Floors sanded
Tick!

Tick!

Tick!

Let there be light

At last we have most of our electricity and some running water. Just a few photos to keep you up to date.

Lights are on in the kitchen, although the sconces don't have their shades on yet.

The bath has been unwrapped.

Sconce in the main bathroom, below. It doesn't have it's shade on yet either. The bath feet, bath taps, sink taps and sconce lights all have a nickel finish.

Below is the ensuite as it is today. Still a lot of work to do, but it's coming together.

Tomorrow the floor people start. That'll be interesting.

First colours....then pitch black!

This morning I got out of bed, all full of bravado, ready to nail those front and back door colours, finally.
While the children ate breakfast I went over them again, logically breaking down the reasons for choosing one colour over another.
An hour later I bundled up the colour charts and the children, and went to the house to look at it AGAAAAIN.
Twenty minutes later we went to our favourite cafe in Paddington. I thought the surroundings might inspire me to see the forest rather than the trees, or whatever. (I'd tell you which cafe is our favourite, but since it was featured in the Courier Mail a few months ago, there is now a line for breakfast on a Sunday and the prices seem to have gone up by about 25%. I make it my personal rule not to line up for food unless there's a war on)
This didn't seem to help and when we were leaving the waitress called out to me because I'd left the colour charts on the table. 'Must be subconsciously trying to get rid of them', I said to her.
Then as we were crossing Latrobe Terrace to get back to our car I dropped the whole bundle right in the middle of the road. I may have even screamed a bit. I just had to grab the little hands and get us all to the footpath before we were squashed by a bus. Once to safety we turned to see the colour charts all churned up by car wheels, and spread all over the road. There was no saving them.
My latest brilliant find is The Paint Place at Milton, just near that American burger chain. They have everything there including Porters Paints and Resene.
I went to check out floor products. One of the men there took me through a few different products including Palm Beach Black. None of them seemed quite right.
After stocking up on some replacement colour charts, we all boarded the 'ishi bishi' and went to the nursery. Enroute from the paint shop to the nursery we passed through Paddington again. My colours had mostly been blown into the gutters. I think I was meant to start again anyway.
I wanted to get some annual seedlings to put in my mother's front garden, to take the focus away from all the plants I've killed in the back garden. We finally got them planted and watered, and I was happy our day ended productively.
Later in the day my husband visited the same paint store also looking for a solution for our floors. Apparently, just after I had left the man had thought of another product but by the time he got outside we were gone. It seems we're now using something called Pitch Black by Resene. Will let you know how it goes.
The plumber showed today and we unwrapped the bath. It's very cute. The silver grey colour is very subtle.
The box brownie was going flat so I was only able to photograph a couple of things from the ensuite.

Above is the marble tiled floor. It hasn't been cleaned yet, but I'm very happy with it. It's a classic.

Ok, these sconce lights are a bit camp, but my thinking was that they would contrast well with the cold, hard marble floor? I'll wait and see how the whole picture looks.
Ta da! I've been meaning to post a picture of this for ages. This is my kitchen bin!

 The reason for my excitement over a bin is that I loathe the rubbish problem in kitchens. I'm always using the sink for vege scraps and hanging old shopping bags over door handles for other rubbish, and then there's the recycling bits all over the benchtop.

With this nifty bin I have compartments for green scraps, recycling and general rubbish. Everyone asks what the fourth one is for, but I'm not sure yet. Maybe it will become apparent once I start actually using the kitchen?

As for the colours for the doors, well... the painter will finish up everything inside tomorrow, then he'll take a couple of weeks off before starting the outside. He'll do the doors when he comes back, so I've got quite a lot of extra time up my sleeve, hopefully enough. Maybe I'll end up resorting to a lucky dip?

The countdown
We didn't get as much done this week as we thought we might have, but we are still on track to move back in on about Tuesday, July 13th?
The plumber didn't recover and was a no-show all week. He said he'll be there Monday and Tuesday to get everything fitted.
The electrician turned up and fitted most of the lights. We are very happy with the three lights over the kitchen island.
This coming week I haved to put my mother's house back in order, and take the rest of our belongings back to Euphemia.  I also need to be handy for the plumber and electrician in case they have any queries.
I will be writing lists like a mad woman this week. I have also been known to write lists of lists I need to make. Tick! Tick! Tick!
The floorsander begins Tuesday or Wednesday and thinks he'll be done by next Saturday. We have decided to use his products rather than the Porter's Palm Beach Black. We are picking over the bones of our budget, and our options are; (i) to get the floor sanded and do the rest ourselves (which extends our time dramatically) or (ii) pay the floorsander to do the whole lot and use his Feast Watson products. The finish will still be dark and waxy.
This is how the kitchen is looking thus far.

