Treading the Boards

The first thing that we did even before we moved into our house over two years ago was pull up the filthy mustard carpet.

The house was so dirty that we ended up bringing the outdoor hose inside and just spraying down the floorboards as we scrubbed them, and letting the water go down the gaps! 

Since then we have been walking on bare unpolished boards.  Many people asked us why we didn't just get them polished in the interim before we did these renos.  The real reason I think is that we actually just got to a point where we were used to having them....... we never liked them and I often complained about them but I think sometimes you get to a point where you just get used to what you have.....   

But on Tuesday we said goodbye to the boards that we have been treading for the last two years, and said hello to the floor sanding man!  

You can see the new boards that we put into the old floor. I of course lost lots of sleep worrying that they would not look the same and match into the the old ones!

On Tuesday afternoon after work we went back to have a look: 

What a difference a sand makes!

On Wednesday I went back and we had one coat of varnish on the floor.  And on Friday we were done.  The hallway looks so much wider, the colour we choose for the walls looks better.  And we are so much closer to moving in! 

I think you can tell I am in love!! 

Painting the Town Red

I have a small confession.  I am holding back on bathroom photos so I can finally finally show you some proper before and afters!

I feel a bit bad about this as everyone keeps asking me when I will put up bathroom photos - but trust me it will be worth the wait!

Moving on from that ..... last Friday our builders finally moved themselves, and all their gear out of our house!

We went from this:

To this, in just a few short (but labour intensive), hours. 

Although there were many reasons why cleaning up and moving out day was Friday, the primary one was that we needed to get into paint on the weekend.  

Because all the plasterboard was new, we were all about Priming everything! Priming is not the best job in the world as the new plaster just sucks up the paint and it seems to take forever to get the paint on the walls. However with the help of my lovely mother (my lovely father was there in spirit) we got a coat of Primer on all the walls and the ceiling before we called it a (very long) day.

The next day we had two coats of ceiling white to get on, as well as the wall colour.

The wonderful J did a truly fantastic job of the ceiling and it nearly killed him - there is a lot of ceiling in this room, and he held a roller above his head for about 6 hours!

And at the end of the weekend however, we could see the fruits of our labour.  It is all beginning to take shape....  

When it rains, it pours

Last weekend I had the unenviable task of stripping paint off our architraves and doors.  The wonderful J had his first MBA assignment due so armed with my trusty iPod, a scraper, and my new toy, I tackled the four layers of paint on those doors.

Where has this heat gun has been all my life!

It was so easy to use, and other than sore arms from holding up the gun, and some minor burns from the super hot paint that falls on you, they are fool proof.

The green paint you see here is not actually green paint it is the bonding that was behind the old paint very sticky stuff that gets very very hot (talking from experience here!).

The old varnish sealer on the original wood was never removed before they painted.  I had smoke billowing off the wood while I was scraping - the smoke alarm went off twice!

Litres and litres of paint came off: 

And it rained.  Friday was the worst day but all day Saturday it drizzled constantly....

All my beautiful pier holes full to the brim with water!

And when it finally let up - we had a moat.

You can only imagine what this rain did to my beautiful footings!

Rome wasn't built in a day

It has been two weeks since I posted anything!

We have been flat out in these last two weeks, with not only building work but MBA assignments (not me!), the return of my parents from holiday, and some builders having emergency jobs (not mine!).

Because I have so many photos to share and so much has happened in two weeks, I am just going to start from the last thing that I showed you and work forward until some sort of order can be established!

So - last thing you heard was it was bathroom week.  Well it is still bathroom week..... However the bathroom is going great guns and I can't wait to post the finished photos on Friday - as that is when it will be done!

But in the mean time this is our progress....

The bathroom walls and ceilings were clad and finished:

Then the bathroom got three layers of waterproofing (24 hours drying time between each layer!).

 The tile cutter was brought on board:

The vanity cupboard was put in, and finally the tiles started to get onto the walls! 

The finishing touches on the windows and doors were made: 

And our beautiful lead-light doors got a revamp to fit into the now refurnished door jam: 

Then our beautiful custom made cornice was delivered! 

And was put up: 

And then was taken back down again ..... no not really - just this bit on the back wall... 

As you can see here, there was all huge (50mill) dip in the roof that put a huge bend in the cornice and was really just too bad to live with.

 So the guys had to pull it all off and jack up the roof (no idea how they did it!) and then put it back up again.  It is great now - straight as a die. 

And then there was the outside work.  This part of the build we are calling Phase two.  Phase two is a new building that will house the laundry and second bathroom; and the construction of a very large covered deck.

The outside went from this:

To this: 

With the help of this:

The pier holes were dug for the deck: 

 And the footings for the new building:

Good thing we were always planning on redoing the garden!