Right-of-Way Side Garden

We went to Roger's Garden Centre yesterday and got the 30 bay trees; 3 hydrangeas to complete the low hedge that we are putting at the side of the house.  Thanks Mum and Dad - your $150 Christmas money has been put to good use! :) They only had little wee ones  in stock yesterday  (you will need to zoom in to see them on the photo!) but they grow reasonably fast and I can prune them to make them bushier.   The nice sales lady said as we dig the holes for the plants to drop in a teaspoon of fertiliser and some water then plant the plant to hurry things along a bit....

We will grow the hedge as high as the verandah or 3 weather boards up -  around 3 foot high - and it will hide the pipes and under house area.   It will also be a barrier for the weed eater man that the owner of the driveway gets in - he sprays lawn clippings up the side of our house every time.  We have planted all but two or three of them as we need to get Les in to fix the side of the house and the under-verandah-door before doing so.  It will mirror/match the neighbour's bay tree hedge eventually - 3rd photo shows the trees when they get older - we would keep them about the height of theirs at the moment.

You need to zoom in to see the tiny bay trees!!  The larger ones at the garden shop were too tall and spindly and we want to promote good bushy trees to make a hedge - so have to wait!! :)

The hydrangeas at the brown end of the house were transported from the front garden where they didn't do very well at all.   They mostly all 'took' to their new home - so we just had to replace three of them that didn't survive the transplant!  So the back of the side of the house will have a hydrangea hedge and the front is bay tree hedge! 

You need to zoom in to see the tiny bay trees!!  The larger ones at the garden shhop were too tall and spindly and we want to promote good bushy trees to make a hedge - so have to wait!! :)

  

  

  

We also got 4 star jasmine to fill in the gaps in the front garden as we didn't get enough.  Glen had run out of puff by the time he got to this area of planting - there are a lot of roots that need to be dug out before the star jasmin can be planted!  So they will be put in today!  I will grow this as a hedge too and have it the height of the verandah.  it will hide the ugly wall on the right hand side too.

  

Next door neighbour's that we are mirroring for consistency

Bathroom

Bathroom Cabinet

The top surface of the bathroom cabinet was in need of repair.  The finish on it had worn and water gotten under it causing black mold in places where water collects.  I was too frightened to deal with it in case I wrecked the wood - but bit the bullet. Unfortunately even after sanding and treating the wood the black didn't disappear.

Tip:  Put a plastic bag over the taps to remind people not to use the bathroom and possibly wet the wood....!

I used Cabots Danish Oil - and at this photo I had done two coats of it.  It was starting to get a sheen to it.

There was a bit of mold at the back of the cabinet.  You will see where I have sanded a lot as it is lighter in colour than the rest of the cabinet top.  I

After three more coats it would be definitely protected  - but now it is too shiny and plastic looking...what to do.....

Did some research online to see how to deal with the Danish Oil going too shiny rather than keeping a more natural satin/matt finish.  I have to do the cupboards underneath now as it looks too different!

I had been doing it all wrong (don't follow the directions on the tin!). What you do is apply the Cabots Danish Oil and lightly 'wet sandpaper' it with 280grade sandpaper - the filings enter the grain of the wood.  Leave it for 10 minutes then buff with a cotton cloth (old t-towel). This takes the shine off.  You do have to do this procedure three times - slowly letting the danish oil seep into the wood and maintaining the more natural matt/satin finish.

Apparently Osmo is an even better oil to put on wood and good for wet areas - doesn't it rock your boat when you find better alternatives.  I have to put the doors on the unit yet and the handles on of course - but much happier with the finish.

Now the walls are starting to look terrible!!

I did a bit of an experiment with the bathroom door which was in need of restoring. As you can see just one coat of Danish on on the left hand side of the door has made a huge difference to the look of it. 

So I continued - this is just one coat. Doing the gentle rubbing in of the wet oil with fine sandpaper. Leaving for 10 minutes then buffing off with a cotton t-towel.  I am so rapt with the difference - it looks like a new door! :)

Am wondering now whether to paint the wainscotting white to make the bathroom lighter and brighter - keeping the door and cabinet natural wood.  You can see the cabinet doors on the chair - they are just waiting for another coat of oil before being put back on again!  Neverending......

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.