Back in town... back to rennovations...

So, when I got back from hols I decided that I really needed to get motivated with the house again, but the weather was so crappy and the garden needed to be left to settle for a while, so I started on the inside...

I didn't realise, and maybe I should of, that everything in old houses takes much longer than anticipated... even little jobs take longer than they should.

I started with stripping the paper in the living room... a simple task really, and it shouldn't have taken long... BUT... there was 30 years of wallpaper on the walls that needed to come off... and it turned out that the wallpaper and adhesive were holding the chimney breast together... at one point I pulled a tiny piece of paper and a HUGE chunk of wall came away with it.... holy crap!

So, I stopped and panicked for a little while... then made a few calls and got a friend and neighbour to come up and have a look at it... he confirmed that it would need to be replastered... but said in order to do that I would need to take the whole top layer off the wall.... ok, no problem (I think) and I start with a hammer and chisel...

It was tiring work and made slow progress... I had to go carefully so I didn't damage the wall underneath... and even with being super careful still a piece of sand/cement came away revealing the brick work underneath! Panic again!

So, with the drama of the living room still going on, I decided to get a tiler in to work on the bathroom... just a little job, no major hassles or anything... take off the old tiles and retile the rest of the room, floor to ceiling...

Well, I should have guessed that nothing in the Friel house could go to plan, and it turned out that some "bleeping bleep" (who I won't name right now) had put the tiles up with cement... YES! Cement! grrrrr, even I know that they shouldn't be cemented to the walls!!! So, with the tiles, off came a huge part of the wall... NOT GOOD!

But, the tilers carried on, and after only a couple more little hitches the bathroom was done and dusted... unfortunately, I couldn't say the same for the living room!

With the wall still being a problem, I decided that I had to get cracking on the rest of the room, or I'd be waiting forever to even start... So, a good friend volunteered to come over and help...

We pulled up the carpet, getting ready for painting... and the floor came away with it... it turns out that the floor had been skimmed... (yes, under supervision of the same bleeping bleep) and that the dampness had come up and just caused it to crumble and bubble!













Thankfully we notice this, but unfortunately it was a Bank Holiday... no shops open!

So, again, I made a few calls, and a family friend said they would open the shop so we could get some materials... After spending all day putting the self levelling stuff on the floor, we started to paint the walls and ceiling!

The next day the floor was almost dry, so another coat of paint was slapped on the walls, and we hot footed it over to the North to get some laminate flooring and underlay...

After a sneaky lunch on the run we got to laying the floor... thankfully the floor was dry enough to put the weight on, and although the flooring itself was a pain in the neck to lay, it was all done and we could move furniture back in and think about getting some dinner!