lizzie's kitchen and bathroom reno

Gee Lizzie, I love looking at photos as places are changing. Your house is very nice (what we can see of it from the photos, that is). I am rather partial to 1920s and 1930s houses and it kind of gets my heart racing, seeing these photos.

(Makes me want to renovate again. I need to give myself a good slap :D.)

You are so right about empty rooms looking so much smaller than when they have furniture in them. What is this space going to be? I assume kitchen, living area.
 
you can sort of judge the space by using the 3window casement as a guide.

to the left will be the new kitchen with a long window cut out to look over the backyard (hard left is the bricked in rear verandah which will be opened back up).

straight ahead will be the dining table area.

to the left, where the double hung window is, will be a small enclosed bathroom (bath with shower over, toilet and vanity) in a triangle-ish shape.

the photos are taken from standing in the living area. behind from where the photos are taken from is a large opening that will have a large glass door in it, leading thru to the side enclosed veranda will have a huge picture window, the laundry at one end (behind bifolds) and a large walkin linen cupboard at the other.

hope that makes sense.
 
well, it's another friday - and what a week!

took out another 2 tonne of bricks after the boys (hubby and builder) decided to rip the back of the house off at lunchtime on wednesday. it was a planned move to open up the "bricked in" return verandah - but all happened rather suddenly.

gotta love those brick saws! then builder hopped on the sledge hammer up high, and i swung the other sledge hammer down low and it turned out the be the strongest, most stubborn wall in the entire house! hubby loaded the truck.

i also spent two days jackhammering the render off the "new" bathroom walls to bring them back to internal brick level (all internal walls are double brick) as it was quite fribble - lime motar - and uneven for tiling.

then today! the entire day was spent with family, doctor's and social workers discussing what needs to be done when my mil comes out of hospital next week. she had early stage dementia when she went in (but getting worse) for a anyerism op, but went severely downhill after the op and is pretty close to being "high care" class. final decision rests with fil, but he is also elderly and in semi-denial "she'll be right when she gets home." a very difficult and draining day. unfortunately they live in an isolated area, a 3hour round trip from us, and the next lot of family is 6 hours away, so there is not much support where they are - no options are real good, although i'll give him respite one day a fortnight to start with and see how it goes.

anyhow - back to the house. the wiring was soooooo bad (ie, the 3phase garage power was t-junctioned to a power point in the old bathroom, there were mass ancient junction boxes everywhere under the floor and nothing in the layout made sense) that the sparky just ripped out the lot and started again.

the builder is fantastic - i have never seen a trady work so hard or efficiently.

was really disappointed at the plumbers. i had used their firm before and found them to be good, but these particular guys fluffed around and held a democratic commission for every minor decision so ended up taking 3 days to do a 2 day job - i've spoken to the supervisor and he'll come and assess how long the job "should have" taken.

windows turned up on time. kitchen carcasses arrived and now i'm worried the kitchen won't fit because i left 100mm breather along the main wall - which got pinched for unplanned framework ... it'll be tight!

anyhow - gyprock is ordered to arrive monday. we've decided to rip out the hall ceiling as well (it opens direct on the new area) so that the ceilings flow properly ... 51m decorative cornice is sitting in the garage ready to go up. tiles have been choosen (i think), so hopefully things will come back together fairly quickly.

bbq is in desparate need of a clean!

see ya next week.
 
very rapidly getting to the stage where i can't stand the mess ... i like tidy and clean and order, but everything is cluttered, continually dusty and now the vacuum hose has clogged!

arrrrrgh
 
lizzie said:
then today! the entire day was spent with family, doctor's and social workers discussing what needs to be done when my mil comes out of hospital next week. she had early stage dementia when she went in (but getting worse) for a anyerism op, but went severely downhill after the op and is pretty close to being "high care" class.
Click to expand...
Oldies on the edge + general anaesthetic = oldies *over* the edge. Anaesthetic does 'something' to a demented brain. Not always, but very common. My mother is in aged care assessment and sees it all the time. The partner's stepfather's lovely but demented mother went seriously downhill after a major operation and then died, while his crotchetty old grandmother that has had several major operations but *isn't* demented is going on strong on her assortment of artificial joints. Dementia in any form is no fun for everyone involved :(
 
a quiet week - but very long.

