Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Day 2 to Day 7


After a week of demolishing and deconstructing we are all seasoned recyclers and salvagers of timber in all shapes and sizes. While dad did the heavy duty demolishing work, 'Muscles' carted the rubble to the bonfire and the salvageable skirting boards, doors and window frames were piled high for the sensible women of the family to sort through. 


I'll need to gather together the BEFORE shots and add them here with these DURING shots...

the kitchen is no more

future mudroom and entrance to my bathroom

future non existent wall (if Mum gets her open plan design)


First task is removing all the nails (pointy end first for some strange reason) because when these boards are sanded back it would be a bit uncomfortable if one of them got caught in the machinery...  and we have to do our bit to make sure they look even more authentically pre-loved.  We did this by putting more holes, dings and scratches in them than there were before. But the nails are out!  And the palms of our hand are bruised and battered despite the PPE we are strictly enforced to wear; gloves, dust masks, goggles. Check. Check. check. 

Some nails just don't want to leave their snug little homes and would rather snap off, sending our hands crashing into a sharp edge and leaving their little heads buried in the board. Frustrating. Not to worry, when we get hold of a nail punch next week we will have our revenge on these most stubborn of nails.

A stubborn nail ~ BEFORE

AFTER ~ yeah, the little b#$%*!  is out!

All this effort will surely be worth it when our cottage is restored with its original, wide (and very-expensive-when-bought-new) skirting boards, and its vintage window frames... still, we have yet to strip away the many layers of paint before we can really restore the timber to its rightful place. And that is no small task.  

It will have to wait till next weekend. As you can see, this is exhausting



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