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2-3 September - raked up 2.5 wheelie bins' worth of dead leaves from the front yard, with
more to be collected; and discovered tree trunks/grass clippings/dead plants galore
in a heap in the back yard.
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8 September - Submitted D.A. to Concord Council.
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9-10 September - raked up more dead leaves from the front yard, collected 1 wheelie bin's (a neighbour's) worth of weeds, vines and trees which we removed from the back yard; put up wooden venetian blind for the hall window to replace the sheet; pulled up the lino-on-masonite in the kitchen and removed the kitchen wall cupboard
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16-17 September - continued to remove horrible weeds, vines and prolific trees from the back yard and filled our wheelie bin with the results; scrubbed the front doors and window to create illusion of tidiness.
Concord Council have contacted the neighbours with our plans.
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23-24 September - borrowed wheelie bins (no, I don't know when we'll be finished with the bins) from 2 neighbours and filled them with raked-up grass clippings and sticks, and more horrible weeds, which had started to flower and seed like dandelions prompting me to remove them all before even more grew; discovered more of the path under at least 5 centimetres of dirt and grass; cleared more of the back corner of tree trunks, plaster board bits and other rubbish.
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2 October (Labour Day) - snipped up huge pile of dry wisteria vine (left by previous owner) to fit it into our wheelie bin, mowed (using our new push mower!) a bit of the grass that has grown over knee-high since settlement.
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5-6 October - The builders started work on Thursday - now there is a hole between the front bedroom and the bathroom with piles of bricks and tiles on the floor, there is a huge space between the living and dining rooms accompanied by a pile of bricks, the cracked plaster in the hall has been removed leaving 3 patches of exposed brick, the kitchen cabinets and stove etc have all been removed. We were away on the weekend so didn't do any more weed removal but we think we've identified the two main problems - Asteraceae Sonchus oleraceus (milk-thistle, annual sow-thistle, common sow-thistle or sow-thistle - see a lovely picture here) and privet.
bathroom
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9-11 October - The wall between the laundry and kitchen has been removed, the kitchen
ceiling has been removed, the wall between the kitchen and third bedroom has been removed
and the wall into the outdoor toilet space has been removed to form the doorway to the new
laundry.
living area looking towards kitchen,
living area looking from the kitchen
kitchen ceiling
laundry through the kitchen
laundry from the third bedroom
new opening into the outdoor toilet
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14 October - All the bricks from the holes in the walls have been piled outside, or used to brick up the outdoor toilet doorway and raise the floor there for the new laundry. The hall has been replastered. The new openings have been plastered so they look more finished. The big event was on this day, Saturday. Ben, Mark, Tom and Dad slowly removed almost all the branches of the liquid amber in the front yard and took the top 1/4 or 1/3 of the trunk off before running out of time. Rockclimbing skills came in handy, as did the 2 borrowed chainsaws. There will be pictures of all the drama. I dug up grass and more privet and helped drag branches to the backyard where there is now a huge pile of what used to be a very nice but badly-sited tree.
hall
tree removal
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22 October - During the week the new laundry door was hung, which will have to be
redone as it's opening inwards into an extremely small room. The floor outside the
laundry (that of the 'room' with the safari wallpaper) has been ripped up - I don't
know why. The bathroom vanity alcove has gone up, closing the hole between it and
the front bedroom. Before the wedding yesterday, Ben bought the plain white wall tiles
and took them to the house so the bathroom tiling can start. All we had time for on
Sunday was to spray weedkiller on privet and other stuff, and to fill the wheelie bin
for the fortnightly collection. Because the builders didn't do as requested and protect our carpet, we've been considering taking up their compensatory offer of cost-price floor polishing for the living areas. I vacuumed the hall to try to remove cement/plaster dust, as we don't want bare floorboards there due to the noise problem near the bedrooms.
new laundry - note the cool wallpaper outside!
where's the floor?
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23 October - The structural engineer came today to check that it was okay to replace the old laundry external wall. We should get a report from him next week. Work on the back of the house has been put on hold pending this.
