The latest project

alwayscurious said:
Hey man, take care you still keep your relationships!

Renovations are tiring and can be all consuming - living apart can add to this.

Take your loved one out for dinner, consider having someone else stay at the place nights, on a roster basis?

Just concerned for you that you get consumed by this thing.

Cheers
ac

Hi there. I appreciate the concern, but we are not entirely apart. The way we have been working it is that Hubby comes home after work, gets changed & we have dinner. Some nights he will go to the house after dinner & some he will only go there when ready for sleep. He comes home each morning for a shower & breakfast before going to work.

Twice a week (weekdays) we have several hours of sports training before he goes to the house. Sat morning we train from 7.00am - 9.00am & again at 6.00 pm - 8.30pm. The children do the same.

So, as you can see, we spend a fair amount of time doing non reno things together & that is not going to change. The only change is the sleeping arrangements & we are managing that fine. We hope to have this house turned around as quick as possible so we can get back to normal.
 
Arrgghhhh Termites

This weeks progress was not impressive. Bought the wood & hired the acrow props to repair termite damage. All going well until hubby discovered some more that we were unaware of. I suppose these things are sent to try you.

The main area of concern was the wall between the toilet & 2nd bedroom. We did get that repaired, but it was interesting having an open plan toilet for the day. The second is only about 2 timbers in another wall, not as hard as the previous wall. That one will have to wait as we ran out of timber. Then we have the new area to negotiate, which is in the roof. What fun!

The only other thing acheived was sugar soaping the fire damaged room. (OK, only 1/2 needed cleaning, the other 1/2 is new plasterboard.)

I go away for the next week, so it will be interesting to see what hubby acheives while I'm gone. I'm hoping all the termite damage will be fixed before I get back.
 
I'm Back

Just back from my trip & very excited to see what Hubby had done when I was away.

It appears that not a lot was acheived. I can't be too mad though as we have 2 kids (teenagers actually) & one came with me while the other stayed behind. He spent a lot of time with her, so not all bad.

He did, however, fix the termite damage & return the acrow props, then plaster the wall. Still got the sanding & filling to do & that will take a few days.

The delightful neighbours have been at it again & stole the fuses from the box. This is a pain, so will have to get a lock from Integral Energy to stop this from happening. Until it arrives we have to remove the fuses each day.

Today I get to start a bit of painting. Only ceilings at this stage, & not all of them as 1/2 still have to be fixed, but its a start.
 
Forgot to add that while I was away, another house just up the road sold at auction for $8k less than we paid for ours. The difference is that the other property was completely burnt out. They must demolish what is left of the shell & start again.
 
skater said:
Forgot to add that while I was away, another house just up the road sold at auction for $8k less than we paid for ours. The difference is that the other property was completely burnt out. They must demolish what is left of the shell & start again.


Skater is this house in the Mt Druitt area eg Bidwell, Dharruk??? It sounds to me like (as what usually happens) is that the area is being ruined by a tiny element i.e if that one house of people you mentioned move away all will be peaceful.

Regards
Julie
 
Hi Possumcreek. No things are not quiet, although they have slowed down a bit. First I'm away for a week, now Mothers Day (got to take MIL to lunch & she lives a long way away from us so another day lost) then in 2 weeks we are both away for the weekend.

So far all the termite damage is fixed, gyprock on most walls, the external damage repaired except for a small part at the rear where french doors are going to be put. One room is almost complete. We have the kitchen, but still haven't put it in. I would love to put the kitchen in, but the damage to the walls in the kitchen was a bit worse than we thought, so have been working on fixing that first.

Hubby forgot about the cornice (silly I know) when we ordered the gyprock, so that gets delivered on Monday. Woohoo we can finish the room that is nearly complete.

Some ceilings are painted (the ones that have no damage) and the hallway is cut in ready for painting (that feels like a huge acheivement as there was a lot of damage to the hallway). Oh, and I almost forgot, the toilet is painted (not the toilet itself, the room silly) except for the windowsill.

It does look more like a house now rather than a demolition site.
 
Two steps forward, one step back

Arrrggghhh I just love termites. I just posted about my termite experience in another post, but I will duplicate it here for those that don't read the last one.

When we first discovered some live termites we called the Real Estate Agency who gave us the name of the place that had done the original treatment & he also had a letter from them giving a 12 month warranty. We called them & they came out & said that since we had disturbed them (there was only a couple) there was nothing they could do, but if we found more let them know.

We called back later that same day & they came back out since they were still in the area, but they did add that future call outs would incur a charge as we didn't pay for the treatment, the warranty was not transferrable. They sprayed a little dust, checked the house including the roof cavity & said that there are no more in the house. The few we had seen were only scouts.

It was interesting to note that they mentioned they regularly go to a house in the same street. This told me one thing. Whatever they are doing, it DOES NOT WORK. If anyone wants the name of the company PM me & I'll gladly tell you as obviously if you use them you are wasting good money.

