Attic Painted White

The Android had first dibs on the attic for his studio. Like the rest of the house, it hadn't been updated since the 1970's. The worst offender in this room was the carpet, which had an evil rubber underlay that had stuck to the timber floor, and needed to be scraped off with a trowel... all 30m2 of it.
Here's what it looked like before we attacked it with said trowel... and the spray gun...

Android Attic Studio - BEFORE

No, that's not the Android's music equipment - these photos were taken before we moved in.

We discovered that the particular type of pine used to line the ceilings with was still bleeding tannin even after 40 years. So the whole area at the be sealed with Zinsser Cover Stain before we could paint it. And that needed to be applied with a brush...

All the walls were spray painted with our favourite Dulux "White on White".

After scraping up the old carpet (and going through several dust masks), the floorboards weren't in good enough condition to leave exposed. Also, those same boards form the roof of the rooms underneath, so needed a bit of cover. 

So we laid foam underlay, then covered that with chipboard sheeting screwed directly into the joists.

Android Attic Studio - DURING

We have since lime-washed the floors using Feast Watson Liming White, and we have new light fittings (to replace the buzzing flouros) waiting for us to book the electrician again.

The stairwell leading up to the attic also got a thorough stripping.

Stairwell to Andoid's Attic - BEFORE

The previous owners were obviously of the opinion that one could never have too much red shag pile. And there was always scope to line a room with pine panelling.

Stairwell to Android's Attic - DURING

Dulux "White on White" makes yet another appearance. The good thing about knowing you are going to rip the carpet us, is that little care to what lands on it needs to be paid.

 

This is a fairly terrible photo of the concrete stairs (I forgot the flash on the camera). 

We are in the process of sealing the concrete on both these stairs and in the hallway (shown painted white in a previous post) using a low VOC product by Livos.

Updates on the sealed concrete floors will follow next.

Until then

V&A

Painted Brick Hallway - Before & During

We are back at work full time, which means that we are back to having only our weekends to spend customising our gothic brick monstrosity.
Some things had to get moved forward on our "To Do" list (who knew that red shag pile carpet and cat vomit were mortal enemies) while others have had to be moved back (replacing the kitchen will also require a complete re-wire, so that got moved down the list).
Hopefully, however, the list of things that had to be done, but that we couldn't actually do ourselves, is now almost complete... including:

1. Installing a new automatic garage roller door (when the old one fell off)
2. Installing new gutters to the entire house (as the old ones fell off)
3. 5 visits from the plumber to fix burst pipes
4. Installing an exhaust fan in bathroom
5. Replacing some of the light fittings
6. Removing dodgy "oh-my-god-we-could-have-died" wiring from the underfloor heating
7. Upgrading the electrical box
8. Replacing the water pump

We were hoping to share some 'Before and After' pics with you by now, but we are really still at the 'Before and During' stage. But so it looks like we have actually been doing something... here's the 'Before and During' of the entrance hallway.

HALLWAY - BEFORE





Above is what you were greeted with on opening the front door - the full onslaught of red brick and red shag pile carpet could only really be appreciated with all the lights turned on and a strong flash on the camera. There is almost no natural light, which made walking down the hall more like entering a crypt.

If you do make it safely to the end, the above photo shows what you would see when you turned back.

The front door is actually very solid and quite attractive, but in desperate need of TLC. The glass in the door is also red, contributing nicely to the 'gateway from hell' aesthetic. The pale pile timber ceiling does little to lighten the mood with all the red shag pile.

The copper coloured track lighting is completely out of place, and the first of many gothic archways gets lost in the 'redness'.

Our initial plan (before moving in) was actually to paint the hallway darker (either dark grey or black). But it soon became apparent the priority was to bring some light into the hall - but skylights wouldn't work as there are rooms above.

We were also planning on putting up with the hallway in its dark state for longer... but one of the cats ate a full bowl of food then decided to go for a run through the house before throwing up on the red shag pile. Hence the whole 'rip up the carpet' task moved to the top of the "To Do" list. (It is impossible to get cat vomit out of shag pile. Period.)

HALLWAY - DURING

The brickwork was painted using Dulux "White on White" in a low sheen finish. We will be using this colour in other parts of the house. We had lots of paint swatches in different rooms to ensure that whichever white we picked looked good everywhere.

