Downstairs Kitchenette

BBQ area

Part of back garden

Looking back at house

Upstairs lounge

Upstairs kitchen

Inside the butler pantry

Void and top of stairs

Cat has taken over powder room

Lisa's walk in robe

looking down the stairwell

Numerous blemishes in stairwell fixed up for painting

Our new turf

Our storeroom ready for an onslaught

Downstairs lounge during shifting

Our front door

Upstairs bathroom

Early morning tree shadows across front of house

Showing fence line, gates still to be installed

Door can be fully opened or one side locked in place

Louvres to allow airflow through the downstairs area from the house front

Laundry hasn't stopped since we moved in

Downstairs bathroom

My study nook

Downstairs kitchenette

28th August 2012

28^th August 2012

Here it is the 28^th of August and we have been in our new house for over a week, doesn’t time fly when your having fun, who the bloody hell said that, I am stuffed. A week plus has flown by, can’t say it was fun but we are now getting to a degree of organisation. Nancy has been a very sick lady, she never got over that horrible wog we both managed to fall victim to and it turned to Asthma, she has had several visits to the doctor and is only now starting to feel some degree of improvement. Needless to say she was unable to do anything during our shifting, which is probably just as well as she would have ended up in hospital (mind you I think I’ve been conned). Now that she is coming right and starting to go through a few things it turns out I’ve put most things in the wrong places.

We work differently “she and me”, my way is to unpack a box, shove the contents in an appropriate cupboard or drawer and sort later at leisure, at least the place then looks tidy. Nancy’s method is to un-pack half a box, deliberate extensively, weigh up for some time if the item should be tossed out or kept, put it in its final resting place and then have a lay down to contemplate the effort. Just as well she was too crook to work or I would have ended up in jail. She doesn’t like the way I vacuum the floors either, Nancy reckons I should move everything to vacuum everywhere and not just the areas you can see. Let’s face it if a lounge is covering an area how can it be dirty? 

We took possession of the house late Friday 17^th and started shifting small items straight away. Saturday morning both Lisa and myself were into it very early in the morning, around nine o’clock a couple of professional strong guys arrived to do the heavy stuff, they had shifted our things several times and promised 12 months ago to help, couldn’t have done it without them. By early pm all the items were out of the little house and only loose items under the building remained to be moved so I called it a day with the shifting and decided to tackle those things later. Sunday was spent cleaning the old house and tidying up the grounds, Lisa did the bulk of the house cleaning and must have scrubbed every inch of the old place. It then took me best part of the week to gradually bring everything across from under the house as most of it had to go into the garage and be sorted into a reasonably orderly system, at the same time I was systematically unpacking boxes a lot of which have been in storage for a couple of years at least. Today I finally managed to make enough room in the garage to get the 4wd in with plenty of room around it, I think it will be a long time however before we can get both cars in though.

There are still some minor outstanding issues to be completed by the builder and at this stage it is mainly a timing issue with availability of trades people. Our kitchen splash-backs have both been replaced and the company concerned did a very good job. The fence has almost been completed but someone can’t read a tape measure and they ran out of panels guess it will happen eventually. We are expecting a tiler and a painter back on Friday to do a final touch up with the paint and the tiler is replacing some silicon work in the downstairs bathroom, the builder wasn’t happy with the finish in one section and is getting the tiler to re do it all.

Lawns we painstakingly laid a couple of weeks ago have taken nicely and look nice and green. By the weekend we should be able to start tackling the gardens at the front of the house and hopefully our electric gates should be fitted within the next week.

The weather has been glorious for weeks now, in fact we haven’t had rain since earlier in July. They forecast a shower and possible storm for this Friday so we may get our grass watered free for a change, after that there is nothing for at least a week and I’m not complaining. The temperatures are nice now, in the mid 20’s and no humidity yet, glorious.