hubby spent last weekend (between dining with family and continuing mil talks) patching the floor where the walls were taken out. i spent most of saturday in my scruffy olds, waiting to be summonsed - which never happened so spent sunday reading the papers and chilling out.

we were hoping to have the gyprock up this week - but hubby had to work, and go to a funeral, and builder had some other jobs he was promised to - so it didn't happen. hoping for this week.

did get the builder for a day this week. he finished the prep work for the ceilings to go up, set the bath and hubby came home in time to help cut out the brickwork and installed the new double window in the laundry. doesn't sound like much but he works flat out all day!

i decided to paint the front picket fence on thursday as the gardens desparately need mulching and no point in mulching, only to shift it again to paint the fence ....and it's better to stay out of the builders way. going from lovely 80's cream and green to china white and charcoal. was hoping for final coat today but it's raining for the first time in about 6 weeks.

spent friday doing odd jobs for fil and trapsing around the brickyards trying to brickmatch. today hubby is laying bricks to patch where windows came out and others went in.

one thing i am learning is that nothing i am doing is as important as anyone else!

thursday i was painting the fence when it was demanded i come and help install the window. after standing around for 10 minutes i went back to painting the fence. yesterday i was in the midst of moving some poor little plants that were being trampled - only to be urgently called to mix some mortar that couldn't wait another 5 mintues - today i was hiding in a cloud of dust trying to empty the vacuum cleaner bag (going thru one a day is a bit expensive) only to be called on to make coffee!! does it really look like i'm sitting around doing nothing!!

anyhow - attached are photos or the framework up and the back of the house that got ripped off last week.

wish things would move a bit quicker instead of a day here or there ... :eek:
 

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lizzie said:
a quiet week - but very long.

.....wish things would move a bit quicker instead of a day here or there ... :eek:
Click to expand...

Get off ya tush and do something....:eek:

Sorry Lizzie...couldn't help myself.....a bit like the media does....selective quoting.....lol...

But, hey, I do appreciate your anecdotes of ...'quick, give us a hand here..."

I'm always doing that to my wife when on the renos...she's a great painter tho and I can't upset her too much...;)

Hang in there you're doing well...hows the cooking going this week...?
 
friday again :eek:

80% of the gyprock up, hoping to finish this weekend and start the cornices. plumbers' supervisor came for a visit today and agreed to take off the time of the second guy who stood around doing nothing most of the time. i'm trying to choose tiles ... so ... here i am asking the advice of the ss-ers. i have a favourite, but won't mention which one, or price.

the tiles will go on the kitchen and bathroom floor (floors visible at the same time, so want the same time). the floor tile will also go up the wall to ceiling behind the shower, and up the wall behind the cooktop.

all other wall tiles in both rooms will be square, plain white. the cupboards are white two pack. the benchtops haven't been choosen yet.

i have no idea how to set up a poll - so the tiles go from left (1) to right (3) and just put down a number (unless someone wants to set up a poll for me). :D
 

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vbplease said:
did you giprock directly onto the brick wall, or with furring channels?
Click to expand...

haven't gyprocked over the bricks. once everything is in, there will only be very minimal brick showing, so not sure what to do with it it yet - paint or tile or gyprock over ...
 
actually - number 4 is also my favourite, and looks fantastic down but doesn't photograph very well. just by pot luck, on my morning walk i saw a "for sale" billboard several blocks away with a photo of the open plan kitchen showing the exact same tile, with exact same floorboards and same kitchen cupboard colour - and it looked fantastic ...

but! it is more than twice as expensive as the next most expensive, and three times more expensive than the other two ... and i can't find a smaller matching tile for the bathroom floor - which i can with the others - the tiler will hate me forever if i try and get him to tile a little 5m2 bathroom floor (in triangle shape) with such a large tile ... so i'm torn.
 
Lizzie, typical I always tend to choose the most expensive things there are too. Choosing the most expensive tile, mmmm you say you saw a photo recently with the same tile, floors, cuboards etc and say they look great. I personally would go with the more expensive tile if that is what you love, you would be dissapointed if forever more you regret not choosing the tile you really prefer. You mention tiling in a triangle? Do you mean the way the tiles are set out, not the tile shape? When I had my tiles layed I had thought of putting them on an angle, my tiler recommended tiling straight and I have to say am glad I took his advice.
 
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