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

I'm super excited...

Pottery Barn at Chadstone opens tomorrow at 10am.

So right after my daughters swimming lesson, I will be making the long drive over there to see it in person.

Click here to like the Facebook page.

Here they are getting ready for me.




I must remember to take my camera to get lots of photos for my blog and for my ideas list.

Hip hip hooray!!

Might do some Christmas shopping there too.
Cheers,
Nat

Bye bye ceiling

It turned out to be a rainy weekend in Melbourne. So after we got a bit of painting in on Saturday morning, we had to turn to our rainy day jobs list.

A month ago we opened up the back section of the house and laid the floor. Today we ripped down the old lounge room ceiling.

Before photo. Ceiling still intact. (Bad photo because it is dark and rainy outside today)

Plaster coming down

Plaster down

Vacuuming the top of the plaster before pulling it all down.

Another Mona Lisa shot

More light coming through

Heidi cleaning up after Dad.

I can see the pretty tree in the backyard from the kitchen sink

Pulling down the doorway

 What a mess huh! Don't you feel so lucky you don't have to live here right now. We will be eating plaster dust for a while I'm sure.

 After the rain stopped, we managed to get outside and put on some missing weatherboards.

This is outside the bathroom

It is so daunting to think about how much we still have to do. Weekends go so fast and we don't see much change for our work. Christmas is less than six weeks away and I can't seeing us getting to lock up by then like we'd hoped. I did order and pay for the two new windows to go next to the fireplace on Friday. So we hope they will be here before Christmas.

Cheers,
Nat

Painting pressure

Since we got back from our second weekend away last week, I have found a new enthusiasm for the renovation. I've tossed aside the house keeping and am concentrating every chance I have, to getting the painting done on the top level.

I have finally finished the green on the back two windows. Man that is very slow going on such large windows. The last coat I did with on of the kids art paint brushes.

Dave has finished the final coat of yellow on the back too. He also installed the top timber flashings on them and the pretty scotia underneath. They are looking mighty smart now. Just picture them when the scaffold is down.

Fancy trims again

Scotia underneath. I just filled the holes and it's waiting to be painted

The green colour looks wrong in this zoomed in photo.

So that is what we are busy doing at the moment.

Cheers,
Nat

Busy weekend...

...shame it wasn't spent on the renovation.

But we had a ripper weekend as we went away without the kids, for a friends wedding. It was so nice to stay in a hotel and have some adult time.

So the only work we got done is Dave painting the back wall with 1.5 coats of yellow. It looks so good with the white trim.

We also talked about getting the stair guy to come and measure up and give us an idea of how the size of the stairs will or wont impact on the living space.

Cheers,
Nat

Back from Holidays

It's been a bit quiet at This Little Yellow House. We've been away!!

Pre-snow ball fight

We got home yesterday but already we are all missing our time away wishing we could be back there again. We are not looking forward to getting stuck back into the renovating. We kinda were enjoying being tourists and getting out to see the world.

Here are some pics of our time away.

Birthday wish, minigolf

First touch of snow

Cold hands but didn't stop her throwing snow at Daddy "Gotch!"

Loving the snow

Walking trough the snow

Cadbury factory

Cadbury factory

Cadbury factory

Cadbury factory

Cadbury factory

Heading up to the Museum of old and new art (MONA). AMAZING!!

Museum and art gallery

Got in trouble for stepping over the white line at the gallery

Getting chips at the wharf

Heidi and Harley

Cheers,
Nat