really nearly done.

we have been working like idiots. too hard. up until midnight most nights. its ridiculous but lev has an interview in Toowoomba on tuesday so we have to be out of here by sunday morning. we had some great friends pop round this morning to help lev out with some tip loads, drainage work and concreting. all our bowen friends have been so helpful and constantly offering to do jobs, or take the kids, or bake us muffins.

I've spent most of the past few days painting. Painting everything. It's time consuming and boring and the photos dont show much. lev has been amazing. he's got a list that fills an A4 peice of paper and he's nearly done everything on it. i'm so amazed by him.

Here's some photos from the past few days.

lev finished the picket fence to cover the neighbours ugly
asbestos wall. and i was tasked with painting as he built.

the kids helping out. bless em.

friend's baby Seth sleeping on my beautiful kitchen floor :)

i painted the front gate. i think i preferred it as bare timber.
julia has paint on her face hahaha.

our 'window' seat without the window.
we ran out of time and thought a mirror might suffice.

lacquering the arch. it looks good but soooo time consuming.

after loads of bogging and painting the old kitchen finally
looks presentable.

freshly painted stairs. these are the stairs i broke my foot on
and abel broke his arm. stupid stairs.

the concreting lev did today.

haha, couldn't resist.

so thats our saturday. this avo lev is putting drainage in from the backyard to the road. installing an aerial and powerpoint and i'm packing the house up still. tomorrow morning before  we leave we're going to take loads of photos of our finished house and our last blog should be filled with before and after shots. hooray!

nearly done.

Hi all. Yes we are nearly done. Moving date has been moved forward to Saturday! Eeeek. So much to do. So little time. There's no time to even write anything so here's some photos.

i tiled. never again. hate tiling.

and i grouted. not fun.

finished!



finally got our front driveway cemented!



hooray! finished the driveway!

 

our old kitchen was sold and removed. look what was left.

...so friday night before our sat night bbq Lev got cementing

...filled in the big hole and used left over tiles to cover up some
of the damage.

and Lev finished the front gate finally. now the kids cant escape.

concrete benchtop method

The overall result of our very successful concrete benchtop.

Found the flattest surface in our house and measured twice and drew an outline of the desired bench and inset sink on the form ply, formed up the shape with scrap timber and more form ply for the edges that required a smooth finish.  Hung inch thick galvinised rio bar and 100 x 100 galvinised mesh for structural support. Exposed edges of bench had a bead of silicon smoothed to a curve with a finger to give a curved edge

Concrete mixed at 4 parts builders mix to 1 part cement, once laid the formwork was tapped with a heavy hammer for about 7 minutes to remove bubbles from the surface of the bench.

After 5 days of keeping the slab moist it was allowed to dry and lifted, very happy with the result, weight about 100kg.

Got a neighbour to help us lift it into place and after a bit of trimming with the massonite disk and grinder the sink slipped into place.



Silicone for the edges









kitchen coming along...

We have been working our little butts off. During the day and then all night. We stayed up until 2am last Friday tiling the kitchen, then again last night till 1am to finish it. I've been painting like a crazy person. I've done the wall in old kitchen, the stairs down into the old kitchen, the front door, and the front fence. Oh and our bedroom wall. We also had a garage sale on Saturday and made a measly 130 bucks but got rid of lots of things which was good.

Lev poured the benchtop for the kitchen sink and is currently banging it into place right now. I hope it works. I think it could look really good.

Anyway, here's the pics.



cement poured...



...and dried

 

garage sale.

painting painting painting. so much painting.

the kids living it up at our friends backyard bar!

back from the backyard bar and tiling till 2am.

at 1am last night the floor was finished! hooray!

back from another hiatus.

Well. We're back. Me and the kids took off for ages while Lev worked his butt off on the house as well as finishing up at his job. Abel broke his arm before we left and ended up in surgery twice to have the bones straightened out. He had the plaster off last week but he still has some healing to do. In the meantime Lev has got so much done, along with the help of some really generous friends... although I have a feeling with me and the kids gone the house became a bit of a man-cave. 
Anyway, here's what's been happening.

new tap and stand. ive never seen such a lovely tap.

this was taken before we left. Abel in his fresh plaster. we'd just received our
black and white tiles and got excited so we layed them out for fun.

lev replaced the flanges on our throne
and re-siliconed the bowl to the floor.

the roof is finished!!!!

new slab thanks to our very hard working friends.

kitchen as it is now. a lot of progress has been made but it still needs floor tiles, splashback, cement bench and sink.

lev spent tonight forming up the bench for under the sink.
and i painted all night. those photos will come later.

driveway.

The work has been taking its toll lately. We've both been very tired. I went to melbourne last weekend for my little sisters birthday (which was fantastic fun) but it set us back a bit. Lev's been a bit worn out. This morning, unexpectedly, our neighbours mate showed up with his dingo to do the prep for the driveway slab. He did it at a super bargain cost, and did a great job. 

Abel had his presentation for Little Atheletics today.
He was totally chuffed to get a participation trophy.



4-5 year olds group shot. Abel in the white hat being shy.



our flat pack kitchen in our new kitchen.

the new feature light for the dining room.
as 'chandelier' as i could get for under $100.

So that's been us lately.

floor and painting.

Well we've been really busy. Lev has given his work notice and we've decided to leave Bowen in December, or sometime over the summer. This puts a lot of pressure on us both to finish the house renovations. We've decided to get a local business to put in the cupboards for the kitchen which will save time and hopefully insure a good job is done. Before then we'll put in the floors and be making our own polished cement benchtops. Lev also needs to redo the stump underneath the kitchen floor, finish the roof, do the slab for the driveway. We also need to make the new room where the current kitchen is and do a million other things before we can leave. So much to do. And now we're also on the lookout for a new job for lev and I have uni work as well. It's going to be tight.

Here's what we've done this week.

lev removed the uneven floorboards...

...and is in the process of replacing them with ply.

that's my lev water skiing at beautiful Prossy Dam

julia heading out on the boat with her friend Grace.

abel back from his boat ride.

the days catch.

painting the veranda.

finished yay.