I’m feeling back to full fitness after my decorating escapade the other week, see Part 1 of the blog, so here’s the second part of the story.

If you remember I left you with pictures of what needed tackling in the 7 days before a new family moved into my daughter’s rental house. Make no mistake all my skills of prioritisation came into play. We’d reluctantly come to the realisation, try as we might we were not going to get everything done in the available time, especially to the desired standard, all a bit depressing.

Another bed for removal

The old bottle green carpet

more unwanted stuff

the rotten bathroom floor trim

worn banister rail

the boiler and unwanted stuff

But chin up! first thing was clear the rubbish and stop water leaking out from places it wasn’t supposed to.  Oh and we had to clean sufficient floor space for us to set up camp – did I mention we were sleeping on airbeds in the house! Time was soon slipping by as this took the best part of the first day.

Next we started to tackle the woodwork. Ideally I would have repainted everything but we didn’t have the time (are you picking up on this theme?) so Compromise 1 was to only repaint the doors and wood in the hall and up to the first stair landing, plus the skirting board of both rooms on the first floor, they being the living room and master bedroom. The rest we just cleaned, touching up any big chips.  It was actually surprising how much better the woodwork looked after a good clean. It’s always good to clean 🙂

It was day 3 before we were able to start putting any emulsion on walls.  We decided to paint everything white, why wouldn’t you and it would be less of a worry about the interface between the ceiling and the skirting, remember we’re not professionals and speed was important. However, the son-in-law wanted colour in some of the rooms. “Trade Magnolia” he suggested??  I pleaded “No, please don’t make me paint Magnolia” So Compromise 2, I pointed him in the direction of trade sized tubs of  grey paint, therefore no increase in cost. Trade grey – does that make grey a classic or just the new Magnolia? Something to think about.

All ceilings were painted thanks to Mr Husband who appears to love painting ceilings, something I may have left. The pictures below gives you the finished look of the two rooms painted in grey (Wickes Contract Classic Grey, Silk); the living room and the master bedroom.

At the weekend when we were at our full complement of four we split into couples, the hall and stairs for one and the two remaining bedrooms for the other; what a choice. Somewhere in between, I lose track, the bathroom and kitchen where painted white, the rotten trim replaced in the bathroom, the grass cut, the windows cleaned, the bathroom descaled (yuk) and while the carpet was being laid on the final day, the kitchen de-greased; we then took a breath. We were unable to box in the ugly boiler pipes, only managing to patch up the gaping hole behind the boiler, paint some pipes and give it all good clean: all that added up to Compromise 3.

I think that just about covers it. All good character building stuff.  There were a few tense exchanges of words, usually when all very tired and hungry. But we also managed some smiles especially while having lunch from the conveniently parked burger van. Not my usual first choice but they certainly kept us going.

It would’ve been great to have a ‘DRESSING THE ROOM’ moment however, we were all too keen to get back to our own beds. Sleeping on an airbed for seven days is not so good when you get to a certain age.

So how long does it take to re-decorate a house?  Well in this case it took all the time we had, 7 days.  I would say another 2 weeks and we would have got it looking much better 😉 How do you think we did?

Next time I want some mother and daughter bonding perhaps I will suggest a spa weekend ❤