My little helpers and weekend work

Not much exciting happened this weekend, but hopefully during the week we will have some of the wall frame started for the second storey. What did happed was another timber delivery.

Nearly fell off my chair when I saw the invoice. Over $1000 just for that little bit. Luckily I showed Dave and he realised they didn't give him his tradie discount so we got $200 off that but still seemed a lot for a little.

 

It was required to finish the floor on the second storey. The floor at both ends still needed to be blocked out and the yellow tongue laid.

Sides now have been blocked and ready for the floor sheets to go on.



Sides now have been blocked and ready for the floor sheets to go on.

Dave flexing some muscle to get the sheets up by himself.

And with the flooring down.

The boys and I had a small job of painting some of the timbers to go under the new roof eaves.

We also had help sweeping up the site. Well it was more like pushing the saw dust from one side to the other, not much actually went in the bin. But the effort was there.

Sweeping barefoot but with jewellery. The classy way.

Hopefully some more exciting pictures will come during the week.
Cheers,



 





 

 

My first attempt at ORBing

So here's a term that I hadn't heard of before I started blogging. ORBing. It means painting something oil-rubbed bronze. Yesterday I tried it on some of my worn out fittings like on the screen door and letterbox.

So this is the result.

And this is how it started out.

Well I forgot to take a before picture of the door handles but this is the strike plate which is the same colour.

 

So first thing I did was to remove it all and sand them back with sandpaper then give it a wash in warm soapy water.

Then I applied 5 thin layers of this Rust-oleum Universal Oil-rubbed bronze spray paint. I found it at my local Paintspot for $13.50. It is paint and primer in one so I didn't have to prime the metal first.

 

I laid all the parts out on some cardboard and styrofoam or whatever I had around. I gave them 5 coat of ultra fine mist spray about 10 minutes apart then left them to dry for about 24 hours. It rained last night so I had to move them undercover.

I also want to do this light fitting if I can figure out how to get it off, also the house number. This was originally black when we bought the house, then I spray painted it gold when we repainted the house façade.





Oh and this is the other side of the screen door handle. I am vey happy with out it all turned out. Fingers crossed it lasts.

 

I really want to do this knocker on the weekend if I can.

Cheers,



 



 

New knobs

After we got married and bought this house, we started looking for a new bedroom suit. It took us years before we found one that we liked. Only problem was we didn't like the knobs. We have been living with them for about 8 years now and I have finally decided it is time for a change.

This is what we have currently; little silver square knobs.

Unless they are all perfectly straight, they look so wonky. In the showroom they had them on the angle so they were diamond shaped but we didn't like that.

 

I thought it would nicer to get some that didn't stand out so much. I liked the idea of them blending into the furniture. I went into Early Settler and saw lots of pretty ones and I decided on an oil-rubbed look knob that was round. What I didn't know however, was that they no longer carry them I stock and they had to order some in which would take a week. So I left and thought I'd try Bunnings Warehouse and hey presto, they had the same thing and they same price. $7.95 each so not cheap and meant I only got 4 of them to see what they looked like on the bedside tables.

 

 

They actually look better in real life. The camera flash is changing the colour of the wood. I certainly like them better but am not going to rush out to change the other furniture just yet.

 

Cheers,



 

 

The view from the top

Tonight I got to take my first step on the second level. I was able to see the city views that Dave has been talking about. It felt so high up there but AMAZING! After being stuck in half a house for months, to step out and have a sense of space and light was liberating.

Take a look at this!
(Apologies but I had to do a selfie from this great height!)

Looking east to the city. This is where we will see the sun rise.

Checking the floor for squeaks and spring

Looking North West over the new neighbours massive backyard.

Looking south west



Looking south east. You can see the West Gate Bridge in this shot too.

So that is what we will be seeing on a regular basis once we move into this top level.

Can't wait to watch the fireworks from up here!

Cheers,

 

What a truss-iffic surprise!!

I just had a knock on the door. I wasn't expecting anyone to come so assumed it was something to do with the roadworkers putting the new water pipes in out the front of our house. Instead it was a delivery man who had all our roof trusses to deliver!!

We had no idea that were even in the process of being made. We hadn't paid a cent yet. The guy who runs the TimbaTruss business is the nicest guy. I just wish all the other tradies were as awesome and nice as him.

Luckily Dave arrived home for lunch right at the time they came so helped the man unload them all.

So look at our lovely stash of trusses all ready to install. If only we were ready to install them.

 

Also, he left all the technical specifications and installation to put it all together.

 

What a great company, I am so impressed. Now I guess we wait for the bill.

 

Yippee!! Happy days!

 



 

Some more houses in my neighbourhood

Following on from the interest in my last post about the houses in our neighbourhood, I have collected a few more beauties to share with you all.

This is a double storey California bungalow in West Footscray. I love the tiled roof and the interesting peaks it creates. It is always so neat and tidy when I walk past.


Double fronted California bungalow

This cottage has a lovely feel to it. The porch is entwined with wisteria (I think) and the gate and windows really add character and class.

Double fronted weatherboard.

In my last post there was a green house that I mentioned used to be a lovely colour scheme before they recently painted it. Well I found a real estate picture of the previous colour.

Double fronted Edwardian in Kingsville. Picture from Real Estate.com

A few more from Real Estate.com that we went to open houses for. Both in neighbouring Kingsville.

 

 

That's all for now.

Cheers,



 

We have an upstairs floor

What happened today at the house:

-Finished 95% of the floor frame upstairs
-Blocked it out
-Laid 95% of the floor

I was working so I didn't see the progress but Dave and his best mate took the day off to get it all done.

Cheers,

 

Kitchen canisters

Probably my favourite designer is Sarah Richardson from shows such as Sarah's House and Real Potential which air in Australia on the Lifestyle channel on Foxtel. Unfortunately we can't afford Foxtel right now so I just like to follow her work on her websites and Facebook.

Recently she posted a picture of her kitchen and I fell in love. You may have seen my shares on my Facebook page.

I just adore her marble look splashback tiles and have been hunting for something similar in Australia. So far no luck.

I also love those glass canisters on her benchtop!!

She shared the link of the place in the USA where she bought them. US$89.99 and didn't deliver to Australia. (Actually it seems they must have been very popular after she shared the link because they only have the coloured ones left in store)

Then by chance, I was watching The Block, as I do every night, and saw Chantelle in a $2 shop and she picked up glass canisters very similar to the ones in Sarah's kitchen. So I went to my local $2 shops and low and behold there they were!!! Score!

So I used some of my Birthday money (Yes it was my birthday last week) and bought 3 in different sizes.

Granted they don't have those awesome silver Barrington lids, but gee they are very similar and I love them. The best part was the price! The smallest one was only $4.95, the medium was $5.99 and the large was $6.95!!! God bless you $2 shop.

That last canister I want to fill up with coffee pods as Hubby is getting a new Nespresso coffee machine for his birthday on the weekend. Shhhh!!

Happy days!