Murphy lends a hand

We are up early on Wednesday in anticipation of the Big Day when the plumber does all the internal fittings and reconnects the house to the sewer.
Tradies usually arrive about 7am, but when he hasn't arrived by 8am we think that maybe he will be later as he is bringing some heavy machinery.
By 11am it is clear he isn't coming at all. We manage to extract a phone number from a past invoice and give him a call. His story is that his notebook got soaked by a hose and was rendered unreadable. He'd managed to reconstruct most of his appointments, but he knew there was one job he'd lost, just couldn't remember which one.
You guessed it, it was ours.
The upshot is that we are now expecting it all to happen on Saturday instead. At least the major excavation work will be starting a bit later as they aren't allowed to make noise before 9am on a Saturday.
But Murphy wasn't content with one thing going wrong. Later in the morning, the Council contractors arrive to do the footpath. At least they weren't competing with the plumber's truck and digger, and we did manage to persuade them to leave the section in front of the gate as it was, unsurfaced, and to come back some time later to finish it. Murphy's law says that means we'll probably not have a surfaced footpath until about this time next year, but we can probably live with that more easily than with having a brand new one wrecked and then being asked to pay for it to be repaired.
So we are now looking at two more days of nothing happening. We may take advantage of that to get a couple of measure-and-quote jobs done for blinds and carpet while there are no other tradies there.

False alarm!

We have been concerned for some time about the footpath running alongside the house in Fausset Lane. We had to pay the Council an extortionately large sum in case we damaged same, despite the fact that it was in really bad shape before we started.
The Council obviously thought so too, because about a month ago, they ripped it all up. That was a good thing, but the timing was terrible and we were afraid they would be trying to put the new asphalt down on a day when one of our tradies needed access to the back. Or that they would manage to lay fresh asphalt just before some heavy vehicle like a digger or a truck was due.
Peter rang the Council twice last week to try and make sure that wasn't going to happen, and was given assurances that a) it wouldn't, and that b) if it did, we could put up a sign requesting that they didn't do the strip by the back gate.
So we are enjoying the fact that no tradies are due, thinking that we don't have to lurch out of bed at 6:30, when we are woken at about 7am the sound of barriers being erected, and a large truck going past. We fling on clothes and go out to fight off the Council contractors, only to find they are doing road repairs at the other end of the block. Up early for nothing, curses.

Painting now 90% complete

Painting now looks finished, but the painter tells us he will be back to do some finishing and final coats when everyone else is done.

Weekend work, episode 4

Peter is constructing a meter box. So far, he's bought the wood, filled the hole beside the step, and done some repair to the brickwork at the foot of the side wall.

Colour and carpet

First coat of colour on the walls, and it looks great.
Meanwhile we start looking at carpet for the bedrooms. We are trying to decide whether to just go to the local carpet place and just get it done quickly, or whether to shop around at carpet auctions. It's only a small area (two bedrooms and the hallways), which means that if we go for option A and pay full price, it's still not a huge sum. On the other hand, we could be lucky and pick up a bargain lot that's just big enough at an auction. I'm leaning to the easy but probably more expensive option, Peter is leaning towards the shop-around-and-get-it-cheaper option. We will see.

More painting, wall colour chosen

Painters back today and Olsi puts some samples on the wall for us to choose the paint colour, which is to be a very pale grey.

Tiling finished, glass man comes

The tiler arrives early and puts in the grout in bathroom and in kitchen splashback.
Later the glass man comes to measure up for the shower screen, the mirror over the vanity and to look at the repairs needed for the glass in the internal door and front door.

The tiler comes, and the paint goes on...

The tiler is back from his cruise, and today he tiled bathroom and splashbacks in kitchen and bathroom. Grouting is still to be done, but it looks great.

Bathroom floor

Kitchen splashback

Bathroom vanity splashback

Meanwhile, the painters continued their work - all the ceilings, architraves and skirtings are now done.

A brand new opening

Today it's all happening - several minor jobs completed and the wall comes down:

• Tony comes and welds a bit more iron on to the lintel that holds up the bricks above one of the windows. Luke fills in the gap above the lintel.
• Luke returns with the other Chris and they demolish half the wall between our two properties in order to create the gateway.

Looking back from the guest wing

Looking in from our side

• Luke and Chris do some minor enhancements to the storage cupboard above the bathroom - a step to protect the fan flue, a chain to stop the door opening too far and hitting the window.
• Peter goes to Bunnings to buy a fan to put in the top of the laundry cupboard. Luke fits the and and the flues for the fan and the vented dryer. He builds the box that hides both flues and the nib wall (see right).

• Meanwhile painting continues, with undercoat on most things and final coats on the outside of the windows.

Weekend work, episode 3

On Saturday friends Don and Carroll come to reclaim their table, which has been residing next door on loan for more than a decade. They also relieve us of a shelving unit that has been in the front bedroom for a while.
Inspired by this, we progressively clean out the front room, moving the bed into the garage, moving all the bits and pieces waiting to be installed by the plumber into the garage, and finally ripping up the awful old brown carpet. This last task proves to be the hardest, as at some distant point in the past, when the fireplace was removed from the front room, new skirting was place on top of the old carpet, so that it was slightly higher than the skirting on either side. We can live with the height discrepancy, but prising the edge of the carpet out from under the skirting was a near-impossible task.
On Sunday we go shopping, again, back to the Good Guys to order washer and dryer, and to buy the ducting for the vented dryer. We even look at fridges, but don't make any decisions.

Painters continue

Painters again today, mostly prep work, patching, undercoat, and a bit of exterior finishing.
Tony comes to meet Matt the renderer, and we have a general discussion of next steps. We agree that the wall between the properties will be cut next week. Next steps for us are to accept the quote from Marty the gate man, and another trip to the Good Guys to finalise purchase of washer, dryer and vent ducting for the dryer.

