Paint Work

Paint and lattice is back on. I am loving the dark veranda poles, the contrast with the lattice is awesome. Now I just need to paint the rest of the guttering.
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Site Supervisor

Seems we have a new site supervisor in our house.

Luckily the concrete was poured to her satisfaction, you don't want to get on the wrong side of this little miss!
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Lattice Work

A feature of our house is the lattice work, despite all the shortcomings of our house's features, it still had the original lattice work.

We had to remove it to replace the posts, and made the decision to paint it before putting it back up. Unfortunately it was covered in 12 layers of paint in varying degrees of disrepair, and needed a bit of work with a wire brush before we could paint it. A friend of ours had access to a industrial sandblaster and a spraypainting booth, so we had him sandblast and paint it for us.

Now we just have to paint the posts and put all the lattice up again. I am not looking forward to it, as I think our mate lost some of the attachments.
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Jack of it

Toodle pip to the old concrete. I still maintain that my idea of resurfacing it would have been a lot easier though - there is three tandem trailer loads of cement there which all required being picked up by hand!
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Cubby House

Given that I now have a child, I feel it is perfectly normal to start planning a cubby house (prior to children it was just kinda weird).

So, whilst stalking the internet one night, I found this little beauty and saved it to the inspiration file. Isn't it lovely! You can see more at Birdie Blue
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Cat Kennel

Remember when we started building a Cat Kennel way back in August? Well since then it has sat on our back veranda looking like this

 Seriously, for 5 months I haven't bothered to putty up those holes, or put the capping on the roof. And despite the amount of times the paint brushes have been brought out, it never got past the undercoat stage.

I was looking for an excuse to go to Bunnings a few weeks back, and remembered we were low on house paint. Bingo! Several other items later, I left with my tin of paint and some putty, ready to finish the kennel. Ahhh, nice white (Dulux Chalk USA) kennel.

Our original plan was to make it like a mini house, and with our house going under some minor transformations, we decided to paint the trim of the kennel in the colour we plan to paint the trim on the house.

And thats where the kennel ended. So far it has been the cheapest building project in our household, using mainly left over materials from other projects. Best of all, the animals seem to love it in there!

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Cat Kennel

Yes, you did read that right, we are making a kennel for our kitty. Oh, and our puppy, but mainly our kitty.

Now, before you think I have gone completely bonkers, there is a reason for this. Our Jack Russell stays home most days, and doesn't like sitting in his kennel alone (which is really a child's cubby house, due to the size of our German Shepard). And our cat, well she sits on the door mat for most of the day when we are at work, even in the rain. When we got back from Melbourne last week, and it had been raining for the third day straight, she was drenched. I have no idea where she had been, but she was soaked through.

So we decided to build a cat kennel on the weekend, because we had nothing better to do on a freezing cold winters day (apparently sitting in front of the heater is for wimps).

We started with a base

And built some walls. Just incase you were wondering, we used 70x35 framing pine. We made Ben sit inside the "house" to make sure he fits (how terrible would that be if we made a whole kennel and it was too big/small! Parent fail!)

And built a doorway (once again, making Ben go through it to make sure he fits).

We decided we wanted a pitched roof on the kennel so that it looked like a mini house. It has a mini veranda out the front so that the weather shouldn't come inside the kennel.

We had some left over flooring, and decided to make a mezzanine floor for the cat to sit on when she gets sick of Ben. Lucy was being lazy in front of the fire, so we made Ben demonstrate the extra level. We put left over weatherboards on the outside to block out the elements, and to replicate our house (yes, we may have been a touch bored this weekend).

I think he likes it!

Stay tuned and see how we complete this project.
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The Walls: Part Four

I have been meaning to do this post for ages, but everytime I went to take a photo something got in the way, be it the mess outside, to my flat battery in the camera last night.


The new window and weatherboards on the side of the house. We need to order new flashing for the roof, but the old lot is doing a fine job right now. Oh, and you can see our *new* hot water system. My sister in law was lucky enough to get the government solar grant, and replaced their old hot water system with a solar one, so we claimed their old one. We figured that if it lasted us 6 months (it is only 6 years old, so should last longer than that) then we have got ourselves a bargain. My plan is to build a little lattice fence around it, as its kinda ugly to look at

And the finished back of the house, complete with wires for lights (yet to be chosen) and a garden tap (that the plumber put in the middle of nowhere, so it looks dickie from the side, as the tap sits so far out. NOT IMPRESSED!) I think we will put in a new bigger drain there, as it really is quite ridiculous.

