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"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013." via Che and Fidel

Jack - I don't mind you coming in for a morning cuddle, but does it have to be at 5am each.and.every.morning?
Harry - Whenever I take you grocery shopping, I usually find you in here despite the fact that I say to you, "Don't run off!"
Charlie - You are growing so fast - you can almost reach the bubbler now.
Oscar - You fell asleep in the ER waiting for the doctor to assess you. (He is OK by the way.)

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"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013." via Che and Fidel

BRISBANE BOTANIC GARDENS
As our renovation is now almost complete we have been thinking about what to plant in our garden, which currently resembles a patch of bare earth with the odd weed or two growing along the boundary fence. A trip to the nearby Botanic Gardens (on one very overcast day) seemed like the obvious starting point to view a wonderful range of mature trees, shrubs and other flowering plants that are best suited to our beautiful subtropical climate. We came home with lots of ideas which enabled me to draw up a quick landscape plan which has already been quoted and booked in to be completed in four weeks. 

We had a great day out with the boys who especially enjoyed finding the treasures along the Hide 'n Seek Children's Trail that is set in the exotic rainforest.

Reno - Week 24

I must apologise if I have been somewhat absent over the last couple of weeks - I had a child in hospital due to asthma (again) and the next day, same child, a fractured wrist. Mater Hospital - thank goodness you are close by.

We also celebrated another birthday this month - Charlie's 4th which was a very low-key affair this year. I made a batch of mini blueberry friands which he took to Kindy to share with the class. And as usual I made the birthday cake - a 3-tiered sponge cake filled with vanilla cream custard, fresh strawberries and finished off with a light dusting of icing sugar and more strawberries.

To top off an action filled week, the Wi-Fi connection on my iPhone decided to stop working which I only became aware of after I was charged for excess data usage.  A quick trip to the Apple store, as the phone was still under warranty, resulted in a replacement handset  - which five minutes later I discovered was also faulty - back to the Apple store for another replacement handset. Mmmm...Apple you had better lift your game.

So during the time spent caring for a sick child, making full use of the oven, hours spent negotiating with Apple and Telstra, and the usual daily business of managing a household of six, the renovation was still progressing somewhere in the background.

Lots of little unfinished jobs (e.g. skirting boards, flashing, repairing floorboards and vj's etc) were taken care of this week, but importantly the joinery installation commenced this week - starting with the built-in robes in the bedrooms and also the kitchen/scullery cabinets:

Scullery

A free-standing oven will go into the gap. The undermount rangehood and cover (which goes all the way to the ceiling) will be fitted next along with timber shelves that sit on either side. The cabinets will be topped with stainless steel benchtops and white glazed horizontal butcher tiles, subway tiles or whatever you like to call them will fill the walls to the base of the high level windows.

Food storage people!

Our terrace is almost complete - just another course of bricks on the curved wall (the brick floor/stairs will be done towards the end of the build.)

You can see from the photo above we can look straight across into our neighbours yard from our terrace, so to provide some privacy and shade a specimen tree will be planted in front of the semi-circle wall. After a bit of thinking I decided to go ahead with my initial choice and plant a Frangipani. As it will be planted relatively close to the house, it was important to plant a tree with a non-invasive root system that would not damage the footings or drainage. So the other day we took a drive to the Sunshine Coast Frangipani Farm and after a quick walk around the site we selected this advanced tree that stands at 3.5m high:

When it's planted into position, we will look straight into it's canopy - that is when the leaves grow back. Before being transported, most of the foliage is removed to limit the danger of transplant shock. Apparently the leaves grow back in one to two months, as Summer is the peak growing season.

This particular variety is called "Lei Rainbow" a tri-colour and it has the most gorgeous scented flowers:

And also during the week I managed to find some time to knock out a preliminary landscape plan:

The site at the moment is just a patch of dirt so we have hired a contractor to do the majority of the work (e.g. lay turf, install garden edging, plant the trees, shrubs and mulch.) We will fill in the gaps after we move in. We particularly wanted the grass to be somewhat established before moving as the thought of the kids trampling soil and mud through the house makes me feel nauseous.

