Drum roll... Roller door!

Today the gates on to the lane were replaced by a roller door, electrically powered with remote control. This will make car access so much easier.

Curtains!

Appropriately, the last thing (almost) is the curtains. And yes, I will need to shorten them a bit.

Size does matter

When my brother visited he brought with him a TV that is surplus to his requirements. We duly set it up on the TV bench but then decide it is really too small to be viewed comfortably from the sofa (it is a 32"). We move in our 38" TV to test out a larger screen - still too small.
So on Friday we buy a 55" online at a Harvey Norman sale, pick it up and install it on Saturday. It looks huge on the TV bench, but it is the right size for the room.

Vastness of the TV necessitates moving ornament and vase to the window ledge.

We start curtain hanging - it's a work in progress.

And there's more (just a bit)

The blind man (really the shutter man) arrives early this morning and fits the plantation shutters in the front bedroom. Very pleased both with look and function.

In the picture you can see not only the new shutters, but also the "cupcake" pendant we found to hang from the ceiling rose.

But we hope this is the last ever time we have to get up early for tradies or delivery men.

At least we are up in plenty of time to go to our PO Box to collect a large parcel of last things bought on-line: new cutlery, a couple of mugs and an electric blanket, together with a completely indulgent purchase of two large vases.

Later we go to Bunnings, and even later to Spotlight in search of a curtain track that will span the back window.
Finally we pack the last of our superfluous items into the car, ready to go to the Salvos. Any day now the car will be back in the garage.

Flat pack marathon, Stage 11 (FINAL)

First guest in on Wednesday night (H's brother). After he had breakfasted with us and then headed off to a meeting, we put together the last IKEA item, a little bureau which completes the furnishing of the second bedroom, and the house as a whole.

Hanging, light work

Tuesday being the day we mind our honorary grandchild, no progress in the house, but we spend the evening sorting out the manuals for all the appliances and putting together an instruction book for visitors.
Wednesday we are back in there, hanging the two lights that were purchased during our most recent IKEA visit. It takes much longer that anticipated because it is very hard to fasten fittings to an aged ceiling rose, and even in the hall where the plaster is new, it wasn't easy. But by the time she heads off to jazz, both lights are in place, and look great. We're particularly pleased with the shade we picked for the bedroom - its cupcake shape looks quite appropriate hanging under the ceiling rose and it throws a lovely warm light.
When not required to hold the ladder or pass tools up and down, she oils the top of the new kitchen trolley. While she is at jazz, he does a massive cleanup in preparation for our first guest, due tonight. It's only her brother John, but we still want the guest wing to look as good as possible.

Hanging in there

Or should that be, "Hanging, in there" ?
Today's score for hanging was two blinds and a picture. Light fittings are in progress.

The wonderful photograph that has driven the entire colour scheme for the house, now in its place.

Flat pack marathon, stage 10

Today the small wardrobe for the second bedroom.
We start with the three drawers as we are pretty expert on IKEA drawers by now. But the overall structure is rather different from the two we built for the main room, so there are some false steps and some pauses to work out things as we build the frame. Early afternoon we realise that on Friday we have picked up the wrong size cross-brace that links the two ladder-like side panels.
We resolve to make another trip to IKEA after we've been to the market for our weekly shop. Returning gives us a chance to not only get the right-sized cross-brace, but also to buy some wood oil for the new kitchen trolley and another blind for the bedroom. We need it because although we have the blind we put up last year, we can't find the fittings anywhere. Bother! But at least we'll have a spare blind if either of the two new ones we are hanging gets damaged.
On our return we get back to wardrobe building and have it all finished in time for a rather late evening meal.

Just one item to go now - a miniscule desk for the second bedroom.

Flat pack marathon, stage 9

Today we complete the kitchen trolley, fitting the drawer we'd already put together on Friday as the final step.
It fits nicely beside the fridge. Peter remains unconvinced that people will actually move it to provide additional bench space in the kitchen occasionally - we will see.
That's pretty much it for the main room as far as furniture goes. Next steps are to hang blinds, curtains and pictures.

Flat pack marathon resumes, stage 8

Another pilgrimage to Ikea, and we come back laden with boxes and other odd items. It takes us most of the day, because we meet the crew of Caspian in the wardrobe area, and we have to stop and have a coffee with David and Sandra.
But we do have time to put together a coffee table, a side table, and a drawer before dinner.

Still tidying

Several days on and the garage is not yet totally resolved because Peter decides to sort it out properly. We do manage to offload a chair on Michael, and take a swag of smaller stuff to the op shop.
Assorted spare tiles from various renovations of both houses are now stored in the roof of the appropriate building. (Heroic climbing and heaving by Helen to get them there). Spare mattresses go into the storage over the bathroom in 1A. We swap the new microwave bought last year for our older one, which is now looking for a new home.
Slowly cleaning up our act.
The bad news is that the helpful stranger who removed the Encyclopedia Brittanica last Sunday brought them back again. Perhaps they noticed there is a vol missing. And no one wants the old IKEA folding chairs. So there are still assorted unwanted items on the front veranda.
We hang the lovely light shades made for us by friend Pam, but sadly we think they don't look quite right in the house. We're considering other options, but for now one is installed in the hall, where it looks quite nice, especially when lit, and certainly a lot better than a bare globe.

