Bored by board width

The amount of bandwidth I've used looking at board widths is concerning.  Why is it that just when you think you've got a decision locked in something throws a spanner in the works?

I've really got no-one else to blame but myself really considering I've got Queensland's God of Timber in the office next to me at work and I left it until today, the day I was supposed to order the floorboards, to casually mention over a glass of champagne at the Melbourne Cup lunch, that I was planning on using 180mm Spotted Gum floorboards.

What I really wanted my floor to look like.

Well I'm not anymore....

Apparently the wider the board the more likely the floor will "cup".  Cupping in solid hardwood means the boards raise slightly at their edges making the hardwood flooring uneven across its width. The cause of cupping is an imbalance of moisture through the timber.  Given our unstable climate - throwing itself between extreme wet and extreme dry - the potential of this occurring concerns me.

Narrow width solid hardwoods are always more stable and less prone to movement than wider width flooring. I've been advised 80mm boards would be the safest to use but I really want wide boards - the existing pine boards in are 150mm, so I think I will have to choose between 130mm and 150mm. 

I guess erring on the side of caution would be sensible - but who says the girl who goes shoe shopping after four glasses of champagne is sensible?

Hot, cold and sparkling!

I've won a couple of scratchies before, and I even won a crocheted rug in a raffle once but nothing comes event close to the competition I won on Friday!

In a fabulous piece of timing and luck I won a Zip HydroTap.  YAY!!!  For those not in the know this is a beautiful piece of equipment that instantly provides boiling, chilled and sparkling filtered water.  

This is not me - I am allergic to dogs and have milk in my tea. I do have brown hair though.

I went to the HIA Home Show a couple of months ago and entered a competition which required me to state why I would like a Zip HydroTap - my response was:

“Because water is life! And we love life!”

Clearly I am going to start loving my life even more when I've got this tap in my shiny, sparkly new kitchen.  Think of all the time I'm going to save not filling up water bottles, boiling the kettle and going to Coles to buy replacement soda stream canisters!  

James was excited with my win but ever-budget conscious his thoughts immediately turned to how much this would add to the power bill.  Having had a look at the product website it appears not too much - you can set it to only heat at certain times which translates the cost to less than $1.90 a week in power.  

Now all I have to do is work out where to place it my fancy new kitchen - which I am getting for an amazing price.   I'll tell you all about it next time...j

Progress report

Coming home from work each day at the moment is almost like Christmas morning.  There is something that's exciting and has cost a lot waiting for us every single day!!  We returned from holidays   without too much having been demolished, however a couple of days later John the Digger Man arrived.

And he dug.

And he dug.

And he kept digging until he removed four layers of concrete!  This was considerably more than the initial layer of concrete and a layer of bricks that was expected to be there.  There were layers of tiles, more layers of bricks and more layers of tiles.  And then they hit paydirt - rock! (on the other side of the hill we live on is the old Windsor Quarry so rock was expected - thank god we decided against a pool for the rock reason) Twelve truck loads of fill were removed - so that's the first cost variation!

Following all the excavation we had a few days delay as the timber order for the retaining walls and flooring joists was delayed.  However, it was very exciting when it arrived and a big thank you has to go to Bretts Hardware at Windsor for the great prices they are providing.  

Apparently he was a super duper delivery driver because it was a tricky delivery that he got spot on.  We're on a hill and trying to place large, heavy pallets of timber as far as possible up a steep driveway with a swinging crane is no easy task.  I watched this and then thought of the effort Ross and Shane will have to make carrying it all up the back and blessed my cotton socks for my air-conditioned office.

Plenty more has been done but it's taken me about 2 weeks to finish this post - so it's going up now like it or not!

Necessity is the mother of all invention during a live-in reno

I'm not really going to  miss this room.

While living in the middle of a building site for several months sounds like a nightmare to most, to James and I it just makes good sense.  I'd rather be able to afford to have a few more bells and whistles in our fit out than cook cordon bleu for a while!

After a hectic weekend of sorting out, letting the boys watch copious amounts of television and several bouts of takeaway the boxes were all packed and our kitchen was ready to be removed.  I put an ad up on Gumtree a few weeks ago to sell the whole kit and caboodle (cabinetry, stovetop, oven, sink, rangehood) for $350.  Given it was a timber kitchen it really was a steal (10 calls in 12 hours was also a good indication that it was priced well) but I couldn't bear the thought of it going into landfill and we didn't want to have to do any removing ourselves, so the deal was the buyer did all the hard yakka taking it out.  This all happened yesterday without too much drama.  It's fascinating to see the remaining carcass - all this will be demolished.

The main reason that we're able to stay here whilst the renovation takes place is that all the work is happening at the rear of the property and Ross is able to board off the work area leaving us with what is essentially a safe and secure 2 bed apartment.  We've got 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a large living area at our disposal.

The room will be "boarded off" from where the architrave is (and if anyone wants it let me know)

My solution to make our "apartment" work was for the boys to move into the front bedroom (previously used as a study),  turn the main bathroom (which is pretty big) into a kitchen and for us all to use our ensuite for the duration.  I must say I am pretty pleased with the kitchen.  The pictures speak for themselves:

Ta da! Note the toilet is taped up!
I've got microwave, weber bbq, 2 burner gas top, slow cooker and about 20 pre-cooked meals  and lots of baking in the freezer!

My dining table is sitting over the top of the bath - all my appliances (whizz, sandwich press etc) are sitting underneath.

Yes that is a pantry in the shower!
(note the taps weren't removed until after one small boy decided to see if they still worked...they did)

Check out my sink - sourced on Gumtree for $30.  Simply took the bathroom vanity out and voila!
I must admit I don't think the whole kitchen-bathroom deal would work so well without this fabulous find. 

Two breakfasts, two school lunches and two dinners down and no complaints...yet.

The paper towel holder of champions!! 

'What's for dinner?" - the question on everyone's lips at the end of the day!

So I'm feeling pretty relaxed about the whole live-in arrangement at present. Of course that's before it's all started and I might change my tune fairly quickly.  We're off to South West Rocks for the holidays and the demolition should happen whilst we're away.  No point hanging around asbestos removal; it's so expensive - about $1200 a room - just imagine I could be going 5 star rather than camping under the stars if we didn't have to pay for that!!