I've also selected this shade tree for the backyard - it's a Peltophorum or "Yellow Poinciana" to replace the tree that was removed prior to the renovation. As you can see it's another advanced tree that will give us some instant and much needed shade during Summer.

The yellow ribbon tied around the branch indicates it's sold

My plan above happens to include a spot for a fort, and I have something special in mind for that too. But before I proceed are they worth the expense? Do you have a fort and do the kids actually use it?

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"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013." via Che and Fidel

All: As hard as I try, there are some days when I just can't get a good group shot.

Reno - Week 23

This week the remaining timber floors were installed in the extension. For the corridors we chose a narrower board, partly because they sit in the newer contemporary section of the house but also to differentiate the passageway from the rooms.

60mm wide Blackbutt floorboards in the corridors

Where the corridor turns a corner we decided to join the boards together in a herringbone pattern:

We could have joined the boards on a 45 degree angle or even used a butt joint, but as the two corridors are different widths we decided that this was the neatest way of joining the boards at this intersection. The boards have been secret nailed giving them a clean, modern finish however the wider 130mm boards in the scullery, living room and kids' bedrooms required top fixing to reduce the chance of them cupping. I wasn't particularly keen to have visible nail holes but I wanted the wider boards so they would reference back to the wide hoop pine floors in the cottage.

The skirting boards and a few other small jobs can now be done prior to painting the interior which is all being painted in Dulux 'whisper white'. All the joinery is being fabricated as we speak so we should have the kitchen, laundry and other cabinetry installed very soon - I'm feeling rather anxious - so much can go horribly wrong at this point.

So while the floors were getting done inside, the builder got to work reinstating the handrail and balustrade on the front verandah which was pulled down due to wood rot. First the handrails and bottom plate (made from Kwila) were fixed into position:

Then the cross-brace balustrade was fitted - I am so happy we kept it authentic. This type of handrail and balustrade is actually non-compliant according to the building code as technically someone could fall between the 'balusters'. Our renovation allowed us to replace any damaged or decayed timber to match the existing. Current BCA balustrade requirements are that the top rail be at least 1 metre from the floor (ours are less than this) and that a balustrade cannot have any openings greater than 125mm to prevent people from falling through them. Considering most people furnish their decks and balconies, there is nothing to stop a child from climbing onto a chair and having a fall. I guess the best advice is to supervise youngsters while they are on the verandah.

Cross-brace balustrade

 The old asbestos ceiling on the verandah has been replaced:

And when the old roof sheeting was removed, it provided an opportunity to insulate the verandah ceiling cavity which should keep heat penetration from the roof down to a minimum.

I'm hoping that painting will recommence next week - we still only have one coat of 'black' on the exterior weatherboards which don't look so great :

But I'm sure after another coat or two, they will look stunning.

The bricklayers are due to complete the rest of the terrace, brick stairs and garden walls next week - somehow they ran out of bricks last week (actually two of the five in the blend), but hopefully the rain has stopped for now and they can continue full steam ahead.

I'm still deciding on what tree to plant in this spot:

As we plan to use our courtyard often, particularly when we're entertaining, several lighting options have been incorporated into the design. The area next to this masonry semi-circle is the perfect spot for a specimen tree and to add a bit of night time drama to the space we are going to illuminate a tree's foliage from underneath using a ground-mounted fixture. I've just recently selected another LED spot light (and fortuitously it was cheaper than the original one in the specs) that will do the job perfectly.

At the beginning of the renovation we were hopeful that we would be in by Christmas, but it's unlikely that the house will be 100% completed by then. There is however the option of moving in and having the remaining jobs finalised after the holidays - we're still tossing up that idea.