A minor change can yield a big improvement!

Over the weekend we didn't feel that we achieved as much as we had hoped. There were a lot of chores to do around the house - washing, cleaning etc. I gave the oven a thorough clean - it was terribly grotty. I removed all the shelves and racks and soaked them for a few hours before scrubbing with steel wool back to shiny chrome. The inside of the oven also got a complete overhaul, as well as a thorough clean of the kitchen cupboards and the remainder of the house. The venitian blinds in the bedroom were also filthy - I had bought a tool from Spotlight to use on the timber slats to dust them, but I found this was pretty ineffectual, so ended up vaccuuming and dusting them individually which was time consuming... We have also had a return of the insect hoardes, so some of the weekend was devoted to stocking up on insect killing apparatus - we need to bomb for fleas and cockroaches again this week - apparently it is a job which takes ongoing maintenance... Next weekend we will spray a pyretheum barrier around the house to prevent reinfestation. At $14 x 3 pack, the process of bombing is really expensive, given we need nearly $60 worth of bombs to do the whole house :( Welcome to the tropics...!

But in amongst all of this we also managed to find the time to get some renovations done!

Ola used the router and cut a series of long, straight grooves in to the chipboard on the floor upstairs. He is cutting in deeper than we had originally planned, but considering we will be painting over the surface, we have decided it probably needs to be quite deep to give the finished effect we are looking for. This process is a lot slower than we had hoped as he really needs a good, solid piece of straight timber to use as a guide, in order to route the groove against this line. What we need is a long piece measuring more than 4 metres - this is the width of the room, so it sounds like we will be off to Bunnings this weekend...

I have continued to prepare the main wall in the Dining Room & Kitchen for paint. I used the sander to knock down the sample patches I had painted on the wall when we were choosing our colour, using fine grade sand paper on the electric sander. Then I used the floor sanding head with 180 grit on a long handle and sanded down the wall to take away the shine that was still present within the existing paint. Then I washed the wall down with a strong sugar soap solution - due to proximity to the kitchen, this wall was quite greasy and needed a good clean. Next steps are a coat of grey undercoat and then on with Antique White USA - remember we are covering a deep ochre coloured wall with white, so preparation is the key.

The final but most effective piece of work done this weekend was the removal of the hutch on the kitchen bench. Ola said it had to go from the day we moved in, but I hadn't been able to completely see his vision. He was right - it looks so much better gone!! Basically the hutch was designed to sit on top of the bench and to house the microwave, kettle and toaster. As we don't have a microwave and I have taken to using a whistling kettle on the stove top, the hutch was more or less empty. It also closed in the kitchen away from the dining room and restricted the amount of sunlight that would fill the kitchen. As you can see from the before and after photos below, removing the hutch has made the whole area feel more open plan, sunny and user friendly. It also opens up the bench space to sitting at, whereas before there was really nowhere to sit and enjoy. Removing the hutch was quite simple - we took out a few screws and broke the silicone seal between the hutch and the wall. In terms of time and effort it was really a minor change but the improvement factor was huge - just the kind of outcome we enjoy!

On the downside, there is now a section of wall which is not tiled, but we will address this once we decide what to do with a splashback or retiled section.

Ola also prepared the shower in the ensuite for a coat of flowcoat, which we will do next weekend. This involved stripping back the waterproofing agent which the previous owners had applied over the tiles on the floor in their attempt to stop the shower from leaking. The decision was taken not to flowcoat last weekend as we may have to sleep in a different room if the smell of the fibreglass fumes is too strong and we weren't prepared for this last weekend... Looking forward to seeing what happens on this front this weekend...