The OB flat has been a real challenge and I have certainly had my work cut out this week. It didn’t help buying cheap paint at B&Q with the 2-4-3 offer a few weeks back. Normally I use Dulux but this isn’t cheap and Phil thought we could save some money. And yes we did save some money but OMG, I’ve had to do 4 and sometimes 5 coats on every wall, the coverage was crap. It was like painting with gone off milk, thin and lumpy. This is ridiculous, one coat is necessary; I don’t mind 2 coats, 3 at a push but come on, 4 is just pushing a girl to madness. Anyway, when I got to my last 2 rooms, the 2nd bedroom and the hall, I caved in and took the 5 litre pot of B&Q cheap silk crap back and brought a pot of Dulux one coat. And you know what, even then I had to do 2 coats, even though it guaranteed one coat coverage or get-your-money back; I’ve never known walls to be so porous.
Anyway, it’s taken me 11 days nonstop work but I think I have finally turned a corner. I don’t know why but I just don’t get a good feeling about the OB flat. I’ve tried but every time I turn the key and enter inside it makes me feel depressed. I have scrubbed all the mould away; I think we’ve got rid of the spores, god knows we’ve had the windows and doors opened even with 10 force gales. My face has just about returned to normal, the scabs have fallen off and I exfoliated yesterday to get of the last of the dry skin. I won’t be using mould spray any time soon or at least I won’t be spraying without wearing a face mask, I’ve learnt my lesson.
More-or-less I’ve just about finished decorating the OB flat; both bedrooms are done as well as the hall and the kitchen. My ‘Raspberry Diva’ pink worked well in the kitchen and I am glad I’ve got some colour in there. I’ve bought wallpaper ready to hang at the weekend for a feature wall in the lounge; I’ve chosen the same wallpaper that we’ve got in the lounge because I know it works. I would have liked to have chosen something a little more daring but there is a slim possibility that Phil’s mum and dad may move into the flat so I’ve had to tone it down. I’m not afraid to use colour, far from it; I think you need to have at least 3 colours in a room, I’m not sure if I read that somewhere if I simply made it up, but it’s a rule that I always follow and it seems to work.
On Tuesday, Ian, our good friend from Ampthill Glass came round and measured up for new doors. We need a new front door, French windows in the lounge and a new back door. The existing ones are all rotten and even with the most severe sanding and gloss; they are so bad we knew at once that they couldn’t be saved. The quote when it came in at £1,600 plus VAT wasn’t cheap but I know Ian would have given us his best ‘family and friends’ rate. Doors don’t come cheap and at the end of the day they need replacing. I really would like the windows to be done as well; they are PVC but have been wrecked with mould. I’ve done my best to clean them up but they are far from perfect. Before replacing them it’s probably best to wait to see, if indeed, we have managed to get rid of the mould problem one year on from now, or at least one winter from now and then we can readdress.
Will Tricks, my landscape gardener and tree surgeon came round last week and has quoted me for removing a tree and weed and tree stump removal. He was scheduled to come and do this today but I told him I need at least 24 hrs. notice so I can give warning to the residents to remove their cars so I guess it won’t be happening today. Will is a good guy, he’s a local from Wolverton and we’ve been using him for years.
I had thought that we would get away with replacing the bathroom but alas it’s not to be. We can save the bath but without a doubt the toilet and sink needs to be replaced. I have given it a lot of thought and we also need to replace the floor, take out the radiator and replace with a heated towel rail and I would like to add a colour splash back Perspex panel to the window wall. This won’t be cheap and Phil will most probably fight against this but this bathroom needs a bit of ‘fizz’ and this can be easily achieved for just a few hundred quid. We have learnt many things over the years in this property game, and one of the most valuable lessons is that you need to put it right at the start. If you bodge over, then in the end you end up just paying more.
There is still much to do but until Phil gets in and does his bit at the weekend my work internally is just about finished. Phil & I will be back at the OB flat tomorrow, I need him to bash out the airing cupboard. We need to see if the wall has dried out and if it hasn’t we need to bash that out and rebuild. If it has then we just need to put proper airing cupboard shelves in and then it’s just a repaint job. We will need to get a plumber to fix the waste pipe, rip out the toilet and then come back in after we have tiled and re-box the piping and back to wall toilet. Other than that, I just need to paint the 16 fence panels in the garden and lobby the council to chop down the so oversized conifers at the back and then we’re done. Just in the nick of time to start on the Caldecotte flat (CF in future) when we complete on Friday.
It hasn’t all been work and no play though. On Wednesday night I went over to Willen to share a bottle of red with Vanessa. She was good, although a little tired because Chris is away and she doesn’t sleep so well when he’s not home. And last night Phil dropped me off at Sue’s flat in Caldecotte. Another red (& white wine) and lots of girlie chat. Sue is naturally feeling sad, now that Alan is no longer with us, she has a huge hole that she is struggling to fill. My heart goes out to her but even so she was good company and the time flew. I rather fear I outstayed my welcome and it was midnight before I got to bed last night. Hence I am hung over and running late so hence no edits, no spell check. I need to publish this rushed post and get my tired butt over to Asda.
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