27/52

a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013 via Che and Fidel

He : recreates the school lily pad hopscotch on our driveway for his sister

She : really wants to do gymnastics. Here she is practicing on the home made balance beam built from bits and pieces at the construction site. 

Woolly walls,new old floors,vj sheets and colour debate - Reno Day 64

There have been some big and exciting changes for Betsy this week. For a start we have our first batch of vj sheeted walls and ceilings going up in the lounge room. And my first view outside with the bifold doors open. Hopefully this is how they will be much of the time when the weather starts to warm up.

The side lounge room wall is complete. While the ceiling has been lined with VJ (vertical join) mdf sheeting, the side wall (pine coloured section) has been completed in new tongue and groove timber boards.

Due to the thickness of the original boards, the sheeting did not match here and timber boards had to be used instead. These are made from smaller pine offcuts joined together but will look seamless when painted.

We also have lots of white woolly walls appearing as insulation goes in.

And the huge pile of reclaimed hoop pine flooring we had been carefully collecting and stashing over the last year, has been decimated as the floors have been completed in the lounge, kitchen and laundry.

At the moment they look like a real mish mash, but hopefully when they are sanded back, the true honey colour will appear.

We have some new deck handrails.

And I have been outside undercoating weatherboards and slapping on some sample pots of exterior paint. I think I have whittled it down to two contenders.

Of course, no one is in agreement over this either. Legoman and Roboboy like one of these and Feng Shui Nonna and I like the other. (Actually Feng Shui Nonna is not actually sure about the whole grey thing full stop but is still happy to provide an opinion).

It gets even more confusing when you put the same colour in a different spot and people then say they really, really don't like the colour they previously chose.

Anyway, since it's coming at me in all directions, feel free to share your opinions on this too. The lighter colour or the darker colour? Legoman wanted to canvas the builders via a poll and run with their  choice (obviously thinking that the boys would all stick together) but they have wisely chosen to stay out of it!

Weatherboards,Wires and Manolos - Reno Day 59

So this week has mainly involved the addition of lots and lots and lots of external weatherboards. Betsy, for the time being, appears to be unaware that horizontal stripes are not always flattering for a girl's figure. So, perhaps we can just keep that to ourselves until she gets a coat of paint. The other discovery for the week was some significant sagging in the old girl's, ahem, undercarriage.

We always knew the floors were wonky as any games involving marbles ended up with them all rolling in one direction towards the bathroom. Well it turns out the slope was significant enough to cause problems with our new kitchen and so Betsy underwent a day of stump levelling to the tune of about $1000. Yes, that's right. While I certainly can't afford them, it appears that Betsy has traded her sensible flats for some Manolo Blahniks.

Now, back to the planned renovation and not the (somewhat) unexpected bits costing extra money. The laundry wall has been finished too.

The kitchen window is in.

The external slider  from the family room to the deck has also been installed. This door appears to have caused drama with both design and installation but now that it is in will work well in a tricky corner and slides beautifully.

Like the bifold doors it is 2400 high and with a similar profile. This corner is where our BBQ will live so we did not want a door that folded back onto this area. Now we are just waiting on the family room window and the back door to arrive and Betsy will be at  lock up stage.

Meanwhile, the electricians spent two days this week inside stringing electrical cable. Not really much to photograph but I can assure you many hours were spent prior to their visit nutting out the details of the electrical and lighting plan. There was also some progress with the framing up in the kitchen and we had the final onsite kitchen  check measure and now work will commence on all the kitchen cabinetry.

All the new blue posts are framing up where the fridge will go. To the left of the fridge space is a small section of wall concealing a space for the microwave and some shelving. Here are my kitchen plans if this is making no sense.  We were not keen on overhead cupboards and instead the large blue framed cavity that goes up to the ceiling will be accessible from inside the pantry and will be used to store eskies and picnic hampers.

In the opposite direction we have new ceiling beams up in the family room. This room was intended to have a flat ceiling at 2.6m  high. The original part of the house has 3 m ceilings and the granny flat was 2.6 m so we always new there would be a dropped section somewhere where they joined. Our builder suggested we keep the left side of this space at 3 m (where we had the height do so) and then consider a  raked ceiling to the right of the beam. I'm not a massive fan of a raked (angled) ceiling but think in this space it might just work so we will go ahead. The slider into my sewing room has also been reversed now as well.

 So, I think as soon as the remaining door and windows are in we will have some wall linings going up next week which will be a huge change visually. Meanwhile, we are off to paint some weatherboards and hopefully choose the exterior colour.

26/52

a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013 via Che and Fidel

He : cracks himself up. Does life ever get better than being seven and doing glitter art in your Octonauts all in one pyjamas?