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28-29 October - The bathroom floor and most of the walls have been tiled - we're waiting for 5 feature tiles and space on the walls have been left for them. Due to some serious miscommunication, lack of communication and bad memory, the builders have gone ahead and ripped up all the carpet except from the 2 bedrooms. We have now, by default, 'decided' that we want polished floorboards in the hall and living rooms. In removing the carpet in the living room the fireplace was unboarded. The grate is lemon yellow. We'll probably change that. On Saturday we bought a second-hand double bowl kitchen sink and tap assembly . I scrubbed the sink out on Sunday and it looks good for $50.
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1 November - The stuctural engineer's report arrived so Ben sent it off to council. Hopefully they'll give us approval for the work on the back of the house within a week and then the kitchen and laundry can be finished.
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4 November - We bought taps for the bathroom basin, and shower and laundry tub, and stuff to make towel rails. The wardrobe in the front bedroom has been mostly finished. One set of drawers need fronts put on and the rails are missing. Ben tried to remove the dead wisteria from the jacaranda in the backyard, while I pulled up grass to fill a wheelie bin, and sprayed weedkiller on the privet again.
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8 November - The vanity and feature tiles were delivered today. We'd asked for
white clay tiles but we got terracotta instead. We don't have the time to wait for
them to be redone so the colours of the fish, turtle and octopus won't be as bright as
we wanted. Council also wants the engineer to report on the footings for the proposed
deck (which won't be done for ages) before we get the construction certificate. More
waiting while the engineer does that.
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11-12 November - Made a big effort to clear the space where the garage slab will
be - moved all the concrete bits, plaster bits, tree trunks and branches, bricks
and broken glass from where it was originally piled up in September; pulled up more
grass and collected more clippings. Also vacuumed the front room - covered in sawdust
from the wardrobe, and tile bits - looks like the builders have used the room as a work
room. Bought the toilet roll holder and laundry spout - I think
that's it for plumbing supplies.
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15 November - Council have approved the construction certificate so the kitchen
work can continue now. The wardrobe has been finished. The shower, feature tiles, vanity,
toilet roll holder and two long towel rails have been installed the bathroom. We still
need a shower screen. After we paint the walls we'll be able to put up the mirror I
bought at Target on Monday. Unfortunately the front room carpet has sawdust and
plaster bits in it AGAIN. Hopefully the fax Ben sent today, repeating our instructions
about the carpet, will have effect. The pipes for the laundry have been installed in
the wall.
the left-hand side wardrobe
nice new vanity
the shower with octopus and fish feature tiles
our budget, made-them-ourselves towel rails
mirror from Target
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18-19 November - Nothing happened this week except the
builders have sort of cleaned up the front room. We didn't have
time to do anything ourselves except put the garden waste bin,
filled last week, out for collection.
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25-26 November - Again nothing happened this week because the builders have gone somewhere else. On Sunday we had a couple of hours and marked up where we'll put 2 out of 3 curtain
tracks and weeded a bit. We also sprayed some weeds but of course
it rained 4 hours later as it always seems to - no wonder the
chemicals don't work very well.
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2-3 December - We bought paint - undercoat and the bathroom feature colour. Ben painted the vanity alcove in "Gemstone", to match the floor tiles, so the mirror can be put up there soon. I used sugar soap to clean the bathroom walls, as far as I could reach while standing on a milk crate. Looks much better without mould. Also weeded and dug up dead privet. On Sunday the builder removed the back wall so the back door, steps, awning, and safari wallpaper have all gone. We sanded the wardrobe to prepare for painting. Also finished filling the wheelie bin with dead stuff from the many piles we'd left lying around from previous weekends.
painted alcove
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9-10 December - During the week the new floor in the back had been put in, and the window and frame for the wall had been installed. On Sunday we undercoated the wardrobe and the back of the bathroom alcove (ie. the sticking-out part in the front bedroom).
undercoated wardrobe
the not-timber window
what will be part of the kitchen
view of the back from outside
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16-17 December - The new roof at the back, with insulation, has been put on. That's it, for the whole week. The aluminium window won't be replaced with the timber window we specified, to trade off on the increased cost for the garage slab. The kitchen won't be finished until the end of the January because there are no supplies of the laminate we want. On Sunday I filled the wheelie bin while Ben put a second coat of base coat on the outside of the wardrobe.
new galvanised roof
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22 December - Ben painted the back of the alcove in the same Gemstone as the
bathroom side.
