renovating day 6

I had to have a quick think about what day we are up to here in the land of painting and decorating. Day 5 turned out to be the hottest day ever recorded in Sydney and of course I had people working in the house and heat. I offered iceblocks and cold water. All the doors were finished and just need to be painted and any rooms with wallpaper left had it taken off.

Day 6 and we moved upstairs and the painters moved downstairs. This required the installation of 2 safety gates and telling little people to shut the gate. Elodie is fascinated by the stairs but can’t get down them on her own yet. So we’re upstairs and the kids can play in their playroom all day. Of course someone still told me they were bored despite being surrounded by all those toys. Now in this pic you really see the difference in the colour – I never realised how peachy the walls were.

I’m still loving the paint colours. In the pic above it’s Antique White USA and below we have Vanilla Quake half strength. It looks great on walls. It does not look good when you find it in your bathtub. I need to have some words to the painters tomorrow morning (something I don’t like doing) because they’ve been doing all their brushes in my bathtub – the one where the little ones have their bath but I hadn’t noticed until today when there was grey paint in the tub. I had to scrub it all out and spray and wiped that bathtub over 5 times before I was happy that little people could bath in it.

oh and a couple of questions you’ve asked

Why are you replacing the doors?

Well the doors are a very thin and hollow timber veneer. They slam close with just a little gust of wind. And we’ve got a hole in one door from the previous owners. And I decided since we were doing the paint, trims and I wanted new door handles that we’d replace all the doors. Cost per new door is about $120 and then you need to add the handle to that price but the new doors are really substantial and look and feel better already.

Are we painting the skirtings?

Oh yes one of the painters will be doing all the timber work which includes skirtings, wardrobe doors and the staircase this week. He will be cutting out a few inches of carpet away from the skirting to make sure he paints right down to the floorboards since we are removing the carpets next month for floorboards.

What is the colour you are using?

Dulux Vanilla Quake half strength on walls in living areas and Dulux Vivid White for ceilings and trims. In bedrooms we are using Dulux Antique White USA. Not a complaint about the paint colours. We had the Vanilla Quake half strength recommended to us at our last house by the Dulux consultant and it’s an amazing colour. I just love it.

When are you doing the floorboards and carpets?

The floorboards will be done in February. After they are done we’re hoping there is enough money to do the carpets as they are the second most expensive part of the work we are doing. We are replacing 3 sets of french doors downstairs which is not cheap but has to be done as the glass isnt safety glass and I wanted them white so we need to do that now. So we’ll take stock after the painter and floor guys have been paid. We’ve picked the carpet but just haven’t paid the deposit yet as we are determined not to run over budget with this house.

How are we living through it?

Good question. Because our house is older it isn’t really open plan so we can close off doors but this week has been the hardest as we are upstairs and it was much easier downstairs. We will move out for the floors and now I see why. We’ve been airing out rooms after they have been painted but we haven’t been sleeping in them just to be safe.

And here is the spare room/home gym/anything room that is being painted. Keepin’ it real……..