Bathroom Overhaul

The last major job inside the house was to re-model our bathroom.

I'm keen to sell the blue pedestal basin as its in great condition and pains me to just throw it on the tip.  I've listed it on Trademe twice now and haven't received any takers, well one for $10, but I think its worth at least $50.  Not what I was expecting at all!!!! Quite sad really, might have to advertise it to a wider market maybe?  It would look awesome in a retro bathroom, cafe, a batch or even a rental property!  In hindsight I wished I'd kept the bath and toilet as well, it may have sold better as a set.  Maybe/Maybe not!!

First I paint stripped all the blue paint of the woodwork... ten years ago it was the thing to paint your woodwork a colour to match the room!!! What were we thinking!! Then I removed the lino.

The plumber then removed the sink, bath tub and shower unit.  The electrician and I then removed the bathroom cupboard unit along the wall.  Very satisfying I can say!!

the really dark shower unit!!

Trying to remove the shower tray!  It is pretty well fixed in!

board underneath shower tray, all wet! 

Nice big hole in the concrete!!

When the lovely blue toilet got removed and we removed the jib so we could modify the toilet piping  we found a wet patch!!!  This was from a couple of things.... one, the toilet overflow had been dripping and two, we found a water toby outside in the corner which had been leaking for years!!! We didn't even know the water toby existed!!!  Thankfully we had a dehumidifier so this helped dry it all out inside.  And the plumber has since fixed the toby and its all nice and dry outside now too.

Piping and electrical layout...

Hallway full of bathroom fittings!  Thankfully we have an extra large entrance and hallway to store it all!!  The rest is in the spare bedroom!!

Bath frame built and bath installed.  All jibbed and stopped too.

Shower tray installed.

New flooring installed.  The floor is a Kardean product, called Knight Tile and the colour is Rona.  This is also in the ensuite too, and its not too dissimilar to the actual tile we have in the bathroom upstairs!  Its nice to try and get the continuity throughout the home.

Hubby and I then got stuck in and did all the painting before everyone returned to finish off.  Once we'd painted the electrician returned to install the heated towel rail, the strip light underneath the bath and my bit of bling in the ceiling!!

The Tiler then waterproofed all around the bath for us to keep it all nice and dry.

The plumber then returned to install the shower unit.  This had to be installed before the tiler could start as the tiles go hard up against the shower unit.  The tiler then returned to tile.  Before he could finish the job, i.e., silicone everywhere the vanity & mirror cabinet unit had to be installed.

All in all it was a bit of a juggle organising everything in the right order but being an efficient Administrator I tackled it like a professional!

Were extremely happy with the end result.  Take a look... the photos don't actually do it justice!!

A huge thank you to my darling girlfriend, Kelly, from The Florist for our lovely orchids.  Kelly is an amazing florist if you ever need flowers for anyone in the Wellington region.

 Here's a before and after look again...

Progressing Nicely!

Hi there!!

I haven't posted much of late, sorry, but hubby and I are progressing nicely.  Its now winter in New Zealand and the temperatures have plummeted, which means it has halted any painting outside for now.  I have managed though to get three sides of the house done, just the South side to finish.  Which doesn't get any sun, so could take a while to get this side finished!  Plus I have now finished stripping and painting all the window frames.  That's a total of 26 window frames and 4 French Door frames inside and out paint stripped and painted!!!  What a mission but so so satisfying!!!

Anyhow we are managing to get our jobs completed inside.

At present, we are in the process of renovating our main bathroom.  Its been totally gutted.  Can't wait for it to be finished!!! Particularly so I can have a bath, I've missed my baths at the end of the day with a glass of wine!!!  At this stage its been jibbed and stopped.  The bath cradle is done and the bath is in.  Shower tray installed.  Flooring is down.  Walls, ceiling and woodwork painted.  Now waiting for the tiler to waterproof around the bath.  He was supposed to have turned up at 8.00am this morning, but I got a text at 6.18am this morning saying he has to finish off another job due the weather turning to rain tomorrow!! Have the electricians in today finishing off.  Plumber returning on Thursday to install the shower and toilet.  Builder also needs to return to install the mirror cabinet above the vanity.  Juggling all the trades is a bit of a mission!!! But hey its nothing for an organised person like myself!!!  Haha!!!  I just hate being let down!! They say they are going to turn up then say they can't due to other jobs they are finishing off (which I do understand, really I do)... the weather has a lot to answer for too!!! 

We hired someone in the end to come and wallpaper our dining room!! Cheating I know but the pattern was putting us off and we didn't really know where to start in the room!!  You see the room has two lots of French doors at either end of the room and on the other wall there are two tall window frames.  Pus the wallpaper wasn't that cheap!!  We'd had huge discussions with varying people about this but hey we were all wrong as when Marco started he put the first sheet up in a location no one had even thought of!!! Some said start in the corner and work around, others said start between the two windows, but Marco started just to the left of the french door on the outside wall!!  Its all to do with the light he said.  Its not finished just yet though! We needed one more half strip of wallpaper and we ran out of rolls!!! Don't you just hate that!!! So ordered another roll, which wait for it, wasn't the same batch no.  However it matches perfectly so very happy about that.  But still waiting on Marco to finish it for us.  He's also going to wallpaper our hallway too, but can't do that at present as all the bathroom fixture and fittings are being stored in the way!!!  So best to wait for it all to be done together.  (Reveal photos to come).

