MORE PAINT STRIPPING

Its been 4 weeks since my last progress post (oops!), and for me those 4 weeks have consisted of one task: paint stripping. Yep, I mentioned in my last post that I'd stated stripping all the paint off the woodwork in the bedrooms (the skirting boards, door frames, architraves, and doors), and I only finally finished that on Saturday!

I knew this would be a long task when I started it but didn't quite expect it to take a month!

Meanwhile, Dad has been building us a lovely new banister up the loft (with spindles & hand-rails painted by Mum!), neatening up the walls down the stairs, finishing off more wiring, and generally getting things done 3 times quicker than we can! He spent an afternoon helping me strip some of the paint and got a whole side and half of a door finished in the time it took me to do half one side!

Dad and Jamie have also put coving up in the bedrooms. We weren't sure if we wanted coving at first but as the walls are pretty uneven in our Victorian house, we decided it would be best to neaten it all up. Well now its up we're so pleased we decided to go with it, because we love how its turned out! It obviously still needs painting(along with the rest of the room) but we think its given a bit of character to the room. (This isn't the best picture, it was taken later in the day when it had gotten dark!)

Jamie has been working on lots of "finish off" tasks while I've been stripping the wood, getting things ready to decorate ASAP! Walls have been sanded, holes sealed for filling, and old nails pulled from floorboards.

After finishing the paint stripping on Saturday, I made a start on sanding the door frames and architraves, while Jamie worked on the doors and skirting boards. It turns out the sanding stage of the process is much quicker than the paint stripping, because by the end of Sunday it was all done!

Here's a little before & after of a door frame (striped but not sanded, and then sanded). Its looking so much better already! Now I just need to paint it all REALLY carefully and not over-do the paint, so that I don't create the same problem we had before!

Dad's also been discovering a few hidden items under the floorboards! The house is 130 years old so its quite exciting finding something hidden in there! He's previously found a newspaper from around the 1930s, and this time it was a 'Tea Ticket' for the Wesleyan Chapel Sunday School Anniversary. I've tried looking into the history of this but can't actually find a mention of a Wesleyan chapel in the area!

We have a 4 day weekend this weekend so lots of progress should be made! On Friday we're headed back to Ikea to sort out a few more things for the house, and have another look at kitchens (and hopefully make a final decision on that). Saturday, Sunday Monday we plan to finish off the fire-place that I had started in my last post. We'll be tidying it up, building up a "floor", bringing the back wall forwards slightly, and then applying the brick slips (we've gone for a lovely "smoked grey" colour) and re-papering the chimney breast. If we can get that all finished by the end of the weekend that will be a huge tick off the list and the room will really start to take shape!

Have a lovely Easter! (It definitely won't be 4 weeks until my next post again...)