Verandah post bases - Framing

Dad has been busy preparing the verandah post bases which will support the new verandah on the northern and western sides of the house. It has been a fiddly and big job to get these prepared, but they will provide a really nice, solid looking base to tie in with the character of the newly styled house. 

(Another blog post will follow in the next few days, as the concrete truck came today to fill the formed-up post bases, so there has been more progress today!)

Northern side of the house which will house new verandah

The below photo shows how far the new verandah will extend. The current strip of lawn will become a new garden bed. 

Southern (front) side of house which will house new verandah

You can see the (former) front carport here which will end up being removed to make way for the new front verandah and central front steps. The existing steps you can see on the left of the photo will be removed to allow for the new verandah to extend around the northern side of the house. 

Southern side of house which will house extension

The beautiful established macadamia tree will remain on the front south western corner of the yard. It provides such a lovely shady spot in summer. You can just see some of the branches on the right of this photo. 

Close-up view of corner support for verandah base

Dad has custom-built these timber supports which will each sit above a formed-up concrete base (which was poured today).

Verandah & Extension Footings

There has been lots of progress outside in the yard since my last blog post. We have removed the excess concrete from the perimeter of the front (former) carport. This will allow the new front veranda to sit nicely over the top of the remaining concrete (once it is built), providing a really handy storage area underneath. 

You can see in the below image where the concrete has been removed. The existing carport roof will be removed at some stage soon once it starts getting in the way of the building. 

The post holes for the veranda and extension footings were also dug last weekend and Dad has been preparing the stumps and rods which will hopefully start going in this week. All of this digging makes you realize what beautiful rich soil we have! So excited to be planning the landscaping and gardens for these new areas. 

Removal of unwanted concrete into the trailer

Such great, rich soil!

Autumn colours... how beautiful!

We had Mothers Day lunch in my backyard last weekend and the weather was perfect. The trees are just starting to lose their beautiful leaves now. Wishing we could press 'pause' on the weather now until Spring. 

Marking out extensions & the old tank stand bites the dust...

MARKING OUT EXTENSIONS

Over the past week, Dad has now marked out where the new front verandah and extensions will sit. I think it's always so exciting at this stage to be able to visualise exactly where things will end up, especially relative to existing markers - like the existing macadamia nut tree, fences, driveway, gardens...  

BELOW IMAGE - Front north western corner of house 

This is the front north western corner of the house. The front carport that you can see here will end up being removed to make way for a verandah along the front and side. The white chalk line shows how far the verandah footprint will extend. The existing front steps (on the left of this photo) will end up being removed to allow for the new verandah. 

BELOW IMAGE - Front south western corner of house

This photo shows the front south western corner of the house (and the beautiful existing macadamia nut tree). You can see here the front verandah will continue out to the right hand side of the house, with an extension behind it. The extension will house the master bedroom, walk-in robe and ensuite. 

MOVING THE WATER TANK

You can see here the water tank which has sat on an old timber tank stand on the southern side of the house for many years. The two windows to the left of the tank belong to the new dining room, and these will eventually look out onto a new deck. The wall to the right of these windows (behind the tank) will end up being removed to allow for a living room extension. 

The below image shows the southern side of the house with the tank still in place. 

BELOW IMAGE - Empty tank stand

GARDEN UPDATE

Everything is thriving after the magnificent rain we had recently. I always love the Autumn flush of roses before they prepare for winter. Great to see them looking so healthy. 

... and the frangipani just seems to keep flowering! :)

KITCHEN WINDOW HOOD

My last post was about the new window hoods on the northern side of the house. Well, here's a photo of the latest hoods which Dad has installed over the northern kitchen windows.. and a new splash of white paint on the wall. 

What a great project to be involved in... I feel so lucky :)

Window hoods

It's been quite a while since my last post.. very slack of me!

It's really starting to feel like Autumn now.. the deciduous trees have started to turn their colour, the nights are cooler and we have been having some perfect clear sunny days.. if only it would rain! (and good rain is predicted for later this week :)

Dad has built and installed a window hood above one of the bedroom windows on the northern side of the house. It's amazing what a difference it makes to the overall look. (I think this window will be replaced with a timber one down the track.)

There's something about lines and stripes that I'm visually drawn to .. I think it's because of the uniformity and nice 'clean' look that it generally gives. 

Here's the new hood being built...

BEFORE - Here's the window 'undressed'...

AFTER - Here's the window dressed with its hood... I love it! 

Dad is also building a wider matching hood for the kitchen windows (on the left of this photo). Everything to the right of these windows will open out onto the new verandah once it is built).

Here's a photo of the roses, camellias and Japanese box today. The roses are now enjoying their autumn flush and have grown so much. Am loving being able to pick them for family and friends. 

Have a lovely week!

Painted french doors & resurrected shadow box

Painted french doors

The new french doors on the northern side of the sunroom/living room have now been painted and look really great. Dad is using old rim lock handles on the doors, which look really great. He has painted the plates black (along with the silver handles) to bring them back to life .. they look lovely and very 'fitting' for the style of house.

The new doors have really transformed this room by letting light in and freshening the space.. remembering it used to be the former kitchen in the front flat. 

The security door on the right of this image will be replaced with another fixed french door (the top of which will open as a window). 

Shadow box resurrected

The original shadow box that used to separate the former kitchen from the lounge has been resurrected (on its side) into a lovely divider between the new front door and the sunroom/living room. Dad has built another timber podium (similar to the one in the dining room) for the shadow box to sit on. 

BEFORE...

AFTER...

Long Weekend progress .. French doors

It has been a very busy afternoon with fantastic progress in only 4 hours! 

We removed the old glass louvres and security screen from the northern wall of the former front kitchen. This room will eventually become a sunroom/sitting room which will open out onto the new verandah - it has such an inviting aspect on the north western corner of the house. For now, this room is my lounge, and I'm really enjoying spending time here. 

BEFORE

So here is the exterior wall with the louvres (just after the security screen was removed). 

... and the inside view

Louvres removed...

Ready to frame up for the new doors...

Inside view...

AFTER

Doors in (just in time to lock up for the evening). Eventually these will open out onto a new verandah and be painted white.

Inside view tonight :)

Summer!

It's been a little while since I wrote my last post. It has been a lovely Christmas and is now great to be enjoying a break over the Summer holidays. 

Dismantling the old front kitchen

Dad has started dismantling the kitchen (from the former front flat) now that the new kitchen is in use. The lovely old white timber shadow box has been removed (it used to sit above the bench closest to the couch), and will be incorporated near the new front entry. The rest of the kitchen will be dismantled soon and some of it sold. This will open up the front living area with alot of space. 

Summer entertaining

It has been great to have the new dining room set up for entertaining over the holidays. It has been painted ('White Salt' - to tie in with the new kitchen) and we have laid temporary carpet until the back lounge area is complete and this lounge/dining area can be carpeted as a whole). The piece of carpet we used was from the former lounge in the back flat and was a very handy (and lucky!) fit. 

Summer in the garden

Everything is flowering and thriving in the garden (despite some incredibly hot days recently). The frangipani tree loves its new pot and position on the north Eastern corner outside the new kitchen. I have never seen it flower so much!

I also planted an olive tree today (an early Birthday present from Nikki and Tony) in a pot on the front landing. I love the grey-silver foliage of olive trees.