The Bathroom... and the rest - Part 2

Last weekend, my wonderful Mum took all 3 of my children overnight on Saturday so that I could get the painting done before she went off on a 6 week European holiday. She has only ever taken the older two for the night before, so I was a little bit apprehensive about her taking Red, but I knew if I wanted to get it all done I needed to have no children, especially no grumpy 2 and a bit year olds who have a tendency to do exactly what you don't want them to do!

I spent much of Saturday morning masking off the bits that I didn't want painted the new colour and putting down drop cloths. Mum collected the kids around 10.30, they were gone by 11. I popped into Port Chalmers and got myself some easy 'meals' that required no cooking in my now out of service kitchen - a couple of filled rolls.

After 12pm when I had had my last Skype with my wonderful Amir in Sweden, I snaffled a bit of lunch and did the last of the preparing to paint bits. Then Salena arrived ready to paint.

I had her start undercoating the bathroom, which she did in record time, then she moved on to the toilet and the hallway, and eventually met me halfway around the dining room.

While Salena was undercoating, I started the first coat of ceiling white in the kitchen. I hadn't realised just how cream-with-kitchen-gunk-spots the ceiling was in the kitchen until that crisp, white ceiling white paint went up! What a difference! Truly amazing!

Bathroom BEFORE

Bathroom AFTER

After I had done the first coat on the kitchen ceiling, I started undercoating the kitchen and dining room. When I met Salena halfway around the kitchen, we took a quick brush and roller-washing break, and waited a little longer to make sure the undercoat was dry.

Kitchen ceiling - the white is the first coat of ceiling white, the cream is the previous colour.

Salena then set to work in the bathroom with the enamel paint that she kindly donated for the occasion. Both the walls and ceiling were done in incredibly smelly enamel paint.

Toilet and hall BEFORE                Toilet and hall AFTER - Yes, I still need to paint the cupboard door

In the meantime I did the second coat of ceiling white in the kitchen, then started putting the first top coat of colour on the walls - British Paints 'Bubbly' It is a very neutral colour, with just a hint of pink, so it lovely and warm, but makes the room feel light and airy, and more importantly, it makes everything seem bigger! I managed to whip around the kitchen and dining room in record time, then out into the hall by the time Salena had done the first coat of enamel in the bathroom.

Soon after, she headed home to feed her family. I am incredibly grateful that I had her to give me a hand, otherwise the weekend would have been much longer and less amusing!

Kitchen BEFORE and AFTER

After I finished the hall and the toilet, I stopped for my dinner break, watched some rubbish TV and managed to get paint on my leather couch - I was a bit cross with myself about that! It is still there too, though I know it will wear off eventually. Before I started painting again, I called and woke Amir for the day, then it was straight back into painting - the second and final top coat of 'Bubbly'

Dining room BEFORE and AFTER

Later, on one of my facebook update breaks, with a picture to update of course, my neighbour Sue said she'd pop over with a bottle of wine, so I had another wee break, and a lovely chat. Then it was back into finishing the top coat. I surprised myself by being in bed by 11.30!

Looking toward the kitchen from the hall - I really must re-attach that laundry door soon!

Sunday morning, I woke up to a totally new house! When I walked out the lounge door to the back of the house, it was so bright and airy, and smelled like fresh paint - I was in heaven! I had left the window open in the bathroom over night to try and get rid of some of the paint odour, but it was still pretty strong. I closed the window and turned the fan heater back on. 

Looking from the dining room toward the kitchen.

I love having the fridge hiding around the corner out of the way!

When I was ready to paint again, I headed straight for the bathroom and did the top coat in there. I'm not sure what the name of the colour that is in the bathroom is. It is also neutral, but there is paint over the colour name on the tin. A Dulux paint this time. I had never painted with enamel paint before. Very runny. I managed to get a bit of a headache from the fumes, so ended up taking a couple of panadol. 

British Paints 'Bubbly'

Upon closer inspection, I could see that due to the dark colours I was trying to cover up, the turquoise in the kitchen and dining room and the olive green in the toilet, I needed to give a THIRD top coat in most places where those dark colours had been. That didn't take very long at all. I think I was all finished painting by lunch time.

