Project Money Pit Week 2: Stripping isn’t always fun!

The return to work has, inevitably, had an affect on productivity in Project Money Pit and as such the progress updates have slipped by the wayside a little bit I’m sorry to say. Therefore, I have made the executive decision to move my updates to weekly ones, instead of daily ones!

It’s been a real case of finishing off jobs this week in anticipation of actually starting some home improvement at some point in the not too distant future. We’ve continued stripping and sanding the walls in the kitchen, prepped and painted the two ‘dry’ bedrooms and begun stripping wallpaper in the damp rooms in order to prepare for carpet, so the house is beginning to take shape, albeit slowly.

After many a long discussion with Malc the carpet man last week, we have had a bit of a change of heart when it comes to the bedroom flooring and a lot of that is down to yours truly. Having removed the laminate flooring and the disgusting carpet in the two big bedrooms, we have actually uncovered some rather splendid floorboards and so we have decided to get them sanded. The Passmores were both very reticent at the thought of doing this on another house (having done it on 2 of Miss P’s houses already), however I boldly declared that I was up for the job and was duly dispatched to the Trowbridge Tool Hire centre in order to get a floor sander for the weekend. Returning with it on Friday night, I soon discovered why the Passmore’s were so reluctant to do this particular job again, as it is dusty, noisy and back breaking work. Gradually moving my way through the course-ness of the belts, while filling my lungs with sawdust (despite wearing the necessary protective face mask!) it soon became clear that this was much more than a ‘couple of hours’ work and I could see my weekend vanishing before me! Not even the breaking of McDonalds embargo (chicken nuggets and strawberry milkshakes taste so good but so morally bad!!) could help cheer my mood at the prospect of a very long weekend ahead of me.

Fortunately, we we were joined yesterday by more recruits to the cause as Mr and Mrs T and Cousin Sally joined us at the house, and so set about their assigned tasks. Cousin Sally and Miss P began stripping the wallpaper in the bedrooms, while the Thomas’ worked away on the corner of the garden than had been left un-weeded by Mrs P last week! Meanwhile, I was upstairs sanding.

As you can see, the girls did a fantastic job and soon had the bedrooms looking ready for painting – albeit with a few holes in the wall which weren’t their fault. Meanwhile outside, Mr and Mrs T did a great job clearing the back of the garden, revealing the back wall and making the garden feel open and much more spacious in the process. I was upstairs sanding.

With a very productive Saturday under our belts, we returned today to continue prepping everything and with the girls planning on beginning some actual decorating – most notably the kitchen ceiling. I was to continue sanding. However, fate was not to be on my side today as the sander decided to stop working with the starter motor cutting out every few minutes and then refusing to start again until I had given it a nice long rest. Inevitably of course, this happened as I was half way through the second bedroom floor and my patience was severely tested. Alas, I was to fail this test and left the sander propped up in the upstairs bedroom and exited the room with the air turned blue by a very generous collection of expletives that were aimed in it’s general direction. So much for a productive weekend then. Back to the tool hire place tomorrow for a refund!

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Tags: Home Improvement

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