I'm still alive

I've spent the best part of the last few months trying to de-clutter, organise, fix and otherwise have my house ready to sell, but I'm still not quite there yet.  I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm hoping it's not THE light as I'm not quite ready to pop off just yet, although I think I was close to it a couple of times.  I'd never had a panic attack before but I now know exactly what they feel like.

Part of the fixing up meant painting the bedrooms, re-oiling the decking (that was a massive job, there's lots and lots of decking), and sanding and polishing the floorboards.   Each step involved moving and relocating furniture.  All the outdoor furniture had to be moved to clean and oil the outside decks and verandahs.  All the bedroom furniture had to be moved and covered so that the ceilings and walls could be painted.  All the furniture had to be removed from the living area so that the floors could be sanded. Can you guess that I've had enough of moving furniture and living in what feels like a used furniture store.
I didn't take many photos of work in progress as it was bad enough living through it without capturing for all time, each hideous step of the journey. I do however have some pics of the floorboards. The kitchen photos are all taken at night so the colour of the boards is not quite right.

This is the kitchen, can you see that dark curved area? A couple of years ago I swapped the kitchen and the living zones, so this used to be the living room and the dark part is where the hearth used to be. (It's a high-set house so it was relatively easy to move all the plumbing etc.)

This is an "after" shot. No more dark hearth, but look how the two boards in the centre of the kitchen now stand out. The new finish has emphasised the colours in the timber.

Now to the rest of the living area. These are the "before" shots, once all the furniture was removed. They were taken early morning so it's a little hard to see properly with all those shadows.

Dining area in the background

Living area, this used to be the kitchen.

Looking from the dining area towards the hall and stairs.

Looking from the dining area towards the kitchen on the right and stairs on the left 

From the dining area to living area.

Looking from living area to stairs and bedrooms.

I really love the early morning winter sun shining in and warming up the house.

This is where the furniture was stored. 

The fridge out on the verandah and covered with a tarp.

The dining table also on the verandah and covered in an old sheet, tarp and the upside down coffee table on top.

BP's bedroom, taken from the hallway, that's as far as I could get into her room.

My sewing room, again taken from the hall as there was no way I could get into that room either.

Now for some after photos. I totally forgot to take any before the furniture was moved back.

Honestly, I prefer the way the floorboards looked before. Unfortunately the previous flooring tradesmen did a really really bad job, and because I had moved the kitchen and taken out a wall a couple of years ago, they absolutely had to be sanded and polished.

The best thing after doing all this, is now there's no cluttered spots, which means not having to crop photos or take them at a particular angle to hide stuff, yay..........and a great big sigh of relief.

So hopefully I'll be back blogging a little more often now, It may still be sporadic but I think I'm over (gee, I really hope I'm over) the worst of it and it should be a lot easier from now on. Every piece of my body is crossed...........not just fingers.



PS    Oh, and I have been able to do a little bit of sewing, not much, so I'll even have some crafty stuff to show soon too.

Renovating

This week hasn't been the funnest week.  We've had the weather from hell. Well that's assuming that the weather in hell when it isn't hot, is grey and very very humid and has buckets and buckets of water raining down on you incessantly. So much so that everything starts smelling suspect, mouldy and damp. Not pleasant. To top off this lovely weather I've had painters in to paint part of the outside of the house and the bedrooms so that it will be all nice and lovely when I put the house on the market to sell. Because the weather has been so bad, it's taken twice as long as it should have so far.

This is my sewing room and it will be like this until probably Wednesday, hopefully no longer than that.

My sewing table and sewing machine are somewhere under there. It's lucky that I enjoy hand sewing and have a number of projects I can work on while my sewing room is out of action.

This is Bithcypoo's room.  Fortunately she is in Brisbane, she doesn't need to sleep in her bed.
My bedroom was tackled first, it's not finished but I can sleep in my bed and have access to my chest of drawers.

This is was my dining table, now it's a makeshift cutting table. It's also covered in lots of other stuff as well, so I can only work in one corner.

I'd show you photos of the rest of the house but it's too embarrassing, there's piles of stuff everywhere. If I showed photos, The Hoarders would be on to me and want me to star in a new show!
I started working on the next block of the Circle Game BOM and remembered to get everything out of the room that was needed for the week.  Except for this.

See that tiny metal circle with the hole in it. I use that to add a quarter inch seam to the templates curved edges when I'm tracing onto the fabric. When I started to trace the templates I remembered after I used it last time I'd put it back in the drawer of the table my sewing machine sits on. Arrrgggghhhhhh.

Fortunately, I found the table, and the drawer was accessible under all the drop sheets, phew. Crisis averted.

So I had a nice time cutting out and sewing together this block, which I finished last night. I'm really enjoying making these now. I've already started cutting out, the next block this morning. I'm swapping out an occasional scrap from the BOM and adding the odd scrap from my stash here and there in these blocks.

The starflowers have come out of hiding too, and I work on them when I need a break from concentrating hard on which bit to add where.

Tuesday tidbits (and tails)

Now that I have paid the huge fee, I am going to make the most of it and post squillions of photos, te he he.

I stalked followed this lady around the airport last week trying to take a photo of her lovely top. I should have just asked her if I could take a photo, it would have been easier, and I wouldn't have looked quite so suspicious. Lucky nobody noticed and I wasn't dragged away by security.

Spring and warmer temperatures means frangipani in the garden, heaven!

The opposite of heaven, this is what my verandah looks like right now, that's a 6 metre (20 feet) drop down there. I can't wait 'til they finish. It's going to look great but I didn't realise how much I would miss it whilst it is being renovated.

 This is a daily problem. Trying to type is not easy.

The first time I have ever seen them sleep this close together. They usually fight if they are this close.

Bailey, what more can I say! He stayed in that purple plastic bin all afternoon.

 Another great place for sleeping, a nice comfortable bowl with a piece of wood in it.

Lulu looks like a bat with her paws out to the side, this is how she sleeps most of the time, weird, seriously weird.

Last but not least, ta dah,

PS. If you don't hear from me in a few days I will more than likely be found suffering the consequences of posting this photo.