You could look at it that the windows contractors cut off our internet almost a week ago and it’s still not been fixed, or that the damp work ended up costing more to fix a wonky door frame, or the electricians not having started to switch over to the new wiring yet and the plastering still isn’t finished OR you could look at it that the windows and doors are in, damp proofing is finished, we’ve misted a few walls in watered down paint, painted the feature wall in the master bedroom, have the electricians booked in to finish off everything next Monday and I spent my lunch break on Tuesday hiring a floor sander for the weekend so we can get the last big dusty job done!
Oh and we painted the front of the house a week ago which let’s just say, wasn’t Toms favourite job as he hates ladders but because a) he’s tall and b) isn’t recovering from an injured foot, he had the pleasure of doing pretty much all of he ladder work. Spanning 3 storeys, it wasn’t an easy task but the two coats of Sandtex Masonry paint are on and it has completely transformed the front of the house. All we need to do now is to touch up a few areas and tidy up the front garden itself, et voila, our house won’t look the worst on the street! Our DIY enthusiasm (/obsession to just finish what we’ve started) has rubbed off on our neighbours who’ve also now started to paint the front of their house 🙈.
We’ve learnt a few costly lessons over the last couple of weeks, but nothing that’ll bankrupt us nor put us off doing this again (I think…). We paid for some external pebble dash render to be fixed, not expensive, but daftly and without realising (and also having painted and made it look dazzling after), it got completely broken off when the front door was replaced. Thankfully the windows company repaired it as part of their job but it was £160 down the drain that we could’ve done without. We’ve also had to spend extra on the damp remediation as the front door internal frame wasn’t straight (it was so wonky, I wonder how it ever looked straight to us before! If we’d straightened the wall ourselves, we’d have lost the guarantee on the damp proofing if it had returned in that area and when we come to sell, we want that future proofed! We learnt our mistake in the last house with documentation, so I have a spreadsheet noting all the guarantees we need and validity/ what we need to do to maintain them.
This weekend’s plans are to sand the lounge, stairs, landing and master bedroom floors which will either be really easy or a pain in the backside and take us way longer than we think. Either way, it doesn’t sound like the funnest job but it’ll mean we can start to clean and unpack a few things afterwards, as the house should remain relatively dust free (we hope).
We also have a hideous mountain of rubbish piling up in the back garden, but nothing that can’t be cleared with a few tips to the scrap yard, tip and with the help of Ebay and Freecycle. After that, it’s on to lots of varnishing and painting and then carpet which we’ll be putting in the loft room and basement and THEN, we’ll be guest ready 🙌🏼, minus the bathroom…
Unfortunately (but I can’t wait! A holiday is well overdue!!) I’ve decided to go on a girls holiday and hen do at the end June/ beginning of July and Toms relishing this opportunity to enjoy the World Cup without me so I’m not sure how long this next phase of decorating will take, but I’ll keep you posted!
Hayley's Home DIY 