Today is the day when the air-conditioning unit is removed from its old place in the old teaching studio and moved to the dining room/kitchen. DH and I discussed the merits of having it in the master bedroom (merits: at night, in summer, I want to die because of the heat, so air-con in the bedroom would be SO GOOD), but then we agreed that it’s not really the most used room in the house: the kitchen is. So for the good of all, it’s going there today.

This means, of course I have nowhere to hide. Every room bar the bathroom and Mara’s room) is taken up with noisy people. The dog has taken to my feet (a normal place for her, but she’s even more under my feet than usual), and there’s bangs and crashes everywhere. I’m sure the air-con tradies will be done by 10am, but early morning is quite the busy junction here. (* All done by 11am but no sparky to attach the electrics because we moved it too far, we’ll have to wait for the next sparky visit, in about 3 weeks.)

I COULD go to the gym, I suppose. But I’m much more interested in seeing what’s happening here. The French doors are DEFINITELY coming out today. The ghastly half-wall bifurcating the West wing for most of the last 40 years has just been removed. There will be light and space in the back section of the wing for the next year, until we do the other bathroom. Which will either be done next year or after we’ve added a whole new room.

I am about to tidy up the kitchen and dining room now – we’ve stored stuff in here while the other rooms have been otherwise occupied and it’s time now to move stuff back out. As usual, it’s the bookcases that take up most of the space.

An amusing side note: the builders are working in and around our bedroom, which we still have to sleep in. Today there’s a fair amount of dust all over the bed, bedsheets and covers, but it has to be said DH and I are usually so exhausted from the day (tradie days start at 6.30am, muso days don’t finish until after 10 sometimes, YES, even the administrative muso ones, so we’re a bit tired all the time) that we’ve taken to half-heartedly shaking off the dust and literally falling into bed.

Plenty of people who renovate complain about the dust and general mess, but these guys only make a mess during the day. They clean up after themselves, and we’re left with unfinished but quite tidy spaces. Ask me again in a few weeks how I’m feeling then and I’m sure I’ll feel differently!

The sad part is that I get to do the interior painting. Which means that once all the interior spaces that have been relined or in some way altered are finished, I’m the one that gets to wander round in my dungarees painting all the VJ board. Oh! And in case anyone thought we’re just using only VJ sheeting, think again. Discovered today that removing the French doors necessitates the insertion of proper VJs. Actual wooden boards. Because the sheeting is too thin for the cavity. Huh!

These guys are SO quick, I swear. Today the wall between the WIR and the other bathroom was put up. I reminded the builders to put up cement sheeting on the outer wall because of the other bathroom renovations down the track (maybe a year away, maybe longer). On the inside wall there’s now insulation and Vjs, which I get to paint prior to the WIR shells going in. The paint will be white. So that we can see things.

But in our new ensuite all the VJs are going up (it’s sheeting, not individual wooden slats!), and the room will have its waterproof coat on Wednesday. Then tiles, then fitout. At some point the new louvre windows and picture window will be put in too. I’ll be painting this room too. Including the sad old windows which frankly need some tlc before the topcoat. That’s my November taken care of!

Today too it looks like the wall and French doors between the verandah and our bedroom will be removed and replaced. Huzzah!

I will be repainting our bedroom too. At the moment it’s a not unattractive pale sandy faun with beige paint on the woodwork and a white ceiling. We’re thinking of going all white. Depends how our wooden furniture will look with white painted walls. White can be pretty stark with 19th century style furniture but the room will need repainting anyway so it’s a good chance to see if it will work.

Photos later, people.

The photos you see are of the room being framed up into an ensuite and WIR. The builders have been here for 3 days and the plumber is here now roughing up the pipes for the mixer and the other stuff. The work is noisy and what with all the other building works going on in the street I’m hoping we have no shift workers living nearby. It’s a bun fight out there competing with the sound of band saws and hammers.

