Extensions
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Flooring The ‘Pool’ Room
Our great project of laying floorboards throughout the house continues apace. Inspired by our success of flooring the dining and learning rooms the weekend before. A couple of weekends ago we pressed on and floored the ‘Pool’ Room. Pool Room? Simply the first room as you enter the house wherein a pool table resides. Jelly Bean(13yrs), was our constant offsider all day, she never left our sides, so proud of her! She anticipated our every move and worked to assist our team of, mainly three, to be as seamless as possible (yes I’m part of that team but behind the camera each time). Having recently floored the previous two rooms…
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Dining & Learning Rooms Gain Floorboards
Two weeks ago we turned our attention to a new project on the never ending Owner Builder list; to finish laying floorboards throughout the house. Firstly the area needed to be prepared, eight and a half years of grime needed to be removed so the glue would hold, and joins needed to be sanded down evenly. Prior to beginning this project I was a little daunted as it was the first time we’d floored without any of our older boys, we would be relying primarily on Girl Power. I couldn’t be prouder of our Girls, they worked in sync, anticipated moves to keep it all flowing and wielded that nail gun…
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Kitchen Reveal
It’s time for the great Kitchen Reveal 🙂 To be honest I’ve been waiting for it all to be ‘perfect and complete’ but as it’s still not I believe you’ve all patiently waited long enough. When I recall what my kitchen was and gaze upon what it is now, well it’s just too incredible for words. Some days I just stand looking and smiling, then become inspired and become creative trying new recipes, it has that effect on me much to my family’s pleasure. Let’s take a tour around the room. All cupboards under the benchtop are drawers (except for below the sink). There are three drawers on two sides…
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Kitchen Coming Together
‘Behind the scenes’ here, kitchen progress has been moving along. Two weeks ago our cabinet makers delivered our flat pack, oh the excitement! First task was sorting and matching cabinet pieces, rather a large task undertaking that Michelangelo(17) took care of. Bass(5) was excited to be given the job of sorting the huge pile of screws into ‘like together,’ he was happily occupied for an hour. Constructing all the cabinets took several afternoons and nights, a project made easier thanks to the preciseness of the cabinetry. Michelangelo impressed us with his diligence, often working in the afternoons by himself whilst PC was at work. The floors had to be checked…
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Laying The Kitchen Floor
Many steps have been undertaken over the past two months in preparation for our new kitchen. Back in July we ripped up the lino in the kitchen and found a second layer underneath, wasn’t it hideous? The lino was glued to a sheet of masonite which in turn was secured down with hundreds of tacks, all of which had to removed. We then selected and prepared the boards to fit the space. We glue the boards down and then secret nail them into place. Perhaps you’re wondering why we’re nailing over existent timber boards, the timber flooring doesn’t continue all the way through the room, nor through the house. This ensures we have…
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Painting Up A Storm
We’ve been ‘painting up a storm’ here this week. Preparing our kitchen space in anticipation for the arrival of the flat pack has meant not only one room needed to be painted but three, the kitchen and the rooms that ‘flow on’, the dining and learning rooms. Bass(5) was so eager to assist that we decided he was ready to become an apprentice. Michelangelo (17) has become a master at painting ceilings, which is fortunate as I simply don’t have the upper body strength required. It always astounds me as to how a coat of paint, even undercoat makes such a difference to the lightness of a room. Michelangelo truly did a…
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Kitchen Takes Shape
The countdown is on as the arrival of our flatpack has been promised for next week, therefore our energies have been firmly on kitchen renovations and making final kitchen choices. ETA: A flat pack is when the cabinet maker draws up the plans and then cuts all the pieces for the kitchen and we then assemble it. All these pieces will arrive flat in packaging, hence a ‘flat pack.’ We’ll save thousands of dollars doing it this way. Once the kitchen’s external walls were up, we turned our attention to the internal walls. We began with measuring and screwing on the ceiling battens. Whilst the battens were going up, my task was to measure, cut…
- Blog, Extensions, Extensions - External, Extensions - Kitchen, Extensions - Renovating, Extensions - Structural
Walls Are Up!
It is mid winter here, so having no external walls on our kitchen created a strong desire to build the framing and get those walls up ‘post haste’. To this end PC ‘burnt the candles at both ends’ last week, arriving home after work only to turn his hand to building. His ability to create and solve anything as always continues to impress me and I’m always grateful for his talents. When in the midst of a project and your framing gun finally ‘bites the dust’, this of course means you must buy a new one, reporting that PC is most happy with his new gun. (Old gun pictured) The frames were both installed…
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An Unimpeded View
The weekend before last we began the next phase of our kitchen renovations. After impatiently patiently waiting for weeks our windows finally arrived. Before installing the windows, the external walls of the kitchen needed to be removed so new wall frames to include the windows could be built. Stripping walls back to their studs in our ‘old’ house is always illuminating and is guaranteed to bring forth plenty of comments about old building code practices and dodgy workmanship, the ‘enthusiasm’ is sufficient enough that even the younger children are conversant in head shaking and mutterings about framing and studs or their lack thereof. Take the window above, no supporting beam, the window sag is now explained. Attention…
