Nothing says 1920's homestead like a plastic 80's spa bath that doesn't even go! Despite the wood paneling and plastic tiles we decided it had to go.

So while guests weren't looking we investigated under the bath and found mostly original wood with minimal damage from the numerous incarnations of this bathroom, judging by the amount of paint on the walls. We even found marks on the floor boards where an original claw foot bath had been.

Before and during work.

We pulled out the bath which was recycled by a friend into a herb garden, and we prepared the walls and floor. This was the hardest part as the glue from the tiles was a good hard 80's one, and Deans hard task was to squeeze himself under the house to reattach plumbing. We kept it simple by just moving the sink and bath but using the same water pipes. The second hand claw foot bath was still the black factory setting colour which I painted with cream to match the sink. I'm now considering adding some colour.

Not bad for a few days work.

After sharing our "lockdown kittens" with my friends and finding homes for them we now have lambs. The homestead seems to be a very reproductive place.
When we took possession of the property it came with 13 sheep which were being grazed next door because we don't have enough grass through summer.
Eleven sheep came back and a bag of chops, with the information that the ram had been put in with them.
Oh no, Really!

Roll on five months and we have the most adorable lambs "gamboling" around the place, they are gorgeous and truly a joy. Funny wee things. Shame we have to eat them.

The harsh reality is that we wont have enough grass through summer so one or four sheep will be reassigned to the freezer, and the lambs...well...

We took possession of our Homestead during lock-down of March 2020, arriving at 6.00pm on Wednesday March 24th with a car loaded to the roof and a boat trailer groaning with as much as we could organize at short notice. Which did not include much in the way of paint or materials, we only managed to buy some ceiling paint as suppliers had run out.

However we did find a 20L tin of paint stripper which was left by the previous owners, we were very happy about that.

Oh My Lord, the yellow room was a shocking acid yellow that I'm surprised I don't seem to remember from viewing, with all the original wood features painted a gloss back. The best part was the fire place was painted gold. Mexican theme perhaps or homage to Laurence llewelyn Bowen.

I don't think I would have completed such an arduous task of stripping all the wood in this room if not for lock-down. The fact that I had all this time and wanted to work each day and see results. It was unpleasant hard work, I'll not sugar coat it, and I'm never doing it again. My strategy was to have breaks every two hours and reward myself with some wine at 4.00pm
Worth it though, the wood was finished by polishing with steel wool after three applications of stripper. The walls were painted with three coats of Resene Rice Cake, my new favorite.