More progress

We're getting into the fun, constructive parts of the work now. we put the kitchen together, the sink in, the dishwasher connected and even a ceiling fan.

Have a look:

Our man sanding the plaster work

Nearly finished

Painted with primer and ceiling paint

Kitchen improving with attached countertops and dishwasher

Operational cooktop. I don't think there's any leaking gas.

Sink installed - cutting the holes in that expensive countertop is not fun

nice brushed-nickel ceiling fan

looks like a plumber did it, but no, it was me! It leaked from 4 sources when I first pressurized it, but we learn.

Phew!

I found the wiring fault and it was not behind any of the drywall panels which would have made it extremely difficult to find in a non-destructive way.

It seemed that when the drywall sheet went on over the ceiling fan fitting, the live wire was dragged through the hole, stripped of its wirenut and some of its insulation, and shorted to the grounded metal mounting.

I was lucky to find it, so I put it right, but not all the lights came back. It seemed that the short had fried the dimmer switch, but I found a discarded non-dimmer, wired it in and it all came back to life! I was pleased

Here was the problem:

The left wire, now taped, was trapped against the earthed metal box. Fortunately, it was easy to find and repair.

Water

Sometimes when it rains around here, it really rains. Our house is on the low part of the street and the yard is the low part of the property. The roof and driveway drains toward the back and this is what happens:

No wonder there's no grass

Boards

The wallboard guy came today. He managed to put boards up in 2 rooms, including the high ceilings on his own and in about 7 hours! He even did the closet in the front bedroom.

Annoyingly, I think one of the nails/screws hit a wire, despite them being deep in the joists or covered with nail guards, so now none of the lights in the front room work.

Still, here's the aesthetic result:

Some how it looks smaller, but neater

Another shot of the tile

(Steph writing)

I feel that my tiling job was glossed over in the last post, so wanted to give another picture of the job including the new mirror and fully operating light fixture which Steve installed last week. It's actually looking like a bathroom now, and a rather pretty one at that if I do say so myself.

Rooney helped by dismembering a stuffed squirrel:

And here's the big reveal:

More reconstruction.

It's slowly starting to come together. The electricians have been and gone so we have light in the upstairs, the porch and the bathroom.

The kitchen is being assembled. and the counter tops are in their preliminary positions although I need some pro help to fit them.

The drywall guys have even  been to measure up so that'll be done soon.

Here are some limited pictures, more to follow.

The worktops going into place. Many doors and drawers are assmbled, too.

Here's a cold Steff doggedly tiling the shower area

Furniture maker

We needed a coffee table and we had a lot of spare wood kicking about.

I had saved the old tongue and groove boards from the floors and walls of the kitchen and bathroom. Some of the better ones were reusable so I soaked them to get rid of mold and glue, then trimmed them down to make the deck of the table.

I used some 2x8, ripped down and mitred to form L-shaped legs, then installed blocks in the legs' pockets to hold the plywood sheets to be used as shelves.

Once the deck was sanded and varnished, it came out quite nice.

One shelf was locacted high to hold the media laptop, the cable box and associated wires and stuff out of sight.

Here it is:

Table deck

Complete with TV and hidden laptop and cable gizmo

Kitchen rebuild

Finally starting to move the kitchen in a more positive direction with a new floor and some of the new cabinets.