Who does the decorating/DIY in your house, and when ??

[nutcracker]

I am starting to feel very overwhelmed by all that needs doing here, and Dp just can't seem to get started.

All in all there are 7 rooms plus hall, stairs and landing plus downstairs loo, that all need doing.
We now have the paint for all of them except our room and the downstairs loo.

The plan was to do the living room first so that we have at least one decent room and then do the kids rooms stareting with Ds's.

So far we have done nothing apart from buy the paint and stuff.
I can't really do much myself as i have the kids here all day. I have started stripping Ds's room, but am struggling to make any progress.

The house just looks like a tip, and isn't improving. It doesn't help that all of the bedrooms are in such terrible states (honest to god, they really were pigs that lived here).

Just wondered who did what in your house, and when you did it.

Ummm, no-one, and never, are the answers from the LittleBluHouse!

Nutty, could you sit down with Dp and make a plan? Now that we finally have some weather, could you agree to take the kids out all day at the w/e so that he can crack on with one room at a time?

Yeah I think we'll have to do something like that.
I have finally managed to pin down my dad a bit as to when he will do my floor. I'm sure the living room will look so much better once thats done. Then i can put up the unit from Ikea and finally stuff will have a place to go.

The living room only needs painting so it shouldn't take too long anyway.

One room at a time is easier because then you've got at least one to retreat to and feel a sense of accomplishment. I paint but dh follows me round muttering darkly about skirting boards and splodges on the cornicing, implication being that I'm sloppy but, hey, at least I do it! That said when he does get around to it he is pretty brilliant at being perfectionist.

The responsibility for sorting anything remotely DIYish in our house lies on my shoulders ... dh is completely useless at any of this stuff. If it's a job that I can tackle such as basic painting, then I do it. If it's a job that's a bit more complicated I generally ask my Dad who's fantastic at most DIY or if it's a bigger job than he can handle, such as the hall, stairs and landing which is quite big, then we have a decorator .... and he's coming to do this tomorrow but for the record over the last couple of months I've painted our kitchen/family room, downstairs loo and ds's playroom - all by myself and done a reasonable job

I look vaguely at DP, who says he'll do it Some Time All Right

(looks at damp patch on office wall )

My DH always feels that he has to have enough time to cpmplete the job before starting it i.e. we can't decorate anywhere because he'll have to take a whole week off and I'll have to go away with the children and it's all a bit too much and probably not worth it anyway and etc etc etc.
Having said that, he and his Dad are in the middle of doing the garden at the moment - weekends and odd days so maybe he's seeing the reality of it all! He really doesn't like decorating and had never done any before we moved here. I did my whole flat before so I'm a bit more used to it - maybe should get him to take the children away for a week and I'll do it!

I do all the painting in our house and I love doing it!!! I do it when I get bored of a room and want to change the colour, we have no wallpaper, so it's very easy to just re-paint a room or just paint over the existing colour to freshen up. I'm not so keen on the woodwork and can't stand gloss and having to wash the brushes in white spirit, so i use satin now as it's waterbased, therefore you can wash the brushes in water. A lot cheaper for me as no wasted clogged up gloss brushes!!

It is very hard to do with kids around, I need to do some painting, but will wait till they go back to school/preschool in sept. to make life a lot easier for myself.

Good luck!

we take it in turns to call a decorator!!

Seriously, we do all the prep and then pay a proffessional to finish it off as they are relatively cheap and they do a far better job than we could ever hope to have patience and kid free time to..

Oh maybe i should just get stuck in myself then.
I have only ever done the odd bit of painting, and my mom keeps saying that once i start doing it then dp will never do it (which is true but still).

Perhaps i'll make Ds's room my project and see how it goes.

I do (when we were in the UK). I've painted the whole house (apart from the hall; got a decorator), sanded and varnished floors and gutted the garden.

DH, in true male style, drills holes in the walls and wanders around B&Q wielding power tools

Dh does the lion's share of it - I get to do the boring stuff like cutting in, when we're painting. If it's a job where I can't really help I make cups of coffee and appreciative noises.

Oh and I always get to wash out the brushes, rollers and paint trays and go round scrubbing spodges off the woodwork. I'm so lucky!

I paint - he does anything involving power tools.

Have had huge stack up rows with dh about the house and its DIY. I painted all the rooms when we first moved in. This was because my Aunt stayed for 2 weeks and looked after ds1 (then 18 months) while I did it.

The house still needs lots doing to it (a lick of paint can only disguise so much).

My dh was under the impression for a long time that I would carry on where I left off. Well, I'm not going to, not with 2 small children round my ankles, and my aunt can only come so often.

A couple of months ago, I went to Paris for a long weekend with a girlfriend, leaving dh in charge of the children. He soon realised that DIY is bloody difficult with two small children, unless you do it when they are in bed, but that's my Mumsnet time, so forget it .

Over the last couple of months, he has finally got round to doing the work at weekends, while I take the children out each day and keep them out until bedtime.

Its caused a lot of aggro between us. Grrrr.

2GB - the trouble is with that, I find, that my weekends are then no different than my week days! I find by Saturday I really need a break from my gorgeous boys and, thinking about it now, I think I would probably even look forward to doing a bit of painting! We have a vague plan for the wood work in the bathroom and the downstairs loo (don't want to take on too much )

dh does everything, but then again he's a builder and his employment is fixing up our house. (I still have to nag him to get things done)

My advice would be to do your bedroom first and then the living room and then the bathroom and then the kitchen and then the rest of the rooms. Kids will notice an undone room a lot less than you will. Make lists for your dp. But make them short enough that they are achievable in a short period of time (one or two days) as otherwise he will get overwhelmed and not do anything (don't forget he's male and can only handle so much). It may be worth paying someone to do some of the work as well, for sanity's sake.

Also, there are certain things that will make a BIG improvement. Remove old carpets, even if it means you have bare floorboards. Throw a coat of white paint on dirty or dark walls until you have a chance to strip and do the room properly. Clean all the windows inside and out. Get a cleaning company in to do the cooker/oven/fridge and bathrooms.

I'm with LMB on this one. Me, me, me, me. But then I do quite enjoy it and get a huge buzz out of decorating, putting up dado rails, re-grouting, wallpapering etc. Very sad

My cleaning Lady's husband!!

I can't do 'up ladders', and dh is just, well, cack handed. He works as a software developer, makes money and we spend that on paying someone else to do maintenance. That way we retain our sanity.

Message withdrawn

I do the majority and I tend to do it in the evenings or on a weekend. I don't give him a choice on colours or accessories, I do all the planning and buying etc and he has to look after the kids while I am doing it. I only plan ahead to one room at a time otherwise I get too fed up at the amount to do.
I find that if you can completely clear the room it makes it so much easier (it may make the rest of the house look a tip but you can shut yourself away with some music and get on with it). I am currently trying to do the bathroom but it is taking me ages.
Nutcracker, could you move your kids in together while you do the largest of their rooms, then clear your room into the decorated room and you sleep in there while you decorate yours etc.