Watch This Space!

Well, it's been a year and a bit since we moved in and you wouldn't recognise the place.  Final touches being made to latest round of changes and new photos will be taken the next time we have a sunny day and the camera batteries are charged.

Watch this space!

The Built-ins Are ... Well ... Built In

Bernhard put together the two built-in wardrobes I ordered and replaced the mirrored doors on my wardrobe with regular doors.

Here is the built-in that is now taking up some of the room in the office ... you can see those windows from the bathroom are now well hidden. The shelves have been cut to fit around those windows and can be removed for hanging space. Or the bar removed if you just wanted shelf space.

And this is the built-in wardrobe that HRH designed her very owns self.

It is the same on both sides ... shoe storage space on the bottom, drawers under hanging space (the shelves can come out or, alternatively, the hanging rod can be removed) and heaps of extra storage on top, all the way to the ceiling.

I'll try to take some photos in daylight but these will have to do for now.

Study Update #3: Painting is Done!

In some rather special (not!) Queen's Birthday long weekend celebrations, HRH and I got stuck into repairing and painting various bits and pieces. Most of what we did will be covered by the wardrobes, which are being installed as I type, but I managed to get some photos of the work we did in the study.

Remember the shelves that were removed? Here's what it looks like now.

And take a moment to ooh and ahh over the freshly painted skirting boards.

It seems that about three different, but similar, colours were used on the walls for this room. I have decided that I can live with that. Once there is furniture in here, it won't be so obvious.

Carl the Electrician is due back on Thursday to finish off the powerpoints, but other than that, this room is done. Finally!

Floor Update #3: The Floors are Done!

Josip and his crew have worked their magic and it looks fantastic! So much better than the before photos which, quite frankly, had me just a little worried.

I was able to take pictures during this day, one of the joys of a weekend, so the colours are pretty much spot on except for the kitchen which came up a bit brown. But the rest are the Real McCoy.

Here are the finished floor boards in the kitchen ...

... HRH's room, ...
... the lounge room, ...
... the hallway, ...
... the study, which is a hardwood and not kauri pine, ...

... and my bedroom.
They were finished off with oil after the sanding and should develop a wonderful patina over the years. And there are lots of flaws and wood grain and colour variations and stuff, which is what I wanted. No boring old floor boards for me.

Floor Update #2: Raw Floor Boards

The floor guys have started sanding the floor boards. Here is the study ...
... the hallway ...
... the lounge room ...
... HRH's room ...
... and the kitchen ...
... and my bedroom.
I took these at night so the light wasn't the best and the colours aren't true. But a dramatic improvement over what they looked like before.

Remember that dodgy floor board in my room? All fixed and the squeaky part of the my bedroom floor isn't squeaky any more.

Bathroom Update #2: Windows out to Porch

We have a pretty small bathroom so using that space effectively is rather important. Remember those windows in the bathroom? The ones that looked out onto the old porch?

Handy Andy has moved the back boards out more there is more usable space to store things, like towels, in the bathroom. They have been sanded back, all ready for painting. Which is on the agenda for the Queen's Birthday long weekend.

We are going to fossick around junk and renovations places to see if we can find some cut glass windows to mount as doors for these new storage spaces on either side of the old mirrored door with the glass knob.

Here is what it looks like now from the study.

And these windows will be covered up by the built-in cupboards I've ordered. Which will be installed next week.

Floor Update #1: What's Under the Lino?

The first thing the floor guys did was rip up the old lino and the masonite underneath it in the kitchen and I got my first look at what the kitchen floor really looks like.
In the middle of the kitchen, someone put a couple of sheets newspaper down in one area and laid the masonite and lino on top.
From the date on this fragment, they used the Daily Mirror from Monday, March 9.
According to Google, The Daily Mirror isn't (or wasn't) a Sydney newspaper. The most likely Daily Mirror is a UK newspaper and not one known for exceedingly high levels of journalistic excellence. I looked up Monday, March 9 in a perpetual calendar and found that the 9th of March fell on a Monday in 1924, 1952, 1980, 2008 and will again in 2036. I'm guessing that the paper came from 1980.

For some reason, the alcove where the stove used to go had linoleum tiles on top of concrete. The concrete I understand, but the tiles and the drain were a bit unexpected.
Maybe this was where they put the icebox instead of a stove? But would they have been using iceboxes or refrigerators in Sydney in the 1970s? Unless the building is older than I thought it was. I'll have to check it out.

The floor guys have also ripped up the tacking strips that held the carpet in place in all the rooms of the unit. In the lounge room they used a sander, giving me a better idea of what the floor boards will look like when polished.
Rather promising, don't you think?

Correction on 13 June: Thanks to Erica, I stand corrected. The Daily Mirror was printed in Sydney from 1941 to 1990 and was also known as The Daily Telegraph Mirror and The Daily Telegraph.

Study Update #2: Skirting Boards

Another 'feature' of the original work to enclose the porch was that they didn't put in any skirting boards ... I can't think of the American word for them. Skirting boards are the boards that go around the edge of a room at the bottom of the wall where it meets the floor. Here's the 'before' picture.
On Tuesday, Richard the Carpenter put skirting boards in the study.
You can also see that Carl the Electrician has worked his magic. Originally, there was a single power point in each room, with two in my bedroom and the lounge room (living room). As a Gadget Girl in the 21st century, how can I be expected to live like that? A Geneva Convention violation, surely.

Carl the Electrician has now installed a double power point (2-plug electrical socket) on each wall of each room in the unit (except for the bathroom), with a total of 4 double power points in the office. I only hope that is enough ...

Study Update #1: Those Shelves

The original study had some rather unattractive shelves that were put in when they enclosed the open windows of the original porch to make a third bedroom.

The shelves, aside from being unattractive and warped in the middle, stuck out past the edge of the inset and would keep the new built-in cupboard I ordered from fitting flush against the wall. So, the shelves had to go! Handy Andy was just the guy for the job.

Once the shelves were removed, we found that there was a rather sloppy join in the boards that was covered by the middle shelf. Couldn't leave it like that.


So, Handy Andy removed the board, added some insulation (as there wasn't any there to begin with) and tidied it all up, ready for painting.

The only question now: what colour to paint the study?

Note: Updated on Thursday, 10 June with more photos

Bathroom Update #1: Vanity and Shower Taps

Yes, the last batch of bathroom pics were pretty disappointing. But, thanks to some shopping with HRH and the efforts of Mark The Plumber, it's starting to look more promising, our bathroom.

First, the new sink and vanity. Mark did an excellent job of installing the new sink under the window and replacing the rather unattractive plumbing with something much easier on the eye.

Cool new shower head and taps took Mark some time to install. Seems that previous work was not done very well and he had to repair that first.
Yes, some of you would notice that the tiles are not in very good shape. But don't get your hopes up. They are staying. Yes, I know ... HRH was disappointed too.

We are now on the lookout for an external mixer to replace the two separate taps for the bathtub and I've organised for someone to come out and resurface the bathtub. It is most likely original to the unit and won't be ripped out and replaced with new either. Yes, I know ... HRH was disappointed too.

The bathroom floor is probably the only part of the bathroom that most of you liked. I loath it and as soon as I can find some old/funky/interesting floor tiles, out they go! Yes, I know ... HRH was disappointed too.