Food & Adventures

Thursday 20 July 2017

How one DIY job turned into a room makeover

I like to think I'm pretty good at DIY, nothing too adventurous but if there is a little job to be done I'm all over it. A while ago our toilet was damaged and we needed a new one, I decided replacing the toilet was too much for me so hired someone else to do it. However, after the new toilet was in it left a gap in the flooring around the toilet as the new one was a different shape to the old one. EASY! I thought, it's only lino. I can pick up a little bit of lino that matches and patch it up. But this one small job turned into a much bigger job, which then turned into several jobs, which then snowballed into a makeover of the whole room.


When I got to the local DIY Superstore there was a lino that matched ours, Huzzah! I thought this will be a doddle, however I had brought Mrs. Cool with me (that was my first mistake) and she noticed another lino with a wood design that she liked better than ours. If i'm honest I didn't like our old lino, it was already down when we moved in and had probably been there for years so I agreed that instead of patching up the old lino I would rip out a the old one and lay down the nice new one.


We also had a little damage to the bath panel so as we were looking around we decided to get a new bath panel. Oh! well, while I'm on I might as well re-do the sealant around the bath as it was a bit discoloured (what am I doing giving myself more work). On the way home Mrs Cool chirps up saying the towels, bath mat and shower curtain we have won't match the new floor. Great! more expenditure, We headed to another couple of shops to look at accessories. As well as the already agreed upon towels and bath mat etc we also ended up getting new storage baskets, a mirror, a candle, bin, toilet brush and a bath tidy! It was at this point that I realised Mrs. Cool was actually Carole Smillie and I had wandered into an episode of Changing Rooms.

Luckily (or unluckily however you want to look at it) our bathroom is quite small so the lino was surprisingly easy to change over, the old one came up really easily and I was able to use that as a rough template to cut the new one to size. I laid the new one down and used a stanley knife to cut it to fit around the fixtures. The bath panel was the hardest part, this as due to the shape of the bathroom I needed to cut a small section off the panel so that it would fit. But this was an excuse to get a new hack saw (all boys love using a saw right?).


Using white spirit I was able to remove the old sealant, I may have used too much white spirit as the fumes were a bit strong, I would suggest keeping the door and window open if you're planning on doing this to avoid getting lightheaded. Putting the new sealant down was a bit messy but I had the foresight to wear disposable rubber gloves so my hands didn't get covered.


That was all the big jobs done and all that was left was to put the accessories in place. The whole job only took a few hours (not including the time spent shopping for all the stuff, that took longer) and it only cost around £300 (including getting the new toilet fitted) which I think was bit of a bargain. I'm very happy with the finished room and more importantly Mrs. Cool was really pleased with how this project worked out.


Mrs. Cool did a little video tour of the new bathroom and you can see it here.



The problem I now have is that the bathroom is now putting the rest of our house to shame. We have plans to redesign our living room and we've already bought some a new coffee table and TV stand as well as some new art but we have more to do in the next few months.

Well, that's all for now.

S

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2 comments

  1. Nice work there Steve. Firstly you'll need a house party so we can inspect your handy work, but secondly... you've inspired me to do our bathroom too.

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