Progress 2

The bathroom reno has started. Joey arrived at noon on Friday and worked late into the night. He slept in a swag and got up early and started again. There's lots of photos here, a lot of them nearly the same, but I want to chronicle this whole process in detail ('cos I won't ever be doing this again)!

Joey had already started by the time I got down there to take these photos. I finished painting the rail in the lounge room.

There was a narrow white cupboard in this corner.

Toilet on the left, hallway on the right, through to the bathroom. There's lots of photos taken from this angle because the transformation is best seen from here.

Welcome to my nightmare; redback spider nests.

Rat nest under the bathtub.

The hallway wall is gone.

To give perspective, this is the open plan showing the old toilet, hallway and bathroom. The toilet will move down towards the front of the photo (and face the right hand wall) and give valuable space to the bathroom. 

The new toilet will sit on the tiles at the front of the photo and face the right. Joey has removed some tiles in the middle. This is how the room looked when we left on Friday night.

This is how things looked when Meg and I got there on Saturday morning. All floor tiles removed, sheeting on walls and floor, second toilet and basin pedestal and old bathtub in place so that we could play with configuration.

After half an hour of "how about" and "what if we did this" we finally decided on the layout.  Meg and I went to town to pick up more tiles.

We all worked all day; Joey on the bathroom, Meg and I on her room and Gibbo on the sheep fencing.

This is pretty much how the bathroom looked when we left on Sat night.

Finally, finally, at last, it took forever - we finished getting the wallpaper off Meg's walls. In hindsight it would have been easier to pull the sheets off and put new ones on. It may not look like it but these strips are as smooth as a baby's bottom.

It would have been a much easier job if we'd actually known what we were doing at the start. I feel like I finally worked out what to do when there was one panel of sanding left.

The middle lounge room. Sometimes you just have to close your eyes and walk on by.

All the while, this was the view outside. Rain!

Meg took Drew to the early bus on Sat morning so that he could get to Bris for his first shift at his new job. After getting home at nearly 2am from his local pub job he was rather difficult to get moving. However, he made it to Bris, across to Leo's where he was staying, then to work at Suncorp (for the Indigenous All Starts football game) and then back to Leo's via Park Rd pizza and beers. Today he caught another bus to Twba to stay the night with Meg. The effort (and cost) to get to Bris and back is worth it just to secure the job and actually start. He will be back at College in a few weeks so of course it will all be much easier.

Fifty and Fabulous

We left school in 1979 but when we get together it's just like it was "the other day"!! Seek the Truth!!

Happy Birthday, Little Brother

I LOVE YOU!!!

More Progress

We went to town yesterday and chose bathroom floor, wall and feature tiles. It didn't take long. The final choice just seemed to fall into place without too much hand wringing.

We also picked fittings for the shower and bath but need to wait on an extra long spout for the bath. Also, the holes on the old style basin are square, not round or hexagonal so we need to do a big of digging to find the right shape and size.

These are the floor and feature tiles. We went with white for the wall tiles. The colouring in the photo is not quite accurate but close enough.

Ceramic double soap dish and shelf.

A foot shelf!
"What for"? I said.
"For leg shaving", she said.
Oh. Of course. Ok, I'll have one of those. Please.
"How much was THAT"? Gibbo said.
"We're only doing this once remember", I replied.

Today we ordered the Versalux sheets. Outside my area of responsibility (or interest). It's going to be a very long weekend.

The Babies

The two little ones are growing and spending more time out in their yard. They jump onto the two rocks and then launch themselves off, twisting in the air as they go! They're so soft and beautiful. Pepper's bad teat is still causing issues; we have to pin her against the fence/tree/wall so that the kids can drink from it and strip her out. Once they're on she's ok but it's a bit of a battle getting to that point. The same thing happened last time when she had Peach.

Look at those ears! He looks like The Flying Nun.

This little guy is full of mischief already.

Rosie has toggles.

Perfect markings.

They were both really curious of the camera.

Nearly Done

The lounge/kitchen/dining paining is nearly done. I spent a few quiet hours at the farm today and painted the trim. Forgot the camera so had to use my phone.

I think this is my favourite part of the house. I'm tossing up whether to put the kitchen table there or a day bed.

The trim is finished in the kitchen and dining area; there's just two long patches to finish in the lounge room. They're taped and ready to go; maybe I can finish them one afternoon this week.

Next on the list is Meg's room; I'll be pleased to see the end of that mess. Then I want to paint a couple of walls in the pantry and wash, sand and varnish the window and door frames. The bathroom reno has been put back at least a week which might interfere with the floor sanding man. I need to go to town tomorrow and choose bathroom and shower tiles and taps. We're going to tile the entire bathroom, not just the shower area - which will now be a walk-in shower instead of a shower cubicle. I might throw in a few random tiles just to add a bit of interest.

Another 50th

I went to another 50th celebration last night; the last one for our group of girls from school. I drove up to the Bunya Mts and met the other girls at Jen's place. We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant and I drove back down at the end of the night and managed to only take out 1 wallaby. The other girls all stayed up there.

Corn and zucchini chowder.

Brandy and cumquat pork fillet - pork fillet marinated in a brandy and cumquat marmalade oven baked and served with a spicy plum and cranberry sauce.

Tiny servings of 5 desserts - decadent white chocolate and blueberry pudding; poached pear in red wine; passionfruit coconut flan, new york baked cheesecake and mini banoffee pie.

The boys needed the car early this morning to go to Bris. Drew has found himself a job as a barman in the member's bar at Suncorp Stadium and his induction was this morning. He'll work weekends when there's soccer/union/league games. I'm heading to the farm to paint the trim in the lounge/kitchen/dining. We had another inch of rain on Thursday night. Meg is no doubt recovering from a big night at the Reds game in Twba. Here she is, rather blurry, with a new friend.

3 Days Away

We've just spent 3 days at our annual managers conference at a resort on the Gold Coast; the same one as two years ago. It's a beautiful setting but this time we didn't even get sand between our toes or dipped one in the pool. The agenda was very full on with interactive sessions (something I really detest), presentations, breakout groups and lots of talking. On the last afternoon there was a team challenge where we had to complete a series of tasks, work out codes and find a "fugitive". That was a good laugh.

That's the ocean beyond the palm trees.

One night we had a dinner cruise; this wasn't the boat but it's pretty nice anyway.