This is how we roll (well...spray....)

Hello friends! It has been a couple of weeks and I have been slack with the posting. That's because it has been a whirlwind of activity.

Let's recap what has happened since we last spent a good 5-10 minutes in each other's digital company.

We last left off with the cladding being installed, which was finished with few hiccups and looked fabulous in its primed-ready-to-paint state. We did discover that our eaves aren't square and will be adding trim pieces to rectify the gap.

Reflekt Roof Restorations completed the roof restoration despite a few days of bad weather. After much umming and ahhing, we decided that Colorbond Basalt (a mid-dark blue-grey) was the colour of choice as it would complement and highlight the Monument cladding.

The awesome blokes at Prestige Patios & Decks came to visit and erected a super tall, amazing patio roof for us over the back deck. Firstly they sent their truck out to us with the massive colourbond panels. Due to our awkward cul de sac driveway sitaution, they craned them in (yes I wanted a go at the remote, no they didn't let me, yes I may have sulked till Tim made me a coffee).

We chose to have the roof point up towards the view and overhang the deck on the left side to provide cover for bad weather. Tim picked the super chunky merbau posts that will match our decking wood and colorbond Basalt coloured facings and gutters to match our freshly painted roof.

Once the roof was up, it was time to prep for painting! To keep our reno budget friendly and practical we decided not to clad the rear or back side of the house as these are rarely seen. So last Thursday Tim taped up all the windows and doors while I pretended to help. HEY it's not my fault the big man in the sky gave me short legs and arms #mybestfriendsastepladder

FEELS.

The weekend rolled around and so did I (iso-weight amirite). We picked up the airless sprayer from the good folks at Small Hire & dragged out the 15L tub of Monument paint. Our day basically progressed as per below:

1. Put on spray suit
2. Spraaaaay all the things
3. Whoops got overspray on stuff
4. Decide to deal with that later 
5. Coffee
6. Spray some more
7. Realise the sprayer eats more paint than Tim eats cheese toast at Sizzlers 
8. Send Tim to Bunnings for more paint
9. Sprayer makes weird noise, I worry, I then have lunch
10. Tim returns with more paint which makes sprayer happy again
11. Spraaaay all the things
12. Realise need even more paint
13. I go to Bunnings and return with more paint
14. Spraaay all the things
15. Friend Lindsay comes over and almost falls down hole in deck
16. Lindsay & I sing the Rocky theme to Tim as he sprays to really pump up his game and provide motivation
17. Realise we should just buy the Dulux factory as we clearly are the biggest investors 
18. I go to Bunnings for even more paint
19. Man at Bunnings says "Back again?" with a knowing smile, I reply with rage fuelled death stare
20. Lady at paint counter says "Oh this colour has been so popular, we've already mixed up 2 x 15L lots today"
21. I reply, "Yes, that was me as well"
22. She says, "Wow you must have a big house"
23. I maintain polite conversation while dying inside and also hypnotically staring at paint shaker machine (It's like a washing machine but for paint tubs!)
24. I return with more paint and the threat of divorce
25. We paint well into the darkness while I complain loudly about sore feet and Tim gives up on life
26. We pack up, spend 30 minutes flushing the paint sprayer and subsequently discover where all the missing paint went
27. Shower, clean PJs, squishy blanket, a night of xbox COD and snacks

My best outfit yet

The fatty that ate all the paint

All taped & ready to go

Bye bye cream 

 Like a giant fingerpainting

Our site supervisor Bert (yes we kinda have a peacock)

It should be illegal to look this good

Under the house on the high side (Did someone say future garden) 

 Backside of the house & a pretty sunset

Getting there! & yes we will be getting a new letterbox

That first day saw us finish the Monument colour on the house, with plans to roll the garage with Natural White the following day. However mother nature had different plans as we woke to rain. The painting would have to wait....

(Such an ominous ending)

Transformation Tuesday!

Let's see how the house is shaping up.

The first photo we have - from the real estate listing

About 4 years ago after we put in the gardens

Where we left off last post

Current situation (& worse lighting)

IS THAT CLADDING I SEE???? (& before you ask, no it's not staying that colour. That adorable shade of beige is primer, people!)

I know, I know. It looks like I posted these in reverse order. Eww Jess, what have you done to that beautiful house? BEAR WITH ME EVERYONE. Things always look worse mid-renovation but I promise it will be worth it. 

