As for today, we were going to go to Beaumont Tiles to check out available selections for the bathrooms/ensuite/laundry, but they're shut on Sundays. So over the last few nights we've been cleaning the old place up, as it looks like we'll be living in it for at least 6 months before demolishing and rebuilding.
Here's a pic before of the "master" bedroom - inch thick 50 year old carpets full of bacteria, insects, dirt, skin etc, walls with wallpaper removed but the wallpaper paste NOT cleaned away, so an inch-thich layer of grime, greasy curtains, a rather elaborate original light fitting which doesn't work because the electrics in the room are shot, sash windows which lift a few inches then fall down (I suspect a broken cord or two), a built-in timber wardrobe the last owner banged up himself ....
Here's a little pic after, having used sugar soap on the walls and a light bit of sanding to remove patches, and some leftover paint Tina's dad had lying around. It's actually quite satisfying to see what a major improvement can be had for essentially $0 and a couple of hours manual labour! I've also pulled up the carpet, underlay, removed the carpet nail tracks and given the floor a wash, but there's heaps of paint spots from the original painting done when the house was built 50 years ago. Makes you wonder at how tastes change - back then, these lovely hardwood floors were considered ugly, to be covered up by orange twirl carpet! Later on today I've got a belt-sander which I'll use to remove all the original paint spots, then either just leave it how it is, or maybe throw down some timber stain or wax.
This begs the obvious question, why aren't we doing this properly - hiring a floor sander for 3 passes, then putting down a polyurethane coat? All comes down to the usual 2 suspects - time and money. We don't have any time during the week to do this work as we're at our day jobs, and we're madly saving every cent for the new house!
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