And so we have reached the end. The house is complete and we have fully moved in. If anyone following the series hasn’t guessed it yet, I wrote this series after the fact. I am mad, but not mad enough to redecorate and renovator whole rooms in a day!
The pain of not being able to see and speak to Gran and Grandpa everyday is not gone and it probably never will be. I miss them each and every moment of every day. I miss our conversations, our spats, our debates. I miss not being able to run to them when I needed advice and realising that when I pull up in the car at the house I won’t be walking into cups of tea and Murder She Wrote (unless I take the notion).
But, working on the house has helped me to turn all of those painful reminders into happy memories and I am comforted that this is what they would have wanted me to do.
Now this blog will probably resume normal service and return to my research ideas or musings on academia. For those following along, thank you for reading!
In this saga, no doubt most of you will think me a complete fool and honestly at the moment that is how I feel. We had only a few things left to complete in the house but one of the major jobs was the flooring in the living room. I wanted to match it with the flooring in the hall but I had no idea where the original flooring came from or who laid it. I raided the filing cabinet trying to find old receipts to no avail. In the end, I thought the best way forward was to hire a flooring expert from MyBuilder to help us find the perfect match. Unfortunately, at the time we were doing this it was the Glasgow fair and offers were few a far between. One person did respond and I thought ‘great!’.
During the initially visit, Gordon and I were a little confused by his method of measuring but since we know very little we assumed he had a good grasp of what he was doing. However, when the quote came through there was a glaring math error! A quick call and all was explained away. I can appreciate everyone having an off day but I should have been a little more critical. We also corresponded over flooring I had found online that seemed to be a match. The person agreed and I immediately purchased the correct amount with some extra just in case!
The floorer came the same day as Paul who was installing our bannister. Though the floorer’s quote had said the price included all underlay and preparation of the floor, I was charged an additional price for the plywood and he didn’t bring any underlay. This urked me somewhat but trying to avoid an argument I just went with it. Afterall, he had turned up on time ready and willing to do the work and by that night we would have our completed living room. Or so I thought…
Though the floorer promised it would be a 1 day job, progress seemed to be slow. By 3pm the floorer asked if I wanted beading to disguise the join between the floor and the skirting. I agreed but this too incurred an additional cost. I asked him to get it and I would pay him the following day if he let me know. He then said he would go now to get it and would finish the floor and install the beading the next day. Now, Paul was going to be in the house the following day for a short time as per our arrangement but I had to be at work. Feeling slightly mift that the floorer was now taking an extra day, but also wanting the job done asap I reorganised a few things to make sure he could get into the house and asked him to lock up after he was finished. He asked if we could settle up and here was my big mistake! I agreed!!! I didn’t pay him for the beading, but I did pay for the ply and his time. I would never normally do this but the month had been a stressful mess and I really just wanted the house to be finished. Off he went and I inspected his work. Some of the ply had been laid but only 4-5 strips of flooring had gone down. I voiced my concern to Paul who agreed that progress was slow. (I should say that Paul had a very expressive face but he was polite about this floorer and tried to put my mind at ease while looking a little concerned).
A flutter went through my mind that night that maybe the floorer wouldn’t come back but the next morning my concerns disappeared when I received a text telling me the price of the beading. It seemed quite high but at least he had it. His van appeared shortly after. I let him in, told him how to lock up and asked him what time he would be finished. ‘4pm’ he said. The previous day he told me it would only take another half day now it was two whole days! I took a breath and just stayed quiet praying the work would be complete that night. I left him to his work as I drove to mine.
But, something didn’t seem right and I quickly changed my plans deciding to work from home. It was a good thing I did as well. At 1130am Paul gave me a call asking me to come and look at the progress of the banister. This was weird. He didn’t say he was finished, just to check progress and he didn’t seem like the type of man who lacked confidence in his ability. Arriving at the house just 10-minutes later, Paul was working away but the floorer and his tools were gone. There was no beading to be seen either. He had apparently went to go get the beading which confused me. Then I got a text with a different story (since the text was personal I won’t relay what it said here, but it was something I couldn’t really argue with if the story was true). The text suggested I ask Paul to finish the work and my money would be repaid.
