In detail: do-it-yourself repair of a country house inside from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.
My sister and I got fired up with the idea of buying a small summer cottage when we were 22 and 25 years old, respectively. We are both passionate about decoration and we wanted to bring various interesting ideas to life, as well as have a place where you can just relax from the bustle of the city and enjoy the closeness to nature.
The place was not chosen by chance - overlooking the ancient pine forest, on the other side of which our grandparents once lived, and with which our happy childhood is associated.
View of the pine forest from the attic
The plots in this SNT are small - only 3 acres, but we were primarily interested not in the garden, but in the house. Therefore, proposals with plots turned into one continuous bed, we immediately swept aside.
... And, finally, luck smiled upon us - an elderly man responded to an advertisement written by hand - his old acquaintance was selling a plot with a house. When we saw him (a house, not a man) - it was love at first sight! A board house with an attic and an overgrown garden! We asked for the hostess's phone number and immediately agreed to purchase without bargaining for the price (and it turned out to be much lower than we expected!). So we became its happy mistresses.
The house was made with love, but already very "neglected". We wanted to breathe new life into it, making repairs and at the same time not spending large sums. We initially decided that it would be a "budget" renovation, and wanted to prove that nice and cozy doesn't mean expensive.
This is how the house looked at the time of purchase and the beginning of cleaning: old wallpaper, yellowed from time and smudges of the roof, an old bed and gray chairs:
Video (click to play).
The wall opposite the bed (let's call this place so that later it will be convenient to compare 😉)
I will not show even more terrible places on the ceiling - so as not to frighten you))
So, my sister and I began the renovation with cleaning.
They raked out and sorted the rubbish stored in shelves and "cabinets" - it was old clothes, jars, bottles, etc. Sweep everywhere garbage, dirt, dust and of course - mouse poop (tying the respiratory organs, just in case, wearing handkerchiefs and wearing masks). The trash was partially taken to the landfill, something was put on rags, something was sent to the wash, something was left for use or decoration.
We immediately named this place "tea room" - because here, as you can see, there is a small table with a couple of chairs for tea drinking and a gorgeous view from the window (the topmost photo of the post)
We washed everything with water and bleach!
Literally EVERYTHING: floors, walls, ceilings and even furniture.
We started painting the old furniture in more "cheerful" colors. For example, it was decided to make the bed white.
Acrylic paint was used. And for painting the window frames, they used cheap alkyd enamel.
The paint highlighted the structure of the wood
Gradually, a kind of "concept" of this mini-room took shape - and we called it "lavender tea house".
I decided to color one of the doors here in this way:
I write in english lavender tea room
By the way, we called the main room in the attic the "blue bedroom". It was decided to use in it a warm, joyful shade of sky blue and, of course, white for combination (association with white clouds in a blue sky).
Plywood on the ceiling in places of leaks was replaced with a new one
They tore off old wallpaper from the walls and some paper from the ceiling. Once again they washed the walls with chlorine, dried them and proceeded to wallpapering.
Wallpaper for the main wall of the bedroom chose white in a blue flower
Blue wallpaper (for combination) - 80 rubles / roll
Wallpaper on the ceiling - free (they found the old ones in the barn and pasted them on the wrong side)
It is not easy to paste over the ceiling - hands get numb, but then the hand gets full)
Meanwhile, the walls in the tea room are covered with the remnants of wallpaper stored at home (pink), and the lilac ones were bought for 70 rubles / roll in the store. The door of the "closet" is painted pink.
Well, and you are probably tired of looking at the phone photos of our "flops" and you want to see what came out of all this?
We specially arranged a "photo session" for the resulting interior with a camera:
And now the blue bedroom.
The photos are arranged as if we are turning to the right:
Shelves and a suitcase for storing linen (hand-decorated)
And from the outside, the house now looks like this (we painted it in mint and pink - we tinted it ourselves).
They painted with rollers, using a folding ladder, and leaned out of the windows to paint where the ladder did not reach:
And here we are with my sister Lyalya in the garden by the house. The bush of peonies has not bloomed yet, but has already grown out - we made a "holder" for it from an old chair with a leaky seat (which was simply torn off), found in the attic in the village at my grandmother's.
My story ends, but the story of the house's transformation is not. The plans are to "cushion" the first floor. We will definitely share the result with you!
We are gradually equipping the garden: we dream of a lawn, flowers, a fence and garden furniture.
