Today was taken up by the small, annoying jobs that seem to abound in renovation work. The third bedroom had a weird door shaped raised panel that was the old doorway. It had creatively been made into a pantry cupboard for the kitchen on the other side of the wall. We elected to keep the cupboard, however the wall needed to be levelled out on the bedroom side:
My husband took the chipboard backing off it:
I took out all the shelving and removed the spice holders from the doors. It makes a handy passageway to the kitchen but we will rebuild the carcass, replace the door and architrave on the kitchen side and back it with plasterboard that will be flush with the surrounding wall.
I swept up the bedroom floor and cleared away the remaining paper lining:
Meanwhile, my husband and father-in-law set to work on the rear verandah and carport. Neither were in good shape and we plan to redesign the verandah roofline.
We are leaving most of the kitchen untouched but there were a few things that will be changed. The extra shelves came down:
One wall in the kitchen also needed attention. It was mostly paper mache, with faux wood panelling covering the lower third.
The paper mache came off easily, except for some patches where the plaster behind had loosened. The panelling was nailed behind the skirting boards, but once they were gone, it came off quickly. By then, I was covered in gold glitter, as the paper mache had glitter right through it. It seemed to end up on everything nearby – the wall, the floor, the door frame and me.
I’m sure the previous owners must have gotten a bulk deal on screws and nails, because there seem to be random ones everywhere for no apparent reason. I removed a lot of them today but I am certain I will find more.
The pry bar was being used for the verandah so I set to work on the tiles in the lounge with a brick chisel and a mallet. Once the bar was free to use, I also levered up all the tack strips from the old carpet, then went around the room again pulling out the nails (yet more nails) that had held it down. It took me ages but now we can walk in the front door without our shoes being stabbed by tacks.
We measured up for the plasterboard for the new ceilings and ran some more electrical cable for power points.
It was quite warm working in a house with no ceilings as a barrier between us and the hot tin roof. We finished what we were working on and headed home for a dip in the pool before dinner. At least by the time I got out, I had finally gotten clean of the glitter…
