renovations: day one

After having some dramas with our tenant leaving (we just about had to pack all his shit for him, then the removalists cancelled, so we ended up dropping most of his stuff off ourselves), we finally got into the unit today to do some work.  I think we had a pretty good first day – we remembered everything we needed to, and we got some stuff done!  I even remembered to take the camera, so we’d have pictorial evidence.

SO removing the kitchen splashback tiles:

The bedroom ceiling, after we’d scraped off about half of the loose bits that were coming off.  Holy leprosy, Batman!

Note the oh-so-classy light fitting, which is missing the glass bit.  Only one of the four lights in the unit is complete, the rest are like the picture above.  This isn’t actually an issue, as the complete light fitting is so hideous, it’s uglier than a naked globe.  I was eyeing it with distaste today, and made a mental note that we’d need to get decent lights installed in the property.

We did have a brush with the realities of renovation which somewhat dimmed our first-day euphoria.  When SO opened the kitchen cupboard containing the hot water system, he took a big step backward and said in a strangled voice, ‘It’s infested with cockroaches’.  Sure enough, there were thousands of the little German roaches running around inside the cupboards.  For about fifteen minutes afterwards, the air was filled with curses and residual spray.  I hate to think how bad it’ll be when we actually remove the cupboard carcass.

Still, all in all, a sucessful and productive first day.  Let’s hope it continues!