A Flurry of Activity

Not sure how I missed writing a post last week, but now I have a heap of banal events to regurgitate. So let's get cooking!

To kick off, a little background news. Andrew's been working on getting into fast world of boob jobs and facial reconstructions for a while now, no doubt with the intention to earn a metric f$@k load of moolah to pay for that Maserati he's been eyeing. Not that we'd expect anything less from our boy genius, but he's been offered a plastics rotation in the magical far off land of Adelaide, and while we couldn't be happier for him it does mean that our steadfast Brisbane comrades will be packing up their dog to leave us for the time being. Such bittersweetness.

Anyways, the reason for the exposition is to provide some context around our latest visit to their lovely home with camera gear in tow. I was "commissioned", if an amateur shutterbug could be bold enough to use the term, to take some snaps of their abode for the impending rental listing. All faults represented belong to the photographer rather than the subject of course.



It was a rather cloudy day so I really wish I had a proper flash gun and slaves to light the rooms and outside properly. I've always worked with natural light up till now but I'm starting to think I should be investing in gear that will allow me to control my lighting environment better. There's only so much that my meagre photoshop skills can fix in post processing after all. I found balancing exposure of the warm indoor lights with the cool light of an overcast day to be especially challenging.

As for our own house, things have progressed quite nicely in the last fortnight. In fact, as of today we are officially out of the realm of work that needs to be done by tradies (w00t no more dirty shoe prints on our floors!). The sink we've been waiting for has finally turned up so the plumber came back to finish off the downpipes, toilet and sinks. An added bonus was that he stirred up the pipes when installing the hot water regulator, which has dislodged a large collection of rust and almost doubled our water pressure. Still getting used to the idea of being able to use more than one tap at a time.



The painters also got started last week and have done a great job of matching the colours. All the joins, nail holes and splinters from the builders have been fixed so the final result looks stunning. Amazing what a fresh coat of paint does to a place.



Unfortunately we'll still have to get up on the ladder to do the touchups for the patio and car port rafters ourselves. Something that I'm saving for the Christmas break. The rest of the work is up to us anyway so roll 'em sleeves up and prepare to get dirty.

To cover a large expanse of bare concrete in front of the deck, Alison and I ordered this rather nifty outdoor rug from America. It's made of 95% recycled plastic, presumably from soft drink bottles according to the manufacturer, and can be hosed off with gay abandon. I normally wouldn't be one to choose such a garish pattern, but Alison was rather smitten with the design so I relented. Bollywood it may be but it's still preferable to the dull harsh grey of slab. The rest of the patio will be selectively concealed by supple furniture to drape ourselves over on warm summer days.



Rusty has also become an outdoors dog, adding his charming hues to the mix. I'm not entirely convinced if that's going to be his permanent post but it'll do for now until the vegie patch comes along. It's nice to be greeted by a friendly face as you walk around the side of the house.



John and Sheena came down on the weekend for another working bee, this time with the aim to lay some pavers around the side. We ended up building a path from the back of the patio to the clothes line as I was rather keen to have a line in place to mark we will need to turf. I toyed with the idea of paving the whole area under the clothes line, but I think John and Alison's idea of using mulch will prove to be far more maintainable.

Through this whole DIY building process, I'm either going to bulk up muscles I've long since forgotten or break my back in two. Depends on my bone density and whether my suffering spinal column decides to give out first I guess. Boy were those bloody pavers heavy, and we even got the smaller ones which should have been easier to install. It looks like a small path, but we still had to lug over a tonne (that's not hyperbole by the way) of bedding sand and 44 of these 400x400 pavers around the back of the house.



Placing the pavers was slow going initially, but the time we took seemed to diminish in proportion to our increasing aptitude, or perhaps we became less stringent with each merciless wave of lethargy. By the end of it we were slamming the bastards down just to finish before it started to rain. One hopes that traffic will settle some of the more wobbly pieces at the end.

The garden has received a bit more attention from us as well, and we're proud to announce that the front yard is finally complete! Next to the carport we've planted a line of Murrayas and scattered about nine bags of heavy chip bark to tidy things and dissuade weeds from joining the party. Hopefully this will grow into a reasonable hedge in a few years.



The last small garden bed next to the path was a little tricky to plant due to the severe slope. Given that it was so close to the concrete I didn't want to put in anything with invasive roots, but it had to get enough height eventually to peek over the crest. In the end we've opted for a trio of Gardenias at the back of the bank, with a skirt of blue Agapanthus to compliment the cream flowers. It'll take a lot more water than some of the other plants but at least it's right next to the tap.



So work continues. Christmas is just around the corner and then we'll get cracking into some of the beds and jobs around the back of the house. I'm especially looking forward to putting in our line of ornamental gingers so that our patio area can get some greenery. It's been ironic that all our hard work thus far has been for the area of the house that we hardly use. Still, it's certainly nice to be able to drive in to this.



