Whew, I feel like I'm at Inglewood full time these days, just going back to Melbourne to see the family, get a change of clothes etc - as it's all leading up to Saturday 15 June with Restoration Australia coming back for the last time to do the "reveal" filming on Saturday, and then the party scene from 4-6pm
Anyway, I drove up on Wednesday afternoon after my CWA duty in Richmond. Got there late afternoon, and saw that a window in the kitchen was not surprisingly dirty (after floor sanding dust and plaster sanding dust etc)
The below photo might look a little confusing. I took it at night, so it is dark outside, but you see the reflection of the pots, bench, sink etc in there. However I had written "clean me" (like they do on dirty cars sometimes) - as a little joke for me - and if you look closely you can see it
I was in a bit of a flap......I thought I had both Thursday and Friday to finish things off - however no, that wasn't the case. Mark had sent me an email detailing that the camera crew were coming on Friday morning to take shots of all of the rooms - for the before/after dissolves.
Justin had planned to come here on Thursday night, and to take Friday off - so that we could put up the rest of the pictures, polish etc - but now there's no need.
Chris was also going to come and install the kitchen mantle shelf on Friday, but I also told him he may as well just come on the Saturday, and could install it on Sunday
Anyway, I called up my trusty friend Terry, and asked if he could come over tomorrow to assist yet again - to put up pictures etc, and to also replace the cement sheet in the kitchen chimney cavity with a piece of ply, which should look better. I explained that I was quite stressed, as I now had only tomorrow to get the rest of the pictures up, not to mention do more window etc cleaning (and Connie wasn't able to come either now) I am not even considering polishing the wood/stonework now - no time, need to do jobs that have the most impact...
He calmed me down, and said he'd be over in the morning - thank goodness for Terry
Thursday, a quick breakfast, (and of course wordle/quordle etc) and then into my coveralls / thermal vest and beanie -as it's pretty cold in the house. However, once I got working, I soon warmed up
And to change the subject a little bit, the shed guys came early, and not only started, but pretty much put up the shed! How fabulous.
So, the frame is done, we just need the concrete slab put in now
I pulled out the cement sheet in the kitchen hearth - had to break it to get it out - oh well
Terry came soon afterwards - put up the bird painting -
Put up my painting in our room
the mirror that Uncle Brian made in the hallway - so that you can check if you look presentable on the way out the door
A William Morris tapestry in the Music room
meanwhile I was washing windows inside and out - a before shot in the dining room
Scraping off old paint from our predecessors
And being horrified at how little putty was actually on the outside window frames - some of the window glasses were pretty much kept in place by a few small nails - good thing I didn't push too vigorously when cleaning the inside
In the meantime - handyman Steve had painted the front window frames and they looked good!(just needs to put the flyscreens back)
And I cleaned away the kamikaze squashed earwigs in the front door jamb
Mark from Restoration Australia dropped by in the late afternoon - bringing some flowers for decoration for tomorrow - a bunch of red roses, some pink everlasting flowers, bright yellow gerberas and a pot of cyclamen.
I'd brought some vases from home - and arranged them accordingly - also beefed up some of the bunches with wormwood, cotoneaster etc
Put the pink everlasting flowers with silver wormwood (hadn't properly arranged them in the below photo) in the kitchen - thought those colours went well
Put the gerberas in the dining room
The cyclamen in the hallway
And the roses etc in the bee room - might not have taken a photo of that
Anyway, Mark was very pleased with our progress - I told him I'd still clean some more windows etc tomorrow
Friday - and I didn't sleep that well, was awake at 5.30am, so thought I may as well get up and get going (after Wordle/quordle etc)
There was a lovely red dawn, - but remember the old saying - red in the morning shepherd's warning....and the day was dull and overcast (bit of rain in the late afternoon)
The guys came around 9am - Mark, Macca/Wayne and Lorna (new girl) who was from Bridgewater originally and knew the house. They were not thrilled with the light. That made me wonder why they didn't just come back and film in Spring or Summer, or even next Autumn - given that this episode won't be shown til next April/May etc
The had to use some bright lights inside
Justin thought there was too much colour on the dumb waiter in the dining room, so I moved 2 vases, and put them in the upstairs green room
I also put out the red carpet that Rachel had sourced and delivered for us
Meanwhile it was more washing and wiping down windows for me - ie music room, bee room, dining room etc
And I fixed the light in the music room - putting the light fitting base back on the ceiling
And I was taking sneaky shots of the film crew and set up
Anthony arrived in the afternoon and did a piece to camera under the big tree
Justin arrived late afternoon, and Mark and Anthony went off to film his entrance to Inglewood while they still had light. Didn't go that well, ie not enough light, so they'll have to do it tomorrow.