Cleaning up

Sunday and Monday spent cleaning out the garage which has been the repository for everything that was originally in the house next door since the painting began. Most of it has gone back in progressively, but some has no place in the new space, so there has been some general reshuffling.
Chairs from my office have come down and into 1A, chairs from the garage have gone up. Things have been put away in the huge storage cupboard above the new bathroom, and some into the roof above. A helpful unknown person relieved us of the incomplete set of Encyclopedia Brittanica that we left on the front veranda. The new microwave bought last year but superseded by the new combo oven has replaced our old one which is now looking for a new home. Peter has even deemed some of the stuff on the garage as surplus to requirements and disposed of it. One more day of tidying and we will be able to put the car in the garage for the first time in months.

Smaller things, and a final installation

After much thought and effort, we have the oven satisfactorily mounted over the kitchen bench, and we're happy with both the look and the operation.
While at the local hardware buying some bolts for the job, we found an ironing board small enough to fit in the broom cupboard. Hooray!

Small things

Wednesday we get rid of the old bar fridge, and take up the last bits of cardboard from the living room floor. Peter starts thinking about how the wall oven will be mounted above the kitchen bench.
Thursday we squeeze in a quick trip to Bunnings to buy the mounting brackets. We also buy a broom, a washing basket, and fittings to hang the pendant lights.
In the evening we put the original brass coat hooks back up in the hall and spend more time working out the best way to support the oven.
Friday Chad comes to measure up for the roller door, and it's back to Bunnings for more fittings, a small pedal bin for the bathroom, stick on hooks for the broom cupboard, and to check again that no-one makes an ironing board small enough to fit into the broom cupboard (they don't).

Renderers return

Rendering now complete and the back of the house looks so much better.

Flat pack marathon, stage 7

"Boy" wardrobe

"Girl" wardrobe

Monday is the day to finish off the wardrobes. Helen has one drawer built before she heads off for an exercise class, Peter builds two more while she is gone. After a lunch with Peter's daughter, we fit these three, then build and fit the remaining two, then fit two more shelves and the clothes rail in the "boy" wardrobe.



Finally we fit the handles to the doors, adjust the levels, and both are complete, one in each corner.

Time for a big tidy up, vacuum, removal of excess tools and yet more cardboard, and the house is beginning to look pretty good.

Flat pack marathon, stage 6

On Saturday night, Peter states confidently that we can complete both wardrobes on Sunday. Helen thinks this is unlikely unless we get up at 7:30am. Which of course, we don't.
We decide to make up the second wardrobe carcase in horizontal mode, as we now know how heavy the finished product is, and think we will be able to tip it up without killing ourselves. It is easier building it that way, and as it's our second time, we get it together pretty quickly. As we are finishing, we realise that we may have a problem. The Ikea instructions make it clear that you have to build it in vertical mode if there is not much clearance between the top of the wardrobe and the ceiling. With our Victorian high ceilings this isn't an issue, but the distance between the walls is! In order to tip it up we have to move the bed over so that we have the full width of the room, as the space we were using between the broom cupboard and the opposite wall just wasn't long enough. Even with the bed moved, it takes a bit of manoeuvring to get it vertical.
To avoid the problem we had with the first wardrobe, we've moved the fastenings down about 3cm and drilled a new hole for the fastening bolt to come through. Peter drills the first hole and yes! we are into a very solid brick. But Murphy hasn't finished with us yet - the second hole goes into mortar. We must have struck a vertical mortar line for this one. Curses. More fiddling around, until at last both wardrobes are securely fastened, and we can start populating the interior. While Peter was fastening, Helen made up the divider for one of the wardrobes.
(When we were designing them we decided to have two different layouts, so there would be somewhere to hang anything from a short top to a ball-gown, and spaces of different sizes for other stuff. So one has a divider and drawers that go two thirds of the way - the other has full-width drawers.)
After fixing the divider in place, we can judge the appropriate height for the upper shelf and coat rail, so these are fitted next. Then we decide that we should put the doors on as the next step, rather than continuing with interior fittings. Each wardrobe has two doors, one wide and one narrow. The only narrow door that Ikea sell is a mirror door, and we've chosen to have a fairly plain white panel door for the wider one. We're relieved when this combination looks not only OK, but actually very effective, as the mirrored door makes that part of the wardrobe quite recessive, and makes the overall thing look smaller as a result.
As a bit of light relief from construction, we bring the weekly wash in from our house, using it to confirm that both washer and dryer work well, and aren't excessively noisy, even with the cupboard open for the dryer. The fan and vent system also seem to prevent the living room from filling up with water vapour.
With the doors on, we return to the interior, and fit a single metal mesh drawer at the bottom of each wardrobe. (These drawers can be fitted where there are hinges. Above them we will have wooden drawers with perspex fronts.)
By the time we have the mesh drawers fitted, we've had enough for the day - the remaining drawers will have to wait until tomorrow.

