A diary of everything involved along the way!
Archive for October, 2009
Our next challenge: The Lounge
Oct 27th
While waiting for quotes from our plasterer, we’ve made a start on wallpaper stripping in the lounge. The walls in here appear fine at first glance, but looking again reveals niceties like a badly-patched serving hatch & poor quality plaster repairs – all of which are only going to disappear if the walls are reskimmed.
Here are the before photos….
Wallpaper stripping is currently in progress.. more photos to come!
Battle won & 2nd challenge of the day!
Oct 24th
It was long & drawn out… but the built in wardrobes are no more. 
(Start to finish in about 4 hours !)
I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an over-engineered construction in a bedroom! Today’s flat-pack offerings are positively fragile in comparison, but on the plus side if you decide you’ve had enough of them they can be removed with little more than a strong push.
These by comparison required removal by force with the use of jigsaws, hammers, pry bar, drills & power screwdrivers. Every piece seemed to be either nailed or screwed to anything it touched – along with plenty of bolts anchoring it all to the surrounding walls. I’m sure our neighbours probably thought I was demolishing half the house, but no… just a wardrobe!
Wardrobes out of the way, attention turned to the second challenge of the day – removal of the multiple layers of wallpaper, top one of which was carrying a couple of coats of paint for good measure.
Looks nice from a distance… 
However, its amazing what paint-on-wallpaper can conceal…
So far so good – white base coat = nice and handy to paint over… 
Move onto the next wall and… PURPLE walls!? 
Looks like more white, but with a lilac “feature” ? 
Tomorrow’s plan is to get the remaining wallpaper off and clean up / inspect the walls to find out whether we’re going to be able to “make good” ourselves or if we need the services of a tame plasterer!
And so it begins…
Oct 24th
First “real” task on the agenda (after yesterday’s clean etc) is to strip out a er, lovely built in wardrobe.
Looks like it was knocked up by an over zealous chippy when the house was built – complete with a fine example of 1970’s wallpaper for good measure.
Definitely has to go…. Only question is who’s going to give up first? Me or the wardrobe??
The builder definitely didn’t want these to come down without a fight!
Completed & Keys
Oct 22nd
We’ve completed!
Everything’s done, the house is ours & we now have the keys!
It feels like its taken months to get to this point, and given how slowly nearly everything else in this purchase has been moving we’re still amazed that we’ve actually now completed after exchanging contracts only 3 days ago 
Unfortunately, now that we have the keys, the next stop involves creating a massive to-do list and lots and lots of hard work.
Contracts Exchanged..
Oct 19th
Finally, after what seems like several months, contracts were formally exchanged this morning!
Next stop, completion… hopefully on Thursday….
Welcome!
Oct 12th
This blog has been borrowed for the next few months to help keep everyone updated with what we’re up to in terms of refurbishing / changing / redecorating etc.
We’re hoping to try and document the refurbishment – if nothing else, so that we can compare the finished result to where we started….