That's all (for now, anyway)

We move back into the house on Monday, and for the next few days we progressively move more stuff in and more packaging out. Recycle bins are all full, again.
We make the decision about bathroom accessories and order - they will probably arrive while we're away and be ready to fit on our return.
We also take a load of things that have no place in the new setup to the op shop. There will be more.
We have the place looking pretty good by the time friends arrive for a farewell drink - tomorrow we head to Tasmania.
And now, a tour:

Main bedroom, showing new chair.
NB carpet isn't purple, it's just my phone. Stripey effect is also courtesy of the phone.

Second bedroom, grey carpet still looks purple.
I need a new phone.

Lounge suite in place

Laundry cupboard, now painted.

Kitchen area

Lounge area

And the picture is home, just not yet on the wall.
Entertainment unit to go here eventually.

Quiet Sunday

We expect the painters back on Sunday, but they don't come.
We make up for the lack of action in the house by going out and ordering a flat pack broom cupboard, and buying two flat-pack chairs, which we bring home and erect on our return.
We are still wrestling with the bathroom accessories, no decision yet on what to buy.

More painting

Olsi and his team arrive early Saturday and paint all day. Having the big laundry cupboard painted to match the walls makes a big improvement to the back room.
They don't do any outside work as it is raining for the first time for a month.

Last things

The guys from Profast came today and fitted the cover for the range hood flue. They also took away some left-over building materials and a couple of brooms. One day soon we'll be able to put the car in the garage again.
Olsi the painter is coming tomorrow and Sunday to paint the flue cover, the laundry cupboard, and to touch up any areas that need it, and then we really will be able to say that the house is finished. We may move back on to the 8 Finlay Street side of the new gate for the weekend to get away from the smell of paint, and to avoid messing up any wet paint.

We're in!

First night in the new house and we sleep very comfortably, thank you.
We continue the unpacking and washing of kitchen equipment as we have our morning tea and prepare breakfast.
Before we actually sit down to eat, Marty arrives to fit the gate. He waits for Chris who is collecting the gate and is stuck in traffic, so we have a chat about some other jobs that Marty might do for us - putting some metal louvres on the top of the garden wall to match those erected by our neighbour across the back wall and building a small deck at the back door. At about 9:58 we remember we have parcels awaiting us at our PO Box, and rush down to collect before 10am when the parcel pickup facility closes. Back home with the parcels we have the fun of unpacking a bit more kitchen equipment - chopping boards, a large fruit bowl and two grey hand towels.
Chris arrives with gate, but then he and Marty discover that the gateposts supplied with it are larger than Marty specified, and the combination of gate and posts is too big for the aperture. So another pause while they go off to source the right size posts, and we continue cleaning and tidying.
With the shower screen in place, we decide that the heated towel rail we've purchased but not yet fitted is too large, so we will have to do a re-run to Bunnings to buy a smaller one.
By the time Helen returns from her afternoon playing with her Allsorts group, the gate is finished, and looks just as we hoped it would.
Later we have the fun of showing the project off to nephew Nick and wife Ivy. Nick was our tenant in the unrenovated house for some years, and was most impressed with the new incarnation.
Our last act for the day was to christen the new bathroom, having showers there before going to bed.

Glaziers come, and we move in, sort of

Today is the day for the glaziers to come and fit the shower screen, and replace a number panes in old windows and doors. The arrive around 7am and spend most of the day glazing.
Andrew the electrician is back briefly as well, and shortly after he has finished his final checking and fixes, the guy arrives to do the electrical inspection - all OK.
Cousins who are re-locating from Sydney to Melbourne 'booked' the guest wing months back for tonight and tomorrow night. As the new house is barely finished (shower screen may be in place, but we have to wait 24 hours before we can use it), when they arrive late in the afternoon we install them in our place and we stay in the guest wing. This entails quite a lot of work during the day - making up the bed, moving some clothes in, and progressively unpacking stored content of the old kitchen, bathroom and laundry cupboards, and the spare linen. As all of it is pretty dusty, we exercise the new dishwasher, putting load after load through before things are put away in the new kitchen drawers.
Our last act for the day is to cut out and stick some frosted film on the front windows, so that passers-by can't look in on us in bed.

