BATHROOM VANITY

Made the decision to rescue the old "beautiful" *cough cough!! pink enamel vanity from the house and try and restore and paint white!

After 2 hours of muscle wrenching with my neighbor (Ian) we finally got the taps and drain removed.

After days of preparation (cleaning and sanding etc) finally started painting and holy cow! the fumes! epoxy paint :( needed 3 coats in the end and even with my mask and ventilator still had the worst headache for days! Not totally happy with the finish but you know what? I'm over it and what is done is done!

UNDERWAY AT LAST :D

OMG FINALLY things are happening, to cut a long story short I had organised someone to start work on the house for me, he did start (only just) got his first pay from me and didnt come back or respond to my mesages. Money ran short, extended my loan, found a new builder and here we go!!!!!

Stairs are made and on the house

Interior bathroom wall is gone!!

BEFORE

AFTER

Cant believe after all this time we are finally starting! Frond door is also on and the lock is getting fixed as we speak, after removing it from the door I started googling and was just about to purchase a new/old lock to go on when I stumbled across information in regard to the lock I had! the coin/medal on it is on eBay for $25 let alone the whole lock. Evidently it was made in 1860 so now the locksmith has it in pieces trying to fix and Ive been online and ordered a keeper plus a key blank so fingers crossed!!! Am loving the red cedar door and cant wait till we get to the time to actually strip and restore. At the moment mu mission is just to get the house to lockup stage.

Saturday 18th May 2013

WORKING BEE DAY!!!

A HUGE THANKYOU to Marlene, Wendy, Stasia, and Stan for supplying muscle power with me and Sandy for supplying food!

We spent a great day gutting the house, Anastasia thought it was absolutely wonderful destroying things lol, removed all the crappy masonite stuff that was on every interior wall - yuck!! Completely ripped out the kitchen, got rid of the HWS, and gutted the bathroom! And all went well apart from a mummified lizard which fell out of the bathroom wall in front of me, and theres a story in itself, -  it appears that at some stage there has been a fire in the bathroom and just covered up instead of being repaired ! why would you do that? Oh and then there was the dead huntsman which Stan thought looked good sitting on my shoulder and then pointed out to me 10 minutes later - I think Maclean people probably heard me scream.

Have to say I think there must have been a big special on pink and green way back then!

The best part was that everything and I mean everything just got pushed out the back door area down onto the ground and then we just sorted out and started a fire pile of all burnable items.

Made such a huge dufference and got so much achieved , much more than I thought we would :D

WHERE DO I START??

Have seriously been thinking, "what the hell have I done" but I suppose I will snap out of it and then when it gets tough again, be thinking it again!
OK, Met a builder onsite last night, arranged for some quotes to at least get part front verandah done and stairs so we can at least gain decent access because ladders are not my favourite options!
Bobcat man (Spud) was onsite this morning and he will be out later today or tomorrow and level out around immediate are of house so I can then organise scaffold (of which I am dreading even hearing the quote!) Bugger! just realised I didnt ask him to scrape flat an area so I can organise Water Tank to be placed as I will need water to pressure clean out all the cockroach crap out of house! (OK just sent him a text with instructions)
Left message for electrician as I need to organise temporary pole so we can have power!
Need to organise moving of one of the poly tanks from where I am living now to new place and the list goes on still as you can imagine......

its all mine!!!

WOOHOO House removers have finished, house is nice an high on new stumps and ready for me to start work or organising work lol! where do I start is the biggest question?
Have meeting this afternoon with Builder on-site to start organising some quotes so I can get started somewhere.
Spoke to Plumber Monday evening and faxed him Councils Waste Water Management System Approval to start moving on that.
Will take a photo while I'm there and post later,  And have to mention the fact that I went in my lunch break yesterday so was wearing dress and heels, trudging around in mud and rain and then had to climb the extension ladder up over 3 metres to get into the house. Oh and did I mention I'm scared of heights!!
Looking around and thinking that I need to change some of my original ideas, holy cow the list of things I need just grows!! Doors, windows, ceiling out back bathroom area, walls etc......