Sadly the ensuite is the only room in the house that has a stunning view of the city and so we decided we needed to be able to see it. DH and I demanded an enormous picture window in the ensuite: it’s so long, low and wide it may show the boobies when I shower, but it’s a pretty private space from the street (you’d need a pretty powerful telescope to look in). I’m assuming the whole window will slot into the frame they’ve mocked up for it and the tiled ledge will provide useful storage for strategically placed shampoo bottles. Stuff privacy. If people want to go to the trouble of looking at an old woman’s saggy boobies when she’s showering then I say go for it! (So did my builder, laughing.) Eventually we’ll put an outside awning in to protect the room from the fairly torrid Western sun, which will solve the privacy issue.

The room will be tiled to 2100mm with white 300×600 gloss tiles. The feature tile looks like this: 

and then we’re putting in VJs thereafter, including the ceiling. As I said to Dylan from McPherson Constructions, there is no plasterboard anywhere in our house. Why start now? Also, we’ve decided to keep the interesting higgledy-piggledy shaped roof in the bathroom because I want to recognise the origins of the house and its oddness. The front gable was attached in a really weird way with lots of angles, so the bathroom ceiling will pay homage to these where possible.

We’ve just ordered the WIR and bathroom vanity. The vanity is a bespoke piece in a clean shaker style with a large porcelain bowl laid on a satin blackbutt top, with four legs and an open shelf for towels underneath. It should look beautiful and I’ve had fun deciding on the shaker doors, the height of the drawers, even which side the centre door is opened! As to the WIR, I’ve had SO much fun deciding which section is going to be full height, which double. I’ve planned a centre console for my jewellery and makeup booth (I’ve talked to the builder about putting a mirror in the back of it and LED lighting in the top). I’ve even got some serious shoe storage happening.

I’ve ordered and paid for all the tapware, which should arrive soon. It ended up being cheaper than I thought because once I lost my desire for enamel handles I found a cheap and cheerful substitute at Reece that looks EXACTLY the same. By that I mean less than 1/3 the price of the original. I went to a Reece store yesterday and found exactly what I was looking for. No need for substitute items! Dorf Luxton (now discontinued) is a good Australian brand for our slightly old-style towel rails and toilet roll holder; Posh Bristol is the brand and make of the sink taps. Porcher Cygnet is the name of our old-style shower with diverter for my own shower preferences. Posh Dominique is the back-to-wall close-coupled toilet, and there’s a couple of other things including shower mixer and vanity bowl. Amazing how impossible it is to find a brand that incorporates all my favourite looks and designs in one make. I also ordered and paid for these beautiful lights which will sit on either side of the mirror (design yet to be decided but I’m weirdly tempted by a rectangular mirror with a narrow soft brass frame or an oval black-framed mirror). They’re ridiculously old fashioned but there’s little in the bathroom that is, and it’s about the only piece of bling in there aside from the vanity taps. Because the glass shade is a regular size we can always buy different ones down the track for a change in appearance. I’ll finish off the room with a well-placed orchid (I have one that is flowering nicely), brand new towels and perhaps a crystal container or soap dish. Can’t hardly wait.

Yes, you heard it here – the building has commenced! Well, not quite the building part exactly, more the cheap and cheerful renovation part. Dylan from McPherson Constructions is here ready to go with his worker John, the bin guy arrived at 6.30am waking me in fright, and we have cleared the West wing in preparation for the big rip-out.

There are photos of the preamble. It looks neat, tidy, and lovely. SO NICE FOR IT TO BE CLEAN AND WITHOUT FURNITURE. I say this in capital letters because I’m such a collector of things that we easily become overwhelmed with stuff. Stuff, it must be said, that is needed. This is what living without storage solutions does to one. Collections of stand-alone furniture that really just add visual clutter. Note to self: do I really need ALL the books?

Very soon this serene space will look ugly, dusty and overwhelming. And the beautiful polished hardwood floors will be hidden forever under cement sheeting and tiles. Very sad. But awesome!

(On a side note, my builder sings. Not that well, but cheerfully. And he whistles. This is a GOOD DAY.)