Phase one Compete

Last Wednesday was the first day in nearly four months that we didn't get up and let our builders in the back gate.   I felt both liberated, from the burden of handing out large sums of money, and a bit lost.  These guys have been my focus for nearly four months. I have dedicated my days to driving around Newcastle looking at things, buying things and hours and hours on the phone ordering and researching thing.  I have lost nights of sleep over all the decisions that had to be made, and trying to stay one step in front of them.  But last Wednesday I had only five small mundane things on my list, and I was a little lost…..

I would love to tell you that everything is done and our house is complete, but that is no where near the truth.  The big building part is done. All the structural things, and for the most part the electrical and plumbing work, is complete.  But now starts the part that we are doing ourselves. All the painting and the finishing that has to now happen to finish this place, is for the most part all up to us.  And don’t even talk to us about the landscaping! I don’t think either of us realised how badly this build was going to affect our yard!

But before I launch into decorating dilemmas and trying to furnish and style all my new spaces, let me show you where we are and how we got here over the last 6 weeks ….

When we got back from our holiday we had a deck: 

It was so nice and clean then!

Then the frame for the new laundry and bathroom went up: 

Archie being Site Manager - he loves a good box......

Windows go in and Sarking goes up: 

And then the cladding went on: 

And the roof goes on.  What you don't see here is four weeks of mistakes, miss-orders, leaks and general roofing incompetence - but finally it was done! 

Our deck got a ceiling, got painted and had lights and speakers installed:

And my favorite find: the deck wall lights! It was love at first sight.

My wonderful Dad made the fly screens for our louver windows and installed them just before he and my Mum jumped on a plane to Europe for 9 weeks....a life saver with all the fly's!

The new laundry and bathroom both had some brick work that needed to be fixed up:

Then plumbing:

And finally some sheeting went on and we had a room! 

And then there was finally tiles......

So this is where we are up to now with the back bathroom.  We have tiles on the walls and the floor has been finished.  The plumber is booked in for next week and the wonderful J and I are busy doing the final coat of paint in there.

Better photos of everything to come I promise! 

We have plumbers, tilers, floor polishers, skipbins and earth movers all booked in for next few weeks, so some major things still going on!  

Caramelised Pear and Whipped Cream Sponge Cake

It was a big weekend of baking last weekend and it was topped off with an extra special cake for my dad for his birthday dinner on Sunday night ... a Caramelised Pear and Whipped Cream Sponge Cake.

We had a family dinner and polished off about a quarter of this cake and 24 hours later it was all gone.  Apparently I can make this one again!

And maybe a Rose on top .......

So my lovely friend Jane asked me to make a 30th Birthday cake for one of her lovely friends.

The brief for the cake was coffee and creamy.  I haven't made a coffee cake before but I did some experimentation and and found a cake recipe that I flavored with several shots of coffee, and it tasted great.  I decided for the creamy part I would put a layer of Bailey's mousse through the middle.  I have never added a mousse layer to a cake before but again, good old google came through with the goods, and it all seemed very easy.  So, I thought, no problem I am all sorted: bake Thursday night, ice Friday and decorate Saturday morning.

That was until, those fateful words .....".. and maybe a rose on top...." were spoken.

I was doing a final confirmation about the details of the cake on Tuesday afternoon with Jane, and I casually asked if there was anything in particular that she might want on the cake for decoration.  The first response I got was : "chocolate covered coffee beans" but then .. "and maybe a Rose on top.....they are her favorite flower".  And how could I not make Jane's lovely friend a Rose - it is her 30th birthday!!

Small issue through ... a rose is not created in a day! I am sure that most people don't know how long it takes to make a petal paste rose, and I wouldn't expect you to, but let me tell you with drying time it can easily take a week, and much longer if the weather is against you!

So pulling out all the tricks of the trade I pulled together one rose for the top of my Chocolate and Coffee Ganache Covered Bailey's Mousse Cake ... hope it tastes as good as it sounds!

Sugar Paste Orchid Wedding Cake

The wedding was beautiful, and the bride looked amazing!

The Sugar Paste Orchids looked great on the cake, and most importantly the bride was happy.

Now excuse me while I crawl back into bed to recover.......

Sugar Paste Orchids

We are going to wedding tomorrow.  It is our lovely friends Vicki and Dan who have been together forever and are finally taking the plunge.  It is going to be a beautiful wedding!

I thankfully had nothing to do with baking the cake! However the lovely Vicki asked if I could make her some flowers to go on top.

Reality Bites

Reality has really been biting the big one in the last 10 days!

We have been home from our incredibly relaxing and completely indulgent cruise for 10 days, and I can tell you the readjustment has been tough!

Because it is a beautiful sunny Wednesday morning and I am just about to escape the incessant noise of compound saw's, hammer drills and some other very loud power tool that I am not even sure of the name of!  I will take pity on you and ease you into the reality around here by showing you the last part of our incredibly relaxing and completely indulgent holiday, before I show you the mess out my back door!

So enjoy the beauty of what I saw 10 days ago and I will be back to show you the progress and the mess, and a couple of cake jobs I have done in the last few days......

The Whitsunday Islands....

The last day cruising... 

Sydney just before dawn....

The best way to see Sydney, but not actually be here!

Renovation Revisited Part 2

So now that I have a better internet connection! to continue on......

All the clean fill and plumbing for the new laundry and bathroom was put in place.

And then packed in with a whacker-packer.  - this was very loud at 8am!

More wire mesh went on.

Then the very labour intensive job of carting all the concrete up a ramp system started.  It was hard work that morning, I really felt for my guys!

Look how lovely my new slab is!! 

Meanwhile, while all that was going on with the slab, the timber for the deck arrived. 

And we got the deck posts up and concreted in just before we left. 

You remember how I told you it was all hands on deck to get the place inhabitable? Well this is what it looked like just before we left.....

Clearly a whole lot more to be done!! but it is a start, and it is inhabitable!!