Renovation Update: The Forth and Final Chapter

This is it people. The builders officially left last Friday. We are done.

I spent Friday, in between looking after children, painting these windows. Luckily I got them done (two coats!) and back in before the big storm hit in the afternoon. Otherwise we might have seen a lot of water damage in the laundry area. These were the only existing windows that we didn't repaint in the window project of 2014.

When the builders cleared off the deck of all their stuff, it suddenly seemed a lot bigger. So great to have it done!

On the weekend, Steve mattocked up all the bare ground that had been compacted by the excavator at the start and weeks of builders walking on it. Thankfully the rain made it a little easier, if also a lot muddier. At last the grass as something to grow into again.

We still need to oil the deck. The list of things we need to do seems to get bigger before it gets smaller. Inside the house we keep finding extra things that need seeing to, and I'm still unpacking the kitchen. There are cupboards in there that I haven't even touched, even though they are full of who knows what. But slowly, we are working it out.

It's hard to fit the whole house into a photo from the back yard now, but we still feel like we've got enough lawn.

I am also spending lots of time making the house "officially safe" again for work. I'll have to put a gate on the bottom of those steps, because of, you know, danger and stuff. I also wonder if the powers at be will ask us to cover up under the stairs there because of entrapment issues, but fingers crossed they don't.

Look, an outdoor setting we can actually use! We've only had it for, I don't know, six years maybe? It's been under the house, waiting. We've used the chairs before, but the table was too big to get out often. Here is it's time to shine!

The bay window cushion was the last thing we got. I love the purple colour adding some fun to the room. I feel like I could have taken better photos and made everything look super swish and professional, but it was enough trouble to keep the kids out of an area for just one photo that I didn't feel like I had the energy for any more.

This is the only photo I have of the bathroom. I wonder if people want more? Should I, for example, take photos of the laundry cupboard too? I don't know! I did take a walk through video, but I got a little rambly in my explanation in it and think I need to redo it. Do people even want to see that? I have no idea.

The bathroom is shiny and clean, and the girls love the bath. The faucet swivels out of the way, which is also super cool.

Anyway, that's a wrap! House renovation complete. We are looking forward to having people around and making use of our space to welcome people.

Nailed it

Today's Bento were so good.

Except that Rachel ate all of hers by 11:00 at Playgroup.

I wonder how quickly Sophie ate hers?

Renovation Update Three

The painting begins! 

This is the inside of our house, standing from the corner near the new bay window. The painters got in here and painted all the walls and ceiling before the floors got sanded and polished. The second day of painting, the painter asked me what I thought. My response was a little uninspiring, so he thought I didn't like the color now that it was on the walls. 

It wasn't that; the new part of the house just seemed so classy, modern and shiny. We had been living in the older part of the house, that, despite the paint lift we gave it when we moved in initially, still had molding on the walls to hide the joins, and shiny ceilings because we'd never bothered to paint those at all. I was used to that old house, with it's old style and where I didn't mind if the children got paint on the walls, it was comfortable. I was not used to this shiny new part of the house and I am still not sure we will ever belong there. Maybe after the kids have made it dirty though, it will start to feel a bit more like home.

Anyway, here is a night time shot post floor polishing. We weren't walking on it, so we weren't home much during the day, but it was too exciting not to have a night time visit and photo. You can see the bay window seat had been put in, with spaces for drawers too!

While the floor got sanded and polished, the painters moved outside and began work on the exterior of the house. Here is a progress shot.

And another, given that the side window there still has an unpainted windowsill, but mostly everything else is done. I'm so looking forward to when the scaffolding is gone and the sides of our house feel large and spacious again.

Round the back, the deck was getting built and the roof put on. Every time we opened the bifold doors, we could feel the breeze coming through and longed more and more for the day when we could just walk out onto the deck. I think we will be spending a lot of time out there when all is done.

Here is a panorama shot of the inside out onto the deck. You can see the kitchen is back together, but not quite, as our dishwasher isn't in yet, and the microwave is still on the bench. Actually, that wall that moved out to make space for the dishwasher was without power for about two weeks, so we used a camping stove to cook on and an extension cord for the microwave.

Moving around, there is a linen cupboard on the other side of the kitchen, and the laundry. Down that hallway behind the living room wall is our second toilet and bathroom. The holes in the walls were waiting for the electrician to come along and join up the wires with power points. Leaning up against the bay window are the laundry doors that were painted too.

