Restoring the Old Girl

Slush fund trickles down the gurgler

We met with the builder today to hand over all our receipts for any purchases we've made ourselves; taps, lights, the bath, etc. I was keen for him to tally up and give us the final bill so we know how much money we have left over.

As it turns out, our slush fund has been drastically diminished by going overboard here and there. Of our pile of bills, we'll really only be covered for about a quarter of them.
This means we probably won't be able to afford awnings and blinds, fencing, landscaping, etc for a while....but how lucky is it that we all just luuurv baked beans!

We definitely aren't complaining, we know we have got an excellent job at a very, very good price.  Everything has gone so smoothly, we were expecting some snags along the way.

We're not regretful that we got such beautiful fixtures for our house either. We agree that when the dust settles, further down the track, we will never say to each other 'gee, I wish we hadn't got such good quality taps'. 

We could have cut corners til the cows come home, but we believe that the house is worthy of the best job we can do. I'll try not to get on my soapbox here but, I see lots of nasty things done to beautiful Queenslanders in our area. While the Brisbane City Council says all the right things in terms of protecting character housing, in reality it's not unusual to see the side verandah cut off a beautiful old house before it's slid sideways and an architectual eyesore is wedged in beside it. All in the name of a quick buck of course.

While I'm not against new or modern houses, I am against cookie cutter houses that are knocked up in a couple of months and look as cheap as they are. They tend to look good for the time it takes for the sold sign to go up, then the finishes immediately start to deteriorate, rust stains run down rendered concrete and once brilliantly oiled timber trims dry out. They have the substance of a movie-set., and don't stand the test of time. They are disposable housing that is not made to last.

Beautiful, original Queenslanders are not in inexhaustible supply, there are only a limited number of them left and when they're gone, they're gone. Right, that's the end of my whinge.

On a brighter note, Bill finished the tiling today. He wasn't so gruff when he left, and he's done a beautifully precise job. I took some photos but they came out terribly. My husband screwed his nose up when he saw them, but I was going to include them anyway. However, blogger says that the files 'failed' to upload, so I can take the hint.

It's at this stage that I'd normally tapdance to entertain you, but instead I'll include a few more happy snaps of some inspiring indoor/outdoor living areas, the likes of which I will soon be decorating.

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By the end of the weekend the painter will hopefully have the first undercoat on the walls and ceilings which will make a huge difference. At the moment the walls are a patchwork of old and new timber. I decided on Dulux White on White for the interior. Fingers crossed