Photos as promised

Here are the photos I promised. Lot's of photos below:

Look No Stairs!

How to get up and down v.1

Fixing some old problems

The new partition wall

Looking at the house from the Kitchen

Bathroom doorway ripped out and being flipped

How to get to the bathroom from the bedroom v.2

Just because it was so yummy the dinner hubby made me last night

Day 24: They're still here

This is a dual purpose post. Firstly, I'd like to apologize for not doing more updates in the last 20 or so days. It's been tough with having no power to the sockets upstairs and everything else in life going on.  Also, there hasn't been that much to get excited about. Most days it was actually quite hard to see what had been going on.

So I'd like to think of this post as a new start for the build. We hit a slight bump in the road with the new partition wall being put up and being taken down and then put up again. Yeah you heard me folks...it if is supposed to be structural you better make damn sure that you know what's a joist and what's plywood on an engineer's drawings...all I'm sayin'. So yeah we think the builder has now gotten the message that we're paying attention.

Lots has happened in the last couple of days. Most of the electric and data cabling has been done. They have rectified quite a lot of the mistakes of the last builder. Let's just say long story short quite a few bricks were involved in the sorting out of the problem. It is now Saturday and they have ripped out the stairs (pictures of ladder contraption we are using to get around in next post) and the bathroom doorway has been destroyed because it needs to be moved for the new stairs. Let's just say that it's so alfresco I'm crossing me legs till the builders go. Plus we've got a proper partition wall, some plasterboard and insulation in. Now the stairs aren't going to be back in till Wednesday so I'm going to be pretty far along in my future career training as a high wire act by the time they go in.

Lot's going on and they are still working away. So here I sit in my cold backyard on top of a pile of bricks typing this because they are destroying more of the inside and plastering. Quite frankly that dust is enough to choke a mongoose and I'd rather shiver. Pictures to come.

Day 4: Joists up..Spiders Invade

Ok I'm not really one to run away from bugs and creepy things, but there are several things that I am not having anything to do with. The first is mice (we've already gotten rid of two nicknamed Frank and Bryan) and massive spiders. Last night hubby heard a "plop" and looked at the mantle place to see the biggest spider we have ever seen. Matters were not helped when it disappeared before we could find out biggest and heaviest book to drop on it. So while I was having Arachnophobia flashbacks hubby was busy searching. We were just about to give up when another "plop" was heard and it had dropped from the ceiling onto the floor. Hubby responded with a stick shoe squash and all was right in the world. Now that it was dead I was quite interested in looking at in, but decided to wait till day time. The spider has since disappeared...Arachnophobia flashbacks continue

Aside from that the builders have started putting in the joists and are making decent progress. The electrician starts to rewire the house tomorrow so more fun is coming! Let's just hope it doesn't involve more spiders....

Ps. Oh yes and with still no hot water I'm not looking forward to the cold wash I'm going to have to do tonight.

Day 3 Progress slows

I guess optimism is for the weak or something like that. I'm sure there is some very clever quote I should put up about optimism and how it's ultimately doomed, but I can't be bothered to find one at this time on a Friday afternoon with a glass of white wine sitting in front of me.

The builders continued their hard work and they did a few bits and pieces, but most of the day was spent at the lumber yard. Apparently, in the words of Jack (head builder of The Good Builder Company), "all the wood like a bunch of bananas". So they spent most of the day looking for new joists for the ceiling. Mission accomplished all we had to show for it was a big pile of wood and another piece of vintage porn found in the destruction ala 1991.

Day 2: The Destruction Continues

Well it's the second day of the builders and I can't exactly say that I've gone off them, but we've had a few ups and downs. On the up...there is more destruction! More stuff has come out and it's really starting to feel like we're making progress. Plus ex-next door neighbour Luke popped round with his dog Heidi who officially approved of the new fence (i.e. she hiked a leg and christened it as hers...now there's a girl that knows what she likes). How can a visit from a dog not be an up? Here's how it's looking:

The down: We found out that the rushing water sound under the floor was a cracked mains water pipe spewing water into the space under the house. While I was tempted to dig a swimming pool I didn't fancy paddling with mice/rats so the builder has fixed it. The other down...after taking out a radiator the builders for got to cap the open pipe so when the central heating kicked on in the evening we had black, smelly water spewing across the dining room floor. YUM!! So we have no hot water at the moment and things are getting quite dusty, but onwards and upward!!

Backyard Fence Finito

Ok so two posts in one day does feel a tad excessive, but this is just a brief update really. The fence is in! Hooray. It's looking good despite a teeny tiny eensy weensy disagreement with the fence guy about the height of the fence...about 6 inches of disagreement. *Insert sarcastic comment about men here* Anyways...we're still trying to decide the color, but am pretty happy with it! Let me know what you think and any color suggestions!

Day 1 of the Builders

Well that day has finally arrived and it can't have come soon enough if you ask me! The builders are in and they've been very busy ripping out walls, ceilings and floors. We're already getting a really good feeling for how it's going to look when it's done and we're really happy with it. The rooms feel fantastic. Here's Day 1's summary of progress...

Before:

After:

Oh and can I say that I love that they are very tidy. Plastic dustsheets stopping the kitchen from turning into a mess, neatly stacking the rubbish and taking lots of it away each day. These are my kind of builders!  Day two update in the AM!