Bathroom Reno - Week 2

After that first day of bathroom renovations, things have been considerably quieter. The horrible war-zone noise of hammers (accompanied by frenzied parrot screeches) wasn't repeated after that first day. The bathroom was stripped pretty much bare in that one day - and after that the noise was construction, not destruction. Laka and George were considerably better behaved from that point on.

 

We hired a 2-square-meter bin from Kalorama Bins and y'day loaded it with all the rubbish from the job so far. Everything fit except one long pipe (seen on the ground behind the bin above). The bin will be taken out today.

Trevor finished hanging the tiles and did the grouting yesterday. They still have to be wiped down which Trevor said he'd take care of  (and I'm glad, as it looks like a lot of work to me...) - but other than that, we're all ready.  Here's the view facing the bathroom window: 

And here's the view from the window toward the closet.

The tiles look dark in this photo. In real life, they aren't - they look like light-coloured sandstone - very soft and natural effect, and goes extremely well with the white walls above them.

The vanity, toilet, and custom-made shower enclosure are on the way. Trevor expects they'll arrive a week from today.

You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream For...

Our house is approx. 28 years old - and we've been here for 6. In "Flying Over the Rainbow", I described a few of the upgrades we made here, including the new ducted heating and restumping. Yes, we've spent a small fortune on this beloved house, but for the most part the things we've done have not been cosmetic, but safety-oriented.

At last, however, we have managed to set aside some money to upgrade something for the sheer beauty of it. Yes, we've decided to upgrade our bathroom.

Here's the "before" photo:

 
I laugh a little when I look at this, because in this photo, the bathroom looks OK. But, trust me, it doesn't look good in "person". That glass shower stall in the far corner was pitted and scummy - although I'm sure the previous owner did her best to clean it, well, it was just beyond redemption - oh the hours I spent on my knees trying to scrub and polish to get it looking nice. I never succeeded.

The original tiles in the shower, around the tub, and over the sink, were tan with brown decorative trim around the edges. Really dated. The previous owner painted over them with a special white paint - but inside the shower, that paint started to peel off and flake away a long time ago (made worse by my scrubbing the tiles in my continuing war on mold):

What's that you say?  Eeeeeewwwww!?  You bet.

The toilet is relatively new - in our first year here we replaced the old "one flush" toilets with new "dual flush" ones. But the sink is old, with a tan basin that looks pretty icky on the white vanity, and with an aging, pitted gold tap and handles. There's not much storage in that vanity - and it's, well, just cheap and grotty-looking.

The final beast is the jacuzzi tub (immediately under the window) which I only tried to use once - and quickly came to realize it was too much work to deal with.

Yeah - this bathroom is a beast and it's time to do something.

We called in a local tradesman to have a look - and he had lot of ideas about how to tart the old bathroom up - so away we go. Trevor and his son Ralph arrived y'day and the demolition began at mid-morning.

Here's how it looked when they left:

 

The noise was deafening - with hammers and saws and... ...well... Trevor and Ralph cut up the tub and lowered it and other bits from the balcony outside the bathroom to the deck below - RIGHT IN FRONT OF LAKA AND GEORGE'S WINDOW... If you think saws and hammers are loud - well, wait till you listen to macaw-meltdowns happening about every 20 minutes for several hours.

Laka and George went to bed last night tired, but happy in the conviction that they'd driven off those nasty men making all the noise.

I've got bad news for them. Trevor and Ralph will be back today - probably with earplugs.

Severe

Last week I thought we were seeing the end of the scary weather. I was wrong, very wrong. Last Weds. the CFA rated the fire danger as "Very High" (yellow). Today? Oh, lordy... today it's worse - today it's "severe" (orange) in most of the state, including the central district - where we live.

Stephen and I figure that if it's "severe" for the entire district, in practical terms it's probably one notch higher on Mount Dandenong, just because of the terrain.

The temperature as I type this (about 9:30 a.m.) is in the mid-20's - which is fairly comfortable. The high predicted for today is 34 C - not "stinkin' hot", but fairly toasty, all the same. And it's going to be windy (30-45 km/h) - it's the  dry-plus-hot-plus-windy that's producing the elevated danger.

Tomorrow the rating will drop back down to "high" (blue) and on Friday it will go all the way to "low-mod" (green), and it looks like it will stay that way throughout Easter weekend. I'd really like to think today is the end of the high-danger days - but I said that last week, didn't I?

Summer's Last Hurrah (I Hope)

Last Thursday the temperatures dropped and the long heat-wave ended. With the cooler temperatures came some rain (mostly over the weekend), and we were so glad to see it. Is summer over, finally? Yes - and no (sort of).

Today the fire danger is jumping once again from "high" to "very high", according to the CFA (Country Fire Authority). The temperatures predicted will be "warm" (29 C maximum), but not stinkin hot.  I'm not really sure why the fire danger rating is being elevated, but I'm certainly not going to argue - the CFA knows what they are about. There's to be a total fire ban in the western districts of the state - a clear sign that even 29 C can be problematic. For tomorrow we're getting 26 C as a maximum, but the weather predictions are for "damaging winds", especially in "higher elevations". Here on Mount Dandenong, that probably will translate into power outages (due to falling branches).

-sigh-

Looks like we're in for one more day of "sniffing the air", followed by a day without electricity.

I hope - I sincerely hope - we'll now be able to bid summer adieu. Got my fingers crossed - and saying a prayer that the CFA folks will have nothing exciting to do...