From reading up on tips on the internet, we reckoned we could manage painting the brickwork ourselves,

Regardless of what you can find on the internet, painting brickwork sucks.

Big time.

Maybe nice smooth new bricks are easier.

Our bricks are old, highly textured, with lots of pitting.

To use a sprayer would have required lots of paint to fill in the holes, which would have resulted in lots of dribbles and runs. Also due to the pitting, a long nap roller didn't work. 

So we had to paint it all with a paintbrush.

The first coat was the most painful, as the bricks were very dry (and did we mention really heavily textured and pitted?). Coat One was followed by filling in the large holes and gaps with paintable flexible filler. The second coat was then slightly less painful and a bit quicker.

I took this (dodgy) photo on my mobile, without a flash (it was also a cloudy day). You can really see the difference that removing the dark carpet and painting the brickwork has made. We have also since painted inside the gothic arch white as well (it goes up to an attic).

The front door will be painted gloss black, and we have some new light fittings (made from recycled water pipes) waiting to be installed.

We are currently in the process of finishing the floors - tiling turned out to be way over our budget at the moment, so we are stencilling and sealing the concrete.

We'll post some more pics as we get through it.

For now, yours

V&A

We made it!

This is really a ‘brain dump’ to catch everyone up on the last month, and advise that yes, we made it. 

But to get you all up to speed….

The container was picked up on time all to plan on the Friday 28 August, and the Android dropped me at the airport on Saturday morning for my flight to Tasmania.

I arrived at the house at about 4:30pm on Saturday 29 August, by which stage it was raining and absolutely freezing. The tenant had not only used all the firewood, but failed to mention that the underfloor heating controls had melted... which meant no underfloor heating. Of course, I hadn't packed a portable heater in my carry-on luggage.  

So my first night was spent in a mad scramble to find anything dry and combustible, then sleeping on an inflatable mattress, wearing a pair of track pants, 2 pairs of socks, Ugg boots, 2 T-shirts, a beanie, woollen gloves, a jumper and a jacket on top of my Superman onesie. 

I spent most of the night trying to convince myself that we had not just made the biggest mistake of our lives.

The next day I had no end of willing locals keen to tell me this was the coldest winter in 30 years. 

But at least I ended up with some firewood.

On Monday, having waved off the cats in the care of the lovely people from Dogtainers, the Android was able to start the long drive from Queensland to Tasmania (2,433.4 kilometres in total).

The Android drove from Queensland to Tasmania (plus a ferry ride)

The cats flew in (with a dog for company) later that day, and were remarkably well adjusted for 2 little furry grandmas (they celebrated their 12th birthday in September). By the time I picked them up from the airport and brought them home I had at least been able to shop for kitty litter, cat food, a heater and an electric blanket (not looking forward to the first electricity bill…).

Naturally, during that first week alone, the crazy hours & stress from work caught up with me. By Tuesday I was coughing up my lungs and alternating between being freezing and walking around in a T-shirt. I definitely did not want anything to go wrong or would probably have lost my few remaining marbles too.

The container arrived on time and in one piece as planned that Thursday.

There was, however, a moment of panic when the guy delivering it said he didn’t think he would be able to get it in the driveway. I think I willed him into it by repeating “It’s going to fit. It’s going to fit.” over and over. 

It fit. 

The guy was a genius. Though he was very keen to point out (frowning) that we had over 10 tonne in the container. Oops.

Andy arrived on Friday having spent 3 days driving down the East coast of Australia, and a night on the ferry from Melbourne to Devonport. He took one look at me while I coughed and spluttered, and dragged me to the doctor.

I told him that not all the gurgling noises were me, and that I thought the water pump (which supplies our house with water from underground) was about to die. 

It died on Sunday. 

We had it replaced Monday. 

The suddenly efficient water pressure made a pipe under the slab blow. We got that fixed Tuesday (by redirecting the pipes, not by digging up a foot thick concrete slab). Fixing that pipe then made another pipe blow on Wednesday. By which time we were considering adopting one of the plumbers. Especially when we found out that the septic hadn’t been pumped out in about 15 years. 

