Removed the old laundry wall

We have been waiting for the plumber to come back for weeks now. All we needed was for him to cap off the old pipes to the washing machine and sink. He sent a text last week saying he'd come on Thursday or Friday. Dave cheekily sent him a text this morning telling him he'd be home after 2pm to try to guilt him into coming. It worked! He knocked on the door at 4pm and I was very surprised.

I swear it took longer for Dave to walk to the front to turn off the water than it did for him to do the capping.
Here is it capped off:

After he left, Dave popped out to grab some timber and said we would remove wall tonight.

Well I couldn't wait so I ripped it down while he was gone. So now it looks like this.

See Sammy playing Minecraft up the ladder.

  And from the other angle.

So it is getting closer to being ready for the staircase next week.

After dinner, we finished painting the back wall. I did as high as I could reach and Dave did the rest. One coat down, three to go.

Cheers.
Nat

Painting and sanding and stuff

So during this week I got stuck into filling and sanding the back of the house on the lower level. Tonight Dave finished off the sanding and is currently (8:45pm) putting an undercoat on.

The little bit I got painted the other day

Painting up the ladder

But on a more exciting note, the staircase guy called yesterday to give us an update on the status of the staircase building. He said the blackbutt treads are all cut, the stringers are doing and now they are working on the posts. They said it could be installed early to mid NEXT WEEK!!  Oh my goodness this is so very exciting and I can't wait that long. I hope it looks as good as I imagine and I hope I am not disappointed. Eek that is a bit scarey at the same time as being exciting.

I am watching The Block right now and saw in last nights reveal that the winners used blackbutt on their feature wall and when I saw it I was thrilled that we are doing blackbutt. It was gorgeous and the judges loved it too.

Cheers,
Nat

Budget update

One thing I haven't really mentioned in this whole process is the cost.

We went into this extension without a real idea of what it would actually cost. The banks wouldn't lend us any money because we were owner builders. And any other rough guides to pricing were based on builders quotes which obviously would be a lot more than doing it ourselves.

So last night I sat down and updated our spreadsheet with all our receipts. I hadn't done this for about 6 months so it took a while. I am sure some receipts have got lost along the way and I may have missed a few other things I'm sure. However the running cost to date is about $67,500. We are at lockup now so I think we are both pleased about the amount it has cost us. We still have about another $40-60,000 of work to do including the fittings. So, we'd love to come out of this under $120,000.

Then we can just take our time saving for new furniture after all the hard work is done. Then I suppose we will re-landscape the backyard and save for that spa that Dave wants so badly.

It will be interesting to get the house valued at the end of it all also.

Cheers,
Nat

Fans for the boys rooms

Today we made a trip, kids and all, out to Early Settler to look and their fans. They have a sale on until the end of January where you Buy 1, get one Free!!  Gotta jump on that deal.

I just love that shop and saw so many other things I'd love to buy for the house. Like these:

I could go crazy in there and spend so much money.

Dave wasn't thrilled with my chose of fan but he trusted my judgement and said to get them. So they cost $249 each so we saved $249 thanks to this sales. Bonus, the kids love them. That's a win!
We chose the Newport fan and light in reversible walnut/silver blades and brushed nickle body.

 

And here they are in our possession.

So that was a bit of fun for the weekend.

Other than that, Dave is still working on levelling and battening out the living room ceiling.

 

Yesterday, I got the kids to help with sanding the weatherboards outside. Sammy was totally loving it and wouldn't even stop for a break.

Andrew on the other hand (see in the green T-shirt), last about 5 minutes before retreating inside. Just not his thing I guess. Even Heidi was helping more than him, seen below doing some painting.

So I was working on getting a coat of paint on the back weatherboards. They need a lot of prep though. They are starting to bubble and hence the need to sand them all flat again, then we had to punch and fill the nail holes and then wait for the putty to dry before sanding again and finally getting some paint on. Mind you I only got a tiny patch painted in the end. I am hoping tomorrow will be more production.

Have a Happy Australia Day tomorrow mates!

Cheers,

Nat

Declutter time: Linen closet

I love nothing more than a good declutter. I have been following the Peter Walsh 31 day challenge and have been loving it. Even though today's challenge was to do the sock and undie drawers, I wanted to do more as I get a buzz from it.

So I tackled the linen closest which was getting a mess.

 

As you can see, this is also my gift wrapping station, which after Christmas was a mess.

So I took everything out, and sorted the things I wanted to keep and things I wanted to donate. Here is my pile of giveways. I have a lady coming to collect some of these who was in need of sheets as all hers had holes in them.

Then I folded them all nicely and put labels on the shelves.

