Slightly less mess Australia Day Long Weekend 12 - 14 March 2016

Well, we had assumed that the electrics were all done and finished.  Josh had called me during the week, and said it was all good.

Well, unfortunately it wasn't...

Justin and I arrived on Saturday morning with high hopes.

We entered, and there was no switch for the front hallway light yet.  Then tried our bedroom, and the light didn't work, then tried the green room and the light didn't work.  Dining room, bathroom, kitchen; none of these lights worked.

I went out to the new switchbox and found that the switches were in the off position so flicked them up with high hopes.

Once I'd done this - the fridge worked, but still not the kitchen light, and the new light in the cellar worked.  Mark later said "what were we complaining about, if we only had to choose 2 things to work, the light in the cellar, and the fridge would be them."

Anyway, I got on the phone to Josh, and he thought it might have been the builder, driving a nail into a wire while he was putting the boards back down.  AGGHHH.   as it was all working on Thursday when his boys left  -

Lucklily Josh volunteered to come out and have a look and try and fix it up.

In the mean time Justin and I tried to tidy up a bit - as although the boards were back down, it was still very messy, and still very gritty/dirty.  There was a lot of work to be done - moving the furniture back, sweeping, mopping etc.

Karen and Mark arrived an hour or so later, all excited that we'd finally have proper electricity.  We had to break the news to them, that we were actually worse off than normal, ie only one light and one power point for the fridge.  It could have been quite an uncomfortable weekend.

However, we made the most of it.  Karen had brought some supplies for lunch, and we had some bits and pieces, so we sat outside under the tree and lunched.

Josh arrived during lunch, and went and fiddled with the switchbox.  I'm not sure what he did, or what was wrong, but he fixed it.  Therefore obviously it wasn't a nail through a wire,  Franki came by on Sunday, as he wanted to explain about the floor - some of the boards were too damaged to replace, so he put chipboard down.  He also suggested that we replace the bad boards in the dining room with the good boards from the green room, as they would be all the same, and just replace all of the boards in the green room, when it came time to do the floors.  Good idea we thought.

Anyway, back to Josh, he'd fixed up the electricity, so it was all good.  Justin did notice that a curved bit of the bannister base was missing - someone must have knocked it out.  It wasn't on the floor, or anywhere around.  Josh called up his guys and Franki, but they hadn't seen it, so Josh went through the rubbish bin and also the trailer to try and find it.  No luck.  And it would be difficult to replace it too.

large bit fallen out of bannister

Well, of course I had to have a look after Josh left, the rubbish bin as putrid as the workers had put their takeaway boxes in there and the leftover bits of food had started stinking in the hot weather.  I had gloves, but was starting to dry retch.  Not pleasant!

Karen then had the brilliant idea to leave the bin, and go and sift through the trailer rubbish, which was infinitely less stinky.  And yes, I found the piece and was very pleased.

stinky bin which I started going through

The found piece

 So, back to the cleaning/tidying - Karen and Mark helped too.  We managed to do our 2 bedrooms downstairs...and also the dining room

Karen mopping #1

Karen mopping #2

Karen mopping #3

I did some pizza dough in the bread maker, and made up some pizzas which Justin cooked up in the pizza oven for dinner .  Delicious

And Justin also serenaded us after dinner
 

post pizza serenade

 Had a slow start in the morning - but it was more of the same

I beat the carpets outside which were full of dust and grit

dusty carpet

Justin took the awful carpet off the stairs (about time, I'd never liked it)

removing the stair carpet #1

removing the stair carpet #2

naked stairs

All of this dirt/dust is from under the carpet on the stairs!

We also took the lino off the floor in the bathroom - as they had taken part of it off anyway in order to pull the floorboards off, and it just looked silly to put the loose pieces of lino back.  But the backing of the lino was sticky, so we had to put a temporary plastic tarp down (floor boards look good though)

tarped bathroom

 Karen did some more vacuuming and discovered that the powerpoints on the Kingower wall upstairs ie yellow room and red room didn't work

Karen vacuuming upstairs "bathroom"

Fixed up the little yellow room (I since moved the bed back under the window)

yellow room

We did 4 or 5 loads of washing - sheets, doona covers etc.  Luckily it as still pretty hot and windy, so it didn't take long to dry

 Karen and Mark left around 12 on Sunday, and Justin and I continued on.

Michael stopped by to bring a charger to charge my car battery.  I'd stupidly left the lights on - Josh had noticed yesterday, but it was too late, the battery was basically flat.

checking on the battery #1

checking on the battery #2

We didn't really feel like cooking on Sunday night, so Justin went to GGs for some takeaway - brought us back some souvlakis - not bad.  And he had borrowed Sicario from the IGA, as he's wanted to see it for a while.  Had a very exciting start, but I think it went downhill from then,  Not a great movie.

Put the red room together on Monday (Labour Day) , and we think it looks pretty good.  Remember, it has Alex's "old" king size bed, with a very good mattress and topper.  Justin was saying that he wouldn't mind sleeping there now..so watch out guests  - we might appropriate this room

one half of the base 

the floppy mattress

2 halves of the base

red room made up #1

red room made up #2

red room made up #3 (cups from Karen)

red room made up #4

red room made up #5

red room made up #6

We also moved that pesky green couch - pesky only that it is pretty heavy and a bit unwieldy to move as it's a sofa bed, and when put on its side the bed part tends to come out.  However we managed the easiest move ever, by putting it on the furnture trolley.  Was a piece of cake, and put it in the bee room - in the bay window.  Good spot for it I think.  We won't need to move it for a while

getting ready for the move

the final position

the trusty trolley after the move

So, having the couch out of the way we were able to clean up the end of the top hallway - and position the chaise longue there.

vacuuming the desk

mopping the floor

sadly no time to sit and realx!

So that was pretty much it for upstairs - the yellow room was put back together, and so was the red room, and the hallway.  We tidied up the bee room as best we could - but it still has the "blue room" bed head and mattress in there.  The "blue room" has some more odds and ends in it, but is ready for painting, and the "bathroom" still has the scaffolding.

Back to downstairs -  the oven has been moved from the back hall into the kitchen

"new' double oven

and is working - although we are not sure about the tricky Ilve controls.  I thought there was an instruction manual, so either it was thrown out by the workers, or there never was one...

The smaller (non fan forced ) oven has easier looking controls

However, as we all know the internet is a wonderful thing, and I've found a rosetta stone to translate the Ilve hieroglyphics

 

And, given that the oven was moved, I also tidied up the back downstairs hallway.  We can see the the 2nd back door for the 1st time!

And what with all of this sweeping/mopping etc - I got a blister - how ridiculous!

long blister on my pointer finger

And at the end of the day, I went and did an electrical audit of what was still required, ie most of the cords were too short - so we wanted them lengthened, the cords in the kitchen and the study were too long, so we wanted them shortened, the switch in the scullery didn't work, the switches in the bottom hallways were operational, and the Kingower facing upstairs powerpoints didn't work.

We hope all will be fixed up by the next time we come....