Revealed!

I was going to do one of those sneak peek type of posts but couldn't be bothered with revealing bits at a time so here it is!

The new room is finally all complete and moved in.

Most of the stuff in there is what we already had so as things wear out they will be replaced.

Pretend the lounge is a nice neutral colour instead of green and you'll get the picture. The bookcase was a bit of a pain to make (thanks Mr Fish!) but it worked in the end and holds heaps more books than our old one.

The tv stand was one we picked up at the tip shop that was in pretty good condition and just needed a bit of a sand and paint and some new handles. Our other tv stand has been cut in half (shock!) and is going in the new rumpus/sewing/computer room. It had been cut in half neatly so it still looks good, I promise!

The curtains are made of poplin so they are a bit floatly without being sheer and are nice and light. Concealed tab tops are my favourite as they are so easy to make and look nice.

There are still a few things to finish off and make like a couple of footstools (think beanbag for feet) and some cushion covers and I've got a wall hanging in mind for above the tv (dancing jellyfish, in a non tacky way) so they will get done gradually but for now we are DONE!

Well that didn't take as long as I thought!

Thanks to a week of very wet weather our reno is finished!

Mr Fish had last week off and we got stuck in and the last few things to do were actually done.

The bookcase was made with some assistance from the little fishes (they have quite good hammering skills) and when that was in place and secured we thought "why not put the floor down while we're on a roll". So we did.

Once we figured out the correct way to click them together the floorboards went down pretty easily. And watching a 'how to lay a floating floor' dvd that came free with a handyman magazine recently certainly helped.

The floors took a day to do and we were a bit buggered by the end of it (since it was raining we had to move the bench saw out the front to the verandah that was dry and go through the house each time a cut was made).

The next day we put the skirting on and I managed to get most of them painted before they were nailed down, and then had to go round and touch up the paint around the nail holes and where some grotty hands had left dirty marks on them.

So we are now moved in and loving it! There's just a little bit of tweaking and decorating to go and then all will be revealed!!

(I never thought I would say it but I'm a bit over painting)

Only one room left in the house to paint and then sewing!

I've been featured!!

Some of you may remember this little sea fan I framed a while ago..... Well it got featured on the lovely Maya's blog - completely coastal and I was a bit excited when I found out!

I've been a fan of her blog for a while and love all the beachy ideas she gathers for us to look at so when I was checking out the latest posts I hadn't read yet and saw a picture that looked a bit familiar it took me a minute to catch on, then I did a little excited dance.

So there you go, a lovely suprise and it made my day!

A quick update on the mess that is our reno, we have had a bucketful of rain and the last bit is taking a bit longer than we thought. All that's left is to finish building the bookshelves and put the floor down and then all will be revealed! (might take a while so don't hold your breath)

Then I am itching to get stuck in and do some sewing as I have some gorgeous fabric that's waiting to be made into a throw and a table runner and there's also some curtains to be made.

The list just keeps getting longer!

It's getting there!

Most of my days lately have been filled with painting, Kindy stuff, painting, sanding, painting and working. We are on the home stretch now and only have a few things left to do before the great build a room of 2010 is complete!

The ceiling went up a few weekends ago with much huffing and puffing and made it look more like a room. Before that we had been putting the walls on and trying to remember to mark the bits where the power points were so they didn't get lost. There were a few tricky bits as the roof is sloping but it came up pretty well.

The ceiling took a lot of paint but once it was well covered it looked great. And I've learnt that beading is really good as it covers the bits where nails went in funny and where the hammer missed the nail and got the sheeting instead! (it wasn't me)

Once the trims went on it started to look like everything was coming together and was actually working out so that was a relief. This weekend we boxed up the steps and clad them in the floor covering (had to do that before we put the floor down) and finished boxing up some pipes that are to be hidden in a built in seat near what's going to be the library wall.

I am discovering I am quite handy at putting dress timber around windows and hanging concertina doors by myself. If only I was not a little bit terrified of the bench saw or nail gun or I could have built the whole room myself and had it all finished!

My new rule is only do things to the house I can do myself as waiting on Mr Fish to get tasks done takes too long and he can only do things on weekends so it feels like an eternity before I can move on to the next job and I am too impatient to do that!

Build a room update part 1

I thought that since there has not been a great deal of creating being done here lately I'd show you part 1 of the build-a-room saga.

The outside is pretty much finished now, maybe just a few little things to finish off and I can't wait to get moving on the interior.

It feels like it has been ages since we started and it will be great to not have dangerous power/sharp tools around (makes playing out the back a little risky for the little fishes) so I'm hoping the next phase doesn't take as long.

I'm quite good at using a saw and a caulking gun and have discovered that air compressor tools are pretty cool. Next I'll be learning how to line a ceiling! We have done all the work ourselves so far with help from my dad (thanks dad!) and if nothing goes badly wrong we should be able to do the rest ourselves as well.

we found the 3 windows at a secondhand shop but had a lot of trouble finding a door. Mr Fish really wanted a sliding door and we were going to have to settle on a normal door as they are as rare as hens teeth around here (possibly rarer), then he decided he really, really wanted one so we ordered a new sliding door and I'm glad we did as it lets a lot of light in to the room. The door along with the big windows along the same wall make it almost an entire wall of glass so the light will be lovely and the view out to the backyard will make it easy to keep an eye on the little fishes.

We made sure to have a decent amount of wall between the windows as that's where the TV and cabinet are going and we didn't want to have it squashed in. So the view from the lounge (when it finally goes in!) will be out towards the garden as well as the tele!

My next job will be painting the outside (yup I'm the painter at this place) and eventually the whole house will get a fresh coat but the new cladding needs to be done soonish and then the rest will get done in good time.

I have been doing a bit of sewing and am halfway through a square table topper for a friend. The princess dress for little fish is all sewn up (I did a trial with some test fabric as the pattern has not been sewn before and the trial one is quite nice so she can wear that too!)

Will try to remember to take some pictures ;)