the little things

Why is it that it is the little things that annoy us the most and usually take the smallest amount of effort to fix.  No I am not rambling on about some great meaning of life, the universe and everything.  It is something far more basic than that.
I am talking about cleaning the windows!!!
We have a set of 3 double hung sash windows in our bedroom that look out into the garden.  It is a lovely view - one I am looking at right now actually.  Gotta love a laptop..

Everyday since we have moved in I have looked out these windows and thought - I MUST WASH THESE DAMN WINDOWS..  but you know what it's like there are 5 million other jobs to do and it gets forgotten.
However there is one problem in that - actually it's two.  1.  Everyday I look at them and they annoy me because I haven't washed them.  2. In the last week a few people have dropped by for a look at the house and it has always been in the afternoon - when the sun is shining right on the windows showing how dirty they are!! So there I am showing people my lovely house but cringing because you can't see out the dirty windows.

But all is now good -  I actually spent the 30 minutes required yesterday and cleaned the bloody windows..
So now I am looking at the world clearly - unenemcumbered by a fog of dirt and grime..
Minutiae

PS:  Want to know what is best for cleaning windows quickly and easily -  I was told this by a professional window washer.  You don't need any expensive sprays, metho, etc.   Just a bucket of warm water, dishwashing detergent (it strips off all the grime on the windows, just like it does on the dishes), one of those window squegee things, and a old towel.

Wipe the window with the foam side of the squeegee that has been dipped in the water and detergent.  Leave for a little bit so the detergent soaks into the dirt.  Wipe off foam with the stripper side of squeegee, wiping the strip with the towel after each pass.  Wipe excess water from the bottom of the window. Hey you're done..

Moving the shed

It's the little things that count.. In this case moving the not so little garden shed.  This is sort of completion of the wood shed destruction project so that we could have more parking space for the fleet...

After rounding up all of Brads workmates, getting in a slab of beer as payment we were ready to go.  It was all planned for 6.30pm.  However, brad and I decided that we would just try and push the shed ourselves so that we had the technique sorted before the troops arrived.  And yes, you guessed it - we ended up moving it ourselves.  ** troops were cancelled and we are now trying to plow through a slab of Coronas!! **(will trade Coronas for loan of a sheep)

So we now have access the a large portion of the back section and are one step closer to some sort of organisation.

 

YEAHHHH... Only 50000 billion, mizionnnin jobs to go..

Excitement at the Highway House

There has been a major development in the landscaping of our sprawling estate.  I know you are all agog at the idea that we are getting in professional landscapers, that are going to turn our weed infested, overgrown patch of dirt into a home beautiful contender...
But no I am afraid it is nothing as exciting and wonderful as that.
Wait for it.......
Another 1 of our enormous trees has decided that wind and gravity were against it remaining silhoutted against the sky any longer!!!!

 On Friday, Jules, Caitlin and I were happily eating lunch when an enormous cracking  followed by a long and loud crash jolted us from our stunning repast.  (Salad Rolls and Pepsi Max - I put the pepsi in a glasses and everything)
We rushed to the window just in time to see the top of the poplar that is on the Vue Road end of the estate become wedged on some branches of the large gum. The tree had completely broken off at the base. At the time of writing a large portion of the tree is still lodged against the gum tree. 

You can see the results of these events below...
Must say we were very pleased it did not crash on the house - we still have one dangerous tree within reach of the house and considering that this weeks tree is the 3rd to fall within 6 months I think something will have to be done sooner than later!!
Brad is so pleased he now has more chainsawing to do..

The bathroom reborn

After much pain and suffering - well on brads part anyway - I just swanned off to Singapore - Caitlin's bathroom has been updated.
I know that everybody is devastated but YES the beautiful wood paneling has gone.  We are so upset that with it the wonderful fragrance of urine has also disappeared with it as well.

Brad was encouraged into fixing up the bathroom as one day he just came home from work and I had helpfully stripped it out for him. All I was trying to do was help !!!!

 

He was then on a bit of a time challenge as Caitlin was coming home a bit earlier than expected.


Brad installed a window we found at the tip shop  -  $5.00 bargain -  even had a working lock and keys

New tiles, vanity and toilet were installed.