Last weekend was a doozy. We are incredibly lucky to have awesome people help us on both Saturday and Sunday - hence the progress.

On Saturday, good friends Wina & Vince lent a hand to install the garage cladding and complete some of the post cladding work. They contributed not only much needed help, but also bestowed the knowledge that you CAN in fact incorporate dessert into both breakfast, and afternoon snack.  (Wina = champion of putty & prepared to eat icecream at any time in any circumstance).

Actual video of Wina

On Sunday, Tim's brother Michael, mother Ellen and adorable nephew Jack fronted up for duty like the legends they are. Michael & Tim set to work framing out the tall side of the house, while Ellen, Jack and I provided back up in the form of tool-fetching, beverage-providing and cheeky-smiles. 

Oh hey there cutiepie

With Jack napping away in our bedroom, we took full advantage of Michael's skillset and started measuring*, cutting and installing the cladding on this side and the front deck.

*Not actually part of his skillset

Tim's stoked to be climbing a very tall ladder (Note: sarcasm)

We accomplished this by attaching a rail / piece of timber around 4cm lower than the bottom of the framing. We then lifted each cladding piece up onto the rail and supported it while one of the boys climbed up to nail it in place. Much, much easier than holding the 48.6kg (!!!) sheets up ourselves, and a lot safer as they tend to be quite bendy.

We will be painting the brick under the 3m cladding line to match, Colourbond Monument. It made sense to keep the brick in some areas of the house to protect the budget and also for practicality's sake - such as under the house. 

It was probably around this point that we realised we ordered one cladding sheet less than we actually need....what's a reno without a little hiccup amirite?

So there you have it. Another weekend done and dusted. 

This week will see our roof restoration finished, the eaves painted (Dulux Natural White for those playing at home), bottom level & brick cleaned & prepped for painting, and the cladding finished off. 

Next Monday our patio roof will begin construction - a job for the professionals. All going well, we should be ready to paint the house next weekend; fingers crossed!

Sing it with me.

FRAME! I'm gunna frame forever, I'm gunna learn how to....usethedropsaw&notcutmyfingersoff...

Last weekend saw us painstakingly measure and cut a whole bunch of framing timber to set up the base for our new cladding. Each James Harding Axon cladding sheet is a standard 1200mm wide, with varying lengths - 2450, 2750 & 3000mm. We attached 70mm treated pine lengths at 600mm intervals, with additional posts to support the cladding around the windows and tricky spots like the powerbox and NBN.

It sounds like a lot of fun, right? If you are me, then this is actually your idea of a good time. There are so few things in life that I can claim to be better at than Tim. If the 3 wrong cuts he made when I left him alone for 5 minutes is anything to go by, I definitely kick his ass at measuring. Oh, and I thoroughly enjoy reminding him of that every 10 minutes. 

Enough boasting, let's get into the pics!

First step was to wire wheel off the STUPIDFU....sorry.....the leftover silicone on the fascia of the sunroom/deck. 

Good job Tim

Then we moved on to framing the house. We started with the side of the garage as we had zilch experience with this product and would need to learn as we went (thank god for youtube). 

This bit went unsurprisingly slow however we found ourselves getting into a rhythm as we continued.

oh hey there sexy framing

Once we finished the side of the garage, we stapled on the insulation roll-stuff.

It was time to tackle the weird indent at the front. Tim decided that it would look much cleaner to bump out above the garage door to keep it flush with the brick columns on either side. We accomplished this by building what I affectionately call "the ladder". Then we enlisted the help of 3 of our awesome friends (& staff - because why have work staff if you can't rope them into helping with your home renos??) to lift and hold the ladder device while tim secured it to the garage wall.

Ignore the sad looking plants

The front deck is a combination of the original deck that came with the house, and a merbau extension that Tim added a few months ago (another blog post that never happened). We removed the decking plank closest to the front wall of the house to run the cladding behind for a clean look. Bricks under each window were removed with an angle grinder and lots of effort (Tim's, I just watched and said helpful things behind my mask like "eww, it's dusty" and "is it time to sit down yet?")

Tim's little deck

So there you have it. A weekend full of work and help from wonderful friends.

Hot tip - stay tuned for the next post in which I again let Tim and his bro Michael measure things unsupervised and an above stated plan may be forced to change.