ramblings of a wandering nerdan aimless amble on a winding road

The bathroom is nearing completion and I am really looking forward to crossing this one off the list. I’ve learnt a lot, saved a bucket load of cash (I’d estimate around least $7000) and purchased a new set of power tools in the process.

So what’s happened so far? I’ve had my cousin in to do the plumbing, this was 2 days work for him, with me acting as his not so useful lackey, and 2 days work for me digging trenches under the house. Yes UNDER the house.

Once we had the underfloor stuff done, it was time to put the floor down and build the hob. This went well, then it was the plumbers turn again for rough-in. Then the sparky’s turn, and now back to me for final wall preparation before the plaster weaves his magic hopefully next week.

Once the plaster is up, it’s paint, tile and final fit-off for the electrics and plumbing.

So all going to plan, I’m hoping the bathroom will be completed before the end of the month. The only complication with that is it’s the last couple of weeks of uni so we’ll see how we go but that’s the plan.

More pictures to be posted in the gallery. Damn Macbook doesn’t have an SD card reader so I need to get the other laptop but it’s currently too far away.

Well as I head into work on what is the earliest train I’ve ever caught (504am) I find my mind already working at full speed.

Work has been so full on over the past month as we finalise the Notes 8.5.1 package which along with renovations consumes every waking minute. Sametime 8.5 is killing me and with my nuts on the chopping board I’m really hoping the cutover from 7.5.1 to 8.5 goes smoothly.

But that’s enough about work. I’ve had my cousin around doing the plumbing for the new bathroom. He’s done a brilliant job and this weekend my list is short but important. Floors walls and bath hob.

The floor will be interesting. It involves compressed cement sheeting which is heavy so to make it a one man job it will mean cutting it up into smaller chunks which means dust.

But what’s a little dust in a house covered in it ….

That’s this afternoon. Tomorrow is the wall which I’m hoping isn’t too much trouble with the nail gun followed on Sunday by the hob. And somewhere in between is going and buying the shower rail and light.

Before and after shots on their way!

Construction of the shed continues and completions is earmarked for this weekend. More to come….

Today began with a 25 minute wait at 6:30 for coffee. It ended with half a dozen(ish) coopers pale ales and the footy on the radio.

Somewhere inbetween was the upgrade of 60 lotus domino servers to nd851, more silver insulation and the dragging of bloody heavy compressed fiber cement sheeting to the new bathroom!

Make sense? I thought not.

After finishing work at 11:30 we headed off to stratco to pick up the shed roofing (go pies! – still listening to footy!). After realizing that 765mm coverage meant about 820mm wide we SQUEEZED it into the falcon, then we were home and insulating again. Unfortunately Kate was going out so we didn’t get much done but I took the opportunity to put the flooring down in the bathroom.

More beer and more dragging and now I find myself relaxing on $600 worth of cement sheeting in the very very unfinished bathroom!

Stay tuned. In tomorrows episode we put the rest of the cladding and roof on. Fingers crossed all that will be left is the door and windows!

There are photos but that means moving so I’ll post them later and by later I mean tomorrow.

JT-out

Well thought I would check out the wordpress iPhone app while I was having a coffee break. Neat. Not sure where the photo is going to end up.

Progress is good which is a little surprising, since i was up past 1am and back up again at 7:30 doing uni. But after finishing that at 11 it was all systems go!

Bearers are in, joists are currently going on. Tomorrow morning the old study (new bathroom) floor will be pulled up and the yellowtounge redeployed to the shed. Then it’s framing time!

Stay tuned.

PS: infinitely more satisfying than sitting at a desk!

Well on Sunday I set about digging and laying the footings. There were only 12 so I gave myself 4 hrs. 8hrs later, and under floodlights, it was completed…. Almost. Some bastard had put a 75mm stirrup in the 90mm box so I ended up one short.

The digging was easy, the leveling out, not so easy. But with Kates help, we got it all level, got a number of beers down and was mighty satisified come 8pm.

Here are some pictures …

Well after much contemplation and.. well procrastination, the renovations have returned to top gear. And since there is no holiday on the horizon, I’ve decided to use the blog as a renovation journal. If nothing else, the next time I renovate I’ll be able to come back here and work out what to do better.

While some progress was made last year, with the attic going in and the house being re-plastered, there is a new sense of urgency. The plans for the full-blown renovation are being finalised by the architect, a real estate agent was in last week to make sure we weren’t over-capitalising (we’re not) and we’ve spent the best part of the last four weeks finalising the bathroom colours and fitouts.

The most progress was made yesterday when we found the basin, toilet AND feature tile all within the space of about 2 hours. And I think what got us over the line was the people we spoke to yesterday were all exceptionally helpful. Some weekends you can spend 8 hours talking to idiots and other weekends you can spend 20 minutes talking to great people. Yesterday was the latter. Which was great timing because we’ve been incredibly frustrated and concerned with lack of momentum.

The timber order is going in this week for both the new wall in the Bathroom and the shed plus flooring, colorbond (for the shed roof) and doors. With a long weekend next weekend I’m hoping to get the bulk of the shed built. And once the shed is done, the bathroom can commence.

Hopefully by the time the bathroom is finished, we would have submitted the plans to council for the extension and we can almost start that immediately.

Stay tuned for photos.