The Family/Dining Room

I am back at the local Hungry Jacks making the most of my half hour of free wi-fi. For the price of a small flat white coffee, it seems a pretty economical way to get an internet hit every couple of days.

I thought I'd give an overview of the progress we've made on the dining room and kitchen. That's where most of the 'permanent' work has taken place so far.

First up, the pressed metal ceilings.

 

Dan used a product called Peel Away to start stripping the paint off. I believe it's an Australian product and it did a pretty good job of sealing and containing the paint. 

Even so, it was a huge job. It took him three days just to get most of the crumbling paint from the kitchen ceiling and he had to bring in the Gerni to get the last of it off the roof.

He's going to do some test patches just painting over the less crumbly paint in the dining room to see if he can get away with not stripping it all off because it's incredibly messy and labour intensive, particularly in such a large room.

Next up, we decided we wanted a more open plan layout between the kitchen (through the door below) and the dining room.

We couldn't take the wall out altogether due to the way the two nearest doors open across the space. The original plan was to put a decorative archway in, which is a more traditional Queenslander room dividing style.

But, when we discovered the pressed metal ceilings were continuous, an executive decision was taken simply to open this wall up all the way to the roof. 

Soon, decorative cornices will be added to dress it up a little but already the increased light flow through from the large kitchen window to the dining room has made a huge difference.

Another little quirk can be seen above. It seems when the house was built, a last minute decision to move the wall behind Lucinda was made. As a result, the decking boards from the open breezeway outside the door continue about a quarter of the way into the dining room. 

A hearth for a new wood heater will soon be built in one corner, the rest of the boards will eventually be replaced with pine ones matching the rest of the room.

Yesterday, we started moving furniture in. We got this large dresser as a gift from Dan's mum and it fits perfectly in the space and is incredibly useful in a house with no cupboards anywhere.

We're waiting for friends to come by this weekend and help us lift a few heavier items, like our couch and the dining table inside and then I'll show some photos of the 'finished' (for now) space.