The Bell Family

G’day all

For those who have visited our house recently, you will have noticed some changes to the look of the house inside compared to when we first bought it.

One of the first major renovations we completed inside our house was the refurbishment of the master bedroom. For those who haven’t visited our house, the walls were made out of that lami-panel timber and were accompanied by lino on the floor.

As can be seen from the above picture, the room was quite dark and felt cramped.

I started the renovation firstly, by sanding back the lami-panel to remove all of the bumps in the hope that I could paint directly over it. Unfortunately, due to the think thickness of the lami-panel, as soon as anyone lent on the walls, the paint would crack across the seams. It was then decided that I would remove all of the timber and plasterboard the room.

It was quite funny, that during the master bedroom renovation, the first installment of the TV show ‘The Block’ was on and it was ironic that I could relate to the show in some parts. Though it did give me some inspiration to complete the reno and to have it all looking great.

As with all renovations, I must admit that I learnt a lot of things about how to do things properly. With some help from my Mum and Christine’s Parents, I was able to do most of it myself, this included gyprocking, cornices, plastering and painting.

Because the old lami-panel was about 3mm think and the plasterboard was 10mm thick, I had to replace the door jam, window sills, architraves skirting boards and various other timber work. We bought Meranti timber and stained it ourselves.

Like all renovations, one thing it did enable me to do, was to buy tools I was able to purchase a drop saw which has proved invaluable, as it enabled me to cut the timber at various angles to suit each job.

The only things that we brought in outside help for were the laying of new carpet and installation of down-lights (though I did help with these).

As you can see from the above photo, the light colours, downlights and new timber give the bedroom some warmth and have really improved the look and feel of the room, not only adding value to the house, but modernising the look.

Well, as you can imagine, more renovations have been conducted and completed throughout the house and I hope to show off some more of the work we have done around the house soon.

Until then, keep visiting and let me know what you think of the changes.

Cheers,
Jason.