veranda and storm water

here is our lack of storm water drainage... we pay rates for kurb and channelling yet it is not there, unless I'm blind!! this is to where the council wants us to sent the storm water from our new shed! Hmmm makes a lot of sence to me!!

shed status

We've had news on the shed... more importantly the roller doors... someone in their wisdom didn't order enough roller doors... and so, they have had to order more!! Smart people! Apparently our shed should arrive at the end of the month... a month and a half late!!

This is not a problem to Gav. It very much is to me because they didn't deliver when they said they would first time!! He recons it will give us plenty of time to get the slab done!!

As for the pad...One word... RAIN! Cant pour concrete in the rain!! So, we wait for a nice fine lovely day! Meanwhile we all go stir-crazy from being stuck inside due to rain!

I so want to go camping!

more photos of pad

rain

The guys came out today to see about pouring concrete!! The put aome things under the reo to hold it up in the middle area of the concrete... but after a little chat with a guy in Inverel and a quick look at another job they are doing - they decided that the rain was looking at coming in too much to pour!! I'm happy that they have delayed due to rain but I'm not happy the job is delayed!

Although with it all delayed - it doesn't really make much difference - the shed hasn't turned up yet! Still something about roller doors. Gavs theory is that they've sold more than they can actually physically make and so are coming up with stupid excuses for mis-management! My theory is that they just cant be bothered with "little" people and are more interested in businesses and other corperate people!! Either that or they've just taken our money and just decided not to bother giving us the shed!!

more photos

concrete slab!!

Good news on the slab... we had our inspection and passed! Yay!! We discussed with the guy about what we need to do to stop the crusher dust and road base from coming out from under the slab... What we want to do is perfectly fine! Yay again!!I am very happy with the current rate of progress!

Tomorrow (if all goes according to plan) the pouring of concrete will begin!! Apparently starting at 8am!!

However, the shed still has not arrived! And there is no news!! Not happy about this!

still no news

Roller doors have not turned up... but why would they - they seem to be enjoying their holiday!! My recommendation - seriously consider what company you get your shed from! I will be getting my husband to hound the company until they actually do something like chasing up our doors instead of just offering lame excuses! It seems that with some companies they wont do anything until you start throwing tantrums!

I will have my shed... and I will have it before Christmas... I know how to do it... starting by asking for them to refund me due to the delay at their end!!

o shed where art thou roller doors??

I know this isn't really house transformation... but it does add value and it is transforming the back yard!!

I will be posting pics of the work on the shed! And the progress of where the shed is... not that we know that!

It's late! The shed was first supposed to arrive here in mid October, excuse after excuse had it put off till the end of October - which would have been ok because we may have had it ready in time for Onjahlikas party... No! It was put off again until the day after Onjahlikas birthday! Did the shed arrive? No - the excuse was and still is the roller doors have been delayed!

What I want to know is who have they been delayed for?? The only person that I know of who can cause chaos to happen when visiting somewhere is the pope!! Don't think he's coming to see our roller doors or the people making them!!

So my next question is why cant they send the rest of the shed to us and the roller doors later?? The answer to that is they only get paid for the one delivery!! So to keep their books balanced they want to screw us around!!

Not sure I'll be recommending this particular shed company or their delivery company to anyone and time soon!

Yes - I will post photos of the pad in process! It is finally happening! we need another council inspection! Then the concrete gets poured!! At least we will have a concrete pad soon!

Here is the first one - the first two posts marking out two corners of the shed!!

I know I've been slack

We haven't done much in the way of renovations of late... Although Gav did dig up the broken sewer pipe. The bit that connects the bathroom to the sewer was more than broken... Will have to find some pics!!

The smell was bad!

Who in their right mind plants trees next to or on top of clay pipes??

Anyway I gotta get ready for tomorrow... And yes I will find some pictures!!

currently 20 inside

finally - I have photos! enjoy! we are!

Here are the photos of our first fire of the season (half way thru winter)!

It is sooo lovely to not be rugged up in blankets and clothes and still be cold!

