Thursday, June 30, 2011

Quiet Time

Life is moving too fast and is too full of things that need doing. 

Next week I am heading to surgery to have my Gall Bladder removed; as such I am attempting to achieve the impossible - doing all the things that I haven't done for the two months of renovations.

I need some Quiet Time - I was hoping by today to be finished; BUT I still have about 5 things that need to happen. When am I going to find some Quiet Time???

So, as I rush to the shower, head off to the Optometrist, rush home to the Electrician, phone the Tyre Shop, go to my pre-op appointment, see the podiatrist, take the car for new tyres, etc. etc.

I am going to try and schedule some Quiet Time.

Oh well - next week, as I drift into the beautiful twilight of drug-induced sleep for my surgery; I am planning some Quiet Time. Even if it is finally enforced by need.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Another 'little' update!

Cleo joined our family in April and has since grown into the most beautiful kitten. She is such a joy and I thought I would share a few photos.  This morning, I am taking it really easy and blogging and emailing from bed.  It is wonderful to take it easy.

So here are a few photos of Cleo sharing my email experience.

 Cleo sleeping on my mouse-pad, not chasing real mice
 Mom, please stop pointing that camera at me, the flash is waking me up.
 Okay, what is going on?
 Cloe looking really cute, and yesterday she explored Elizabeth's room as we worked. 

The Team

Last night at about 5pm, Dad and I called it quits.  We have all three children in their rooms, doors on the rooms and as much completed as is possible and we can now rest.

Thanks Dad!
So here are some final photos of the girl's rooms.

 Sarah's amazing room - she is so happy in it and yesterday enjoyed moving more of her possessions in, as Elizabeth moved her things out of her cupboards.

 Elizabeth helped Grandad put up the architrave around the door.
 And then started packing her cupboards.
 We moved in her bookcase (made by Grandad of course) and she chose the books she wanted in her room.
 We set up her new TV, and she sat on the floor watching excitedly as it tuned into the channels.
 Now this photo says it all- a girl with a beautiful, peaceful room. Elizabeth looking so happy. We are still waiting for her curtains, but sheets will do in the meantime.
 Ivan and Dad watching TV for a few minutes in Elizabeth's room.
So two months after we began, by hanging up my tumble dryer on April 26th, we finished on June 26th. We gave ourselves until June 30th, to achieve the completion of the three rooms and we did it with 4 days to spare. 

It has been a lot of hard work of course, but it has been a wonderful experience.  I am however, looking forward to slowing down for just a little time. My house needs to be emptied, sorted and cleaned.

Thank you for folliwng along and also for all your lovely comments. The Renovation team is now signing off!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Tomorrow I am NOT laying floorboards

It is blurred and I am so sorry about this as it is a great photo. Here I am after fitting the very last floorboard in Elizabeth's room.  (We do still have a few floorboards to lay inside the cupboards, but they are easy ones) The rooms are however, COMPLETE!

This is how good it was looking

Trying to figure out the last angles

Looking towards the passage and the completed area.

Elizabeth so thrilled with her room.

The Team laying the last board, Elizabeth was on this end, so out of the photo.
It has been a long 2 months, since we started the renovations, but it is just amazing the difference in the children's end of the house.  When all the furniture is in place and we have had our garage sale and sold all the accumulated things of 21 years of marriage - our home is going to be a beautiful, peaceful place.

Of course, that is until we start on our end of the house :)  But, I am taking a break first.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Family, I'm down on my knees - I'm beggin you please - no more floors

My poor knees don't belong to me.  They are bruised and swollen and sore.
Today it was nearly 7 hours on them and only a small section completed. Dad and I spent ages trying to figure out the angles, and the cuts and the fittings etc.  Here are a few photos of what we had to deal with:

 We had to try and fit the boards around the cupboard sides, this was interesting to say the least. Then it was through the doorway. We could have used the metal joining strip, but at the end of the day, this will look much better and lock the boards together better.
 So it continued. Dad walked up and down the 50 paces of the garden at least 50 times. Measuring then cutting, then re-measuring and cutting.  Of course working in the narrow corridor was fun, well it is 900mm wide (nearly a metre) but it felt really small when trying to fit the boards.
 We finally made it into Elizabeth's room, the last room that needs floorboards (for this part of the renovation); and again it was angles and narrow boards.
 Seven hours later, we finally called it quits, we had a row ready to fit, but it was fiddly and difficult and we were both tired. So tomorrow is another day.  I decided that if I hid inside the very tiny cupboard and kept really quiet, then no-one would find me and I could just curl up and sleep.  Sadly, the aching knees, ankles, thighs, arms etc, told me to climb out.
So as the Simon & Garfunkel song Cecilia goes: Family, I'm down on my knees, I'm beggin you please, no more floors, no more floors.

