As at end of January 2010...

Next time we may get around to staining the steps to match the rest of the deck. This is the "before" shot... It looks pretty good from this perspective!
The dam now has some plants in it. Some from ebay and some from our pond in the garden. Let's see if the wading in and planting will take effect and still be there the next time we go up.
Still to go for us to complete:

Inside:

- Undercoat the upstairs plasterboard walls

- Undercoat the two end walls

- Undercoat the wet rooms (but wait till tiler goes through)

- Undercoat any architraves missed

- Stairs (putty, one more coat of CFP, stain and another coat of CFP)

- Liming ceiling panels

- Sanding and then Coat of Ebony Sikkens on balustrades

- Paint architraves and skirting (2 coats)

- Paint walls

- Prime and Spray paint internal doors and original front door

- Coat double doors with 'something' (TBD)

- Floor boards installation

Outside:

- Stain (and oil? ) steps

- Putty and Oiling the rest of the wooden bits

I really want to get it done before Easter 2010 but it's not looking likely at this stage...

Weekend progress (Part 2)

Will brought his weather station and put it in the mound. Looks like we'll pick up enough wind for a wind turbine to be useful!Kitchen is almost done :) Drawer fronts are on and Handles are on! We decided on all horizontal rather than a mix of horizontal and vertical handles...

Will is installing the pipes for the overflowing water tank so it doesn't erode all the sand which is the foundation of the water tank.

Pretty much done now! Just may need a bit more length before putting on the mozzie blocker stuff.

Progress over the weekend (part 1)

We've started on the undercoat. It's amazing the difference a white wall makes to the feeling of the 'completeness'. Just looks less like a construction site even with the doors off the hinges (so we could putty and paint undercoat on the architraves and skirting boards.)Screen doors! We have screen doors. I totally forgot/didn't realise we were getting them. Has made a big difference as we can leave the doors open for air flow without worrying about letting all the big bugs in. (the scary ones are the big 'hornet' looking like ones).
And we have a shower screen. I want a shower!!! Still waiting for a plumber to be available.
Kitchen before it was completed over the weekend... (well at least the cabinets)
More undercoating photo...

Baby steps

Everytime we go up there has been some progress (either by us or by Jason) but it does seem to be slow progress (maybe it's just like seeing someone on a daily basis where you don't notice the small changes but at snapshots there have been some significant changes). Certainly reviewing the photos we have taken there definitely has been progress :)

The trench has been covered up in this photo. Probably because the conduit and wiring has been done in advance of a wind turbine being located near the compost bin/worm farm:Rangehood has now been installed. The blue film is still on it to protect it from scratches. Probably worthwhile leaving it on until we're done. It's even been wired up so that it turns on to exhaust. Also see that lovely single hob stove? Finally put to use (bought on Graysonline years ago ready to be used... ) But still no gas plumbed up and we decided no power for the spark as we can just as easily use one of those lighter things.

The sink is in too! The tap has just been placed there to see if it would work... It's one of those pull out sink sprayers. A bit plasticky but should do the job nicely.
Will's installed the lights upstairs too. Gone are those ugly battens with CFLs and in with our GU10 lights with 13W fluros.
We're gathering more and more stuff to do the painting. Pretty messy, eh?

Native Visitors and Non-Native Temporary Residents

We have been popping up to Howes Valley on a couple of over night trips to try and get a bit more done than when going up for a day. Someone is sleeping on the job again! His trampoline bed certainly takes up a lot of space!

In the morning we had a visitor right up close. Better let Batman out the other side of the house so he doesn't scare our visitor away!
A bit of a closer shot out of the Bedroom window...

View from the loft floor to the new ceiling fan. We have our picnic table down stairs but this was originally going to be where the fireplace/woodstove was going to go... but maybe it would be better as a dining area?

The other cavity looks into the kitchen area and where the original dining area was going to be... I still like this spot for the dining area as it's next to the kitchen...

Outside not much has changed visually but the oiling is continuing and is almost all done!

The upstairs loft area has had all the ceiling panels oiled now with two coats. Looking up the unfinished pine staircase to the coated balustrades. The balustrades have turned up a lot more golden than we liked. But suspect it was because we looked at a sample of the Sikkens Light Oak on WR Cedar and we are putting in on pine... hmmm... after 3 coats it's still very golden and needs a bit of red and walnut. How to fix it?

We're thinking of doing the stairs in a different colour but this time we'll be doing samples on bits of offcut to see how we go. I don't look forward to sanding back the balustrades so hope by putting another coat of something we can salvage it? Somehow I doubt we can get away with the easy option
We do have POWER! The solar panels seem to be doing a great job... but then what would I know? Although Will keeps telling me how many volts we have (I still have no idea what it means and it's bringing back bad memories of Physics... P=I x V etc)
The inverter sits under the stairs. The first time we turned it on I was "Oh my god, I can't live with that noise" but it only lasted minutes and then it was silent (or quiet enough that I didn't notice it). Apparently it's when the fan turns on so may be noisy if it gets hot.
The Kitchen. One day it may actually be OK. Return my call Damian!!