Getting ready to roof

Well the scaffold is almost finished. Just have one short edge to finish. Hopefully Dave can finish that tonight. He also just have to finish of battening up the hips on the roof. Here is some of what he has done so far.

Those beam going across is what we need to add on for the roof to bolt to.

Sam writing little notes for Dad to find on the frame work.

These vertical beams are the battens for the hips.

The roofing material is meant to arrive today. Getting closer now. Everything just takes so long. But I can't complain. At least we are building now and not still waiting for permits. That was so painful. Friday and next Tuesday and Wednesday are looking  rain free so fingers crossed the roofing guy is able to put it up one of those days.

Cheers,

Bye, bye prickly tree

As part of the on going road works in our street, they are cutting down the existing Melaluca (paper-bark) trees and replacing them with evergreen natives. Just look in the photo above in the page header to see what it used to look like.

Now it looks like this.

There are pros and cons associated with this removal. It was a great tall tree so gave us protection from the rain when getting the kids in and out of the car and it kept the sun off the car in Summer which was a God send. It also gave some privacy and added to the leafy street look.

The good news is that the house is now getting more natural light through on the south side, so it helps to light up the hallway and two front rooms. The best part though, is that we will get no more tiny, sharp leaves to jab into our feet. They are sharp and have some stinging quality to them. So now the kids and us can walk barefoot and fear-free.

Speaking of light. Our skylight arrived today. I am so desperate to get installed, you have no idea.

In other news, Dave should finish the scaffold this weekend. Therefore, with luck on our side, we should hopefully get the roof on this week. But I am not counting my chickens by any means.

Thanks for dropping by!

Building the scaffold

Yesterday evening the building surveyor came to inspect the frame for the second storey. Now it may have been due to it being dark outside, or him wanting to get home to end his week, but he passed it with flying colours. Brilliant!

So now we can get the roof done on the second level. To do that we have to have scaffolding. We got a quote for that clip on scaffold like this.

It would have cost us $1100 for 9 days.

So we wondered how much it would cost us in timber to build our own; something like this:

 

So we priced the timber and it was also about $1000. The best part about building our own is that we can reuse all the timber. Yay!

So today we did this.

 We finished about half of it today. So hoping to get it all ready by Tuesday and praying the weather is good and the stars are alined so the plumber can do the roof this week. Fingers crossed everyone.

To do the scaffold all the way around, we had to move the massive rubbish pile under the tree, and cut the tree back.

There are still some blocks and bricks to clear out. And where did all that rubbish go I hear you ask? To the front yard. One pile is wood to burn that a friend will use for their fireplace and the rest will have to be taken to the tip.

How delightful!

In other news, our skylight has come into the shop, so we will have to pay for that soon and pick it up. After the roof is on, that is our next priority. Yay!

Cheers,

Hubby is going to be mad

A few weeks ago now, Mr 5, Sam, was playing with the kitchen light switch and snapped it off. It is one of those old heritage ones with the little knob that sticks out. So we have been sticking our finger in the socket to manually switch it on and off. Super unsafe! It would flicker and you'd see sparks.

So, now that I have my tools that I got for Mother's day, I decided to fix it!

 

Now, Dave is a stickler for the rules and doesn't like messing around with the electricity. I even fixed the TV antenna a few weeks ago. So when I said I will fix it, he told me not to touch it. That is why I will probably get into trouble today. I fixed it!

The one in my hand is the old broken one, You can see the gold knob is gone.

I just turned off the power to the house lights. But first I left one light on so I knew they really were off. Then I unscrewed the two top and bottom screws. I saw there was a red and white wire. I took note of where they went and unscrewed them from their holes.

Then I swapped the switches and screwed them back into those same holes in the new switch, screwed the whole thing back on the wall and ta da!!

So easy, I don't know why he was so worried. I am not going to tell him what I did, just see how long it takes him to notice.

Yesterday the roofers finished the second side of the lower storey roof.

 

I think the next day or two the top level frame will be ready for inspection and if that passes, we can get that roof done. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly.

And here is Baby, the neighbour's cat who comes to visit us.

Cheers,

Pottery Barn is coming to Melbourne

I am so very excited!!


I shared the news on my Facebook page yesterday but I think this deserves it own post.


Pottery Barn is coming to Melbourne.


Not just Pottery Barn but Pottery Barn Kids, Williams-Sonoma  and West Elm as well.

It sounds like they will start with the Pottery Barn Kids store at Chadstone towards the end of 2014 or early 2015 with the other stores opening soon after.


West Elm is another furniture shop with a more modern edge.

Williams-Sonoma is a high-end shop that sells kitchenware, linens and other household furnishings.

David and I are already fantasising about trying out all the goods and making our humble home look cosy and to our own tastes. Finally with some quality furniture other than Ikea stuff.


Yippee!!
Cheers,

Fixed the fence

We had to pull part of the fence down in the early hole digging stages to pour the concrete for the fenceline footing. You can see the gap here.

It has been open since then but lately we put a tarpaulin over it for security.

Last night, after work, Dave finally got around to putting the fence back up. The neighbours will be moving in any day now so it's due.

Last night

And today

Also did some extra wall bracing with ply in the second bedroom upstairs. Now we really get a sense of the space up there.

 

No other news of interest right now. Hopefully more action soon.

Cheers,

 

Stud work and streams

Just managed to beat the weather and get a few more stud walls put up today.

Doorway and start of the other bedroom wall.

Put the stud work above this bedroom door

I took two of the kids to the park this morning as it was a lovely fresh Autumn morning. They had fu running, throwing sticks in the stream and patting dogs. We actually met a Spoodle and now I am thinking it would be perfect for our situation. He was great with the kids and a perfect size and ultra cute too!

Hope you all have a great weekend.
Cheers,

Kitchen pendants and skylight don't mix

You may remember a post not long ago and me dreaming about what sort of pendant lights I would put above our island bench. Kitchen Pendants? Well, it may be the case that I don't get my pendants after all. You see, now that the neighbours have built so close to our only kitchen window, the kitchen is so dark that we have to have the lights on during the day. So we agreed with the neighbours that they would give us money to install a skylight.


Dave got up in the roof two nights ago to see exactly where it would be able to fit and what size skylight we could get. Turns out it would fit the best right above the island bench. Which would actually look the best and provide the best light, but means I can't put my pendants there.

Or does it?

I was on Pinterest and searched for pendants and skylights and came up with some ideas. We could run batons over the hole and hang them from there, kinda like this!

Then there is this, which doesn't have a skylight like we are getting but how awesome does this look.

Or even if we run some timber beams across the opening somehow and attach the pendants from the beams. Here are some beams across a skylight opening.

 

 So that is what is on our minds at the moment. Well mine anyway. Dave is panicking about the roof and the rain forecast for this week. Our old plumber friend is now back on board and just waiting to hear from him about when he will be able to do it. Problem now is all the clear weather is gone. We can't get a break.

The rafter tails are all painted green now. That means we can put the eaves on them and get the roof ready for the final roof frame inspection hopefully by the end of next week.

Cheers,