Hallway Makeover

Today, was a bit of a slow start, for some reason I couldn't get going.  Thankfully a dear friend Monique came to the rescue with a large Cappuccino and a chat.

Thanks Monique your a life saver :-) x

Once I had my caffeine fix I then, very enthusiastically, started removing the very very old, worn musty smelling brown carpet.  The carpet is probably the original from 1980 when the house was built!!! The underlay had completely disintegrated!!

In my original post I said we bought our home 15 years ago.  Our home was two stories, with windows and net curtains upstairs, but there wasn't a staircase to the upstairs.  So ten years ago we undertook our first renovation project.

Here are some before shots of the original looking hallway, before I get into today's job at hand...

Original hallway 15 years ago!
This is the door into the downstairs bedroom

we removed a quarter of this bedroom to allow
for the staircase to be installed

Staircase installed

Our hallway also used to be a wall full of cupboards too!! One was for coats, another for linen which also housed a hot water cylinder, and the third a storage cupboard.  

When installing the staircase we also decided to remove the coat cupboard to enlarge the pantry in the kitchen.  

We enlarged the linen cupboard as we removed the hot water cylinder due to installing a Rinnai system.

We removed the storage cupboard, this gave us a work station in Cam's bedroom.

hallway, with one set of double doors for the linen cupboard

hallway completed, and wallpapered.
ten years ago the red was quite trendy!!

Anyhow, back to the present day....

We have two weeks to clear the carpet, prep, wallpaper and paint the hallway ready for the hard flooring to be laid.  There's nothing like a deadline to get motivated!!!

Yesterday I stripped the backing paper off the walls and primed the new plaster boards.

Even found Ghosts in the walls!!! 

So today I cleared the carpet, underlay and the tacks around the outer edge.  As well as wash part of the woodwork down with sugar soap.

the underlay was pretty much munted!!! 

I filled a bucket and half with the crumbled, shredded, sand like underlay.

I felt a great sense of achievement looking at a job well done, even if I say so myself!!

While I am doing all of this, our new kitchen is being installed at the same time... its all getting very exciting now... gosh I hope I like the kitchen when its finished... I've waited so long for it... my emotions are all over the place! One day I think yes its going to be great, others I think oh no what was I thinking!!!  I can't wait to see and reveal how our new kitchen is going to look!  Unfortunately we are all going to have to wait a little while longer!!!

There is only one cupboard unit left in the hallway to install in the kitchen, along with the range hood and gas/electric cooker hiding away down the hallway!

The plumber should be on site Thursday / Friday to connect everything up.  The builder will be returning on Tuesday next week to finish off the skirting boards, architraves, and cornice.

Tomorrow I'm going to finish off washing down the woodwork, and make a start on painting the cornice, skirting boards and inside front door.  I'm off to bed now to catch some Zzzzzz's.

Thanks for reading, until the next update on the hallway.

Window prepping & painting

What a great feeling, a huge sense of achievement!!  We have finished the laundry, kitchen and dining room windows and french doors!!

The mammoth task started with me paint stripping the windows weeks ago!!

haha, that's me in action!

Dave also removed a lot of the old putty too as it had hardened, cracked and some of it had just fallen out! Then muggins here, was wiping down one of the pains one day, being very gentle, and while doing so my hand went straight through the glass!  Ooops! I was very lucky I didn't cut myself, just a bit shaken.  Thankfully I was wearing rubber gloves at the time.  A phone call later and a glazier turned up to replace the pain for me in the afternoon.

That weekend Dave re-puttyed all the window frames.

Over Labour weekend we started the undercoating on the windows and french door.  Once dried I sanded them down and put on the first top coat.  I sanded them again and applied the final top coat.

Dave undercoating the kitchen window

dining room french door undercoated

Last Tuesday, I finished painting the kitchen and laundry window, inside and out ready for the kitchen to be installed on the Thursday.  Though the kitchen didn't end up getting installed, ahhhh!!! There was a delay in getting the panels from the painters!!! We've been promised it will now be installed on Monday.  Fingers and toes crossed!!!

Instead of masking all the window panes we are painting the glass then removing the paint from the glass with a paint scraping knife... it probably takes a bit longer than masking but you get a better finish.

The windows are looking so much better... look at the comparison above, white vs the mucky brown that used to be on the window frames! Above you can also see a sample of what were going to paint the weatherboards, its called Delta by Resene.  I think it will look really smart once completed.  I hope so anyhow!!

I also removed all the window latches, as they were covered in paint and a little rusty!

I took the following steps to polish the latches up.

1. Soaked in a jar of Coopers paint stripper for a couple of hours.
2. Rinsed in a jar of Coopers flusher.
3. Soaked in a jar of Coca Cola for several hours!!! (Just think what this does to your stomach!!!)
4. Rinsed in warm water.
5. Dried off.
6. Scrubbed with steel wool.

Voila they are all nice and shiny again!!

This weekend we finished painting, inside and out, the dining room french door, windows and outside side lounge windows.

North side lounge windows

North side dining windows, the two on the right.

Wow what a difference the white window frames make vs the brown window frames upstairs!!!  Can't wait to attack the upstairs!!  Think we will have to hire a cherry picker to do these, instead of scaffolding!!!  I will have to make some enquiries.

Dave also prepped and painted the kitchen/laundry sliding door.

Were getting there!!!