FIRST THINGS FIRST - the kitchen sink closet

The kitchen sink-closet needs a second repair job already, although I did try to fix it around a year ago. The closet was home assembled by my father at some point during the 22 years which I spent in Australia. Across a few weeks the closet began to slowly part from the wall it was attached to and stick out into the kitchen at the top - making it difficult to get between it and the table in order to reach the pantry...

I grabbed a tube of home repair glue and managed to glue the closet to a strip of 'something' that was stuck on the wall – until the strip that was attached to the wall came away from the wall, that sufficed. Currently, we have the same problem as we had last year – as the strip is peeling away from the wall in much the same manner as the closet did before. Rather than buy - then use-  another tube of glue to stick the strip to the wall, I plan on using some housekeeping money for a new closet. 

This will however have to wait a little while – as I have a few more projects in mind first. I will post pictures of the new closet when I do get around to buying one – probably in around 3 months time. For now, here are some pictures of what has been done so far. 

FIRST THINGS FIRST - the bed

I used several non-bed items as a bed during my teenage years. It was my own choice, I was offered a new bed. I preferred a mattress on the floor, garden lounger with doona on top, and then to act carpenter and make my own bed from a pile of wood.

I worked out the surface size and ordered a piece of hardboard with wooden boards to go under it. I also allowed for legs – and a bit spare. When the wood came, several nails, one hammer, a saw, a pencil and some weird noises occurred and I ended up with a 5-legged bed. I used the fifth leg to support the 4 wobbly legs - as extra security...

 

After a time, I preferred a mattress on the floor again, so used my bed as a giant table – and began doodling all over it. A lot of hippie cartoon style doodles and the names of favored friends appeared. That is how it was left when I migrated to Australia. On my return, I had to use it as my bed again – mainly because there was no other space to place a mattress!

Currently, I have taken off the legs and placed them flat on the floor below the sticking out nails that once held them in place. I was using it as a five legged bed - until one morning when I sat up in bed 2 of the legs collapsed under me. Since then, I decided a low-to-floor bed to be preferable to banging the legs back on and risking it collapsing during the night.

A thin small mattress lies under a proper single bed one. I was used to a double bed in Australia – but having to move a bedroom, study, and Yoga room into the space of one bedroom I do not have room for a larger bed even if I wanted one, here. It does – I sleep....

FIRST THINGS FIRST - bedding

New bedding was a must for me as I could not feel at home in 'my' room using bedding I had wanted in my childhood and teens. I am now in my mid forties and my tastes have definitely changed. Whereas once I delighted in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang bedspreads and Pierrot doona covers, my current taste ran more into plain colors - predominantly black.

 

I purchased 3 doona covers - white with black trim, black with silver trim, black and purple satin. These each came with a single pillowslip, necessitating the purchase of a pair of black and white pillowslips and a white pillowslip. As for undersheets, I already had 2 brown ones - so I simply bought a new black fitted sheet to complete my 3 sets of bedding - as I do not currently use a top sheet.

There were two more purchases needed – a brown throw rug and brown sitters blanket to top my bed with and a feather pillow. I prefer not to use animal products if possible, but have yet to find a 'fake' pillow filling that allows me a good allergy-free nights sleep. I was waking up with a hot head and red face using the artificially filled pillow that I had been given – which now has become my reading/second pillow.

I now have satisfactory bedding and feel 'at home' in my own bed, if not the entire room! Talking of which – the bed itself is totally unique – more about that in another post!

FIRST THINGS FIRST - the first shower

The bathroom taps have changed since I arrived in December 2009. As I re-encountered the bath, I recalled that Dad does not have a shower. I had been used to a piping hot shower every 1-2 days – but now had to make do with crouching in the bathtub and using a large sized coffee plunger jug to pour water over me – filling it up and turning on/off the taps as I went.

Once my son arrived, a year after I did, he too was used to a daily shower. He was not too happy to hear he could either have a half filled bath or use a coffee jug to pour water over himself – and it was not long before I explained to Dad that WE both wanted a shower and that the next thing I was going to spend my housekeeping money on would be a makeshift shower.

Initially I looked into buying a shampoo hose – but the taps were the wrong shape – so I called a plumber who gave a quote on installing new taps with a makeshift shower fixture.

I hired the plumber to install the makeshift shower, which included removing the old taps and installing a mixer tap over the bath. This was much better than the previous taps anyway. It was not long before I mastered the art of the new shower – use the old coffee plunger jug to fill with water from the hot tap as it began to run warm and dip in the soap to lather and soap up – then change to the taps and shower fixture to rinse off.  

The difference was quite dramatic. I am currently in the process of even more drastic measures involving bathroom improvements, but...

FIRST THINGS FIRST – my room

So, what has been done so far, since I returned in December 2009? Well, when I first arrived back in the country, this is how my 'room' looked.

As you can see by the above photo, taken within days of my return, I had a lot of work to do before I could call it my 'room' – it had been turned into a cross between a janitor's closet and a museum storage room. Old mops, spider-web brushes, boxes of my parents' junk, etc all lay in my living space.

Initially there was no room to move anything large. I could not organize the furniture as I chose, see what bits of my past remained in the blocked in closet, or do little more than use the bed and live from inside my 2.5 suitcases that had come with me from my former 3-bedroom home in Australia.

As a teen, I had decorated this room – the carpet, walls, doors, were painted much as they are in the above photo – but my lovely black ceiling had been repainted and the avocado green windowsill had become grass green. I will not bother at all with the greens in the color scheme when repainting – but I would have been happy to have retained my black ceiling until I can afford to decorate it once again. However, before repainting my room, there was much more to be done. 

The room morphed into being livable in within a few weeks –  

 

but until a spot of spring cleaning and then a computer purchase, 

I could still not place the furniture where I chose.

Currently, the furniture is where it will remain until replaced. Here is a basic floor plan of the current layout.    

INTRODUCTION

I spent more than 2 decades living in Australia before returning to my childhood home in England in order to become not only a daughter, but also a carer, cleaner, cook, gardener, nurse, secretary, shopper, wheelchair chauffeur, - and numerous other necessities for my aged father. His home has never been 'my' home, but I began to make a few minor changes to the house under the role of housekeeper with further ideas and plans forming.

In the future, this house should become my inheritance and whether I stay on, rent out, or sell up - or Dad himself sells if he chooses to move into a home rather than continuing to live on here - it will need much attention as it has been much neglected over the past 10 years.

As current owner, I have also begun to investigate some of the piles of dusty junk left behind in what was once my childhood/teenage bedroom – some of which were once my own treasured possessions, but most of which is now unwanted garbage. Some of these items may be worth enough to consider selling rather than tossing them all out, though.

Over the next 5-10 years there will be a lot of renovating, redecorating, restyling, and, when/if I inherit, sorting out of the house's other piles of dusty 'stuff' to distinguish treasures from junk. (My room is currently the neatest and emptiest.) Hopefully, at the end of this time, the 'dump' will be a pleasure to live in if not a perfected 'palace'...

I decided to document the various stages in a blog, not only for those interested in DIY and styling to enjoy reading, but also to encourage me to stick with it. I am not an expert at renovating, fairly inexperienced with decorating, good with ideas but unique and eccentric in my idea of style, and have no idea how much of the dust-ridden junk will be antique treasures rather than total garbage.

I will step into the adventure ahead by describing a few minor changes and small purchases that have occurred over the past year, as I am ready to begin the larger renovations when a roll of lino arrives next week...