It’s been a productive time since I last posted about our living room makeover, we are starting to get somewhere. In fact, we’re almost done!
We had someone come to quote for the floor repairs, but since they didn’t actually send us a quote we went back to looking for someone else. But that ended up with a VERY big quote, which actually made buying and fitting a whole new floor cheaper. So that’s what we’ve done.
We also had a quote for someone to come and build our cupboards, so that’s all booked in for the end of the month.
Before we could get to that stage we still had to get the walls and ceiling done, so we started by clearing the last remnants of the window seat and stripping the three layers of wallpaper that was hidden behind it.
Those of you who read part one of this will remember the random can of varnish in the floor, so you know that whoever built the window seat was a bit weird. Well once the wallpaper was stripped we also discovered that they’ve managed to leave a gap in the plaster boards, they do not line up at all!
While Kitty was sat going at the wallpaper I was busy using dad’s sander that he lent us. Must admit, much quicker and easier than doing it all by hand, but it does leave your hands feeling really weird after a few hours.
The sanding was a pretty big job, the wood around the window seems to go on forever, and after the first two days I’d not even got to the skirting board, door frame or windowsill. The job was slowed by the fact that the previous paint job wasn’t done properly (quel surprise) and instead of sanding nicely the gloss paint was just peeling off and sticking to the sandpaper.
With the sanding done it was time to move onto washing the walls and then we could finally begin painting.
We both had a week booked off work to get things finished, as well as attend a friends wedding and get a few other bits of adulting done. By the end of our first weekend the ceiling was painted and the walls were primed. By Friday the walls were painted and the old floor ripped up and sent to the tip, with help from my dad. Just an hour after that left the new floor was delivered.
Kitty’s step-dad Jon came down on the Saturday and fitted the new floor for us, being paid with meat and beer for his labour (courtesy of a trip to Red Dog Saloon). Jon certainly did a better job than had been done before, we now actually have underlay under the floor instead of just a sheet of folded up plastic that only went half way across the room.
I think you’ll agree that the room looks so much better now, even with a few areas that need touching up and finishing off.
By the Sunday our sofa was out of the dining room, the armchair was moved out of the kitchen, the TV could be moved back out of the bedroom and we had a useable living room again. It felt so nice to sit in there and relax on Sunday night, finally done with a week of hard work and cramped living conditions.
Next big step is to get the cupboards in, paint them and then paint the skirting boards, windowsill and window surround. But before that I have to put up the TV wall bracket. Wish me luck!
I’ll be back with one final post, looking at all our finishing touches.