I've ordered the carpet for upstairs.  We've been in debate, well my hubby has been, whether to re-carpet the upstairs!  You see its a different colour from the new downstairs carpet. Upstairs is a burgundy colour, been down for ten years, god knows what I was thinking of to put down burgundy carpet.  Well I suppose it was in fashion back then!! Downstairs is a lovely beige/neutral colour.  All the real estate agents agreed it should be replaced.  Anyhow I managed to get the same carpet as downstairs at a really great price so managed to twist hubby's arm in getting it replaced.  So that's more progress.  Just need to remove the old carpet now and paint the main open plan area and the staircase before they come and lay it. Hopefully in August sometime, as were having a little break away soon for my Birthday :).

We have painted our master bedroom and also managed to finish the windows inside and out just before the cold snap hit.  So very happy with that.  The colour we chose for the master room was Eighth Lemongrass (Resene).  Because the room has a pitched roof, with lots of angles the colour looks different in the changing lights.  In some light it looks grey, others a very subtle green or blue.  Either way it looks great.  It will look much better when the new carpet is down too! (Reveal photos to come).

I have also ordered the new frosted glass for the upstairs bathroom window, which got cracked by accident when our house was rented out.  Its the old bubble glass which isn't in circulation anymore so have to get both window pains replaced!! Better now than after I have painted it inside and out!! Were just waiting on a dry/calm day to get this done!

The other area to be completed is the landscaping.  We are utilising Weltec students again to complete this for us.  They are due to return middle of August to finish off the side and front of the house.  Hopefully between now and then we get a couple of warmish days!! Well above 12 degrees anyhow, so I can paint 100 pickets before they get installed!!! 

I think that's it for now until our bathroom reveal.

Be safe, kind, supportive and love each other.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog :-) x

En-Suite Prep & Reveal

The en-suite was pretty dated and looking very sad, so this was the next job to get done.  We had a gorgeous blue toilet and sink and dark tinted glass broken sliding shower doors!!! 

The ceiling was covered in mould and grime so I sugar soaped and sanded it down, ready for Dave to paint it for me down the track.  My neck can't cope with painting ceilings!

Before with mould 

ceiling after I cleaned it up!

The next task was to remove the wallpaper.  This was a bit of a mission!

After removing the wallpaper I sanded the walls ready for painting, however they were in such bad condition we had to get them plastered ready for painting.

Next job was to remove the shower door frame ready for the new one to be installed.  I didn't think I was going to be able to do this, but I did!!! Grit and determination!!!

The plumber then turned up and removed the toilet and vanity unit for me.  Behind the toilet cistern and vanity unit we found a second layer of wallpaper, surprise... surprise!! So yes, you've got it, more wallpaper removal!

The new shower doors are much nicer than the old dark brown ones eh!

Next job was to remove the existing lino, this wasn't too difficult because the moisture in the room had helped lift the glue!!

The plaster has been and done his magic.  The new flooring has been laid.

Looking good now don't you think.... new flooring is a Kardean product... Knight Tile and colour is Rona. The toilet is an Adesso Mila Classic Back inlet Toilet suite and the vanity is Sapphire Mini Cabinet Basin by Englefield.

Just need to get a heated towel rail, hooks, maybe a hanging shelf and a splash back tile installed above the sink, then its all finished!

There were only certain types of toilets we could purchase too, due to the distance from the wall to the centre of the hole in the floor. Because of this we had to get pan connector for the toilet to work. So before you go purchasing a toilet when renovating be sure to double check with your plumber first what you can purchase, as you may be disappointed when you can't have what you want!!

House Painting.... Weatherboards & Pergola

Now all the windows are done downstairs I have made a start on the pergola and weatherboards.

I started on the back of the house first, as I wanted to make sure I liked the grey before I painted the front and revealed it to all the passers by!!!

First of all I worked on the pergola and the lower guttering.  The guttering was in bad shape, so that took a little while to scrape off and get it back it its original state ready for painting.  I then primed it with a galvanised primer and put two coats of Alabaster White paint on.

Once the pergola and guttering was all done Dave and I then washed down and scrubbed the weatherboards with warm water and sugar soap.

As the paint on the weatherboards is still in pretty good condition I just lightly sanded each board, chipping away the paint where it had become loose.

I then wiped the weatherboards down again to remove all the sanding dust and primed the areas where the wood was showing.

Once the primer had dried it was ready to receive its first coat of paint.

After a lot of deliberation we chose the colour Delta by Resene.  The white window frames look really crisp against the grey... really really happy with how its starting to look.

Summer has been and gone unfortunately so its now being a bit of a challenge to get the painting finished outside!!! Were now into Autumn and the weather is beginning to be unpredictable!!!  Hopefully we will get some fine weather again soon so we can finish off the weatherboards.

We also need to get scaffolding up so I can do the upstairs window frames!!! You wouldn't believe the expense of scaffolding in the Wellington Region, its certainly an area to print money!!! So we are exhausting all options, i.e., purchasing, hiring, borrowing!!! Watch this space!

Well we decided on buying our own scaffolding unit.  We sourced it off Trademe.  Earl, who we bought it off delivered it and very kindly installed it for me that day.  Great service!!!

Now to tackle the first of three dormer windows!!

Not a bad job if we say so ourselves!!  The roof looks quite brown in the photo below, but it isn't!!! Its more like a charcoal colour.

One dormer window down two more to go!!

Now on to stripping and painting the side windows and weatherboards now we have the scaffolding...

one coat of Delta so far

half of the side finished

Getting there...