She : Frocks up to hose the garden, appearing a picture of innocence. Seconds later she turns the hose on her brother on this sunshiny winter day.

Half way and Plans revisited - Reno Day 52

It seems that we have reached almost half way through the predicted four month build time and looking back, the progress is huge. At the end of the week the massive span bifold doors arrived and here they are finally in position. Here is a before shot in comparison, taken from a similar angle.

And the granny flat now looks like this,

instead of this.

And we have a lot less grass and much, much more of this. (Yep, it's raining AGAIN).

But it's ok because we checked today and we have a DRY deck. So exciting.

Anyway, I thought this might be a good time to re-share the house plans. I initially posted a version of the plans almost a year back, but as I have had a few questions about the layout and making sense of it all I will do an updated version now. So for all of you who, (like me) love floor plans,

Here is the house before.

The front of the house is facing to the right. Bedrooms 1-3 and the bathroom are all getting new windows but are otherwise unchanged. There is no study as marked, it is really an entry foyer type room. We have removed the wall between Bed 4 and the old kitchen to create a much larger kitchen space. The  three rooms in the top left corner are what was essentially a granny flat, a separate structure added about 25 years ago and connected only via the deck. The rooms were narrow, with poor ventilation and for the last three years, really just used to store stuff as they were not easily accessible from the house.

Here are the current plans that we are working to.

Our main goals were to largely use the current foot print of the house (so as to not encroach into the yard), create a larger kitchen, add a second living space, move the laundry out of a cupboard in the lounge room, add a new deck which would remain dry and resolve some crazy roofline issues.

By closing in the granny flat verandah, we were able to add a separate room for the TV and create a good flow from the kitchen and deck. The only real addition to the existing footprint, was for the laundry and a small section of the family room, about 9 m2 in total. The carport has moved to the front of the house and will be a double instead of a single.

So, I hope this makes it easier to see the changes we are making to the space. If you have any questions feel free to ask away. I will try and reply within the comments section.

A grand entrance - Reno Day 50

The new front stairs in are finally in and they are exactly as I imagined. Our old stairs were quite narrow and seemed tacked on and unsuited to the house. These however, are much more befitting of Betsy and her grand room proportions. Here is a close up.

The builders had never built a set like this before. Apparently, with all the complex angles,  it took three times longer than expected. Thank goodness they were part of the fixed part of the contract.

Out the back, with a looming deadline for the deck scaffolding to be removed, we had to act quickly to get the fascia board painted on the deck roof. This would easily be five to six metres in the air and would be very tricky to reach with just a ladder.

I chose Colourbond Woodland Grey for the gutters and the fascia is Dulux Vivid White. It is incredibly satisfying to see something painted to completion.

Meanwhile, the builders started installing windows and lining the deck walls.

At the far end of the granny flat, the weatherboards are going up to complete the end wall. Soon there will be no remnants of the verandah that was here before.

Window frames started to arrive and several have been installed. There are boxes and boxes of glass louvre blades lying around too. That's the pantry window leaning up against the wall.

There have been significant behind the scenes dramas with the enormous kitchen window splash back. Due to some communication issues between the window company and the builder, the window ordered was too small. By the time this was realized early last week, it was too late to alter as we were informed that the glass had already been cut and the window was complete.

As I stewed over this less than ideal news I was contemplating whether I could live with the incorrect window or whether an entire new order would need to be placed, possibly at significant cost. By some miracle, five days later we discovered that the glass had actually not been cut and it would be a simple and cost free matter to enlarge the frame. Crisis averted. Here is the new and correct sized window waiting to be installed next week.

Meanwhile, the last minute laundry window addition  has turned out to be one decision that I am really happy about. This section of wall currently faces onto the driveway and street but will end up obscured from view when the carport roof is built.

And some new interior work is visible too. The hallway down to the spare room/ playroom is open now and the frame is in ready for the new louvres here too. Coincidentally, this window is directly opposite the newly created hallway and should give us good cross flow.

The pair of massive sliding windows salvaged from the demolition yard are in.

And the massive louvre frame for the lounge room is also in and the wall linings are happening. I think it is well and truly time for the old washing line to visit the skip.

Anyway, we are off to make a start on painting that deck ceiling. Hopefully the weatherboards start to go up next week. Then I'll really have to knuckle down and make a final decision about the exterior house colour. I think I'm 95% there.

25/52

a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013 via Che and Fidel

He : is a stick collector from way back. I think he has been finding and dragging home sticks since he was around two. This is the current favourite and it has been lovingly sanded and oiled while Legoman does the same to our new outdoor table.

She : loves creatures and wants to make them all pets. This caterpillar came home in  a special carrier with a little stick for climbing and leaves for munching.