More on this later...but for now, chess anybody?

Posted by Lucy

Day Twenty-five: Park St Marathon Weekend

A day of errands and jobs; all compounded by the fact that Lucy goes to Sweden on Wednesday and our team will be down 50%. I made a list of "to-do's" and "to-buy at Bunnings" and we got on with it. I began with the somewhat fool-hardy task of paint-stripping the piece of bluestone under the front window. Like absolutely everything else at the house; there is never simply one layer of anything. I burned and scraped off at least 4 thick coats of paint that covered up that elusive rock underneath, only to be met with a sticky tar-like substance that covered it all. When I tried to strip the paint of the little faces underneath, they turned out to be sandy cement and i managed a sphinx-esque nasal removal on one of them.... Basically, I kind of buggered the whole thing up- but at least the olive green is no-longer.

Lucy joined the plasterboard sheets of the bathroom ceiling, then mum and dad came over and aided with the garden and bathroom respectively. Lino is being laid in the back area on Monday, and Lucy & dad put down some cement over all the rough patches in readiness for a smooth un-furling.

I sanded, grinded and chipped the last traces of paint from the front door to ready it for painting. We then had a welcome break when Toby and Melika paid us a visit and we gave them the grand tour. There was just enough time in the day to undercoat the front door in a lurid shade of pistachio (a test pot we were toying with painting it- a definite NO) and then we sealed the exposed brick walls in the kitchen and called it quits.

Posted by Alice

 

Day Twenty-Four: Aesthetic Activity

A hive of action today as our friendly carpenter & electrician returned for a few finishing touches; adding some mini-cuts of weatherboard around the window in the kitchen, filling holes, putting up lights, attaching powerpoints and light switches. Their work is almost complete!

In the meantime, I finished the grouting, the sanding and the undercoating of the bathroom. I fixed the plasterboard around the door frame in the bathroom, cleaned the bath (it took a good half hour) and completed various odd jobs. Alice painted some more sills and made a small brick wall around a future-herb garden then buggered off to work. Dad arrived to fill the holes in the bathroom floor with cement, while mum planted the back garden with flower cuttings & ferns from granny’s garden; which looks quite promising. Long gone are the days when the garden was but a junk pile!

Posted by Lucy

Day Twenty-Three: Duo Back in Action

My first day back in overalls in three weeks: it feels good. I ceremoniously begun with a power tool; the orbital sander, which I took mercilessly to the front door.

Lucy dedicated her morning to her proferred least favourite task: grouting. According to her; (I didn't partake) squeegee-ing powdery grout into the tiny gaps between tiles and then coming back a couple of hours later to scrub all the excess out is tiresome, to say the least.

I got on with the idiot-proof job of painting all the windows in the house a slightly darker shade of "vanilla" than the walls. I managed a couple of interior doors too, and Mum came over and planted our first tree: a lemon. In cosmetic news; mum also added some more roses in the front garden and Lucy stuck up some pistachio-green "feature tiles" above the vanity in the bathroom.

Posted by Alice

Day Twenty-Two: The Bathroom (continued)

The plan for this morning was to grout the tiles in the bathroom. Alas, due to the heat it has to wait for another day, such that it will dry and set properly. So instead of actually grouting, I spent quite a while preparing for the grouting, which involved scraping all the excess glue off the tiles and out of the cracks. Riveting stuff.

The next task was to join the villaboard sheets with special tape and a fair bit of plaster. The heat did have an advantage, as it meant the plaster had dried by the end of the day and I managed to sand and undercoat the walls. I had a surprise visit from Mum later in the afternoon, and together we managed to paint our way around the skirtings in the hall. 

Posted by Lucy

Day Twenty-One: Tiling

I write this post with gluey hands after a whole day spent tiling the bathroom. It didn’t take quite the whole day, but by the time we’d worked out the best method, paused to carefully cut tap holes out of the tiles (only broke three in the process, not a bad effort), and shortened all the tiles on the bottom row, it was early afternoon.

Meanwhile, our friends James and Chris ripped down the fence and neatly stacked the wood in the garden to await collection by the rubbish removalists. Alice stopped by long enough to model the new toilet, and say à bientôt to #45 for Christmas.

Posted by Lucy 

 

 

 

Day Twenty: Everything Including the Kitchen Sink!

Today's great feat was the kitchen! While it may not be functional as yet, as the plumber has gone on holidays, the house seems almost finished with it installed. The carpenters arrived at the crack of dawn and within two hours the kitchen had been assembled. When dad arrived later in the afternoon we put the glass in the window, now the kitchen is practically complete!

Whilst the carpenters were at work, I painted the woodwork in the living room and then mum and I applied the final coat of paint to the walls. Dad and I set up the tiling in the bathroom, and then finished attaching the villaboard to the frame of the bath. Tomorrow's plan is to clear the yard (the rubbish removalist is coming) and to tile the bathroom.

Posted by Lucy