Flat pack marathon, stage 5

Saturday begins with the second drawer for the bed, and we can then shift that into place and make a start on the wardrobes. These are big items - the flat packs that hold each one are too heavy to lift and we have to slide them around. We also have to work out whether there is enough room in the front bedroom to put them together without moving the queen size bed that occupies much of the space. We have to make them up in situ as once they are constructed they'll be too big to bring in from the hall through the door.
Ikea are masters of the small space, so they provide two sets of instructions - one for erecting the wardrobes vertically, the other for making them up on the floor then tipping them up. We make the carcase of the first one vertically, and it proves reasonably straightforward, except that we have to keep standing on a ladder to reach to the top bits.
We have a break in the middle of the day when Marty (who built the gate between the two houses for us) came to quote for a deck at the rear, and for some work on the garden wall. It all takes time as we wrestle with having the largest possible deck while retaining the option to park a car in the courtyard.
When the wardrobe construction is complete, the next step is to fasten the wardrobe to the wall - anything that tall has the potential to topple over on top of the unwary user. The back has pre-cut holes through which to put fastenings into the wall behind. Murphy gets into the act here - when Peter drills the first hold into the double brick wall behind the wardrobe, he realises he's on a mortar line, not brick. And as it's really old mortar, it is much too soft to hold the fastening. There is a fairly long pause in proceedings while he tries various kinds of plugs, makes a trip to the hardware store, tries more options, before he is finally satisfied that he has a secure fixing. Meanwhile, Helen tidies up the masses of cardboard packing we are generating, stows linen in the drawers in the new bed, while holding things and passing things to the man on the ladder as required.
Before we discovered the problem with the mortar line, we made the mistake of lowering the levelling legs in the front of the wardrobe. In the process of moving the wardrobe away from the wall and back again, we have now dislodged these, and it takes a bit of thinking and a lot of time to get them secured back in place. But by the time we quit so that Helen can get dinner and head to a concert, everything is in order, level and securely fastened to the wall.

Flat pack marathon, stage 4

Up early again for the renderers, but rain stopped play. It wasn't so much that they couldn't render in the rain, but there is apparently a bit of a spouting leak on the back wall, now obvious as a big wet patch on the render they did on Wednesday. If they put fresh render on and then it rains some more and the spouting continues to leak, the render will run. We contact the builders who are going to come and have a look and hopefully fix. So after a bit of initial waiting around for the rain to stop, Matt and Shane leave, promising to return Monday.
Meanwhile we complete the job of mounting the dryer upside down. This has been mostly Peter's project, with Helen helping whenever the dryer had to be moved. For the last step we need something about the right height to prop the dryer on while the vent is attached at the top, before it actually goes on to the wall brackets that Peter has fixed in place. A very old and incomplete set of Encyclopedia Brittanica is stacked to just the right height - knew they'd come in handy for something one day.
With the dryer firmly in place we start on the next flatpack exercise - a day bed with a pull-out trundle and two storage drawers under that. Two large half beds and two drawers to construct. We take a break mid-morning to go to the market, and Helen takes a break in the afternoon to attend a 90th birthday party. In her absence Peter relocates his pull-out shelf over the washing machine back a bit so that it no longer obscures the control panel. Laundry cupboard is now 99% complete - just a bit of cosmetic work on the duct at the top and a hose clamp on the drain hose at the bottom and it will be all done.
When Helen returns it's back to work on the Brimnes bed and by teatime it is all done except one drawer. Tomorrow we finish that, then it's wardrobe time.

Several days later, with final drawer done and tastefully furnished with bedding and cushions.

Is it a record?

Thursday we decide to go to Ikea in the morning to purchase the next round of furniture. We break all records - in and out of Ikea in less than an hour, having bought a bed, 2 wardrobes, and about 10 smaller items. These latter items we carry home ourselves, the rest is picked for us and delivered at about 4pm the same day. The whole trip to Ikea took a little more than an hour and a half door to door. Is it a record? We think it might be.
The newly delivered flatpacks just sit on the floor, because we are still working on the installation of the dryer and a shelf above the washing machine.

Rendering, day 1

Life intervenes on Tuesday, so it's all quiet on the eastern front.
Wednesday we are back into the get-up-early routine as the renderers come. Their work makes an enormous difference to how the back of the house looks. They are due back on Friday to finish off.
Meanwhile we contact the electrician, who promises to visit and check the circuit that tripped, although we haven't had a recurrence.