Been a bit slack writing recently but not much has changed with house.
Council came last Thurday and inspected footings so by the end of this week (fingers crossed) house should be on its piers!!
Speaking to someone today regarding Bobcat work to level around the house as the roofer wont give me a quote till house is stumped and ground level :C
Meeting a builder onste Wednedsay afternoon to start organising some quotes, meeting a hanyman to do same thing probably next Sunday. Hopefully organised a tractor and stick rake to do all cleared area next weekend so it has been full on just trying to organise things!
Over the past week have purchased 4 new ceiling roses so cant wait for them to arrive :)
Hopefully have some new pics by end of week!

Coming Together!

Well it's starting to take shape, still doesnt look like much but use your imagination! When we pulled up this morning to have a look where everything is up to Stasis's comment was "It's falling apart" and I replied "Well it's a 120 year old house and they have cut the house in half put it on trucks and moved it over 100km's and now putting it back together!"
Yesterday the old tin roof got put back on to protect it from rain so trying to organise new roof, DA should be out by end of week and steel beams should be arriving today so it is all happening!

Sunshine today (Well wasnt when I took the photo was still very foggy)!! Excavator gone thank goodness, dreading the bill :C Both parts are now on pad together and roof trusses should be up this afternoon, so now to get a roof! Ring the Council again and the list goes on....

7:30am Half house on site! :D

One of the happiest moments of my life so far was to pull up and see part of my house where it should be! this is My bedroom, Lounge & Kitchen side. Ground still looks very messy but as we left we passed the guys all coming to work so hopefully all will fall into place today and the 2nd half will be joined.
Had a hectic morning at work and trying to organise insurance, 2nd house payment, ring builder and organise what timber is needed, ring someone to organise to come measure roof tomorrow afternoon once the trusses are up etc etc
Said goodbye to Tricia and family was wonderful to see them again :C
Work, school holidays, house drams AAAHHH think I am going to be a wreck by the end of all this......

Where Do I Start?

Tuesday 16th April - Got message to say half the house was on its way so Stasia and I go racing off to Ashby and managed to actually come up behind the truck and Stasia was happily snapping away so excited.

OK so its not the prettiest house in the world - but you need to use your imagination!! Honestly this makes it look pretty bad. Anyway this is the bathroom, Stasia's bedroom and the spare room!


OK so truck gets to my road and reverses in

and disaster number 1 strikes! - The quarry delivered the shale for the driveway but didnt even spread it, so quick phone call to quarry and 15 minutes later the loader comes driving in and pushes gravel around.
THE GROUND IS SO SOFT!!! :C all the rain has made it terrible!  They, (2 quarry people and about 6 house removal guys) decide more rock is needed so 2 more trucks of bigger rock are called for.
1 1/.2 hours later I get called back to work so leave them all to work it out.

(snow chains to try and beat the mud!)

Stopped on way home to find half house perched on timber blocks on side road so rang house guys to be told it was a disaster! Truck got bogged reversing house in and then loader got bogged trying to pull truck out! So they had taken it upon themselves to organise an excavator to dig up all the freshly laid rock and dig up top layer of soil/mud and lay road properly.
I went to bed with a tear in my eye as it was raining yet again and all I could think about was the extra $$$$$ needed that I dont have.

Wednesday 17th April - Go to work early in morning and see excavator hard at work. Rang quarry and was told more rock was needed again! Oh well it needs to be done!
Second half arrived today and made it to the house pad OMG something went right! Had friends arrive from Sydney so to dark to try and see anything so will stop in morning!

D-Day Almost Here!!!

WOW got the message and photo today that half the house will be arriving tomorrow afternoon! Very happy daughter and very happy mummy! Reality has just set in I think, what the hell have I done? Still waiting to hear back from bank re loan, still havent sold the other house - what am I doing?

Thinking of all I have to do and organise had mad panic after the message to ring the quarry to organise driveway so gravel coming tomorrow and half the house in the afternoon!!!

