Last weekend we thought we’d complete wallpaper stripping the third bedroom, start skimming walls, remove some skirting boards and do about 10 other random ‘small’ jobs. How wrong we were.
This was definitely the worst couple of days since we’ve moved in and started work on the place. Worst only in terms of frustration, not feeling like you’re getting anywhere and things going wrong. We actually got a lot done when we look back now, but at about 3pm on Sunday when Tom found me crying in the corner of the living room it didn’t feel that way at all. Oops.
So here’s the brief explanation behind the nightmare that was last weekend:
1. Don’t judge a room by its size: knowing it was the smallest room, we anticipated wallpaper stripping the third bedroom would be easy and quick. Actually it took 2 full days (week nights included and Saturday) and involved lots of plaster coming off with it. It literally felt as though they’d originally stuck it on with super glue; a painful process.
2. About 4m of very old skirting had to be removed besides the fireplace. When we moved in this was disguised by the brick surround but as we’ve removed this, the skirting now needs replacing so it matches the rest of the room (matching the skirting is a whole other story… trying to ascertain if it’s bullnose or rounded and the correct width involved multiple trips to Wickes. Lesson learnt – take a sample with you). Anyway, the old skirting is very short and stuck on with 3 inch wrought iron nails and probably super glue as well just for good measure (you can see it in the back of the picture below). Even our new power tool couldn’t get underneath or behind it. I’m not sure what the previous owners were thinking when they installed it, but for a lightweight plank of wood it strikes me that industrial nails and adhesive are a little OTT.
3. Replacing the kitchen light should have been easy, had the wires not kept breaking every time we tightened them into place. It took an hour.
4. Replacing the broken ceiling rose in our bedroom; again, should have been easy but the change short circuited the entire upstairs, then after lots of googling and changing of wires around, only provided light to that room. When our diagnostics and arm strength failed after a couple of hours, we gave up and settled on not having a light in our bedroom for now. We’ll sort it out properly when we have some more time but last weekend didn’t allow us that so I’m now getting dressed in the dark each morning.
Happy days.
Hayley's Home DIY 