"Doh" morning.

Shoes and Blocks............ let me explain. These are the main house blocks and these are my new shoes, which I was planning on wearing today seeing as the Spring weather has arrived.

Anyway, the morning started off a bit weird. The block delivery arrived with my load spread between the main truck tray and the dog trailer behind. The first pellets were unloaded with the crane.

Then the driver backed the truck out into the golf course car park to turn it around and have the trailer in a better position to crane off the rest of the pellets. Unfortunately he backed out with his crane still upright- Doh! as Homer Simpson would say.

This is my discreet "over the fence" pic of the broken wire that he took down. At that point we thought it was live and every one was keeping way back. The driver was in his cab and the police arrived quickly to direct the morning golfers away.

The driver sat there waiting for Energex with his head in his hands realising this wasn't the best way for a Friday morning to start.

It turns out it was just a phone line. Lucky for him, as that's way cheaper than electrical.

While I was taking my discreet photo I climbed onto the rubbish pile- which everyone is well versed not to go near. Hmmm, I didn't practise what I preach, and stepped on a nail.

So after an hour of the driver waiting for Energex to get the all clear, he then finished unloading the blocks and I'm off for a tetanus this morning. Fortunately they weren't rusty and I think my tetanus is up to date, but will just see what the GP says.

I did suggest to the driver that a stiff drink might be in order even though it was only 8:30am.

My shoes will wait another day.

One Slab down!

It's a quiet day here on my building site and I actually got a bit of a sleep in without having to let builders in early as usual. Yesterday the slab was poured, so it's sitting and drying for a day before the brickies begin tomorrow.

I'll start with a few finishes. I brought a couple of these large cushions about 12mths ago and a matching set of the grey vases. Inadvertently they've given me the direction for the finishes of my house. Whilst it may look like a bit of an overload of grey here (50 Shades perhaps...!) They are all warm greys and will be softened with other finishes such as warm timbers and stones and plenty of colour also. Also shown here is the stone for the kitchen bench tops- Caesar stone Shitake and the kitchen cabinets Laminex Espresso. All sounding yummy?

I'm just waiting to see how the concrete polishes up and depending upon it's final colour I have a 2nd option for the bench top stone.

The week started with forming up the outer block walls for the main slab.

Then the empty area between the perimeter walls was filled with crusher dust.

Once all the dust was compacted the trenches were dug to form up what would become the concrete beams. Basically this is just a grid pattern poured as deeper concrete to give the main slab more strength. The crusher dust and trenches were all covered in black plastic and the reo was laid everywhere with the little stands underneath. That's my builder tying reo together in prep for the pour.

Here's the pour beginning. You'll also notice the first line of my main house block. It's the dark grey with the very textured split face surface. A big contrast to the existing house.

Getting towards the end with the lounge area still to go.

Almost done with the final smoothing off with the float.

The "helicopter" a couple of hours later gives the final finish.

And here it is quietly drying today!

One last finish- my girlie girl indulgence for a wall in my ensuite. The beautiful gold flecked maroon glass mosaics. Too hard to resist!

Off and Building!

Great excitement here at my house. For the past week and a half the renovation has been in full swing. Let me show you around!

This was my house just a few weeks ago. It's a post war double cavity brick. You'll notice the tiled roof, timber framed windows and top half of rendered walls- all very typical for this style. It was built probably around the late 1940's. It's in a well established older street that I came to know quite well from not only being a long time resident of this area, but in primary school I did charity collecting along this street, which gives you the best chance to check out all the houses.

I have loved the street since then and there are several gorgeous houses that catch my eye, but by far the biggest draw card is that my property along with about 20 others share the back boundary with the local golf course. Whilst I don't play myself, it's like looking out onto a huge park land and every 5 minutes a group of golfers come thru to the 9th hole which my house directly overlooks.

My builder Doug removing the old lean to and back external laundry. There were heaps of concrete slabs everywhere to go and here he's standing on the laundry roof cutting thru the concrete roof slab.

The lean to demolished and now just waiting for the digger to come and demolish the laundry walls and roof.

And here it is with the dump truck. I'm fortunate to have side access from the golf course vacant land. My builder constructed a gate and the club have been really good about allowing access for all the trucks and deliveries. You can see the golf course over the top of the digger.

The digger removing the excess soil for the slab footings to be laid out. For this first stage of the demolition we removed 2 of the M&K trucks of clean fill, 2 x building rubble and 1 large skip bin.

The footing trenches are dug with the reo in and ready to be poured.

