Karina's House Project

Rebuilding after the 2011 Brisbane Floods

[karinashouseproject]

Painting the fence?

Are we painting the fence this long weekend?

NO!!

Seriously…we're never going to get this fence painted. Since it was finished waaay back in January, it's rained for about 7 of the weekends and the other weekends that it's been dry we have been out of town or out of the COUNTRY! Arrrrrgh, it drives me crazy!!  I actually love rain but please make it stop!!  Just so I can finish this fence and move on with my life!!! Happy Easter though, I'll go back to eating chocolate eggs…

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The never ending fence painting project

OK, this is really getting beyond a joke. Last weekend it rained on and off ALL weekend, so no painting for us. This weekend was better, but we had things on so very little time to paint. We did manage to at least get the undercoat on the front of the fence so it looks halfway decent and not a patchwork quilt of colours. Still have a lot of the back of the fence and then another two top coats. Painting, I've decided, isn't hard, it's just hard work if you want to do it properly. I would estimate that at least 70% of our time has been in prep work - puttying, sanding, taping etc.

I just have to keep reminding myself that this is how it used to look and we really have come quite a long way in 2 years. Patience is virtue. And I don't have any!

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Even slower progression painting the fence!

Wow, I didn't think painting a fence could take any longer but here we are, almost a month down the track. We have been busy, and went o/s for 10 days but really, it's been months since the fence was built, I just wanted it painted already!! Annoyingly most of the putty I put in the nail holes fell out because a) I bought interior putty and b) I didn't seal it and it's rained so it's shrunk and fallen out. Grrrr, I'm OK with most DIY stuff but I hate, hate, hate redoing things. Anyway, I've sucked it up. I have the primer on a quarter of the fence. I still have the right hand side to do and the entire back before I can put the two top coats on. I started this morning at 7am and went through until about 11am and got very sunburnt on my back. During that time though, so many people in the neighbourhood stopped to say hi and comment. Most of them said it looked great and asked what colours I was going to use. Lots of elderly people started with "you missed a spot, but once you fix that it will look great". Judging by the time it's taken already I'm hoping to be finished by May! Jokes! Maybe Easter...

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Sloooow progressing fence painting

It's been almost a month now since the fence construction was completed and every weekend we've been thwarted with our efforts to paint. The first weekend was full with events and we just didn't get time. The second weekend it was raining. The third weekend we did manage to start prepping by plugging up the nail holes and sanding back back and this weekend was supposed to be our big weekend of painting. But... A category 5 cyclone has hit the Queensland coast causing widespread damage and flooding. All my thoughts are with those affected. I'm a North Queensland girl, born and bred and while I grew up with cyclones, I don't ever remember going through a cat 5. It's a doozy. Anyway, the first world problem that's created for us further south is that there's been rain. Lots of rain. Rain all weekend. So painting is OUT. In the meantime, as you can see from this pic, the tannins from the hardwood have started leaching down the timber and these were the nail holes before we started prepping.

We plugged up the nail holes (there were a few!).

And sanded it all back!! It's ready to paint now whenever it decides to stop raining!! It definitely won't be this weekend though. Guess I'll have to just do other things.

On another note, we (well, me) have decided on the colours if we ever get a chance to paint. It will be Guild Grey on the vertical posts and top rail and Accord for the horizontal rails. Decided that the Ticking would be too dark and we have a heap of Accord left from the house so will save us some $$$.

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Guild Grey or Ticking?

I've narrowed down the paint choice for the posts to Dulux "Guild Grey" (on the left) and darker Dulux "Ticking" on the right. I'm not sure I can tell just from a small sample. The Guild Grey is a shade darker than the "Simone Weil" that is on the front door, so I don't know if there's enough contrast.  On the other hand, we don't want the fence competing with the house so perhaps a light colour would due better?

Actually I prefer the Guild Grey, I'm just not sure it will provide enough contrast. Everything is just 50 shades of grey…

This "Ticking" is way more dramatic.  But is that what I want? Decisions…decisions!  I have a bit of time to decide anyway. All these nail holes have to be plugged up and sanded back and everything given a coat of primer. It's finally stopped raining and the weekend is here so guess what we'll be doing….? Happy Friday everyone!!

[karinashouseproject]

Day Eleven - Construction Complete!!!

It's FINISHED!!! It was essentially finished last week, but we were waiting for a bracket and for some final adjustments to be made which stopped us from shutting the gate. But now that's all done and dusted and woo-hoo, construction is complete! We're sooo happy with everything. The design and the look has come out exactly as planned and the quality is beyond our expectations. This fence is S.O.L.I.D!

