Day Three: Home-Wrecking

Returning to the kitchen with fresh eyes, and my new orbital sander in hand, I decided to sand the room in preparation for painting. Work proved relatively simple, however let it be said that it’s no easy task holding a vibrating sander above your head for 2hrs whilst dust/dirt/grit showers down into your eyes. Very satisfying though! Alice proceeded to mop the living room ceiling (again, at my request) before abandoning me. 

The carpenter came to have a look at laying a new floor in the kitchen...this is where the bad news began. The ‘damp problem’, we discovered, stems from the fact that the beams supporting the wooden floor are placed directly into the dirt! Great! Rotten beams and rising damp, and now the thought of digging down 200mm before the floor can be done. The good news is it means more demolition! 

Whilst waiting for mum and dad to arrive to lend a hand, I decided to give the brown fireplace a quick scrub...not too filthy. Alas the sticky, brown paint wasn’t actually paint, but some nasty mix of smoke, cooking grease and the original, cream paint. Yuck.

Dad arrived, promptly removed the window and took it to the glaziers before repairing some cracks. Mum shoveled some dirt, then together we took up the kitchen floor. Fairly time consuming but enjoyable - so we left half for Alice to do tomorrow!
Posted by Lucy