DIY

We’ve just had a long weekend in New Zealand, or Bank Holiday if you prefer, and for the first time in a long while we actually did some DIY. How long? Well at least six years, probably longer as our home in the UK was fully DIY’d. Well nearly. There was one room that we never got around to painting but as it was the spare guest room - it’s embarrassing to admit that we had a five bedroom house - it never seemed to warrant the effort to get rid of the bluey-purple shade that the previous owner had bestowed upon the walls.

And so, as home owners in two hemispheres, the long weekend meant that we needed to partake in the national pastime of life laundry. Or so a friend of ours reliably informed us. To be honest, I'm still not sure she was telling the truth and suspect that, jealous of our plans to head to the beach, somehow managed to convince us that we we really wanted to do was to get some home improvements done. So, even though the forecast was for a glorious spring weekend with temperatures in the low twenties, we caved to peer pressure and found ourselves in the DIY superstore choosing paint and other related products so we could tidy up our deck. The beach would just have to wait. Oh, how times have changed.

Actually, DIY has played an important part in our life as homeowners. Sure we enjoyed the end results, but it was the journey that really mattered. Think I’m overplaying it? Well let me take you back to the heady days of the early nineties as a small town kid and city girl bought their first house…..

14 Granby Place, Leeds 6, was the place to be. Well it was if you were buying your first house on a council wage. Not that we were complaining - it was the perfect location for us. Headingley had a great little shopping centre and was only a ‘short’ walk from the city centre. It had two local cinemas within easy reach and two great pubs a leisurely stroll from our front door. Oddly, they never seemed quite as close on the way back.

Bought for around £40,000 it was a modest affair, so modest that it lead to one of our friends asking when they were going to finish the rest of it! Cheeky bleeder. Despite the lack of space, we loved it. It was what was known as a back-to-back house. Typically these were built as terraces and only had a front aspect, the rear of the house being identical to the front and belonging to someone else. Except ours backed onto the grounds of the British Legion and therefore didn’t have a back property. A blind back-to-back so to speak. Confused? Well try this Wikipedia page for help.

Our first house - just before we sold it

Where was I? Oh yes, DIY. Well as the previous owner of our property had some really random thoughts on internal design - gloss painted kitchen counters being one that springs to mind - we needed to do a lot of work to bring it up to standard. With only five rooms it wasn’t a huge undertaking but there were two fairly signifiant obstacles that stood in the way. Money and skills. Both were sadly lacking in equal measure. 

Fortunately for us, we had some friends who were very keen to try this DIY lark and were all too happy to give up weekends to travel a couple of hours south from the north-east to the metropolis of Leeds, on the strict understanding that we fed them KFC and/or pizza. Oh, and provided liquid refreshments. It was a pretty sweet deal and, it has to be said, enormous fun. A great excuse to have some mates down for the weekend to have the craic and some beers - providing the second and last coat of paint was done before Sunday night and the house returned to something approaching normality. 

Usually we managed this - even if it meant putting ornaments back onto freshly glossed shelving. Well, who would notice and what were the chances of us ever wanting to rearrange stuff anyway? Exactly. Besides, we needed to get the post decorating photos done before they returned to the north-east. It did lead to some pretty late nights but schedules were schedules. 

I did have a moment of doubt when it was time to tackle the kitchen and it seemed like a big ask to get it done in a single weekend. Like the rest of the house, the kitchen was small. So small in fact, that we managed to get it all of the new units into the back of a Ford Escort and transport it from Ikea safely along the M62 motorway. Sure, the steering was a little light making cornering tricky and the brakes weren’t all that effective, but we got it home. 

The next Friday night, right on cue, the team arrived and set about tearing the old kitchen out. It was an impressive sight. Bits of wood were flying out the front door as the old units were demolished. Quite how we managed it without anyone getting a lump of plywood in their eye is a miracle. Almost as much of a miracle as how we got three adults into a room the area of a small coffee table.

Wisely, my partner had decided to relocate to Liverpool for the weekend to let us get on with it. We certainly learnt some new skills that weekend. For example plumbing, electrics and how it was really important to finish any tricky tasks before you start drinking. One minor flooding event aside, caused by the wrong pipe being capped off before the water was turned back on, the kitchen was completed in the allotted timeframe. Well it would’ve been had we not misplaced a brass olive compression washer so couldn’t finish the final pieces of plumbing. It had gone 9pm and the shops shut several hours ago so it would have to wait. Never mind, there was always next weekend and another excuse for a night out in Leeds 6.

The dedication shown by my friends to our little property still fills me with joy. Nothing was too much trouble. One one occasion, one of the team was due to fly out to South America a few days later on a working holiday. What better way to mark the occasion than cleaning out and white-washing the walls of a cellar - or sótano if you prefer. 

The main bedroom before....

...and after

I like to think that being one of the first of the group to own a property, that the walls and ceilings of our little Headingley home were a training ground for their future endeavours in home improvements. Certainly the plastering in the cellar steps would bear this out. It was even too rough to call it rustic and I was so glad that it was in the cellar and not needed anywhere else in the house.

As we moved from house to house, the decorating and home improvement services continued but we never took it for granted and looked to return the favour whenever we could. I do rather suspect though that our skills we more of a hindrance than help but hopefully it was the thought that counts! 

Now we’re property owners in New Zealand we are going to have to spend some time on DIY but we're hoping this is limited to the odd splash of paint here and there and nothing major is needed. We hope not, firstly for the inconvenience of it all but also because our tools are all in a friends garage in the UK. There's no way we're buying a second set. Besides, the offer still stands. Should we find ourselves in need of DIY assistance we’re happy to accept help. Although I think it’ll take more than a few pizzas and beers to get the gang this far south!

The deck after a day spent sanding and painting