Anyway, they came back, and I invited them all to stay for a drink - which we had in the dining room - all very pleasant ( no photos- whoops)
And then we all decided we would go to the pub for dinner together - this was good also - as we got to know them all a bit better - and so was very relaxed and social (once again no photos)
The food was also pretty good - the menu had been changed and Justin and I had chicken tacos which were delicious
Saturday, and it was back to typical Inglewood weather ie sunny and blue - which made Mark a lot happier
They arrived around 9am - and this time there were even more of them - ie a sound guy and also a stills guy
We were miked up, and Justin decided he wanted the grandfather clock baubles straightened
I wore my new dress - and thought I might need a jacket as it was pretty fresh inside the house, but I was moving around/excited, so didn't need one
We welcomed Anthony back for the cameras, had to do a few takes (as usual). Anthony saying that it looked like we hadn't done very much to the front of the house - painted the door and frame, and also the windows. I forgot to say we had also fixed up the sizeable cracks in the render - oh well. He also thought the garden was looking quite overgrown, I preferred to call it lush....
Anyway, showed him in - and he saw the progress. He also admitted that the mural was a lot better than he thought it would be (had had his doubts when we mentioned it originally)
And I kept taking some sneaky shots
They bought us all lunch which we had in the rotunda
And then back to it
In between actual filming bits with Anthony, they were also taking fancy still shots of Justin and myself - both together and separately
The stills photographer Dean - suggested that Justin get a book and read from it. He selected an Edgar Allen Poe book - very appropriate
And also stills with Anthony - where Justin and I would be standing together, and Anthony to the side and slightly in front. One of these photos will be the thumb nail to identify our episode
Sometime in the afternoon Karen and Tom dropped off the velvet bollards - to make our red carpet entrance even more special
And Anthony also sent me some photos which he'd taken during the day
And I took this one of Anthony that he sent back to me - which was amusing - I asked him to jump after taking a normal shot, so he did it ala the old toyota ads
They had re-arranged the room a little bit, - bringing out the couch, taking the table out of the bay window, putting the decanters and the pewterware on the table etc
Anyway, I was prepared, had gone over my costings spreadsheet, and knew exactly how much we had spent. Over the years I had asked Justin if he wanted to have a look at it, ie see how much we spent on plastering, electrics etc - but he wasn't interested. He similarly didn't particularly want to know before this conversation either, and we told the crew that my answer was going to be a surprise to him also
Now, when we had originally originally plucked a budget from the air - we thought $200,000, as Cam's contract for the kitchen, powder room, and ensuite was $143,000, but then with underpinning, professional plastering (we thought we might do more of it ourselves), a rather expensive stove, the planned mural etc - we thought we should raise it to $300,000 - to cover these further expenses. Well, it actually came in at $396,000 as we had to do more unexpected/unplanned for underpinning, put in a sump pump in the cellar, had some professional painting done, put in 4 split systems, upgraded to 3 phase electricity, had to pay a large variation for the Kitchen island wooden benchtop - as we couldn't use the jarrah from Jan & Peter's kitchen etc etc. But it could have been a lot more....where I could, I tried to save money - ie the fabulous kitchen pull down lights were sourced from gumtree, the ensuite vanity was from a contact of Kaylene's etc
And then he mentioned the timing - ie over 4 years since Restoration Australia had originally come - ie in May 2020. Well, there was the 2nd lot of underpinning that we had to do, which I reckon added another 6 months on at least, there was sourcing a builder - I don't think we had sourced Cam when we first started, as I was looking at separate kitchen people originally. There were of course - the numerous lockdowns with covid - and the resulting scarcity of materials/tradies. Then Cam had to take some time off - which we completely understood, and that cost us at least another 4-6 months. Then there was the interminable wait for the kitchen - with the cabinet maker consistently missing deadlines -but not really bothering to advise us. His communication skills were sorely lacking - he did make us a beautiful kitchen though - from memory, it should have been installed in March 2023, but the cabinetry finally went in in November - 8 months late....