We get laid (or at least the carpet does), wired and plumbed

Once more we lurch out of bed at 6:30, as the carpet layer is due at 7:00am. He is early so it isn't long before he's measured up, decided which way to run the carpet, consulted us about edging at the ends of the hall, then headed back to the warehouse to collect the carpet.
While he's gone, we make the final payment, so it's all good to go.
We spend the next hour shifting all the plastic containers and boxes that have been stacked in the garage for ages back into the house next door - these are the repository of all the glasses, crockery, cutlery and kitchen equipment, the linen, the cleaning stuff from laundry and bathroom, and small appliances like the iron, the hairdryer, the toaster and coffee maker.
At about 9am the electrician comes back to complete the final testing and fix a few things that weren't working. Shortly after that Mark the carpet layer returns with underlay and carpet. For the rest of the day he and Andrew conduct a pas de deux as Mark lays underlay and carpet and Andrew does final wiring and testing. We trot in and out occasionally to see how they're going, between spending time with Peter's son Michael and our sort-of grandchild Summer.
Later in the afternoon, when Michael, Summer and I return from the neighbourhood playground and Peter ends a long telephone call, both Andrew and Mark have finished, and we can admire the result. Michael gives us a hand to move the queen bed and mattress back into the front bedroom, with Summer supervising. She finds all the new cupboards fascinating, and explores all the contents. When we get the bed re-erected and the mattress on, she insists that we all take off our shoes and try it out.
After Michael and Summer leave, Peter vacuums the new carpet, while Helen shifts the bedding and cushions which have been cluttering up the piano room in the big house back into the little house, and makes up the bed ready for our occupancy tomorrow night. In the process we realise that sometime during the day the plumber has also dropped in and connected up the dishwasher. With toaster and coffee maker installed, it is all starting to really look like a home.

Weekend work, episode 5

We have 3 days in which to prepare for the next round of action - the weekend plus Monday. We spend the time preparing the front of the house for carpet laying - repeated vacuuming of the floors and removal of assorted things stuck on or sticking up from the floor (old nails, staples, bits of old underlay, dobs of unspecified substances).
Last week the builders and Shane moved the lounge suite, fridge, dishwasher and oven into the front bedroom so that Shane could complete the finishing of the floor. We shift them from side to side of the room and back again so that we can pull up the last of the old underlay, and remove more nails, staples and aged goop.
On Monday morning Shane comes by to check out the floor (looking lovely) and we are given permission to walk thereon.
On Monday afternoon we progressively return the lounge suite, fridge, oven and dishwasher to the back living room. We even insert the dishwasher into its final location. To do this we have to pull the hoses and electrical connection through from behind the dishwasher to the under the sink area, and we find that the end of the hose won't quite fit through the holes already cut by the plumber. Peter enlarges them and we get everything in place ready for the plumber to connect.

More on the floor, and more electrics

Shane did preparatory work on the floor in the back room on Thursday - on Friday he returns to put the final coat on it. While he's working in the back of the house, Andrew the electrician is finishing off work in the front of the house.
By the end of the day the floor is done, but we are forbidden to walk on it, and there is still some final electrical work to be done.

Surprise!

We think that the the next scheduled appearance of anyone working on the house is Friday, so we are enjoying a lie-in this morning when we hear a voice outside which we recognise as Tony the builder's. We lurch out of bed and go next door to find that Shane has arrived to do the finishing coats on the floor. Both Tony and Dave are there to help him move furniture, and to look over what remains to be done. We have some discussions about a flue for the rangehood, and the scheduling of the remaining trades.
Our current expectation is:
Friday this week - the electrician finishes off and we will have power.
Monday next week - nothing
Tuesday - carpets laid in the front of the house, and we will be able to move furniture back in to the bedrooms.
Wednesday - glazier to fit shower screen and replace some glass in old windows. At this point the house becomes habitable, just.
Thursday or Friday - the gate will be fitted.
Saturday - we head off to Tasmania.
Final touch-up painting will probably be done while we are away.

