Stripping and Sanding Forever
A Renovation Journal
This week has flown by! There just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day, especially now it’s getting dark so early. Although, many more hours of sanding and paint-stripping and I might just go mad!
Monday
James is working on re-using this super heavy old door. It was part of a double-door arrangement of the main office room in the Old Estate Office. I think it’s lovely to reuse things and I’m super excited to see this as the new door to our boiler room. They were obviously worried about security as this door was not to be messed with. It’s two layers of wood with a metal sheet sandwiched between them and then it’s all held together with these big bolts that go right the way through. We’ve had to cut it down a bit and now it’s being stripped and sanded ready for repainting.
Tuesday
I’m still paint-stripping these doors. James always said I would regret restoring these cupboards rather than just building new ones! I’m sure it’ll be worth it in the end but he may have a small point!
I’m using Klingstrip and it’s not too bad just a bit messy. It’s better than sanding the lead paint though!
Wednesday
I’ve been sanding the walls in the bedroom all day. It’s always at this point in the process where I doubt they will ever look any good and I consider getting the whole room replastered!
I also made more work for myself by insisting James took some boxing in off the wall. It was bugging me because I didn’t know what was behind it. It turned out to be an old lead water pipe running along the wall from the main house into the bedroom. I guess they had a tap here at some point. We got it all out but now there’s a really big hole in the wall!
Thursday
I actually took the day off today. It’s Halloween after all! Everyone is away and I’ve got the place to myself. I walked the dog and enjoyed the crunchy leaves. Then I read and watched Halloween movies. It was blissful.
Friday
Gardening day and we are tackling the asparagus patch. We have an enormous patch of very good asparagus that I really want to save. It’s fantastic in the spring and it would take years to establish new plants like that. It’s got very weedy though and I’ve been struggling with it. I checked on Google Earth and I could see that there used to be 5 rows. So first I trimmed between the rows to get those back. Then with my gardener helping we went weeding. We’re nearly halfway through and it’s quite exciting, I no longer want to cry every time I look at it.
After lunch, it was back to the bedroom to start on the filling. I’ve used lime render to fill the big holes including the one where the water pipe came out.
Saturday
With the big holes filled, I spent today raking out all the smaller cracks and making sure all the walls are ready for the fine surface filler. It looks really terrible now but it will get better. Trust the process (I mutter to myself continually!)
Sunday
After saying earlier in the week I didn’t want to hear any more about Christmas until December it’s all we’ve talked about today! James literally woke me up this morning saying that all the Christmas shopping slots were gone and where should we get the turkey. Then, we’ve been trying to work out where everyone is going to sleep given their various requirements. Clearly, I can’t avoid it!
Today we did some prep work on the walls in the gym ready for the electrician who comes on Tuesday. I also cleared out two drains and was relieved to get them working again. The builder was convinced they needed digging up so I have at least averted that drama.
We’ve been finding quite a few bits of brick pathways as we start to clear around the building. There’s also quite a bit where it just seems to be broken-up brick bashed into hardcore. I’m not sure what we’ll do with those bits. I guess to repave it they would have to dig out some of the hardcore. It’s tricky and a decision for another day!
I hope you all have a fabulous Christmas-free week! It’s back to school after half term here and we’ve got lots going on with roofing, patios and maybe even some painting! Speak soon x