Friday and Cat is off for 4 days, so we have quite a list of things we want to achieve this weekend. I pick up where I left off in the study, scrubbing the plaster and orange dust from the stone wall.
The old fireplace looks fabulous now it has been cleaned (again). The stone lintel here is very special, it goes from orange to blue to orange and back to blue again and there is even an old wooden peg still wedged into one of the holes on the front.
These wire brushes are proving a very good investment, they are working very hard and haven’t lost their bristles.
Cat is going to repaint the feature wall outside the bathroom in ‘Major Tom’ again. It is a modern plaster wall and doesn’t need to be painted in claypaint (which is what we had done) as it isn’t very hard wearing. We have bought a small pot of matt emulsion to go over it with. It really needed another coat anyway, being such a rich, dark colour.
I stop what I am doing in the study and go upstairs to find a very sweary Cat freaking out. We are both quite sweary anyway but today she is furiously sweary. She cannot paint the wall until all the dust is cleaned from the bathroom and the corridor and my bedroom etc. etc. and every single wall in the bathroom, every single surface that had previously been finished by Cat has holes in, scratches down, stains on, and there is not one part of the bathroom that there isn’t a problem with…
The bathroom before we start cleaning it up. Andrew the plumber needs it all clean and dust free before he can silicone the shower screens in, so we set to it.
Our bath has been wrapped up since it was moved in here and since somebody dropped something on it and chipped it and didn’t tell us (I know right!)
We remove the cover and whilst I am hoovering the dust out of the bath I discover big scratches inside the bath, right under the chip suggesting whatever chipped it then landed in the bath. This made Cat swear more, if that is indeed possible.
Our shower tray (that has also been chipped!) has been cleaned up so that we can see the split silicone that Cat did around the tiled edges, suggesting the shower tray is moving. This makes us mad as we discover that it hasn’t been fitted on top of a board as we had specified, the legs are sitting directly on the 300+ year old floor boards that are slightly soft and wobbly. In fact one of the legs appears to have pushed one of the boards down substantially. Also the waste pipe is leaking… I join Cat with the swearing. This is a big f***ing deal. We always stressed that this shower MUST NOT move or leak as water will damage the historic floor and ceiling below…
I’d like to say ‘at least the toilet is okay’, but it isn’t due to no-one resolving the issue with a ‘durgo’ valve as no-one really knows what one is or where it goes. Andrew is trying to resolve it!
At least our floor boards are okay. They really are, and clean. Thanks to the Ram Board that has been protecting it for months.
The radiator has been covered and hidden since it was fitted, we had almost forgotten what it looked like.
Cat ordered a load of samples for the bathroom blind and we cannot decide on wooden or metal. Pale grey is the winner for the colour (currently). We like the metal one as it is small and won’t cover up the lovely oak window frame too much, but it will blow around when the window is open and may bend as they are very light weight. The wooden will be heavier and rigid (so won’t bend) but could blow around and damage the wall, and is much larger so will cover up more of the oak window frame… Welcome to my world. I definitely need to get out more.
All the copper pipes for the radiators have been wrapped in gaffer tape for months, so it is extremely difficult to remove now. Cat has scraped the tape from the pipes in my bedroom and cleaned off the sticky remnants with white spirit. Not a nice job, more swearing. Only 10 more sets of pipes to clean up!
Cat can eventually paint the feature wall on the landing.
I have thoroughly hoovered every room upstairs except Cat’s, will do that another day, but I have wrecked my back so I will have to take it easy for a couple of days.
The shelves in my bedroom, finished, FINISHED! The wood looks gorgeous now it has been cleaned and oiled, richly coloured with beautifully smooth shelves.
The quirky old window between the landing and my bedroom, finished apart from the oak window seats.
The shelves on the landing, also finished! Amazing to be saying this, the finish line is in sight!
We have purchased 23 sample pots of paint each costing £5, totalling £115. Add on the paint swatches at £1 each, there are probably over 25 of these so that is around £140! Worth every penny to get the colours right though, especially for a couple of bloody fussy designers.
Holy crap — do you have any way to go back to ex-plumber to get stuff fixed? Or, rather, considering the low quality of his work, making him pay for the repairs?