Plastering the study

So we didnt get the cornice for the other room on time and it was pouring rain over the long weekend, so we decided to make a start on what will be the study. This is currently the kids bedroom so we will have to get this done before the weekend. Fortunately the ceiling and cornice is great so it is only the insulation and plastering to do.







It was funny to see that someone had tried to drill a hole in the base plate and their drill bit was still lodge in the wood. We removed it for the scrap book.

Now you see it.....

We had the vacuum man come and suck out the old insulation from our house last week. He said he had never seen so much insulation in his life. He informed us that there was so much that it was making the ceilings collapse. So thank goodness we got rid of that. Now we can reinsulate with the new batts.
One ceiling was so bad that we had to pull it down. It was going to have to be patched anyway due to the chimey being removed. The cornice was also going to have to be replaced. So after attempting to lift the one sheet and hang it we went out and hired the lifter! So much easier. You would think after this many renovations (5, yes you read right) that I would have learnt my lesson.
So we removed the old roof and left the ceiling rose in the middle. We are going to replace the strapping on the corners of the rose back to the cornice to match what was there previously. Oh and dont you just love the light. That is going to be replaced also!

Plastering begins

The great plastering crusade begins. The bedroom where the chimney had been removed was gutted and replastered on the weekend. While we had the plaster down we insulated the external wall which will save having to pull down all the weatherboards later on.


We got the kids involved and they were the demolition team.


I have done the first coat of bedding cement on the joins and will hopefully be ready for the undercoat and primer within the week.

We tried to save the plaster cove but the ceiling is going to have to some down anyway as it has detached itself from the roof and is sagging in places

The ceiling heights are 10ft or 3mtr hence the 2.5 sheets on the wall

Chimney removal

As stated in an earlier post, one of the chimney's had to be removed. This left us with a few holes to patch. The chimney was going to be removed anyway to make way for stairs, we just didn't expect to have to do it this early in the renovation. The wall was taken down and put back up using recycled hardwood to tie back into the existing wall. Yellow tongue flooring was used as this area is going to be under the stairs and tied in perfectly to the grove in the baltic flooring.

Restumping done

Well the old girl saw the chiropractor today and had her joints (or should that be joists) aligned. He did a fantastic job and we are very happy with it. The floor structure was in really good condition but the same cant be said for the red gum stumps, allot of which weren't even touching the ground. We have replaced them all with concrete.

The calculations for the concrete footings went a little wrong and instead of 4 inch footings we have 12 inch footings. She is as steady as a rock. The chimney in the kitchen had to be removed though as one of the bearers went straight through the middle of it and when lifted cracked the base. We were told to have it down by the time they returned on Monday. Oh did I mention that he told us this on Friday night !! Well it came down and he was very happy with how quick we were. Now all we are left with is a massive hole in the floor and ceiling. Now we only have one more chimney to go!

The fun stuff can start inside now with alot of plastering and floor boards to look after.

What were they thinking

I have no idea what some people are thinking when they put in shag pile carpet, hideous wall paper and caravan tables in kitchens.

On the weekend we took to the house and removed alot of the carpet and nearly all of the old cupboards and took down the back fence. We also removed giant roses from the front of the house so the restumpers could get to the bay windows. We also had to remove some of the boards along the bottom so they could remove the stumps. We are happy to see that the weatherboards underneath are in perfect condition. The same cannot be said for the rough cast which has been removed to put on the aluminium cladding.

The journey begins

My partner (Stephen) and I purchased this house in June last year. We had sold our brand new house and moved into his old rental property that was about to be renovated.

During this time I had a tenant in this property until we finished the rental, which we finally did. After three weeks on the market it sold and we had a 30 day settlement.

Okay so now the fun starts trying to get our tenant out (who just so happen to be my cousin). He moved out last week and we started ripping things out.

Oh and just to top it all off, the hot water service blew up. Why couldn't it have waited a few months more until we were going to replace it. Now we have to put in a new one in a temporary position until the extension is built.

So here are a few photos of the old girl as she stood in June last year in all her aluminium clad glory.