Two Rooms inspires Vicki to pick up tools
After a visit from the Two Rooms crew, Vicki was inspired to learn to plaster to continue fixing up her mum’s house.
Resilient Lismore’s Two Rooms project is designed to help flood-affected community members back into warm, safe and secure accommodation. It also provides an opportunity for volunteers to learn valuable skills – and in at least one case, for a community member to do the same.
Inspired by a visit from the Two Rooms crew, Vicki decided to learn how to plaster walls in order to return her mother’s 80+-year-old house to something approaching its former state.
Vicki joined in with the Two Rooms team when they came to build two rooms’ worth of walls in her mother’s house. It was one of the first jobs Resilient Lismore undertook in the project.
“Naomi (Resilient Lismore board member, who worked on early Two Rooms projects) answered my call and rang me back and within two weeks, she said, ‘I'm coming around and we're going to do a room.’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, okay.’ And then when we got into it with them, it was great. And then after they left it was like, ‘Okay, I need to do the rest.’” Vicki said.
“My idea with my brother was to try and keep Mum in the home. So, we wanted to change the whole bathroom. I didn't feel that that was nice to ask Resilient to do that. So he helped me and we paid for a builder to come in to have it so it's all just working for Mum, as she's aging,” she said.
Vicki shows the flood level in her mothers upstairs bedroom.
“We started to do the hallway and then ran out of supplies and then, I sort of looked at it, I got a bit overwhelmed with the whole thing and I said to my son, ‘I don't think I can do this.’ I said, ‘It's just not for me.’ And he said, ‘You can do this Mum.’ So, he helped me and (my husband) Darren helped me and (we had) the support of our neighbour.
“We ordered more plasterboard and everything through Steve from Aussies 4 Aussies. He came and measured up for me, because I had no idea how to measure up the rooms. So, he measured up for me and supplied the plasterboard and the rest is history. My son and my husband and my daughter-in-law, we got into it and I said to my son, ‘Oh, do you think I can do plastering?’
“And he said, ‘Mum, give it a crack. I'm sure you can do it.’ And then I just sort of asked, went to Bunnings and just looked at people that were in the Bunnings aisle that I thought were plasterers and just asked them some questions. And so I did two of plaster and one of topcoat and just make sure I sanded it back smooth.”
Vicki put up walls in her mother’s bedroom.
It has been a big job. Vicki needed to get professionals in to remove asbestos, as well as builders to do the bathroom, but it has mostly been a DIY project.
“Prior to all of this, my husband kept saying to us, ‘Oh, we can get a house and we'll do a reno, we’ll reno it ourselves. We'll do it. And we were told by the bank when we did a reno out in the house we had at Modanville, ‘You will be divorced if you did it’,” she says.
“And so we had no idea and we avoided it like the plague. Because we thought, ‘Yeah, there's no way – we could just see each other just burning it. Putting a fire to it, you know. And then when we started to do it, and we could see, when the builders came in we looked at it and I think we got a bit emotional and I'm just like, ‘Oh my God, we've done it, you know, we did it.’
“So now it's just prepping the walls for painting. So yeah, we're on the road to getting Mum back in the house.”
Vicki would never have thought herself capable of doing all she’s done, but now she’s comfortable on the tools and is pleased with the job she’s done.
“I'm pretty good with the tools. I've always loved painting. That's one thing Darren and I have always done. We've always painted our own homes,” she says.
“But to advance to doing the plaster, to have that smooth and to have builders come through and look and say at the plastering, ‘Oh, who did it?’, and you'd be hesitant to say you. And then you go, ‘Oh, well I did.’ ‘Oh, well you've done it before, have you?’ ‘Um, no.’
“The plastering, I knew I could do it, but I didn't know how well I could do it. But because I'm OCD, I think I nailed it. And if you didn't, you sanded it off and you did it right. If a professional came in, they'd be able to pick the pieces. But I think for someone that's never done it before, I've done alright.
“I think Dad would be proud. My Dad's not with us anymore. He passed away four years ago. We've had him in in the house a bit, doing some naughty stuff, but anyway, we just told him it's all right. I'm sure he'll approve it at the end. I can't wait to finish it to see what Mum thinks.
Vicki shared the recovery journey with her next-door neighbour Andrew, leaning on each other for support and advice.
“I see the end. I finally see the end. It's going to look amazing. I told Mum she's not moving back in until the beds are made, the curtains are up, everything. Just because I want her to walk in the door and just enjoy it.”