After that it looked much better but I still needed to do the gift wrap.

I collected like items together and stored all gift bags in one big gift bag in the bottom of the closet. So now it looks all neat like this.

Now I feel much better everytime open it. Ahhh... It is amazing how much more relaxing my life seems when things are in order.

Have you been doing any post Christmas decluttering?

Cheers,
Nat

Weekend weatherboarding

This weekend we didn't do a lot of work, but what we did we were glad to see the back of. The top floor is now fully weatherboarded. Granted w have a few holes to fill and touch ups top coats to do on the last boards but apart from that it is now locked up. Woo hoo!

Dave had to first remove the east scaffold and that I showed you in the last photo of my last post. Then he took all day Saturday to install the very trick last 4 weatherboards. I really wish I took a photo of the shape he had to cut out of some of the boards. They looked like a dragon shape.

So now it looks like this:

Then Sunday, we pretty much took the day off because we went to the Bundoora Children's farm to celebrate Heidi's birthday who turned  today.

Biggest cheesy smile she could muster.

Though around dinner time, Dave and the kids decided to pack the levels for the ceiling in the new loungeroom. I guess that is the next job on the list. I have no idea if we have plan of attack for the progress from now on, but I think Dave just does the least boring thing next.

Cheers,
Nat

Plaster, scaff and windows

In the last few days we haven't done a lot. Just a few little things.

Dave put some more plaster up. This time in the stairwell.

Dave wants to do lining boards on this little ceiling as a test

Tomorrow after work, the sparkie is coming to remove some live wires so we can plaster more of the stairwell.

We put the last window in upstairs and finished all the touch up painting.
If you look closely at the photos, you can see Dave photo bombing in the window.

So it was finally time to start taking the scaffold down on that side, which we did tonight. I say we, but that was all Dave; I didn't help at all.

So now you can see the blue spot where we need to finish the weatherboards.

Dave has been laser leveling the ceiling in th back room to start preparations for the lining boards. I am totally excited about that.

Cheers,
Nat

Post holidays update - Plastering

Hi everyone. We are both back at work now, unfortunately, so it is time to show you what we got done in the break.

Pretty much it was just a time for straightening and packing walls, insulating and hanging the plaster. I already showed you the pictures of this small window being installed and here is Dave insulating around it ready to hang the plaster.

 This is what it looks like now with the plaster on downstairs.

 Here is Dave (obviously on one of those 39 degree days by the fact he has his shirt off), straightening the back of the bathroom wall. He also double insulated with sound proof insulating to stop you hearing any bathroom noises in the living room.

 

And this is it with the plaster on the bottom half. He has to run some special metal channel on top of this plaster where it meets the top plaster to stop any movement from cracking it. Haven't done that bit yet.

 

Here is the little alcove that was going to be a study desk but I think it will be too dark now, so may just be a cupboard or something.

 We also installed the other small window.

 With these two now installed it seems nice and bright up that end now. However I am a bit worried about not having any windows up the other end. Hmmm.. that could have been a mistake in design by me.

 We had to get down the narrow sideway to install this. We ran into trouble when the hot water unit was in the way, so we had to unscrew it from the wall and shift it and then put it back again.

 

But now with the plaster on it, it looks like this.

 Upstairs is all plastered now, apart from that spot above the door which he needs my help with. Maybe we will do that tonight as it is raining outside so can't paint the exterior.

The two boys rooms

The kids retreat

The stairwell

The stairwell

 So that is what the place looks like right now.

On other fronts, the stair guy should be back from holiday this week so I am hoping he calls us soon with some good news. Also, the east, upper, outside wall is almost complete and ready to take the scaffold down. But this rain isn't helping.

Cheers,

Nat

Fireplace mood boards

So on Facebook I mentioned that we will be changing our plan for the fireplace design. Originally we wanted a stone fireplace with big wooden mantel and plaster over the redbrick wall. So something like this:

However, Dave was getting concerned about the weight of the stone on the floor. We aren't building on a slab so have to be careful about the weight. All along Dave has wanted to keep the brick wall and not cover it up. So I am coming up with a new plan....

I have create a few mood boards based on a red brick wall and blackbutt floors. In this first one it is with a panelled fireplace in a colour similar to the mortar in the brick wall.

The next room is with a wood look fireplace and a white mantle piece which would blend in with the rest of the white trim in the room.

The last room is with a blue/grey paneled fireplace.

I can actually picture them all in the space. These are just some preliminary ideas so we may come up with something totally different but I would be happy with any of these.

Which one do you like best?

Or do you have any good ideas?

Cheers,

Nat