a large mirror to hang above this.

Corner of the reading room waiting for a wing back chair and 2 seater sofa.

One side of the craft room.  Love the view to the garden.

Other side of the craft room - just look at all that storage!



Renovation Day 14

The Friday, the last day of our holidays, the last day of decoration.  The carpet layers are due about lunchtime, so that gives us time to clear out the lounge, in an almost "we are on holiday" approach.  Of course we didn't, we both worked and pottered and placed and organised and cleaned right up until they arrived.  In their usual fashion, the lads (Chris and Ryan) got stuck right in and within the hour my new office was all carpeted and ready for me to move in. 

More cleaning - my desk that was out in the carport, the credenza's, also in the carport.  My PC, the printer, files, office stuff - all needed a dust and wipe over.  If I never see a chux again, it will be a fine thing.  But it was oh so lovely to have everything shiny and new and clean and fresh.  I am vowing to keep it this way - surely I am old enough now to be able to play grown ups and keep my house nice.

The carpet in the lounge was looking lovely ... until ... we had a minor, well major really, disaster.  the carpet layers use a very hot iron to melt the strips that hold the carpet to the edges and to make joins.  He usually kept the iron in a (plastic ... weird) box with layers of old carpet to insulate it.  That morning he has cleaned it out, but something very wrong happened, the iron overheated and burned a hole through 4 layers of old carpet, a plastic box, out new carpet and the underlay.  Eeeek.  Poor Chris, he was so stressed, it was 4pm on a Friday and there was no time to get another batch of carpet out to us before the end of day.  There was nothing for it but to calm Chris down, give him a beer, order new carpet for tomorrow and commiserate with him that he too is human. 

The only real annoyance for us was losing an evening to put the lounge back together, and we spent the night on the patio where our lounge chairs and outdoor heater and TV were.  We huddled under blankets, with the dogs and cat and watched the opening ceremony of the London Olympics.

So much for a sleep in tomorrow, the new carpet will arrive at 7am.

Silver lining?  We have some bargain carpet for our bedroom which we were not planning to do right now, but may as well re-carpet the whole house. 

The yucky, stained, mottled, old (no not Mr K!) carpet in the lounge.

Minty's 'wee' patch.  And the elephant in the room aka the Server Cupboard

Chris the Carpet Layer - had to make him pull up his pants as he was looking more like a Plumber!

Chris - just before disaster struck.

My new office - before it gets filled with stuff

The lounge - fresh and clean and streamlined

Renovation - Day 13

Final little bit of painting to do today, my new office.  Its only a small room, so wont take long.  Mr K and I have it working like clockwork, he cuts in and I roller.  First however we (as in Mr K) had to sand the filled patches.  Then it was my turn with the vacuum and a soft brush, to clean the walls.  Then a quick vacuum of the floor to get rid of any remaining dust.  A wash of the walls with sugar soap, let it dry and we are ready to start our painting engines.

Mr K starts by cutting in the cornices.  I let him get ahead (don't worry, I go and potter about in the laundry or kitchen while I wait for him) on the cutting in so he doesn't have to lean on wet walls.  Then he calls me, and I trot in, roller in hand and set to work.  Its really very therapeutic painting.  I love getting a good rhythm on, and I have a technique that really works.  Had a brief moment when I thought this might be fun as a career, but as I say, it was only brief.

It took us 1 hour 15 mins to completely paint the room.  Letting it dry, we got on with more sorting through stuff and putting it away.  It has been a very non stressful task - I just grab a box of stuff, or a pile of books and have a good look at each item.  Asking myself :

1. Do I really love it?
2. Does it make me smile or feel good?
3. Is it useful?
4. Will I use it in the next 12 months?
5. Can I access it in other ways? (like books that I can get on Kindle)
6. If I keep it, can I store it?

I culled all my magazines, having a strict rule that only magazines that are less than a year old get kept and as a new one comes in, an old one gets thrown out.  This was a hard one, as I love going through my magazines, and I do refer to them often.  But I kept up the mantra 'I will be able to find these ideas and inspirations online and of course on Pinterest'. 

About 4pm, my office was ready for its second coat, so we repeated the morning process and were washing up brushes and trays by 5pm.  It was wonderful to be able to put away all the painting gear in its proper place, having sorted out the shed.  Felt like we were real grown ups!