A few extra photos from yesterday

Working Girl - safety first

Today cutting on Dad's machine

Yesterday, trying to figure out how Dad does it so easily

Thank you

Thank you for all the lovely comments I have had from everyone regarding the renovations.  It is hard work and taking time for myself is going to come when we have all three children in their rooms.

To answer a couple of questions:

Each room has a single feature wall - the kids all got to chose a colour.  So Elizabeth's purple wall will be behind her bed, as will Sarah's.  Sarah has also chosen a very modern dramatic piece of artwork to hang on her red wall. I think it will be so amazing. 

Elizabeth on the other hand wanted something completely peaceful so has chosen a pale purple with light green to accentuate the peaceful feelings.  Elizabeth's room also has a lovely sliding door outside which will allow her to head out to enjoy the garden. She has also chosen pale purple curtains to match her wall. 

Both girls are getting new beds - Sarah has chosen a black bedroom suite, while Elizabeth has chosen a lovely rich wood.  It has been wonderful watching their personalities shine through as they have selected their rooms.

So today it is back to floorboards, I am hoping that Dad and I can finish off Sarah's room and the small passage between the rooms. Then hopefully tomorrow we can begin on Elizabeth's which is quite large, so will take some time.

Furniture is arriving on Thursday, so we do need to be finished. Still having a deadline is really good as it pushes you to keep going.

Once again, thank you for the lovely comments - especially Darlene and Julie.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

This picture says it all

This is ME after a very long weekend/week/month.

Today Dad and I tackled the floor in Sarah's room - it took ages as it has a Bay window, which required many angles.
This is the window I was talking about.

Resting in between board cutting

At the end of a very long day.  Dad is wonderful figuring out how to cut the corners

Nearly finished!

After two days of painting, Dad and I started to do the floorboards in Sarah's room. It was a little fiddly to start, but we managed to get a good rhythm going, laying a couple of rows at a time.

I even got a chance to do some cutting on Dad's big machine - look out for the next post. Tomorrow we continue again - finish off one room and continue onto the next.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Today's painting story

After a week in bed with the flu - Ivan has been desperate to help, so we let him do some painting.

Dad spent yesterday and today fixing up the skirtings - these will go back when the floorboards are laid.

Elizabeth's feature wall (painted white) before the colour.

Elizabeth with the first splash of colour

More than a splash of colour - the purple paint went everywhere - Elizabeth ran for the cloth, I told her to run for the camera.

The painting girls (we both can't wait to throw away our painting clothes)

Look at my room!

Daddy and his girl - Thanks Dad
It has been a long, busy few days, but we have the two rooms painted and tomorrow we begin to lay floorboards on the concrete floor.

Another catch-up Post

Yesterday and today were Painting Days:

We started in Sarah's new room (Elizabeth's old room) - Ivan took all the furniture out and set up Elizabeth's bed in the lounge.
Then it was time to prepare and paint.
Elizabeth was determined to help with the painting and did a fantastic job, doing most of the white and a lot of the red.

We got Sarah out of her sick bed, to roll the first bit of red paint onto her feature wall.

The red covering the yellow

All done! (Again dragged out of sickbed)

It has been so much fun allowing the children to chose the colours for their rooms. Sarah started off the whole process by asking for a red wall. My first reaction was NO of course not, but when I thought about it, I thought why not?  Sarah's room is fantastic the colour is spectacular and so her.  Her new furniture arrives on Thursday, so we will move her in then - if we have her floors completed. Which we should have, as we are tackling that tomorrow.  So that was yesterday - next post is about today - so look out for it.

Progress update

Sorry about the lack of posts - just been too busy and had a sick family.

So where were we - oh yes, Matthew's room was finished and we have moved all his furniture into his room.  He is so happy.

Now we are working on Sarah's and Elizabeth's - here are some photos.

The boys settled into Matt's room to watch the big TV he bought himself

Mom, this is just great

We started with a solid wall and now we have a window


From the inside it looks great

My sick girl - teasing her by wearing a mask


Matt helping remove the carpet from Sarah's new room.