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27 December - No holidays for us! Ben and Mark cut more of the liquid amber down so now it's only about 150cm high. When I arrived in the afternoon I cut the grass in the backyard and sprayed it (guess what? It rained later that night). Ben cut up the logs into smaller but still large pieces.
what's left of the tree
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28 December -
Ben cleaned the rest of the mould off the bathroom walls and ceiling (where I hadn't been able to reach) and painted with undercoat. I cut the new wisteria growth off the jacaranda and cut up
old dried wisteria for removal.
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29 December - In the morning we bought light fittings and a hot water heater.
After lunch Ben painted the wardrobe in "White Friars" which is sort of grey, while
I scrubbed the laundry tub clean so it's ready for reinstallation and cleaned the
gross screen which was over the bathroom window.
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30 December - Ben painted the bathroom base coat and cleaned the new opening in the
living
area - we're painting that in "White Friars" rather than matching the blue and yellow
before. I swept up all the crap that appeared after the carpets were removed, along
with sawdust etc.
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31 December - Ben started painting the bathroom with "White Friars" and did the first base coat
for the new opening in the living area. I had a rest.
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1 January 2001 - While Ben finished painting the bathroom, I did the next base coat
in the living area after sweeping some more crap up.
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2 January 2001 - Builders were supposed to be here today but didn't turn up. Ben
painted "White Friars" in the living room, then started touching up the blue paint in
the front bedroom.
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4 January 2001 - The outside of the back wall has been clad. Ben made 4 light fittings from perspex and the laundry
rack. They look great!
back wall
from the inside
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5 January 2001 - Ben put up one of the lights in the hall
and mounted the rack on pulleys on the bathroom ceiling. They
both are very impressive. The builders have
refitted the laundry tub and put the door back on, properly this time so it opens out.
detail of laundry rack
laundry rack
light fitting showing screws
light fitting with the light on
detail of light fitting
laundry
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6-7 January 2001 - Painted the patched parts of the hall - next step is to repaint the entire hall in "Butterball Yellow" as
there was originally only one coat. Also prepared the new
opening between the kitchen and dining room for painting. Repainted the picture rails where plaster had gotten onto them. Weeded a bit and cleared
the wisteria a bit more (all the builder's rubbish has been moved
from under the jacaranda to the front so I could get at what is
growing there).
horrible backyard with dead grass and piles of liquid
amber branches
improvised backstep because there is no
provision for steps in the plans
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8 January 2001 - The damaged floorboards have been removed entirely, from the hall
and living room. The kitchen/backdoor wall has been plastered.
the newly painted hall with missing floorboards
little wall between kitchen and backdoor
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14 January 2001 - I uprooted dead grass then laid wet newspaper and mulch on it. How exciting. Ben sorted branches
into stuff to be kept and stuff for the council to take away. How exciting. During the week the builders had installed the
kitchen cupboards, minus doors and benchtop. They also laid
new floorboards and put in new doors for the bathroom and
middle bedroom. They hung the mirror in the bathroom but it's too
high.
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20-21 January 2001 - The builders have done nothing this week. I uprooted more dead grass. Ben finished sorting the branches and other rubbish, then cut down the jacaranda branch which went across the back of the house and almost touched the roof. We saved one large part of the liquidamber trunk to make
the back step better.
the new back step
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28 January 2001 - The builders did nothing this week. There
seems to be some mix-up with the laminate order - the builders
claim the factory doesn't have it, but Ben rang them early in
the week and while they have no record of our order, what we
want is available. Either way, the kitchen is still not finished. We started cleaning and painting the hallway which is
starting to look nice again.
