Monday 26 July 2010

Day 2 - The Work Starts

The day started with a trip to pick up some paint samples. I know I want to paint the walls but I have no idea what colour. So I picked three white variants and some other colour to see what they would look like on the wall:

I also bought a new Stanley knife, and the most useful thing in life that I have never previously owned - a chisel.

My assistant then applied the paint to the wall so I could then make a decision:

I was then given a presentation on the merits of each of the four colours:

In the end I decided that I liked the one which was the most white since the others all looked a bit dirty.

Once the fannying about was over, I decided to get on with some real work. Mission number 1 is to get the carpets up. I've ordered a wooden floor and you can't put those on top of carpets. So the carpets have to go. The problem at first was just finding a starting point where I could start pulling it up. But once I got going, it wasn't too bad.

Under the carpet was a disgusting underlay:

Pulling this carpet has put me off carpet for life. The carpet and the underlay produced thick clouds of dust when they were pulled up. And the floor under the underlay was also filthy too. It really shows how much dirt falls floorward in a house that you never see. And bear in mind, these carpets had been cleaned before I got the property. Disgusting.

the next problem was taking up the carpet tacks. These things lined the skirting boards in every room, and had to be chiseled up:

And worse, even once the little bits of wood were taken up, they left behind a layer of glue that looked like dried mozzarella cheese... which then also had to be chiseled up... which took a long-ass time:

Once this was done for the two bedrooms and the hallway I had a bag of junk:

... and a pile of carpet in the front room:

Then it was back to the shop to waste more money on some tins of Milk White:

Man, I hate spending money on this crap. I'd rather be buying records or burgers.

No comments:

Post a Comment