| This is a 'back-track', purely from memory, of how I felt, how I coped and what I achieved!
When I viewed my 'new' flat in the city, I could see hope and potential beyond the dreadful state of it. Dreadful seems a mild word to use, given the seemingly unavoidable neglect by previous tenants, but I felt reasonably confident that I could overcome the dirt, neglected decor and whatever else lurked therein to create a customised new home for myself.
I'm so glad that I took the time to photograph as many areas within it as possible, as I still find it hard to believe how it was then and how it was by the time I'd given it liberal doses of T.L.C., along with the hours of blood, sweat and tears!!!!!!!!
The kitchen, being the 'hub' of most homes, seemed a good place to begin and it certainly looked the worst. As I've mentioned in some of my Forum postings, my daughter gave me a loan of her steam cleaner to try and ease the removal of wallpaper, which faced me in every room. I started by simply finding a loose edge and pulling it away. I soon discovered that there wasn't just one layer on the kitchen walls, but the grand total of 5 layers! Previous tenants had obviously attempted to remove some of the earlier coverings, but given up and covered up with a new layer. This was what made it more difficult. I couldn't make much headway with the steamer beyond the top layer and even then, it was, at times, a real hard slog. I abandoned the attempt after about 10 days, as I was going on holiday and wanted to get the kitchen fairly much organised for my return afterwards. I did the gloss paintwork and laid the floorcovering, cleaned out the cupboards, etc., and put the gadgets and other essentials into their place before going away.
On my return, I started ripping off the bedroom paper, which was covered in bird droppings I hadn't noticed when I viewed the flat! Yuk! The radiator, which I intended to paint, also revealed some 'nasties' which needed removing, (with great difficulty), before cleaning and painting. On the whole, despite all this, the bedroom was fairly easy to 'strip' and redecorate.
I gave myself a bit of a breather, sometimes for several days at a time, between stripping, cleaning and painting.I just didn't have the energy; the spirit was keen, but the body was protesting strongly!
In between times, I started pulling away at the paper on the living room walls. Yet again, I discovered that there were another few layers below. This, being a spacious room, took a long time to complete, but, there was a bonus waiting for me at the very last layer, which revealed a beautiful anaglypta paper. I decided that this was one I would keep, as it would make a striking feature in the room. It had been painted a rather dark colour, so it took a few layers of white to cover it up. Oh, I forgot to mention the ceiling! It too, was a dark colour, so it also needed a few coats of white. - Phew, that was very tough going and it took a lot of grim determination to keep going. I had a colour in mind for the living room, but once I'd given it the few white coats, I decided it looked rather good, so left it all - white!
The bathroom, I'd intended to tackle earlier, but somehow it was left until later. It was covered with a vinyl tile effect paper which looked quite nice, until a closer inspection showed deep scratch marks, presumably from the birds which had previously resided there! So, off it had to come, though it wasn't as difficult as I'd expected. I left it about a week before I found the energy to start the wallpapering. I'd done the gloss paint-work sometime between attending to the other rooms. I just got so fed up looking at the uncovered bathroom walls one night, so I surprised myself and completed the papering in 3 hours! When I woke up next morning, I thought I must have just dreamt I'd done it, but no, I really had finished the bathroom! Then it was time for the hallway, which had been previously papered, but as it has so many doors,- (6) - leading from it,- I decided that there was no way I was even going to attempt wallpapering it and it too, became all white! That left the kitchen walls to finish! - A daunting prospect as all the appliances were in place, making it more difficult to access some parts. But, it had to be done, so I tackled it with a large car sponge and some warm water. It was very, very difficult. I don't know what type of paste had been used, but it was well stuck on to the walls! Anyway, eventually I managed it and quickly painted the walls in the colour of my choice. So now I have completed my decorating, but, all is not well, so there will be some more tales of the unexpected added here in the near future!
I have taken lots of photos throughout these few months of decorating, so hope to be able to upload them and the 'before' photos, somewhere, sometime!
I don't regret all the effort I put in to making my own mark on my new 'abode' and do have a feeling of pride and achievement as far as that is concerned. It's just a shame about 'the rest'.........., but that is another story, which I hope to tell when I know, or realise, which way it is going! |