A friend called by and offered to cook dinner for us, which was lovely and very welcome.  Uncle J came over as well to check out the progress of his and Mr K's 'boys' room.  I think he approves.  The boys were in there, drinking and chatting away well after I headed for bed.  Its perfect - they get their space, and the rest of my house stays nice.

Tomorrow is the final day of our 'holidays' and the final rooms get new carpet.

My soon to be office, before painting

First Coat of paint.  Looks lighter already, new carpet will lighten it even more

Final coat.  Now to dry overnight

Renovation - Day 12

Bit of a nothing day.  I am thinking our steam is about running out.  Only a little bit more to go and then we can have the fun of putting our house back together!  Spent a lot of time going from room to room admiring and planning and dreaming.  We didn't get a lot done today, but here is what we did achieve:

• Moved all the furniture out of the old guest room and cleaned it all down
• Mr K ground out the cracks ready to fill in my office
• Sanded old patched parts of the wall
• Filled all the holes, cracks, gouges, etc
• Left the spak filler to dry, the heavy duty stuff takes 12 hours
• Moved more books - we now have books in 4 rooms - its like a real library!
• Mr K's Study - Military, History, Travel
• My Office - Writing, Genealogy
• Craft Room - craft books - der!
• Reading Room (the new name for the middle room) - Gardening, Farming, Self Help, Novels, Literature, Biography
• Found more books outside in boxes
• Washed sheets and underlay on guest bed
• Remade bed in new guest bedroom
• Put a few containers away in the craft room

By about 12noon, I had another killer headache, as well as tummy pains from all the neuophen I have taken over the past week to get rid of these damn headaches. I am not sure whats causing them, but I suspect it may be fumes - paint, carpet and the smelly gas heater.  Layed down for a while to get rid of it, and we both fell asleep!  Must have needed the rest.

Tomato soup for dinner, good comedy night on the ABC, then to bed.

Guest Bedroom - needs new bed cover and the bedside tables that Dad and I built, need to be repainted to match

Reading Room - Need TV cabinet and couch under the window

Craft Room - another white cabinet to put together and then a large version of this on the opposite wall.  LOVE all that storage space.  It feels very creative in there already.

Renovation Day 11

Carpet Day!  How excitement.  Went to bed last night with thoughts running through my mind of where I am going to place furniture, what furniture to buy, what colours to accent the rooms ... and on and on and on went my mind.  Finally silenced the brain about 11-30pm, which is late for me.  By 12-30 I was awake again with a dripping nose, a fidgety dog and could not stop sneezing.  Sat up in bed and read for a while but by 2-30am I had enough of not being able to sleep so took half a Xanax, knowing it would make me tired come morning.  Ahhh blissful, dreamy sleep... until the damn alarm went off.

Although I did wake feeling hungover, I was too excited about the new carpet to stay in bed.  The carpet layers were due about 10-30am, so gave us time to clear out the rooms and to have a good tidy up and sort out of tools and painting gear.  I think I am most excited about these Reno's as it gives us the space and time to sort and store the good things and get rid of the junk.  I get a thrill being able to locate what I want, be able to get to it easily and know that it is being stored so it does not get damaged/dirty.  Sad huh!

Carpet layers finished by 2pm - even after a minor disaster of having the carpet for my little office and not the library.  They were great guys, made a phone call and had the carpet for the library delivered.  It looks amazing and I was pleasantly surprised at the colour - I could not remember it and was scared it would be too light.  Its just like the wall colour, just darker.

Started to clean out the books in the old guest room, man we have some books!  Having a cull as we go but not many books are making their way to the discard pile :-)  Dusting each and every book, sorting into categories - feels like I am back working in the Library.

We have my office almost emptied, just the bed and side tables to move.  More jobs to do add to my list in my head - repaint the side tables as they are pink and stressed, order new quilt cover, sort genealogy files, start knitting (found my needles and wool) ... and so it goes on.  I don't think I could ever be bored in a million years.  Pottering about tonight, putting away things as I get the urge, its all great fun. 

Mr K's library looks awesome, just how we wanted it to look - old and interesting but clean and sleek.

So pictures ...

And here is what the rest of the house looks like now ...

Renovation Day 10

Woohoo.  Finished painting the four rooms that will be carpeted tomorrow.  Talk about cutting it fine.  That's 4 rooms done and only 1 to go - feels good to be on the home run.  My new office is the one still to be done, and its only a little room and hasn't been used much so it will be an easy job.  Just as well, as we will only have 2 days to get it done, before the final carpet laying on Friday.  Of course, as we go, there seems to be a growing list of  things we will do 'later'!  Later is a planet far far away, another time and place.  It actually gets a little depressing coming across all the little things that need doing.

