Renovation Diaries: Sanding, Plastering, Boiler… and More Sanding!
I thought it would be useful to start documenting our house renovation progress in a diary series. While I’m hoping it will provide value to anyone going through the same process, it’s also going to be somewhat cathartic for me.
We’re a few months into the renovation and progress feels… slow. A lot of waiting for different trades and trying to fit in DIY around an already hectic schedule.
There’s another issue that has added to my DIY angst. My partner was obviously supposed to be helping me with the renovations – as was my dad as and when he could.
At the start of the year, my poor dad fell and broke his leg. Two weeks later, my partner ruptured his ACL in a ski accident. Honestly, these men will do anything to get out of DIY!
So, it’s all down to me. I’m a one-woman band. Lord knows how I’m going to build IKEA pax and move furniture solo!
Sanding and filling
One of the first tasks I tackled (and am still tackling) was the tedious job of filling and sanding the skirtings, architraves, window sills and walls in the upstairs rooms.
I feel like I’ve been doing it forever and yet I’m still nowhere near finished. I’ve been using an electric sander where possible – but my goodness the dust!
I was planning to get my partner to do all the manual sanding for the awkward bits that the electric sander won’t reach. But now I’m going to have to find some elbow grease of my own!
New combi boiler
One big job that has been ticked off the list is upgrading to a combi boiler. We ended up going with British Gas because of the interest free monthly repayments and I can’t fault their service.
It took three days to install the system and so far so good. One of the main reasons we wanted a combi system was so that we could get rid of the water tank in the guest bedroom.
Plus, it frees up some space for storage in the loft by getting rid of the tanks up there too.
Removing coving and plastering
The next big job that’s now done is plastering. We wanted to get the ceilings plastered in the upstairs rooms and living room because they currently have some delightful textured wallpaper.
We opted for overboarding rather than skimming so we didn’t have to remove the wallpaper, and so that the cracks in the ceiling wouldn’t show through over time.
The only downside to this was that we had to remove the coving, which I did myself to try and save some money.
It was all going smoothly until I unwittingly uncovered a big black mould problem in the guest bedroom.
I’ve now treated the mould and we’re just letting it dry out, so we’ve decided to hold off plastering in this room for now.
Plus, the builders will be putting the steels in through the wall in this room for the extension, so we may as well do all the plastering in one go.
We think the mould was from a historic leak that wasn’t properly dried out – we checked in the loft and can’t see any active leaks, plus the ceiling doesn’t feel damp.
We also got one of the walls in the master bedroom plastered as the builder removed an old electric fireplace from the wall.
Finally, the plasterers patched up some holes in the wall where we moved a few electric sockets.
It’s all drying out as I write now, and I purchased a small dehumidifier to help the process.
Next steps in our renovation
Other than continuing to fill and sand (why is it never-ending), these are the next steps I’m going to tackle over the coming weeks:
- Base paints for the ceiling and walls.
- Install built-in IKEA pax in the master bedroom.
- Install built-in home office – I may do this with kitchen units.
- Replace coving – unsure what style to go for.
- Work out how to remove radiators so I can paint behind them.
- Decide on paint colours then paint the master bedroom and home office.
We should hear back on our permitted development application for the extension on 22nd January.
I’m keeping all my fingers crossed that it gets approved, and then we’ll establish a start date in February for our builders to start the extension.
So, stay tuned for the next diaries!
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