Action! Camera, but no lights yet

The electrician comes at 7am, and we are there to greet him. He works a long day by the end of which power points have appeared all over the place, the track lights are up in the back room, the outside lights are mounted at the back, switches are here and there, and the range hood has been mounted. However he isn't done, so we can't actually turn on the power yet.
Here's the kitchen, with range hood and power points.

Boxing clever

One of our great victories during the project was getting the water meter moved. It was a particularly ugly installation that was originally hidden by an equally ugly wall.

When we knocked down the wall, it was exposed in all its hideousness.

As part of the complete replumbing of the house, we got it moved to the other side of the front door, up against the wing wall (see blog from 1 Feb).
Although the new meter is neater, it is still not a thing of beauty.
During the first weeks of March, Peter progressively constructs a box to hide it, and Helen paints.
All done now.

Before

After  - tbc

Finally!

Checking for the sewer location

Digger gets going

We are up at 6:30 in anticipation of the Great Day when the plumbing is done, and yes! this time the plumbers do arrive at 7am.

Yesterday we dug a provisional hole to locate the water main and electrical connection that run down the side of the garden. Today the plumber starts by jackhammering up the concrete in the old outside loo, then gets going with the digger.

When he finally gets through all the roots of the palm tree that grew there once, down to the old earthenware sewer pipe, he cuts it open and makes the interesting discovery that it is full of the foam that they pumped in to stabilise the wall - it's found a crevice and worked its way in. We are relieved when he manages to extract it like a neat plug, and even more relieved when we find he can make the new connection to the old sewer only just inside our boundary - no digging on our side of the fence at all. At the other end he connects up to the sewer line that was laid under the concrete floor last year, then they begin the job of filling the large hole they've excavated back in again.

Really quite a large hole

Working out where to connect

Meanwhile, inside the house, the mate has been progressively fitting the inside taps, sinks etc. By coffee time the bathroom has a toilet, a vanity basin and a shower rail. Next he fits the trough and taps in the laundry. At this point we discover that the washing machine tapset is missing a tap handle, so we head to Bunnings to exchange it for a complete one.

When we return we are dismayed to see that the Council contractors have returned to complete the asphalting of the footpath. But we find that they have arrived about 10 minutes after the builder's son Fraser had finished loading the surplus rubble and spoil into a trailer and driven away. The plumbers had moved their vehicles and the digger out of the way, so no sooner did we have the last truckload of rubbish gone than the footpath was finished off. Amazing timing.

By this time all the outside work is finished, and the team of three works inside to plumb in the kitchen sink and cooktop. Final tests show water coming and going just as it should and they guys are off to the next job.

Cooktop, sink, tap and running water!

If it's air-conditioning, it must be Monday

Builder's son Fraser arrives with a trailer, and clears about half the pile of rubbish in the back yard.
The air-conditioning blokes arrive just before midday and by the time we're ready to go to lunch, it's all fitted and done. A very neat job, you can only see the unit on the roof from one corner of our deck. The inside unit seems large, even though it's a standard unit, but we think it will stop looking so prominent as soon as we get some pictures on the wall and furniture in place.

Men come to measure, and we choose a carpet.

On Thursday men came to measure for plantation shutters and carpet.
On Friday we collect carpet samples, but as none really look right, we head out to Western Distributors at Sunshine as they have a vast warehouse with a huge range. We think a mid-grey second quality wool looks good on the floor there, but when we get it home Peter decides he doesn't like the ribbed texture, so we head back on Saturday and choose a plain grey twist.
The builder is back from his fishing trip and promises us air-conditioning on Monday, rubbish removal Monday or Tuesday, plumber Wednesday, electrician Tuesday the following week. We have booked the carpet layer for the Friday of that week. It's getting closer, but still two weeks at least to go.