Spare Bedroom

The extra bedroom in my house was still looking tatty and tired, despite having the nasty old asthma-inducing carpet taken up and a good clean. With my son getting married next month (second marriage for both of them, so a good excuse for a big party?) and a few interstate and international visitors expected, thought I might be called upon to put people up, so now is the time to get the room spruced up.

The room was basically OK, but someone had had a half-hearted attempt to paint parts of it in a fairly horrible shade of pink - the built-in wardrobe was the "best" example. And it was coupled with large dark brown resin knobs. It was fairly awful!

The windows had been allowed to get very wet (inside) at some stage, so the paint was flaking and there was black mildew everywhere. I was told the previous owner had had the power cut off the winter before I bought the house, so I'm not surprised there had been damage caused by dampness. I've had two winters here now and the winter of 2016 was the wettest on record, but the house has remained completely dry, thank goodness. I keep the wood-heater going pretty much 24/7 during the winter, so the house stays dry and warm. It does show, however, how moisture intruding into the fabric of a house can soon start to cause real damage, But I digress! I stripped the windows back and painted them fresh white - what a difference! Same with the built-ins - basically in good condition, but just needed a couple of coats of fresh, white paint. I bought some sweet ceramic knobs from an Indian import shop (Ishka, for the locals) - enough for all the doors and drawers......but each one a bit different, except that they are all in shades of blue and green. Looks great!

The door was badly damaged - it looked as if it had been given a thorough kicking at some stage! I thought about replacing it with a new one, but in keeping with my "designer frugal" ethic, I decided to have a go at restoring it first. I took it off its hinges a was able to glue the panelling back to the frame. Once the glue had set, I filled the badly damaged areas where bits were missing. After sanding and painting, it looks like a new door! I probably saved about $100 on the cost of a new door, and while that doesn't sound like much, it all adds up.

I've spent a lot of time and effort removing tacks from the floor and sanding off the paint drips and splodges around the edges (not my doing!) I now need to fill the holes and seal the floor. A couple of rugs around the bed and some new cushions, some pictures on the walls and this room will be done! I'd like to stay in it, if I were visiting.
But silly me! Now I have to pack everything up and clear the room so that I can finish off the floor........but I was desperate to see how it was going to look.

                              ......and now with a few more Ishka touches - a rug and a throw.
 

                                   I love these ceramic knobs - I used thirteen different ones.\
 

Back Into It Again!

Well, Christmas has come and gone (first one in the new house.........complete with Christmas tree, as promised to my grand-daughter, Leila!) I've had a busy time with other things, including the "Images" exhibition in Hobart that opened in mid-December during which I sold eight of twelve works (which is pretty good these days!) and the annual music camp down at Camp Clayton on the north-west coast. Renovations have been at a standstill because there has been no time, but I'm just starting to get right back into it.
Yesterday I ripped up the old, stinky carpet in the second bedroom to get it ready for re-finishing the floor and refurbishing the windows. It's a nice sunny room - the middle-sized of three bedrooms in the house, and the one I have been using since I moved into the house.......despite occasional wheezy problems because of the horrible carpet. Here's what I pulled out: dusty, dirty stained carpet full of animal smells and disintegrating underlay.

 

Then I had the rather horrible job of removing the strips of spiky timber around the perimeter - the ones that hold the carpet in place. They have a name, but I can't remember it. I removed all the staples that had been holding the underlay in place and any left-behind nails. Scrubbed the floor with water and bleach to remove lingering odours and started stripping the paintwork on the window. There is a dated, but serviceable built-in wardrobe and cupboards in this room and I think I can make it fresh and new with a decent paint-job and some new hardware (I've seen some brilliant ceramic knobs in Ishka - might get some of those) The room is now ready to go with paint and floor finishing.

 

Of course, I had to move everything out of the room, so I can work on it unimpeded, so I've moved into the first bedroom that was renovated and which Leila had most of last year. (She moved into a share house a few minutes walk away from here in late November)

I'm not sure if this move is permanent - I like the room, but waking up to your own reflected image in a wall of mirrors is a little confronting!

 

The garden continues to improve and be a delight. I'm harvesting home-grown vegetables: potatoes, zucchini and herbs so far, but I have tomatoes, capsicums, cucumbers, beans and beetroot which will be ready soon. I have created a lovely spot to eat down the back with a big market umbrella to provide shade.........had some friends to lunch last week to "christen" it. I'm loving having this sweet alfresco spot - something I always yearned for......it was always too windy and exposed at my previous house, so it just wasn't practical.

I'm really glad I  didn't stint on expense with my new oven - it bakes so well that cooking is a joy. If I'd settled for a cheaper option, I think I would have regretted it!

 

And finally........I'm using the lavender bounty from the front garden to create small gifts like these lavender bottles. I'm going to make some lavender bath salts and some sachets as well.

 

 

 

 

 

Leila's Room

Leila is one of my grand-daughters. She works as a paralegal at a law firm in the city…….she couldn't wait for me to move into town so that she could become my housemate. This meant that the first room we had to make habitable and presentable was her bedroom. When I took possession, this bedroom (the biggest) had deep fuchsia walls with a flowery frieze below the cornice. It had several layers of rotting net curtains and some heavy floral drapes with swags and tie-backs. Half the old carpet had been ripped up and what was left stank of dog pee……..charming! The lovely large windows had never been cleaned and moisture had been allowed to ruin the paintwork on them. The general look was what I would describe as "tired bordello"!
The positives were:
*Good size
*No major structural problems
*Morning sun
*Huge built-in wardrobe with floor to ceiling mirror doors

It looked like this, but the picture is flattering and all that stuff in there is hiding a multitude of sins:

So we set to and ripped up the remains of the carpet, tore down the curtains, cleaned the black crap off the window-frames, removed the floral frieze and scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed. We then had a blank canvas to work with. All the choices in this room are Leila's - I am grateful that she has a classic and restrained sense of design and her preference is for the calm and uncluttered. 

The room didn't require any major repairs, just a lot of cleaning and a bit of patching and I removed a zillion tacks and staples from the floor.

Grey carpet and drapes

What a difference! When she first moved in, the room looked like this, now it looks like this with a bit more furniture and a touch more colour:

It's now a lovely calm space for a busy young woman to retreat to after a busy day.

The carpet was professionally laid, which was an expense, but all up, this room was about $1100 to transform.