Phase 1 – Planning and plans etc
Phase 2 – ground preparation and massive excavations
Phase 3 – building the house!
Phase 4 – innards

The renderer finished bagging the house today – no pics ’cause I didn’t see it until it was almost dark … but it looks FAAAABBBUUULLLOOOUUUSSSSSS! Very happy with it. It’s a little patchy as all the concrete is drying at different rates depending where it is ie over mortar, over brick, on the sunny sides of the house etc. But we think it’s looking fantastic – and just how we both want it!

In the spirit of Orthodox Ian’s gourmet adventures I bring you … Salt and Pepper Squid at the Stanley Hotel, Stanley, North West Coast of Tasmania, Australia

You know, the more I think about it, the more I’m glad we’re not doing it! Mr Tas informs me that the garage was undercoated yesterday … wonder what will get done today? It’s cold and rainy so maybe nothing … unfortunately you can’t use most paints in temps below 10deg C … otherwise it literally just runs down the wall (as my mum knows to her cost, after getting impatient at one point in her seemingly neverending painting of the renovations … she was just the teensiest bit annoyed with herself for being such a goose!)

I honestly just have no idea when we would’ve fitted painting in ….. and the idea of me taking a week off work and painting away up there by myself in the cold was definitely NOT appealing! (Mr Tas being a teacher is unable to apply for holidays when he wants them …)

I’m even happier about our paint choices … there’s no wild colours or feature walls (at the moment) so it’ll all be pretty easy …. It’s come to my mind because we have a handyman in at work at the moment, who is painting one wall and doing patchup work on chips and dings on other walls and doorways etc … so far we’ve got 2 wall colours, a skirting board and picture rail colour, and the door surrounds are another colour … and then there is the window architraving …. The last owner of this house (our office is an old house that has been converted rather randomly over the years) was allegedly an artist … and I’ve seen some of her artwork … so I shouldn’t be surprised that the paint choices are so individual … not particular nice either to be honest. Grayish, pale brownish, eggplant/bruise purple … yes, I work in a sprained ankle!

Plastered kitchen – as I mentioned, new kitchen is finished, just needs to be put in place once plastering is sanded and square edges are done (where cornices would normally go) and painting is done.

<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2503/3756060303_72a111e437_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="240709 Plastered kitchen"

Back patio bagged – patches are as it drieds unevenly -it's been very wet here this week!

JD in the orchard, which is also his yard for when we have visitors and he needs to be closed away. He’s a good boy but gets a bit territorial sometimes – and ’cause he was a year old when we got him we’re still learning some of his triggers – better to be safe than sorry!

Native hens below the orchard – or, as we call them here – turbo chooks!

there will be pictures

for the moment …. we checked out the completed (!!!!) kitchen on Friday night – it looks AWESOME!!!! Thanks to all of you who gave me your kitchen must haves and total hates, I took them all into account, as well as looking at (at least!) 10,000 pictures of kitchens in magazines and online (not to mention scoping out all the real ones I’ve been in in the last 2 years!) and it looks great. I think it’s exactly what we want … it’ll now get pulled apart and transported up in the next few weeks or so – yay!

The plaster is all up, so we have rooms which looks amazing. The plasterer has paper taped everything and will start sanding it all tomorrow (starting with the garage, so the painter can start there, so we can get the garage door on, so the house will then be finally at lock up – crikey!).

Funny, plaster gives us rooms but now the house is dark in weird places – so yet again it will undergo a transformation when the lights go in and on

The painter is a funny old guy but I think will do a really good job- he worked with Mr Tasmania years ago, in a very different job. Will be fantastic to see the first bits of paint go on – you think plaster is white until you see white paint on it! D*lux Antiqu* White USA for those who wish to know, with half strength H*g Bristle for architraves etc … feature walls may or may not come later, we’ll see.

sorry Kerensa, building jargon again! Rendering and bagging are two versions of the same thing essentially – slapping cement mixtures of various thicknesses and colours on your bricks and either smoothing or patterning. Rendering is quite a lot thicker and gives the smooth thick appearance you see on lots of seaside houses in Australia, almost adobe looking I guess …. bagging is quite a deal thinner and is called bagging because the classic swirly pattern was originally put on with, you guessed it, a hessian bag! … it’s thin enough so you can see the pattern of the mortar through it when close – so it’s more a skim of sand, oxide (colour), cement than a solid coating.

