Reno - Week 20

Well where did the last 20 weeks go? At the start of this renovation I thought that the expected six month build timeframe would take f.o.r.e.v.e.r  but surprisingly it has gone very quickly. We were actually hoping to move in by Christmas, but at this stage it seems highly unlikely - the predicted completion date is looking to be towards the end of January 2014.

This week the remainder of the brick wall and chimney were completed, and the terrace now looks like this:

The view from the scullery/kitchen

There are still some small jobs to complete around the terrace such as window awnings, floors, flashing, painting, etc but it's come together beautifully and I'm ever so pleased with the outcome. And check out how high this beast is:

Apparently there are some good city views from up there

The detailing is very nice and the top of the chimney can now be seen peeping over the cottage from the street. The brickwork is the first thing you see when you enter through the front door  - it's very special indeed.

This week it came time to repair the old front verandah which was quite scary to walk on:

We were hoping to simply replace the worst of the boards, but when they were pulled up we discovered that the joists underneath were completely rotted out:

So we made a unanimous decision to pull the whole lot down (joists, floorboards, posts, balustrades) and start again:

The floor feels so much solid and safer now and surprisingly it looks a lot bigger too. As lovely as the new boards look in their natural colour, the plan is to stain them in charcoal.

The painters have made a lot of progress on the external part of the house this week. As you can imagine they spent quite a bit of time prepping up the boards on the old cottage - they were in a bad state:

There were seven layers of paint to remove. After a tonne of paint stripper was applied we found that the house was originally painted white with many other colours in between:

So after a lot of sealing, bogging, sanding, priming and a couple of layers of Dulux 'Whisper White' we now have some 'as new' weatherboards:

The external stairs that sit between the scullery and the terrace were installed which now makes moving from one level of the house to the other a lot easier - no more on-site acrobatics required. 

The sliding doors can now be fitted and will provide direct access from the kitchen to the outside - something that was once quite common in older houses. I'm hoping to have a small kitchen garden growing nearby - I love being able to pick fresh herbs during meal preparation. I have been known to do some 'pruning' from plants that I've found growing near footpaths (a few leaves here and there surely won't be missed.)

Hoping to have the plasterboard up by the end of next week - which means that a meeting with the joinery company to go over the cabinetry details will take place soon. Kitchens and bathrooms will follow shortly and going by other people's experiences with them lately, that's when the stress will commence. Fingers crossed for a smooth ride to the finish.

I'll leave you with an image of the beautiful sunset we had this evening:

"Orange Toowong Skies"