 

When we were demolishing the wood shed we found some beautiful handmade tiles buried in the ground underneath it.  These were incorporated as the splash back to the new vanity.

the wood shed disappears

There is a singular lack of parking space at the highway house.  Especially since our family owns 4 cars, trailer, boat and trailer and camper trailer -  mmm might need to start up a sales yard.  Anyway to improve the parking space we are going to move  the garden shed around the back of the carport and also demolish the old wood shed.

I am sure you will agree that it may have had it's day and was probably time for it to go..  :( 
We are also concerned that lots of snakes will hang out there during the summer.

First all the wood was removed - chucked over the fence onto the nature strip -  It was gone within 2 hours!!

Then it was into the fun part -  yeahhh bring on the wrecking hammer.  Gotta love the wrecking bit (I hate the cleaning up bit though)

Look what we found buried under the wood shed  -   a wonderful old 2 person X cut saw.  This will go straight to the pool room...

 

It was amazing how much room there was once all the mess was cleaned up and taken to the tip.

Just need to get the garden shed moved now!!!

Return from Singapore

I am back in town after a quick trip to Singapore to meet Caitlin on her way home.  It was wonderful to see her as it felt like 6 months instead of only 6 weeks that she had been away.  A very emotional reunion was had at the airport.
We spent the week bumming around doing the touristy things, spending a fair bit of cash on pressies for Christmas - (and ourselves of course!!!)  We did however go to our first soccer game with a group of Aussies who were trying out for the Singapore National Team.  Managed to attach ourselves and got in for free.  Good fun.  Don't think it is my new passion though.  Worse than watching AFL as they never seem to score any goals.  But did meet some fun people which was good.

Before we knew it, it was time to come home.  Caitlin was just beside herself with wanting to be back on Aussie Soil.  I think she really appreciates what a fab country it is and that although it is great fun to travel coming home is always a great thing.

Couldn't believe how hot it was here when we got back and everything has dried off.  The garden is looking a bit worse for wear.  And not just because I went mad with the Round Up before I left!!!

Lovely to be home though..

Termites Rule

Saturday we finally had access to our new home.

Yipeee.

So after much anticipation (4 months is a very long time) we had the keys and were ready to renovate.
With ideas of wonderful polished floors dancing in our heads like sugar plum fairies we pulled up the carpet in the lounge room to reveal not wonderful wide 1930s style floor boards but chewed out timbers. Yes there had been a deadly termite strike.

Ok bit of a bummer but we can handle that, so Luke and Brad climbed down under the house (there was no outside access to get under it) to explore why the corner of the sunroom was significantly lower than the rest of the room.

OMFG - the termites have eaten one corner of the bloody house!!!!!

A sinking feeling (and it wasn't just because we were standing on the that part of the house) came over us. We needed to know the full extent of the damage so all the slate that was in the sun room had to come up. After several hours of banging, crashing, dust and more dust the full extent of the damage was revealed in all its glory.
It was not good.
Many of the floor boards were buggered but what is actually more terrible is that the joists and main beams were also eaten so the north section of the house was not resting on wood that had any structural integrity.

Brad and I did not know whether to cry or go and drink heavily.... Both could be the answer. After standing and looking at the large hole in the floor for a while - wondering if the insurance company would think it suspicious if the house burnt down 1 day after settlement - we decided to go home and drink heavily!!!

Needless to say a sleepless night was had by all...

I will upload some pictures later as have left my camera at the house..

Inspiration from my friends

After having a week of various mishaps, appliance breakdowns, and general not fun but expensive stuff I have been inspired to make everybody suffer along with me. However, unlike my family, my friends can just choose not to read about my sagas.

But I have to admit the real reason I have started my blog again is that I have been inspired by a couple of people who write excellent blogs and I enjoy writing and thought I would go back to it.
So thanks Stephanie and Leone.