No, not us of course, the house!

Plaster hangers have been working away and, as of this afternoon, we have the garage, wall of the kitchen, half wall, and our ’suite’ to go .. the rest has had the plaster hung – and it now looks very much like a house – awesome!!!!

As so many people are taking the government up on its free ceiling insulation offer there has been a delay on the final insulation in the garage but that’s okay, it’s coming! The plasterer himself will be in next week to start all the finishing work.

I met with the renderer this morning to work out how we want our bagged finish to look and work out colours – and Mr Tas took pics of the work results today – and they look AMAZING!!!!!

Tiler, plumber, and painter are all coming up on Saturday to discuss timetables and next works etc so it continues at speed. I must say seeing the walls go up and the bagging results have rejuvenated me somewhat – have been VERY tired over the last three days or so but now feeling a bit more energetic and revived

View from front door down hallway to dining, living room, etc

View from kitchen over half wall into living room

Kitchen is almost plastered

Back patio with new, wet (brighter!) bagging applied

Back wall – along garage and study

Honestly …. I have no idea what would have happened if our driveway was boundaried by brick fences or solid structures ….

Not one but TWO truck drivers have managed to damage our driveway and solar lights in the last two days. The men who delivered the plaster yesterday backed into the pole bordering the curve of the driveway, pushed it aside, tore down a corner of the dirt bank, and left a hell of a mess. And it’s not a small pole, it’s a retired telegraph pole!

Today, the guy picking up the scaffolding managed to not only run into that pole but roll it over, taking with it (and ruining) the solar lights that were on it.

In both cases it’s not a huge amount of damage. In both cases neither had the grace to report the damage to their bosses so they could report it to us. In both cases Mr Tasmania told both their bosses not to worry about fixing it as it won’t be expensive – but it’s time and it’s annoyance and it’s just plain incompetence and rudeness … especially as they’d been told to back down the driveway so they wouldn’t have to turn around. For goodness sakes, our friend who drives a dump truck (usually with an excavator on the back, sometimes with up to 14 tonnes of rock!) can manage it, why on earth couldn’t these guys?

As Mr Tasmania said to their bosses – one day they’ll hit something and cause real damage – what on earth would they have done if we had had brick walls?

I guess we should just thank God they didn’t try and turn around near the house!

on the up side however – the plaster hangers put in all the steel battens and started putting insulation in the ceiling and walls! They started in the living room, which now has half the ceiling done … and it felt so great to stand in the dining room looking down over the half wall to Mr Tasmania standing with a light in the middle of a room – that felt like a room! Very very VERY cool!

And yet again things are happening quicker than expected!

We weren’t expecting plaster hangers until NEXT Monday at the earliest … and Mr Tasmania has emailed me to say he’s meeting with the plasterer this arvo and the hangers will start on Wednesday. The electrician is also heading up this arvo to finish up his preliminaries ie putting in the light cables he missed the first time round (and a couple of extras we’ve added) so the plasterers will be able to pull all the cables through as they go.

So we’re now on a very speedy hunt for painters, to start probably in 2 or 3 weeks! We were all set to paint ourselves but have had to face the fact that we just don’t have the time to get it done .. we both work full time five days a week and at this time of the year it’s only just light when we leave for work and dark when we get home – so painting is not going to happen during the week. It is also coming into the coldest part of the year so painting on the weekend (which appears to be when our worst weather happens of course!) will only be able to happen if it’s above 10deg C (otherwise the paint slides off the wall!) …. So we are just going to have to bite the bullet and hire a painting or two. Still, if ever we’re going to pay for painting to be done it’s now, so that’s just how it’s going to have to be.

God is looking after us, just as we think it’s slowing down it starts speeding up again … you never know, we may yet move in in September, instead of October like I’m planning!

I must admit to being very impressed with myself for actually organising my digital camera to take this at just the right moment! Usually I’m too early or too late

We’ve been having some very rainy and wild weather the last couple of days so I went down and took a picture of the boat ramp ..

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