Roses alongside the front door © Ricky Yates
As I wrote at the end of my previous post, K & K, (as in K & K renovace nemovitostí Decín), besides renovating my study-bedroom, have also done work in other parts of the house. This is the promised further blog post describing and illustrating their work.
The ground floor of the house has only three main rooms – my study-bedroom, a kitchen and adjacent small shower room, (completely refurbished in January 2018), and a sitting-dining room.
The sitting-dining room, along with the adjacent entrance lobby, is the newest part of the house. As a result, there was no need to do anything to the walls, other than painting them white to lose the previous ugly dark orange. Likewise, there was no real problem laying a wood laminate floor matching my study bedroom, as the floor is solid, level concrete. One very nice touch was Karel junior, completely dismantling all the power sockets and light switches, thoroughly washing all the parts, before reinstalling them. Now they are as white as the newly painted walls!
A couple of before and after photos to show what has been done. The before photo dates from early May 2017, after the previous owners had moved out, but before I moved in.
Sitting-dining room in May 2017 with orange wall & linoleum on the floor © Ricky Yates
Sitting-dining room in May 2023 with white walls & a new wood laminate floor © Ricky Yates
The photo below is the view from the sitting-dining room, through the entrance lobby to the front door.
View from sitting-dining room through to the front door © Ricky Yates
Whilst this is the view from the sitting-dining room into the kitchen with the small shower room beyond.
View from sitting-dining room into the kitchen © Ricky Yates
The tiling on the floor of the shower room is the only part of the refurbishment work, carried out by Elefant in January 2018, with which I have had a problem. Only a few months after the floor was laid, a couple of tiles became loose and uneven. The Elefant tiler returned and relaid them. But in the time since then, a number of tiles have once again become loose with a couple of them cracking.
Damaged tiles on shower room floor © Ricky Yates
When I showed the problem to Karel junior and Richard when they came to assess all the work I wanted doing, they said the best thing to do would be to completely take up the floor and relay it with new tiles. So that is what Ivan, Richard’s Ukrainian colleague, did back on Saturday 8th April. Below are two more before and after photos.
Old tiles completely removed © Ricky Yates
New shower room floor © Ricky Yates
The exterior steps up to the front door are also tiled and a couple of tiles were loose when I bought the house in May 2017.
Loose tiles on the front steps © Ricky Yates
A few more have slowly worked loose since then. Whilst Karel junior and Richard said that their ideal solution would be to completely strip all the steps and start again, they agreed to re-affix all the loose tiles for the time being. They assured me that it would now be fine for this summer but couldn’t guarantee regarding next winter. Here are the steps following Richard’s repair work.
Repaired front steps © Ricky Yates
And with my plants returned to their summer position on the steps.
Front steps with plants © Ricky Yates
Another problem on the exterior of the house was this rusted up and non-functioning tap.
Rusted-up, non-functioning outside tap © Ricky Yates
K & K together managed to eventually remove it and replace it with this shiny new one which works perfectly and makes watering pots and flower beds much easier.
New outside tap © Ricky Yates
Finally for this post, the double-glazed window in the toilet, which was fitted back in November 2017, now has a wooden windowsill and attractive surround 🙂
Toilet room window after © Ricky Yates
Toilet room window before © Ricky Yates
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It all looks splendid, Ricky. You must be so pleased to have the whole of your living area looking so clean, fresh and modern.
It does look very good, Kathy and I’m very pleased with all that has been achieved.The white walls make the house much lighter inside and the wood laminate floors are so much easier to keep clean. Now to get some bookshelves……
Hi Ricky,
You’ve had wonderful work done all round, definitely put your own stamp on the place. I assume you imported the handle for your new outdoor tap at great expense from the UK ?. Long may you enjoy your lovely home in good health.
Sean
Hello Sean,
Yes, I’m very pleased with all the work I’ve had done to the house as described in this & my previous post. Your sharp eyes have spotted what also amused me – that the new outdoor tap is marked ‘off’ and ‘on’ 🙂 However, I assure you that it was procured locally by Karel junior, rather than by me importing it from the UK. Certainly the red plastic coating should prevent it rusting away like its predecessor.