Come on a journey of inspiration & adventure while renovate & restore a beautiful Victorian home 'St Elmo' in the picturesque Hunter Valley, Australia & laugh at a few of our family adventures along the way.




Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Life in the new house!!!

So here I am confessing again that its been a long time between blog posts.
So now I have so so much to tell, but most importantly we have moved into our new but very old home.
You can check out my previous post full of the real estate pics here


The real estate wrapped our front door in a bow, it was so nice to turn up with our keys for the first time & be greeted like this.
Thank you Ray White Maitland.
They also left a lovely gift basket full of goodies but the kids raided it before I could snap a pic.


We only have a single garage here so have temporarily put a shipping container in the back yard until my dream Guy can build his man cave.


We  have a narrow driveway so the crane driver lifted this big thing over the roof of our house.


I'm pretty happy he is good at what he does, no damage any where...pheww!!!
We used Tom Lawler Cranes for this job & I highly recommend them. Tom is a precision driver that's for sure.



Our lovely old home needs re peering, the floors slope off in all different directions.
As you can see by the above photo of just one of the peers, they are in a pretty bad way, this all all that is left of this one, it should be almost a metre long but has been eaten out by termites.


The termite damage is old & there are no active termites in the house now.


All of this is being replaced by adjustable steel peers, we only have to do about 48 of them....eeek!!!!
We knew this when we purchased the home.
Do you like how I say we... I don't really get my hands very dirty, I feed the worker, help with the clean up, sometimes I have to assist when it comes to lifting heavy things & most importantly take photos.


Doesn't everyone keep a wheel barrow in the laundry.

So the renovating has begun.
We are just taking it one step at a time but this part of the re peering process will allow us to build a much needed ensuite & set up the plumbing for a new main bath & laundry.
We currently have no water tanks for that all important water catchment from the roof to run the toilets & washing machine from & the way the house is set up at the moment it runs off two electric hot water systems , so it is a bit of a priority to address these issues as we go along, so we can be a little more energy & water efficient.
Its also a huge pain, if you flush the toilet while someone is showering as they lose their water & you cant run the washing machine & any other taps at the same time for the same reason.

Its time to make this 108 year old home a little more efficient!!

Stay tuned for my next installment, I have so much more to tell!!

CHEERS
Trish xx


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