Tuesday, 26 November 2013

Gettin' plastered

ATTENTION: OMG PLASTERING IS DONE. I now have a house and not a building site!
Imagine that!  Now that it's done a wave of other things can be organised - tiling the bathroom and fitting the furniture, fitting the wardrobes, painting, door frames etc etc.





















The hallway shelving is currently being built thanks to Kate and Uncle Rob. We're customising a Billy Bookcase by cutting the pieces to make it more shallow. Annoyingly, there is rarely such a thing as shelving that is sufficiently shallow for CDs and paperback books! ie 150mm deep. All the shelving is about 250mm deep, no one needs shelves that deep in today's small homes!




I chose the biggest Victoria cornices they had to accentuate the high ceilings. Very grand. The architraves will have to be similarly large.



My Dad said a while ago "Whatever you do, don't ever vaccum plaster dust, it breaks it"  So I vaccumed plaster dust which broke it in about 10 minutes. Back to a broom and mop zzzz


The bathroom is looking quite bathroomy now. Tiler is doing waterproofing and tiling for $1000. Not bad.


Choosing tiles for the bathroom. My favourite one just had to be three times as expensive didn't it. Ah well, the cheaper one I ended up buying has sufficient speckledness (good tip thanks Claire D) to camouflage any mess. 
I am so excited about my feature tile I've chosen - I won't reveal it until it's in. Let's just say the girl at the shop said "Oh.. no one ever orders that one, everyone just plays it safe." 


The fence is slowly being built. It was too expensive/ bothersome to remove all the concrete from the existing fence so I am just building a picket fence set back a bit, then will angle grind off the existing metal fence off its concrete base and will build a little garden bed between the new fence and the concrete. The chicken is to protect Nick's modesty.



When I get my hair cut, I don't just go to any salon, I go to Tranny Hair Salon, Foot-is-scray.



Next door suddenly went up for sale and even more suddenly got purchased. Read the funny real estate ad below. I emailed the agent who said it went for $580k. I imagine it will be 2 x townhouses. 2 or 3 stories. Mixed feelings but I guess this is good. Maybe they will help clean up the laneway at the back. Yet more construction in the street for the neighbours to put up with.



Now for some photos in the lead up to the plaster.........



A friend brought over his cockatoo Robert - named after Robert Smith. He was extremely cute and naughty.




Robert eating a gumnut. How Aussie. More inspiration for my Australiana leadlight, the design of which I still need to finalise.


Kate and Anneliese at you guess it - pre reno breakfast at the Footscray Milking Station



Kate painting the fence which who knows.. might now have to be pulled down by the new developer. As long as it's as their expense.  Note Anneliese placid as always in the baby bassinet. She amuses herself if she's plonked down somewhere thank goodness.




Working out the maths for the bath frame. Autocorrect on my new phone this morning renamed me to Caroline Handheld. I think this is correct as everyone - especially Kate and Nick have guided me so much.


 Having a nice perch in the middle of building the bath frame. A clean surface to sit on is rare, and this one didn't last long.



 The ceiling speakers had to be done at the last minute in between the fairy floss. Hopefully they're not too close to the electrical wires as it can interfere with sound. 




"The insulating will only take half an hour" someone said. It took 3 weeks. I was OVER IT.  Never want to see the stuff again just like everything else building related!!!  Go away!




Kate and Nick's house auction was last weekend. 3 years of hard work. 
 Lots of family gathered in the rain while Kate and Nick waited inside, nervously for the result. They needn't have been scared as it went for $525k !!!!
We've all spent a lot of time together lately because of Nan and it has been great despite what happened. After the auction we opened the champagne.



Nan's funeral goes over 2 days this week, one of which will be up at Nagambie where Nan grew up.

Right, off I go. Only a month til Christmas so it's a big push to hit my "move in by Xmas" target.....

11 comments:

  1. Amazing, comparing these pictures to the first ones is just astounding, well done!

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    1. ^_^ thanks. I have to keep looking at the old photos to remind myself that progress has been made.

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  2. Woohoo! You have a house! Looks awesome! Lol at the plaster dust and the chicken and Robert. So exciting. Looks amazing. Where's the tree going? Xx -Sal (ms creepy annonomous)

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  3. Aw babe!! It looks bloody amazing! I freaking LOVE the shaped ceiling! Wow... so much awesome!! I'm totally coming over for a sticky nose once I'm back in Melbs! (arrival early Dec!) xx
    *huge hugs and deepest sympathy* your nan is gorgeous x

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    1. Yep 100% come for a sticky beak!!!
      and thanks re: Nan :)

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  4. Wow, what a difference! I am so happy for you - now the fun stuff starts!? Glad my tip on speckeldy tiles was helpful : ) The arched ceilings are way-cool, who's idea was that? Unusual. Awesome! x

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    1. Yeah - the good thing about that arched ceiling is it is original! The house was full of crappy lowered ceilings which I pulled down. In the lounge, it revealed that arched ceiling. Its the best feature of the back, and makes up for the back being relatively small compared with teh bedrooms :D

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  5. It looks like you should hit the 'move in before Christmas' target :) It looks like home now - getting there, yay.

    Joanna

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  6. Woot, nothing like the plaster going in to make a Huge difference. :)

    Congrats....! M

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  7. This is amazing information through pictures, which gives an insight of skills and implementation on Plastering. Really enjoyed glancing through the post. Thanks for sharing it


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