Beginning the fireplace

We have had a bit of progress with the fireplace this evening. It is 9.10pm and Dave is just packing up his tools now. He is a hard worker that is for sure. As it is getting dark early now, we asked the neighbour if he had a spare work light. He said he didn't, but a few minutes later we get a text message saying that he is driving to is father in laws place to borrow one. Wow! How nice is he? We are so lucky to have awesome neighbours around us.

So this is what happened tonight (of course his little helper was never far away, even sitting nearby to do his reading homework to Daddy whilst he worked so he didn't miss anything).

Setting out the base

Marking the roof

Putting up some studs No idea if the nail gun kept the kids awake or not.

Starting to look like my mock up picture now huh.

Tomorrow the electrician should be coming to start some work, so I am looking forward to that.

Cheers,
Nat

Upstairs ready to be stopped up

After our timber arrived on Friday morning, I came home from work to see that Dave had been busy moving it all and sorting it into piles based on length. He also started stacking it so the air could flow through it.

The electrician did show up and he ran a cable for a pendant in the stairwell which wasn't in the original plan.

Today he finished all the upstairs ceiling panels.

 He temporarily hung the fans in the boys bedroom which I am loving the look of and the kids were super excited to see these up.

As for me, I painted the last window upstairs Phew! It is the big one picture above.

So now we can get a few quotes for the plasterers to come and stop up the plaster ready for painting and adding the trim.

Next job is to start on the fireplace framing.

Cheers,
Nat

Flooring has arrived

So early this morning (7:45am), our Blackbutt solid timber flooring arrived from Urban Salvage. This is just for the raised living area and cost us $3600 which includes a 10% trade discount.

Lifting the delivery over the roses.

The gorgeous colour of our Blackbutt. Should lighten up our living room.

Dave has a day off work today so he can move it all inside, where it has to sit for 2 weeks to acclimatise before installing.

The electrician was meant to come to install light today but apparently we got our wires crossed and he is just coming to take a look at what he needs to do today. Boo to him. But next week he should begin, so not too much delay.

Cheers,
Nat

Beam me up!

So tonight after dinner, we got the first beam up.

Wow look at the speckles on the camera. NOt surprised, it is mega dusty and dirty up there right now. Between Dave cutting wood, laying insulations batts and me sanding the windows, it is pretty gross.

I did manage to get two more windows done up there. Yay! I ran out of tape though so must get more so I can keep going.

I did this one and the one you can just see next to it.

Dave also got up all the ceiling in this room and framed up and levelled Andrews room ready to go.

Cheers,
Nat

The log fire has arrived

What a great way to finish off a Friday. 4:30pm the guy came to deliver our new fireplace.

It was really heavy but with the help of a hand truck they managed to get it inside. I just want to rip open all those boxes and put it all together, but I must resist.

This week we have arranged for Dave's uncle (a plumber) to come and run the gas line under the floor so we can have the pipe sticking up in place before he lays the timber floor on Anzac Day

Have a productive weekend everyone.
Cheers,
Nat

Going to be a long week

We have set ourselves a big task. We need to get all the upstairs ceiling and beams up before next Friday. So we have about 9 nights to get it all done. Why? Because the electrician is booked in for that day and he will need that ceiling done to install the fans and lights.

So Dave is packing out and levelling the rafters now and has borrowed a metal plank from work to use to reach the area above the stairs.

Yesterday the other two lights that we were waiting on arrived so they are all here waiting now.

Today I started painting the window in Sam's bedroom upstairs. It has had two primer coats and one top coat. So one more top coat and that will be enough.

Took me one hour to put the tape on!

Also today I cleared away the area where the fireplace will go in front of the red brick wall so we can mark out the area for the fireplace surround before we start laying the floor. That (laying the floor) will be started on the Friday too and hopefully with some help from some hired hands it will be done on the Saturday.

I must say, it is all very exciting to see it all finally coming together. Bit by bit it is taking shape and I am very pleased with the way it is looking.

Cheers,
Nat

More ceiling and stuff

Once again we didn't get much time to do much active work on the house. Saturday morning we were out organising a few things for the house. First we ventured down to Gas Central in Williamstown to order our gas log fireplace. We order a Lopi 564 HO GS which will look much like this but with a black trim instead of silver:


It is a bit different from most because it will have white pebbles on the bottom like in this picture and driftwood instead of regular logs. So it kinda looks like someone has lit a fire on a beach and I love that idea.

They said it will only take 3 days to come in from New South Wales, so yippee! ow Dave has to think about building the frame and I need to source some stone for a hearth.

After that, we went to Urban Salvage in Spotswood We got comparative prices for the reclaimed Blackbutt and the new Blackbutt like in our staircase. The new was quite a lot cheaper so we went with that. It will be delivered Friday week and Dave hopes to get a day off work to accept the delivery.

The fireplace will cost around $5,500 and the floorboards will be about $3,750 (and that is just for the back living room not the whole house).

So a very expensive weekend.

Then today we got a message that our lights and fans that we ordered on Thursday were ready to collect so I excitedly picked them up this afternoon.

 I am in love with these fans. The are going to look AMAZING! I still have two coming. One hopefully on Tuesday and the other I need to follow up when that is due.

Dave did manage to get two more pieces of ceiling up also. It gets the thumbs up from Sammy

Loving it!

Cheers,
Nat

Finalising the lights

Yesterday was my last day on Easter holidays and I wanted to make sure I had all the lights sorted out before going back to work. So I headed off to the lighting shops with my three kids in tow. I guess you can imagine how hideous my quest became. They we all a bit hyped up yet over tired after a big long weekend and light shopping was not on their to do list. I quickly became anxious and stressed and even more so after my littlest left her pillow at the first shop and we had to go back again.

I ordered one light at Early Settler.


Hmmm ..... it has been removed from their website now. Hope that isn't a bad sign as they are ordering it in for me. It was on sale. Was $399 and I got it for $279.

The next one I bought was from an online store called Cape Code Designs and was also on sale. Was $299 and I paid $199 plus $25 postage. Not sure how long it will take to arrive but hope it is quick.

The next ones are all from Beacon Lighting. I was really struggling with the pendants for the kitchen island. I initially had my heart set on these from The Block Shop.





But after some poor customer service from them, I changed my mind.

I asked my neighbour to come down and help me decide. She is doing he own renovation at the moment so we had a great time chatting about paint and lights and layouts. We came up with these:

I need two for over the island bench. They are a bit more modern that I had in mind but these were the best we could find.

Then for outside the back door, I am getting 2 of these:





















Then the last decision was the fans. David wanted those big tropical ones that look like big palm fronds. But I thought they would look too cluttered on our lower ceiling. He is trusting my judgement and was happy with my alternate choice. We thought something that looked like propellers  would work well too. We found this from the Josh and Jenna range:

The best part is we got them all at an amazing price thanks to a contact that he made through a previous customer whose house he worked on. Thanks David!

It sure pays to have people who know people. If we had bought them in store it would have cost us $1894 (and that was already with the 25% lighting discount at the moment, so full price was $2066) and we are paying around $1170. So close to a $50 discount off RRP. Amazing!!

The lights we already purchased are these:





I am so excited to see them all in place now and have been walking around with a big smile all day.

In other progress, the upstairs ceiling is still getting framed and levelled.

It is getting dark in the afternoons now, so there will be more night time photos from now on.

Cheers,
Nat