Getting closer

Another fortnight, another long list of jobs getting done. Things like the re-bagging of the basement walls, and the significant amount of joinery being built off-site don't lend themselves to pictures, but we know they're happening when we're making almost-daily decisions about individual drawer heights, benchtop clearances, lighting issues, cupboard doors, landscaping, ...

We can't wait till it's all done... but we have to. So where are we at now?

The Last Window has gone in. This is the postal slot into the basement, where a snooker table will have to come in. All of the glass panels are removable to maximise the opening. Even though it doesn't look like it now, the normal outside ground level will be about a foot below the window's lower edge.



Several cupboards have been installed. This one is the IT cupboard. Hence the bundle of cabling for data, broadband, heating control, and others, that end up here. It's amazingly useful to have a single place for all of them, a space to put the necessary infrastructure to connect everything, plus have access to both the roof and under-floor space in the one location. It also nicely fills an awkward corner. For the geeks, there's about 800m of Cat7 cabling coming into here.



A few more cupboards below.



Cornices are things that are generally invisible, until somebody points them out. So I'll do that here now. We have these throughout the house. The style and size is a little unusual, but is a nod to the art deco style. We'll be painting these in a slightly accented fashion, so they don't vanish into the walls/ceiling.



There's movement outside again, at last, as the remaining outside walls are clad. As mentioned, the extension is reverse-brick-veneer, with the thermal mass on the inside. That gets wrapped with an insulating blanket (air-cell, R1.5 in something that is only 10mm thick), and then the metal battens get attached to the outside of it. This stops the battens themselves being conductors through the wall. Between the battens we're also adding R2 fibre batts (much thicker, and much to the annoyance of the installers).



Finally the whole thing is clad with cement sheeting, ready for rendering/painting.



The bit around the end corner will be clad with corrugated iron, to break up the otherwise long wall.

Inside, the various bathrooms are progressing. We have a bath!



We have a powder room that is no longer an unclad cavity. However, it has been disconnected from the water, so is bucket flushed.



The tiling is going ahead. Slowly, carefully, but getting there. We're using the same tiles throughout the house, to tie it all together. There's a basic wall/floor tile, and there's a feature tile mosaic that we're using sparingly.



The vanity carcase is in, the mirror is yet to come.



And the first new toilet is attached at last, although not yet fully connected to the rainwater.



The skylight style is a Strine speciality. Both as a light source and a solar chimney to shed hot air. The inside is now fully plastered, and the outside is properly clad.




It evokes something of the Australian outdoor vernacular...

Icon(ic) constructions

This fortnight's flooding has been well behaved, and most of the work has been happening inside. One of the major events we've been waiting for has finally arrived. While the extension, new spaces inside and out, and the new floorplan are all exciting, we had a few things we wanted to be "different", "unusual" (but "noice!"). The biggest of these was the spiral stairs, inside the tower at the back of the house. It's in at last!



This is the view down the length of the house, onto the garden behind. Obviously a little work yet to go.

The stairs have a landing at the basement, to make the turn towards the basement door:



And another landing at the top of the tower for the door onto the deck. Yes, there will be handrails across all the dangerous gaps.



The joinery is steadily progressing, with our linen cupboard/laundry being set up:



as well as the smaller bedroom cupboards:



The bathrooms are getting their waterproofing in preparation for the tiling and the various fixtures.





Where the old walls were, and where floorboards were somewhat dodgy, we've had holes in the floor for some time. We're now getting all the floor patched up, with ash to match the existing timber, which will later be sanded, stained, varnished, polished, etc. And fully insulated underneath as well.



The skylight is now fully sheeted and most of the joints filled - just the tricky ones right inside the tube to go. The louvres have a hook-and-rod to open and close them. As it turns out, with strong winds from just the right direction you can get rain directly onto the future kitchen bench. If it ever happens to rain...



Behind the scenes, we've also sorted out almost all the colours, inside and out, and we've ordered our snooker table, and a new bed, and door furniture, and sorted out tiling, and and and .... I don't think we ever realised how much work a renovation could be!