The Fintelmansion

  These jobs aren't a big deal but they're big to me because I almost never do odd jobs around the house (Honeeeey... can you fix the door? Honeeeey... can you change the lightbulb? Honeeeeey... can you lift the heavy thing?) . This is partly based on the fact that Gary is already good at these things because he's done them all before, and partly because I'm a bit lazy at manual labour, and partly because girls often aren't encouraged or expected to do things like this. Dumb. Anyway, I'm taking charge of lots of little jobs that require not a lot of prior expertise and I'm finding them a good way to build my efficiency with skills that will come in handy for the bigger stuff, like learning how to use the power drill, measuring twice and cutting once, and getting used to jobs that have cobwebs nearby. I'm getting more confident and getting better at problem solving and taking risks. Here is a list of all my finest accomplishments: Door Handle ...

Dun dunnnnnn. It was super likely that in a house as old as ours, with as many hotch-potch additions as ours does, that we would have asbestos* hidden somewhere, and sure enough... we suspected, we got it checked, we found it and we got it removed. First, we got an asbestos checker in to have a look at the building and got them to test out different areas of the house and identify which walls are harbouring asbestos. Asbestos isn't a problem unless you disturb it and since we will be moving walls and yanking the house all over the place we needed to get it removed. We then got quotes from 3 companies to have it removed, along with the kitchen and bathroom fit out while they were at it. Finally we  booked a date for the removal . Before the removal you need to  prep your site  to make it easy for your asbestos angels to get in and out easily and with least damage to your property. Their main job is to remove the asbestos cement sheeting from the walls and ceilings...

Wise words from Frau Blucher   The Staircase of Death is pretty frickin terrifying to use. Each step is about as deep as roughly half your foot, assuming that you're not Sasquatch. And that means that each step is roughly half your foot not deep enough. The handrails offer you about as much support as a dolphin in a three-legged race. The stairs were also carpeted to begin with, which seemed to make the journey infinitely more treacherous. We will soon be re-building the stairs to make them more useable but at the moment we're stuck with them so this week I removed the carpet. This is my first time ever removing carpet and I'm pretty sure starting with a staircase is the hardest way to go but whatever. I live the hardcore life. What I did: Starting at the bottom stair, I pulled the carpet off with a mix of tools until one did the job. Wear a face mask for this - it's disgusting.  Once the carpet came off the bottom step the rest were easy.  I pulled...

Well, I'm in. Gary is away for work so I'm running wild and free on my own for the first week, but the important thing is that I'm wild and free IN MY OWN PEMBERLEY! Here's what I've brought with me as a starter pack as I start doing little odd jobs to clean and prep for big jobs: Safety Safety glasses Gloves Ear muffs (Is that what you call the noise block out ones?) Light bulbs and sensor lights Work lamps Dust masks Padlocks for gates  Sombrero and sunscreen Cleaning Toilet paper (haha) Sugar soap, spray and wipe, chux and sponges  Heavy duty bin bags  Hardcore vacuum for dust, chunky rubbish and liquids  A dustpan broom gaffa-taped to the end of an extendable pole to make a handy high ceiling cobweb remover Tools Cordless drill All the regular bits and pieces that came in my Her Tools set of pink tools that mum got me for Christmas that actually turned out to be awesome (hammer, screwdrivers, scraper multi-tool, measuring tape,...

I apologise in advance for the crapness of this post. In its first instance, it was an informative, witty, poignant piece of writing, a well-crafted miracle of literature. But I didn't push save, and apparently the Blogger app isn't into pausing things while you go check Facebook, and it deleted the lot. So this is the second effort, contrived and unvarying, doomed to live forever in the shadow of its forebear. Go forth and peruse, dear readers, but do not judge me for your judgement will fall on deaf ears as I weep with bitterness for this half-life I now lead. ______________________________________________________________________________ The hour draws near. The moment is almost upon us. Seriously though, after almost a full year of waiting, we are almost in the house! Aw yiss! We decided to keep the tenants in the house for a year while we made plans, took holidays and saved up for the reno, and let me tell you, no amount of Pinterest will make that year go any faster. ...

