Back in around June sort of time, Chris and I started talking about the things that needed to be done around the house. In November, we will have been living in this house for 10 years. We’ve had a lodger, a foster son and a baby over those years so as you can imagine, some rooms really need some TLC.
We started with the kitchen as in my mind, it took the least amount of furniture moving to get started. In theory, it would be simple. Because of the windows, units, worktops and the radiator, there’s less wall space that needs to be painted. I’m not sure my painting skills are the best but I got started and we worked on it. Around Jaxon’s birthday we put a hold on the decorating and realised that now in October, we really ought to get it finished so that we can start other projects that need doing.
At the same time, across the Summer, Our Sidekick decided that the time had come for him to move out. It was either going to be moving to university or moving in with his girlfriend but he wasn’t really sure. In the end, his plans changed but moving in with the girlfriend was one of the things he was going to do pretty soon.
With a paintbrush and the tester point, I set about cutting in around kitchen units where possible. We’d settled on colours after a debate about which shade of green to use but hadn’t got as far as buying bigger tubs of paint.
I worked around the room, mostly focusing on the walls that didn’t involve moving too much. For instance where I just needed to move the toaster or the kettle to be able to paint the wall.
Having paused for Jaxon’s birthday it was time to focus back on getting the rest of the room finished. With Our Sidekick moving out, we left it a month or so in case things didn’t go to plan and he wanted to move back then we wanted to start thinking about moving Jaxon into the bigger bedroom but first, it would need painting.
As excited as I was to get Jaxon moved into the bigger room, we needed to get the kitchen finished so this week we’ve been shuffling things around. This week, Our Sidekick’s room became a drying room for the washing that normally goes on the airer in the kitchen (it’s also become a storage room for Chris while he figures out what he’s taking on his trip in a few weeks time). Chris then moved the bookcase and the freezer into the middle of the room so that I could work on treating and painting both the walls.
The plan made sense but then it went to pot, around Tuesday, I had run a load of washing as normal but the tumble dryer wasn’t working, no problem I’d just try it again maybe there was too much in it. Well after 3 or 4 different combinations and one load of washing stinking like a damp dog. We came to the conclusion that the heating element in the machine had gone and that’s why it wasn’t warming up enough. (YUCK!) This is the second time we’ve had a problem with this machine so decided that it might be better just to replace it instead of try and get it fixed. (When the call out is £70-90 then you’ve got the cost of parts on top, it soon adds up that a new machine might be cheaper/better value).
With the expectation that our new machine would be delivered on Friday, we came up with a plan, we needed to get the freezer corner of the room finished so that the freezer and bookcase could be moved back into the corner along with the old machine being moved out from its current space. When I got home from Community Group on Thursday night, Chris had managed to move the furniture around which was great. I then spent some time, cleaning and treating the wall behind where the washing machine lives as it was a bit grotty and needed some TLC.
In our case we’ve been able to shuffle around bits within the same room or into other rooms in the house but sometimes for bigger projects, you might need to move things out completely. Maybe even think about hiring a storage unit (You can even use the storage calculator on Shurgard Self Storage Harrow‘s website to see how much room you would need). When it comes to painting our living room, I’m really hoping that we can get away with moving it into the middle of the room, otherwise a storage unit might be the way to go unless we can get some really dry/warm days on the forecast and leave the sofa in the garden for a few days!
Right, well back to the painting and finishing up the kitchen. TTFN!