Well, Paul agreed but pointed out several issues in the laying of the ply and the flooring (of which very little had gone down!). Red putty stained some of the planks, others had been cut incorrectly. There were massive gaps, while the ply had been laid too close to the skirtings. Blocks had been glued down which would have cracked the floor had it been left. The result was everything had to come up and be relaid. What a nightmare!
The next day, I text the floorer asking about when the money would be returned to me. Well, now he wanted to calculate how much he owed back since ‘laying the ply is half the flooring’. I was shocked! This person had caused so much damage I had to buy another box of flooring (which isn’t cheap) and pay another person to correct the errors and now he wanted half!!!
I have issued him a formal later stating the many issues and why I would like the money for his time returned to me within 14 days. I did say I would pay the ply so long as he issued me the receipt. No receipt has appeared and a few days after sending the email I received a very odd message saying he wanted to see photos of the ply being taken up before giving the money back. This confused and still confuses me as the job wasn’t completed in the first place so whether the ply was taken up or not is none of his concern. I am still waiting for the receipts and the money back.
And to add insult to injury, his MyBuilder page which did have positive reviews is now filled with negative reviews including one that is very similar to my experience! If anyone has any advice for how to move forward with this situation I would be very appreciative, but in the meantime I will be seeking advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau.
Paul came in a few days later, and completely redid the work that had been done, laid the floor and beading in one day. He did a fantastic job on both the banister and flooring and I would recommend him to all for his professionalism! Here is his website: https://www.pandjjoiners.co.uk
Here is a picture of the amount of work completed by the previous floorer after 1 1/2 days. I have plenty more oft he damage but won’t post those online at the moment.
Hint of the new banister featuring Mr Arthur
I will add pictures of the completed flooring in the next post.
All in all, I feel very silly but hopeful that this matter will be resolved. For those of you who are inexperienced with hiring workman or who are trying to do this type of renovation in between work and a busy life style, please remember to be cautious. This was the mistake I made and it could be a very expensive one!
The master bedroom had been my Gran’s room (yes, my Grandparents slept in separate rooms!). Now my Gran really didn’t like this room at all. She despised the double wardrobe, particularly after my Grandpa had broken one of the mirrors and she really hated the printed swirls that surrounded the walls. I had naively thought this was just patterned paper Grandpa had painted over in peach to disguise the blue and gold swirls, but no. Clearly, the previous owners had a flair for the decoration I remember featuring in the popular early 2000s TV show Changing Rooms which seemed to boil down any room make over to mdf and wall stamps. These particular wall stamps were difficult to eradicate even after Grandpa repainted the walls a couple of times! When they were younger my Grandparents would have quickly solved their decorating woes with a much more imaginative solution but by his 80s Grandpa just couldn’t paper and paint the way he once had. Gran, who previously had taken such pride in selecting the best carpets, furniture and linens was mainly house bound and she didn’t really like Grandpa’s decorating taste either. Though she often complained she also didn’t really want to be cast out of her room for any length of time. So, hating the decor became the norm.
When it came to me decorating the bedroom I had some key goals. The wardrobe and the swirls had to go! Since the swirls were stamped to the plaster work I thought the easiest solution was to pop up some lining paper. Purchasing BnQs thickest should have done the trick but no. These stubborn swirls poked through! So I took an electric sander to the wall! Perhaps a little drastic but I was already frustrated that my original solution had not worked.
My first attempt at wallpapering went relatively smoothly, though I can now appreciate the difference between paste the paper and paste the wall. Paste the paper is a messy pain, particularly for someone who is vertically challenged. It took me one whole day to paper and paint one wall, but taking my time to make sure the walls were carefully prepared gave me a much neater result.
Our bedroom in the flat had been magnolia with purple touches but we had also started to incorporate a woodland deer theme. Last winter we fell in love with bedside lamps that had deer faces as well as a duvet and pillow set with a wintery deer scene. For this new room, I had seen a decal wall portrait on ebay that featured a winter woodland with deer and thought it would be nice to tie in all of deer items to the overall decor. The ebay image had the deer on a grey background, but we preferred to maintain the rich, dark purple. Of course this colour would be too heavy for the whole room so it has been made into a feature wall with the remaining 3 walls painted ivory.
