It was not without mistakes though so hopefully this helps someone else about to do the same thing…

• Get Masks – On Monday we did alot of carpet lifting and the dust and other rubbish that got thrown into the air was positively disgusting. However at the time we didn’t really notice. The next day however, I woke with and a headache and coughing. Not that bad but can easily be avoided!
• Get Good Gloves – Again, for carpet lifting. You’ll find with older houses that the carpets tend to be tacked down all the way around the room… And well that resulted in about very sore hands for me. My hands are covered in about 20 little cuts that are irritating to say the least. The gloves also help to keep your hands clean – an unappreciated benefit until you find out that some of the taps don’t technically… work.
• Get some Tools – This one I mostly had covered. A good hammer, chisel, crowbar and sledgehammer will get you out of most fixes. I also had hired a nice big steamer to take the wallpaper off the walls so that helped immensely. In fact, I would not have been able to do all the rooms without it. Forget all the other magic wallpaper removal techniques – Get a Steamer. Another tool that I can recommend is an angle grinder as there are many times when you’ll find it handy. I did, when I was trying to take the skirting boards off the walls without removing the radiators.

However the thing that helped the most? Getting Help!

Get Friends, Get Family, Get Help.

Luckily, I was helped in most of the jobs around the house by members of both families and friends that showed up to lend a hand. A few in particular were invaluable and I cant thank them enough. They were a great help in the early stages and enabled us to get rid of the skip out the front quickly as we were able to do all the big jobs quickly and mostly easier with more hands. One thing I can recomend is getting a few friends around early, with the lure of a couple of free drinks down the local. Everyone works like a trojan for half the day and then its off the pub for the match and a food and drink. That way you get maximum productivity and maximum time off! There’s nothing worse then knowing that there’s a good match on and your pulling out wardrobes on your own. Plus it’ll end up cheaper in the long run.

So, what’s on the agenda for next week? Well, we have a few builders lined up to come around and talk about extensions and our options. A friend who’s doing the electrics is also due, and a couple of other tradesmen are coming out to give us quotes and the like. Let’s hope its nice and cheap!