Potatoes from outer space

Not much obvious progress since last update, although a crop of giant potatoes from outerspace has landed in the back yard.  Looks like Sam the landscaper got them in just in the nick of time before the back fence is due to go up.  Some argument this week about whether we should pay extra to have bolts at the bottom of the fence's steel frame countersunk or not.... I mean, they're just bolts.  The saga of the back window continues, with much discussion about why the window measurements are not correct, resulting in the glass having to be 10mm instead of 8mm thick.  All we can say is that we're not paying anything extra.  The tree permit has FINALLY been submitted so we're all ready to get Jim's (actually Rob) trees in to get rid of it which is going to cost a small fortune, but it's a BIG oak tree.  Probably won't make us very popular with the neighbors.  Also this week we gave the go ahead to the stained glass window maker to start on the windows for the front doors.  A bit more ornate than I would have liked, but they go with the period and style of the original house; one of the few things where Rob got final say.  Here's Ruby looking bored by the whole thing and just wanting to go home.

A week is a long time in roofs....

Back again after the Xmas hiatus.  We had a nice time staying in the one place in East Malvern, and even though the weather wasn't super hot, managed to use the pool a fair bit (felt obliged to make use of it really).  Took a while to clean such a big house on leaving though - hopefully we left it in a fit state.  Now back to Chris and Jen's for a few weeks - fortunately we're not entirely homeless.  The builder was back to work this week at long last - it has been depressing not seeing anything happen for the last month.  But Monday the roof tiles came off, and by Thursday the new lot were largely back on - improved by straightened rafters, new battens, and sarking!  Hopefully means a lot better insulation for the future heating bills and not so hot in summer (no cooling bills either way). STILL waiting on the tree permit...

Another month, another housesit

On the road again today to move to East Malvern, after a 2 week stay at Mum and Dad's.  This time, we're at least staying put for six weeks, housesitting for an English-Australian family that are going to old blightly for the Christmas holidays.  Ironically, their house is also under renovations which are nearly finished - but they've been nearly finished for quite a while now so we'll have builders coming and going for the next week or two it seems.  Still, it's a very nice roof over our heads for a change.  The only downside is taht ruby can't come with us, so she's staying with her cousin Charlie for a bit.  Poor thing, she thought we were going to leave her behind completely and was looking very sad as we were packing up.  But she's pretty adaptable and seems to get along well with Charlie most of the time although feeding time will probably be a bit of a battle.

Dropped by the house today and all of the steel work is finished, with roof and walls now being formed for the new parts, plus beginnings of new plaster for the old parts of the house.  Openings formed and skim coats of render all over the place.  It's looking much more like the final shapes of the spaces are nearly formed.  Just as well, as we've just approved a whole bunch of variations, including reblocking throughout, and very expensively, new rafters and tiles for the entire roof.  At this rate, there really won't be much of the old house left, so it had better be worth it!  

But it is looking promising.... so today we also went looking for a dining table light, an important feature as it will hang from nearly the highest part of the ceiling in the middle of the open plan area, so is a bit of a feature.  I think we've nearly decided on a 'ball on a stick' light made of Murano glass.  I'm off again to Japan next week so when I get back perhaps we'll have a few more walls.....

21 November Panorama

Around the world in a month

Only a very quick post as I'm in between trips overseas - just got back from Europe and on way to Japan.  Europe was a trip to look at computed tomography beamlines and involved some time visiting and doing experiments at SLS, where the sheep graze under solar reflectors (?) and the Sprungli chocolates and cakes are delicious!  

First phase of the steelwork is in and now we can get a much better idea of how big the living/dining space will be.  We've shelled out so that the roof structure can be renewed - the purlins/rafters were far from straight, not surprising given they're probably more than 90 years old.  Not much other obvious progress but the car parking area is now nearly backfilled and the levels look good - our interior staircase will not be quite as high as we had thought.  The fusebox has been chased out of the brickwork and is in it's new position closer to the front door.  And the bathtub has been delivered... seems a bit premature as there's not actually much of a bathroom to install it in as yet.  Have picked the colours for the tiles and carpet - all of which have silly names - so we're getting the interiors sorted slowly.  Still no lights though!

We'll all be eating silverbeet

Another couple of weeks, another site meeting.  This time the block walls are in, filled with concrete, and waiting to be rendered and backfilled.  The steel frame install will be taking place over the next week or so.  Here's Rob trying out the new ensuite - note the plunge pool.  There's not that much new to see really at the moment, but things seem to be progressing.  The car parking area is behind a new retaining wall, from which we will be able to look down into next door's driveway.  Looks like it's time for a new fence there....  But the most amazing this is that despite being bulldozed and buried for the last month or two, the silverbeet has emerged unscathed - we'll all be eating silverbeet after the nuclear winter.

This week sees us living in Vermont South, after a week or so at Chris and Jenny's.  We're not here for long, which is just as well really as it's not the cleanest house we've ever seen but hopefully it will be cleaner when we leave than when we arrived.  In residence here are Cody and Tim, looking relaxed here with Rob (this was not at all a typical state of affairs!).  Ruby is finding all the competition a bit tough.  Tomorrow we're off again for another week, this time to Mum and Dad's.  At least Ruby will find it more peaceful there.

Concrete shoes

Another week has gone by and now the footings are in, with reo bars sticking up to accept the blockwork that's going to form the base of new walls for the living/dining/kitchen area and also the retaining wall to the garage, sorry carparking, area.  This apparently freaked out the neighbor who was concerned a multi-storey block of flats was going up. 

It's also now a flattened backyard, with nothing remaining of the vegie patch at all!  All the new stormwater pipes are in under the new flattened area too.  The good news is that the cracking on the south-east corner is probably just due to stormwater accumulation, so may only need repairing rather than a big structural fix.  We'll see how it turns out when it's had a chance to dry out and the structural engineer reassesses things.  The roof framing is a bit of a concern, with a lot of warping to the purlins, so we might have to look at replacing them. Not so much from a structural point of view, but more because the new part of the roof is metal and so will have dead straight lines, making the old tiled roof look even more wonky in comparison.  Apparently some of the roof props were resting on the ceiling joists and so not really doing much propping properly at all!

On the inside, we've been looking at furniture layouts for the living space too, concerned that it's going to be a tight fit, but it's still hard to tell how big the space will really seem once it's got walls all around and a ceiling in.  I'm pretty sure that we should get some custom joinery desks made for the study so they fit exactly, but we've got a while before we need to do that. 

But at least this week it was only a very short walk to the site meeting, as we're round the corner at Milly's place.  Ruby tolerates Charlie's incessant whining we think (check out the look on her face), but they seem to get along most of the time at least.  Noah the cat has made himself scarce, probably quite sensibly really. Off to Chris and Jenny's tomorrow for the next ten days or so....