The kitchen!! I LOVE it.  We have done ALL of it ourselves.  We bought 3 buffet cupboards and literally cut them to pieces.  The island benchtop is actually a table top the oven alcove and pantry is made from tongue and groove and the alcove will be lined with cement sheeting and tiles.  The pantry door is a french door with the broken glass removed and ply inserted.  The wall cupboards are the hutches from the buffets with a bottom shelf added.  The corbels are from ebay.  The Island bench cupboards are the off cuts from the other benches with 2 shelves inserted and a bit of creative jigsawing.  The whole kitchen cost us less than $3500! It was REAAAALLLYY scarey when we started taking a power saw to the cupboards, but I think the result is great!!

I know I am slack.  The whole process has been exhausting and VERY time consuming, but very rewarding!!  This is a relatively new photo of the house.  I have planted some plants since this was taken, but you get the idea.  eventually the roof will go on the deck but in the mean time we are enjoying it just the way it is.  We are hopefully moving over to the house in the next 2 weeks!! There are a few things to do to get it to council standards . . . more supports for the wast pipe suspended under the house, a few minor additions to the gas pipes, some wiring to cover over, a little bit of guttering to fix up, and a back step!!

All together!

All Done! The workers arrived on Wednesday and left Friday afternoon! It was intense! It looks fantastic.  Just a fine line on the floor boards is the only evidence the house was ever split in half!!  Now we have to install the septic system and get electricity to the site.  Alister pulled out the old kitchen.  Originally I thought the kitchen may be salvageable but it was mostly hobbled together with home made shelves.  Im taking the loovres off the front verandah.  It is an awesome house.  Larger than it looks and just a bit grand.  I will post some more photos on line soon.

Its a..... HOUSE arrival- 8.45am weighing in at ahhh 4-6tonnes 2 Very Proud parents!!

OMG!! It's FINALLY Here!!  It was quite devastating to see the house pulled in two - but I can start to imagine it now and how it will look all completed! The Hydraulics were pretty incredible the house at one stage looked like it was going to tip off the truck!!
We put on a big brekky for all the crew after their long slow trip we didnt want them to have to drive to town to eat and then come all the way back out!  The crazy people pulled up with the houses on the back, came and had brekky and then got stuck straight back into it!! I thought they might rest the first day after their long days and long night but no!!?? As you can imagine I would rather not be at work right now but I guess I'll have plenty of time to look at it later!!

The BIG piece making its way up our drive way - see what I mean about the hydraulics!!

The two pieces getting positioned

Getting Closer!!

The smaller piece turning into our driveway!

Council Approval

FINALLY!!

Council has approved everything!! Finally.
Now it is all up to the removalists.
We got the call last thursday saying the house will arrive on wednesday morning!
I cant believe we'll have an instant house on Wednesday!! Then it should be a week or so to get the house back together and the roof back on.
Very nervous and excited.

Garage Sale Success! Council Woes :(

Yay I found 3 perfect cabinets to use as vanity units instead of buying crappy melamine ones!! I only have 2 bathrooms but I will find somewhere to use the other cabinet!  A new vanity unit costs about $300 I bought 3 cupboards for $220! I have one basin to fit a cupboard already and just need to find a smaller one for the other cabinet.  Saved myself $400!

Then of course we get an email from council telling us we now need to fill out several forms to submit to the planning department.  Apparently where we are plonking our house is on the very edge of several rural overlays (including bushfire and steep land)!! GAAAAHHHH!! Not only do we have to write a several page ESSAY stating why this is not a concern and how we meet requirements but we also have to pay them $750 for this pleasure!! (Can you tell how angry I am?) We have already dished out $2500 to put in the plumbing and building applications. (plumbing has already been approved)  The council must have thought they hadn't hit us hard enough or made the process grueling enough!! mean while the removal team are running short on time to get our house off it's existing block before the owners need the land vacated! What was 6-8 weeks is rapidly turning into months all because of red tape BS!
What was originally elation at saving $400 is now despair at spending another $750 - which could have been carpet in out bedroom or tiles or decking!!!

Anyway after spending an entire sunday afternoon and evening filling out 2 forms and completing an essay, we have lodge what I hope is the last council form!!

Waiting, research, waiting!

We are now just waiting for council to let us know yes or no!! Im researching cheap kitchen ideas to get the look I want.  I definately dont want a modern kitchen! It needs to be colonial or country.  I would like white cupboards and timber benchtops.  A mantle over the 900mm stove (already ordered)



I am also trying to pick up a couple of old cabinets to transform into vanitys.  We will need to tile bathrooms and build a laundry and build some wardrobes. The deck is worrying me - I would love to be able to build this in the first place but we may not have the budget!  I guess we will see!!