Week 3 Saturday

Well yesterday, the plumber finished off in the bathroom, and the Gyprocker set in the bath to the walls.






The painters did the feature walls (green in the sunroom and purple in the living) and painted Ela's room pink.





-





The waterproofer was meant to do a first coat to the bathroom but he decided to leave it until today and do both coats together (with an industrial fan blowing in between).
The painters were also there again doing their finishing coats.
Here's a photo of the 'new' kitchen walls.









Next week's plan is as follows:

Monday/Tuesday - tile the bathroom
Tuesday - lay carpet and vinyl
Wednesday - get floorboards in kitchen, hallway and dining area sanded and polished
Thur - get kitchen fitted and appliances plumbed in, and get bathroom appliances and tapware fitted (if delivered!)
Friday - move in.

Another tight week - my money is on for all but thursday's plan to come to fruition...so possibly no kitchen or functioning bathroom - but then I am the pessimist half of this relationship :)

Week 3 Thursday

Mark turned up to open the house this morning to find the plumber (as miserable as before), two gyprockers, two electricians and four (!) painters ready to start work. Good start.
So hopefully some big steps forward today. As usual, the plumber shook his head and said – ‘oh I won’t be finished until tomorrow – can’t possibly line the walls today.’ Mark gave him a spray and told him to get on with it, the gyprockers said no worries they’d work around him and the painters smiled and said…dust? No worries mate. Don’t ya have to love the Aussies...plumber must be a Pommie though!
By the end of the day, Mark said it looked like a new place already. His favourite part is the ceilings!

Week 3 Tuesday

Today our first work began! The electricians came and did their ‘rough-in’ for the lighting (punching holes in ceilings), power sockets and kitchen appliances.
The plumber also came to do his rough-in in the kitchen and bathroom, but he was one of those reluctant, pessimistic, on-a-go-slow kind of guys.
First problem was that the tapware we had ordered for the bathroom were all mixer types, and he had only brought fittings for separate taps and spouts. So either we had to delay until tapware is delivered or we have to change order for tapware. Obviously our very tight schedule means no delays allowed at this point, so it was back to the catalogue to choose new tapware.
Problem number two, he hadn’t brought the cement to set in the bath. Mark went to the hardware store to pick it up but at the end of the day when he went back to check on progress, the plumber shook his head and said ‘this is a half day job, will have to come back tomorrow’. However, tomorrow is a public holiday – of course he’s not going to do that, so it’ll be Thursday before he goes again. In the meantime, the gyprocker, who was willing to line the walls on the public holiday, now has to be put off also till Thursday as he can’t do it till the bath is in.
So two small steps forward and one step back! Roll on Thursday.

Week 2

A few setbacks this week. As can be expected with tradies/subbies, non were available when we wanted them, so our carefully laid plans are all delayed. All that happened was the painter took a look around and said we had to remove the 'crap' on the ceilings before he could paint. So on Saturday, they were scraped down - it's a kind of spray on foam.

Mark forgot to get the skip replaced so all the rubbish is now lying in the driveway. Including all the curtains and pelmets which we have removed.
Also, the carpet we had chosen was not in stock so we went for another option.

The bath we wanted had a seven day lead time and we'd planned to have it in this weekend, so we took a cheaper option, then found out the plumber isn't available till next week anyway. Sods law.

Mark met with the architect on Thursday and came home with new plans. Some good ideas, including an internal (Japanese style) courtyard on the side of the house. Some not so good - a tandem garage rather than a double (side-by-side) one. But the worst of all was that if we follow his plan, we'll have to do it all in one. Originally we had a stage 2 and 3 - to be able to stay there as long as possible and deal with new arrival. However the new plan would mean doing the 2nd storey and extension as one so we'd have to move out. Anyway next step is concept drawings, architect drawings and then council submission.

Hopefully next week will be a little more fruitful. The plan is:

Tuesday - plumber and electrician do their rough in, and painting begins.

Wednesday - walls are lined in bathroom and kitchen

Thursday - Waterproofing of bathroom

Friday - Tiling of bathroom begins, and carpets laid

Saturday - Polish the floorboards

Week 1

So we have reached the end of week 1 and so far so good(ish).

We've locked in the bathroom 'furniture' and tiles, the carpets and vinyl, the kitchen layout and identified where we need new electrical sockets and light fittings.

The kitchen and bathroom have been ripped out and we have filled one large skip.

We've found that when removing the tiles, most of the brickwork has crumbled, so we'll be lining the walls with plasterboard (gyprock) before starting re-tiling. That adds another component into the 'plan'.


Sunroom and Bathroom (need a plumber to remove the bath).





Shower and living room (carpet removed - floorboards in good condition - we'll polish them.)




Kitchen.

The big plan

Well as mentioned earlier the plan to turn this house into a home involves three stages.

Stage 1 - 4 weeks to make the house 'liveable' so we can move in on May 4th. This includes ripping out the original kitchen and bathroom, painting the whole house and laying new carpet, vinyl and polishing floorboards. New curtains/blinds.


Stage 2 - to be finished before first week of September. - build an extension to back of house to include a new kitchen, dining, living area. Convert current living room to third bedroom. Redo the laundry. Knock down the garage so as to start construction on the pool. Build a carport on side of house.

Stage 3 - build a second storey with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. Knock down 2nd bedroom and convert to garage with internal access. Convert third bedroom downstairs into formal dining.

All this said, the plans are still to be drawn up for stage 2 and 3 so timelines are already looking out of skelter. But that's renovations for you!

Settlement

Settlement occured today.

Apart from ordering three kitchen appliances (cooker, fridge and dishwasher) not much progress yet.

Here we have a few of the rooms to give you an idea of the 'state' of the house.



Sunroom (to be demolished in stage 2) and bathroom (to be replaced in stage 1).



The bedroom with the built in (will become guest bedroom in stage 3 - second storey) and the living room (will become third bedroom after stage 2 - extension - is completed).



Kitchen (being completely replaced in stage 1) and shower (part of bathroom demolition).