Sunday, July 17, 2011

snap shot of a year

in no particular order....

hallway wall, just below the pictures a huge hole has been patched, the stair rail and bannister stripped back and revarnished, still working on this...
the hole in the corner was part of putting in extra powerpoints in Rachelle's room, this soon will be patched over.

The spare room has had the carpet pulled up, and the walls undercoated. The windows were nailed shut as the fittings on them were broken, these have all been replaced and windows now open.

The kitchen had to have a few immediate things done, both benches were replaced, the oven and rangehood replaced, behind the oven wall re-gibbed, we replaced our big table with a smaller one, painted the walls and cupboards and put down lights above the sink area. The fanlight windows here were nailed shut due to broken fittings, all replaced and all windows working. We don't really want to put too much effort into this room right now as it will be fully revamped down the track when we can do it properly. 





New front door, in fact all the doors have needed replacing, all of them in one form or another had been kicked in and damaged, we still have about 4 more to replace then every single door has been done, including wardrobe doors. The only original door left in the house will be the attack door!
The dilema of where to put the dog door was solved by placing it in the lounge. Sounds odd I know but the position of our doors pretty much leaves the house with 2 front entrances and we needed the dog to be confined to the back yard. This room also had broken window latches, which have all been repaired or replaced.

still working on the stairwell....



The lounge was one of the first rooms to be painted, prior to this it was bright red, the walls needed patching in places and above the ranchslider finishing off, the ranchslider will eventually be replaced by french doors and we still plan to pull out the fireplace and replace with a woodburner. 




The laundry, a bit like the spare room has become another garage, all the painting stuff seems to end up in here, rollers, brushes etc. We have painted in here and replaced the back door. The concrete tubs will go and Brent is keen to get the hot water cylinder moved from the kitchen into here. This won't be done until we are ready to do the kitchen though.



Our room was re-gibbed and painted, a light put in above the bed, old carpet pulled up and carpet tiles put down. Broken window and fanlight window fitting repaired. Still to get the wardrobe door for in here.

The bathroom was the first room to be tackled and if you saw the original you would understand why. It's a very small space and really hard to photograph but having lived in a house with the toilet and bathroom together with 2 teenage girls  it doesn't work, not when there is only one toilet so we were not prepared to knock out the wall to make it bigger. Seperate toilet is a must in our circumstances! My idea was to colour co-ordinate this room but the girls took over with all their products so that kind of went out the window...why on earth do they need all this stuff????



Rachelle's room needed some wall repairs, has been painted, doors replaced and extra power points put in to accommodate all the electronics!




Hayley's room, much the same, wall repairs, replaced doors, more power points, similar colour scheme, but poor old Hayley, we still haven't replaced her curtains, these are what came with the house!





and the famous front door....

that concludes the tour of the inside, now for a quick skip around the outside...

This started with all the boundry fences being painted just to tidy them up, the big b
rick wall by the garage has also been painted with a texture paint to blend in with the cracked and peeling paint that was there. The garage door has been replaced along with the cladding above it, a couple of small gates and the trellis fence to define and front and back yard, mostly for the benefit of the dog. The driveway gates have been the last thing to go on and they make such a difference to the entrance. 

We will hit the garden this summer but really glad we started planting earlier as these should take off in spring, all the taro that we removed is determined to keep popping up so that is an ongoing battle, and the mounds of dirt that were there which I think formed part of their local tip have gone. I can't wait to get our hands on some paving so we can start that process and change the decking around, still lots to do......













so that's it for now...just one last pic before I go....we have come along way since this was taken!!!!






















Saturday, July 16, 2011

One Year On....

July 16th just about came and went unnoticed, this was the day last year we signed on the dotted line and committed ourselves to this massive project! Although we can still tend to get bogged down with everything that still needs doing, we do from time to time look back at what has been done, bearing in mind our budget and only attacking what we can afford to at the time. Overall it has been a little surprising what we have chipped away at.

The winter weather slows alot of things down and the motivation at times to get on with things is just not there, but we are itching to get into the landscaping side of things and get our BBQ and spa area up and running ready for summer.

As far as the inside painting goes, every room apart from the toilet has been painted with the spare room just waiting for it's top coats, the toilet needs to be re gibbed, not looking forward to doing that room as it is tiny, not alot of room to move about in.

Anyway, onwards and upwards, we have been a little distracted getting Hayley organised for the ball coming up early August, she is all sorted apart from the shoes and her dress needs to be shortened, as soon as she gets her shoes we can get onto this. Her dress came from the US and fits perfectly other than the length, she looks stunning and very grown up.


a sneak preview...
lovin the sexy sock look :)

Ok, back on track, since the last update the  gates have finally gone on, still need another top coat of paint but what an improvement from before, finally able to throw off those old water logged things, and boy were they  heavy!!

the night they went up....




as they are now...

 Just thinking back, although we had the key, we didn't officially move in for a couple of weeks as the bathroom needed to ripped out and redone, but it was very similar weather, with a cold snap and going backwards and forwards after work between the two properties while trying to keep on top of things at Lincoln, madness really! Then when we did finally move in, Rachelle getting caught out in the shower when the water went cold and Brent having to run her round to Lincoln so she could finish washing her hair...haha....yep, good times. Other than the front door saga, we really haven't had any other bloopers to add to the blooper file yet, but early days I guess, still I don't think the front door can be topped, that was just too funny.

I thought I might have got round to taking more before and after pics but umm....I haven't, but will do and will update that page as I can, but here are some random pics of things started......and umm just waiting to be finished, a common theme throughout!


the beginnings of the vege garden...








the beginning of the end of the butt ugly compost things....







don't ask my why but they took most of these things so we have to replace them all....


then there are the things that just require what seems like a simple thing to complete....do you think we can find a picture hook????? haha, Rachelles black and white portrait to hang in the upstairs hallway, will get one of Hayley on her ball night, then I can tick that job off!


paving stones out to the wood shed, look how lovingly they are placed!!


gotta be a reason for this, but right now it escapes me, clearly we were checking something out, just what, not sure...

 (and I know you are admiring the outside toilet! )



and....we've made a start....


hard to tell, I know, but we removed the HUGE desk from in there....it's a start, oh and the walls have been undercoated :)

top right hand corner....yep, will get round to that......eventually....

then there is the garage, a minefield of things waiting to be done...



ALL IN GOOD TIME :)

So to wind up the year in summary, I will load a snapshot tour of the house, I ran around today and took what pics I could, and no, I did not race around cleaning up, it is purely an as is where is snap shot but should be a good reference for us in the coming years :) I do however apologise in advance for the mess in some areas...haha....

Brent and I did celebrate when we finally realised what day it was, he had a beer and I had a wine and I think we were asleep by 9pm!!!! Life is sweet :)