FLOORS AND MORE, MUCH MORE

Good Evening,

It has been awhile hasn't it? I have been busy picking out tiles for the splashback in our laundry and matching the old skirting boards with new ones. The end result? I still haven't picked a tile and we have decided to replace all the skirting boards in the family room, kitchen and laundry.

Floors. They are the foundation in which we walk on, they support our dwellings and the finish can make or break a room. Floors are an underestimated piece of the room puzzle: we take them for granted and most people don't give them much of a thought. I however am not one of those people. Don't get me wrong, I love a good timber floorboard; these are my preference over any other surface. I detest tiles - but not because of the way they look (hey I was totally fangirling over a concrete looking floor tile at Beaumont's the other day) but I really don't like the grouting. We had tiles at our house in Queensland and I could never, ever get the grout clean. It was a pale colour and it showed every stain, piece of food, hair (we had a Boxer at the time who moulted continuously)not to mention M O U L D. No matter what product I used, or how long I scrubbed for, I just couldn't get them clean. When we embarked on the Reno#50 journey I wasn't going to accept anythign but floorboards or concrete. Both look amazing and suited the Hamptons/Coastal look we were hoping for. The older part of the house has aged baltic pine. These are the wide boards over 2000mm long. After a sand and a seal, they look amazing and are by far one of my favourite features of this house. The newer extension, which houses the kitchen, alcove and the family room was something else. Over time there have been at least 2 extensions with a possible third occuring in the past 5 years.

This is the original flooring AND the flooring from the newer extension. We salvaged about 26sqm of baltic floorboards to use as replacements boards when needed.

This is post floorboard removal and is the room that you can see in the first photo but from a different angle. This was a study and we removed a wall to let in more natural light - I'm so glad we did. After removing the floorboards we removed some of the joists as there were a few that were supporting the room on the other side of this wall. We then filled the room with tonnes and tonnes of fill, compacted it and then voila concreted over the top.

         This was the finished result of the concreting and the shell of our new kitchen. We were amazed at how level and even the concrete was. Rather than rush into floorboards, we decided to paint the concrete. Fun!

Vacuum, vacuum, sweep and vacuum. Repeat

 ERM MOI GAWD. After ripping up that (horrid) green and cream check lino we discovered a plethor of sins; broken concrete, leveller, hesion bags (whaaaat?) dirt and a whole lot of damp. Mr Renovator bleached the concrete as it was a bit on the nose - twice using a mop and broom. We then acid treated the concreate to create some etching so that the paint would stick. The photo below was the half concrete, dirt and hession bag mix. We ended up pouring leveller over this section to seal it. This was the worst section of flooring and Mr Renovator had to pour two lots of acid to get rid of the smell.

 

The view of the kitchen taken at the same angle as the first photo. Ironically the stove almost ended up in the same place as the original stove. The photo below shows the first coat and some additional patching.

BEFORE

AFTER

 The finished product. This little alcove is great and the little poeple love it. It's their space, although I did draw the line at them sticking their artwork on my freshly painted walls! The process was very time consuming as I couldn't paint the floors during the day with the little people around. So one Saturday night at around 9pm, I embarked on painting the floors. I had prepped two days prior and prior to that Mr Renovator had bleached and acid etched using a non-acid product - it actually uses citric acid instead of a sulphuric acid solution. It certainly cleared out his nasal passage!The whole process took 10 days from start to finish. The floor was painted with Berger Jet Dry Garage Floor Paint(and true to its word was dry in a few hours) in a pale grey, which looked more like pale blue at the time. The colour was called Opalessence which looked like a nice off white colour but was in effect a pale blue/grey colour. I don't mind the colour, but as with most, good things must come to an end, so on that note, watch this space, because floorboards be coming!

S.

 

Coffee tables and cups of tea

Good Evening Everyone,

As the winter months settle in (although I wish they wouldn't) I am turning my focus to a few (liar liar pants on fire)small jobs in the inside of the house. We are still without flooring in the back part of the house; its currently painted concrete and skirting boards. The splashback in the laundry has yet to be done as I can't make up my mind on tiles - do we go subway tiles or do we get something a little different but still keeping with the Hamptons Beach theme? I'm not loving the assortment out there, hence my trepidation in picking a tile. We also need to finish off the cornicing and put up the blind in the laundry. This will be our first official finished room. I hope it will be done by the end of May.

We need a new front door and although most houses here have the cricket bat door style, these are difficult to come by and cost a small fortune. I have around 60 pictures, prints and paintings to be hung so that will keep me busy when its too cold or wet to do any major renovations.

Externally we are about to embark on replacing gutters (boring) but this is also the pre-curser to painting the external part of the house (HOORAY). The weather isn't on our side though (boo).

I've been completing a few little projects, one being this coffee table.I bought it at a garage sale for $50 and once home, hated the colour and the finish so I started sanding it back. My phone had a technical malfunction and I lost the before photos, but just imagine a yellow/orange, dinged up, pine, falling apart coffee table. If you can't here's a great picture of some of our beach walk collections....(insert elevator music here).

I went through too many pieces of sanding paper with no result. I managed to strip back the top, but the sides and turned legs were varnished with an indestructable product. Even paint stripper didn't budge the varnish. In the end I used a steelwool and paint stripper combination and just sort of scratched the legs.....to be honest I gave up on the sanding and primed it, sanded it and then eventually painted it with Dulux Dura Max. The roller was creating a rough surface and I just couldnt get the legs right. I ended up sanding all that paint off and then just spray painted it. I actually am happy with the result. It's kind of rustic which isn't really my style, but somehow it works in the family room. Happy days!

Well I'm off - it is the beginning of the week and apart from frantically searching for a kitchen island (think hamptons, french provincial, country all rolled into one lovely white piece of furniture)I'm busy with all things urban planning for the next two weeks.

S.

A writing desk gets a much needed makeover.....

Good Evening Readers - It's been a long time between posts, but I assure you it will be worth the wait. I have been spending my days elbow deep in paint (what a suprise, high on the fumes of DIY projects. My latest project is the painting of a pine roll top desk to hide my (mess) notebook and ancillary (messy) technological appliances (it's really just all my mess).

The first photo is the caos that is my workspace (aka the carport) as I have not qualified to date for space in the mancave (all 54sqm is taken apparently).

The desk is made of pine and was stained with a baltic pine veneer. For the first sand I used 80 grit paper on an electric sander and that barely took off the veneer. After 4 sands and countless pieces of paper, I managed to get the desk back to raw timber. The back of the desk is made of a course ply wood so I didn't bother sanding this. I then dusted, vacuumed and then wiped the desk down with a damp cloth. After a re-vacuum I applied a primer with a roller. I used a brush for hard to reach places. The desk was then pushed aside as I had larger painting jobs to complete. Essentially I finished the prep work back in March. Shame on me.

In preparation of painting I used a fine 240grit non-clog paper and sanded the desk manually. I used a cork sanding block wrapped with the finer paper. After another vacuum, a cup of tea, a blow with the air gun and a final wipe down, I applied 3 coats of Dulux Duramax Spray paint. I applied the paint in an up-down motion in one movement. Once dried I then re-applied using the same direction. the third coat was completed in a left-right motion.

Normally on a paint project like this I would use a roller or a brush but I wanted a non-textured glossy finish with no brush marks and the Duramax gave me the exact finish I was hoping for. This is an amazing spray paint- the finish is outstanding for the ease of application. The best feature is that it is dry within 20-30mins so re-coating can be done in one day. I painted this desk within 3 hours.....

My next project is the coffee table.....wish me luck
S.
 

BEFORE

AFTER