Aren't we the foolish ones :(

Fixing the front entry has been one of those things that we were meaning to do, but because we are doing 10 things at once it got put off. There had been a bit of rain but it hadn't been an issue before so we didn't rush to fix it. This morning I woke up to VERY HEAVY rain and that combined with strong wind unfortunately blowing in the right direction, resulted in a bit of water inside. Not a lot, but enough to wet the floor in a few spots.

This is the corner of the bedroom 2 wardrobe and is the result from the rain coming out of the gutter (no downpipes are installed as yet) and bouncing back up off the ground after falling about 4 metres, and wetting the floor!

Plasterboard is a little wet as you can see, but it should be fine and any damage will be hidden behind the skirting board.


PS we collected out floor boards yesterday too. Another romantic trip into town to pick up stuff for the house :)

Ikea Saga part one...

The day we got our kitchen!
I arrived there at 9.50am which was just before opening time at 10, but because there was already a few people there at 9.30, security decided to let them in early. Bugger! Shouldn't have gone through the Maccas drive through for brekkie ;)
Trev couldn't pick up the truck till 9am, so he came up separately and picked up the turned posts on the way. (see this post for details)
I didn't have to wait all that long to be served because I already had the plans done and by the time Trev arrived at 11 we were being sent off to have a coffee while the staff member generated our pick list. We wandered around for a while and went back a few times, and by 12 it was ready. We did the finance paperwork and were sent off downstairs to the registers to sort out the payment, then wandered over to the pick up area and showed our pick list number. After that was sorted out we had an hour to kill so we had some lunch, then wandered back to wait for our lucky number to come up.
When it finally did, we had to check off 7 trolley loads of kitchen goodness, and discovered that many things that were on the "in stock" list weren't there and many things that were on the "out of stock" list were in fact there. We were doing this in the very busy large item collection area with the guy that picked our order stopping occasionally to observe. People kept walking through our collection of trolleys and we were totally paranoid that someone might nick off with one of them.
A girl from the returns department took care of the out of stock list fiasco. It was was tedious and frustrating getting that worked out so we knew exactly what we needed to go back for.
We had to park the small truck we hired down in some loading bay where the rubbish is collected because there is no truck parking for customers and the truck wouldn't fit in the multi level car park (fancy a customer wanting to use a small truck to pick up stuff from a furniture store *sheesh*). I fully expected a parking ticket when we returned but we didn't, thank goodness.
Because we parked down there, it wasn't an easy task finding a way to get to the truck with the trolleys. One staff member that was going out for a smoke showed us the only fire escape door that wasn't alarmed so we rigged it so it wouldn't lock behind us and used that to get outside the car park and followd the path around to where the truck was. We left the rest of the trolleys there with one staff member in the pick up area "keeping an eye on them when he could" and started taking them down. I was trolley bitch going back for them while Trev loaded the boxes into the truck.

We were done loading by just before 5pm, then straight home and sitting on the couch totally knackered by 6.30. Amazing how tiring a day of mostly waiting about can be! The task of unloading the truck was left till the next day.


Watch this space for more episodes of the Ikea Saga including...Collecting The Rest Of It and Assembling Madness.

Again with the painting!

Taking advantage of this spectacular weekend and painting, painting, painting!

All the kids have had a go at painting the wall in undercoat. They slopped it about everywhere and Miss R got more on the grass than on the wall, but she had fun and that's all that matters :)

Another long update post!

Because I have been too busy to update, and when I did have time I had shaped internet...I present to you the condensed version of the last couple of weeks!
Loads has been going on at the house since I last posted
We insulated...

Doors and the last windows at the back were installed...


The door tread was replaced (yes with THAT slab of timber and it was worth it).
Cladding on the front wall has been about 75% done (need to get the new verandah on before that can be finished).
The side panel still needs to be fixed obviously, or we could leave it for a cat door.



The plasterers got started...



We had a rare child free had a night in town to catch up with friends and see Black Sabbath, which was brilliant of course!

