Lounge room nearly painted!!

Well after many days of work on my lounge room, I am pleased to report that it is nearly painted!!. Yay!!! I will be able to move my lounge suite from the hall back into the right room. I ended up deciding on Dulux Natural White for the walls (as per my house in the magazine) and the trim in Wattyl Whiteweave (half strength) in a glossy enamel paint. I can't believe how much cleaner and brighter it looks. Pity about the blue and yellow of the kitchen in the background. Tomorrow there is the windows and doors to tackle, and a bit more gloss for the trim....

I have also bought all my bathroom supplies at Reece during their May sale - will delivered at the end of June.

The joys of undercoating

Over the labour day weekend and this weekend, I have been gap filling my tongue and groove boards, sanding, deflaking, and undercoating my lounge room. Just too much mental stimulation!! I don't think I will have quite enough undercoat for that flawless finish - so another trip to the paint store next weekend.

The pressure is on now to decide on paint colours so I can finish the room properly. I have put together a mood board to help my out.

I found a colour scheme I like in an House and Garden magazine. The architect's website is http://www.sharonfraserarchitects.com.au/sharon.html . Follouw "Projects" then "Byron Bay", then "Federal House".

21 to go

Well $4320 later and I have 22 new concrete and 2 steel stumps - and those 3 lounge room windows open better than ever!!!

There is still the front 21 stumps to go - will be fantastic to have the veranda level instead of the disaster it is now.

Steve from Kitchen Works phoned - quoted me for a laminex kitchen and laundry cabinets (inc kitchen sink and lever tap) $7940. A vanity unit from wall to wall (ie 2.1m) for $1330 (no basins). At least I have some figures to work on now.

Tomorrow, a guy from GJames Glass and Aluminium is quoting on replacement windows for the laundry/kitchen and the shower screen. Also a builder is quoting on raising the lintel in the wall between the kitchen/laundry area.

The pedicure...

Who thought my stumps were so bad? It is amazing what lies beneath the ground. What was holding my house up?

The first 15

Today, the restumpers arrived at 7am - I have decided to get the stumps for the kitchen, lounge and bathroom done over the next two days. At least this will mean that the back of the house will be level. So I arrived home after work today to find my house perched on some new concrete stumps, shiny ant capping, dryinng concrete and a bottle jack per stump.
One thing I discovered though is that now my three lounge room windows are now jammed shut - no one is going to break in through these now!!!

Restumping finally booked!!

Another 3 cubic metre skip of rubbish removed in the week. And what have I done over my week after Easter - well it does seem like too much now that I only have a few photos. I have been to Reece and Tradelink plumbing - both have sales on at the moment and I have pretty much selected my new shower, toilet, taps and accessories. I also had Steve from Kitchenworks come around and measure up to quote for my kitchen - will be another week or so before I know what the damage is. And yes, the stumping guy, Norm, is coming this Thursday and Friday to replace the stumps under the kitchen, bathroom, and those terrible ones under the front stairs. There are my new removable shelfs and desk I designed for the middle bedroom. And then I replaced the three casement stays (thank god I know what they are called now!).

We got the dining room table and chairs out of the shed, so now the sleepout is my dining room.

I have done my first carpentry job today - some construction rather than destruction. I put in a timber strip at the doorway between the dining room and middle bedroom to hide a 10mm gap in the floorboards.

Snail found in ceiling

Well after spending a few days in Brisbane with my family for the Easter weekend - the past week has been a whirlwind of more demolition and cleaning.

Dad battled with the old pantry and won where previously I have been defeated by the tin lining.

I had managed to strip out the cupboard down the other end a couple of months ago.

The pantry has now been completely gutted including all old fibro and even the ceiling.

And here is the snail shell that was found about the cross beam...

The beginner renovator....

Today I have finally got around to creating my blog about my very first renovation project. I bought my first home 3 days before Xmas last year - a little old queenslander. I have thrown myself into the deep end with this one considering I haven't done anything like this before. Only needs new stumps, roof, bathroom, kitchen..... you get the idea.... All this with only a semester of year 8 high school manual arts behind me.

The last 3 months have been a bit chaotic - I really can't do too much without my new stumps to get the house level. Without it level, I can't do too much inside the house at the moment. But so far I have managed to (with some help of family)

• rip up most of the stinky old carpet
  
• take up all the old vinyl in the kitchen - hours upon hours here melting the adhesive with a heat gun
• removing the bathroom linen cupboard revealing a hidden window
• 
  
  removing one of the kitchen cupboards, taking out part of a wall, and starting to strip out the wall paneling
  
  
• installing a wardrobe into the main bedroom

• installed timber blinds into two bedrooms

• new letterbox cemented in
  
  
  

However, with the recent rains about and the crappy lawn filled with weeds, I have been recently putting in the some garden beds. Lovely softened soil that is easy to dig...mmmmm.... I am going for a bit of a tropical rainforest them under two existing golden cane palm trees.
Then along my driveway is going to be something like a desert pebble garden - hopefully a neglect and forget area.