Hic... the wagon wheel

I've outdone myself peoples... today I picked up my craftiest eBay purchase - and what a beauty.  You may recall from the previous post that I mentioned a light fitting?  Well, it's gonna be made from this...

... and what an amusing time I had loading it into my small car... the only way possible being via the front passenger door, past the gear shift which had to be moved to the lowest posi, over the fully reclined driver's seat and wedged behind with the seat returned to its correct position.  Fortunately, it sat there happily for the trip home but getting it out again was quite tricky.

Now for the really fun part... making the light fitting.  Again, stay tuned.

We're getting plastered...

The house is now two thirds plastered and looking great. While the inside scaff was in place to fit the plaster (see right photo), we also painted the walls our chosen colour - Dulux Buff half strength.  At the same time, the powered window winders were fitted to the two clerestory windows that open in that central area.  The hanging chain is waiting for the light fitting that we're creating as a group... stay tuned.

Moth & Fuzzy have been installing shower bases, mini LED lights in the stairwells and other bits and bobs.

Fit out continues as deliveries arrive and the ever so helpful chippies produce door frames & instal the doors for us.

And my ultimate purchase so far... the vanity for our powder room... off eBay... for a cool $62.  Thanks MOTH and Ian for taking the time to dismantle the beast from its former home and deliver to the pantry on Friday night :)

Ten days since workplace accident...

Ooops... Fuzzy had a rotten time last week after coming off worse following an altercation with the table saw.  After being sent home three times from the local public hospital, he finally had his pinky operated on Friday.

Here is Fuzzy recuperating in his favourite chair...

Fuzzy has promised to be more careful... he might not be so lucky next time!

Painting...

As I suspected, Nama has started painting her bedroom, with AC's help.  Here they are on the job... obviously having way too much fun!

 

In the meantime, plastering continues in AC's penthouse,

  

and MOTH is up on the roof fitting cladding to the wall with the clerestory windows. 

Finally, here is our latest guest, April, who is staying with us for a couple of weeks while her dad, our sparky, is away on holidays.  I think she's quite enjoying the change of scenery, but perhaps missing her family somewhat.  Obviously wanting more attention, she jumped on my back and nudged me with her horns several times in the backside today as I was wandering about taking photographs.  She's very friendly tho... we will miss her when she goes home. 

Scaffold be gone...

Celebrations... most of the scaff was taken away this week... and we are so relieved.  It has been a huge financial burden over the past 12 months or so... and doesn't the house look so much purdier without it?

We've retained just a small section of scaff on the east side to retain access to the roof and finish off eaves and so on down that side of the house.

Fitout...

It's all happening folks... the plumber is finishing off the roughing-in and same for the sparky, all the while the plasterer has started and from what I hear, Nama & Fuzzy's end of the house is all but ready to be painted. 

Most of us have decided that we'll leave the internal rendered walls natural but wash them with a lime based milky mixture to contain the dust.  At this stage, only K2 is painting his bedroom walls an actual colour.

Upstairs

Downstairs



Downstairs in the communal meals area
facing the above right rooms

Meanwhile, MOTH and Fuzzy are loading up walls, floors and everything in between with insulation batts and working on other inside jobs, while I continue painting eaves and AC repairs cracks in the outside render before the scaffolding goes.

Did I tell you about the elephant in the room?  ... it's hangin' out with our biggest fan!

We're so proud of K1... she's taken up pole dancing.

The Big Clean Up...

As much as we cleaned up as we went along, thanks mostly to Nama & Fuzzy who put in the hours during the week, there's still a heap of mud and muck on the floors and splattered render to be removed from doors, windows and woodwork. 

Nama had the idea to put large sheets of plastic and/or fabric on the floors to catch as much of the muck as possible during the rendering process and this was quite effective but didn't cover everything.  The boys decided to just gather it all up and toss it over the balcony.

... just deferring the real clean up to later I suppose...

There's also quite a bit of sponging to be done on the internal walls, even tho they're now completely dry... and that makes the work 100 times harder on the shoulders.  All very necessary as the trowel marks need to be removed so the walls look oh so pretty.