Painting the purple was quite hard work particular since the paint seemed to soak into the lining paper. I was also trying to paint on one of the hottest days of the summer! After breaking down the wardrobe we discovered the colour of the room before Grandpa’s peach and before the blue and gold. It had been bright sunflower yellow! Now, I can forgive Grandpa for painting round the wardrobe. After all, it would not have been good for an 80+ man to move a double wardrobe even with help. Clearly however, the previous or indeed the previous previous owners had just left the wardrobe in place and painted round hoping no one would notice. It worked! After several coats of ivory, the yellow was gone and the room was unified in one clear aesthetic.
With swirls gone, wardrobes gone and the peach gone, I could see the beauty of the space. It was no longer a dull, thrown together room but had flow and purpose. My husband and I had a lot fun putting up the decal, though I was a little disappointed that the stickers didn’t stay put. Later we had to stick down the seams with glue to make sure it stayed in place.
Before:
After:
So how did we achieve this look? Here are the products:
Fairly early on in the decorating process, my husband and I had decided on a woodland theme for the house. We love designs that are a little more unique but still wanted to have an elegant place to live. One way we had thought of achieving this look was to strip much of the paint work back to wood.
Now, this wasn’t just about aesthetics but the many years of spending time at my Grandparents house had highlighted a number of issues. Part of the wall that was removed from the living room to make the space more open plan still remains. We now affectionately call it ‘the island’. Well, the island has always been a dumping ground for keys, mail, cups – you name it. But, when Gran and Grandpa bought the house, the island’s pine had been painted with white gloss, I guess to make the space more neutral and attractive for potential buyers. That didn’t suit my Grandparents decor, so it was quickly repainted with green gloss and later matt reddy-pink (I can’t quite describe the colour but see the pictures below). Grandpa had repainted this island several times as the paint often chipped away revealing the green and white below. Several table mats had been put down to protect the paintwork but keys always seem to miss the mat…
The thought of repainting one section for years on end or leaving it a ghastly state was not something I was prepared to do. The solution — strip it back to the original pine, stain it and make it an intentional feature of the overall aesthetic. What a great idea! NOT!
My husband and I spent 4 whole days and very long nights with toxic paint stripper, paint scrapers and sanding painting trying to remove the years of paint work. And the real kicker was the final layer. Thick black, glossy paint that stuck to our fingers, nails and wooden floors! We tried all different techniques to get this paint off, including different strippers and the cling film method. I will pop a list of products below.
Finally, the majority of the paint was off and while the wood below wasn’t the best quality, staining it with medium oak meant it matched with the flooring. And we have tested its durability several times over the past 5 weeks with power tools, screws, nails, cups and keys all plonked on it and the island is perfectly intact.
Unfortunately, the original doors were made from cheap, white mdf. We only discovered this halfway through the stripping process. Instead we decided to get some pine plywood cut to size at B&Q, attach the original hinges, stain to match and voila!
Except, under the stairs was the same painted pine and now the island and this woodwork were horribly mismatched. I had toyed with just painting under the stairs but that seemed like cheating! And what colour? At this point, the banister was white while the rest of the woodwork was the reddy-pink colour. Out with the stripper once more!
This actually didn’t take as long, perhaps because we had the technique down or perhaps because it hadn’t been painted quite as many times. Unfortunately, the grooves made it extremely difficult to remove all remnants of the black, but it gives it a more worn, effect overall. Not a perfect job, but I think it works well!
Original look
Stripped but not stained
So how did we achieve this look? Well here is a list of items we purchased from B&Q but don’t be fooled by online articles or YouTube videos. This is a disgusting and messy job. Not one for the faint hearted!
So, once again I have been on hiatus but this time I chose to take time away all the while knowing I wanted to write this series. I won’t be focusing on research or writing, but something equally important. In my last post I had written about losing my Grandpa and since then my husband and have lost 4 other close members of our family. It has been one of the most traumatic summers I have ever experienced but in the face of it all we have charged on ahead and tried to make the best out of so much grief.
