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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...

just another few thousand bricks

The extension feels like a (windowless, roofless) room. It's amazing getting a real sense of how the space feels, although I am sure my perception will continually change. Some days the space seems big, other days I worry it's too small. Its so hard to relate to an empty cube!

The gap in the photograph above will be filled with bi fold glass doors that open onto a decked area, and then ultimately the back garden. The back garden will obviously need some work, given that at the moment it is a big puddle of mud with rubbish all over it.

The photograph below shows the doorway which will open to our courtyard.

balcony

After literally 18 months of begging Theo to pull down the balcony on Saturday afternoon I was greeted with my wish. Theo had two carpenters here and suddenly decided to declare the balcony an OH&S risk (the side panels were literally about to fall off onto our doorstep below) and dwn it came (to a captive audience of people lining up waiting to vote across the street.) I am sure the now exposed lime green walls are being admired by all and sundry.

bricks and beams

I've been a bit slack posting photos and then all of a sudden today we have some bricks and beams and bearers (and almost some temporary floors!)

I love having a better sense of the space we'll be working with in the extension. I'm even thinking of breaking out the sidewalk chalk and marking out where the kitchen will sit, and a proposed couch location. The boys are out there at the moment putting down some chipboard so we can walk around and play house. Exciting!

Concrete

Last week, after hours of George's digging, we were finally ready to pour the concrete that will be the base of the footings for the back extension.

I really like the KEEP OUT sign. Very homely. Martha Stewart would be proud.

In case you've never seen a concrete pump in action, here's a little video for you.

Next will be the bricklayer and I have a feeling that kind of work will be exciting to see. To me bricks mean that something is really happening. Like walls.

In other news I am trying to track down a person or company who restores old staircases. Any Sydney recommendations would be appreciated.