The countdown is on. T-16 days until we get the house keys.  There are loads of little things to do to prep before moving. This isn't strictly renovation related, but it's all part of the process and I want to document everything. There are so many little bits and pieces to do before moving! A snippet of the to-do list Planning We are using up our waiting time by planning as carefully as possible. We have a detailed list of jobs to be done along a tentative timeline. Each job has a list of the tools and materials that will be needed. This way we have a clear picture of priorities and can be organised when we finally walk through the door instead of flapping around in excitement but getting nothing done.  We also have a long term plan with the big renovation that will be happening eventually, and all those drawings and planning and building applications are in the works, but we want to live in the house for a bit before beginning on the big stuff.  ...

The tree sits in its natural environment of undies and goon bag fairy lights.  Note the way it has grown into the very side of the building. There was a big ass tree stump in our backyard. It was sitting right up against the back of the house, and was where we will be pouring a huge slab of concrete eventually. It was also super close to a drainpipe. The stump is about 60cms at the bulge in diameter and the roots are quite deep. We've been working on this thing for months now! First off we hired someone from Airtasker  to get the job done. Airtasker is like Gumtree for tasks you need done. You post tasks you need done and people (like cleaners, tradies or handymen and women) come and do the thing you want, for cash. We found a landscaper on Airtasker who said he could come and cut out the stump in one afternoon but for some reason unbeknownst to people who have graduated high school, he got diameter confused with circumference and didn't bring a big enough ...

The bit where we broke the bench. When we move into our house we will be immediately ripping out the filthy kitchen, bathroom and laundry to make way for a new back half of the house. Initially we were planning to buy a cheap, secondhand kitchen to install temporarily until the structural work is done and the shiny, pretty, complete-with-dishwasher kitchen is ready to go in.  But... we are lucky enough to have a friend who is renovating his apartment and getting rid of his kitchen, and who was happy for us to take out his current quoite noice kitchen for free as long as we got it out ourselves.  So this week off we all toddled to take out a kitchen. I went there with no knowledge or skills in kitchen removal.  Things I learnt about taking apart a kitchen:  Don't wear your nice pants.  It's not hard at all.  Find the things that hold the kitchen together and take them apart. This might be scraping away glue, unscrewing screws, yanking t...

I'm reading a book called  Built Like a Woman  by Sandra Broman  which is one woman's tale of how to renovate when you are a girl and have no idea what to do. I'm finding it very inspiring and challenging. One of the first things she said in the book was that in the beginning she had no idea of how to renovate and after a while of learning and becoming awesome she bought her own chainsaw. What I'm taking from the book at the moment is that you just have to get stuck in and get your hands dirty.   Last night the saw came out. My first reaction was "Ew, a tool." Then the voice inside my head that is Sandy B said "Girls can saw stuff." So off I went to saw something/take over the world. In my feminist dream of the situation, I would have picked up the saw without asking for permission or instructions, then found the exact right spot to do the sawing and sawed something to perfection.  In reality, I said "Can I do the sawing?", got...

Today we visited the Richmond Town Hall. This is the HQ of the City of Yarra Council and it is very pretty inside. It also smells very old. Why? To do building renovations to your house, you need to submit an application for a planning or building permit, or both. The changes to your site must adhere to a set of standards and rules based on your particular council and block. Before you can knock down, build or install a helipad, the council has to approve these plans. Most people would use an architect to design the building and write the planning/building application, but in the interest of saving a  bajillion dollars, we are doing it ourselves. (Note 1: Gary has a lot of technical knowledge that I don't think we could do this without. Note 2: Gary is for hire.) We have done most of our planning permit application already (more on that to come), but went in to have a chat basically about what our plan was for the renovation and to double check we had identified all the rules...