Apologies for the vertigo inducing panorama. No, we don't have a magic front gate that wraps around itself.

Cleaned and Turfed

Started talking to painters about quotes to get the externals and newly plastered walls painted. I know we should probably embrace the whole home-owner renovation experience and get our hands dirty, but in truth I'm just lazy and would likely guff it up. We got two quotes back and one seemed ridiculously cheap so we decided to go with that one. The painter as it turns out is the owner's son and seems to have undercosted the whole job. Let's hope that his painting is better than his cost estimation.

With most of the messy work out of the way and cheap paint coming along, Alison and I forked out for some boys to give the house a good clean and scrub. Yes another job that I should be manning up to do but hey, I value my time. Watching the water turn grey as they brushed the weather boards gave me a strange sense of satisfaction. There was a moment of panic when I realised that the jet spray of soapy water was flooding the house through the many cracks in the doors and windows, but nothing that a scramble for towels and frantic mopping couldn't fix.



Saturday was another big slug fest in the garden. The mission this week was to get the front yard turfed and presentable. To begin with, John showed us how to rake up the left over rocks and get the ground levels right in preparation for the soil to be delivered. Tiring work, but before long we had a trailer load of left over construction rubble to be taken to the dump later.

Then the good soil was delivered and had to be wheelbarrowed and raked across the area to be turfed. We left a couple of strips bare for garden beds to come.


Just when we'd pretty much finished getting the ground ready, this huge truck pulled up with piles upon piles of good Sir Walter turf. Our two pallets were dropped off and we immediately got to laying the strips.


We've always liked Sir Walter as it seems to stay green in the worst conditions. Particularly important in during the current drought. I'm also rather fond of the texture on your feet as the blades are wide and bouncy. Should be nice and soft to lie down on one hopes, as long as those nasty green ants don't decide to spoil the party.

This stuff turned out to be a lot heavier than we'd expected so our arms got a real workout. Especially when you're paranoid about getting good coverage and keeping the lines straight. We even had a pleasant surprise when our neighbour Manni donned his gardening gloves and came over to help us move some left over dirt to the back. Much appreciated as we were exhausted by that point. It took a while but we got there in the end.



John's estimation for what we'd need was scarily accurate, but even so we ended up with three strips left over. Not keen on wasting expensive turf we thought we'd have a teaser strip for the backyard so that we could imagine what things will look like eventually. Looks rather smart next to our new outdoor dining table I think.



We're going to have to water the lawn pretty frequently over the next month. Initial soakings are taking forever to do but it's important to get the roots to grow deep and establish themselves. Good thing there's a relaxation on water restrictions at the moment for home owners installing new turf.



On Sunday we popped out to the markets to pick up a tray of mondo grass to plant on the border between the turf and driveway. We packed them in fairly densely so hopefully it won't take too long for the clumps to join up.



We still need to get the garden bed next to the car port planted up to give the cars some shade from the morning sun (thinking a hedge of moraeas at the moment) as well as another bed next to the side path down to the lock up area, but overall the front yard is pretty much finished. Backyard is the next big job...

Lights and Islands

Everything except for the plumbing is done now. Apparently that blasted sink is still making its way on the delivery route from Melbourne to Sydney, so with luck we'll have it by the end of this week. At least we have working lights now in the front and back. Alison and I have had a couple of BBQ dinners in the new area and aside from the bugs we love it. I'm sure we'll get used to sharing the outdoors with the wildlife.


You wouldn't think that a sensor light would be difficult to setup, but the one we bought must have been the finnickiest of the bunch. Half the time it was picking up a bus driving past on the street but refused to register the two of us waving our arms in front of it. I think I got it right in the end, though it only comes on once you turn the headlights off when driving in.

Coming up to Friday was pretty busy as Flight Centre flew all the technology guys out to Hamilton Island for a weekend conference. Working on a weekend isn't usually all that flash, though with a view like this from the room I found it pretty hard to complain too much.



Friday was a free day so we made the most of it on the beach with a bit of volleyball, swimming and frisbee. Staying true to Flight Centre culture, a fair few people jumped into the pool bar and proceeded to get really sloshed. Not really in the mood to get hammered this early in the trip, some of us decided to brave the 2.5K trek up to Passage Peak to enjoy the view. The last 900 metres or so were absolutely brutal (at least I thought so) and my camera bag was feeling very heavy by the end of it. Much cursing and sweating later we reached the end of the line and stopped to rest and take in the view.



Saturday was the day of the actual conference. The overall theme was "Challenge" and was par for the course with cheesy corporate planning days. One thing that Flight Centre do well with conferences though is organising guest speakers to give talks. This time we got to listen to Jesse Martin retell his solo unassisted voyage around the world. Pretty fascinating tale really, though if I were being cynical I would point out that he's looking for more channels to push the DVD about his trip.

