I am so not a DIY home-improvement, get-excited-over-renovation kind of person. I fully think that any couple who are even CONSIDERING renovating, especially if one of them is anal a bit fussy, should have a marriage guidance counsellor on tap. This stuff is rough. I also don't much care for it when, of course, I could be writing a book and doing legitimate things, like making stuff up.
But there are times when wielding a crowbar, a rusty hammer (cos I never put tools away correctly), the (now munted) screwdriver, and copious breaks to make instant coffee and check the web (like now), are a necessity.
It has takenme the fam - no, it has taken ME, I'm the one who goes down to Bunnings to stick the stuff on the credit card - two years but finally, the last of the rooms is soon-ish about to be polly-ed. IE polyurethaned.
Fortunately, one of the fam doesn't mind polyurethaning and actually takes quite a bit of pride in it, and so being as I am on a budget (who am I kidding? Budget? There is no such thing when you do renos it is just DEBT), and he does such an amazing job, finally, there'll be another nice room, ridded of manky carpet and with the glorious matai floorboards exposed.
There are however downsides to floorboards.
One is the noise. You can hear everything. You don't realize how much carpet mutes the sound until you don't have any.
And two... well, actually that's about it. I pretty much like everything about the floorboards, and even in winter when carpet would be warmer, well, it's not like we live in Dunedin where its freezing. But even the noise can be okay, like the racket the cat makes racing up and down the hall. Dear kitty kat, you think.
On another plus side, there have been no injuries in the process so far. No flying tacks, no treading on dodgy nails, agonizing splinters and the like, and once I'd got into the groove of ripping up the carpet gripper (after YouTube videoing to find the best way and improvise cos I didn't have all the tools) it was quite relaxing. True, the flat-blade screwdriver will never be much use as a screwdriver ever again, but there's another one... somewhere... Ihope think.
But the sanding will begin soon and there is something incredible about watching the floorboards become so smooth you can't stop touching them, and then the polly-ing. And then you just stare at the floor and it's almost a shame you have to go and put furniture back in there and cover it up, and you think, why didn't we do this years ago?
But that is a wee way off yet.
But there are times when wielding a crowbar, a rusty hammer (cos I never put tools away correctly), the (now munted) screwdriver, and copious breaks to make instant coffee and check the web (like now), are a necessity.
It has taken
 |
| This would be the carpet gripper. |
Fortunately, one of the fam doesn't mind polyurethaning and actually takes quite a bit of pride in it, and so being as I am on a budget (who am I kidding? Budget? There is no such thing when you do renos it is just DEBT), and he does such an amazing job, finally, there'll be another nice room, ridded of manky carpet and with the glorious matai floorboards exposed.
There are however downsides to floorboards.
One is the noise. You can hear everything. You don't realize how much carpet mutes the sound until you don't have any.
And two... well, actually that's about it. I pretty much like everything about the floorboards, and even in winter when carpet would be warmer, well, it's not like we live in Dunedin where its freezing. But even the noise can be okay, like the racket the cat makes racing up and down the hall. Dear kitty kat, you think.
On another plus side, there have been no injuries in the process so far. No flying tacks, no treading on dodgy nails, agonizing splinters and the like, and once I'd got into the groove of ripping up the carpet gripper (after YouTube videoing to find the best way and improvise cos I didn't have all the tools) it was quite relaxing. True, the flat-blade screwdriver will never be much use as a screwdriver ever again, but there's another one... somewhere... I
But the sanding will begin soon and there is something incredible about watching the floorboards become so smooth you can't stop touching them, and then the polly-ing. And then you just stare at the floor and it's almost a shame you have to go and put furniture back in there and cover it up, and you think, why didn't we do this years ago?
But that is a wee way off yet.
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