Do It Yourself

A journey of DIY discovery…

Chaulking ‘Chaulk everything! If it’s a straight line chaulk it!’

Sanding - when you look like a snowman, sand a bit more

Varnish - until you get a bit too happy from the fumes

Gloss - this stuff does NOT come off your hands, (yet it takes 16 hours to dry whatever you’ve painted) for weeks I felt the need to apologise to random people in case they thought that perhaps I don’t actually wash

Painting – the first wall I painted I was ecstatic that we had got to the painting stage quote: ‘we’re nearly there Jay we are painting! Hoorah!’ erm…no…not nearly there…the last wall I painted I wanted to throw the paintbrush down and dance around it (in fact I’m sure I did do a little dance *whoop*)

We dabbled with painting/equipment of all varieties…brushes, rollers, ceilings, walls, skirting’s, doors, frames, cutting in, I even painted my glasses, my hair, clothes and my arms (those last few were not intentional) Also tried a new fangled gadget from the ideal home show a ‘paint pad pro’ Tommy Walsh you should be ashamed to have your face on that box! Recommended if you want a lovely smear effect on your walls if you can manage to keep the pad on there long enough to smear anything that is…

Singing and whistling while you work is recommended, throw in a bit of dancing/wiggling to amuse the neighbours

I have never realised there are so many different types of paint, why can you not go into a shop and say I’d like a tub of paint please

I hate B&Q

Masking - making sure you don’t get paint where you’re not supposed to…and trying not to peel paint off when removing the masking *sighs*

Priming – oh you can’t just paint everything you know! You have to prime things first, which basically means even more painting

Whitewashing – yes essentially yet more painting

Budgeting and watching money evaporate – we got really good at this one (well the last part anyway)

Learning from mistakes – all you can do is what you think is right and learn from the mistakes

Its been two weeks since my last confession...

Week 17 – yes we are still going...

I have discovered many things over the last 4 months, most recently that wallpapering is like trying to wrap a giant, extremely awkward shaped present.  Although saying this I didn’t really do much of the wallpapering it kind of ended up with Jamie doing all the work and me standing there to make sure it looked straight (which is obviously an equally important job).  The wall paper in the front room looks beautiful! We still have the dining room chimney breast to wallpaper which is going to be even harder as it has an awkward lip half way down the wall but we’re trying not to think about that.

 

I haven’t done a blog for so long I can’t remember what had and hadn’t been done...the floor downstairs is now laminate all the way through front to back and was laid by Jay and his dad Danny, it looks awesome!! Very VERY chuffed with that!

The bedroom is finished (yes FINISHED) complete with blinds (which took me and Rob 4 hours to cut each slat individually) homeowners please note I have a tip for you...buy made to measure blinds.  However they look wicked so it was worth it.  Rob enjoyed it anyway he spent most of the time cutting the slats and pinging them at me from all angles, I had one that stuck itself to my forehead for several seconds, some also  ended up flying out of the window.  I’m sure it was amusing to passers by.

Robert modelling for B&Q...

The wall sticker, yay I love it! People may start to notice a tree/flower theme around the house, I can’t help it everything I buy just happens to have trees on it.  Having done the sticker first and moaned that it took 30 minutes to peel the backing off and a further 20 to secure it in place, we realised that this is way easier than hanging wallpaper so may have to get some more of those!!!

Rob and Jay manoeuvred the washing machine and fridge into the utility last night so they can finally be used! So, I hear you say, when are you moving in then? I don’t know!!! I hope on Sunday, I am taking stuff round there over the weekend, but really it depends on Jay as poor lamb, it is all coinciding nicely with his exams again, so he has not even had time to think about what he is going to pack let alone pack any of it, whereas I have been packing for some time...so we will see, what will be, will be but it’s there, it’s ready!! There are still bits and bobs to do, the blinds in the front room (which are the same as the bedroom) *shudders at thought of doing that again x3* and the edging on the floor.  Little things really, the main thing is it LOOKS like a house, it IS a house, it is OUR house and I can’t wait, time to excited!!! Woooooooooo!