Now we're cookin'!

Well we might not actually be cooking just yet but we've got bits of a kitchen together so I guess that's a start.

There was a request for more photos so, be warned, multiple pictures of our amazing kitchen and other bits and pieces that have eventuated in the past week below...

The front doors have been oiled and the frame is up for the little triangle verandah and decking at the entrance.

More front door action.

The trifold kitchen door, through which you can (sorta) see bits of our kitchen.

Bits of our kitchen!!

These are the only straight cupboard doors and drawers in the place (poor kitchen manufacturer). This is the bench that will have the sink in it and the dishwasher to the left in that hole.

And now so you can see the benchtop.

The spunky curved drawers in the bench at the mudbrick wall.

Me being pretty damn pleased about aforementioned spunky drawers

(and toasting them with an ale.)

Excitement from a different angle.

Nic has sanded and oiled that old timber post on the right as well & although it's not as stunning in this pic, the red coming through is awesome in the flesh (or should that be 'in the bark'?)

This is the small section of bench to the left of the woodfired oven (which we haven't yet made our final decision about - still debating the merits of a couple of brands - any and all help/suggestions are welcome!)

We were trying to get a short of the whole shebang but it proved a bit too 3D to get into a photo.

Now we've gone upstairs into the storage space off the library/study where you can see the thingamajig for the solar mounted on the wall.

(And all our Livos paint stacked there 'in storage')

We have nearly a whole deck upstairs - perfect place to enjoy an ale...

...and contemplate life in general.

Look! Do you know what that is? Yep, it's a water tank but the fun part is that it now has those nifty pipes leading to it so that if we get more rain (and I promise I'm NOT wishing it upon anybody up here right now) it will at least go into our tanks.

See!

Benches are also installed in the brewery (aka 'laundry').

Nic planning the set up of the brewing kit?

(Or trying to decide if Lid will come and do our washing since we have such a nice laundry?)

Finally, the fuse box (in Nic's WIR) is connected so now we can get the solar installed.

Lots has been happening around here and we're pretty pleased about it. Feel free to drop in and see the progress for yourself if you're around sometime.

Cheers,

Deb & Nic

Choices, choices, choices...

The cornice has been hung in most of the rooms now and the fun stuff has started.

We've selected and purchased the dishwasher.... TA DA!

(On the left you can see the bag of lime we've bought to start playing around with limewash and the Livos tints that we'll be adding to it to produce our wall colours)


So, now the fun really begins - choosing the colour palette:

We're looking forward to kitchen installation sometime in the next couple of weeks (or so... maybe...)

Gettin' plastered!

From the outside the house doesn't look much different although we do now have gutters. But inside has become a little more structured with the installation of plaster. There aren't many plaster walls in the house but it has made a big difference to see them become solid rather than just framing.

The ceilings are also now plastered and that has given us a new perspective on how the rooms really look. (Apologies for the pictures taken with my phone and in poor light during the heavy rain we had recently.)

The bed alcove and cupboard in the guest room

Nic breaking the cardinal rule and being in MY walk in robe!

The library/study upstairs (the doorway behind Nic leads to roof space storage)

That's all for now.

Love,

Deb & Nic

That floored me!

We went to have a look at the house and found that not only did we have fully glazed windows but we also have some floor. We took the opportunity to have a little dance on it!

Some floorish bits.

The floorish mess.

Here are the developing vegie gardens for whoever I promised this photo to.

Plumbing and windows and doors, oh, my!

At times this project does feel as if we're following the yellow brick road only to find that at the end of it is just a little, old dude with some dodgy special effects but unlike Dorothy's 'lions and tiger and bears' this post isn't about anything scary. I know I keep promising that it will start looking like a real house soon, well windows and doors should help in that respect.

window seat in the loungeroom.

bedroom window

big window/door in the loungeroom

frame for the trifold door from the kitchen

window seat again - it's mine!

As for the plumbing part of the post, the plumbers have been back to do the 'rough in' hence the pipes you can see here:

Unfortunately, we do not yet have gutters... you know those things that are so helpful for catching all this water that keeps falling out of the sky and directing it into our tanks!

More Mud and Baby Birds

I had thought I’d post more frequently now that there are things to see going on at the house. We’re always excited to see whatever new bit of render has gone on when we drop in but unfortunately, in photos, there isn’t much to show. All mud just looks like mud.

 The morning sun coming through our bedroom window.

So far the lounge and our bedroom are done both inside & out. The bathroom is taking shape with a first coat inside and the spare room has its initial inside coat too.

The first coat of render inside the bathroom.  

Both the bathroom and the spare bedroom have their final coats outside so this end of the house is starting to look pretty good.

 The spare room - final coat outside

Here’s the actual interesting bit. We had to do something about the curved wall in the kitchen. Initially it was meant to only go up to stair level so its height would step up following the height of the stairs to the study BUT that created problems for how we would attach the ceiling above the stairs (I don’t think of these practical things when I come up with my design brilliance… it’s up to somebody else to make it work. I should have been an architect!) To solve this problem we decided to make the wall the full height all the way around but to allow light into the stairwell we’ve done this…

I wasn’t keen on the idea at first but I came around & now that it’s in, I think it looks better than my original idea.

This is an arty shot of our curved wall from above :) Do you feel dizzy?

 This is still our favourite view – from the big window in the study:

The Grey Shrike-thrush who has nested in the shack before has come back now that it's a bit quieter without us around. Look, baby birds!

Of Mud and Pardalotes

Things are progressing at the house, we now have more mud on the lounge room walls both inside and outside.

Some locals seem to think the house is liveable as it is. Recently we had swallows build a nest in the storage room under the stairs, they have since moved out but left their renovations behind:

Now, it seems that the muddy walls have become too tempting for a pair of striated pardalotes! They have found a weak point in the first coat of render in the spare room (I suppose they think they're house guests). So, now we'll have to wait until the young are out of the nest before that wall can be completed, luckily that doesn't take very long.