I sat having my morning cup of tea one morning last week and watched as daylight started to lighten the sky across the Bay. Cumulus clouds clung to Stradbroke Island like giant cauliflower, silhouetted a dark blue purple against the breaking light and as the sun crept up it edged everything with a thin band of brilliant burnt orangy gold and as the sun climbed the brilliance intensified throwing golden laces right across the sky touching all the thin high cloud like golden plough lines, as it rose higher it fleetingly picked up edges of all the sand banks and flats across the bay creating a myriad of golden channels against the purple background until the sun burst like an exploding ball of golden fire and then it was gone, probably ten minutes maybe fifteen at the most. I wonder how many other were as privileged as I was to see such a spectacular dawning of another beautiful day.      

I still haven’t had time to organise photos but will try to do so this coming weekend.

Cheers 

Nigel

Almost There

15^th August 2012

It’s happening we take possession on Friday and tomorrow 16^th August Nancy and I will have been sleeping each night in our caravan for twelve months, it has been a long haul. I guess when you consider council delays and wet weather it has probably added 4-5 months to the project. Last week I spent a few days preparing ground for turf, that included a day on a pick breaking up hard ground and a day spreading a truck load of soil, on the weekend Lisa and David helped me lay turf however by this time both Nancy and I had gone down with a wog. Nancy was bedridden for about 4 days but unfortunately having ordered turf I had no choice but to work. I can assure you what should have been a labour of love became a real ordeal and naturally ensured it took a lot longer to shake of the fuzz, in fact today is probably the first day I have really felt anywhere near normal since the middle of last week.

Tomorrow morning a crane truck is arriving early to put Lisa’s large fridge and a few bulky items over the front balcony, they are either too big or it is too risky to carry them up the stairwell without doing a lot of damage. With the help of Damien our nephew we relocated the bulky items from upstairs of the cottage to underneath in readiness, so for the next couple of days we watch TV sitting on the floor in addition Lisa has lost her bed also.

16^th August 2012

  Hector the Erector arrived early this morning with his crane truck and crew and successfully lifted all the bulky items plus the big fridge onto the deck, unfortunately I was so busy helping the building manager Ryan, to remove the glass panelling’s that I forgot to take photos, what a bummer. Carpets went down in the bedrooms today apparently relieving a bit of panic. We selected the carpets weeks ago but somehow something went astray during ordering, I don’t know if they forgot to order or if someone forgot to put it on the truck in Melbourne, but it turns out the guys all turned up last Monday to lay the carpet and then got a call from the supplier to say it was still in Melbourne. Today they turned up again did all the prep work, put down the underlay and then had to wait a couple of hours as the truck hadn’t turned up from Melbourne again so I think people were starting to get a little nervous, anyway all’s well and it looks and feels great.

In the meantime the painters are back today and tomorrow doing their final touch ups, intercom with the front gate was fitted this morning. Tomorrow fences go up, glass balustrades are put back on and one of the splash-backs will be replaced, the other will be done next week. House cleaners come back for a wipe over and - handover takes place at 2:00pm. 

And won’t the leg muscles get tested then carrying boxes from next door and then up the stairs, I can almost feel the pain now and I’m just getting over laying the turf last weekend – must be getting old.

I should be able to get some photos now of the finished article so I will post them shortly.

1^st August 2012

Nancy and I have been away for 8 days, we took the caravan up to Caloundra to catch up with my brother and his wife who are having a couple of weeks holiday there. Beautiful weather and a nice caravan park so it was all very enjoyable, marred only by a little misfortune on the way home. After having a really good run back to Brisbane we were just over a kilometre from home and somehow a wheel came loose on the caravan. I thought I saw it deflecting in the side mirror as we were going around a corner and thinking we had a flat tyre I stopped and checked and even gave each tyre a good kick to check the sound, everything appeared ok so I thought I must have been mistaken. However a short distance later while going around a round-about I saw the wheel actually collapse and to cut a long story short, all but one of the wheel studs had sheared off and the wheel folded up under the caravan. After jacking the suspension up and removing the damaged wheel we were able to limp home on three wheels, I guess one advantage of having a tandem independent suspension. At home I checked the damage and we are up for a new mag wheel, replacement brake and bearing hub, wheel bearings, and some other bits and pieces and to top it off there was a nail in the tyre that started to release air when I went to pull it out so we are up for a puncture as well. Needless to say I uttered a few bothers. After having a wheel off I always retighten the wheel nuts after a bit of a run especially with mag wheels, we did have a puncture in that same tyre a while ago so I can only assume retightening with mag wheels needs to be done several times, if that’s what caused it.

