Progress

Roofers arrived today with all their supplies ready to roll, now if only the sun would shine. Due to all the moss, rust and god knows what else up on the roof it was too slippery for them to get up and start today but they have left all the insulation, corrugated iron and gutters ready to go when hubby rings to tell them the sun is out (our roofers reside in Cairns). Electricians have told us we are looking at pretty much a complete re-wire but said it isn't as bad as they were anticipating so thats good.....i guess. They were down at the house today discussing with the roofers when 'their' section of the roof will be up for them to gain access. My Uncle and Hubby ended up pulling up carpet in all the bedrooms, kitchen, and BATHROOM (still can't get over that one) before i got home from work yesterday - i dodged that bullet :). All thats left is just a piece under a fixture in the main bedroom, hallway and the entryway. Stringers for the two external stairs have arrived in Cairns from Brisbane and a courier should deliver them to the residence tomorrow. 2 stringers made, freighted and couriered from Brisbane to Malanda, came in $1000 cheaper than buying locally. THAT is madness. God bless the internet. We are without electricity at the moment so cleaning has come to a stand still (ohh too bad) but no doubt with recommence within the week (dammit). Things are moving along. Still a lot of work to do but i know the 'big' stuff is happening first and thats the most important.

Week 1

Well it has been a big week. We didn't have time to organise the fascias to be done, before the roofers arrived to assemble their scaffolding, ready for them to start this week. The electricians started today and had a good look around, ready for a meet and greet with us tomorrow to prepare us for the bad news i'm sure. No, no think positively. Hubby has started to pull up the hideous carpet in the lounge room and we had a sneak peak under the bathroom carpet, (yes carpet, WHO carpets the BATHROOM!!!) to find timber floorboards - YAY! So my challenge this week is to rip ALL the carpet in this house up and throw it to the tip. I think that alone will have a huge impact on the smell in the place. My mother and I have been heavy duty cleaning the walls, toilets, bath, shower, more walls, windows, doors, anything and everything to get ready for us to finally habitat the house 'hopefully' in the next month or 2. Most exciting news is we have ordered our claw-foot slipper bath. Its gorgeous. I can't wait to see how we end up designing the bathroom (and kitchen for that matter) we both have a few ideas so i'm sure we can come up with something great. We estimate this old house has been renovated and/or added upon most probably 2 or 3 times from its original plans. There was once a verandah which has since been built in and we're guessing the kitchen and extra bedrooms were add-on's aswell. This was evident by the wood panelling currently occupying the walls in said rooms. After umm-ing and agh-ing about the wood panelling, we got an idea to paint them, my dad had seen it done on a reno show on tv. After googling some images we thought it didn't look too bad, after making that decision, to later find out that we had timber tongue in groove behind it thanks to the electricians who today pulled the panelling off the walls, AGAIN, why oh why would you put nasty 70's chip board panelling over hard timber tongue in groove walls. Madness i tell you. (please excuse quality of photo, its off hubby's phone) So i guess the moral of the story here is we need to totally strip this house back to its bare bones and start from scratch. The young electrician told me he has grown up in these parts and said our house was the first one built in this street. He says it will be a "grand home" once we bring it back to its glory. We estimate roughly it was built in the 1920's. So of course i'm thinking of a Flapper-Gatsby themed housewarming. You in?

What have we done!!!!

Ah, the smell of mould, stale smoke and rot in the morning! My moods are swinging from excitement to fear frequently and rapidly. Now that the previous owners are out (bar a massive painting they are coming back for once there is a break in the weather - please, this is Malanda, i'll be keeping the painting at this rate, lol) we can see what we have left and what that is, is pretty dismal. The smell alone makes me want to promptly turn and leave, but i know once the carpets come up, bleach goes on the walls and a asthma-inducing spray of Glen 20 around the place, will make all the difference. Just got told from the roofers that the fascia's need to be done before they do the roof. The roofers come on Monday. Thats 5 days away. That piece of information may have been useful to know months ago when we got the roof quote - BUT, thats ok, i'm sure i'll find a builder that can have it measured, made and installed in 5 days, leave it with me :S

We bought a ...... renovator

Tomorrow we settle. Hubby and I bought a renovator. What are we thinking? As if life isn't hectic enough we thought we'd up the ante and buy an old queenslander in desperate need of some TLC and a hell of alot of elbow grease. The Big word here is POTENTIAL! The house has a lot, if you can get past the trees, the mould, holes in the walls, water leaks, rusted roof, condemned stairs, no sewerage (its on septic), dodgy wiring, hmm and thats just the start. The first time i saw the house, was for my hubby. I wasn't keen from what i'd seen of the pictures on real estate.com but he had convinced me to just have a look as it was in our budget and we had seen and dismissed all the others in our price range. As i walked around the front of the house i almost stumbled into a pond. What the hell was that doing there? It is overgrown and surrounded by trees, you can't even see it exists. I later found 2 more ponds in the back yard. As i gingerly climbed the stairs to the house and relieved i made it to the top without them falling away behind me (like Tom Hanks in the Money pit) i was excited as to how big the space was upstairs. FINALLY! A house that may store all my big furntiure and cluttered mess we've been hoarding for years. See i knew we'd be able to house all our stuff one day. I could immediately see our things here, where i would put everything and everyone. Downstairs used to be an art gallery once. There is a built in bar. Enough said, we were sold. I could look past all the work (what would i know about actually working on a house. Can't be that hard, right? We'll just hire people to do the things we can't manage) and see the.....potential. Hubby took a little more convincing. We looked at a lot of other homes, but nothing was as big as our little Money pit. Well we bought it and tomorrow we get the keys. We have roofers coming in a week, electricians, plumbers and tree-loppers all lined up for the following few weeks and the floor sanders acquired. Hubby is in the process of finding stair stringers, as that's kinda important, considering we have to transport all said big furniture UPSTAIRS! Did i mention that we both work full time, and hubby is studying, and he has exams this month? But we'll be right. Can't be THAT hard......right?