The conference venue was remarkable, overlooking the mouth of the harbour and the air strip so we got to see boats and planes come and go all day. There may have been quite a lot of traffic, but this is still the prettiest intersection I've ever seen.



Saturday night turned out to be fairly boozy once more, though I retired early to get up the next morning at try my hand at sea kayaking. Not to say that I didn't down a few beers along the way. Wouldn't want to go against the grain after all.



Back at work again now and still feeling tired from the weekend. Got to get my energy levels back up though as we're going to be turfing the front yard this Saturday. No rest for the wicked!

Almost there...

Argh! It's frustrating when the finish line is in sight but it seems to take forever to cross it. Due to a series of communication snafus, we didn't get any electrical or plumbing work done this week. The sparkies for some reason were under the impression that the job was done, even though the fans, lights and external power points haven't been touched yet. As for the water works, the wrong sink was ordered and would have been far too big for our toilet. At least the electricals should be done tomorrow, but we'll be without down pipes, the sink and the new toilet for a while yet.

There's not much left to do with the actual building. All the doors have been installed now in the store, which is a relief as we can finally lock up the house.



The old front door was sticking a fair bit so we got that replaced too. Since this was pretty much the last bit of work to be done indoors (aside from one more set of light switches), I immediately ripped off all the drop sheets and rolled out the carpet again. It's nice to have the place feel like home again. At least until we have to start painting everything.



To kick the weekend off we started with the final trip to the dump. It was a big load but we got there without incident thanks to John's clever use of rope and a cargo net.



With the rubbish out of the way, we dove into the designated project of the week. In this case the corner garden bed. We knew we'd like to have some shade from here eventually so the big feature will be the red grevillea at the back. It's a little small and whispy now but this should hopefully grow to provide cover. To fill out the rest of the area we planted an assortment of agapanthus, grasses and a giant yucca we had growing in a pot. The old lilly pillies behind may not survive but we're still willing to leave them in and give them a go. Then it was all covered up in our favourite mulch, hoop pine. We think the results are rather fetching.



Next we headed along the retaining wall. To get started, John filled a layer of river rocks to help keep the dirt from seeping through. Then we shovelled in filler from the holes that were dug in the corner garden bed, before topping up with some nicer soil from the landscape suppliers down the road. To break up the wooden fence we planted a line of stripey white liriope. Hopefully they'll spread to meet each other.



Tomorrow should see the last bits of the building finished, as we just have the patio out the back to seal, a few touch ups and the front gate to be rehung. Oh, and the lights of course but we've had our hopes up before. Then it'll just be the plumbing. Come on, let's finish this sucker already!

Some Assembly Required

Not too much work done last week on Thursday and Friday. I was hoping for the lights to be installed by the sparkies in time for the weekend, but I guess they must have hit a snag or two as we could only see a few power points installed and wires tidied up. At least most of the messy work is finished and the utility room is starting to look nicer now that the plastering is done and the skirting boards have been installed. Won't be long before the real doors are put in and that old fly screen can be tossed out.



In between waiting for the plaster to dry, the builders also managed to find time to put up the gate on our storage room so that's now complete and ready to be used. It's currently full of their tools so I guess I'll just have to wait a little longer before chucking my gear in there.



Seeing as we're on the tail end of this whole project, I rolled my sleeves up to get the landing sanded and stained while the builder's decking oil was still available. It's expensive stuff to buy for yourself otherwise! Sanding by hand isn't especially fun but it didn't take as long as I thought it would. It's amazing what a difference it makes too.



A second coat the next day and we have a pretty nice looking spot to sit and have a cuppa in the morning. At least until we get some real furniture for outside.



Since moving into the house we've been struggling with the lack of in built wardrobes in the bedrooms. Up till now we've had to scurry in varying states of undress between rooms to get changed, as we've never had space in the main bedroom to store clothes. Sick of this situation I put my foot down and cajoled Alison into trekking out to Ikea to get some bed side drawers.

We've been looking around for a while and this set of two fit the room perfectly. As a bonus the tall skinny one has a mirror on a hinge for morning tie routines. One of the few bits of Swedish furniture we've bought that didn't need an alan key, just stupidly difficult screws to drill into wood. I have a corker of a blister now to show for my efforts.



In hindsight, I think we should have gotten the three drawer for beside the bed as we can't see the clock anymore. Might pick one up and move the four drawer into another room.

If all goes well the work should be done by the end of this week. Fingers crossed we'll be able to start cleaning up our house properly this weekend!

Deck and Gardening

We've hit a bit of a speed bump with the renovations. Our builder has an urgent job that needs to get done with his guys which means that we lost two days this week and likely three from the next, putting a halt to what was supposed to be the last big push to finish. Shame, but at the same time we've embraced this opportunity to have a break from building mess and banished the sea of drop sheets that we've had to put up with for the past three weeks.