The house looks fabulous, painting has been finished and as soon as it had dried other trades must have swarmed into the place. While we’ve been away fittings have been installed such as door handles, stoves, bathroom mirrors, shower glass, taps and toilets, lighting and fans, and glass kitchen splash backs which we all agree are not the colours we selected so that could be interesting even though they look ok. Outside the power line has been hooked up and of course Energex stuck it in the most inappropriate location, I’m sure they do these things to aggravate people. Surplus fill material in the garden has been removed and the ground levelled off ready for us to turf, anyone feeling fit is most welcome to volunteer to help. When we arrived today concrete was being laid for pathways and tomorrow the driveway is being poured. So it is all coming together very well at long last and it looks like we will start shifting in between the 10^th and 17^th.

2^nd August 2012

Today the driveway and entry was poured and looks really good, now that’s finished the guys can measure up for our gates which apparently take about 3 weeks to make, that will be an electric sliding gate and couldn’t be made until final measurements could be established once the concreting was finished. Upstairs the floor sanders have started and hope to have it finished and coated Saturday.

I contacted “Hector the Erector”. God knows what he was thinking when he registered the name of his business, but we are told they are very professional and competent at getting items into awkward places. They will be lifting Lisa’s fridge and other bulky items up and over the front deck as that’s the only way we can get them into the house. We can’t do that for at least a week after the floors have been polished.

I have also requested a quote for all tiled floor and shower tiles to be sealed for protection and to keep the grout clean, this will all be done following the final house cleaning, scheduled for the 9^th. In the meantime we will try and lay turf in the back garden and tidy up the property where we are renting so it doesn’t look like a ploughed field as it does now.

I managed to buy a new brake hub, wheel bearings and bits and pieces today to replace the one on the van I wrecked and commenced the process of re-building it. Tomorrow I’ll repack new bearings and install the hub, then I intend to use the spare wheel that has the same rim as the other wheels and replace the spare with a basic wheel rather than an expensive mag wheel. As it is it will spend the bulk of its life hidden behind a wheel cover on the back of the van. Let’s hope we have no more incidents.

My brother John and his wife Gayle fly back to NZ tomorrow, I trust they enjoyed their couple of weeks up at Caloundra at least we turned the typical Qld winter weather on for them for best part of the time, I don’t think it rained while they were here but there were a few cold breezes and nights around.

Mooloolaba pilot boat coming in through the swells

The swells were deceptive this 50ft yacht was laid right over at one stage

Quick turn around for the pilot boat heading back out.

Looking north at Dickies Beach Caloundra

Looking south

Dozer on the beach releasing a landlocked lagoon - ships anchored on the horizon waiting for the pilot to
take them into Brisbane

and away it goes

16th July 2012

15^th July

We have a front wall albeit un-finished but it’s up at least, I got the builder to extend it up towards the side of the house on the entry side rather than have a metal colour-bond fence near the front and then it had to be raised several rows higher than planned to make it look right (another arm and a leg, seems to be the going rate). The window people have been here twice to fix the leaky corner window and ended up removing the glass and redoing the seals. Apparently they all feel it’s ok now as the plasterer has been and repaired the plasterwork that was damaged when inspecting the leak area, he also finished putting up cornices in the garage and downstairs bathroom where I requested another arm and a leg change that necessitated removal of the cornice. When all the plasterwork was originally installed they actually ran out of cornice, but it’s all done now, the plasterer actually came back today Sunday to do the finishing off sanding.

