Little steps forward

The big steps forward forced by Roscoe’s parents’ visit have led to renewed vigour for home improvement. Every day I manage to get another little job on its way, and it feels good!

I found some wide skirting board in a DIY shop in Rome – almost all are 7-8cm in Italy, so I was really pleased to find some in the older style which I prefer. I bought it unstained and used the stain which the carpenter had used for our windows. These hot dry days are ideal for painting on the roof terrace – well, ideal for drying, if not for the painter! I bought a kind of box saw for cutting at 45° and so far I’ve used the skirting to make the architrave in our bedroom – a job which everyone said I’d need a carpenter to do. It looks quite good. I’ll continue with more architraves and skirting when the wall painting is finished. We may have to compromise on narrower wood for the skirting, as the wide stuff is twice as costly.

I stained a cheap pine table while I was at it, and then waxed it with coloured beeswax and it’s really rather nice now. That’ll eventually go in the kitchen, but for now we’re taking advantage of it on the terrace for dinners up there.

Pleased with the finish of the table, I did the same with an old piece of packing wood to make a hall shelf for keys and things. I rather like that it’s a bit irregular and has some old nail holes.

Our terrace “sail” has gone up – this is a triangular sheet with karabiners attaching it to the external rail. We can move it around as the sun moves.

Our wardrobe – or lack thereof – has long been a frustration to me (though Roscoe seems quite content to use the floor). As I probably mentioned in earlier posts, Roscoe isn’t good at shutting wardrobe doors, and there’s nothing I find more frustrating. So the hunt was for an open wardrobe of some kind. I found a rail – normally for halls – in Ikea, and combined this with a simple shoe rail (which I also stained to make it match our wood colours). Along with some hooks on the wall and some clothes “bins” for Roscoe, it’s quite practical and pretty. Now I just have to save up for a big dresser – we’ve got loads of household towels and bedding on top of our clothes and desperately need somewhere to keep them tidy.

The walls are looking livelier thanks to a productive Saturday. Some basic pine frames (yet again, stained by me with our ubiquitous walnut shade) mingle with bright scarlet ones to show off before-and-after photos – it makes us remember just how far we’ve come! Then, in the echoey lounge I wanted some fabrics. The windows have shutters so don’t need curtains, and the floor tiles are too pretty for carpets. A neat solution came in three wooden frames that I covered in bold African fabric (a present from Roscoe’s parents). The frames (thanks again to Ikea) are big and square and deep and have drawn a few nice comments already.

I found a neat gadget in Lidl to hang my wine glasses upside down from the kitchen shelf. It’s nice to get the cardboard boxes out of the kitchen.

Our main bathroom has finally started moving forward again. Above the sink, I needed to plasterboard in a false ceiling in which to insert a halogen light (they need clearance above the fitting – so not good for solid ceilings like ours). Fearing problems with moisture, I painted the pieces of plasterboard many times with fixative. I’ve never used plasterboard before and it’s probably not the best job in the world, but it sure makes me happy to see the final shape of the room. I guess we’ll see how neat it turns out after plastering (I’m not attempting this myself, but waiting for a chap to come next week!).

Meanwhile I’ve still got to replace the tile that got broken off to fix tap problems. This means detaching the taps, so the sink is out of order for the duration. And then there’s still the question of the undersink unit. Latest thinking is to DIY it, using wooden shelves covered in tiles. I suspect it won’t be easy. And then, finally we can paint the bathroom, then the architrave and get the mirrors put up around the sink niche. Oh, I can’t wait to have it finished.

The basement bedroom with its big antique bed hasn’t been used since we got the kitten, as the room doesn’t have a door (think how surprised you’d be if a playful kitten suddenly pounced on your toes in the middle of the night). But we’re having visitors soon, so we’ll have to face the question of doors once more. We had managed to find the perfect solution – an old door, frame and all, from a dealer for €200. We got it all the way back on the roofrack only to discover it opens the wrong way. Doh! (I’d checked that the left to right bit was right, but it was nailed shut for transport and I didn’t click that it swung inward rather than outward. Didn’t I feel stupid!) I hoping the dealer will take an exchange.

Meanwhile I got another door from a house that was being knocked down nearby. It’s in terrible condition, full of nails, spiders and woodworm, with whole bits missing. We’ll see. It might end up going back to be demolished, or it might work for a while. At least the style is right – it’s exactly the same as those from our house (and, ironically, in rather worse condition than our house’s old doors that Roscoe chucked out at the start).

Continuing the theme of weird and wonderful old bits, I bought an interesting old unit on Ebay. It used to house a record player and records, but I want to use it for clothes and jewellery. It’s a rather fab piece, with a bit of curiosity about it. I’ve been replacing the missing shelves and handles to make it practical once more.

And last but not least, the best job I completed recently was in the cantina – the room of the basement that we’ve kept as a storage space. This is a rough, low-ceilinged concrete room housing the boiler and all our building junk – a surprising amount by now! It had so much thrown into it that it was impossible to move. And I wanted to move the junk from the little spare room in there. The only solution was shelves and many of them. I got wonderfully strong, simple, cheap aluminium shelves from Ikea – Hyllis for €8.99 a piece – thoroughly recommend them. But how could I put my many shelf units on an uneven cement floor? Luckily our kind neighbours lent us a pneumatic drill and I had fun learning how to use it. The cantina is now much more accessible! While I was at it, I drilled out the broken floor on the landing going down to the basement (after having twisted my ankle on it a couple of times!), and have now to tile this.