Even so, three solid days of building have produced results from the last update. We now have a new deck/landing from the dining room and laundry to feed onto the out door area, and the BBQ section is half finished with just the sink and the storage gate to go in.


The storage area behind has taken shape as well which has already proven to be a nice screen for the toilet and bathroom. I'd imagine that this will eventually house a table tennis table along with handy tools and perhaps sporting stuff.



The last new hole in the house has been cut out, opening up the entrance way to the old garage. Three concrete steps were poured though the sliding door has not been fitted on as yet. It's a hole for bugs to flutter through though we haven't seen too many in the house thankfully.



They even managed to finish sheeting the new room up which certainly brightens the look. Plastering will be the next job I suppose before lights get installed. Apologies for the angle but I had to lean over partially cured concrete to take the photos.


Not content to have work on the house stall on account of others, we decided to take matters into our own hands (once again with the help of John and Sheena) and get stuck into the garden. The mission on Saturday was to clear a bunch of rubbish from the renovation by taking a couple of loads to the dump, as well as sorting out the eastern bank of our front yard.

Alison and John made short work of an assortment of wood cut offs, doors and concrete blocks and carted off close to a metric tonne (!) worth of rubbish to the Willawong tip. In the mean time Sheena and I strapped on the gardening gloves and removed the sad line of lilly pillies to make room for some Xylosma saplings. We've been told that these should handle the clay better and grow to give us a bit of shade and privacy.



To retain the bank and keep weeds from growing, John and I popped out to the local landscaping suppliers to get a few trailer loads of Hoop Pine bark to spread over our newly sculpted and planted area. I absolutely love this stuff as it's got a funky fresh scent and gives you a neat forest floor look.



It was a hard day of work in the sun but I think the results were worth it. Alison and I also finished up by planting a few more Agapanthus further up the bank. We'll have to get more Hoop Pine and plants to fill up the area but by the time we're finished I think it's going to be a nice looking area that I don't need to mow (Yay!).



To celebrate we thought we'd invite Kath and Andrew over to have a look at the place and break in the BBQ. I needed a hand to figure out what to do with the whole meat on hot plate cooking stuff (and John kindly offered to show me the ropes), but I was very happy with the result. The Beefeater puts out a lot more heat than the old one we had in Annerley and I finally got a chance to use the tongs I got for Christmas. All up a very fun and productive weekend.

Roofs, windows and painting

Yet another busy week of exciting changes. There were a few showers which threatened to slow down work but the builders managed to get the roofs up on the car port and patio by Thursday even with the rain. The size seems a little excessive though I'm sure we'll find a way to fill the space.



We came home pretty late on Friday but were still keen to see the changes even in the dark. Our old garage has been framed up properly, the sliding door from the dining room installed and the toilet sealed off. I think the area feels a lot more like a room now that the walls are squared up (I always hated that cavity there). That sliding door lets so much light into our living room now and really opens it up, love it.



The yucky old garage door has been taken off and replaced by boards and a new window, which lets heaps of light in to what was a dark and dingy room. I'd expect that the wall on the right will be taken down next week to be replaced by a sliding door into the entry way. Oh, and the walls and ceiling sheeted of course.



The new toilet is taking shape nicely too. It's going to be cramped but there should still be enough space for a suite and micro basin. The back wall and window are in and the door that used to lead out from the entry way has been sealed off. The outline to the right will lead to the new "utility room".



Alsie and I had some homework this weekend as well. The hardwood battens to be used on our little storage area behind the barbeque would need to be coated with decking oil and we "volunteered" for the task. Lucky for us we have beautiful parents as Sheena came down to help tidy while John offered to show us how to prep the material properly. Unfortunately this turned out to be a lot more labour intensive than our original plan so after over six hours of sanding, brushing, painting and rolling we're feeling absolutely buggered. At least the wood looks good.



Powering through the pain we managed to also get two other jobs done, fixing up the internal blinds that some tradies had broken as well as finally assembling the barbeque. Cooking plates and the cabinet doors are now on so all that's left is to get a gas bottle and cure the gear before chucking a couple of snags on the grill.



As we were losing our old garage, the car's been on the street for the past three weeks while this work has all been going on. I'd fully expected some youths to key a door or hail to plummet down while the poor Civic was exposed to the elements. Thankfully she's survived the stint unscathed aside from a little dust and now gets to enjoy her new home. She might look a little lonely once the building materials get cleared out but at least we'll have a spare spot for her automobile friends to come and visit.



It seems like we're coming up to the end of our little project here. I'd say there's only about a week and a bit of work to be done by the builders, after that it's all in our hands to finish up. Woohoo!