We quickly realized there were a few fixes the house needed more urgently than the 12 indoor plants and the pink dishware I originally prioritized. The most important being the roof. Just for aesthetic purposes I initially wanted to raise our roof, and expose the beams... And then I heard some noises up there. While I am all about a high ceiling, I am NOT ready to take on the challenge of what was lurking up between our roof and our sub-roof. Luckily the maintenance staff was brave enough to go up there and check it out for us! :) And my curiosity led me up the ladder just to snap a few pics too...
The ceiling tile is beautiful, and those beams are great... and then the 6 years of piled dirt and wires and who knows what else- not so much. I let go of the dream to raise the ceiling and decided to keep the mess hidden. Instead, now I want to paint our current ceiling white and create an exposed joist look by adding white beams to the interior like this:
We'll see if that can actually happen. I tried explaining it and they didn't seem super confident that it would work. But I'll let you know once we take that on!
Then the floor was all cracked. We will have to do something about the floor since we both hate it so much anyways, but the cracks needed to be repaired first.
We'll see if that can actually happen. I tried explaining it and they didn't seem super confident that it would work. But I'll let you know once we take that on!
Well the drip was because the roof had a leak, and the scampering was rats. They fixed the hole and removed the nest! So far so good! :)
Then the floor was all cracked. We will have to do something about the floor since we both hate it so much anyways, but the cracks needed to be repaired first.
The cement is mixed with this red color powder to change the color and then applied onto the cracks. It doesn't totally match, but that's ok for now. Patrick's thought initially was to tile over the floors around the whole house. There's pretty terra-cotta tiles that are outdoor tiles, and in some of the newer houses they brought it inside too. It looks great. We got the quote for that, and decided against it! That was OK with me anyways, because I kind of had the thought of painting over the cement floors. That way it can all be one solid black color. We may bring the tile floor just into the bathroom eventually! :)
So now the ceilings and floors are figured out. I'm trying to lean in a more modern direction than the expected Ex-pat-living-in-Africa style I have seen so much of! Next up, our walls!
Karibu!
Love,
Teri