THEN I was all finished! I did a little happy dance and started to fold up and put away all the drop cloths, and take all the masking tape and newspaper off and put the clean bit in the recycle bin.

The curse of the undercoat!

The end result is one that I am super-duper impressed with! A week and a half later, I still walk into the kitchen and am surprised that it so calming. I actually find myself wanting to just sit at the dining table and relax there now - something I hadn't really ever considered doing before. In the bathroom it is also amazing! I took my first bath since the renovation today - I managed to languish in the bath for an hour! Decadent I know - but I have a nasty bug and no children today - so a luxury I afforded myself. I didn't open my eyes only to want to squeeze them tightly closed again, I could open my eyes and enjoy being in a peaceful bathroom. The toilet too, looks fantastic (who ever thought I would utter that about a toilet?) The previous olive green was so dark, I wanted to turn on the light every time I went in there, but now there is no need to turn the light on during daylight hours, the light, bright colour on the walls solves that problem! As for the previously yellow, and least offensive coloured, hallway, it too is light and airy. 

Now for all of you who are wondering, how on earth did a solo mother afford all this paint? Well, quite simply, I had everything I needed already! I bought 20L of the paint I knew I wanted to paint all the walls of the house in 3.5 years ago when we bought the house. I still need to paint some ceilings, because I am out of ceiling white, but that can wait.

The entire project cost me only time and $1 for the bathroom mirror I won an auction for on Trade Me! How is that for renovation on a shoestring? :D

The Bathroom.... and the rest PART1

On Saturday, a fortnight ago now, my 'thinking' about doing up the bathroom moved up a gear. I stripped off the rest of the hideous wallpaper! Then my friend Salena (who offered to lend a hand with the painting) suggested we also do the kitchen and dining room at the same time.

And so, we embarked upon re-painting the LAST of the house that still needed to be re-painted! Not JUST the bathroom, kitchen and dining room, but also the toilet and the back hallway! I don't do things by halves, you understand!

So, I stripped the dining room with the help of everyone else in the house. Part way through this process, when the wallpaper wasn't falling off in the way I had hoped it would, I suddenly had an epiphany - I had a garment steamer left over from when I owned my shop. I filled it with water, plugged it in, and lo and behold, the garment steamer was now a nifty wallpaper steamer too!

Once the stripping was done in the dining room, even with half turquoise walls, it already looked SO much bigger and brighter. That night after the kids went to bed I also stripped the friezes from around the top of the toilet walls and the kitchen walls. I also managed to give myself a really fantastic steam burn with my improvised garment steamer come wallpaper steamer. It was late, around 11pm, I had about 2m of frieze to remove still, so as any good DIY-er would do, I swore, got down from the bench, turned the steamer off and stood with my hand under cold running water for a bit, while looking up at the last bit of frieze muttering under my breath. When the stinging had stopped, I applied the magic burn cream and carried on. The next morning I wasn't in any pain at all! There is still a big patch of rough skin that I am moisturising regularly, but it is healing nicely!

The next day, Sunday, I plastered all the blemishes. My goodness there were a LOT of blemishes!!! Salena came over in the late afternoon and lent a hand as well - after plastering for so long it was good to have a fresh set of eyes to go over the walls and see any bits that I had missed.

Some of the plastering in the bathroom

Then it was Monday. I got out my sander and I sanded every piece of wall. Plaster dust everywhere. I also went around with a whiteboard marker as I sanded putting a mark on the wall if there was a piece of wall that had been missed. When the sanding and marking was done, you guessed it, I did more plastering!

Covered in sanding dust. And yes, I AM wearing bright red lipstick under my mask! A girl can still look pretty, even when doing DIY!

Tuesday. Thank goodness the kids are with their father on Monday and Tuesday!! I sanded again. Then I started washing down the walls and ceilings. Very tedious! But after the tedium of prep, comes the fun of painting, then the delightfulness of the end product!

Sanding done in the toilet. 

My wee step I made at carpentry class is fantastic! I get SO much use out of it. 

Also, there was a LOT of gouges in the walls in there... 

I hate to think what the previous people did in there! Ha!

I don't enjoy the prep terribly much at all, but the painting and the end result are always made 100x better by good prep, so I do it anyway, much as I hate it! I learned this the hard way!