It's been another week and 2 major areas have been worked on - the laundry and the floors. I'll tackle the laundry progress first and come back to the floors tomorrow...
I had no idea how much time it would take but I'm loving every minute of it. Last week we waterproofed the floor, it was like putting down great lashings of whipped creme with blue colouring in it. Amanda and I found the flow. She installed the waterproof matting around the edges while I shuffled along next to her and dolloped the paste on top.
On Saturday we had a whole team here to install the cement bed. Our neighbour Henry spent 5 hours on his hands and knees laying it while our other neighbour Gary spent 5 hours in the afternoon sun mixing it. Thank you boys! Gary's wife Linda and kids Sam (26) and Stewart (14) spent the day here hanging out, playing Avatar on the Play Station and entertaining Hewitt. I was on official kitchen duties making ham, cheese and tomato rolls for the team and keeping it coming with dips, savoury and sweet biscuits, copious cups of tea and coffee and finally ginger beer.
Later in the day Henry's wife, Janine, turned up (who we have never met before). She and Henry have lived here for 39 years and at one stage were the furthest down the hill (they are three houses up from us) and watched all the surrounding houses being built. Janine is a great source of information about the history of the area and especially our house. She remembers this house being a point of interest as it was different from the typical brick house that surrounds it and in may ways ahead of it's time. It was open plan living and solar water heated way before it became fashionable, in fact, just today we replaced the solar hot water system after 27 years. The panels still work but it was producing calcium and rust that was blocking all our taps so we thought it best to go for it while we have the money (had to rob the fencing budget). Anyway, it was only when the initial owners sold it some 15 years later (to build another interesting home on the other side of Berowra) that it's downfall began and it was during this period that some very shoddy home builder renovations were carried out. It was then sold again - these owners did absolutely zilch to maintain it for the 8 years they lived here - so it became a house with great foundations but lot's of strange little add ons, unthoughtful renovations, no love or care and very poor workmanship. This is the state it was in when we came into the picture and after listening to Janines' memories I now feel we are doing not just a renovation but a loving restoration.
Tiling starts after the cement has cured - should be Friday and we will finally pick up the cabinets next week, yay! I am approx. $2000.00 over budget in the laundry. This is pretty extreme, I know, but as I've said before I completely underestimated this room. I'm going to do some nifty juggling and we will have to compromise somewhere else but I'm not too worried about it as I know, come next week, it's going to be all worth it.
L x
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