I have been wanting to get my hands on a proper DIY home project for forever. The problem was that for the last few years we've been renting and as you know most places won't even let you paint anything other than a nude colour while you're renting.
I've had my files with all my notes and designs for ages and Pinterest boards spilling over with every how-to or step-by-step guide for everything from walls to floors.
I'm so excited that I'll finally have the chance to get my gloves on and take on some home projects of my own! Hooooray!
The house is set on our new family farm which is on 5 hectares of land that stretches out onto the most amazing gardens. Our farm experience is complete with buck so its zoned properly as farm land.
That's the amazing thing about living in South Africa. You can have the city down the road from your modern farm living and get the best of both worlds!
I've always like crafts and DIY projects so naturally I'd be prone to that but there's also the incredible budget that you need for renovations which I do not have and DIY does offer a few less expensive options.
This is my first time in a home of my own so I was quite shocked by what home improvement jobs actually cost. As soon as you find a finish you'd like and the price doesn't look toooo bad, wait! You probably haven't added the installation, prepping, material, and delivery costs in.
I'm on a 'barely there' budget so I need to be super creative when it comes to the design and repurposing of my home.
I'm planning on taking on everything from painting, flooring, cabinets, decorating, building, and repurposing and cutting the expensive middle man out.
Another problem I came across while planning all my designs was that materials and supplies overseas seem to be much more affordable and the range of products are also more extensive.
I've gone to pretty much every hardware store and they either do not have the brand I'm looking for, or the price is much more than I've seen online, or the staff are not clued up on doing things the DIY way so the help or tips have been few and far between.
For example, when trying to find paint I could not find interior paint colours in 20l tubs that can be bought straight off the shelves. Everything has to be mixed and then some places only offered 5l cans of mixed paint which means that the paint price triples.
One place I do think I may have found a solution for paint is Chamberlain. They are able to mix colours from the Plascon colour range in Chamberlain house brand paint which gives you the result you want for a cheaper price.
Another little problem is that we only have 6 days to finish as much as we can before we have to be out of the old place and into the new one. Yikes! I would like to have all the major fixing done by then as well as have all our furniture in...it's a tall order!
Here are the major things I need to tackle:
- Painting the interior house
- Renovating all the floors (carpets in 3 bedrooms)
- Repurposing kitchen cupboards
What to remember here is that paint, primers, and sealers all have long curing times and require more than one coat. Floors also can't be walked on for a certain number of hours and usually need a day or two before furniture can be placed on it. Everything needs to be planned to a T!
Aside from that, there are also no bedroom doors and the door openings are not standard sizes so we'll have to have these made or DIY some cool barn doors which we'll be constructing ourselves.
Since it would be better to get all these major things done before we move in, I'm determined to give it a go.
I went to the house this week to do final measurements and see it empty and I'm so glad I did. There are always things you miss when you're viewing a place and you're excited about the prospect of making it your home. When you come back as the owner, you notice a lot more!
Luckily the old owners are so sweet so we got alot sorted out for when we need to move in. I've even promised to take extra special care of the pond lilies the wife planted and to share some with her this coming winter once they've grown in abundance :)
All the plastering, crack fixes, polyfiller jobs, and cleaning is being done over the next few days and then we start!
Ready, set, go!
M
x
Post a Comment