It's the Little Things

Throughout our renovations, there are many small yet tedious things that we attend to. I guess the difference with us vs an investor, is that they would just paint over things, where as we are not only trying to do things neatly and tidily from the start, but we are also trying to fix things that the last owner did. Plus attending to things that have been ignored for over 40 years. Naturally I can see why because this work is TEDIOUS and we spend so much time working on the fine details.

I have added some pictures of things that we have worked on just this weekend, though there is a long list of these kind of things.

We have been patching holes left from screws in the wall, wall edges where the cement has been chipped off, huge dints in the walls from puling out nails that attached the kitchen cabinets to the walls and washing walls that cad collected a thick layer of dust.



The original light switches and power points were still up. These were replaced with "primo" white light switches with added cover panels so you don't see the plastic plugs that cover the screws.


There are six air vents that had been half painted over and had collected so much soot I think they had stopped doing their job from as far back as 1975. After a powerful suck from the vacuum, we then with a small screw, we scraped off much of the caked on paint that the last owner did. Below shows a close up of the filth, and the below shot is a half worked on grate. The difference is phenomenal.

Manhattan Apartment

Late in October, we had two plasterers come in and finish our ceiling. Very professional and very tidy, as well as reasonably priced considering they visited three times. They were a recommendation from one of Petes workmates. The best tradesmen are always from recommendations! The "after pictures" are of the ceiling after just two coats of undercoat. We probably could have gotten away with one but the 10L paint tin was on sale and 4 litres wouldn't have been enough so we thought we may as well use it up. We used Wattyl all purpose undercoat. The top coat is Wattyl "Manhattan Snow". Tinted using Wattyl TradeMax (the trade equivalent. Cheaper than the Design id range and the salesman assured us its pretty much the same thing and no harder to apply).





The wardrobe is now ready for the internals, rails and doors which will be installed this Thursday. Supplied by Impressive Wardrobes, they were the best price around and THE best service. We added some extra drawers with molded handles to the basic layout.




The image above, where the wire sticks down and has black tape on it, will be a pull switch for the light that is to be installed. We found a pull switch by Clipsal. They are actually pretty expensive for what they are, around $25.

The shadow line was a bugger, we had to fill the gaps with pollifilla around the whole perimeter of the unit. Its also a bugger to paint, getting into the gap with a tini-tiny brush. Awesome finish though. It looks really modern, spacious and clean. Just what you need for such a small space.





Still two coats of ceiling paint to go. Its a horrible job. Hurts your shoulders and back, I don't know how people do it as their full time job. Renovating is exhausting! The walls are much more fun with instant gratification. The image above is after just one coat of paint. So much nicer than that horrid yellow colour that was there before. If that was a paint sample it'd be called something like "smokers stain".

The Glistening Oasis of Neon Shelves

Pete bought all the MDF and had most pieces cut to size at Bunnings. He also cut up some pieces at home and fit together each shelf.We wanted to make each shelf blend into the wall so each edge was filled with Pollyfilla (we used both large cracks and skimmer type) then sanded back. OHHH the sanding. It surprises me how long finishes take. Longer than the bulk of putting something together, plus the additional costs for all the bits and pieces that go along with the DIY that add to the budget. But in the end the final work comes out looking pretty good.

There was the undercoat by Dulux called One Step then two coats of Dulux 101 Wash and Wear in "White on White". Its a neutral/cool white. There are SO MANY shades of white to choose from and it can be very daunting picking colours, even the simplest like white. It is SO BRIGHT, and I think it will really enlarge the small space of the apartment.


I know there was pleanty of other things that we needed to takle before we unpacked and decorated, but it feels good having a little glimps of what the finished renovations may look like. The shelves now stand out like a little oasis in the unit. The contrast with the existing paint to the new white is pretty extreme. It was hard to photograph as it is the darkest spot in the unit. We will be installing two spot lights above the shelves to brighten up the corner. Also, in the last image, check out the gross vermiculite, that part is the original grey that was in the closet, the rest of the vermiculite is painted white in the apartment. (Soon to be covered, our next big job.)