Good things come in threes

Good thing number one

Kerry the skylight man arrives, takes a look at the back room and wonders why we think we need a skylight at all. We explain how dark the room was before we began the renovation, so that a skylight seemed a clear need, but agree that the room now doesn't really seem to need one.
Kerry then takes a look at the bathroom where minimal light is supplied by the internal window, and suggests a solar skylight. About four years ago, Peter had the idea of connecting an LED panel to a solar panel on the roof to create a skylight effect, and put an LED panel in our hallway and a solar panel on the roof as a proof of concept, but had never solved the problem of getting the wiring from one to the other. Kerry explains that these devices are now commercially available in all shapes and sizes, and he just happens to have a small round one in his truck. Within an hour or so, he has installed it in the bathroom ceiling, and the room is now amazingly bright. We abandon the idea of putting a skylight in the main room, and start to think about other places that an Illume (that's the brand) skylight might go. Before Kerry goes, he also unkinks the blind in the big skylight he installed in our house when it was renovated, an issue which has annoyed us for some time.
All through the remainder of the afternoon, Peter and I trek in and out of next door to marvel at the amount of light that continues to come from the new LED skylight, which only starts to dim at dusk.

Good thing number two

While Kerry is working on the bathroom skylight, the boys from West City Cabinets arrive with the replacement kitchen bench. This time they do the cut-outs on site, where we can check that it's all correct. The benchtop now looks just as it should, and the kitchen takes proper shape.

Good thing number three

Peter finishes the sashcord replacement job on the front windows, and we spend a happy hour or so scraping multiple layers of paint off the original brass fittings and screws, prising them off the windows, then doing further scraping, cleaning and polishing until they are lovely and shiny, ready to refit.

Splashback solved (?) and window repairs commence

After much further thought, we decide to risk colour in the splashback, rather than sticking to grey. We return to the tile place to look for something in an aqua colour. Peter finds some nice-looking tiles in the showroom, but we find they are made to order and take four weeks, so we rule them out and head into the clearance area to see what we can find there. And we are lucky - there is a box and a half of the made to order tiles just sitting there, and we buy them for a knock-down price. There should be enough for the kitchen, and maybe the bathroom as well.

Meanwhile, back in the house, there are no tradies today, so Peter starts on the laborious process of repairing the sash-cords in the two front bedroom windows. One done, one to go.

Painter makes a start

On Tuesday the painter and mate arrive, and make a start on the preparation work.

Back to the Good Guys

By now we have decided that the free washing machine given to us by Peter's daughter is just too big for the house, so we head to the Good Guys to check out washers and dryers. We make the washer decision, but are holding off on the dryer as there is one of those going begging as well. As yet we haven't been able to find out whether the free one is capable of being wall-mounted, which is necessary for our planned arrangement of the laundry cupboard.

Weekend work for us, episode 2

As we expect the painter to start next week, we spend Saturday and Sunday removing as much as possible from the house into our garage, and then demolishing the frame of the old built-in wardrobe, which turns out to be a major exercise as it is nailed into the walls in multiple places. But finally it is in pieces on the front veranda - later we move it round the back. While we are working a man comes to give us a quote on the gate that we plan to install in the wall between the two properties.

In search of a splashback

With the cabinetry in place (even if it does have a misplaced cut-out), we can start thinking about what kind of splashback to put at the back of the bench. We toy with the idea of using the tiles given us by a friend (wrong colour) or the same tiles as the bathroom (right colour, but a rough surface that doesn't seem ideal). We visit the local tile place and scan for pale grey tiles, but can't find anything we really think will work.

Painter comes to quote

On Wednesday we meet the painter, and spend some time with him discussing colours inside and out, and how he will go about the job. He sends a quote that day, and we accept later in the week.

An oops! in the kitchen, progress in the bathroom

After the cabinetry is delivered and installed, Peter notices that the sink is the wrong way round. When we go to put it right way round, we realise that the cut-out extends under the draining board, so it isn't just the sink that's wrong, but the hole below. And that means a complete new bench-top. After a bit of negotiation we agree to split the costs with the kitchen makers, as none of the drawings exchanged actually show which way round the sink goes. It might seem obvious to any woman that the draining board would run to the right of the sink, towards a corner, not to the left of the sink towards the cooktop, but it clearly wasn't obvious to the man who cut the hole in the bench-top. We are grateful that we have chosen laminex benchtops. A stone top with the wrong cut-out would have been a very expensive mistake.

On Tuesday Luke and Chris return to finish the skirtings around the cabinetry, and to put up the panels in the bathroom. They are nervous as the panelling a new material for them, but all goes smoothly.

Cabinetry cometh

West City Cabinets arrive at about 6:45, and by 9:45 the job is done - kitchen cabinets, laundry cupboard and bathroom vanity all in place.

Truck arrives

Carrying in the laundry cupboard

Fitting the interior of the laundry cupboard, starting on the kitchen

Progressing well...

Finished kitchen

The gas pipe for the cooktop is currently stopping one drawer from being fitted.

Laundry cupboard will ultimately be painted so that it disappears into the wall as much as possible.

Back to work (First post of 2018)

We're back, they're back. On Monday the builders comes by to work out a timetable for the next steps. On Tuesday Luke and Chris arrive to start on skirtings and architraves, and other finishing carpentry. On Wednesday Nick the plumber moves the extremely ugly water meter fitting to a more discreet location, and reconnects to the mains, and the tiler puts scree into the shower recess. It's all happening.

The re-located water meter

On Thursday, Luke and Chris rehang the original doors in their new locations, fit the doors to the storage area and the sliding door for the bathroom.