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3-4 February 2001 - The builders did pretty much nothing this week, except install the missing underlay for the carpet
in the doorway of the front bedroom, and put the edging on the
carpet of the bedrooms. The laminate still hasn't
arrived because the warehouse was flooded from all the rain and deliveries couldn't be
made. During the week, we'd moved everything
out of the bedrooms so the carpet can be professionally cleaned.
Early on Saturday Ben picked up a
mulcher from a hire place in West Ryde. He pulled down the back
fence then we mulched up the liquid amber and wisteria branches
that fit. I weeded the part where the branches had been. Cleared a bit more dead grass, put wet newspaper down
then spread wood chips over it all. I also removed the dirt
from the whole garden path - it extends to almost exactly where
the garage will end. I vacuumed the bedrooms, ready for the
carpet cleaner who is coming on Monday.
On Sunday Ben found and removed all the
remaining carpet staples to prepare for the floor polishing. I
cleaned the wardrobe and started to sugar soap the walls in the
front bedroom - there's a lot of brick dust. Ben started to
clean the laundry walls before we paint in there.
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5-9 February 2001 - The carpet was cleaned on Monday.
The concretor started on the slab on
Monday. As it turned out, the carpet wasn't cleaned. The guy
we'd organised wasn't a sisal expert, as the builders wouldn't pay the $200 that would have cost.
When the cleaner turned up he realised he couldn't really do anything as the
carpet weave was too tight for his machine to be effective. So we're stuck with crap
carpet because the builder wrecked it and then wouldn't fix it. We're moving stuff back into the bedrooms as the floor polishers
are starting on Thursday.
Well, after the fun we had on Monday night in moving the piano into the front
room (it was in the hall where we'd put it after moving it from
the middle bedroom for the carpet cleaning), and putting everything
that was in those 2 rooms back, I can't help but think it was all a waste of time
(except the piano is now in the spare room where we want it). I guess I couldn't
have vacuumed the carpets as thoroughly as I had without moving stuff but maybe we could have just shifted things around in
the rooms, rather than totally emptying the rooms. Oh well.
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10-11 February 2001 - The floor polishers finished on Saturday and it looks very
shiny and new. The concretor has done the formwork for the slab but rain prevented him
from pouring. I packed a lot of boxes on Saturday while Ben was in Bowral. We took them
to the house on Sunday and discovered the builders there, installing the laminate on
the kitchen bench and doors. I sugar soaped some more walls, but found it impossible
to remove the red brick dust from some parts. Ben installed the four handles we have
so far for the wardrobe.
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17-18 February 2001 - The kitchen tiling has been done. On Saturday morning the concrete slab was poured. We moved a lot of boxes today and discovered that the shirt-hanging rails in the wardrobe are too low - the builder hadn't followed the plans so he'll have to fix that before we can move any more clothes. While Ben put up curtain rails in the living/dining room and middle bedroom I put up photos in the front bedroom and cleaned the linen cupboard. I also cleaned more of the walls and we vacuumed the highest parts where red brick dust had settled on the white paint. By 3pm Ben'd drilled the holes for 3 rails and put one up. We went home for lunch and when we went back he put the other 2 rails up. I hung the living room and bedroom curtains up - looks so much better. Started cleaning the middle bedroom walls.
the driveway
long view of the slab
On Sunday, Ben dropped me at the house while he went to see about a roller door. I lined the shelves of the linen cupboard, moved everything out of the left wardrobe so the rails can be fixed, moved stuff into the bathroom vanity and hung the dining room curtain. I started cleaning the remainder of the hall walls, then finished cleaning the middle bedroom walls after Ben moved the spare wardrobe panels out of the way. I cleaned those so they can be assembled and put in the dining room. Ben scrubbed the laundry down - the walls are covered in really thick dust and plaster and brick dust. By the time I picked him up at sunset he'd only done about half in over 2 hours.
living room
dining room
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19 February 2001 - The builders have - fixed the wardrobe, re-hung the bathroom
mirror, and finished the kitchen cupboards.
new kitchen
mirror in bathroom
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24-25 February 2001 - We moved over this weekend. As the handles weren't delivered until Friday, Ben ended up putting them
on the doors and cupboards himself on Sunday afternoon. Before
that, on Saturday we had much-appreciated help from Graeme, Pete and Uncle
Ben, but there was still a lot of stuff at the flat which we'll
move during the week. We don't have power in the living area or
our bedroom,
there is only one power point in the kitchen so far, the oven
and stove don't work yet and the shower doesn't have a screen.