Coming round onto the deck you can see the old toilet (about to be thrown in the bin) and our deck! The roof posts were up, but they didn't put the roof on until the next week.

Tada!

Such a change, but so exciting. Inside I was using all the baby gates ever to remind the children about where they could and couldn't be. The regulars were good, but my one-day-a-week kids definitely needed the reminding. That said, I never had any explorers try to investigate any dangerous building equipment, so I'm really thankful for that.

While the outside was being painted, the inside got electricity and plumbing. The bathroom/toilet/laundry were all tiled and the other bits went in. We ordered our new couch (first one we'eve ever bought) and put the old one out for curbside clean up (such handy timing). When the dishwasher got put in, I really started unpacking kitchen things and putting stuff away. And cleaning. So much cleaning.

Shout out to anyone using Norwex. Such great cleaning products, I don't know where I would be with out the enviro cloth and my container of cleaning paste. Ask if you want to know more, but I've had a really dirty house and I've cleaned it all with just Norwex: no chemicals or paper towel. Amazing.

Yesterday, Steve and I hung this indoor plant in our kitchen. It's so full of life, I really hope I don't kill it. We got the hanging pot from my friend Katie who works with Lorraine Lea. So pretty.

Today as I type this, the builders are finishing the deck balustrade, and mounting the dryer in the laundry. Nearly there (just two more weeks?) Even if the builders finish by Friday, I know there is still a to-do list for us to tackle when they are gone. For now though, I hope you've enjoyed the update; I thought there would only be three, but stick around for a forth and let's hope that's it!

Renovation Update Two

When we left off last time, the outside of the house was built, and things were starting to look very different. At this point, we were pretty excited by what we could see on the inside of the house, so I took a video to help other people visualize what was going on and even see what was happening. 

It is pretty cool to be able to look back at that and compare it to where we started and where we are now, so I'm glad I did take it. The next thing to go in was the windows and doors, and then the floors! 

Here are the girls and I on a lovely new floor! That bay window area that we are standing in will eventually have a seat in it. You can see the inside of the house walls are not yet covered, and the ceiling isn't in yet either.

We  had to move out for the next bit, because we were at the point where the old back wall of our house had to come out. For that to happen, the kitchen had to be taken apart too, because, as you saw in the video, the kitchen wall was moving out so that we could fit a dishwasher in. Here is a photo of Steve with his dishwasher.

He was very excited about this, and still is.

A week or two later, and this was our house! The lovely new floor was covered up with cardboard to protect it while the tradies did their work, putting pipes and cables in all over the place. You can see on the floor next to Sophie in the picture below where our old kitchen used to be in that un-polished area of floor (that was were the old stove stood when we initially bought the house and had the floors done. When we had the new kitchen put in, the cupboards went straight over it).

Everything felt roomy and spacious in the house now, and the outside was finished cladding all the way around, so it was beginning to look pretty spiffy.

We were out of the house for about three weeks, which was pretty tough, even with the sweet accommodation my parents graciously provided for us. That in-between state is hard to live in for an extended period, so I'm glad it was only three weeks.

Our neighbors remarked on the house a lot too, and we had a lot of compliments about the new color, which was literally just the unpainted cladding. I guess we could have saved a bunch of money and not painted it, but it didn't seem worth it.

Here is a final inside shot now that the walls are all covered up and plastered. The cornices were yet to be done and the kitchen cupboards were still all over our front living room, but it was really beginning to feel like it was almost there.

I commented to Steve that the renovation was similar to having a baby who was crying. Bear with me, I'll explain. Sometimes when you put a kid to bed, they have a grumble, and if you go in straight away, it's actually not going to help them sort it out themselves. They need to learn to do it themselves.

So you say to yourself; "I'll just give them two minutes, and then I'll go in." And sometimes that's all it takes, but other times, the two minutes is a little bit perpetual. After the first two minutes, you say "I'll just give it two more minutes", and twenty minutes later when they have finally gone to sleep, you feel fine because you only gave it "two minutes".

Now, to the renovation. As we got closer and closer to the end, if felt like we were saying "just two more weeks", and after those two weeks, we would say, "Oh, yep, just two more weeks." So there are only "two more weeks" to go, but it's been at least six weeks thus far. 

I wonder when it will really be done, and I think it will be actually long after the builders have left, because there are still things to sort out, and put away, and find new homes for, and clean, and clean and clean. So much cleaning. Hopefully we will get there though. Stick around if you are keen to see the final installments of our renovation.