Life At Quamby: It's been a long time, but oh boy have we been bus...

Life At Quamby: It's been a long time, but oh boy have we been bus...: It's been a long time,  but oh boy have we been busy since my last post. So much has happened as  you will see. The bricklayers...

It's been a long time, 

but oh boy have we been busy since my last post.

So much has happened as  you will see.

The bricklayers were here next.  They bricked up the two new rooms and also removed a couple of little windows in our current bedroom and bricked up the holes.

Once the two new rooms were water tight the renovations started inside.  These commenced with the new pantry.

Then came the removal of the old kitchen.  It was at this point the girls and I went on holiday to the UK to visit family and friends (and get away from the mess).  They were removing the kitchen cupboards as we left. The appliances were delivered before we left so they were ready when the cabinetmaker needed them.

This used to be part of my kitchen wall. We wanted to open it up as the old kitchen has become the dining room.

Once the internal lounge walls were removed you could really start to imagine how it was all going to look.

At this point it was the middle of winter and the living end of the house had no power for several weeks as there were so many changes being made to power points and lights.  Apparently it was really cold (the girls and i were thoroughly enjoying a lovely british summer so were blissfully unaware).

There were also changes going on in the laundry.  The window and door were removed and became the back of our new bedroom wall and a skylight was installed to keep the room nice and bright. 

In our new bedroom the framing was getting underway for the master ensuite and also for the wardrobes.

The rumpus room was being used to cut all the wood.

Things really started to take shape when the plasterboard went up.  As you can see there is a single wardrobe for Andrew and a double length wardrobe for me (Im sure you don't need me to tell you i have far more clothes than Andrew does).

Where we were going to have the dining room we decided on a coffered ceiling.  As the original ceiling had lights in the wrong places the builder decided to remove the ceiling and put a new one up. 

As soon as it was boarded i could see it was going to look great.

At this point Andrew and Christian were camping out in their bedrooms as this was the only place that had any power.  They had a microwave and kettle but no heating. The girls bedrooms were being used for storage. Not my idea of fun.

The garage was really full too.

Once the rumpus room was cleared of building materials it looked really different.

The tilers came next and soon the new ensuite started to take shape.

Once they had finished the plumbers came.

The bath was used from our existing bathroom.  Once this had been moved we were able to install a new toilet into the main bathroom as it had been in a seperate room along the hall way before (something i never liked).

Next came the cabinet makers.  They delivered all the cupboards for the laundry, pantry and kitchen and then started installing.

First the laundry...

Then the pantry...

Then the kitchen...

New bamboo flooring was laid ...

Finally we were able to start filling the kitchen cupboards and using the kitchen and pantry.

One of the previous owners had converted the garages into a rumpus room.  We wanted to have garages again so converted them back.

We had been having issues with the drains not taking the rainwater too well. So before the garage doors were put on so we had a new drain runoff put it to make sure there was never a build up of water coming down the drive.

We have now been able to put all our furniture where we want it and loving how it all looks.  We are waiting for the decorators to come now and then hope to get everything else finished off.

We are definitely on the home ward stretch now  :)

Until next time......

Things are coming on nicely.......


As you can imagine its been a very busy time in our house.  Things have been steadily moving along.  Andrew and his trusty assistant Annabelle have been trying to keep things tidy wherever possible in the garden to keep mess to a minimum.

Annabelle really enjoys riding on the mower and helping around the garden.

 

Before they could start getting the levels etc they first had to fill in the pool and level the whole area.

Once this was done they started marking out the levels of the two extensions as there are two levels inside the house and the ground outside is on a slope.  The bedroom wing of the house is up a step.  This will mean we will have a lovely raised view across the paddock from our new bedroom.

Once this was done they started scraping back for the footings and digging out for the stumps.

One of the weekends our builder bought his little boy to work with him.  He and annabelle had a fantastic day 'helping'.

We had originally thought about replacing the whole house roof but after receiving a few comments on what a good quality roof we had we decided to get it cleaned and repointed instead.  The difference was incredible.

It went from looking very old, drab and dingy to looking almost as good as new.  We were amazed.

As you can see all the local ducks came to visit and have a look too.

Next came the bricklayers who very quickly had the extensions up to floor level.  

This is the view we will have from our bedroom window.

After this very quickly came the framing, gutters and fascias and then the roof on.

We had a short hold up for a few days then as we were waiting for the arrival of the windows.  Once they were here they all went in very smoothly.

This week the roofers came and removed the bars you can see above and i am very happy to say the new tiles on the extensions match our newly cleaned tiles extremely well.  There is hardly any difference at all.  

They are now starting to work on the inside renovations as well as the outside ones.