During the week the structural steel was installed, or least
it was delivered and the bolts to hold it to the slab were put in
place. The guy who did it found that the slab is not square and
not level, which could cause problems when we put the garage up.
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26 February 2001 - Moved the dining table and more boxes.
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27 February 2001 - Phone was connected. The neighbours had a man in to remove a tree so dad, who was waiting
for Telstra, asked him to stump-grind our liquidamber. He cut
it down to almost ground level but couldn't do any more and
said he'd be back later. He left us about 4 cubic metres of
mulch, on the nature strip and road.
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3-4 March 2001 - During the week we just started to clean
the flat and gradually moved more and more boxes, and unpacked
them. The garage roller door was finally delivered on Saturday,
while Ben was out at Rossmore picking up wall sheeting.
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10-11 March 2001 - During the week Ben mulched the front
yard and under the jacaranda tree, after moving about 4 wheelie
bins of the mulch off the road. The man hasn't been back to
finish the stump grinding though. On Saturday Andrew put in all the
kitchen power points. The oven works now but I haven't had
time to use it. We were meant to have the barnraising that day
but because the problems with the structural steel (which
Ben discovered over a week ago) weren't
corrected in time, we had to cancel. Unfortunately, the
weather was good, after a week of rain. Ben cut back the
wisteria. Helen and Don came up
and Don help Ben do some preparation for the garage, while
Helen scraped off most of the mouldy wallpaper in the former
third bedroom. I cleaned the walls in that room. We bought
a nice dark blue rug for the living room on Sunday, and spent more
time scrubbing the kitchen floor and mouldy bedroom wall at the
flat. Moved most of the rest of our stuff.
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17-18 March 2001 - We had the barnraising today! People
started to turn up at about 10.30 - 6 of Ben's uni friends, 3
from his work, 3 of my work friends, 5 church friends and 5
family members (no names mentioned for privacy, but if you want a credit
just ask!) helped at various times during the day. During the
week Ben had put all the outriggers on to the timber roof
beams but apart from the corner steel posts, nothing else was
up.
At first a lot of standing around and discussion took place,
to decide how to get around the fact that the slab wasn't square.
If the bottom planes followed the square delineated by the steel
posts, parts of the slab would be exposed
after the wall panels were put on, allowing rain to seep in
underneath. This isn't ideal. If the planes were put in along
the line of the slab, the top planes (under the
steel beam) would also have to follow that non-square line so
the studs could be put in. It was decided that the garage
wouldn't be square after all - eventually the 2 steel beams
were raised and bolted into place, with one of them attached
to one post's cleat on the right and the other end's post's
cleat on the other side.
The timber rafters were put up, and studs and
noggins for the side walls were all cut and nailed into place.
Half the purlins were nailed up too.
That's as far as we got before sunset, leaving the back and front
studs, cladding and roofing, and doors. Ben finished the purlins
on Sunday afternoon and put bracing on the side frames too.
some pictures of the barnraising. More to come.
Helen and Anna started undercoating the opening between the 3rd bedroom and kitchen.
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24-25 March 2001 - On Saturday Dad helped Ben prepare for
putting the roofing up tomorrow. They put up the top and bottom
plates for the front and back of the garage. On Sunday Julian
came to install the insulation and corrugated steel on the roof,
which wasn't much fun in the occasional light rain. Helen and Don
arrived in the afternoon. Don helped outside while Helen continued
to scrape the old wallpaper off the wall in the 'third bedroom'.
The roof was all done by the end of the day.
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April onwards...