Plan of attack to combat Planet Later is to make a list of the jobs as they come up and to set aside every second weekend as a job weekend.  Cross them off as we go.

So, feel good moment today was when I was washing out the brushes knowing that all the painting that needed to be done was done.  It looks great too.  I keep going in there and admiring it.  Loving the latte colour with the crisp white door frames and cornices, so fresh and clean now.

Love this look.  Will replace the solid door with this same glass panelled one up the other end.

Library looking much more sophisticated



Craft room - can't wait to line the walls with shelves

Loving the crisp white door frames and cornices.  Just the look I was after

The door frames came up really well using the spray gun

Guest room windows. 

Guest room all looking stunning

Renovation Day 9

Sunday - the day of rest.  hahahha

What we did today :

•  Sanded the patches we did yesterday
• Vacuumed all the walls
• Vacuumed the floors, in particular the crevice between the wall and carpet
• Washed down the walls with sugar soap
• Had Syd and Anne visit
• Started painting!!  Oh my goodness, did that feel good

Mr K and I work so well together painting.  The mood lifted right away, we had the music going and got stuck into throwing paint around (in a very controlled way of course).

The paint is lovely, looks like a creamy latte.  The coverage on the dark blue walls is patchy so will need 3 coats.

Got all the rooms with one coat, except for my craft room, the light was too bad to cut in properly. 

Mr K made dinner for me, so grateful, I was knackered!

Renovation Day 8

Saturday - warm and sunny!

So, today is painting the walls day. Finally. How exciting.  Isn't it funny that its taken us a full 7 days work to get to the very thing that I wanted to do in the first place. Sounds simple, 'lets paint the walls' but the reality is an awful lot of preparation. It's worth it however, the finish is so much better when you prepare properly.

Wrote the first paragraph early this morning.  And guess what?  We didn't get one lick of paint on the walls!  Pulling  off the blue (and very expensive) masking tape, also pulled off all the paint around the doors!  grr I was so mad and disappointed.  This tape was guaranteed to not pull the paint off the walls.  What we found out was when the rooms were originally painted by the boys, 10 years ago, a think a few short cuts were taken! The walls were not wiped clean, and although we used a prep coat, I think the plaster was not dry enough to paint.  Lessons, lessons, lessons!

So, today was spent using scrapers to take off the flaking paint and getting back to a solid base.  Painful, and very frustrating, but it had to be done.  We figured that a job worth doing, was worth doing well.  Gee, we must both be growing up.  Coated all the bare walls and patches in a special primer/sealer which takes 24 hours to dry.  So that's that for the end rooms for today.

The rest of the day was spent patching cracks, holes scrapes in the library.  Cleaned the ceiling and made the decision to not paint it as it came up really well with a clean.  This room only has one door frame to paint, so will do it by hand.  Plus the outside wooden door that needs repairs and will be a weekend job.

We have promised each other to have one weekend off, and the next weekend ticking off jobs on the list.  This way we will get a rest and get the niggling work completed.

Tomorrow we paint!

Renovation Day 7

Seven full days working on the house.  Feeling a bit tired now, and my body is definaetly feeling it too.  The payoff is being able to see what we have done, and I keep doing this!  This morning I went up to the rooms and admired and stroked the very smooth door frames.  They are all dry now and looking bright and white and fresh.


Few little glitches with the spraying technique, but Mr K has done a great job for a beginner.  A friend dropped by last night to have a look and I sshowed him the runs in the paint work and he said that even the professiuonals get runs.  His new house has quite a few.  Will sand them back and do a touch up when we paint the doors. 


Waiting for the door frames to dry, we moved down to the old office.  This room still had built in furniture and things to take off the walls. 

The tasks we achieved today:

• Clear out the rest of the cables, computer equipment, plastic boxes that Mr K has sorted
• Grinding of the large cracks
• Vacuum all the ceiling and walls
• Patch cracks and holes
• Vacuum the floor
• Clean out the vacumm for the 100th time!
• Washed the window frames and tracks
• Washed the air con vents
• Made cheese and biccies for the people who dropped by for a drink and a look
• Made Chorizo Rosotto (again) for Uncle James and Mr K and Nanny.
• Watched Interior design shows on Home for inspiration