Thank you all for your attention! We hope that we have inspired at least someone else to be creative and creative))
A country house is not always a real residential building, designed for any season and any weather. It can be not insulated, small. Still, a country house is a dwelling, and it should provide at least minimal comfort. This is possible only if it is warm, dry, clean, does not come through and does not drip. And in order for it to be so, you need to have at least a good roof, dry floor and reliable walls. What if the walls are not ideal? In this article we will tell you everything about the repair of the walls of country houses outside and inside.
There is a huge difference - to repair the walls of a country house inside or outside. Internal repairs can be carried out, in fact, at any time of the year and in any weather, especially if you have a heated house. As for the exterior renovation, it is extremely important not to be mistaken with the weather. Winter cold or high humidity in the off-season are not the best conditions for outdoor work on summer cottage walls.
Firstly, because any exterior wall coverings, such as paint, plaster, etc., do not contact the surface well, adhere poorly and harden in unfavorable conditions. Paint the wall in sub-zero temperatures, and in the spring all paint will drain with the first downpour in May. Or it will fall off immediately along with a layer of plaster. Do you need this?
Secondly, any interference with the solid wall in conditions of humidity and cold can lead to the fact that the dampness penetrates the wall. This is fraught with the appearance of mold and mildew. In the event that the repair of the wall of the house in the country house is carried out in the rain, and after that the temperature drops below zero, the ice crystals formed can disrupt the integrity of the wall. All this leads to erosion and destruction of the wall. This is especially true if your country walls are made of wood and wood materials, or just old and dilapidated.
There is often a situation when it is required to practically restore the walls in the country. This is often the case with old country houses. But it may also be that when building a country house, you did not strive to create a truly reliable structure. Either they used not the most suitable materials, for example, they laid the walls in 1 brick, and then sheathed them with plywood or sheet iron, or even built them according to the principle of a "collective farm frame structure" - a strapping of crooked logs from a neighboring planting and sheathing of variegated boards, plywood, fiberboard ...Or they did not provide a high-quality external coating that would protect the walls of the country house from bad weather. Or they did not take care of a high-quality foundation, and the walls began to collapse from below. With any of the options, a situation may arise when the walls need to be completely rebuilt. How to act in such a situation?
If the walls can technically be repaired, of course, it is better to restore them. The most common technique is brick lining. In this case, before you start to carry out brickwork, it is necessary to thoroughly dry the existing walls and treat them outside with a high-quality antiseptic and protective material. For wooden walls it can be drying oil, for stone and block walls it can be a special impregnation. The point is to prevent rotting between the new masonry and the old walls, which can lead to complete disrepair of the house in the near future. At the same stage, it is worth considering whether it is not worthwhile to insulate the walls of a country house by laying a layer of insulation between the old wall and the new layer of masonry?
But it happens that the walls have to be demolished, and then the question is different. If we are talking about 2-3 or all walls, then isn't it easier to build a new country house? If only about one wall, of course, you can save the country house and repair a particular wall of the house in the country. In this case, be sure to provide high-quality support for the roof and other walls, so that when the wall of the summer cottage is demolished, the whole house does not collapse.
For brick walls of country houses or walls made of blocks, a situation with the formation of cracks is common. This risk is especially high for houses with poor-quality foundations or built in violation of technology - using poor-quality mortar, without the use of reinforcement, with large deviations of the walls from the vertical plane, etc. How to fix the crack in the wall of the house?
At first glance, the simplest and most obvious way is to fill the crack with mortar or plaster. However, this is not the right way, because you will not eliminate the cause of the crack in this way, and in the near future - with the next change in temperature or humidity - the crack may reappear. The correct approach is to first exclude the possibility of further cracking, secondly to cover the crack for its heat, water and wind insulation, and then finish the walls of the country house.
A crack can form for a variety of reasons. The most common is foundation subsidence. In this case, "raising the corner" of the house with a jack will help. Bring the walls to the desired height, fix it, and then plug in the gap and make cosmetic repairs. But in this and in any other situations - for example, when a wall cracks due to poor-quality building materials, it is important to exclude the possibility of further cracking. The easiest way to do this is to tie a crack. This can be done by placing a few metal straps perpendicular to the crack, which will be secured with heavy-duty bolts threaded into the wall on either side of the crack.