Anyway, I reminded Anthony that the house is over 140 years old, and that in the scheme of things - 4 years is a blink, and we weren't in a hurry, we wanted to do it properly - and so here we are
He also asked me what the most surprising question was from someone visiting the house - and I couldn't really answer that - my mind was a blank - and I let them know that. I'm assuming that part won't make it to the episode
And Anthony asked Justin what he thought Joseph Tivey might make of our restorations. Justin provided a considered response - saying that in fairness, we're not decorating for mr Tivey, but he thought he would be pleased etc. After that take - Mark the producer joked around and said he thought Justin might have said something like "he's dead Anthony, therefore he wouldn't be thinking of anything - what a ludicrous question etc" This is because last year when Mark filmed us briefing Shawn (the muralist) - he prepped Justin by saying that Joseph Tivey was a "good guy" etc, but Justin corrected him, and said we couldn't possibly know that he was a "good guy" - we knew he was successful, and fairly wealthy - but not his moral fibre. Mark stood corrected!
We were supposed to finish up filming around 3.30pm, and had told guests to arrive at 3.45 for 4pm filming of the party scenes
However we finished after 4pm, and we could see some guests milling around the rotunda
I had made a run sheet for Donato (the Restoration Australia runner) - ie put a tablecloth on both the upstairs and downstairs tables. Put out the glasses ie wine, flute, water on the dumb waiter, arrange food platters (one for Restoration Australia, and then some friends also offered to bring food too - ie Karen, Anne L, Nicole, Jo, Catherine etc) between the 2 tables. Have 2 x drink stations with ice for the whites/bubbles/beers/ soft drinks, buy ice etc. And I showed him where everything was
Anyway, after we had finished the end interviews - I rushed into our bedroom for a quick change of outfit. Off with the dress, and on with the new pants and top (had to have my mike re-adjusted)
And so the party began
We invited the usual Inglewood and Kingower suspects, plus a few friends who had been along for the ride from the start, plus other tradies/people who had helped along the way. Peter B the underpinner and his wife Margaret came. So did Shawn the muralist, Gary & Elaine the heritage experts, Vikki the kitchen designer etc. Unfortunately Cam the builder, Stuart & Dave the plasterers, Ian the floor sander, Ron the wallpaperer, Mark the powder room vanity maker, and Dave the painter etc couldn't make it.
Serge, Vikki's husband took some photos of people lining up along the red carpet to get inside...
And given that Peter B - the underpinner is going to be an integral part of the episode - they wanted to film me welcoming him into the house
So guests came in, grabbed themselves drinks and mingled in both the hallways, dining room, bee room, kitchen and veranda. And we also showed people around who hadn't been here for a while ie Peter B and his wife Margaret, Gary & Elaine etc. I must admit I was a bit nervous to see what Gary and Elaine said given that they are Heritage experts - but they said they loved it, and what a good job we've done - whew
Mark wanted us out on the veranda for a big group shot
And orchestrated us from below
I'll try and add in a video (and if this works - I'll add some more)
Anthony was on the other side of the road and was doing his last roundup of the house. Justin was over on the that side too, and heard a couple of the takes
While on the veranda - Jo took a few photos of us
A couple of nice photos with me and Mark
And then speech time on the stairs - I thanked people for coming, and especially thanked both Chris E and Terry for all of the work they had put into the house and helped us with
Guests watching on
And some general shots
The film crew left around 6pm, and of course the party continued
At some stage I put on one of Rachel's crowns
And Chris from the Loddon Herald came and took some photos also. The article appeared in the paper the next week
Pizzas started arriving at 6pm - and kept coming. I had ordered 20 large ones - and we only ate about 8 of them...And I ordered a donut croquembouche - no photo of that
Guests started drifting away - and by 10pm - it was just us - me & Justin, Fraser & Rileigh, Helen & Michaela, and Chris E. I was certainly exhausted, so went to bed - and so did everyone else
We just left the dishes/everything for the next morning
Our guests were very helpful - handwashing all the glasses - however they couldn't find the boxes for quite a number of them. Turns out Donato had thrown them away - that's a nuisance - as I need to be able to store them - will have to work out another system
Chris and Justin then put up the kitchen mantle shelf
And we of course had some pizza for lunch - Helen & Michaela, and Chris E left soon afterwards - and after I had loaded them up with some pizza boxes to take home
Chris Mc had been dropped here by the Danes, as they had something on in Melbourne, so Justin and him drove back to Melbourne after lunch
I hung around - tidying up a little bit (didn't have the energy to do a lot) And goodness know that the house needs another good vacuuming and mopping after the party now.
Took some photos of broken sash cords/windows that need fixing - as Jerry knows someone who can do this
Dining room - no cord
Music room
And I put the little squirrel nutcracker and old bell on the kitchen shelf
And that's finally the end of this post - hoorah!