Is it wrong to hate tradesmen????

no I don't think so. So yes I do. They promise everything and the only thing they deliver is a bloody mess!!!
But on the bright side we now have cornices and no big cracks in the lounge room so can start to paint - have to admit having the holes sealed up does make it a bit warmer and a lot quieter though...
then hopefully we will be able to get the furniture arranged and start to have some semblance of a home... (this could be wishful thinking)

Had another drama with the bi fold doors in that the retractable fly screens don't appear to fit properly. Have to ring the supplier again and get it sorted out.
Just shits me that you pay all this money and things don't work properly.
Brad and I are both a bit tense at the moment as things have not run as smoothly as we anticipated (naive I know) and so the time frames have been extended and extended.
The carpet is now not able to be laid until early September and so that was a bit of a bummer. Bare floorboards are not a good fashion accessory!!!!
Still trying to choose tiles so off to the Tile Liquidators tomorrow - what fun.

We are hoping that the carpenters will be back next week and so the weatherboards will be finished on the house But then that may be wishful thinking.
So I think the only conclusion and solution is to drink more!!! (must admit the local bottle shop profits have increased since this renovation started..)

The worm fails

Wednesday 12th of August, 2009

Another princess day. Spent the first part of the morning trying to put the worm up a blocked drain pipe. Not successfully I may add...
Decided it was all to hard and sent the machine back to the hire place. Think I will go into the hire business - seems like a good way to make
money. Had another heating dude come out - he was a bit more professional than yesterdays tool - will wait for his quote to come in - might need to
get a loan to make it happen....
Spent rest of the day - using Luke's gurney gun to remove slime from tiles and trying to put my water features around the house. I am very sore from
picking up lots of heavy things and then putting them back down again. Have to wonder what the water bill is going to be. Brad was trying to fix a washer on a tap in
the garden and broke the mains water tap right OFF... Worked out really well though as South East Water came out and fixed the broken mains
and our dripping garden tap. YEAHHHH one small win..
We also fixed the front drain pipe so that the front door doesn't look completely awful now. Brad even managed to get architraves on around the front door so that was good.
Front garden bed is a complete shambles from everybody walking on it. I almost need to erect some sort of barrier to keep them all out. Talk about the path of least
resistance.
Tried to put the retractable fly screens on the bifold doors and surprise, surprise they didn't fit. Cracked it big time and took to the couch with a large glass of red. Definately had enough of the day. Funny me sitting on the couch drinking red whilst Brad is cutting up pieces of wood for architraves in the sun room. Glad we don't have
carpet yet as we would have trashed it by now. Will have to get onto Adam - Bifold door dude tomorrow to sort out flyscreen problem.

Weird day weatherwise as was foggy up the valley all day - must say that I did enjoy my view of the garden through the bifold doors though.

Princess Natalie

Tuesday 11th August

Arhh the princess strikes again.
I keep telling brad that I want to be a princess but as you can see from the photographs I don't think he is taking it very seriously. We spent the day in a drain trying to put a "worm" up the blocked drain. After shoveling out 2 wheelbarrow loads of yuck we were able to clear some of the drain for the driveway. Hopefully now will be able to not walk through a flood each time it rains. Fingers xxxxx. Had a heating/cooling guy come at 5.30 pm - a bit of a tool really but now are trying to decide on options for keeping the house warm.
Have to go back to the carpet place - Fowles Auctions - as the carpet I had chosen is out of production - typical.. Can't choose the floor tiles until I have chose the carpet as they need to match.

Moving In

12 th August 2009

After a few false starts w we are finally moved in and what a roller coaster of a ride it has been.
We ended up extending our rental at Rosserdale Crescent by another week as it was just impossible to live in the new house because of everything that was going on. At one stage we had no walls and no floor in all of the sunroom and half the loungeroom.

From the discovery that half the floor was eaten by termites we have been on a ride that has a million downs but these have been balanced by the highs. we are now starting to get a real house and one that will be beautiful when it is finished.

