Fluffy! Muddy!

Here's a bit of an image dump to show how we've progressed with the renovations. I took an annual leave day on Monday to be home to give some direction (read that as get in the way and ask annoying questions) to the insulation people and the electricians. Our insulation guys arrived pretty early in the morning to get started before the roof got too hot. Can't say I envy the job they had to do, it would have been scorching on a tin roof and it didn't sound like easy work.



While they were up on the roof banging our sheets away I was indoors pointing out where we wanted our fans, lights and new GPOs installed. The ceiling fan in the bedroom is an absolute treat and we're excited about getting some extra power points for use. Especially in the bathroom as we bought a new electric toothbrush on the weekend. :)

Most of the roof had to be lifted to stuff our glasswool batts in, though they just strung them up in the garage. They'll stay that way until our builder gets around to sheeting the room.



Our other big delivery was a huge skip for the concrete and earth to be ripped up on Tuesday. We made good use of it ourselves of course in the mean time, getting rid of some spare boxes and a huge mound of tree cuttings.



Tuesday morning was a very early start for the builders. So early in fact that I actually had to wave at one out the window when I woke up at 5:20am. Won't see me at work that early nosiree, but great for us. We just need to remember that the windows into the bathroom and toilet aren't nearly as opaque as we think.

I was biting my nails at work all day as the weather radar showed huge storms across Brisbane in the afternoon. I was fully expecting a mud pit in the yard and a flooded lounge room from misplaced roof sheets. It did turn out to be pretty muddy when we got home but not as bad as it could have been. Grateful that we bought a spare change of shoes to get through that slop though.



The backyard has had all the levels dropped and holes dug for reinforcing and posts. You can actually see on the left how far they've dug down to drop our ground level below the ant capping and for the slab to come. They also obviously got a start on the new utility room, starting to cut out the door frame. If all goes well then this whole area will be concrete by the weekend.



The other bonus we have from removing the earth is we got our ground levelled off in the back. A bunch of trees that we didn't want also fell victim to the digger and it's bizzare looking over so much space. There'll be heaps of room for the clothes line and garden beds to come.



Very exciting and not bad for Day 1. Expect more photos to follow.

Fan of Games

Phew, we've had a quite a productive weekend. Firstly I'm pleased to say that we've officially signed the contract with our builder so there's no turning back now. One would argue I suppose that turning our backyard upside down would have been the point of no return but there's something final about putting your mark to paper. Unfortunately the job won't actually start until the week after (officially on the 13th of October) so we have to put up with unworked ground for a little while more.



The fans and lights that we ordered also came in this weekend, so we dumped all that in the garage we just cleared last week. Great timing as we have a sparky coming through on the 12th to install some of the lights, fans and GPOs inside the house. This will all be happening on the same day that we're having insulation batts installed in the roof to help deal with the upcoming summer heat. Rather nice as the insulation is largely subsidised by the Australian government, score!

Not content with the amount of money we're already throwing into the house, I somehow thought it would be appropriate to pick up something I've been eyeing for a while... a Playstation 3. One of the new discounted Slim versions that is. To be fair, I've been saving up my pocket money for this for months now (or some other lust worthy gadget) so this shouldn't affect our renovation coffers.



We got a reasonable deal on it and picked up Little Big Planet as well as Metal Gear Solid 4 to play. We had a taste of LBP at Kath and Andrew's one night so we knew it would be wicked fun. It's been a while since I've played an MGS game so I'm a little pathetic for now but hope to improve with practice. At least I have a full collection now of consoles and can look forward to great stuff like God of War 3 and Final Fantasy XIII.

Speaking of Final Fantasy, I stumbled across this little video the other day and was extremely impressed. It's basically a mashup with the Dead or Alive and Final Fantasy girls having a big melee. Great choreography for a fan made video and certainly epic in scale. I'm a bit of a sucker for these things.



This is actually the second in a series (the first can be seen here) but it's the longest with the largest cast. Oh and of course Tifa kicks butt once more so I'm obviously pleased, although I was a little torn between cheering for her and Hitomi. The others in the series are certainly worth watching as well and I'm eager to see more.

Just one more game related video. I've somehow managed to miss the announcement of a little game called Torchlight. It's by the same people who did Hellgate London, which I thought was a disappointment. This on the other hand looks quite promising and I shouldn't have too long to wait before finding out for myself as it'll be released on the 27th of this month. Something to tie me over till Diablo 3 comes out.



Alright, now back to playing games. :)

Clearing the Garage

There are a heap of small jobs to do in preparation before the builder starts work, so this weekend we got into tackling the mess in our garage. A collection of suitcases, gardening tools and boxes of forgotten trinkets lined the back of the room, largely untouched since they were dumped there all those months ago. They would have likely remained there too if we weren't forced to make way for the upcoming conversion of this room into a new store/utility area.


Sorting out the junk didn't take too long though I did have to suppress my hoarding reflex. Some items that made the cull have been lying around "just-in-case" for close to ten years, including my rollerblades from college, a chin up bar that Alison has been trying to throw out since we met and my good old playstation 2. Perhaps this is a fine excuse to get a playstation 3...


What we decided to keep stuffed into boxes and stored in the lockup area under the house. We no longer have easy access to the bicycles or the lawn mower though I'm sure that won't be a problem given the current state of the garden.


Speaking of our back yard, the holes and pipes have all been backfilled now. It still looks rather bleak and the ground is alarmingly soft in some areas but at least we don't have to worry about falling into a pit of poo. Only bummer is that they didn't setup our washing line again as they said they would, though I suppose it might be best delayed until the ground is levelled off. Not like we can hang clothes out in our dust bowl anyway.