One year on

Almost a year since the first guests arrived. Since then the house has fulfilled its objective of giving us a small dwelling that could be used by friends and relatives, particularly in time of need. Longer term occupants have included a nephew in need of space during a life crisis, interstate friends with a critically ill child in hospital. Friends and relatives from overseas, interstate and country Victoria have come for shorter stays. And because the living space is bigger with less furniture than the "big house" it has been used for social gatherings, meetings, even as a rehearsal space for a chamber group.

Front fence

During the winter, miniature roses are ordered, planters erected at the front, roses are planted when they arrive and in Spring, the dream of a growing fence is realised.

Flat-pack fix

We may be suffering from flat-pack deprivation. Peter decides that the house is not complete without some kind of book storage, and so it's back to IKEA. We settle on some EKAT square shelves that we can add to if needed, but so far we're happy with just three units. They take only minutes to assemble, don't even need an Allen key. What kind of fix is that?

Guests come, and keep coming

As noted in the last post, we have the link between the houses complete for Helen's birthday party on 28 July, and the family wander happily back and forth between the two on an unusually pleasant winter day.
Our first non-family guests arrive the next day and stay for over a week. The day they leave, friends from Tasmania take their place for 3 nights. We then have a day clear to prepare for a breakfast for friends in the house on Saturday morning, before our next guest, Peter's sister, arrives on Saturday afternoon. And there are two more lots of people scheduled before we reach the end of August. It's all go.

Wall extension, arch and rose wrangling

When we get the decking material from Bunnings for the walkway, we also pick up the struts and louvres ordered a month or so ago to finish off the wall to match the one between us and our neighbour at the front. Peter realises that some additional brickwork will be needed and does a neat bricklaying job. A day passes while we wait for the mortar to dry, then he constructs the screen and bolts it to the gatepost at one end, the new brickwork at the other. Looks great, and matches the rest nicely.
On Friday we start the last task, of erecting a trellis arch over the gate. This was purchased from Bunnings months ago, but had to wait for the wall to be completed. It's another flat-pack, designed to produce a free-standing arch about 2m high. We shorten and adapt the pieces to construct something that will bolt to the wall on either side of the gate. It's dark by the time he is putting on the last fastenings, and then at long last she wrangles the rather vicious but lovely Nancy Hayward climbing rose, hoisting back up on to the wall, threading through the louvres and tying it on, and weaving a couple of long branches through the trellis arch.

All done and looking good for the party the next day.

Joining the dots, or rather houses

With a daytime party looming, we need to resolve the connecting walkway between houses. She has a vision of rural-looking stepping stones made from slices of trees, and has been promised such slices by two people with farms. As these have failed to materialise, we start looking at alternatives - some kind of bridge structure. Flat-pack ones are available, but not long enough, so it's off to Bunnings to buy some mirbau decking strips and treated pine for stumps and bearers.
Over the weekend and today ground is levelled, plants are trimmed, holes are dug, stumps inserted, bearers bolted and decking planks screwed down.

As a last touch she puts a paver as a jumping off-point and extends the gravel around it.

Hanging pictures

Not many things left to do, except to progressively hang our Tasmanian/boating prints and pictures. We managed to hang one before MICMC week, and three more today.

Port Davey joins Eddystone Rock

In the bedroom, Ysabel's print on the left...

... and Cath's Koonya print on the right.

Back inside

During this week he fixes the laundry cupboard where the bench was separating from the side of the cupboard. This is a non trivial exercise as he has to pull out the washing machine to get to the spot where an extra bracket is needed.
She takes down the curtains, shortens them, re-hems. He attacks the curtain hooks with multigrips to stop the hooks popping out of the header tape. She then irons and re-hangs, and they do look good.
She indulges in a bit more retail therapy, buying a couple more towels and a magnetic knife rack with knives, which involves another exercise of working out how to mount it on the wall. But as usual, he finds a way and the kitchen is now dangerously well-equipped.
And as always, once the project is complete, one has to write the documentation. The webpage is done, and the Guest Guide is mostly done, but not yet printed.

Exterior cleanup

To our surprise, the boys from Bayside Landscaping come back for one final task, to acid-wash the new bricks. Now it all does look absolutely spiffing.
While they are washing at the back, she gets out the Karcher and cleans up the front porch. Still a long way from really clean - will have to resort to chemical attack and will also need to replace a few tiles.
And at the end of the day, she drove the car in under the new roller door, over the newly laid bricks, alongside the deck, to prove that yes! you can open the car door and get out. Are we happy, yes we are.

And in the picture below, you can not only see how neatly the car fits in, but also how much better the old wall looks with the top courses of bricks removed.

Deck, day 4

Tuesday comes at last, the rain holds off. They finish the deck and relay the brick paving. And they take away all the rubbish, including the bricks that we removed over the weekend, and generally clean up.
How good does it look!

Brick-bashing, 2

Another day, another course of bricks off the top of the wall, and some general tidying up. We are pleased to have it done as we are hoping that the bricks that we've removed will be taken away by the guys from Bayside Landscaping when they come to finish the deck.

Brick-bashing

We have planned for a while to take the top courses off the old wall between the two properties, and replace them with some kind of trellis or louvres to match the back wall. And as it is bright and sunny, today is the day. To her surprise, it isn't as hard as she thinks it will be, and we remove all but one course before we decide that it's enough bashing for one day.

Deck, day 3

Boys return on Friday, and it is nearly done, but still not quite. Now have to wait over the long weekend...

Deck, day 2

Not quite finished, but well on the way.

And now for the exterior

Men arrived early this morning (not too early) and began construction of a deck outside the back door. We're hoping for completion tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Peter finishes titivating the front door, making it more completely weatherproof. Note the new letter box, new door handle, and the door seal.

Always one more thing...

This project is beginning to be like our boat - there's always one more thing to fix or improve on. Today it is the front door, which now has a weather guard, a nice brass handle, and has its lock changed to match the back door so we only need one key for the whole house.
Andrew the electrician also came back today to put in an additional power point in the bathroom and to try to improve the TV reception for the ABC channels.

Go!

First guests arrive Friday and stay until Sunday - Peter's nephew, partner and daughter. We have to provide an extra doona for the second bedroom bed (June nights are very cold), but otherwise all goes very smoothly. We are pleased to get commendation from them for our renovation, as they are architects.

Ready, set...

First guests are due Friday, so we spend some time on last things. On Thursday evening we stick various sorts of translucent stuff on glass panels in doors (front and internal) and windows to improve privacy. On Friday we complete the "Guest Guide" booklet with instructions for all the appliances.

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.