The letterbox is in as well! We were a bit limited in the types we could have because the sliding door went all the way across the pedestrian gate, we couldn't have an in-wall letterbox so we had to have one that just mounted from the front. No matter, we're happy with this!

But…what makes us the most happy is the fact that this little button is home! Our dog Bella hasn't been able to come home without a fence, it's our main reason for putting it up. She now has a massive yard to run around and explore and there's someone home everyday so she's not lonely. She's been so happy just lounging around on her bean bag and just being back home. Happy days. Next step, paint! We would like to do it this weekend, but rain is forecast all long weekend. No matter, we're just enjoying the completion of this stage and having our dog back.

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Day Four - Fence Project - Gates are in!

The gates are in!! Huzzah! The pedestrian gate is on the left (looking out, obviously), sliding gate in the middle and swinging gate on the vacant lot on the right. 

I'm pleasantly surprised that the gates are steel. It wasn't in the quote and I just assumed it would be timber so jumpy claps for that. The sliding gate is quite long and does slide over the pedestrian gate, but that's unavoidable for the type of gate I wanted and the narrow frontage of a small lot.

No comments please on the state of the garden. I'm well aware, but really looking forward to putting some plants into this bad boy. Tomorrow the railings go on the gates go on and then it might be even be ready for the weekend for us to paint!

Oh and here's the letterbox we chose. I think we will put in on the fence between the pedestrian gate and the sliding gate.

[karinashouseproject]

Day Three - Fence Project

On day three, I changed my mind about the size of the gap between the rails, after the fencer had nailed two bays on. He totally loves me…NOT! This was the bay with the 38mm gap. I wanted to be able to see through to the plants that I will (eventually) plant in the garden beds, but still have enough for privacy. After he sent me this pic I thought they needed to be a bit closer together.

Hmmm you probably can't see much difference to the first pic, but this gap is 33mm. Not too much of a difference, but I'm happy.

So end of day three and most of the rails are done. Just waiting now on the gates. We've started thinking now about paint colours and letterboxes. Decorating!!

[karinashouseproject]

Day Two - Fence Project

The end of day two and the fence on the vacant block side is up. It's not fancy schmancy, but it's solid and straight and will do the job. There's space for the double swinging gates and the sliding gates for the house side and both are on order (apparently).

The first of the horizontal rails are on as well. I hope they look ok. I've wanted horizontal railings since the beginning but not too many people agreed with me and said vertical would look better. If you have a dodgy fencer as well, horizontal fences will sag so I understand some people's point of view. Wait and see I guess. I'm pretty happy with how it looks so far…even if there are only two rails up there.

[karinashouseproject]

New fence starts! Day One!

Today is the 4th anniversary of the floods which claimed our little home. It seems like such a long time ago. We didn't plan it that way, but on the anniversary we started the next stage of the house project - the fence! I like to think of it as another chapter in our building journey. This one has been a long time coming. Like everything when you're building, it's expensive and with a 20 metre frontage the costs can be astronomical depending on what type of fence you choose. We've decided to do different fences for each block due to costs. The fence in front of the house will be a timber fence with 100mm X 100mm hardwood posts and horizontal rails set back with a top hardwood rail. The rails are 62mm and will be set 38mm apart. There will be a sliding gate and pedestrian gate for the footpath that leads to the front door. The vacant block will just have a (very) plain pine fence with vertical batons and double swinging gate. It's not fancy, but a good temporary solution and I guess if we ever build there, you could certainly leave it up for a while.

Day one is complete and the posts are up! The fencer is one of Jansen's tradies and the only person he uses to do his fencing because "he's that good". I certainly hope so…had to book him in two months in advance!

[karinashouseproject]

New door stops!

U-G-L-Y!

The next problem caused by the great skirting board stuff up is the door stops. (It's like the gift that keeps on giving…)

The door stop set. The latch on the right was the bit thrown out with the skirtings.

This issue was caused when the guys I hired pulled the skirtings off. The latch that clips onto the "stop" on the door was turfed out with the broken skirtings. So effectively for over a year we've only had a rubber stopper to stop the door handle banging into the walls and damaging them. We've had nothing to keep it open and doors would slam loudly at random times and scare the bejesus out of us.