Thanks to those of you who helped with the creation of this master piece!

Credit goes to: God - for giving me Gav who did a wonderful job with

                                  the slate and flooring and support for the floor!

                                  And for giving us supportive generous family! 

Gav - for putting up with my demands, and for creating such a wonderful functional master piece!

Dad - for helping with putting the wood on the walls and sealing the slate with Gav and any other job you

          did! (I heard a rumour that you paid for a few extra tools!)

Mum Carole - for also helping put the wood for the walls up and grouting and any other job you did! (as well

                       as the other blessings you both gave us - ie: microwave, frypan...)

Mum Jan - for the finances to pay for the flue to be put in!

I just want the world to know how much we appreciate you all! Thank you so very much - without your help we would probably still be freezing our butts off!

fire flue thingy

The guy came around today! I guess you could call that progress... he said that he has a few more fires to install.... I knew I would have to wait - but this is ridiculous! Yes - I am just a little sick of waiting for unknown lengths of time! If the rest of the house didn't need work done on it I would say that this is our first and last project!

The problem there is the roof needs to be re-done (of which we have so far asked three builders and one roofer to do the job - the first one vanished and still has not gotten back to us with his promised quote, the second one did the quote and then started putting us off with the excuse of there were more "pressing" jobs and our leaking roof could wait, then he finally confessed that he wasn't going to do it at all... the third bunch are like the first - not answering their phone or replying to messeges left or getting back to us with a quote... and the roofer promised to come and do a quote and he must have gotten lost trying to get to us! Cause he hasn't shown up either!) You can see my frustration with dealing with builders! Not very happy with them at all!

We'd probably do the work ourselves - but some of the work needs a builder to do it! Like all the stuff in the roof that needs to be replaced due to rotting from the roof leaking!

It has been suggested to us to do this spray on stuff that is like a coat of paint but it seals all the holes and basically means that re-roofing can be put off for another 10 years or so! But that is totally ignoring the serious problems of lack of structural supports in the roof! And the other rotten beams and such things! So not going down that particular road no mater how good it looks on the outside!

flue

Gav talked to Mike today - he went on a short holiday for the long weekend we didn't know about (but that is another story)... Anyway - verdict is that Mike would be dropping around either today or tomorrow morning! Well, today is almost gone and he didn't show - so here is hoping that he is a man of his word and actually comes tomorrow morning! If he does - there will certainly be photos posted! and hopefully a fire!! Yay... so sick of frozen toes and fingers!

9.50 pm - 6 degrees inside

we are still waiting and getting colder inside! this morning it was 5 degrees when I got up! we haven't heard from the guy who will be installing the flue - hope he gets back to us soon! last time we spoke with him he said we were number 9 on the list... I wonder how far  up the list we are now - he's had pretty much 2 weeks of fine weather!

I am wearing 4 layers of clothing and I'm wrapped in a blanket and I'm still cold... I want my fire on now! getting a little sick of waiting!

fire corner

Slate stacker stone... What painful stuff to work with... especially if you have to cut it!

The plumes of dust are amazing!

I don't reccommend anyone breathing in the dust! And if you have allergies - don't even go there! Yes it looks really good when it is up and sealed. But the process of getting it there is way too much!

Here is Gav just about to start cutting... I took a couple of photos and got out of there!

His hair turned grey everytime he cut a piece, he had thick slate dust all over him!

He was the priveleged one of the three of us... he had a breathing mask on!

Here is the last line of stack stone going up...

Finally, my floor is no longer covered in pieces of slate! The noise and dust are soon to be over...

Instead the house will be filled with the horrible stentch of slate sealer!

But for now... once this lot is finished, the top little bit will need to be grounded off so the mantle piece will sit in and be level! Then the fiddly job of grouting can begin!

The end has almost come!!

Here is my father helping get the wood for the walls up!

I went out shopping with Onjahlika and my step mum and while we were out, dad and Gav got the mantle piece in and some of the wood up!

The wood took two days in all... if it had just been me and Gav doing it - the wood would have taken a lot longer...

