Chip the stripper

This front room has 16 windows. After they have been stripped, they get sanded, brushed down and lined up in the painting room. 

 Once a window makes it to the painting room (a bedroom with only 5 windows) then each window gets laid out on saw horses. It gets an undercoat and then 2 topcoats of gloss enamel. The undercoat takes approximately 30 mins on one side. The top coats take approximately 20 mins per one side of one window. Sometimes a bit of sanding is required between coats. It doesn't actually pay to do the maths. Fact: Richard Fidlers conversations  do make the time go quicker. 

We couldn't do it without Chip our Stripper - he strips and putties MAGIC. 

Our preferred paint colour for architraves and windows - Orchid.

A glimpse down the hallway of more windows. 

Our sunflowers that we planted 12 weeks ago are flowering. 

Hole diggers and holes.

                   

 Didn't take us long to figure out who had been digging in our mulch. What we didn't know until we did some more research is that Scrub Turkeys test the temperature of the mound by digging small test holes and measuring the temperature with their beaks. Apparently our mound was the perfect temperature because some time later we found an egg.

These are the holes we paid for  - soil tests. 

Penetration test came back good.! 

                 

    

  

Holes in the house as windows and doors are removed. 

Look at the view. This is our dorry space. 

Beautiful synchronicity

Sooo... the house sanding took a while but the painting started immediately and then the roof started to go on. Progress. 

Stan England did our house sanding. Thankyou. 

The colour is Athena - a Wattyl colour. 

Jones Roofing in action!

Back to the future.

Our bathroom has been featured in the Jatana Interiors blog so this will allow you a peek into the future. It's really amazing doing a blog backwards but I didn't want the end reveal to be so immediate that it would give the impression that renovating is a breeze. Really important to weather the storms, torrential rain, the 90 days of dry just as we laid grass etc. We are really happy with the bathroom, luxurious to use, easy to clean. Hardest part was deciding on the tiles. 

Who lives here?

50's awnings are off. 

Boundary patrol done - fence post is where it should be. 

For every load of concrete out - a load of crusher dust came back!

Termite damage gone. 

The only inhabitants. Eggs in the light fitting - Geckos???

House is ready to be sanded - Ooo wee!

Ceiling cavity looks ok - but that roof will be replaced. 

Now you see it...

Now you don't!

Paint removal begins. 

Steam punk to steam.

A couple of weeks after settlement and the herb garden has been moved over in pots while the major works start moving from the Gantt chart to the yard. We were really keen to make the most of the sunshine and the space. 

Steam Punk clothesline

 We invited everyone around for a squiz and the kids were delighted with our big pile!

NB: all that concrete edging.What you can't see is how much
nut grass is lying dormant under all that concrete. 

Count the no. of Chinese Elms growing in the fence line. 

Approx. 24cubic meters of concrete - go little digger GO

The start of our Pizza Oven wood pile. 

    

Within a few days the worlds biggest turkey mound
had started to compost and magically STEAM.