Our solar blind

This job was done a few weeks ago but being busy with other things plus Christmas, I didn't get around to showing the result. So, what we did was install the Velux solar blockout blind that we bought when we got the skylight for the kitchen. We thought it would be a pain to install and get working so it got pushed to the side. After getting a few hot days, we knew we needed the blind up because the hot summer sun was roasting the kitchen.

It was actually very simple to install and being solar there were no wiring issues to deal with.

Check it out:

Opened blind

Closed blind

 And the difference it make to the room is amazing. It feels like a different house when it is closed.

Here it is open fully.

 Now half open.

 And now fully closed.

Actually it feels a lot darker in real life that these photos.

The house stays so cool on the hot days now and we don't even have it all insulated yet.

Happy new year!
Nat

Break is over so back into the renovations

We had a wonderful little Christmas and hope you all did too. I ate too much as usual but that half the fun of it huh.

So we had two days break and today we are back at it again.

Started off my cutting down some more scaffold and sanding back and painting this north facing wall which was starting to dry out in the northerly sun. So now it is smooth and has one coat of undercoat to protect it for a while.

 

Also, we cut out the house wrapping stuff to open the space where we are about to put in the window. These were supposed to be double glazed but we didn't check the order and the lady put them a single glazed. Opps.

I love seeing little changes like this along the way, where by we get a different feel to the room in one way or another. In this instance, a new light source changes the feel of the room once again.

Ok back to the reno work for me. Be back with the window in soon.

Cheers,
Nat

ETA:  Ok I am back with photos of the window in place.

I think Dave has plans to plaster this wall tomorrow.

I think it looks good from the outside.

At the moment we are tag team painting this side wall.

I did as high as I could reach and now he is taking over.

Still working on Christmas Eve

My husband just couldn't help himself. It may be Christmas Even today but still he was painting and installing weatherboards and hanging plaster.

Plaster in Sam's room

Plaster in Andrew's room

Two walls done in Andrew's room

Meanwhile the kids were sorting and counting presents downstairs, as you do at that age.

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Merry Christmas and to all a good night!
Nat

The plaster delivery

Look what we got today. We had to clear out the back room to store it all.

An early Christmas present for us.

Cheers,
Nat

Fixing the broken wire on the Christmas lights

I need to preface this post by saying that I have no electrical qualifications what so ever and don't pretend to know what I am doing. So please don't rely on this being the proper way you should fix your electrical work.

I noticed last night that tragedy had struck our Christmas tree. The bottom set of lights weren't working.

Sorry it is so blurry but you can see down the bottom left that the lights are out.

  I followed the cable back along it's length and found that it has broken two wires.

See the broken wires here

 So I googled how to fix broken wires and came up with this video.

It showed me how to strip the insulation off and twist the wires back together and wrap them up with electrical tape. These are the tools I used.

Pliers, electrical tape and a stanley knife

 One it was all fixed, it looked like this.

The patched up wires

 Then it was time for the moment of truth!!!

Woo hoo, it actually worked. I am so glad I don't have to replace them and proud I could do it easily all by myself.

See the lights are back on now.

Christmas is feeling Merry again in This Little Yellow House.

Cheers,
Nat

1 week until Christmas

Today Dave did coat number one of the yellow on the west side upstairs. We have only being doing two coats of yellow so just one to go on that side. Still then have to paint the architraves and add in a scotia (or alternative under the window).

Also, we ordered the plasterboard for upstairs and down. That was about $900. We must buy insulation too, but man that stuff is so expensive!!! Eek.

Other outgoings is $2800 for the electricians work done so far which we will pay tomorrow. When the timber for the stairs comes in we will have to cough up some money for that too.

Here is the yellow on the weatherboards that were done tonight:

8:30pm and it is still light out. God I love summer in Melbourne.

Cheers,
Nat

Running the power cables

So yesterday and today, Phil the sparkie came and ran the new cables for the lights, powerpoints and data lines into the extension. This is a big step and it means we can now start putting up plaster whenever we want to.

I was very happy with the electricians work. He arrived on time the day he said he would and we left some of the positioning of the downlights up to him and I am very happy with his choice. He still has to come back to run the cables for the staircase lights after the stairs are installed (whenever that may be. But the timber has been ordered and is coming down from Sydney.Yay!).

Here are all the cables:

Phil decided to put these two down lights over on the racked ceiling

More downlights and fan in the living room

Outside lights either side of the doors and an external powerpoint

Upstairs power and data for the kids retreat

Plates for powerpoints in Andrew's room

This is near the dining room where the phone line will come in

On the weekend we did some tip runs to clean up the mess around the outside of the house. 3 ute loads later and it is looking a lot better but still more to go. We really need to get cracking on the painting of the exterior upstairs so we can cross that all off the list and finish the weatherboarding.

The windows that we were meant to collect on Friday but couldn't, will be collected on Friday morning before my husbands work breakup BBQ. So maybe they can get a quick coat of sealer and be installed this weekend. Maybe? It is almost Christmas after all.

Seasons greetings,
Nat

Picking up more windows

Today after work, Dave has to drive out to Bayswater to pick up the last two windows for the back room. I hope we will have time to get them installed this weekend. With Christmas and events on, things are a bit hectic.

The sparky is coming on Monday so we need to map things out for him and clear the walls so he can do his work. Might be time to shop for light fittings. Happy days.