My husband fitted the taps today, just so we could see how they look, although they aren't plumbed in yet.

The main bathroom is coming along too, but it's not as photogenic as the kitchen. We are in the process of painting the pressed metal before the bath goes in early in the week.

You can see above how the metal looks when it is first installed. Once painted it gives the plain white wall more texture. There is still masking tape all over the place, and the tiles need a good wash.

These mosaic tiles (below) are from Johnson Bros (I'm not sure who that is?). They are called white, but once all up they appear more of a pale, public hospital green, which I actually love, right or wrong. The colour goes really well with the white and the nickel tapware. This little wall hides the loo and it will soon have two sconce lights on it, plus a white pedestal sink and .........

a beautiful mirror I bought on Ebay for $81. It's not a big space and I was having trouble finding a mirror that would fit, but was really wrapped to find this one.

Speaking of Ebay, I also purchased this little old medicine cabinet below for $49 from my new favourite seller, theoldboatshed. Katherine also has a blog called www.theoldboatshed.blogspot.com where she shows all the best pieces from estate sales she's purchased. All very exciting, if you're into that sort of thing.

I will also try and take some photos of our ensuite tomorrow. The dust sheets over the floor are gone, the wall sconces and shower are in. It's all looking good. Wish I'd used more of the marble though.

Tomorrow I also need to finally, finally decide on the colours for the front and back doors.  Once and for all. 

Currently leaning towards turquoise or red for the front door and grey or turquoise for the back door. With a white house and black floors, there are about 150,000 colours which would suit. Not an easy process for someone who spends half an hour pondering which ice cream to have from the shop every Sunday afternoon..... and I always end up with the trusty old Maxibon.

I wonder if some paint company, somewhere, has a colour called Maxibon?

False alarm
Today was highly anticipated by us as being very exciting, but it has all fallen in a heap. The electrician and the plumber were due today to start installing lights, the stove, taps, toilets, pedestal sinks, the bath poles and taps and the shower hardware.
However, as it panned out, the electrician had a sick child to look after and the plumber was unwell himself. Hopefully, once we overcome this false start, everything will still be installed by Friday.
Craig thinks he will have finished painting the inside by Monday. I have spoken to the floor sander, and he should be right to sand the floors next Wednesday (July 7th?). We have always planned on doing the Porter's Palm Beach Black ourselves, but now we are considering getting the floor sander to Japan and top coat the floors instead. We need to make up our mind about this in the next day or two.
We will probably miss our July 11th deadline by only a few days, which is not bad going. Every Thursday night we perch ourselves in front of the ABC to watch Kevin McLeod and his Grand Designs. We are constantly appalled by people who try to do too much work, with too little money in an unrealistic time frame and end up moving into their house a year after the proposed completion date, with an unexpected 250,000 pounds on their mortgage. We should hit the mark relatively closer than that.
I had A-M from The House that A-M Built leave a message on my blog a couple of days ago. It was regarding my mention of the painter's name and number. Apparently, when A-M was building her house she came across some resistance from people to pass on the details of any tradespeople they were happy with.
I am only too happy to pass on contact details. For one thing, I want anyone doing a good job to continue getting the work, and secondly, it's not necessary for renovators to start behind the eight ball when they don't need to. Most people will only ever do one or two renos in their life, so there is no need to guard these 'secrets' - a good hairdresser, a lovely nanny, sure, but you shouldn't need your plumber on a regular basis.
Today I collected the last of the handles and locks for Val to fit. We got all of these from a place in Albion called Handle This on Crosby Road, telephone 07 3262 1583.
This place is run by David and Andrew. I found it difficult to understand what we needed in terms of locks, especially for the recycled doors we were using. I couldn't answer any of David's questions about door thicknesses and lock requirements, and in the end he came out and had a look for himself.
They are very specialised, they know what they're talking about and their products are good quality, although not overpriced.
We also got a lot of things from The Brass Shop Magins in Boundary Road, Bardon, telephone 3369 7179. They are a small husband and wife operation, but they have an extensive range of older style lights, taps, basins, tiles, light switches, toilets, etc. 
I much prefer to deal with these smaller businesses than say, Bunnings for example. For one thing, I want to ensure that these smaller businesses survive for everyone's sake. I also find the staff more knowledgable and interested, both of which were a huge advantage to us.
The stock at Magins was also better quality than elsewhere. Our nickel plated kitchen lights were made in South Australia, which I thought was a nice touch.
The Restoration Station on Waterworks Road in Red Hill, just around the corner from us, has a similar product range to Magins, but is a much larger store. They also keep a small amount of salvaged windows and doors, etc. This is where we got our pressed metal panels.
We got this pattern for the main bathroom.

