In the thick of it

With all the best intentions of writing regular posts about the progress of our building renovation project, I appear to have written... er, almost none.   I know why that is, it's because the whole thing has been so crazy and at times totally traumatising I've stopped being able to crack jokes about living in a garage for 18 months, let alone pen pithy upbeat blogposts about the whole grueling affair.

However, I feel that I must today, stop the clock and make a visual record, as progress seems to be steaming along now, thank god, finally.  The sound of bandsaws is music to my ears (probably not so to the neighbours but that's karma as far as I'm concerned) and a streetfront that resembles the trade car park outside Bunnings fills me with peace and hope that there is a future beyond living in one room with my family forever.

... skip... four weeks.  LOL, I didn't even manage to get these pics up then.  Needless to say, lots has happened since then and I shall write more soon.  If I can muster the cheer required and get over the most recent drama of the plasterers, that is.  Don't ask.

Out the ground

One of the things I love about the world of blog is that there are no rules.  For example, you've not bothered to post for, oooh, five months, but guess what, no one cares!  Few read them anyway!

After a blogging sabattical I can feel a few posts in my waters at the moment.  For those in the know, we have dragged ourselves through the pain and misery of getting phase two of our renovation project off the ground and are now rising from the ashes.  I suspect there will be plenty more pain and misery and financial hardship where that came from, but at least I can bring myself to tap away some reflection and general complaints.  I must be feeling better.   I've promised myself I won't go into detail here, but you can rearrange the words:   council, mean, expense, neighbour, stress, wanker   to get a general idea of where I would have been coming from.

Anyway, fast forward from the demolition of our lean-to kitchen and bathroom, and here we are with a brace of bricklayers in the backyard putting up the walls of our extension. It is lovely to watch. Well, maybe not that view, but the progeress is most pleasing and I may even allow myself to start thinking about frivolous things such as kitchen design and tiles.  And that's waaay before we get to the icing on the cake Kylie!

Ground Zero

Demolition is now complete. The guy is in with his bobcat today to clear away the final debris of our house's rear.   The lavvy was the only thing left by the time he arrived this morning.  As you can imagine, there has been lots of great photo opportunities with the below, which I won't share.

I've been sifting through the soil which was underneath the stumps, the builder thinks I'm mad.  There are lots of little fragments of packaging and other ephemera which are like clues and DNA to the past life of this house and its inhabitants. 

 

I've also been taking photos from this vantage point below nearly every day.  My plan is to do a time lapse series of the old coming down and the new going up.  Given the drip-drip approach to our building budget, that is going to be one hell of a file, if I take one every day.

You can see the old kitchen wall, which would have been original to the house, whereas the section to the right which housed a dining area and bathroom were added in the 50s.  When we were pulling it apart we found a load of newspaper rolled up to fill gaps from 1957.  More on that later.

Timber!

I've been stupid busy the past few months, blogging is a distant and luxurious memory.   My book is soon to be printed (another post, note to self: write) and the house reno has now well and truly kicked off.

We've now moved into the recently completed garage/studio and set up residence for the foreseeable future, while the house is partially demolished and extended.  Some say we are mad, some say genius.  Time will tell.  If we are all still speaking to each other in a year's time it will be cause for celebration in itself.

Task one: turn garage into livable dwelling.  Upstairs we have loo, shower, kitchen, so downstairs is sleeping zone.  Our lovely builder put up this partition made from a bunch of Victorian pine doors we'd had getting in the way for the last ten years.

That's one less pile of crap under a tarp to shimmy around. 

So work begineth.  The old side sleepout was first to go.  One push, give or take, and it's gone.

Then work moves to the rear - old kitchen, diner and bathroom.  It's clinging on a bit harder, but another day or two and it will also be toast.

The plan is to reserve all the old jarrah timbers and reuse them in the build, somewhere, somehow.  Cue: five more piles of crap under tarpaulin.

When the inside wall skin was removed from the kitchen, this was revealed.  It's the old original weatherboard wall, with flaking paints and lovely patina. 

We might try and fiddle less rather than more with that and enjoy its distressed tones.  Not that there will be much distressing to do, that's for sure.

Easyjet Orange

I'm on a bit of an orange jag at the moment.  I think my mother-in-law nailed it when she arrived from England and took one look at our new rubber orange flooring in the studio and deemed it to be a particular shade, being 'Easyjet Orange'.   I know where she is coming from, but I'm not sure if this suggestion is entirely complimentary.

We are now at the fun part of the build (trust me, there's been a lot of non-fun bits) which is decorating, accessoring etc.  I saw this ash try in my local second hand shop yesterday and had to have it.  

Not that I know anyone who smokes any more, but it just looks so right on the coffee table.  

I almost feel compelled to spark up a St Moritz to give it some purpose.   Or maybe I'll just find a little pot plant to place within.

As you can see we've really grabbed the orange horns with our new studio and invested fairly heavily in this hue.  

Not least of all with the rubber flooring in the kitchen area.

The electrician made us replace the rubber coil on this vintage Thorn light fitting before he would install it.  When we went to order said coil, what do you know, it comes in a range of colours, including orange.

I think it is now time to show a red light to the orange.  As much as I love it, you can have too much of a good thing.   Remind me of that, next time some classic 70's plasticware in easyjet orange crosses my path.

Retro Corner, or three

The lovely Lucy Violet Vintage and her posse have come up with the brilliant idea of getting people to post a pic of their favourite vintage home corner.    

After nearly three years of spending  most of our time in a sloping enclosed verandah, are we soon to be demolishing the back, and extending the original cottage.   So I thought I'd put in this corner, or rather three corners (clever huh) of the shotgun shack's dining room.  I say dining room, it is more a gap between the kitchen and bathroom.   We had some fun putting up random art to make it a bit interesting. 

Some days, but with decreasing frequency now, I feel sad to think that this space will soon cease to exist.  I do know that I will miss our original kitchen wallpaper you can see reflected.   What I won't miss, which if you look closely at the top of the dresser you can see,  is that the floor slopes at a good 10 degree angle.   Happy days.

Out the Back

As the diggers move in to start work on our garage, the shabby comfort of our lovely old back yard has begun to dissolve. All of the sudden I've come over all nostalgic for the beautiful squalor that is our untouched-by-improvements back yard.

A lady called Margaret Gallagher lived in our house all her life until a few years back, so much of the fabric and layers of life here are hers.

Once all this goes and we build the garage, extend the house, most of her traces will be gone. I'm torn because I have such a love of history, particularly everyday domestic history that paints the pictures of women's lives before mine.

Then again, a new kitchen bathroom and somewhere to park the car will be so nice. Time to get visual, which is what I should really blog with more cause I love taking pictures.