Last night Hubby decided to remove a panel to put in a new vanity & came across a few termites. We then went to Bunnings & bought an ant & termite spray. We thought there would only be a few as the professionals had already told us there were no more in the house.

While digging around he discovered it went into another wall behind the bath. He then proceeded to remove the sheeting from the toilet which is adjacent to the bathroom ( I had just finished painting there). And he discovered a large nest. This he removed & put on the tiles in the bathroom so he could spray the area. All the while spraying he was kind of digging with a chisel into where any termites were to make sure he got them all. Then he crushed the nest & sprayed huge volumes of stuff into it & mixed it all around so they all got some. We then put this delightful mixture into garbage bags to go to the tip.

Now, I know this is not the way you are supposed to deal with the little buggars, but it did kill them. This was the only product we could find that said it was somewhat effective on termites, & it did state that for infestations to call a professional. Its active ingredient is permethrin which appears to be what a lot of the professionals use, so it can't do any worse than the company that did the original treatments. I will get some baits as well to stop them from coming back.
 
Gee, things are really slowing down at the moment.

This weeks progress. Nothing. We both ended up in bed with the flu. Hubby just back at work this morning, but he's still not completely well.

Looks like next weeks progress will be similar as we are away for the weekend. Was hoping to have a lot more done by this time. All the unexpected extras don't help when you are trying to get things done quickly.
 
OH MY GOSH SKATER - those photos!!! :eek:

Thanks for a really interesting thread and all your time taken to keep us updated.

Hope you and your hubby are feeling better soon!
 
Awesome efforts Skater. I look forward to more photos and more diary updates. I feel for the people who have to live in that street permanently - sounds like there are lots of troubled kids around there.
 
Just a message of cheer 2 u skater-- But I hafta laugh when I see people kindly recommending u go out to dinner for a break-- my experience is that I can barely drag myself into the bath and then not entirely remove all the gunge,paint etc from my day's labour let alone walk or drive to go out to dinner. Just have a few pre frozen meals in the freezer. No point sending for take away(or going out to dinner)--- when on a REALLY tight budget it just cuts into your profit.LOL. All the best
 
Back at last

We are back & busy fixing things up. AT LAST WE ARE TERMITE FREE! What a relief! The walls are now replaced in the toilet & bathroom, they just need to be filled, painted & tiled. Two rooms are finished except for the carpet, curtains & light fittings. Should have the toilet painted again by next weekend along with the third bedroom.

The best news of all is that last week when I went to check on something I noticed there was a trailor connected to the car of one of the neighbours & it contained quite a bit of furniture. I raced home to phone Hubby & tell him that the neighbours were moving. Well I was wrong, only half the household was moving, BUT what a difference. No more Eminem playing day & night at deafening levels. No more teenage gangs hanging around all the time. No more four letter words being shouted in the street continually. No more gangs of primary school kids hanging around either. This is the house where most of the problems originated from in the street, so this is good news.
 
Yeah!!!!

Congrats re neightbours moving. I know some other people who will be very happy as well. :D

Was wondering if you thought of capturing some of the termites and setting them on other unruly neighbours ( their houses ....)

See Change
 
see_change said:
Yeah!!!!

Congrats re neightbours moving. I know some other people who will be very happy as well. :D

Was wondering if you thought of capturing some of the termites and setting them on other unruly neighbours ( their houses ....)

See Change

Nah, they have more than me already. They were hoping the Housing Dept was going to move them (residents, not termites), but apparently they were told that the damage would be fixed & termites removed & they would have to put up with it. Guess they got fed up.
 
This weeks progress.

The toilet is once again painted although the tiling is not done yet. I have just finished painting the third bedroom, so now we have three completed, just waiting for carpet & curtains. We have to now move Hubby's bed from the forth bedroom (this room hasn't been started yet) so we can work on that.

Bing Lee had a sale on stoves, & we got one $500 cheaper than any others I had seen (needed to be a 600m & the norm these days seems to be 540m). Hubby has moved the wiring from where the old stove was to where the new will be going.

We only got 2 days work done this week even though we had a public holiday. Hubby had a birthday in the middle, so we had a party day, afterall life is about fun as well as hard work.
 
Things are looking good.

We've now installed the kitchen. The granite guy installed the benchtops on Sunday, and it looks good. We now have to connect the pipework, tile, paint and install the wall cabinets.

I've now painted the ceiling of the loungeroom & have started cutting in the walls. Up untill now, I could not access one corner of the loungeroom as the granite was stored there & it is extremely heavy, so even though the room was nearly complete, could not start painting.

It doesn't sound a lot, but we only had 11/2 days this weekend as there were a couple of open homes to inspect.
 
Skater, can I ask what your budget has been so far - and how much more do you think will be needed (and have you used the auctions to keep the prices down?).
 
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