Some things had to get moved forward on our "To Do" list (who knew that red shag pile carpet and cat vomit were mortal enemies) while others have had to be moved back (replacing the kitchen will also require a complete re-wire, so that got moved down the list).
Hopefully, however, the list of things that had to be done, but that we couldn't actually do ourselves, is now almost complete... including:
- Installing a new automatic garage roller door (when the old one fell off)
- Installing new gutters to the entire house (as the old ones fell off)
- 5 visits from the plumber to fix burst pipes
- Installing an exhaust fan in bathroom
- Replacing some of the light fittings
- Removing dodgy "oh-my-god-we-could-have-died" wiring from the underfloor heating
- Upgrading the electrical box
- Replacing the water pump
HALLWAY - BEFORE
Above is what you were greeted with on opening the front door - the full onslaught of red brick and red shag pile carpet could only really be appreciated with all the lights turned on and a strong flash on the camera. There is almost no natural light, which made walking down the hall more like entering a crypt.
If you do make it safely to the end, the above photo shows what you would see when you turned back.
The front door is actually very solid and quite attractive, but in desperate need of TLC. The glass in the door is also red, contributing nicely to the 'gateway from hell' aesthetic. The pale pile timber ceiling does little to lighten the mood with all the red shag pile.
The copper coloured track lighting is completely out of place, and the first of many gothic archways gets lost in the 'redness'.
Our initial plan (before moving in) was actually to paint the hallway darker (either dark grey or black). But it soon became apparent the priority was to bring some light into the hall - but skylights wouldn't work as there are rooms above.
We were also planning on putting up with the hallway in its dark state for longer... but one of the cats ate a full bowl of food then decided to go for a run through the house before throwing up on the red shag pile. Hence the whole 'rip up the carpet' task moved to the top of the "To Do" list. (It is impossible to get cat vomit out of shag pile. Period.)
HALLWAY - DURING
The brickwork was painted using Dulux "White on White" in a low sheen finish. We will be using this colour in other parts of the house. We had lots of paint swatches in different rooms to ensure that whichever white we picked looked good everywhere.
From reading up on tips on the internet, we reckoned we could manage painting the brickwork ourselves,
Regardless of what you can find on the internet, painting brickwork sucks.
Big time.
Maybe nice smooth new bricks are easier.
Our bricks are old, highly textured, with lots of pitting.
To use a sprayer would have required lots of paint to fill in the holes, which would have resulted in lots of dribbles and runs. Also due to the pitting, a long nap roller didn't work.
So we had to paint it all with a paintbrush.
The first coat was the most painful, as the bricks were very dry (and did we mention really heavily textured and pitted?). Coat One was followed by filling in the large holes and gaps with paintable flexible filler. The second coat was then slightly less painful and a bit quicker.
I took this (dodgy) photo on my mobile, without a flash (it was also a cloudy day). You can really see the difference that removing the dark carpet and painting the brickwork has made. We have also since painted inside the gothic arch white as well (it goes up to an attic).
The front door will be painted gloss black, and we have some new light fittings (made from recycled water pipes) waiting to be installed.
We are currently in the process of finishing the floors - tiling turned out to be way over our budget at the moment, so we are stencilling and sealing the concrete.
We'll post some more pics as we get through it.
For now, yours
V&A