The Painting

Hello! We survived! Here’s how the rest of the painting adventure went:

The priming was definitely one of the most time consuming jobs imaginable. The house was so old that we needed to make sure that all our hard work wasn’t for nothing and so we primed all the trim, any vj panels that had been sanded down to bare wood, and the first coat of the ceiling. It took a ridiculously long time (actually, so long that Mr Fox suggested he really liked the primer colour and maybe one coat of primer was all the place needed. And I agreed). 

Priming Complete

Once that was done we really started steaming ahead (ahem, in comparison to the previous few days). The time spent priming the architraves and ceiling paid off when we just needed one coat of white to make the ceilings look spectacular. It's a bit hard to see in this photo because we finished this job LATE at night, but trust me, our ceilings look hot.

Ceiling Done!

And then, we finally, FINALLY got to crack open the main event: our wall colour. Now, the colour was chosen quite quickly, but the decision followed many conversations about the right shade of neutral. The guys at Resene straight away pointed out the shades of Resene Tea, and it was exactly what we wanted. We got a test pot of the Half Tea, and straight away decided on the Quarter Tea. It’s a fresh shade that isn’t too grey or too brown or too close to white or too anything. We wanted something that wouldn’t make it feel too hot in winter, and definitely wouldn’t clash with the collection of neutral tone furniture we have. As soon as we started cutting in the walls with it, we were so happy with how it looked. Two coats later and the rooms were really looking good. The final touch was the enamel white for the trim which really transformed the windows and especially the pelmets which were previously a delightful brown (vomit). The final touch (and best in my opinion, since it took me eight hours to complete on Friday night) was the skirting boards. Changing them from dirty pink to shiny white really made the room look amazing. It was totally worth the back ache I had the next day! Here's a before and after to show the difference:

Before

After! So happy with the final look.

With the removalists arriving the next morning, I’m sad to say we didn’t really get to finish the painting. So basically, we didn't really get close. The doorways didn’t get any paint, and there are a few areas that need a touch up and now will have to wait a couple of weeks while we work on getting the house unpacked. On a positive note, our removalists were AMAZING! One was a kiwi, and once he and Mr Fox got through the obligatory process of “where you from back home, bro?” “do you know - insert name - ?” The bro- per-minute” rate was out of control and they absolutely smashed out the packing. As you can see with some furniture it's really starting to look more like a home and less like an abandoned slum, so happy days bro!

With some furniture (and unpainted entry in the background!)

We also got the results from our asbestos testing this week….positive. Sigh. We really need to remove some kitchen cupboards so our fridge can actually sit against the wall and to do that we’ll need professionals to manage the asbestos. Since it’s already quite a lot of work, we think it’s probably best to just remove all the asbestos in the kitchen at once, along with the kitchen. So, in addition to unpacking our three gazillion moving boxes, finishing up the painting and all the other adventures that come with moving (new phone line, getting internet, redirecting mail; all the fun jobs) we’re now planning a kitchen renovation. To be continued.

It’s so incredibly good to finally be living in our own house!!