It was also about that time that the roller door fell off the garage.

Okay, let’s be honest, nothing has been done on the house in about 15 years. We have to spend a lot of money on fixing the boring things before we can start doing the things we actually want to do!

On the plus side, all of the nice people who have fixed our various ‘issues’ have collectively said that the house is really solid, so we have in fact been really lucky that these (so far) are the only things years of neglect has produced. 

Though ‘really solid’ can also translate into ‘really annoying’… like all the door frames are actually steel which has been back-filled with concrete (we just thought that they were timber like on a normal house…) which is going to made changing anything a little challenging.

But really, we were expecting a lot of the above to happen, knowing that the house had stood empty for so long and that no-one had really cared for it. The only disappointment has been that the kitchen really isn’t as serviceable as we had hoped (the Android obviously had his “man eyes” in when he decided it just needed a coat of paint) and will need to be replaced rather than revamped.

Eventually.

The fuzzies are still settling in as a result of the continuous stream of tradies (the complete fun with the plumbing deserves its own entry later). They also saw their first horse a couple of weeks ago and that confused them! But they are now getting on better with each other, so obviously they like having the larger space (than the basement flat they spent a year in) and the peace and quiet

We are settling into the routine of the mountain… 4pm is when the neighbouring cows get fresh hay (that’s when they start moo-ing) and 10am the old man from the forest walks with his dog down the road outside our house... backwards.

Feels like home.

Transit Insurance - protecting your stuff while it's being moved

It's been a while ... but we haven't been idle.
We have:

• booked the Android's ferry trip on Spirit of Tasmania
• booked Viktoria's flight
• booked the cats' flights (more on this in a later post)
• booked accommodation for the Android's driving stop-overs from Queensland to Melbourne
• kept packing

We also arranged for Transit Insurance to cover our belongings while being moved from Queensland to Tasmania.

Whichever way you choose to relocate (we are using a shipping container service) make sure you check to see whether the company you use carries their own transit insurance.  Also check whether your own Home & Contents Insurance (if you have it) has a 'goods in transit' component.
Neither of the above applied in our case, so we needed to get separate transit insurance.
We went through Rural & General Insurance Brokers who are underwritten by Chubb Global.
Without going into too much detail, to insure our entire contents of around $75,000 against all accidental loss & damage cost us $1,380.34. It was a very simple process & the broker was very helpful.
Part of working out the correct value, required that we completed a full inventory of all our belongings, which was quite an interesting activity by itself!
So now we have very little left on our "To Do" list... except finish putting everything in boxes, and then play Tetris with our belongings once the container gets here.
More about transporting cats next time.
V&A

Cost of shipping container hire - Queensland to Tasmania

We have booked our shipping container hire.
After shopping around, we opted to go with Anglia Containers.
They had no problem accommodating our request for a Highcube container (which gives more room at no extra cost). A Standard 20' shipping container gives you 33.2m3 of space, whereas the Highcube offers 37.4m3, so we have opted for that additional bit of room.



Standard vs Highcube container

 

Anglia Containers offer a loading service, but we have decided to load and unload the container ourselves. 
In terms of cost, as per their invoice:

"To deliver one lease 20' shipping container to Qld for you to load; to relocate container to Tasmania for you to unload; to recover our container $4,389.00 (including GST)"

For that, you will have the container for a total of 28 days hire (plus transit time).
You can 'split' this time however you want. We have chosen 14 days access to pack it prior to the move .... after that it's picked up and spends about 6 days in transit from Queensland to Tasmania ... and a further two weeks to unpack it before it gets collected from our new Tasmanian abode.
In moving from the mainland to Tasmania, you will also need to complete a Tasmania Quarantine Declaration and submit this document direct to Quarantine prior to the container leaving Queensland. Your shipping company of choice will also need a copy of the completed form for their records. Anglia Containers have offered assistance, if necessary, if we need any help completing the form.