It's going on the walls up to the belt rail like this below (although this photo is not our bathroom). We were planning on putting it in the ensuite too, but there turned out to be too many problems with the basin and toilet being fitted to it. Instead, we returned it to the store and I will go back later this week and get some lights for the front verandah. I have seen it used a lot in magazines and counters in shops and restaurants, but the builders were a bit bemused by it at first. They had never fitted it before. I love it, and it suits our house perfectly. Traditionally, it would have been more typically used on the ceiling.

The panels are actually manufactured in Bathurst. You can see their range at www.pressedtinpanels.com

We have two large Jacaranda trees at the front of our house, they aren't on our footpath but at the very end of our street (it's a bit hard to explain). They are perfectly positioned so we can enjoy their colour and beauty without their mess in September.

I found this picture below, which would look so beautiful in our jacaranda trees, but even I know that some things just cannot be translated from fantasy to reality. It's a very pretty picture all the same.

Up north
When I was about ten years old I wrote a note and my mother drove me down to a stranger's house so I could put it in their letterbox. The note said something like, 'I love your house, if you ever want to sell it please ring me'.
I think I must have been born with a love of falling down old houses. I grew up in Rockhampton in the 1970s. Back then it was like living in a time capsule, everything moved very slowly.
Since the internet had not been invented, long distance phone calls were only for special occasions, airfares were dear as poison and the road to anywhere else was very long, like all country towns then, we were relatively isolated.
There was only two television stations, the ABC and RTQ7 which broadcast a lot of locally produced shows, and I mean locally produced in the Rockhampton tv studio. Both of them shut off late at night and began again in the morning with just the test pattern in between.

I lived in an area called The Range (short for Athelstane Range). It's an area where grand Queenslanders stand shoulder to shoulder, although we did not live in one ourselves.

When Rockhampton was settled it was apparently going to be the capital of Queensland, several stately homes and buildings were constructed before it was realised the river was too narrow to be a viable trading port (or something like that). 
There was also a lot of money in the town from the gold mine at Mount Morgan. This house below, called Kenmore, was built by one of the gold miners. It's now the main building of the Mater Hospital.

Grand old Queenslanders are common as mud, and very affordable. All of these below are on www.realestate.com.au now for sale. They ranged from about 275k to 895k.

 This one above is just around the corner from where I grew up. The family who lived there then had two daughters who went on to dance with the Royal Ballet in London, one of them as the prima ballerina.

This house below used to be called St Albans. As the story goes, it's haunted. Catholics are unable to get up the front stairs on one day of the year? The main house is surrounded by about five cottages, and when I was growing up each cottage was a different type of shop; one had toys, another had kitchen equipment, another had children's clothes and dried flowers. Every weekend I would nag whomever I could find to drive me down there, sometimes I'd get lucky, sometimes not.

This house above is often photographed. It now operates as a b & b, but when I was growing up it was a family home. I went to a party there one night.

Rockhampton also has a whole street which is heritage listed. Quay Street runs along the river bank (below right), and is anchored by the Criterion Hotel (below left), just near the old bridge. In Rockhampton there are two bridges, referred to as the new and old bridge, even though the 'new' one must be nearly 30 years old now. It's a system that works very well actually, there's never any confusion.

Now the point to this brief tour of Rock-vegas? ......I don't know I can't remember actually. I may be just feeling a little nostalgic. 

Two books that we have found very good as references are The Australian House by Balwant Saini, which features many historic homes and buildings in Rockhampton.  We also have The Queensland House by Rod Fisher and Brian Crozier.

Getting back to the note in the letterbox, I have not given up hope of hearing from them one day. The number I wrote down is still my Dad's. If they call, I'm sure he'll let me know. I know it hasn't changed hands because it looks exactly the same, although it's peppermint green paint is now peeling off whereas once it was as neat as a pin. I've got time, it's only been 28 years, you can't expect everything to happen overnight.

