Everything’s damp and nothing is square…

…aka the realities of life in an older house.

I can’t tell you how much I don’t want to be writing this post! I’d so much rather be doing another progress post showing all the pretty stuff we’re adding into the house. The good news – there has been progress. The bad news – it. just. keeps. stopping…because the aforementioned ‘realities’ (yes that’s a euphemism) keep getting in the way and requiring our time, attention, and money.

We knew the house wasn’t perfect when we bought it, and that it was going to be both older and colder than what we were used to (old house = little to no insulation) but we did get a building report before we went unconditional, and thought we were pretty in the clear as a result. And structurally, we are – the house is unlikely to fall down anytime soon, it doesn’t flood, and it is generally sound.

HOWEVER. What the building report didn’t pick up on is just how shoddily the people who lived there before us did – well, everything. I feel like maybe we should have noticed ourselves but furniture hides a multitude of sins. We have encountered something frustrating every step of the way, from the very first day when we walked around the house pulling random screws, and actual bolts, out of the walls and patching the holes they left – remnants of the former owners’ mirrors and art, which it seems they hung with whatever came to hand first rather than, you know, picture hooks. The whole place was painted a very unsympathetic bright white – the cheapest white in the store, I said to Hayden once we’d moved in – and once we started prepping for painting we realised that, in fact, it wasn’t paint at all but one thin coat of undercoat slapped on every surface, with apparently no sanding or other preparation ahead of time. It’s led to a Kafka-esque situation where painting now means stripping the existing undercoat off, sanding the walls back, cleaning them, then adding more undercoat – a bewildering state of affairs, but a necessary one considering we want our beautiful paint to stay put. Writing it out, it possibly sounds more frustrating than it is, if only because a) you have to laugh; and b) the undercoat comes off so easily that there’s something rather pleasing about it. Before we started the work, in certain places in our house, coughing too hard would lead to undercoat peeling off the walls, I swear.

Painting is proving a learning curve, and by curve I mean curve, because 50-odd years of settling, plaster and paint means that straight edges are not necessarily straight anymore – not a big deal where we’ve got lighter colours, but it’s pretty obvious where we’re painting the entry a dark green. The only solution, we think, is to do our best then go around at the end with a tiny brush and do all the little touch ups that these older walls need. As for dampness, we had a heat recovery and ventilation system installed fairly quickly after witnessing the condensation on the single-glazed windows – the system wasn’t cheap, per se, but considering the health benefits of living in a dryer, warmer house, it definitely will be worth it. As a bonus, they cut a hatch into our ceiling upstairs and we’ve discovered that we have heaps of room between the ceiling and the roof, and that there’s some insulation up there! We assumed there wasn’t as there was no hatch, but possibly it was replaced by a fixed panel at some stage. We also currently have some very powerful – like industrial level – fans and dehumidifiers roaring due to the (brand new) washing machine springing a leak which immediately poured through the ceiling of the first floor into the kitchen below. The washing machine lives in an alcove in the family bathroom, which has laminate on the floor – a decision from the previous owners that I was already side-eyeing, but especially so now we can see that there is no waterproofing under it. Hopefully it doesn’t buckle and we can make it work until we’re ready to re-do that bathroom properly (beyond the aesthetic refresh that it urgently needs, I mean).

So that’s where we are – spending far more money than anticipated on all sorts of ridiculous things, and with everything taking far longer than we anticipated. It’s frustrating but also, as I write that I’m aware that of course it’s costing more and taking longer – that’s just how home renovations work. I’ve seen enough home improvement television shows to know that! I’d much rather be spending our time and money on the pretty things, of course, and I do wish that the formers owners had treated the place with more care, but overall, the work we’re having to do is making the house a more pleasant place to live, and (as I keep saying, through only slightly gritted teeth) had it been perfect to start with, it wouldn’t have been in our price range. I’ve always been more interested in buying in the location we want, and compromising on the house – houses can be fixed and changed and improved, but location can’t be. And progress is happening! The next post about the house will show off our main bedroom and walk-in wardrobe – still not complete, but so much better than it was. For now, thanks for bearing with my gripes – it’s been a rough few weeks but we will soon be back on track!