Our not so little renovation project

I think it would be fair to say that even the seasoned renovator could be slightly overwhelmed by the task we had in front of us. Before we started any renovating, we had to change the locks and ensure the property was safe and weatherproof, as most of the exterior doors were in a poor state either by weather damage, or aged due to lack of maintenance and neglect.

The upstairs laundry door was the most damaged and as this was no longer a room and also had access to the small and unsafe top second floor balcony we decided to simply board it up for the mean time to ensure no further weather could enter the home.

The removal of carpet came next and luckily for us the lounge room was the only room with carpet but unluckily the old owners had covered the majority of the kitchen floor and hall way with a sticky vinyl tile that needed to be pulled up one tile at a time using strappers, and anything we could get our hands on.

Problem…

Once the sticky floor was up it left behind a sticky glue residue that made your shoe stick to the floor. The immediate and yet temporary solution to this issue was to brush dust over the floor to stop it from sticking, which worked like magic. I do however feel for the timber floor sander once we get that point.

Rodents, Bugs, Cockroaches, Spiders and more…

As we began to remove the old skirting boards, we started to see what I can only call “A Cockroach Infestation” one in which I have never seen before.

The walls behind the skirting boards were black with faeces, they were everywhere, in every nook and cranny of the entire house. Large and small German roaches ruled this house, and it was obvious they had the luxury of full rain for quite some time.  

Yes, we hit the shops! we brought insect bombs, surface spray, cockroach baits, you name it we brought it.

Is your skin crawling too?

We also found several small and large lizards, and a snake on the front porch, I do not mind the little guys, however Mike not so much.

Night one, would see us turning off the power, setting up bug bombs throughout the house and spraying the indoor and outdoor areas with surface spray, we left in wonder of what might await us the following morning.

The morning after!

It looked like a bug apocalypse, every inch of the house was covered in dead and not so dead roaches.

I will give you a minute to get over the creepy shivers feeling…

Cue the clean-up! Masks back on, broom out and graveyard garbage bag.

I believe it took at least three months to eradicate the bugs from the home however like everyone we still get them from time to time and continued to find infestations as we moved from room to room.

Notable like most houses the kitchen was also taken over by the German cockroach and in order to get rid of this pesty bug, we were quick to disassemble the cabinetry and throw out the oven (they love a warm place to hide). Strangely enough the bugs did like to eat the baits we placed around and from one day to the next we would see the bait demolished with small death scenes surrounding them.

If you thought that was the end of our bug invasion, you’d be wrong

We always had the planned to work on the top level of the home first, and then work on the downstairs, simply so that the project did not become overwhelming.

However, our plans changed one weekend with the inevitable heat wave hitting.

As a means of continuing to complete some tasks and not waste our weekend we ventured downstairs to the brick area of the home to which of course was much cooler. Still needed a fan and some ice packs down the shirt (blame the pregnancy) but it was manageable with lots of ice water, breaks and trips to get the odd Icey pole and Maccas run.

The down stairs area is unlike upstairs, it was an incomplete floor, there was water damage, sunken ceiling, missing walls and plaster, however it did have a second bathroom, that worked and lots of unfinished rooms.

As with upstairs we began by looking at what demo needed to be completed first. This floor really needed to be demoed in its entirety.

Masks on!

Mike started from top to bottom. First the ceiling came down, which came with it the dreaded cockroach infestation. The floor look liked it was covered in sprinkles and not of the chocolate kind.

The old bats or insulations came down, it was itchy, and one even housed a rather large bird’s nest.

When we came to the bathroom ceiling, Mike said “you want believe what’s up here” I was hesitant to look but as usual curiosity got the better of me. It was none other than an Ant infestation and housing nest for what seemed to be thousands of tiny little ants roaming free.

Road trip to Bunnings and ant bait secured. We placed the bait in the ceiling before we completed the demo, to stop the ants from running throughout the house.

This seemed to work at first.

One our arrival the following day we thought we had successfully gotten rid of the ants as there was none to see within the bathroom ceiling, so we went about to continuing the demo.

Skirting boards next… and the hello missing ants!

They had made their way from the ceiling, down the wall into the adjacent rooms and as we continued from one room to the other so did the ants.

We continued to place ant bait as we worked along and clean up each area to stop the ants moving any further. They were however quite clever and seemed to be ahead of us at ever turn.

As the plaster was removed, we were able to stop them in their tracks it did however take several days and many any baits.

Did we win the fight?

 I am unsure yet as we still have lots to uncover and we are still faced with a new bug, rodent, insect and other challenge on a weekly basis but at least we have had a good start and I’m sure the bugs have found a new sanctuary on our overgrown yards.