Shipping Container Hire Tips

• Give the hire company as much notice as you can - due to the logistics involved in moving shipping containers around the country, companies appreciate a bit of notice as it makes forward planning easier for them
• You need more room than you think you will for the delivery - HEIGHT - wherever you plan to get the container delivered to, you will need at least 4.5 m height clearance (check for overhanging branches, cables) to accommodate the raised tilt tray
• You need more room than you think you will for the delivery - LENGTH - don't just measure up your front or side yard to see if the container fits; you also need room to unload it - you need room for a truck to reverse, tilt the tray up and slide the container off the back
• Invest in a decent padlock - this is the thing that will be keeping all your worldly belongings safe so consider spending more than $10 on it
• Don't assume you have insurance cover if something goes wrong - check to see if your Home Contents Insurance policy covers goods in transit; if not, you may need to consider getting separate transit insurance
• You may need to provide your own furniture blankets / strapping - some companies do offer a hire service, but not all. Check to see whether you need to buy or hire

The container hire is the big ticket item from our moving checklist. Also on the list are Airline tickets (including cats!), ferry, fuel & accommodation and a hire car (just to name a few)
We'll keep you updated with the moving arrangements and costs as we go.
Until then
V&A

Packing, storing & preparation - without spending a fortune

What needs to be done before we move?
"Pack" would be high on the list.
We had no desire to outlay funds on shiny new cardboard boxes, so we were fortunate to find a reliable source of used cardboard boxes. As the boxes were originally used to ship music equipment to a store, they are made from a double layer of cardboard for added strength. The store would otherwise dispose of them to a recycling company, so they came at no cost to us.
Fortunately a fair portion of our belongings have been packed since September 2014, so there is much less to pack this time around. 
Our previous house sold much quicker than we had anticipated, and we needed to find urgent accommodation in Qld before we relocated interstate. It also had to be somewhere we could stay on a month-to-month basis as Victoria was committed to seeing two projects at her work through to completion in August 2015, and we were yet to find a house to buy in Tasmania.
The apartment beneath the cafe where we found ourselves is much smaller than the house we left. That meant there was a lot of furniture that we re homed at very reasonable prices as we had nowhere to keep it ... if we didn't need it, we didn't take it.
With little room to display anything in the apartment, all of Viktoria's books (all 23 boxes of them) have remained mothballed and packed.
We are hiring a shipping container to move our household belongings from Queensland to Tasmania, but will be loading and unloading the container ourselves, as this was a considerable cost saving.
Our thoughts have therefore turned to how best to pack everything into the container so it doesn't slide everywhere, and to minimise 'waste' moving materials.
For the larger pieces of furniture and white goods we purchased those 'single use' felt blankets.



While these blankets may only survive one outing in their life as a furniture blanket, they are:

1. relatively inexpensive ($9.96 each at Bunnings)
2. made from recycled materials
3. perfect for re-proposing as weed control mats at the new house.

The other main packing expense was decent quality ratchet straps to secure the load inside the shipping container.
The Android tracked down some 9m long x 50mm wide straps ($155.00 for 10 of them) from a Brisbane seller on eBay. With good friends who create monumental public artworks, the straps will also be destined for a new life once we're finished.
We will need to get one more lot of boxes from the store to cater for the 'daily use' items that we will need to pack closer to the move date. With such a long lead time, we are mildly optimistic that we will be prepared.
While the Android may not be dreaming of electric sheep, he is re-running packing scenarios and furniture arrangements in anticipation of the day in August that the container arrives. Details of the costs and logistics of the shipping container will be provided shortly.
Until then,
We remain
V&A

A new day, a new blog.
We've had a slight change of focus from building a house, to renovating an existing house.
It's been a fascinating, frustrating, expensive, stressful, exciting but ultimately unfulfilled journey which got us to this point.
Rather than bore you with the details, you can read about it in all it's hideous glory at  The Time Traveller's Guide to Building a House.
Suffice to say, the three years spent planning to build a house in Tasmania have come to nought. After much soul-searching (not to mention some terrifying accounting) in the latter part of 2014, we have come through bigger and stronger and more determined to pursue our plan to move from mainland Australia to the island State of Tasmania.
We have also managed to acquire a house, which is rather helpful in our quest.
Over the coming months we will track the progress of our move to Tasmania and how we manage it, our experiences with renovating our 1970's brick monstrosity, and what we end up doing for work.
At this stage, we are taking stock of our belongings and preparing for our move.
We hope you will enjoy the ride.

V&A