The Builder and the boys have been quite busy here at Pen Y Llechwedd. We are currently renovating our ensuite, laundry and refinishing the front steps, which may well lead into repainting the front of the house. We have been fortunate to have a small window of time to fit a little of these repairs in, but for the most part we have been working on the weekends trying to get this all done. Let’s explore a little.
The Laundry
I shared the before photo in the last Pen Y Llechwedd update. What a horrible mess it was. Below is the during photo, it was like this for about a week and really quite workable while it was. It only made me more excited for the temporary set up we have now. Although it didn’t look like it was going to be much, the demolition and installation of the cupboards took nearly a whole day, next up was the relocation of the plumbing and electrical, before sheeting the walls, ordering glass, fitting bench tops, sink and tapware.
The Stairs
The stairs were rotting after years sitting in the weather. It was time to replace them and quickly too. A bit of a slipping hazard in the wet, replacing the rotting timber is giving us the opportunity to remove the risk of slipping as well. This job took such a long time, nearly a week solid on the carpentry as the style of balustrading was really time consuming to replicate, but our subcontractor Brendon from BJ Carpentry, who works with us from time to time, did a marvelous job of doing so, once painted it will look exactly as it did before.
The Ensuite
So much time and effort went into planning this room I simply cannot wait for it to be finished! The framing up was finished last time we spoke, now we have cladded the space and demolishing of the interior will begin later this week. Next up will be the plumbing and electrical works, before laying a sub-floor ready for tiling to begin. I am really excited to see how the tiles look and hope it’s as magical as I expect it to be. Unfortunately our usual tile supplier let us down, and we have had to look further afield for our tiles. Here is a sneak peak of our current selection.
As always being the Builder’s house our renovations were going to take longer than the usual renos. Having said that, bathrooms tend to take longer than other rooms because of the sheer amount of trades involved. Carpenters, electricians, plumbers, tilers, waterproofers, shower screen installers, painters, cabinet makers, it is huge! I am so very excited to be finished, though this time provides us with the reminder of what it is like for our clients, a very handy perspective indeed.
What jobs take forever to get done in your home? Which household chore do you dislike the most?
Nicole xxx
I am so excited for you Nicole! My hubby isn’t a builder but unless he is being paid to do something he struggles with doing anything in a hurry (typical tradie!) our house has been 3/4 painted on the outside for two years! So much so that the surface has been prepped for the blue paint three times! So unless I get in and get things done hubby can be a procrastinator when it comes to jobs around the house! Another example is he cantered our ceiling fan in our room 7yrs ago! At the time I said pls don’t do that because either the hole or the repair will never get finished. To prove a point he patched the hole in the ceiling that day but the wire he used to pull the patch down is still sticking out and the plaster has never been sanded back or the ceiling painted. Me on the other hand I decide I am moving the furniture around and it happens in two hours including washing down walls and floors before putting the furniture back. It is all about priorities I guess lol.
Thank you gorgeous! My hubby is much the same, the last thing he wants to do after being at work all day is work again when he gets home, and being a tradie means it really does feel like work. I love it though, but I’m not on the tools. I have had to learn a lot to help get stuff done, and we just today received a deadline for a magazine shoot, so the 2 of us are going to have to work our buts off if we want to meet it! xx