Preparing to attack
Let me take you back… the lounge was one of the first rooms I “rushed” to complete so that I could move in. You could say its decor was quite individual. The pictures speak for themselves. But just look at her now. Continue reading
If you’ve ever attempted a semi-small renovation, you’ll understand when I say that it’s the final stages that seem to drag on forever. I think it’s because with demo work, the results are virtually instantaneous – here’s a wall and now it’s gone. But the fiddly bits don’t have such instant visual gratification for me and I really have to push through to see my vision come to life… Continue reading
Original Kitchen
I’d been lovingly doing up the house for a couple of years and apart from a lick of paint, I had consciously not touched the kitchen. You see it just didn’t work. It was a big open space but not big enough to include a dining table or anything substantially functional. And it was cut off to the deck which is where I did so much entertaining. A renovation plan had been brewing… Continue reading
As I bought it.
Given it’s a Federation semi, there wasn’t a whole lot I could do to improve the facade without breaking the DIY bank. The original windows had been replaced with brassy olive thin aluminium windows. Who knows why. That in itself was the major sticking point for me. I really, really dislike them. Really.
They jar with the original character of the house and are just plain ugly. They take away some of it’s identity and charm. Unfortunately, replacing them was going to be a [very] long-term project.
Fireplace after hours of trying to strip back the stain
I wish. There was going to be no lounging about in this room. Where to start…. Well the fireplace. I’m not sure if the surround was original or not. It’s hard to tell but the woodwork is not symmetrical. Certainly I think the tiles and cast iron hearth were but the rest, I’m not too sure. Continue reading
I think the picture speaks for itself. It wasn’t pretty. The skirting boards, door jambs, picture rail and timber fret work had the same maroon treatment plus there was the added bonus of a wallpaper freeze. I left Mum to tackle the removal of the wallpaper as I just didn’t have the time (or the patience) to give to that joyful job. Continue reading
The bricked-up fireplace had been opened up again, the hole in the floor covered and the wall patched but my work here was just beginning. The trims needed to be freed of the hideous maroon stain/paint and the ceiling and walls were flaking. Oh and a cast-iron fire surround and mantle needed to be sourced. Deep breaths…
Continue reading
Anyone who’s renovated a house while living in it knows that there’s always one room that ends up being the dumping ground for furniture, boxes, stuff yet to be re-homed and junk that materialises from nowhere. That was my front bedroom. Besides the mammoth task of re-depositing said stuff, there was the even bigger task of bringing this room back inline with the rest of the house.
![Front [storage] bedroom](https://girlupaladder.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/img_7609.jpg)
Aside from the obvious items, I had no idea what was in here or where it materialised from (or where I re-housed it to be honest!)
The bathroom was a shining example of 80s decor – peach tiles with gold accents. If you need a reminder of just how special it was, take a look here. In my [crazy] wisdom, I decided to renovate it just 3 weeks before Christmas. And it was my turn to host that year. Hmmm.
Aside from the fact it was just plain ugly, the wall tiles had also been used on the floor. Big no, no. Why? Because the wall tiles were designed to be just that – wall tiles. When the tiles on the floor got wet, they became extremely slippery (so I found out) and dangerous. Continue reading
Time is a precious thing and certainly if I had more time, the second bedroom would have received much more love than it did. But with a move in date looming, I stuck to the basics and made it as habitable as possible. It is what it is and sometimes, you’ve just got to go with it. Much like the dining room, it really needed complete stripping back. But aside from re-plastering a patch of wall where the coat rail was stuck (it removed the plaster back to the bare brick) and replacing a rotten floorboard, my main tasks were stripping back the trims and painting.
The dodgy (and sticky) coat rail.
girl up a ladder 