Last Week

I know the boys have worked incredibly hard last week... it's just not obvious to see.
More demolition, a few new piers and joists (?) and the fence is finished.

 

The fence had me a little worried- lots of time and effort spent on it and really... it's just a fence!

But I have to admit that's actually not quite right- it is pretty good... the tops had the corners cut off them and all palings got the edges 'arissed' (pretty sure that means smoothed off). Apparently now it's the best fence in Bangalow!!

Great weather should mean some more action this week with footings ... fingers crossed!

Suze
x

New Letterbox Needed

Ooooops... we just rescued this (somewhat important) piece of mail on Friday! Seems we have a small snail problem! The letterbox is completely full of shredded paper! Wonder what else has been eaten...

 

Suze

x

It's all about the light

So my head is 'OMG look at the gorgeous afternoon light I'm going to get in the studio'!!!

and 'OMG look at the amazing morning light in the studio (on the claw foot bath I just sourced!)' 

but apparently this stuff below is important too... powertools and string line thingies

Anyways, the sun is out and I've had a lovely coffee meeting with Helene from 'Dirty Old Town' cooking up some projects while the boys are hard at work... love ya fellas!

S

xx

The 'Weather Event'

What is a 'Weather Event'?

I don't even know what to say to this... the pictures speak for themselves :(

 

and this is what remains of the bathroom....

Mud Pies

We've had a little bit of rain... and a lot of water on the block- not great for heavy machines!

I arrived onsite on Tuesday to ... well... piles of red mud and concrete!

While we couldn't start leveling, the concrete and stumps are now all gone...

 

as are the front steps and path... oh and see that thing on the right? The biggest palm stump and root system I have ever seen.

 

So hopefully we can get a couple of dry days, so there's no more of this!

Suze
x

I am not a labourer!

Yesterday was a VERY long day.... after an hour of lifting, moving and stacking pavers I remembered the last reno we did.

 It's a bit like childbirth- there comes a point where you go 'Oh that's right, I remember... this actually isn't that fun!' Then you have a baby in your arms and all is forgotten- until next time...
So today I am sore all over, even down to my fingertips.

I took a quick drive over this morning to see how the machines were getting on...amazing! Also depressing at how our hard work yesterday looked SO insignificant compare to progress today... the positives though are that we now have a clean slate to start work on and we managed to salvage the plants and pavers (that's what I'm telling myself anyway!)

Oh and also uncovered was a fantastic view we didn't know we had!

Suze
x

We've Started!!!

So work officially started today!

Our builder, Mick Lyons, has been busily making the surrounds for our recycled windows offsite and today Ellie was onsite supervising.

Team 'Hackett' needed to remove some trees for our extension- with Jethro Lampe (tree climber extrordinaire) swinging about a long way from the ground.

Earthworks are next...

S
x

Apologies

I have been a bit slow on the blog posts... it has been a mad March which culminated in our daughters wedding!

A fantastic day in Brisbane where I let go of my photographers role (alright...except for a couple) and became a Mum. Something that's very hard when you're a bit of a control freak!
So our project has been a little forgotten...BUT

things are moving along!

Despite what we were told, Byron Shire Council have been super efficient in the DA process- which was approved without any issues (probably because we did everything to the exact letter of the law!), and we will be starting work on a few weeks!

Getting excited now... we will be Bangalites/ Bangalopians (?) soon!

Suze
x

Windows and Doors

So as mentioned in a previous post- I got a bit excited a while back and bought (a LOT of) old timber windows and french doors. A great buy!

 But now comes the hard part- well for my DH (dear husband) anyway...

Turns out that we can't use them with the beautiful old glass that's in them as they don't comply with current regulations- so while we knew they would have to be restored we didn't anticipate reglazing.

DH is now taking out the glass before restoration trying to keep in tact the beautiful old green panels- a lot of work!








Suze
xx

The Auction

Although I'd seen the cottage advertised and thought it was cute- we hadn't looked at it or seriously thought about it.

I first viewed it  a week before the auction..

you know when you walk into somewhere and it just feels like home? That was how it was when I walked into the front yard.

A beautiful old poinciana greeted me, shading the whole front of the property. It had some cacti growing on the trunk  and some stag horns further up. It was exactly the same as walking into my parents home- where I grew up. It was a 'sign'... I wanted this before I even got inside.

We both went back to view it a few days later and fell in love...

A week later we had decided to bid at the auction- the problem was we all had stuff on that day. Originally we were going to get someone else to bid for us, but at the last minute I decided to suck it up and have a go myself. (I'd never been to an auction before, let alone bid at one)

The night before, over a couple of vino's, I practiced bidding... hilarious! We went through all the scenarios and how to 'play' the game, but we had a limit that we didn't really think would get it.

The next morning we had to get our own house ready for an open home, T was off to help organise Relay For Life and I had a wedding to shoot. As I was leaving (very well dressed in my wedding gear) our agent came to put up the open home signs.

'You can't go to an auction looking like that!' he told me... 'You look like you've got too much money!'

There was nothing I could do about it- after the auction, I was off to the wedding...

It turns out that I can bid at an auction- after the comments I got afterwards- I'm thinking that maybe I should learn how to play poker... really I was just channeling those people you see on the reality TV home shows...

We managed to buy the cottage and I'm pretty sure that it's not often the owner and buyer are hugging and crying afterwards!

and the clothes... they turned out to be a blessing... apparently some people stopped bidding as they thought I had 'buckets of money'... if only they knew the truth!!!!

xxx

The Back Story...

Hindsight is a wonderful thing... I am so glad that we now own the cottage that we do and it is a far better choice, but..
it wasn't initially our first choice...
Many many months ago we 'thought' we had secured another cottage, in a rural setting, 23 acres, great views, a creek and the most enormous man cave you have ever seen (way bigger than the house)!
We signed the contract, gave our deposit to our solicitor and the exchange was to take place the following morning first thing.
The next afternoon we got a phone call from our solicitor (who had a phone call from the sellers solicitor) to tell us that an exchange had taken place, but not with us!!
We were devastated, and angry... how could we not know? Why didn't we have the opportunity to negotiate? I felt and still feel that there were some very unethical practices involved in the situation.

The other slight issue we had was the house full of beautiful old windows and french doors that I had bought already... at a bargain price... which now mean that our garage is NOT used for cars! Oooops!

Collector or Hoarder???

and of course the answer is a collector... (unless you're asking my hubby)

Take this stunning dining table I bought, from my dear friends Helene & Johnny (Dirty Old Town)... to match the teapot of course...

now I have to collect chairs & a bench seat (or materials to make one) to match

and probably some teacups

and linen...

oh wait, better check the cupboards, I think there might be some already here- hehe

Suze
x

It all started with a teapot!

Not very practical I know... but then that could be also said of me (sometimes)

On a trip away years ago, I found a gorgeous old enamel teapot


in my favourite colour...


but it didn't really belong in the style of house that we had


so I've been waiting for the right one to come along


and finally we have it...


in my favourite town


in my favourite street!


So this little blog is going to be the story of our renovation of the cottage- I can't wait!!