Crappy weather still, woke up to pouring rain again! Hoping for a weekend of sunshine but seriously have my doubts. Wishful thinking I'm sure. Not sure if house will get here next week due to ground conditions etc but suppose we can only wait and see!
Spoke to Council Wednesday and they are hopeful of my DA being out next week which means if house does arrive we can start work straight away.  Also whilst I was on the phone to them I questioned the roof situation as when my DA went in they made me choose a colour for a colourbond roof and being put on the spost I said dark green, but having raised the point that my only neighbour issituated below me, my roof will not reflect to anyone so am now able to use zinc roof which means silver yay! was starting to stress because if I had to stay with a green roof I was pretty stuck on my range of external paint colours, but with silver roof the pressure is off! After a lot of thought though and a lot of paint colour charts etc am thinking of a dark to medium charcoal grey exterior with white trim and possibly black as only an accent colour! what do you all think?

OMG we are so happy! got  a text message from house remover tonight saying that they are aiming for delivery as early as next week! he sent through a photo , they have started work and it looks like a house! Stasia couldnt stop grinning last night, she is so excited! I am excited myself but think reality just kicked in and am now thinking what on earth have I done trying to do this by myself? Oh well one step at a time and can only do the best I can.
Now to get on the phone to local council and find out what is happening with my DA

So not looking good for house to arrive before school holidays and dont even know how long after holidays at the moment! The neighbours of where the house is currently located are kicking up a stink about it being removed from its location and all sorts of excuses are now floating around, they called the "Echo" in middle of March when the guys turned up to start work and now MY house is starting to make headlines!

Spoke to House Removal guy last Thursday and he said the neighbours had protested yet again and called the paper hence the following in the "Northern Star" on Saturday!

Oh well it will happen just a matter of when!
Still busy spending money in preparation anyway, purchased a vanity tap on Saturday to go with the basin and am watching a shower on ebay so will see how that goes today!
Praying for some sunshine so that I can get a tractor and harrows out to th eblock to try and smooth some of the dozer tracks and clean it up a little so I can then organise to spread some seed and start growing grass!

So much to do and so much to think about!
Rain Rain Go Away!!!
Dozer left yesterday not quite finished but far to wet to keep working. Enough cleared for house to get in etc just needs to come back when its dry and push around the piles of timber to burn. Can see some major bonfires happening!!

Bathroom design is high on my list of priorities! I have already got my red/white slipper claw bath with chrome feet sitting in my carport

 as well as an antique marble top wash stand which I plan on putting a white basin on top as my vanity but need to find someone to drill the marble first.

Have pretty much decided that the overall colour in bathroom will be white, with tiles on the floor in a large diamond pattern and possibly with a smaller red tile to break the white. The lower part of walls I plan on using pressed tin panels (which now days are aluminium) except for the shower are of which I am totally undecided. Was hoping to keep it simple and use a single frameless glass panel but having a 12 year old have been thinking about how much water she could manage to get everywhere! So have been looking at frameless glass corner showers but still dont know!

4th April 2013 -
Finally got my Certificate of Titlle so off to Bank to apply for Loan
Also first day of Keith hard at work on Dozer

New Beginnings!

OK here goes nothing!
In 2012 I split up with my husband and had to make some serious decisions about where to live etc. I have a 12 year old daughter who love her motocross so living in town was not an option. Working in real estate you would think that finding my ideal block would be relatively easy, not so! I have always loved old houses so my plan was to find some land, buy an old house and move it to the block to slowly renovate. Problem is all small acreages around this area are by developers and all land has covenants and restrictions, house must be of new construction etc etc  I finally found the perfect block at Ashby only just down the road from where I am now, 3.9 acres of bush, did have a restriction but being so old was able to get the neighbour from where my land was originally split to sign a waiver on the restriction!
Found a house in Lismore, not much to look at but I do have a good imagination lol! praying I can make this work!

25th January 2013 - Finally Settled on Land its all mine!

12th March 2013 - WOW what an effort, had no idea a DA was so full on! Anyway all lodge with council and quite a few $$$$$ later :C