While we were in Melbourne Town, we visited Schots and bought some goodies from there (I love Schots!), then went on adventures to other places to get some turned posts because no one down here keeps them in stock (or seems interested in getting them for us...) and found some awesome lights so spent a shitload of money on them. We also visited Ikea so Trev could see the stuff I've chosen for the kitchen and laundry and so we could finalise the plans for pickup before their sale finished!

Because there was no way we could have picked up the kitchen/laundry in one load in the black beast, we decided to hire a truck and make the journey on Saturday...along with the rest of morons who waited till the last weekend of the month long promo lol. This post is long enough without the Ikea adventure added so I will make that one a separate post.
Edited to add link to post about getting the kitchen HERE.

Dear timber yard owner...

When someone calls looking for a specific piece of timber in a specific size (220x75x1500), its not the best idea to email them back saying "We can supply timber at 220x75. 1500 will cost $97" when that size actually doesn't exist in stock.
When the customer arrives to collect the piece of timber you said you can supply and your staff discover that it doesnt actually exist at that size, the customer is going to be a bit miffed when told we take this bigger bit of timber and machine it down to the size you require. Machining costs $100 and it will be ready in 5 days. WTF?!?!?!

A little bit more information about the details around how the timber can be supplied at the required size wouldn't go astray you know. Especially after the customer phoned you to ensure that the timber WAS PUT ASIDE because she was going to be driving 2.5 hours and was ready to leave to come and pick it up today.

Of course said timber wasn't put aside and your staff and myself had to spend half an hour with a tape measure searching for something to suit. I can't speak highly enough of the staff who went out of their way to help me and arrange with one of the machinists to stop what he was doing, machine an oversized bit of ironbark and then load it in my van.

While your staff were doing this, you made sure to have a go at me while I was waiting around (actually browsing the floorboard display because I *was* considering purchasing them from you too).

Apparently it was my fault till I showed you that one line email on my phone from you stating that you could supply the timber. How the timber comes to arrive at the size you said you can supply is not my issue and if you had at least mentioned that while you don't have the actual size I need, you do have someting larger which can be machined to the correct size, nobody would have been inconvenienced now would they!

/vent

PS it is a beautiful piece of ironbark though and I can't wait to see it in situ. Might not paint it beautiful. Once the front door is repaired we will be officially at lock up stage :)

Just some pipes and stuff...

Nothing much all that exciting ;) that's mah ensuite right there...woo hoo!

We have plumbing, electrical and heating rough in done! The insulation is almost done too (after i took this photo of course) and boy that makes a difference already. For sound as well as warmth :) The shower bases are in yay!
Got a bit more fussy tweaking stuff to do before the big day on Monday. What's the big day? Well that would be the day that the plasterers start!

Hello underground power...bye bye old verandah!

A bit of an all in one update post because I've been too busy to sit down and blog. We've been trying to get the rest of the doors painted which is a bit tedious because they are big and heavy to move (being double glazed bi-folds panels), and we're trying our best to be neat about it so taking plenty of time.
There was a bit of rain so finishing the rest of the roof was put off in favour of getting started on the plumbing rough in so now we have pipes and shower bases installed :) We had to wait until our new meter box and underground power was connected to remove the verandah and the timber cladding off the front of the house.
The power was sorted out last week and the electrician started his rough in :) So now we have the gas and water plumbing done and the electricity started, with the job expected to be finished next week.
I popped up there yesterday to take a photo of the meterbox, to discover that Trev had been in a demolishing kind of mood and had pulled down the verandah and torn off the cladding and removed the windows!


Looks kinda sad with the front all naked like that but it won't be long before it's fixed up all pretty and new again :)
What do you think of the shiny new roof and gutter? I think it looks fabulous and I can't wait till the new verandah is done. The best part about the new verandah is no more paranoia about the box gutter leaking like it did during those epic storms we get!
We are getting some new/old windows for the front too and they should be ready to be picked up very soon.