Jerry's renovation blog

[pmccarthy]

You've been stitched up.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Who bloody ray! The last of the major work is completed.. There remains decoration and the big clean up.

 

The last of the major work is the lime plastering:

Lime paster is a labourious job, but it looks a lot better than the gyprock stuff. Almost don't want to paint it. Thie above is the ground floor hall wall (the original is up a few posts ago somewhere. The next photo is the upstairs hall wall. Both look great. The original walls were water damaged over the years. They reckon lime plastered walls last 150 years:

 

 

All the windows are in. Here is the before and after of the bay, and then that crappy platic kitched door is replaced, plus there are a couple of the windows to show. Not sure I want to show all of the windows..

     

 

 

 

Right.. Have to move a lot of stuff and get started on the decorating.
 

 

Speak later

[nomadpete]

Hey!

 

Either you bin sneaking into a neighbour's place to take pics, or you have got A.I. to make some nice pics for you.

 

That doesn't look like your place (as I remember it).

[Jerry_Atrick]

The two walls in the above shot are here:

 

 

 

Of course those before shots were after the damaged paster was removed:

 

(the top floor wall):

 

 

 

[nomadpete]

Good save.

Now I believe you.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Dang it.. We had an estimate for fitting the windows, but they stressed it can change depending on the condition of the building, etc. that they couldn't see.. It went up almost twice as much!

 

Now, when people ask me how much this has cost, I talk in how much of a good TB20 I could have purchased instead.

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Have been a little quiet on this front - not for lack of progress, but in the slow redecorating stage now, and with over 6,000 sq ft, it is taking a looong time. Had the last working days off work, but struck down with man fly pretty badly and only got a little done. Managed to pull down the shleving in the formal dining room and completely strip the walls of wallpaper. Dang, the walls are in not great shape. May just skim them, but money is now an increasingly scarce resource, so, with another 4 days off from tomorrow and starting to feel a bit better, will see how pacthing, a coat of PVA, primer and one of those thick filling paints (base coats) goes first..

 

Photos to come

 

Thank blimey I bought myself a good random orbital sander (brinign it with me to Aus).. A Bosch.. don't get that tingly feeling afterwards.

 

 

Edited March 19 by Jerry_Atrick

[pmccarthy]

That man fly is pretty serious. Particularly the zipper variety. Don’t get caught again.

[Marty_d]

30 minutes ago, pmccarthy said:

That man fly is pretty serious. Particularly the zipper variety. Don’t get caught again.

I had flashbacks to that scene in "There's something about Mary".

[nomadpete]

Thank you so much for posting, Jerry.

What with all the distressing stuff on politics, it's nice to read about constructive activity. Sure you had some setbacks. But the renovation thread is all about overcoming setbacks in a positive way. There's not much of that in the news this year!

[facthunter]

BOTH MY orbital sanders Karked it.. Good news is My 1962 Ford Dexta tractor sprang into life after sitting idle for over 2 years. One shot of "start Ya Bastard" and it turned over 1/2 a turn and fired up running perfectly. It will get a bit of TLC and back to work. That will surprise the Neighbours.. Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

OK.. Have half of the walls sanded - all that I could reach. I was generating so much dust, and I forgot to kick back a blanket over the bottom of the door, that dust seeped into the hall way and set off the smoke detectors. I didn't hear it if course, with the sander blasting away.

 

Anyway, as promised, some pics. The before with these really cheap shleves, where the photos make them look 10 times better than they are:

 

And, so far (yes, there's a lot of crap on the floor including stripped wallpaper)

 

Those patches of bare well in the middle photo are of where I hand stripped vinyl paint that came loose from the steamer.. looks like they didn't PVA or prime the walls - just threw paint on them.

 

Plan is to finish sanding, wash down, clean up, fill obvious stuff (and there is a bit) and PVA today. If I can get that done, then base coat tomorrow and see what else neeeds filling. I don't want the walls to be perfect, but there are a lot of holes and areas where the skim has come off.

 

And, we had a nice distraction today.. a hot air balloon flew over the village and landed in a fields adjacent to our place, where we walk the dog. It is being rested, so no crops on it.

 

 

[nomadpete]

Great work! Soon you will finish your apprenticeship in archaic architecture restoration. 

There are some great bargain do-er-uppers you can pick up for a song.... in Italy. Or France.... or Spain.

 

https://renovita.net/

 

Map of One Euro houses in Italy. So much to choose from!

[Jerry_Atrick]

The next one is in Vic.. but bugger that gyprick ship.. it will be lime plaster all the way.. and proper render outside.

[nomadpete]

1 minute ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

The next one is in Vic.. but bugger that gyprick ship.. it will be lime plaster all the way.. and proper render outside.

I thought you'd learn from your mistakes....

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yeah.. sometimes we are masochists...

 

[facthunter]

Build NEW  Ultra  modern. well insulated for Temp and sound and secure. You owe it to yourself. Europe is Mostly OLD  Bricks rotting wood, uneven floors dangerous steps and DOG$#!t.  Nev

Edited Thursday at 11:15 PM by facthunter

[facthunter]

 Except Germany. Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

A lot of the old houses in the South East and South West of England as well as the home counties are in very good condition... There are some 'burbs and areas of course that are dour, but that is the same everywhere.. North West Victoria isn't know for its housing in pristine condition, from memory.

 

When I was in the Czech Republic 20 years ago, most of their older abodes were also on good nic, which is saying something given the average incomes they were on at the time (no idea what it is today, but a friend I keep in touch with has a darned nice car.. some top of the line Audi).

 

Romania was pretty shoddy and some a lot of areas on the outskirts of Paris, that were reasonably well heeled looked dilapidated.. I imagine the pollution those buildings are exposed is a lot more in those dense areas than most places in Aus.

 

But I remember when I was looking to buy a house in Melbourne - south east - there were lots of Californian bungalows with rotted stumps, leaning floors, saggy ceilings and the like.

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Well. best laid plans o' mice and men...

 

Have finished the sanding, which was quite a challenge in the end.

 

This is my random orbital:

 

And it went through 80 grit sheets like no tomorrow. Some of the plaster, albeit standing up tot he steamer, was damaged and fell off. The smoke detectors started up and it was mayhem for a day. All done, and today, patched the holes with bog plaster and skimmed some flaked holes with multi-purpose plaster after PVA-ing the holes - will take photos tomorrow as the lights are not working in that room. So much of having the base coat on yesterday..

 

There is dust and poop everywhere.. In the morning, will dust down the walls, and fill the minor blemishes and then PVA and then basecoat. We don't want it perfect as we like the imperfections (will try and get a close up of what I mean)... And, hopefully, top coats on Sunday.

[nomadpete]

My arms are hurting, just from reading uour update.

[facthunter]

They say a Man's Home is his Castle but Castles don't often make comfortable Homes. Both my Orbital sanders have Karked it.. IF you aren't careful, I'll post about MY workshop Reno..  Keep all that dust and crap out of your eyes and lungs  Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

I wear a respirator and goggles.. though with glasses it is a but tough..