Progress - Bedroom 1

November 2013

Bedroom 1 was the cleanest of all the rooms, having been cleaned and painted as a test run in the previous months by Rita and myself. And with this goes a funny story.

Given that I was doing some more house painting, I had to continue the FV tradition. The FV tradition started nearly 50 years ago, when my Dad went to hospital for a small operation. While he was away, my brother (Bernie) and I decided we would paint the kitchen for him, and enlisted the help of good friend Frank Vella to help us with the task. The kitchen walls had been painted many years previously with dark green semi-gloss paint, and later with cream semi-gloss paint (without having the walls properly cleaned of the accumulated kitchen grime). As a result, the cream paint had been peeling for years, assisted by us kids as we sat at the dinner table, trying to get the most imaginative shapes when peeling off the cream paint. We decided that we would need to sand back the cream and green paint layers to get a good base for the new flat grey paint. Frank had brought along an orbital sander and got to work on the walls. As a bit of fun, he started the job by sanding his initials, FV, onto the wall. We had a good laugh, and left them there as we got on with the rest of the job. However, less than an hour later, we got a phone call from the hospital saying that Dad had been released early and should be home within an hour or so. Panic! Less than an hour to go and a huge set of FV initials carved onto the wall. We didn't have time to sand the rest of the walls, so we just got on with painting the wall from which the initials stared out at us. One coat was not enough (the light-coloured initials stood out dramatically from the dark green background surrounds), so before it had dried we put on another coat just before Dad arrived home. Knowing what was under the new paint, we swore he would be able to see it. But he was so impressed with our industrious nature, including our apologies for not finishing the other walls, that he didn't see the initials or at least say anything about them. After we finished the rest of the kitchen over the next few days, including a third coat on the offending wall, we were pretty happy with ourselves. No one saw anything. At least not immediately. But over time, as the paint dried fully, the initials started to show though, until finally someone asked, at one of our Friday night post-squash parties, whether they were just imagining it or whether they could see Frank's initials appearing from the wall. We tried to keep a straight face, but eventually we cracked and admitted our little misfortune. Even Dad thought it was funny. The picture below is for Frank (and also for Dad and Bernie).

Since Bedroom 1 was the cleanest of all the rooms, it became a storage room for things too difficult to move elsewhere. For example, all the mattresses were stacked and wrapped in this room for the duration of the renovation.

March 2014

While much of the wiring on the 2nd Floor was functional, a re-arrangement of walls, doors and other fixtures meant that sometimes the existing wiring was just in the wrong place. For example, in Bedroom 1 light switches and power points had been positioned in relation to the existing position of the double bed. Since a new doorway was being introduced into Bedroom 1, the bed would have to be moved across and so also the switches and powerpoints. So the existing switches, power points and cabling were removed from the wall, and positions marked out for the new electricals.

This month also saw the installation of the suspended ceiling hangers in preparation for the new lowered ceiling. The large hole in the wall above the suspended ceiling is for VMC ductwork to be connected to the VMC unit in the Attic.

April 2014

To allow all the B&B bedrooms to open from the smaller foyer area, the entry doors had to be re-arranged. The entry to Bedrooms 1 and 3 will now come from an alcove off the side of the Foyer, and this required the construction of the alcove area as shown in the photo at left below. This alcove arrangement is repeated on the other side of the Foyer, with Bedrooms 2 and 4 opening off a small alcove.

May 2014

With the new entrance to Bedroom 1 now in place, the arrangement of the new switches and powerpoints beside the head of the bed makes more sense. As in all the new bedrooms, the bedside controls will be linked into the new domotique system, such that all lights and heating can be controlled from the bed (as well as from other places in the house).

June 2014

June saw lots of action on the 1st Floor as the plasterers moved down from the floor above. The suspended ceiling frames were covered with plasterboard in Bedroom 1, ready for the finishing touches.

August 2014

Bedroom 1 is nearly ready for occupation. A double bed and some furniture will be moved in for band members, and then all moved out again after they leave, for the final painting and for skirting boards to be installed. The new doorway off the landing alcove is clearly seen here, with the custom-made door to match the old doors.