Decorating 2

First thing this morning, I rang the hire firm and extended our hire of the steam stripper. It looks like we are going to need it for three or four days extra, unfortunately. They were very casual about it - they asked my name and then simply said 'okay, leave it with me'. Hopefully they have actually recorded the fact I rang!

After that, I went to the house to get on with the next stage. The neighbour is also decorating and happened to be working around her front window when I arrived, so we exchanged cheery waves.

Once inside, I did the easy bit first - I moved the living room furniture that has been left behind by the previous owners to one end of the room and covered it with old sheets. I intended to strip as much of this room as possible today, then move the furniture to the opposite end of the room and strip the other end tomorrow morning. More on that later; for the moment, I just moved everything and covered it to protect it from dust and damp.

After that, I went upstairs and cleared the debris off the floor of the bedroom I stripped the other day. There is still some more stripping to do, but I really needed a clearer workspace. It certainly needed it!

I filled five black bin bags with the rubbish.

Then I hoovered the tiny bits off the floor. I have a Dyson, so I had brought it with me to do a thorough job of hoovering. Even so, I hoovered, then put the stair cleaning nozzle on the end, got down on my hands and knees and did the whole floor a second time. For the moment, although the wall still needs some attention, the floor is clear and clean again.

The other bedroom will need to be stripped too. There is a fair bit of furniture in there too, so I moved the chest of drawers and the bedside cabinet out of the room. They need new handles as the current ones are plastic and broken, but when these have been replaced, and the drawer interiors cleaned, they will fit nicely inside one of the huge cupboards in the front bedroom. I hoovered the cupboards out too, ready for carpeting later.

These tasks took less time than I had anticipated, so I filled the steam stripper and turned it on to heat up. Meanwhile, I examined the wallpaper in the living room, to see where I needed to start and determine whether or not it was going to be as difficult as the bedroom had been. Thankfully, I appeared it was just the one layer. But I also realised something else, which proved to be a great time saver. The paper has been been painted in emulsion, but it seems it is nothing more than a decent quality lining paper and has been stuck to the wall horizontally. Provided there are no areas that are damaged - there was already one area, next to the chimney breast that I was aware of - I can simply leave it in place and paper over it. This was a real relief, as it means a LOT less work. I stripped the damaged part and then left the rest. And the second bedroom still needs doing!

By the time I had done all that, it was almost lunch time, so I went home to eat and give my neglected pooch some company. OH came home shortly after me and swapped cars as he had a 'transport' to do - he is a volunteer driver for the Red Cross, so he delivers people to appointments when they don't qualify for an ambulance to take them - NHS cutbacks and all that. Anyway, he set off and I decided to visit a local DIY store to get some bits and pieces - such as some lining paper and some decorators' caulk, to fill gaps around the skirting and the windows. I also got the paint for the kitchen walls and the paper that is going to be a feature in the bedrooms - one for each room. It will go on one wall only; the rest will be covered with a blown vinyl and painted an appropriate colour.

The plan had been to take the purchases to the house, but I realised I had left the keys to the front door in the other car. I would have to wait until OH got home!