There's a reason I named my blog Life...in Leighland

Yea....guess which numpty forgot to take before pics of the spare room?!  Oh yes, that's right....I did!!

So here's a half way through!

And wouldn't you know it, I bought the smallest size can of expanding foam with a view to minimising waste and of course in true Leighland style...didn't have enough!!  His Lordship has a rather ingenious idea though - rather than just removing the excess cured foam and binning it, he cut it into slices then pushed it into the few gaps that weren't filled!

So here's what we did:

• Vacuum floor to remove any debris
• Rub the gaps over with white vinegar
• Immediately fill gaps with expanding foam 
• Leave foam to cure for aprox 4hrs
• Remove excess cured foam with the Worlds Sharpest Knife
• Slice excess cured foam to fill further gaps
• Lightly sand over filled gaps and other unsightly lumps & bumps
• Vacuum (about 10 times!!) to remove as much dust as possible
• Rub entire floor over with rags and white vinegar to remove 
• Starting in the farthest corner, open paint can and start to paint
• Paint half of the floor then leave to dry

The white vinegar helps to remove dirt/dust and the foam adheres to damp surfaces better than it does to dry surfaces.  

I would definitely recommend using an expanding foam for a job like this. The gap you can see here is actually 1"x6" so I really don't know what else could have done the job - a normal wood filler would have just fallen into the hole and landed on top of the living room ceiling!







So why did we only paint half of the floor??  Because the guest bed is still in there!!  We will move the bed to the painted side of the room tomorrow and finish the first coat off then.

I can't say at this point if I would recommend using the floor paint as we only have half a coat on but my initial thoughts are that if you're going for a vintage French/ shabby chic look, you can get it with only 1 coat.  I love that look but the furniture I have and the colours on the walls are a little too modern to pull it off so hopefully 2 coats will give enough coverage as the paint is not cheap - Ronseal claim 12m2 coverage per 1l and I bought 1.5l for £30 or so at my local Homebase.

I'll post more pictures as we get the room finished off and the new wardrobes arrive - or at least I will if his Lordship and I don't kill each other while assembling them, lol!!!