Paint marks :-(

I've always hated those door stops anyway, they were U-G-L-Y (you got no alibi), but of course when I went to find replacements for the stops, I couldn't find any, anywhere. So I decided to pull them off and replace them with much nicer chrome ones. Sigh. Removing them revealed a lovely yellow mark, which means that the new one would have to be the same or larger and of course there are none!

Only a little bit to patch up

This is the best I could find. It was about 10mm too short so I covered one hole and the other one I will have to sand back and paint at a later date.

Finished!

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with it. They look so much nicer than the ugly white ones and the magnetic latch is strong enough that we can leave all the windows in the house open now. Huzzah!

[karinashouseproject]

Sitting on the fence

I have to make a decision on what kind of front fence to get. I was originally going to get hardwood timber posts with pool fencing in between mainly because it would be quick and I thought quite economical. Something along the lines of this -

Image from www.ilandscape.com.au

Everyone though (like 5 people) keep saying that it won't match the house and will look cheap. A totally hardwood fence is waaay too expensive, so the consensus has been for timber fence with top rails.  The thing is…I just can't picture it. So I've done a super dodgy photoshop job for a vertical option and horizontal option and I STILL can't make up my mind.

The horizontal version with white palings and top rail in the same colour as the front door - Dulux Simone Weil. I'm leaning towards this version cause it matches the horizontal timber on the gables.

The vertical version. Obviously there will be a bit more palings between each post, my photoshop skills just aren't good enough to match. I don't love this style, but I don't hate it. This is apparently better though cause there's less chance of sag over time.

I'm totally on the fence (pun intended) with all of this. What say you?

[karinashouseproject]

The irony...

The birds loved sitting on our balcony railing…and pooping all over it. I'd spend ages each weekend scraping this stuff off…it was like paint! I'd have to bring the hose up from downstairs and use a stiff broom and tile scrubbing brush to get it off. It would sparkle like new and then be all pooped on again by the afternoon. Super annoying. Because we have large glass sliding doors as well, the birds would fly straight into it, at what seemed like a hundred miles an hour, knock themselves out momentarily, get back up, and do it again! Sometimes a poor bird would do this three times before it worked out it wasn't a good idea. So the railing was covered in poop and the balcony windows were decorated with the smeared prints of beak, wings and bird feet. So lovely. I hung up a whole heap of CDs to deter them and while they look absolutely hideous, it's definitely reduced the numbers dramatically. The other day though I was walking down the hall and saw one perched on the railing, under a CD and (ironically), next to the classy rubber snake I'd also put there to deter the birds. I raged and ran down the hall yelling and screaming with my arms flailing in the air like a mad woman. I managed to scare the bejesus out of the bird, which shat all over the railing as it flew away. Awesome. There was another one there this morning. I just calmly took a picture of it and hoped it flew away without leaving me any presents.

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Houston…we have a problem!

Comment when you see it!

[karinashouseproject]

Want!

Totally, totally in love with the work of Ali McNabney-Stevens.  I would so love these for my dining room, would add a bit of colour.

Am a bit over my DIY canvas art. I loved them at the time, but they don't really suit the style anymore. Which is a shame…it took me ages to make them.

So…back to Ali. Love! Love! Love! Guess I should start saving…

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What is this?

Can someone please tell me what this is and what is it doing in my house??? Jansen's Mum has bought a brand-new apartment off the plan so all her old furniture will look out of place in the new space so she's basically gotten rid of everything. He loves this chair and has insisted it sit smack bam in the middle of the lounge room. Boo. Actually I'll admit, this is a really comfy chair and amazing quality. It's just…it looks so out of place. I feel like I'm in a Frasier episode.

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The veggie garden

We're finally starting to see the fruits of our labour in the veggie garden (as we should, it's been over a year). These little babies are super hot chillies which I'm really looking forward to eating!  Josh and I have chilli eating competitions - first one to go for the water is the loser.

The mint is going crazy, but I don't have anything really to put it in. I don't use mint that much except for rice paper rolls.

The tomatoes haven't started bearing any fruit yet and are actually looking a little sad. We've had a heap  of rain over the last few days so maybe that will improve things. The other things we have growing are shallots, more different types of chilli and basil. About half of the veggie garden though is taken up with some gardenias that I previously had in pots. They weren't do very well in the pots so I planted them here temporarily with the intention of putting in the garden beds out the front, but of course that hasn't happened yet. Now that the driveway is in, the gardenias will go in the garden beds next to the driveway and the veggie garden will go back to being a veggie garden.