Gav was out the front cutting the wood to the right length and sanding it, while mum and I were helping dad get it in place.

When he was up the ladder we would pass the drill and nails and whatever else he needed up to him!

Here it is... the wood part is finished!! And the room feels so much warmer!

The wood has been coated with a clear sealant! My father kept asking my if I wanted it stained to make the wood even darker... while that would have been nice to darken up some of the lighter pieces - I kept declining! As it is, the dark with the light looks rather good!

The slate sealer was ferral in smell... we had the window open all night! Just to try and get rid of the smell...

And the fire box looks good in it's place!

Ignore the fact that I forgot to remove the news paper off the handle!

The next thing to do is to get a guy in to install the flue!! We discovered that we need a licenced guy to put it in! So we are still waiting to have a fire!

Oh how I would love to report that it is all finished...

A photo posted of it with fire going is going to happen if not this week than next week!

fire box

It's in!!! Yay!

No fire yet tho!

We need a plumber to put the flue in! Apparently we need a cetrified person to put it in!!

Hey - we are one step closer to having a warm fire at night! And it looks really good!

I have to go thru my photos and find some... then I need to actually take the time to post them!

Before I go tonight... I need to say thanks to my dad and step mum for travelling down from Hervey Bay to come help us get the corner finished and the box in place!

Movie calls...

slate stacker wall fire corner thingy!!

I've been meaning to update this for a few days now...

The slate wall is going up very quickly... Tomorrow will be the last row put in then the slate mantle peice can get off the spare bed!! Good thing it's almost done... My father and step-mother are coming to visit and they kinda need to sleep where the mantle piece currently is!

And the floor tiles look wonderful, all sealed... just waiting for a second coat of sealer! Search Amazon.com for slate tiles Search Amazon.com for slate sealer. Wow... Gav is hoping that the fire box will be out of the hallway and on the hearth by sunday!! Here is hoping that there are no more delays... winter officially starts in 13 days!! And I want my fire!

As for photos... there are some on the camera... others on the computer - I just haven't bothered doing anything with them yet... I promise - the finished slate wall will be posted! From where I sit - It looks good!

progress

Gav has finished grouting the tiles!

He is going to start sealing them tomorrow! He says the smell is going to be baaad!!
So I think I'll take Onjahlika for a ride on the bike! Not sure where I'll go!

I'm very happy that we are making progress on the tile area! Soon we will have
the fire box in place and soon I wont need to sit on the lounge wrapped in a blanket!

















The above image is actually surprisingly similar to the one parked in our hallway!
(waiting to go into it's final position!)

still waiting!

The tile glues is probably dry by now... sadly circumatances have put
the slate stack stone on hold! Still laying on the floor! Yay! Wednesday
will most likely be the day when some of it gets glued to the wall!

Oh and the floor - looks awesome! (Thanks to the guys at
http://www.stoneandcraft.com.au/ for supplying the slate) Needs to be grouted
yet! Shouldn't take too long to do that (I hope). Tis getting colder here!
Really need the fire box put in asap! We are now in the last month of autumn
and winter is less than a month away!

glueing done... waiting...

the next step should be starting in the next day or two!!

Here is Gavy glueing down the slate tiles!

Not the most fun of jobs... to take your time and get it right...

but to do it before the tile adhesive goes off!!

here he is glueing the edge bit! such fiddly little pieces of slate to cut!!

these things are the stacker stone!

once the tile glue is dry... Gav can glue these to the wall!

To be honest I'll be glad when they are not taking up

half the floor space in my lounge!

progress made

Checking the hebel wall pannel!

making sure we get the right tile layout!

Currently Gav is out mixing the tile glue to glue these babies down!

Yay... getting closer to completed!

it is strangely cold in my lounge right now

Here I sit in my nice lounge room... cold! I look over to the corner where the fire box should be... but it is still sitting in the hallway waiting for the slate to be finished before it can go into place... winter is appraoching fast! Too fast for my liking!

I'm sure it will be finished before winter gets here!

I must admit - this is much warmer than when there was a hole in the floor!