Speaking of overnight, tomorrow the plumber and electrician will start to install all our pretty things; sinks, the stove, toilets, taps, the bath. In a few days time I should have some very exciting photos indeed!

White on white....on white
Craig the painter sprayed our walls and ceilings on the weekend. True to it's name, Dulux's White on White is very....white?
It's just what I wanted though, a whole lot of blankness to display what will no doubt be an endless display of 'thises' and 'thats'.
I like to change rooms around a lot. Even as a small child I would be hellbent on pushing heavy pieces of furniture from one side of my bedroom to another, frequently. I love to try different combinations in case I've missed the very perfect arrangement.
The house, once dark and dank is already filled with light. Below is the view looking down the hall to the back door.

The view below is looking across the main bedroom and

through french doors to the wardrobe.

My pantry is coming along very nicely.

This photo below is taken from the dining room, looking across the kitchen and into the pantry. The kitchen island is covered with a dust sheet.

Our rustic old french doors should look a treat against the pristine white of the walls.

Craig is doing such a fantastic job. Everyone who comes to look at the house comments on the quality of his work. The builders are very impressed too. I can highly recommend him. If anyone has a painting job to do in Brisbane, give him a call. His number is 0420 927 273.

Even though we're nearly through it all, our nerves are probably getting a little more frayed than they were in the beginning when everything was full of possible disaster.

My nerves were particularly delicate on Monday morning when I went to look at the paint that was sprayed over the weekend.

When we first moved out of Euphemia I collected all our linen and washed it in an effort to feel I was being productive. I then ironed it all and packed it into zippered bags with little cotton wool balls soaked in lavender oil.

Back to Monday morning. When I walked into the house the first thing I saw was two of our good fine cotton white sheet sets being used as drop sheets over the furniture. My eyes made an involuntary glare, but I pushed on through the front door to see the painting.

When I walked down the internal stairs I came across one of our Onkaparinga woollen blankets under some scaffolding. When I finally got to the bottom of the stairs I found one of the zippered bags, unzipped. I must point out that it was not the painter doing this, but my husband. Whilst I know that it is wiser to give oneself time to calm down before addressing a situation, alas I did not. My poor husband copped a gobful, and poor me has to collect up all the linen and wash and iron it again.

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When I went to check on the house this afternoon the painter told me that the floorsander had been there to measure up. Curiously, we haven't booked the floorsander yet, so I'm yet to find out who this actually was?

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Our kitten Teddy is now almost seven months old. He looks like a full grown Siamese, although it's evident that his rabbity longer coat is starting to kick in. We are very fond of him and he considers himself an integral part of our family unit.

I would include a photo of him at this point...if I could find him. He has a real knack of totally disappearing, then reappearing a few hours later like a magician.

I let him out into the garden late in the afternoon a couple of weeks ago, and by the time I went to bed he still wasn't back inside. Around midnight I heard him come in through the cat door and found him crouched in the corner of the laundry. He stayed almost completely still under a blanket for the next few days. On the Tuesday after the long weekend I took him to the vet who believes he was most probably hit by a car or has suffered some sort of similar trauma.

He now seems to be almost fully recovered although his back end is still a bit wonky. His tail is limp and does nothing but dangle in the breeze. The vet has given him six weeks to regain feeling in his tail, before it may have to be docked. I knew we should have gotten one of the girls, they'd never get into this much trouble!!

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While I only really started this blog as our own record of Euphemia and the project that she is (I cannot lose it if it's online), I'm chuffed that anyone is interested in reading it. I have been conscience of not only including all the ups, but the downs also. I'd hate for anyone to think that this has been easy for us, and wonder why they are finding it so difficult themselves.

I'm surprised that I'm finding the going a bit tougher now that it is nearly over, and there is barely anything to go wrong. I've found myself drinking a little too much wine, and sleeping terribly. It seems like the next three weeks or so are never going to pass. It's like going on a long car trip and finding the last half hour the most drawn out part.

We have pretty much been living in limbo since Easter last year. I didn't bother to unpack all our things when we moved into Euphemia because for one thing we had no cupboards to put anything in, and secondly, I had all of Gwennie's things to deal with too.

Craig has about two more weeks of painting inside left, then we have to get the floors sanded (one day), then it will take another week to put the Palm Beach Black on the floors.

The sound of packing tape being ripped off boxes will soon be ringing in the air, but not soon enough for this little black duck!