Renovation of the summer cottage at the beginning of the season: work on the veranda, kitchen. Improvement of bedrooms and living room. Facade finishing
Often, even the most beautiful and well-groomed country houses and plots require renovation and beautification of the field of a long and destructive winter. It is for this reason that many summer residents in the spring begin to think about how to make repairs to the summer cottage with their own hands and put the territory in order so that they can enjoy spending time outside the city.
Every summer resident should understand that suburban ownership is a lot of painstaking work. And even if you bought a dacha not in order to set up a vegetable garden outside the city, but in order to have fun with friends, you must understand that the house on the site, as well as the site itself, must be properly maintained.
Of course, there is no need to carry out major overhauls of the building annually, but even block-container country houses must be maintained in good condition.
People in our country have long been accustomed to saving on everything, and an attempt to reduce such a parameter as the price of repairs by doing work with their own hands will not only save finances, but also put their own hands on repairs, which will be an interesting occupation and a reason for pride.
Let's take a look at the seasonal renovation of a country house from the inside, because every year some building and finishing materials require renovation.
The corridor, hallway and veranda are the premises that meet us at the entrance to the house. At the same time, they are a kind of delimiters between the cozy atmosphere of the house and the summer heat or winter cold, and they are also a barrier to the entry of flies, mosquitoes and other insects.
It is precisely this purpose of such premises that they certainly need an annual cosmetic dacha repair with their own hands.
The necessary repair work on the veranda, in the corridor or in the hallway includes:
Warming of the veranda;
Processing of entrance doors and windows;
Floor and ceiling finishing;
Repair of the roof over the veranda.
Note! We will not talk about the options and styles for decorating certain rooms in the country house, because each summer resident certainly has his own ideas for repairing the country house, which he would like to implement.
The kitchen is the room where the stove is constantly on fire, water flows from the tap, which means there are constant vapors, temperature drops. For such operating conditions, the repair of old country houses and new ones should provide for a competent selection of finishing materials that can withstand such aggressive conditions.
In the kitchen, even the highest quality finish falls into disrepair much faster than in any other room in the house.
This is precisely the reason that the following work should be done in the kitchen before the start of the season:
Prevention of the emergence and development of mold;
Prevention of the onset and development of the fungus;
Antiseptic treatment against infection;
Insect control;
Surface tinting;
Twisting of all loose pieces of furniture (cabinets, tables, chairs);
Monitoring the state of communication systems (water supply, sewerage, electrical wiring).
Advice. In addition to the work presented, you may need to clean the soot if there is a stove in the kitchen, and also if we are talking about a summer country kitchen, then work may be required to eliminate roof leaks and repair brickwork.
Repair of a country house, or rather, its living rooms such as a bedroom or living room, will not require anything complicated from the owners. In these rooms, everything depends on your personal desires and preferences.
Of course, if you want to completely change the appearance, no one will bother you, but if we are talking about cosmetic repairs at the beginning of the season, then you can get by with the following measures:
Crack putty;
Whitewashing or painting the walls;
Varnishing of wooden surfaces (furniture, lighting fixtures, etc.).
Advice. If you were able to allocate very little time for the production of such cosmetic repairs, and power outages are often observed in your suburban area, then renting a diesel generator for a summer residence will allow you to prevent a work stoppage for a long time.
Going out into the street, you can also notice a lot of defects that your country house has acquired, therefore, do-it-yourself repair in the country house consists in the production of the following facade and roofing works:
Foundation work. By the beginning of the season, the foundation should remain intact, without cracks. The surface of the basement of the country house, protruding above the ground, must be finished with specialized materials or impregnations.If cracks do occur, the problem should be eliminated using natural or artificial stone, resin, bitumen, etc .;
In the photo - a crack in the foundation
Roofing. It doesn't matter what material was used to create the roof, the main thing is that its integrity and tightness are not compromised. To monitor the condition of the roof, you can simply wait for the rain;
Wall repair. The types of these works directly depend on the material from which the construction was carried out:
Repair of a wooden surface can be combined with a facade insulation procedure. This procedure should begin with the processing of wood with specialized compounds, then the selected insulation is laid, an insulating film is laid on it, and then the necessary finishing work is carried out;
If the dacha was built of brick, then you can either simply patch up the cracks on the surface by updating the coating material, or insulate according to the described scheme;
Insulation of brickwork
Repair of old country houses must be carried out strictly in accordance with the technology of their construction.
Note! Insulating the facade of a house is certainly a good idea, the main thing is to make sure that the walls are repaired in advance, that is, cracks and loose areas of the material are cleaned and repaired.