Life in the New Zealand Countryside
• Friday, January 12, 2007 - A description
Well this house is an interesting thing really. Its built in stone from the 17oo's and has had a few 'makeovers' in its time. The lady we bought it off really let it go and didnt even do basic cleaning, which in the long run, makes our job a little makes our job a little more laborious. To her credit, she did look after her bedroom, and put new wall paper, installed a new inset wall closet and painted the floor and door skirting a lovely yellow to match the walls. That was about the only decent room in the entire 3 floors. What we are doing basically is doing what she did, very quick and relatively easy 'cosmetic' renovation. It doesnt include breaking down walls, which my dear hubby is so good at, or replacing doors,windows etc. Even just giving everything a good scrub would brighten the place up. The top floor is completly unlined and has very old tile flooring covered with a few inches of dust, bird poop and straw. I think we will be leaving that one alone, except maybe to dry the washing in winter.
The next floor down has the only bathroom, which hubby has nearly completed. The original cast iron bath is still there, with a new shower installed over it. The wall tiling had been redone not so long ago and still looks great. Its a dark sky blue ccolour. Hubby did the floor in a pale marble tile a few days ago and has just installed the new loo. It will need a new hand basin and viola..... done! Then theres the bedroom that I mentioned (bedr 1.), which just needed a new floor, so we ripped out the stinky carpet and lay nice clean 'fake wood flooring, the kind that you just click together. Cheap and looks very smart. Now the next two rooms, well theyre a longer story; one is a huge double bedroom (bedr 2.) with 2 double doors opening into thin air (one storey above street level) It will need a completely new floor, hubby thinks he will try out the new selfleveling cement then lay the floor on that, as the old tiles are uneaven and it would be an over endeavour to take them all out. Strip the plaster and paper, and replace. Then inbetween this room and the next bedroom, is a long thin little room, it used to be a bathroom. So thats going to stay a bathroom, we'll put a new shower and basin, but no loo, there will be a separate one down stairs. Then the back bedroom (bedr 3.) on the other side of the little bathroom needs quite a bit of work too, basically the same as the bedr 2. The kitchen need completely redoing, which means a new sink and bench unit. New paint on the walls, new shelving and cupboards.
Its not the kind of house I would want to live in forever as it shares both its side walls with the neighbouring houses and opens right onto the street front. Its just an investment so that we can buy the house that we will want to live in 'forever',which I will describe later :-)
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• Tuesday, January 16, 2007 - Untitled Comment