More Work

Time to pause with house stuff (very briefly) and to turn our attention to organising a party! Sunday morning was spent baking cakes and cookies plus some crafty stuff to do with party activities and bags.

Post lunch, Andy had suggested to his colleague who is currently visiting from the US to meet us at the house for a tour only to coerce him into manual labour. Together with some fantastic little helpers we de-nailed and sawed various pieces of old roof timber ready to be used for fire wood.

After a well deserved coffee, Andy, Bill and the girls walked up to the top of the Pinnacle to admire the views of Canberra and the Brindabellas while collecting a few caches on the way! They returned home to a lovely cooked dinner by yours truly!

Renos - Day 28.1

Our builder is keen to have the roof finished as soon as possible and hence was working on the Saturday of the long weekend. I should mention that he had been away for the previous weekend watching the Tigers win in Melbourne plus several other AFL games with his kids.

Anyway as they were working on the roof, Andy and I moved the floorboards which were delivered during the week into the lounge room. The four pallets added up to 130 square metres of 13mm blackout floorboards and took nearly four hours to move and stack!

Luckily we have fantastic neighbours with children so while we were slaving away, Katy played at Sofia's and Ella ventured to Marcus's house to play minecraft!

From this blocking the front path....

to this blocking the lounge room!!

And another section of roof complete

Renos - Day 26 to 28

Certainly has been challenging finding time to visit the house in the last few days. In daylight hours the street looks something like this.... and so I end up parking halfway down the street...
Then to actually get into the house is tricky too. The driveway is essentially blocked (again) with a very big skip and the path to the front door has several tonnes of floorboards placed on it.

With Friday being a no work day,  I had a good opportunity to peruse Paul's work and move more stuff out of the lounge room.

Most notable were the numerous holes cut into the floor spanning the length of the corridor. These I found out were for the plumbers who avoid having to crawl under the entire length of the house at all cost!

All is good though as the plumbing bits are beginning to emerge though the bathroom and ensuite floors.

More gyprock walls and frames are disappearing inside the house and this one is looking down the corridor through our bedroom and into Ella's room.

Not much left of the bathroom with views into Katy's room and visa-a-versa!

Looking through our room into Ella's.

and another view through our room..

In Ella's room with the spaces for the WIR and ensuite emerging.

New roof line - joining the old roof to the new extension part.

Chilly Canberra

Last week we had a few frosty mornings. How cold I hear you ask? Well no need for fancy thermometers at Nana's house, you just check the state of the birdbath in the front garden. One morning ice formed but you could poked it and it would crack. Not such the case the next morning - it was frozen solid (thanks to the overnight -5ªC!!)

Renos - Day 25

Living away from the house means it is more difficult to admire the days progress especially after work when it is dark! Anyhow, the asbestos team arrived today and did their thing.

Laundry no longer recognisable 

(sorry about the poor quality photo its from the outside, through the window and in the dark!!)

And well the bathroom - it's still got the bath!!

Six!

It's not everyday that you turn six. Katy was very excited to spend her birthday at Nana and Grandpa's (although Grandpa was in Melbourne visiting family). The morning began early which was  just as lucky as it was a school day.

Katy worked out quickly that she was getting ski gear too! Her own skis, boots, helmet and goggles.

Then there were a few more presents - jigsaw, book, Koala Sylvanian animals (Ella), umbrella and gloves (Nana and Grandpa), dressing gown and pjs (Nana and Grandad).

At school Katy was slightly disappointed that Mrs Kennedy was away. However the relief teacher was clued into the birthday routine and produced the appropriate birthday paraphernalia! Being a school day and work day for both parents, the evening was rushed. Thankfully Nana picked the girls up from school and together they baked a birthday cake for this special occasion. There is also a weekend birthday party to come!

Renos - Day 24

No sign of the asbestos team who were suppose to come and remove the asbestos sheeting in the laundry and bathroom. Paul or Tom weren't on site either although there was some evidence that they'd been....

various pieces of bathroom are no longer there... 

plus the end section of the kitchen have been undone....