I inherited my Grandfather’s house – a final amazing gift I will never be able to repay. Through this time I have dedicated myself to renovating and redecorating, carrying out all of the changes my Grandfather suggested just over a year ago. I remember him taking me a tour of the house saying ‘that needs to be changed’ while pointing at the bathroom, ‘don’t keep this carpet. Wooden floors would be much nicer’ as he pointed to the red and cream patterned livingroom carpet. And a final reminder ‘don’t keep everything. Sell what’s worth selling to pay for the work I couldn’t do!’ Well, I couldn’t bring myself to sell any of the items, but I have donated to charity in their honour, which I hope Grandpa would approve of.
My husband and I gave ourselves 6 weeks. While the sky was falling around us, this was the one thing we had control over. The one thing we could see rising out of the ashes of our grief. Personally, I have given myself 6 weeks not focus on writing, or research 24-hours-a-day but to go to work, do my 8 hours and then come home and scrape, paint, build, garden and book a team of joiners, electricians, plumbers and engineers to rip out and put in all those things that transform the house from something suitable for the elderly to something better suited to a young working couple. As I looked over the work we have done, I was so sad to not look over and see my grandparents wine coloured chairs. Not to sit in the leather High back dining chair to watch episodes of Star Trek and not to move over to the dining table under the stairs to eat ham sandwiches and drink tea. But, while the house gives me these sad memories, I know that these changes were necessary to ensure the house does not become a meloncholy museum piece.
So, here is how it looked just six weeks ago before we started all the work. I will try to go room by room describing the decorating process and hopefully this will give some ideas or handy hints for anyone trying to redecorate the home of a recently departed loved one.
Unfortunately, I didn’t always remember to do a before picture for all the rooms (and some of the rooms Grandpa probably wouldn’t want me show since it was quite finished off to his usual standard). But, I can describe what has been done so hopefully that will give a good idea. Below is the downstairs living room and dining area. Not quite my tastes, but the decorating, carpets and furniture were top quality. Something I have tried to maintain as we carried out our own renovations.
So, I had to take a break from blogging due to a close family member becoming very ill and spending extended time in the hospital. Unfortunately, that family member was my Grandpa and he passed away at the start of the month. To say I am devastated is an understatement and though in the past I have been able to compartmentalise, focussing on my work to help handle the grief, this time has not been quite as easy. I find myself hyper focussing on things unrelated to work, getting tired much faster after focussed activities and spending a number of hours wanting to do a piece of work but ending up sitting literally doing nothing. I realise this is all part of the grieving process and I need to let myself take this pause, but the academic guilt is never far away. And it isn’t work (i.e. my bosses) who are putting the pressure on. This is all me!
Well, I have been off in London this weekend for a work event. The event itself was inspiring and it is really nice to spend time with like-minded colleagues who I don’t often see. That being said, I spent most of yesterday feeling a little drained and lacking my usually creativity when I attend such an event.
Fortunately, I had the whole day to myself today and decided not to do any work, but just hang out in the hotel room until check out, and then go to the new Captain Cook exhibition at the British Library. I bought my ticket and started to wander around the exhibition, thinking almost nothing at all. Then suddenly it hit me…
The exhibition was beautifully laid out and had wonderful videos set at appropriate points. The experts spoke so passionately about their work, providing key information about one of the most famous 18th-century men. The exhibition had quite a few visitors when I was there and it was amazing to see their work being disseminated to a wide audience. Then I realised that one day, I could be one of those experts! More than that, I want to be one of those experts. I want to spread my research, telling the world about our cultural heritage (or at least the bit I know about!) and the only way I can do that is to get my work out there!
In that moment, I reconnected with my research. I remembered that I have the courage to do this despite my current grief. But, I also know that I need to give myself the time to rejuvenate and doing small tasks over a shorter period of time is okay!
I highly recommend the exhibition, which is both in celebration and critical of Captain Cook. The archival material on display is remarkable and the work is neatly presented to appeal to a wide variety of people. I would highly recommend, though it is a little on the pricey side at £14 for an adult and £7 for a student.
Research Adventures 