(Spot the cranky cat, it hates me currently, as it was -2 degrees this morning and I made it go outside...mean cat-mummy)

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The Walls: Part Three

As much as I love the look of blue sizalation paper, I could not live with it forever. Nor could I live without a backdoor.

The father in law kindly gave up his weekend for us again, and helped the husband put in the doors and windows. I personally think he likes coming over here, mainly because I buy him the good biscuits (I know the way to his heart, I learnt it a long time ago ;) )

The sliding door


The back of the house. We still need to do the surrounds, but they will come at the end. Oh, and our house won't be this colour, it will be white, when father in law comes back to paint it

The side window. See how it is a different height? Turns out it is a different colour too. We had a discussion about it, and whilst I am happy for it to stay, husband wants a new one, so he will order a new window tomorrow, and hopefully it should be here in a week or so. But until then, we can't weatherboard the rest of the house.

So that concludes the walls for the time being.

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The Walls: Part Two

This morning we rewarded ourselves with a bit of a sleep-in, and a big brekkie (well, for me it wasnt so big, but it was a treat to have bacon and hashbrowns).

Our day started will pulling the weatherboards off the bathroom wall, as we are going to alter them slightly.

Then it was wall-building time. The plumber had put the stink pipe in an odd location, halfway through our base plate, which meant we had to do some creative jigsawing. Of course, we dont own a jigsaw, but a chainsaw is close enough...right?

Either way, it worked and we got our wall built, and the sizalation paper on the walls.

We had a bit of an issue today, when putting in the frame for the bigger window, I noticed they were different heights. Turns out the husband forgot to ring the window company and tell them my measurements didnt include reveals, until the day after the window was made. So now it is 30mm shorter than the other window, which i doubt anyone else will notice, but it will annoy me. Husband was in the bad books for an hour or so until I moved on. Guess it means we won't be having subway tiles though :(

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The walls: Part One

We have a friend who is a builder, who said he would drop around mid morning to give us some advice about building our walls. So we packed up the mess, did some jobs around the place, and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Around 2ish we rang, and he said he had forgotten about calling in to see us. But when he did, the advice was worth it. So we didnt get as much done as we wanted, but thems the breaks.

The best part is that when we use the loo, the neighbours no longer have to watch (me walked there, I do shut the door) :D

The second part of the wall to follow shortly. Pin It

Blogs I Love

Given how much I love renovating our house, it is no suprise that I love reading other blogs about building and renovating.

My favourite building blog would have the be The House that A-M Built

A-M has the most amazing house, I am in love with it, and oh-so-jealous of it. It is the kind of house (ok a single story version) I can see the husband and I building in the future. I love its charm. I have to admit I have a folder on my laptop for house inspiration, and A-M has featured in there a few times.

I highly recommend checking out her blog for some inspiration. And if you are after some lovely gifts (maybe for yourself), she has a gift store with the most amazing things in it!

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A strange kinda phone call

Sorry, I have been slack, and storing my posts up, and never getting around to posting them, until now.

My parents live on a small farm, about 20 minutes from here. They have a few sheep, an alpaca and a couple of cats. Oh, and a fierce working dog who isnt overly friendly. My stepdad like to dabble in being a farmer, with a crop of something.

My mum, having grown up on a farm, isnt too keen on being a farmer, but puts up with it, as she loves her little sewing group. She, however doesnt love their house. It is small, old, needing repair, and A LOT more storage for her quilting stuff.

They have been toying with the idea of building a house since moving out there, so around 7 years now. This morning I had the strangest phone call.

*Phone rings*
Me: Hello
Mum: Order me a house
Me: HUH???
Mum: Rick said to just get the plans for a house and get it built
Me: Okaaaay, shouldnt you do that together
Mum: You're better at that stuff
Me: So i can choose any house (suddenly I am having visions of building my dream house, and plotting how to ship my parents off to a nursing home in a few years...just joking ;) )
Mum: yes
Me: what kind of house? Brick or weatherboard? How many bedrooms/living rooms/bathrooms/etc?
Mum: Brick, enough to keep me happy.
Me: Right.....

Officially the weirdest phone call ever.

But I am off to chose their house to build. Wonder if i get to decorate it too ;) Pin It