Plastering all done upstairs

 Talk about a busy few weeks. Oh man! Last week was madness. So much going on at work and at home.

A few more thing have happened. On Friday we had the plumber and the electrician here while I was running around looking for new car after ours is in need of too many repairs. The electrician hooked up more power points and the special point for the fireplace. Th plumber hooked up the gas line and got the fireplace working. I picked up the bluestone for the fireplace hearth which meant that Dave was able to continue with the floorboards.

We are all so in love with our new Lopi fireplace It looks AMAZING and the heat is devine on these cold Melbourne days. The kids love to run out from the shower and get warm in front of the fire.

 

Here is the hearth going in:

 The the plasterers have been here most night last week and last night, stopping up and sanding the walls upstairs and the stairwell.

This was to stop the dust coming down.

 And here is the upstairs finished. I now need to vacuum up all the dust. Yuck!

So really we are ready for painting and I think the paint shhop has a 20% off Haymes paint sale so we should buy some!

Cheers,
Nat

We're getting floored

I mentioned earlier in the week that I was beginning the staining of the staircase handrail. I have done one coat on the whole thing and have started the second coat. I am thinking it will need 3 coat all up.

I am loving how it is looking already.

The other thing that we began on the weekend was the floorboards in the new living area. He started off by sanding the yellow tongue flooring so it was all flat. All that water that we had on it last winter made it swell so this evened it up.

This is the first board down. You can see the timber LVL that is used as a straight edge to but the flooring against and that board under it is done last.

The glue was troweled on and then the boards nailed down. Dave was happy to be using his new t-nailer tool to make the job easier.

In action

Looking beautiful. Can't beat real timber in my opinion.

Troweling on the glue

Tomorrow after work the plasterer is meant to be coming to begin stopping up the upstairs and stairwell. Dave is rushing to finish of the plaster edges before he gets here.

Cheers,

Nat

Staining the handrail

I began a job that in been both dreading and looking forward to. Painting the staircase.

David wanted to hire a painter to do it. But I said "don't be ridiculous, that will cost a fortune. Let me do it." He didn't think that I was serious, but I don't joke about renovating. Plus I love a challenge and telling me I can't do something makes me even more determined to prove them wrong. So here I am beginning to paint the staircase, thinking gee I hope I don't stuff it up.

If you don't recall my inspiration pictures, here they are again:

This is Mel's staircase at The Inspired Room blog.

I headed off to the paint shop to look at stains and ask how would be the best way to do it. They suggested doing the staining and varnishing of the handrail first, then paint the white posts. I chose a colour by Cabots called Indian Tea. It is a stain and varnish in one product and I got the water based version.

Indian Tea

I also got some sanding sponges (these are awesome as you can wash them out and reuse them) in a 180 grit but would have liked 220 but they didn't have any.  

The first step was to sand it all and then vacuum and wash off all the dust. That took about 45mins. Then I applied the first coat and already it looked fantastic.

I will have to do at least 1 more coat to darken it up and sand it in between each coat.

I have done almost all of the first coat on the whole handrail now so hoping to get more work done on that this weekend.

After work tonight, a plaster guy came to look at the job and give us a quote. If we like the price it is possible for him to get started on Monday and have the top level done by the end of next week. How exciting is that.

We have started moving things out of the back room so Dave can start laying the floorboards this weekend. Can't wait to see what they will look like on the floor. We also need to buy the flue for the fireplace this weekend too. Busy, busy just how we love it.

Cheers,
Nat

More lights installed

It is Monday once again and while we did do some work on the weekend, it wasn't a lot because we had a few interruptions (like Mother's Day) and I wasn't feeling well.

The electrician put up the last of the lights

 They are all working now which is great to get some light in the new areas. However the powerpoints are not so we are still having to run leads around the place.

One of my requests for Mother's Day was to have the fireplace in place. First we had to lay the cement sheet on the floor, so Dave cut that to size. Luckily we got this free from an old job where they had left over pieces. They cost a lot so that was a bonus.

 Then in she went. Sorry you can't see much bit it still has the dust cover on it to protect it during installation.

Meanwhile, upstairs the rest of the beams in the retreat went up.

These will be painted white because we thought it may look too busy if they were wood stained.

Hopefully this week the plasterer will call about coming to stop-up the upstairs rooms.

Also, we aim to pick a piece of stone for the fireplace hearth.

I am so please with how it is all looking at the moment.

Cheers,
Nat

Some lights and fans installed

Before the lights could be hung, We needed to have some of the beams installed. Here they are after a big effort on Sunday.

So yesterday the electrician came to do more fit offs. He did the boys fans upstairs:

The downlights and pendant upstairs.

The gorgeous fans from the Josh and Jenna collection at Beacon Lighting.

The fireside pendants.

And the one over the dining table.

Dave needs to make a block to sit under the one for the staircase because it is a pitched roof and a fixed pole. Also tomorrow he should install the pendants over the kitchen bench. Fingers crossed he can wire them all up to be working also.

Cheers,
Nat