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.