Renovation report
First we went to buy paint, wallet ouch. But we did get a 2kg tin of jelly beans free. And the sugar really did help once we got going with the proper work!
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So we had two things to do. Rip off the plasterboard on some of the walls to see the structure behind, and then sand walls, fill cracks and holes, wash walls and paint in the bedroom. Decided to do only a bit of the bedroom to make sure that the walls are good enough to take the paint (they are in really bad condition so they could very well look awful after painting). Sanding the walls was a massive pain, and if we ever do that again we'll be getting an electric sander - I reckon it's worth it whatever the cost! Filling the cracks was fun, we used Pollyfilla and it seems to do just fine, even given the state of some of the holes. We did a great job of the plasterboard ripping, and then got a little carried away as we also removed the carpet, underlay (wish there HAD been tequila involved) and exposed lovely wooden floors*. After lots of hard work and cleaning up, SOMUCH dust we finally got all clean and awaited pizza delivery...
*thank goodness, we weren't 100% sure of what state the floors were in, but all's well!
Sunday we’d planned to do a bit of gardening in the morning then have a ‘lazy’ day but clearly we’d gotten the renovation bug (some might say disease), so decided to remove the glass window that separates the 'sunroom' from the 'lounge room'. We did that, which involved dismantling it piece by piece and then pushing the frame out. It was interesting to see how it was made – so if you ever want to learn how to make a wooden cupboard/cabinet/window, it’s probably a good idea to dismantle one first so you’ve an idea of how it all fits together.
In the light of day the sanded and partially painted walls looked scraggy, and you could still see the previous layers of paint, even after sanding and two coats of undercoat. So we scrapped that plan, and decided to save the paint for new walls – we’ll just put new plasterboard in (apparently it’s pretty cheap and not terribly difficult to do*). While we have the wall cavity open, we can pop some insulation in and take care of that too!
*apparently, having been told 'Oh it's EASY'. I reserve judgement till we've actually done it...and will hold a grudge if it's not!
So we're now much closer to the large open living space we eventually will have, but now the last walls to be removed involve the bulkhead where the old hot water heater is, so that's going to be a feat of massive proportions. We really need to get some advice on whether we can remove the walls fully too - suspect they might be structural in which case we have to put in a beam. We're both warming to the idea of having a lowish beam though, so here's hoping the wall is structural!
What's really awesome is that we can see front and back garden from pretty much all rooms except the bedrooms now, so it's very much lighter and happier! I do suspect that making it pretty is going to be harder than destroying it though... All we need is some cash and we should be good to go!
PS. This report was made late due to arms being too tired to type.