Here's the concrete boom swinging in over the old garage shed which will be demolished further along. Love those blue skies- beautiful building weather!

The footings being poured. The middle set of windows in the existing house will be cut down to become the doorway and stairs leading down to the new extension.

My plumber- Peter laying new sewage lines and connecting into existing points.

This is the stage that gets really fun- when you can pinpoint the exact locations of the new house. Here I am standing at the new kitchen sink.

Yep, you guessed it- The powder room!

Here's the view looking back from one of the main roads across the car park. 

This shows the extent of the new extension. Of course if won't be this visible as the fence will hide a lot and then I'll be planting it out also.

The new style is very different to the existing house. People will either love it or hate it, but that's what design is. Everyone's taste is different. The new part is modern with a skillion roof, polished concrete floor and split face blocks. It satisfies my desire to be able to have modern and also the more traditional style of the existing house.

Stay tuned as the weeks progress I'll keep the updates following. All up it's about a 10-12 wk build. Bring on Summer!

hafele show room

This week I visited the Hafele showroom in South Brisbane. It's set up in an old church that has had many uses over the years. It's a really cool looking showroom with the incredibly tall spire ceilings.

They have heaps of "rooms" set up. Bathrooms, kitchens, laundry and all their other hardware paraphernalia that they distribute. There's even a small apartment set up to show their products in situ.

Hafele distribute all types of joinery components- drawer runners, handles, doors, window sliders, locks, kitchen shelves and pop up and out and down and any type of amazing thing to make your invention work.

Kitchen drawers with all variations of dividers and utensil holders.

Sliding door mechanisms used on wall units or any type of furniture. These run on a beautifully concealed track and the doors then become features themselves.

I love this top track sliding shower glass door. It will easily become the star piece of any bathroom.

Here's the mini hotel apartment set up. The tv pops up from the cabinet, there is a fold down cupboard bed and every type of drawer and concealed storage you can imagine.

This is the bathroom in the apartment. The shower screen runs on a concealed sliding track and is a frameless glass door that slides alternately between the shower and toilet. It could also be constructed as frosted glass or any other type of water proof panel.

The showroom features a modern kitchen and this luxury traditional style. The modern kitchen has one of their new products displayed. It's the electric drawer sliders which open the drawers when you touch their face gently and then also have a soft close mechanism.

The showroom is definitely worth a visit if you have a project in mind. But be warned- you will leave with a wish list a mile long as there are so many amazing things available.

Warwick Fabrics Preview

Last night Warwick Fabrics previewed their new collections for the year. The event was at the Judith Wright centre in Fortitude Valley.

I attended with my partner in crime Rachael, who is a keen fan of their fabrics.

The collections were presented by Cameron Warwick a 2nd Gen of the Warwick family.

above- the outdoor range

Rachael modelling this gorgeous embroidered sample.

After the presentation all of us made a huge mess of the samples as we rummaged thru them to get a closer look.

The 60's and 70's were there in force, bringing childhood memories for us. Rach had a laugh when she saw the new release of drapery patterns of which her mother in law has one of the originals hanging in her house.

www.warwick.com.au

"D" week

It's a very exciting week at my house. "Demolition" week. My builder will be here in the next day or so to begin. He's already been here several times, so we've worked out our game plan of what has to happen first.

There are quite a few thick concrete slabs to go, so he's bringing in a concrete cutter to assist, as a jack hammer is not strong enough.

The past 2 weekends, I've been indulging in some preliminary demolition myself and have been chipping bricks, cleaning off mortar and jack hammering some of the smaller slabs.

It's actually been quite invigorating for me, to know that I'm doing something for myself.

Can you hear Frank Sinatra singing "I'll do it my way"?

I am putting an extension onto the back of my existing house and then doing some renovation work inside. The house is a post war, red brick. I love the red brick with the white contrast timber work. It's a style more commonly found in the southern states than here in Brisbane.

There are several features that I love such as this lattice effect with the bricks that creates a gorgeous screen wall and on a balmy summer night looks amazing with candles twinkling amongst the jasmine.

The new exterior will feature a lot of dark and charcoal colours. I'd previously had these 400mm sq pavers laid else where, but have stacked them for future use after the extension.

The new external colour test patch on the fence- Dulux Domino.

A pile of the cleaned bricks that we may use to patch window holes. They will be rendered over, so I don't need to worry about colour matching them. Whatever doesn't get used will possibly later be used for some crazy paving in the landscaping.

As the demolition progresses I'll be taking heaps of photos to show the progress the whole way.