Suprise!

No, no baby yet. But on the last weekend I was given a lovely suprise baby shower organised by two good friends and my very sneaky husband.

With all the reno disruption and general chaos around here at the moment I wasn't going to bother with anything so I was totally suprised and very touched by the effort they went to.

Sunday morning A kept me busy doing reno jobs then asked if I would return the trailer we'd borrowed to friends L and T. I said I didn't really want to as I've never driven with the trailer before. A suggested it was time I learn and he would come with me. He also said that we should get out of the old reno clothes as L had been cooking andwe might stay for a bite to eat. Despite the extra cars out the front I still had no idea anythong was foing on until I got inside and saw people I knew that I didn't think L and T did!

According to A, I was 'beetroot' suprised - I blush easily!

I'll share some photos of the lovely gifts later. We should be getting our laptop back tomorrow which will make blogging much easier. I will leave you with one photo - the belly at 39 weeks. It looks ginormous in this picture!

Day 19

Phew. The weather was kind. It stayed sunny even if it was beanie and glove weather in the mornings.

As you saw in the last post A pulled out the window and door. He then bricked up the bottom half of the door, installed the new window and this morning we got the shaving cabinet in. I think we need to make a couple of adjustments to it though as it was done in a hurry to get out of the electricians way and is just a smige off level.

We also, finally, got to pick up our bath and shower heads! Took 4 weeks longer than expected to get them but as the shop were good about swapping a couple of things and refunding the difference I'm not going to hold the delays against them!

I think A is a bit disappointed the brickwork doesn't look 'prettier' but as we were on a tight schedule and using recycled bricks an plan on rendering at some point anyway I'm not too concerned. So long as it is sturdy, I am happy!

Here are some snaps of the process...sorry they are totally out of order as I still haven't worked out how to use blogger properly on the ipad!

Day 17 - am

The sun is shining. The door and window are gone. Please hold weather, please hold!

Day 15

Taking a leaf out of The Block's book. We have a day count on our bathroom wall. We are at 15. If we get to 50 (what the block was at last night) I think I'll cry!

So far we've filled the hole with new concrete, removed and replaced one of the windows, built the stud wall to seperate the new laundry space from the bathroom and measured and planned where everything is going.

We've got another big weekend ahead to get ready for the electrician on Monday and plumber on Tuesday.

Really hope the weather improves as I'm typing this I'm trying to decide if I can see little rain drops being blown about in the wind or if they are little snowflakes that are melting just before they hit the ground! Brrr. Doesn't bode well for creating a whopping big hole in the back of your house! Even if you do plan on filling it up in the same day!

Concrete Day

Yesterday we pulled down what remained of wall between the bathroom and laundry and put in the formwork for the concrete we need to fill the gap under the old bath. A had a ball bashing the wall down. I think it will be his favourite part of the whole process!

Today is concrete day! And hopefully stud wall day too.

A is working flat out. I am chief gofer, measurer and general stay-out-of-the-way-of-the-dusty-and-noisy-jobs girl. At 38 weeks now, I'm not much good for anything else! Apart from maybe providing food!

So far we haven't had any more nasty suprises so all is going pretty well!

Here are some pics of how we are puttng in the missing bit of slab.

Hope you are having a good weekend!

Bathroom Suprise No. 1

I don't know if you can make it out in this photo but there is a great big gaping hole under our bath and shower base. They totally just didn't continue the concrete slab there. There is slab either side, just not in that section. A little bit of an issue given this will be where we want to stand to use the basin and part of our new shower floor!

So, job number 1 becomes removal of shower base, some formwork and making a new section of slab to fill the gap.

Got to love the unexpected extras you come across!

Our 5 star bathroom

Named so as if we are brave or stupid enough to shower at night, we would be able to see the stars!

The asbestos is gone. We did not DIY this part of the job. We were told we could but as a percentage of the total budget it wasn't expensive so better to be safe than sorry were my thoughts!

Technically I could still have a bath tonight!

Here we go...

Tomorrow we FINALLY start. Tomorrow the asbestos goes which means so does the shower, bath and laundry. It's exciting to finally be starting but a little overwhelming too!

Here are some before photos. They are a little awkward as the spaces are small and I don't have a wide lens (or as we like to call them, a real estate lens) to capture the whole room.

I think I'll be taking my last long bath for a while this evening!

The first frost

We must have had our first serious frost of the season this morning. I know this not because I was up to see it but because the zucchini, eggplant and pumpkin in the garden look very wilted and sad.

A while back in my garden report I said that the pumpkin had had a rough start after being mown over by A. Well it came good (sort of) and gave us 6 decent sized butternuts. The self sown vine near the chook shed has given us a bonus 2 pumpkins of unknown variety - possibly Jap? The eggplant continued to be uninspiring and managed just one fruit!

Not to worry - the one eggplant was put to good use in a delicious Pumpkin and Goats Cheese Spaghetti Bake. The recipe is off taste.com.au - where I get a lot of recipes at the moment. I even made the spaghetti myself in an effort to use up some eggs.

On a totally different topic - the bathroom - well, the windows are ready so the real fun will begin soon!

Have a lovely weekend!