Monday, October 14, 2013

Sherbet Walls

For Dan, one of the best things about doing this renovation is getting to do the woodcraft-type jobs - like, for example, making backing boards for bakelite switches. 

He used offcuts of reclaimed hoop pine floorboards...


...and used one of the original boards (right) as a template.


This is our oven switch, which will be displayed nice and prominently in the kitchen after it's been cleaned up.


Dan has also bought just about every salvage yard in the area out of VJ timber to line the pantry and study walls (they're the two little rooms built in to the verandahs, on either side of the kitchen). 

You can see the exposed tin roof in the pantry here, which will be framed and lined with gyprock (just about the only modern building material used so far).


The mis-matched VJs - sourced from old Queenslanders all over the Lockyer Valley - have a gorgeous, dreamy, sherbet-like colour scheme I love. 





The photos above show where we're at now. Most of the construction work is done, the floors are clean and the floor sander is due to start in a week or so, in preparation for the arrival of the kitchen in early November. 

That will take us right about up to the one year anniversary of our arrival here and boy, do I have some before and after posts lined up for you guys soon... 

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Let The Water Hold Me Down

Who knows the song Once In a Lifetime by Talking Heads?

I love that song.

It evokes all sort of existential questions, but in tone of mild adult resignation rather than rage-filled teenage angst.  I've been playing it a lot lately - more than usual - because it seems to speak right to me.

The first line, 'And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack', seems particularly apt for our little hillbilly squad at the moment.


It's been hot. So very hot. We've been looking for innovative ways to keep the neighbourhood kids cool by day...


...and then, after 5pm when the heat has mostly left, some of us oldies (well, 30-somethings) can go out to wander our hills together in the name of exercise.


Lucinda doesn't nap at home anymore, so sometimes I just put her in the wonderful air conditioning of the car and we drive. We find the most fantastic little corners of the Lockyer Valley.





And just like that, we keep letting the days go by.

What have YOU been doing?