DIY Project Diary – Week 1

Three month ago and three months late we finally moved into our house. We wanted to be in by October so that the refurbishment could be finished by x-mas. After many months of negotiations and legal hassles we exchanged contracts and moved house on the very same day… It was really stressful. But it was only just the beginning..

The previous owners took all the fittings, including the light bulbs & even the light fittings so we couldn’t see anything. We decided that we’d better stay the first night in a hotel nearby. The next day we discovered that kitchen and sitting room ceilings were ruined by a leak from the above bathroom, whilst the bathroom ceiling was ruined by a leak from an overflow in the water tank. The water tank for the central heating was overflowing into the garden, the boiler was not functioning properly. The cable TV box & sockets were brutally ripped out from the walls. And the general state of the place was just dreadful – filthy carpets, even more filthy kitchen cupboards and so on I felt depressed. I just couldn’t believe how anyone could do this to a place that, until the previous day, they had called “home”.

Anyway, I had been redesigning the house since we decided to buy it. I had big plans for this house and was ready to start. Being a designer, I was confident that within 3 months I could turn this house into a trendy home that could be featured in Elle Deco. We wanted to do most of it ourselves but we also needed some skilled help.

So we started phoning some builders. Some were already on holiday, others had an answering machine on, but never called us back. Others made an appointment to come out to look at the work to be done and give us an estimate – but didn’t turn up. They didn’t even bother to phone to say that they’re not coming. 3 out of 5 who did manage to turn up still haven’t sent us a written estimate. The other two only sent their estimate in writing after we called them several times to urge them. We chose the cheaper one and agreed that they’d start at the beginning of February. We would commission them stage-by stage and see how we get on…

In the mean time, of course, 3 weeks already passed by and my timescale of getting things done within “3 months” flew out of the window… I therefore started to worry about my home improvement project. Perhaps I just want too much too quickly? Perhaps we should jus redecorate rather than revamp the place? After all, the building is only 3 years old! We’ve met the neighbours, who are very nice, but they are astonished that we bought a new house and want to modernise it. They wonder why we didn’t buy an old house that needs doing up. I’ll write next week about the reasons why we didn’t buy a house needing modernisation.

The main thing is that our house is in a state of complete chaos – boxes are everywhere. Most of our sentences start with “where is..?” We can’t unpack anything as there is no storage in this damn place. Whoever designed this house 5 or so years ago, should be ashamed of him/herself. How can an architect design a modern home and not think of storage? Particularly in this age of consumerism… Where did the previous woman of the house keep her clothes???? They had no extra wardrobe and the 60cm wide built- in-wardrobe is big enough for 5 shirts maximum. I’m no fashion victim, but a girl needs some clothes! Also, what about books? I don’t think they had any – well, no wonder they didn’t have any bookshelves either.

By the way, we have to sleep on the floor on army mattresses – our king size mattress would not go up the staircase nor through the bedroom window.( it has wooden slats).