It all started when we took possession and as previously described pulled the carpet back and discovered that much of the floor make that all the floor in the sun-room and a portion of the lounge-room had been destroyed by termites. We then went on to discover that all the walls in the sun-room had also been eaten and were no good at all. The first call was to get someone in to check the stumps as the house seemed to be on quite a lean.You guessed it. All the stumps were rotted and the house needed a complete restump and re level... The cost was not as bad as we thought it would be and so we consequently engaged a man to do the work. Not a job I would want that is for sure. For our house it involved crawling under the floor and digging a path before you and then moving the dirt behind you. The guys doing it resembled moles and were constantly covered in dirt. They also had to cut holes in the study and the main bedroom to get access so there was just dirt through the whole house. Not to mention there was no floor in much of the lounge-room and none of the sun-room. Just bearers. At times brad and I would just stand there looking at tradesmen as they continued to destroy the house. We would look at each other and hope to hell that this would work out well in the end.... The whole time thinking can this get any worse. Should we just bulldoze the whole thing - or please, please don't wreck anything else - we have to move in here in a week....

Nothing could be really done until the re-stumping was done and that took a week. We couldn't even paint as the guys were in and out of their mole holes and would just put dirt on everything. It was very frustrating and dis-heartening. We had to keep telling ourselves that it would be ok and that we were lucky the re-stumping could be done so quickly as the contractor put off other jobs to do ours.
Of course during the job the contractor had to have knee reconstruction done so that slowed down things even more.

The bloody bifolds

The bloody doors!!!!

OMFG - I wish I had never decided to put bloody bi-fold doors in the sunroom. It had better look fantastic in the end or I will have a breakdown.
The bi-folds were meant to be DIY - well DIY to whom I don't know. It took the carpenters 3 days to put the *%$# things in.
I just kept telling myself that the end of the house had to be rebuilt anyway and it would have had to be leveled what ever when in. Didn't help though.
Especially knowing that it was costing $1 per minute to have 2 carpenters working on the repairs and replacement of the sunroom.
At one stage it looked like we were never going to be at lockup and we would be sitting on the couch watching TV with the cool night air ruffling our hair.
Everyday the builders would say - " we'll get it to lock-up today" and everyday they didn't..
In the end I wasn't even allowed to speak to them. Brad would go and talk to them and then he would come back to me and would have this look on his face -
"before you start" - and there would be another problem. Just about drove us both mad.

The main problem is our house if very old and there is very little that is level. Even after the stumpers had leveled the floor - something else would be out of
line and this would make 5 million other problems. At the moment I have cold sores and pimples - all from stress I reckon. OMFG - sometimes I would just want
to go to the bottom of the garden and scream!!!!!!

But as happens with all these sorts of things 2 things fix it. Time and MONEY - and this was the case here.

The builders rebuilt the end of the house, put in a floor, got the doors in and we could finally lock it up. Mind you there are no weatherboards on the outside - all that is between us and the elements is a bit of blue paper.. But the doors are in and they work and look good. HURRRRAAAAHHHHH..

All we need now is
move in
clean rosserdale
plaster
cornice
architraves
paint
more paint
more and more paint
tile
carpet
heating
new kitchen
new bathroom

blah, blah, blah

might need a big holiday at the end of this....

30 years of grime

After no sleep we returned to the money pit to assess our options in the light of day.
Funnily enough it didn't seem quite as bad as we remembered.
Yes we still had enormous hole in the loungeroom and no floor in the sunroom but what the hell we knew it was going to be a renovators delight. A shift in priorities was required and the new kitchen and bathroom would have to wait a while.

My mum came over and we got stuck into cleaning 30 years of grease, grime, slime, yuck, yuck and more yuck off the kitchen and bathrooms
What can I say - It was just yuck. The whole day was spent sniffing domestos, bleach, and other various cleaning products. Caitlin is convinced that we are all going to get black lung - including the dogs lol..

But at the end of it everything was lovely and clean - you didn't stick to surfaces anymore, the door handles didn't smell of pee, and you could actually sit on the toilet seat....

Monday we have plasters, restumpers and builders coming out so this will be a very expensive day...
But at the end of it hopefully we will have some idea of what the full extent of the damage is and can plan accordingly..

Day 3

Just a short day today as Luke (my brother) came over and so we decided to utilise his chainsaw and ladder. Well he was just kicking around doing nothing so why not.

After calling the madman and making sure it was ok to come. (we had called and said we weren't going to do any gardening on Friday as I was having a madman overload moment) He was quite happy to have us there - even said he would make tea and give us some cake - just a little something extra to look forward to!!! Turned out he had a friend there so didn't even come out the front door Yippeee. Except Brad had to listen to him ranting at the end about how violent All Saints was and he wasn't going to watch it any more. So there all you rotten tv stations!!!

