Behold our front door

There's nothing like spending a Saturday painting.  While the boys played on the Playstation and Milly read a new book cover to cover, I took charge of the last part of the "new front door" project - the painting.

Ain't she a beauty!  I swear it took longer to tape up all the bits that I didn't want paint getting on than the actually painting part itself.

Door and window reno complete

The building work has now finished on our door and window renovation.  A good clean up of our lounge room has also been completed that involved a rearrangement of furniture and art.

The next job is to paint the front door and source some professional painters to repaint our house exterior.  If there is anything left in the budget we might get some shutters for our new windows.

Door and window reno

Yesterday was a long day coming.  Work finally started on our front entrance renovation.

The story begins in April last year when we were away on holiday in sunny Queensland and our home region was struck by terrible storms.  We came home to a house still standing and relatively unharmed.  However, with the torrential rains and damp our timber front door had swollen so much, that once opened it was unable to be closed.

Then came the dramas with our insurer.  We have never needed to make a claim before, so this was new ground for us.  What a learning experience it was!  The assessor they sent immediately said yes the door and door frame needed to be replaced.  Given the door framing and surrounding windows were all one piece, the whole lot would have to be done.  

Almost two months go by and we hear nothing.  We chased our insurer, who chased the assessor for a report (as he hadn't yet submitted it).  Finally a Scope of Work was received, but it only included replacing the door and not the framing or surrounds.

A further two months go by as we chase an answer to why the Scope of Work does not cover all the assessor said on the day.  Our insurer than gets another assessor (from the same building company) to conduct a second review.  This assessor stood there with hands on his hips and said only a new door would be covered by our insurance and not the rest.  He also said he would have a windows guy come around in the next day or two and measure the windows for a quote to get the rest of the job done.  Ok we said.

Another month passes and no windows guy shows up and we don't hear from the builder/assessor.  By this time we've had enough and call our insurer to settle the claim and organise the repairs ourselves.  Coincidentally, once we'd settle with our insurer they just happened to have the assessor's full report available for us to see.  Plus our insurer added unless we replaced the timber framing with aluminium they wouldn't cover us should further damage occur.  

Completed cheesed off, we needed to move forward so contacted a builder we have used in the past to see if he was interested in the job.  He was, but his father had just passed away, so he needed time to sort out his dad's affairs before he could have a look and do a quote.  We decided to wait for our builder.  He did a great job on some other timber maintenance stuff we hired him for earlier that year.  Finding a builder who is conscientious and who you can trust is important.  Being novices to renovation it was very important to us.

   

Too get things moving along I met with our builder's recommended windows specialists.  We drew up a new design, decided on having white framing and then discussed doors.  I didn't like any of the aluminium options for doors.  They all seemed too modern for our weatherboard house.  I then went about sourcing a solid external timber door.

Our builder returned and he and the windows guys measured up, then came back again and rechecked it all and remeasured.  Our windows order was finally placed just before Christmas.  With most manufacturing and supplier businesses closed over the Christmas period it was another wait until production of our windows could start.

School holidays were already well and truly over before we got the call two weeks ago that the windows were almost finished and a start date was set for the renovation.

Which brings us to yesterday.  Hooray!  Hooray!  Hooray!  We have started.

When our builder Ian and his crew of two showed up just after 7.00am it was all systems go.  Our old frame and windows came out smoothly and quickly.  Everything needed to be ready for the windows being delivered at lunchtime.  Ian and his team worked so diligently and tirelessly all day.  They barely stopped and managed to get both frames in place and attach the new front door.  Now it's packing and reframing and all those other builder bits to make it look seamless with the house.  Day one over.    

Pool daze

Come late Sunday afternoon we've been heading down to our local pool to cool off.  It's the perfect time to go.  It's not the middle of the day where it's too busy and you get burnt to a crisp.  Yet it's still hot enough to welcome a cooling down and we have some family funtime in the water.

Water fight

We've had some hot days over the past weeks.  When we can't get to the local pool the boys cool off with an old fashioned water pistol fight.

Swimming carnival

A new year, a new term, and a new member for Blue House.  Our girl was a little anxious about her first swimming carnival.  Worried about the races, worried she couldn't swim 50m, worried because it was all a new experience.  We just tell our kids it's about having a go and having fun with your friends.  They have both been doing swimming lessons for years and can swim all the strokes, so there is no concern that they can't swim.

The first event was 50m freestyle.

Guess who won her heat?  That's right she did, in what was a very close finish.  Smiles all round and her confidence grew.

Henry isn't a fan of having to race and he set himself a personal goal of completing two events.

He surprised himself by coming fourth in his 50m freestyle heat.

The next event was the 50m backstroke.  Milly had never started from the diving blocks before, but she watched the previous heats to see how it was done.

She finished first in her heat again, this time winning very convincingly.

I was very proud of Henry for having a go in the backstroke.  Each year at each carnival he has done a little bit more out of his comfort zone.  He might have finished last in his heat but he had a big smile on his face at the end.

Milly also competed in the 50m breaststroke and came third.  It was her first race against the zone swimmer in her age group.  She was then also chosen for the relay team.

After her swimming success, she now wants to ditch her drama classes and pursue professional swimming.  

Milly's school work

At the end of a school year the kids return home with all their school books.  Towards the end of the school holidays I finally had a chance to look through them all.  I've kept some favourite pieces of art work and their creative writing books as keepsakes.  

I just couldn't help but share two examples of Milly's work from last year.

The first is from one of her maths worksheets.  She got the answer right, the number sentence wrong, but it's her working out that had me laughing.  Not sure her teacher was impressed.

This second piece is a great example of persuasive writing.

Time for a chop

The kids started back at school this week.  Along with getting new school shoes they all needed a haircut.  The boys like their hair long, as do I, but a tidy up was needed.

BEFORE PHOTOS

Henry was reunited with Leo the pug for lots of pats and licks.

First in the chair was Buster.  His last haircut was before he started school the previous year.

Milly wanted to go second.  Her hair was very long and is hard to manage.  It also tangles easily.  She wanted a lot cut off the length but still long enough for plaits.

Henry was quite reluctant to have his hair cut.  There were a few tears as Ange our hairdresser brushed out his knots.  Leo saved the day sitting on Henry's lap and licking away the tears.  By the end of it Henry was very happy with his funky new hairstyle.