Thursday 21 March 2013

Home stretch and stretchy pants

Today I walked in the front door of our little house and realised that we are totally on the home stretch. Our house is looking freaking tremendous.

It's been a super busy week for me running around picking up lights, glass, breast pads (I had no idea what these were until this week) and lighting cables, that I had to take some time out today to get my chill factor on and rest. It's also been a big week for me as yesterday I realised that at 35 weeks pregnant I can no longer wear high heels. Heart broken.

So here are the treats that have taken place since the crapolo birthday on Tuesday that has been officially moved to Easter:

Our toilet arrived. I knew Dougie would come in with the goods. It's not the toilet we originally purchased (Reece made a boo boo) but it's a toilet all the same and it arrived in my birthday week. Therefore, I received a toilet for my birthday and I AM SO HAPPY. Not sure when it's being installed yet.

Here's our little toilet, all boxed up ready for a good sitting.

Our split system air con/heating unit was installed. No more sweltering summers or cool winters. We have it covered.

Split system above the doors to match my personalities at the moment.
Our lights have been installed / fitted and I purchased some new pretty babies to be installed after painting is complete.

Hello downlights
The pendant for our bathroom arrived. Handmade from 1960s vintage fabric. Love it.
Our original train station light which will hang above our dining table.
Black and white fabric lighting cord from Fat Duck in Geelong which will hold our old school lights above the island bench.
Our asbestos was finally removed by two strange men. I wanted them to cry out 'Bring out your dead' when they were moving the body bags aka wrapped asbestos out onto their truck.

Bring out your dead!

Asbestos bodies
Our tiles are almost complete. There is a little bit of grouting to do, but we are almost there. Don't they look rad.

Floor in laundry / bath

View into bathroom

Shower wall - check out our feature tile (heart)

Bendigo Pottery 1960s feature tile

Our scrumptious pressed tin ceiling panels come to life and the plaster strappings have been put up to frame these terrific features. This is my fave part of the reno. I am so glad we did this - thanks to the creativity of our builders and plasterers.

HOT pressed tin panel above kitchen

Amazing panel in hallway extension

The strappings used to frame the panels
Our kitchen is starting to take shape. Todd and Gio have had to rebuild some of the secondhand kitchen to make it fit within our space. It's looking great. I can't wait to see the concrete benchtop and timber island top. I'm busting to polish up my silverware to put into the cutlery drawer.

Busy little kitchen - almost there!
Reg has been painting of an evening. It's been a pretty tough slog as I didn't realise how helpless I would actually be this late in pregnancy. For anyone that knows me, they know I can't sit still so I am finding it very frustrating that I can't do a lot of the jobs I would like to. My folks are coming down this weekend to assist with the painting. I can't thank them enough. Parents are rad. We should have the majority painted inside by Sunday eve.

Reg smashing coffee to get his evening painting done.
We are re-using original doors from the house in the bathroom / laundry. One has been turned into a sliding door. This door needs a fair bit of cleaning up as it was found down the side of the house. It will look awesome once it's done. The other will be the entrance door to the laundry.

Sliding door - as you can see it needs a bit of work

Entrance to laundry
Yesterday I ordered the glass to protect the vintage vanity that we bought. The glass will prevent the timber from going green if water gets onto it. Dougie recommended a glazier on Francis Street in Yarraville called Buffalo Glass. I met up with the lovely Angelo from Buffalo yesterday and after a 20 minute discussion about whether I was religious (he must have noticed my raging gut) we ordered the glass. At just over $100 and ready in one day, I'm pretty stoked with this little find. We might go back there to discuss a shower screen.

Angelo from Buffalo Glass
So we are about to hit Friday and it is all coming together. The floor sander is coming on Tuesday so I can imagine that tomorrow and Monday are going to be crazy as.

Well that was the birthday week that was. This is what I thought of my 31st birthday.

Fat birthday
It can only be excellent from here.

With love,
Ali

P.s. Cheef has worked out how to use my pregnancy pillow. Creative little bugger he is!

P.P.S. To see a list of suppliers that we have used, check out the 'People we really like' tab above.


2 comments:

  1. I got half way through your post and was going to ask you who was doing all your painting (i.e. a painting fairy?)... painting is always the part that always takes us ages to complete!! Good work! Love it!

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    1. Hi Nat, we took on the task of painting ourselves to save $$$. Probably not the greatest idea as it brought on early labour for me (see latest post). My husband is pretty patient and good with painting, but we still have stacks to go.
      If you are looking for a painter in Melbourne, contact Dougie at DM Urban Projects (see People we really like page) as he has a some great painters up his sleeve that he uses for his jobs.
      Cheers
      Ali

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