So onto the ivy -

Our beautiful chimney is now completely cleared and looks beautiful. There are lots of bulbs coming through in the garden bed at the base of the chimney (I think they will be daffodils and Jonquils - but not really sure) so it will be very pretty in the spring. Can't believe so many of the Azaleas and Camellias have survived all the drought without an iota of care. Will give them all a good feed when we move in.

Luke also chopped up a large tree that had fallen over the steps and then he and Brad cut a path through another large tree at the bottom of the garden. We are going to keep this one semi intact as it is a bit mysterious and rainforresty down near the creek.

Def getting a leaf blower like Luke's - could blow the mad man away if I wanted to.
Made the week pile even bigger today - yahoo!!! But Brad won't let me burn it - I even promised to throw petrol on it so that it would burn quick. He is no fun at all!!

Day 2

Today it was time to tackle the front driveway. After a small management meeting (Brad, Me and Bootz - Bootz has the deciding vote) we decided to leave the ivy on the driveway wall but trim the top. Later on my brother Luke will come and water spray the dirt off and hopefully we will not need to paint it ( wishful thinking - I know)
So let the shovelling begin, cutting, and weeding begin. Definitely going to buy a good leaf blower as I am not sweeping that drive all the time. Must be at least 1 kilometre long - well it feels that way when you have walked up and down it 500 million times. We now have the weed pile to end all weed piles out the back and have hardly even started.

Not a good day with the crazy dude today - he insisted on telling me that there was to much violence in the world, that we are living in a corrupt society, that he did not like to be to friendly as it made people to familiar (if he doesn't want to be to friendly I wish he would just F$%K Off. Because he insisted on telling me this every ten minutes as he followed me up and down the driveway. I was just about to explode at one stage. He leaves Brad alone and insists on telling me the same bloody thing over and over again. More medication needed I think.

But we did get the driveway done.

Also started clearing the ivy from the chimney. It is quite amazing to see it coming out from all the weeds. When we first looked at the house we knew there was a open fireplace but never really didn't think about where the chimney was - you could not even see it as it just looked like a big tree. It was not till I was looking at some of Aunt Beryls photos that I realised it was even there.

A big beautiful stone chimney that was completely covered by the ivy. And not just any ivy but stuff that would make Tarzan proud to swing on it (check out brad doing his Tarzan impression!!!)

Got half the stuff down but couldn't dislodge the top sections. We were using a rickety old ladder that appeared even older than the house!!
Did have one drama - I got bitten by a ring tail possum that had been dislodged from his lovely home. He was not happy and did not appreciate me holding onto his tail lol (by the way - yes it did hurt and did you know that even though they are cute they have very sharp teeth.)

Not sure where he went to as the last glimpse we had was of him scampering up the ladder and across the room. Probably living in the ceiling now with the rats and peeing everywhere whilst chuckling manically.

No gardening for a few days now as need to get over the mad dude....
pics below

Day 1

Well we now have access to Nepean Highway - well the garden anyway. Our first day was spent removing the grass, etc from a long stone chair that was built beside the lawn area. Cutting back heaps of roses - I think a good chop with the whipper snipper is the only way to prune roses...
We also cleared the paved area in front of the sunroom and realised just how much the pavers had moved and realised we will need to get a little digger thing in to rebed them. Decided that wood rot is actually the new black and we are ahead of the trend for once.

We are very thrilled to be finally working in the garden but as I look around I wonder just how much weed killer I will really need (surely it will be ok for the creek ???)

The only downside today is that we became fully aware of how insane - schizophrenic - Mr David Kempson really is. What a complete nutcase. By the way you can only call him Mr Kempson as anything else is really way to familiar. Today he was dressed in a inside out jumper, with food all down the front - not to mention his beard was full of it as well.
His brother was there (who he hates - well today anyway) taking away some furniture (which David was very upset about) so at least that meant he was slightly distracted from what we were doing....

But overall a good day with some progress made.
see some pics below:

house day 1