Painters came early last week and refused to start as the house hadn’t been prepared properly, that included the un-finished plastering and protective plastic coverings that are taped down to all the timber and tiled floors. The painters came back after a couple of days and started their pre-painting preparations, there’s obviously a lot more to a good paint job than just whacking a bit of paint around. Even so the tiler hasn’t completely finished inside, he finished the bulk of the tiling including grouting last Tuesday and I haven’t seen him since and the walk in pantry behind the kitchen has to have a tiled splash back so I would have thought this needed to be done before painting. Oh well tomorrow’s another day.   

As mentioned in my previous post, the electrician came and installed a large meter box into the front wall so the meter can be read without coming onto the property and a connection request has been lodged with the power service provider, be interesting to see how long that takes.

I forgot to mention, it hasn’t stopped raining since my last posting it is almost the wettest winter period in 38 years.

A few posts ago I mentioned about having the power steering pump overhauled after the vehicle service people had not diagnosed and sorted a problem with it. Well last Thursday Nancy drove the 1.5 kls to Manly village for some bread rolls, she seemed an awfully long time, which is quite normal, and to my surprise all of a sudden I saw her get out of a strange 4WD and walk across the road to our cottage and then the 4WD drove off. Needless to say I raced down the back steps to meet her thinking she must have had an accident - and I was very concerned about the car. It turned out when she attempted to move out of the shop’s car park the power steering packed up and she couldn’t turn the steering wheel, some young fellow helped re-park the car and gave her a lift home which was very nice of him. To add injury to insult, the guy had a huskie puppy in his 4WD that took a liking to the smell of fresh bread rolls and poor old Nancy had to fight it off all the way home, she squashed the rolls flat trying to protect them and ended up with a nice old puncture wound to her finger that bled like hell caused by a sharp puppy tooth.

RACQ took the Landcruiser on a truck to the power steering people, it turned out an inline filter they had installed had split open and all the oil pumped out, they have replaced it all with a stronger unit and all is well, no charge of course just inconvenience, a punctured finger and flattened bread rolls.

We have a bit more security now

The un-finished wall

The letterbox position that needed such a lot of decision making

9th July 2012

6^th July2012

We have just enjoyed a week of beautiful weather but it is supposed to go back to the crappy wet sessions we have been having this weekend for at least another week. I heard a report the other day that the signs are all there for us to enter into another El Nino cycle, in our case that is long hot dry periods and usually when we get droughts. Caravan travel will at least be more comfortable in dry conditions rather than wet so if an El Nino does eventuate Nancy and I may get some benefit from it.

The house progresses oh so slowly, the tiler is still far from finished and like I posted earlier other trades can’t get at the place until he has completely finished inside. Apparently he lost his licence for drink driving, had a couple of light beers and was taking cough mixture for a cold that put him over the limit!!!!!!!!! His wife brings him to work and picks him up each day, so even when he comes it is a short day. He bought himself an electric bike and the first time he road it someone knocked him off it so he didn’t turn up for nearly a week and yesterday he missed another day for some reason, very frustrating.

Concreters came during this week and started preparations for all the outside areas that get concreted or paved. Footings were dug and poured across the front to accommodate a wall and concrete blocks have arrived so the brickie is expected at any tic. Once the wall is completed I guess the concreter will be back to complete the paths and driveway etc. he has already prepared. I believe the painters will be back next week to start painting inside, I am told they will need all of two and a half weeks to complete their work, so we are still quite away off from taking possession, there‘s a lot of final fitting and electrical work to do after the painters have finished.

Tis Monday, I got carried away on the weekend doing a painting and forgot to complete this post. The weekend weather stayed fine and sunny just rained at night so that was good. Thank goodness the tiler is here again today I wonder if he will finish inside today? Chippies are onsite again and the Brickies are here working on the front wall, the sparky is supposed to come here later today to install the meter box in the wall at the same time, in fact he has just arrived so I guess once the meter box is in arrangements can be made to hook up power, that will probably take the electrical authority a few weeks to get their act together. Just as well we are living next door, we have had to make several corporate decisions this morning all ready, big decisions like where do we want the letterbox and how high or low do we want the front door handles and lock and guess what it is raining now but they are only sun showers.  Anyway it’s all progressing.

cheers

Wall and path prep to the front gate

Ready for the front wall

Lead up prep to the front entry