Dave also wants me to think about carpet for the upstairs room. Any tips guys?

Cheers,
Nat

Upstairs windows

Today after work Dave finished installing the scribbers, architraves and canopies on the last three upstairs windows. They just need to be filled and painted now.

Really hard to get a good angle to see these windows sorry.

Looks like a UFO in the sky

The stair guy rang today. He will order the blackbutt for the stairs tomorrow but can't guarantee that it will arrive before Christmas. I also need to find pictures of the posts and balustrade that I want so he can match it.

Cheers,
Nat

Our stairwell

Not much happened this weekend. It rained and rained in Melbourne. Typical pre Christmas weather here.

Painted a few scribber for the windows and canopies.

So we turned to inside jobs and that meant the stairwell. Dave straightened the walls, insulated them and braced them with ply.
First Dave put up the plastic so the mess was minimised and also gave the bathroom some privacy from the kitchen again.

 Then these walls went up.

The stair well feels so high and really gives the house a regal feeling. I love it.

In other news, the quote from the stair guy came in. It will be a bit more than $10K. Eeek!! I expected that though as I want it to be just right and don't want to skimp on it. We gave him the go ahead so he can order the blackbutt treads. So that lead us to make the flooring final decision. Blackbutt. Again, expensive but beautiful.

This week we will also put in an order for some plaster.
Next week the sparky is meant to come to run the cables.
Also waiting for the plumber to fix up a few pipes so we can dismantle the old laundry wall and plaster the stairwell in readiness for the stairs.

So many little decisions to be made right now and it makes me nervous I will get them wrong.

Fun times.

Cheers,
Nat

Down she comes

The scaffold that is, not the house thank God.

We needed to lower the scaffold so that we could finish the weatherboarding on the top storey (The scaffold was in the way). That pretty much took all week to do. But it was finished last night and today w put up the last 4 weatherboards.

Moving the scaffold down.

Can now see the back more clearly.

Wrapping up the bottom of the wall.

 

The last 2 boards are now on.

Isn't she looking grand.

On Friday Dave called me at work and said h was at our house with Brad the stair guy and he was measuring up for the stairs and may even get them in before Christmas even if that means working Christmas Eve, WOW!! How awesome is that?

Also the electrician should be coming before Christmas to rough in the cables. What a busy time it is about to become and I LOVE it!.

With the stairs we had to make a decision about the landings. Do we have them flat (there will be two) or do we have them just winding up. I really wanted two flat landings so that means the stairs will come out further into the dining area. He draw it on the floor so I could see. I think we will go with that. They will just be a bigger feature.

Our new staircase will go about here.

He said we'd have the quote by the end of the weekend.

As tomorrow is the 1st of December we are getting the decorations ready to put up. I put the tree up and strung 1200 lights to it. It looks amazeballs and would be great just how it is without decorations. But they will go on tomorrow evening on the 1st Dec.

Pretty exciting time of year.

Who else is getting their tree ready? I'd love to see pictures.

Cheers,
Nat

Last window in upstairs

Tonight (after a day of pouring rain) we decided it was time to get the last window in upstairs. However it now means we have to borrow the neighbours ladder so we can climb up to the scaffold from the outside.

But here it is.

Dave also did some work inside on the weekend. He framed up the walls for the staircase.

I finished painting the last inserts for the upstairs windows so now we just need to finish putting the last 3 in and installing and painting the architraves outside.

 In the big Melbourne storms today we had some water coming in. Damn I thought we were past that risk. Obviously not.

Tonight Dave also started putting expandafoam around the windows upstairs. One can doesn't go so far. We will have to buy some more.

Cheers,
Nat

Pottery Barn Melbourne Opening Day!!

It was worth it!

It was worth the 40min drive out to Chadstone.
It was worth the 30min wait for a carpark.
It was worth fighting crazy, impatient drivers.
It was worth the tired cranky toddler I ended up with. (I nearly lost her in the crowds a few times).

Why anyone shops at that place I have no idea. Only reason I'd ever go back is for these 4 AMAZING shops.

Closest to camera, West Elm, PB Kids,PB and Williams-Sonoma

 Love those big barn doors. Dave told me I should walk in and ask which way to the pottery he he he.
They even had guards on the doors.

 Another guard.

I was hoping to get to West Elm in time to see Michael and Carlene from the block, but because of the carpark being a mental asylum, I missed them.

 It was so cool to see all the cots setup in real life. They look just as good as in the catalogues.

 I just loved this grey cot and grey chair.

 Heidi loved all the kids toys especially the dolls house and horseys.

 These ballerina sheets reminded me of the ones I had as a little girl.

 Christmas tree had a Santa hat on. I thought that was cute.

 Their couches looked so good in real life. I loved them all. How will I ever choose.

 Ok I will choose this one. It was so gorgeous and amazing quality. Better than in my bad phone photos.

 Their lamps were stunning. They had some massive glass ones just out of shot that were great.

 In Williams-Sonoma they were cooking. It smelt like America. They had something cinnamon they smelt devine.

 They were making these mini hamburgers from this mix:

And they were fantastic.
We also tried this devine peppermint bark. Heidi kept going back for more. It was pretty expensive though. One small bar was $4 and tins were about $39.

I could have spent all day there and definitely want to go back and show my husband all the awesomeness.

I highly recommend a visit for all Melbournites.
Cheers,
Nat