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

 

FOR THE LOVE PAINT!

As the title suggests this weeks post is all about the paint. Paint is a marvelous thing. I'm a big fan (understatement) of white - particularly the classics such as(Dulux) Natural White, Vivid White and Antique White USA to name a few. You can never go wrong with white paint. Never. Therefore I decided to paint Reno 50 (until such time we find a name for the house, it shall be known as Reno 50)interior Antique White USA. This is a warm white which is great for areas that have alot of natural light. Anything cool such as Vivid White, would look too stark and clinical. On the walls I used a low sheen acrylic at full strength and on the trims I used a semi-gloss in double strength colour. This gives a contrast to the walls, but also accentuates the ornate features of our skirting, window sills and door frames. I'm completely happy with the outcome but then anything would have looked better than the butter cream yellow the hallway was painted and the pale aubergine colour of the lounge room. I don't even know what the colour of the rest of the walls because they were so stained from the previous owners million pack a day smoking habit (ok, this is a huge exaggeration) and dirty from a lack of love cleaning. The kitchen (as shown in previous post) was a love cream colour with a beautiful (sarcasm intended) fruit motif freeze.

Whites are also a lovely contrast to floorboards, particularly aged baltic pine which is what we have. Too much colour on the walls distracts the beauty of the grain of the floorboards and can make them throw off a strong yellow and sometimes even an orange colour. I also love white walls with darker flooring, particularly blackbutt or high polished Jarrah.

This weekend I am starting on the exterior and as anticipated, white will feature heavily in the colour scheme.

Due to some technical difficulties I am unable to post photo's but now that the cooler weather has set in, I will be posting more frequent tidbits. All things going well, I will be blessing your screens with images in the next few days.

My next post will be showing more detail about the interior and as previously mentioned, a progress post of my kitchen, which has taken the best part of 9 months. So until then, stay warm and remember, you cannot underestimate the value of a good white paint.
S.

A pool once lived here...

Happy Sunday everybody.

Now that the weather is cooler, I am taking the time to write about renovating rather than renovating itself. I need a break too....before I begin the big exterior paint adventure.

Let's take a walk outside....

As I mentioned in a previous post we once had a pool. The pool was a fibreglass structure with enormous cracks and holes where the dirt was slowly making its way in. The decision to remove the pool was a 'no-brainer' that is because we are less than 200m from an amzing beach and we didn't want pay the crazy electricity costs in running the filter 24/7. It took us 3 months to get organised as there were some planning questions that needed to be resolved. Essentially when you live close (100m or less) to the coast in South Australia you require planning consent to bring in clean fill (I think it is 9 cubic metres or more from memory). This isn't a huge amount but lucky for us I resolved that we didn't need approval because we are more than 100m from the coast, we were not removing the pool entirely and we were not going to be building any habitable rooms (generally these are the loungeroom and bedrooms)over the location of the pool once filled. Presto - pool demolition was happening. If you were going to be building a dwelling over where a pool or any other large hole once was you will require a compaction report from an engineer. This is very important as the earth will move considerably if you don't compact it and then build over it. Think cracked flooring, sunken foundations, cracked walls etc...not pleasant so its worth spending the time and money having this done. Cost wise this is around $5-$8k.....

For us, it was more of a drain, bash and fill mission. Firstly we disconnected the electricity which ran into the pool and around the front (underwater pool light and bollard lighting around the periphery of the pool). Then we used the filter in reverse and drained the pool into our sewer. Once most of the water was gone we used a drill with a 30cm drill bit and bored more than 1000 holes throughout the pool shell (a job Mr Renovator loved by the way). We then removed all the coping pavers. A bobcat and more than 30,000 cubic metres of clean fill was brought in. We filled the pool a third of the way to the top with fill and then pooled water over the top to help compact it. We added a layer of gravel to help stablise and then the final layer of clean fill which we flooded to again help with the compaction. All up this exercise cost us around $2000 and took 5 days with the bobcat only working half days in mornings to technically it took 3 full days.

The white structure in the second photo is the old bessa block shed....which you guessed it, has also been removed. I'll post these photos tomorrow with a before and after of our backyard. It's taken us a year but we got there in the end.

X S.

Introducing the Kitchen.....

 

Welcome. Let's step inside Old Victoria. As you can see this is an extension- likely built in the late 70's or early 80's when bessa block (those large rectangle, grey, concrete looking blocks)were all the rage as they were readily available, required little mortar and were a much cheaper option than brick or stone. To the left are beautiful french doors that lead to the backyard. Looking forward is the u-shape kitchen. The second photo is just the kitchen...Looks so neat and tidy doesn't it? Well it wasn't! Very few of the draws opened and the cupboards were hanging on within an inch of their 1980's life. There was black smoke damage all along the wall where the oven/stove was...this we discovered the day we pulled the kitchen out. The flooring is checkerboard, vintage green (which is never to be seen) and cream. The photos are so misleading. The stove and oven didn't work. To be honest, the oven was so dirty that we couldn't get it clean. Not even with a cleaning agent reserved for removing grease from driveways. The rangehood was dripping with grease...Ew. The only thing that did work was the dishwasher, which we ended up selling for $200 on gumtree. The first thing to go was the kitchen....and boy was that not fun at all. Don't get me wrong, I love a good demolition, but when I pulled the kitchen out, I was not at all prepared for what I found....

 

Here are my tips for renovating a kitchen:
1. Understand how you will use the space, how you want your kitchen to function and what other functions such as laundry (common in the UK) facilities, additional sinks, butlers pantry etc you would like to incorporate into your kitchen.
2. Look where the natural light is - do you want an outlook? If you are renovating and have considerable space within the vinity of the existing kitchen, ask yourself if this is the BEST place for the kitchen. Can it be moved across the room or reconfigured to a different shape.
3. Take your time, and don't rush. Keep a photobook of images and colours that you like as inspiration.
4. If using a cabinet maker - show your photobook to them and discuss your style and function with them. They may think of an idea or design that you haven't thought of.
5. ENJOY. Enjoy the process. Picking out tiles, splashbacks, tapware (my favourite pastime), paint colours, bench top materials etc is a chance to be creative and a chance for you to create something for yourself or your family.

In my next post we move outside to the backyard.......let's just say that pool I talked about in my first post, well that didn't last long at all!
Remember, you can never go wrong with white. X S.

Introducing Ye Olde Lady. There is a house somewhere in this picture.....beyond the overgrown Crepe Murtle, Velvet Red Rose Bush and heritage green picket fence (did I mention it was heritage green? New motto, heritage green will not be seen). The house is circa late 1800's and I have been working with the local historical society to identify its early life pre 1950's. I have been told by some of the more colourful local residents (mostly those who have lived in the area all their lives) that it was once the Apocathery - this would explain all the old bottles and medical instruments we found when we removed the pool (ahh yes it did have a pool, but more on that later). I have also been told that it was once a boarding house, a doctor's residence, a parlour house (not sure what that is -brothel maybe?) and of course a family home. All of this in the first 60 years, no wonder she looks so tired. Our present neighbour has lived in their home all his life and has only ever known the residence to be a family home (post 1930's). Keep following my progress as I discover the wonders of this magnificent house and create a home. Remember-  never underestimate the power of a good white paint. Until next time, S.