Window Repair - Emily's Room

A storm had blown out one of the panes in Emily's room over the term.  We had the glazier finally come and replace all four panes with toughened glass.  The orginal glass was only 2mm thick and the new glass is 4mm thick so it will be much warmer and also more sound proof.

0800 111 881
Allied Glass 
sales@alliedglass.co.nz
Cost: $527.00



Lounge Windows:
The window frames can only fit the thinner glass; and I felt we could only warrant 4mm glass in the lounge window - in case it gets chipped by a stone again

We will look into getting Comfort Plus glass put into the kitchen and family room area.  It is a laminated safety glass with a permanent transparent coating that is glazed on the inside-facing surface.  It provides the following benefits:

• High daylight transmission of up to 76 percent
• Solar control, with up to 70 percent of solar heat transmission eliminated
• Thermal insulation - a 30 percent improvement over standard glass
• Fading reduction - reduces UV radiation by as much as 99 percent
• Safety - ComfortPlus is Grade A safety glass, reducing the potential for injury and if broken.
• Noise - reducing voice noise by 13 percent and traffic noise by 24 percent.

We used Allied Glass, 29 Selwyn Street, Onehunga, Auckland 1061  (09) 6341926

The Kitchen

This is a project that started in January with planning etc and finally the kitchen is almost finished! It as a challenge to use the piano room during the winter months as a makeshift kitchen so it is wonderful to use a proper kitchen again.

)

Just a little crowning around the microwave and rangehood units and the window sills, skirting and flooring to do.....

I would thoroughly recommend Gold Kitchens - Jordan was a great help and very patient with my changes and editions to the kitchen (which were sooo worth it).

Paint Colours:

Walls:  Resene Double White Pointer

Ceiling:  Resene Alabaster

The Roof - Gable Roof Replacement

30 April 2015 - The Gable Roof Replacement  

The roof over the kitchen was leaking in heavy rain and of course we didn't want to compromise the new ceiling of our kitchen.    We had Shamrock Roofing come into do the fix!

Now the main roof looks a little lacking - and for a mere $10,000.00 we can replace this! As scaffolding is included in this price we will go ahead in the summer and paint the top half of the house while they are at it! 

The Front Door

The front door is the 'eye' of the house - it is the first point of contact for visitors and needs to look clean and welcoming.


 

BEFORE

The front door was badly weathered and we had taken it down, sanded it and used Coopers Restoration on it to get it to its' former glory (well just about).  However, we had never got around to painting the door frame - which acts like a kohl eye liner  painted black needed a good sand down and paint and the front step was chipped as you can see from the photo. 

So Elise and Louis from France sanded the frame down and painted it with:


Resene High Gloss
Soft Black

Painting of the house

15 January 2015
What a massive job - three weeks of preparation time - and this is just the bottom storey!  Glen worked on repairing damage to the right-of-way side of the house and clothes-line side of the house.  There were lots of repairs done in the past but they were done so it was very obvious.  We have used three 2 litre tins of ADOS Builders Fill which can be cut,sawn, drilled, chiselled, nailed, sanded, painted and screwed into.  It has repaired cracks, holes, and wood which has been attacked by borer (which are all gone - just the tiny holes of their trails left!)  Fabulous stuff that ends up being stronger than wood!


PAINT
The first level walls have been painted with:
Resene - Blanc
Lumbersider - Low Sheen Blanc


The verandah bannisters have been painted with:
Resene - Blanc
Sonyx - Semi-gloss


The black trim:
Annette's Soft Black (made by Resene Onehunga)

I like how the gloss of the window trim and bannisters constrast with the low sheen of the walls.  The low sheen also avoids highlighting imperfections which are obviously unavoidable in a 158 year old house!


19 January 2014
The front wall below the verandah has been prepared for painting.  There are five layers of various paint colours used over the years and we decided not to sand back to bare wood.  Therefore we have  repaired any cracks and dry rot with builders bog.



Previously someone had 'repaired' a crack in a board with a piece of crinkly metal (bottom right of the window) and painted over it - it wouldn't have been so bad if the piece of metal was flat - it looked really bad. Wish I had taken a photo of it... Glen pulled the metal off to reveal that someone in the past had probably kicked the plank in. We builders-bogged it to make it smooth and it looks 100% better and will also be stronger.

Glen then gave the whole wall an undercoat of white paint.  He could see the defects better and skimmed with builders bog where needed, and sanded to gain as flat a surface as possible.

The next drama is to get the top coat paint colour right....a reminder that it is important to record the names of the colours used so that they can be remembered.  We have a colour Glen's Vanilla Cream - which sounds right - but is too dark and looks dirty - so back to the drawing board....

Yay - found the perfect colour - Resene  Blanc.  Looks crisp, clean and warm - and contrasts nicely with the black trim.

Garden Makeover

It was time to make the garden look a bit more organised and maintained - but we still wanted to keep the old fashioned villa feel to it.  What better that to add some formality with box hedges - its a bit like vacuum cleaning - if the box hedge is well trimmed then  everything else will look tidy.  While we are at it clipping the pittosporum also made a big difference.  The rest of the plants can be a little unwieldy but the core plantings tie it all together!  Well that is the idea anyway!! :)




In keeping with the side garden we have put a row of boxus hedge around the border of the back sunny garden.  In the middle we will have the core plants of hydrangeas which will sport big blooms with pops of colour for summer months of the year after the cineraria's have done their September flowering.

Under the privet hedge which has taken a beating and looking really bare at the moment due to it getting out of control we have a row of what I thought was called a boars ear plant.  They will hide the ugliness of the bare branches.  Just have to remember to put snail and slug bait around them because the beggars love to eat the big leaves.

Coopers Wood Restoration System

We got a good deal for enough stripper; flusher and moisturiser to restore all the doors and the bathroom panelling!  No sanding or polyurethane.  The moisteriser is a wax protector clear coat which  highlights and seals the wood.  It just has to be reapplied every 2 years.

Looking forward to having fresh wood and panelling - it is going to make a huge difference!

Cooper's Restoration System
1-3 Ross St, Woodville NZ
www.cooper-it.com

The front door has been long overdue for repairing - the harsh salty air and general grime of roadside dust and dirt was engrained into the timber and the varnish had perished.  The kick-start I needed  was when I put the Christmas Wreath up - which emphasised the bad condition the door had got into!  With the help of Coopers Restoration stripper and moisturiser it has a new life and look!  Just have to paint the door frame and the front entrance will look mint again!

BEFORE RESTORATION!

 

AFTER

Note:  The door has since been painted with Cabots Danish Oil - using the same technique as the bathroom.  It is as good if not better as the Coopers Restoration System.