also

Today the floors are being ripped up in the front of the house. Tomorrow we will examine the damp problem in the downstairs hallway (and hopefully remedy it), and we will be visited by the electrician, the plumber and the carperter who will be installing windows. Action time!

birthday gifts

My birthday is still two months away, but given that it's a "special" birthday Mum and Dad decided that they should gift me something I will keep. We visited Wilson Street Gallery a few weeks ago and it turned out that one of the curators was a parent at my school when I was a little kid, and she remembered Mum and Dad. So we not only got a tour of the gallery, but we were able to see the works she had in her own apartment.

I fell in love with Peter Norton's photographs of flowers suspended in ice. So for my birthday I will be receiving a canvas print of each of these beautiful images to hang together in the newly created living/dining room. It just makes me even more excited to get the space finished and move all of our belongings in there.

outside

From the front our place is currently an eyesore. Thankfully it's less alarming from the back.

The extension is really taking shape now. The roof is on and the electrician has started work inside, and once the doors and windows arrive and we are at lock up stage we will be able to properly connect the old part of the house and the new part.

This should all happen within the next three weeks or so, after which the next step is to get the gyprock up and timber floors down and polished.

The front of the house needs some serious TLC. As you can see in the photograph we've removed most of the balcony with the exception of the corner that connects the electricity to the house. We have to get a special category 2 sparkie to come and connect that.

We also have to put some kind of footings in under the front porch, because at the moment it's just being held up by clay and some bricks. Apparently they didn't know much about foundations in 1900.

Interesting times...