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Sunday, August 24, 2014

Catching up

So things have been scantier than a Brazilian bikini bottom post-wise around here lately....
I alluded a bit to why (briefly) in my last post here, but let me fill you in properly on a big part of the reason for it (if you are interested, feel free to just keep scrolling tho!).

We have been renovating!
Well strictly speaking we have paid someone to do most of the reno work but the running around with two small children to multiple stores for materials before hand (major time spendage, especially when you are on a budget), the life/daily routine disruption during and the clean up throughout and after have been pretty stressful and NOT at all conducive to sewing!
However we now have a fully functioning ensuite bathroom *Hooray* and for that I am truly thankful!
Our previous one had the slight problem of water leakage (there was NO waterproofing under the shower wall tiles), so we basically had to rip everything out and start again. This bathroom was only renovated a short while before we brought our house 3 years ago, so I could have cried when I found out how far back we would have to go to fix things :(
 Anyone who has done this type of renovation will know how much dust and crud ends up all over everything during the rip out/stripping process! Now that we have a lovely sleek new ensuite in place I can (almost) pretty much say it was worth the mess, unexpected cost and inconvenience!
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New waterproofed shower!

While we were at it we decided to get a false wall partition (dividing our games room) removed as it was cheaper to get it done at the same time than getting it done later. Not as bad mess wise as the bathroom wall/floor tile/ concrete stripping but still plasterboard-dust-cloud inducing.
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During wall removal

 We decided that having one larger family lounge/play area was of much greater value to us than two smaller less usable rooms. The resulting space that was created by knocking the wall out has already added so much benefit to our daily family life. The kids get a whole extra lot of space to play in/spread their toys over (we are working on packing away skills...), its a quieter TV free space for reading stories before bedtime and a lot more space now comes into the adjoining rooms from having the wall removed.

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Tah-dah! After :)
Decor wise there's still a fair bit of work to be done: the floor is half bamboo/half grungy carpet, the walls and ceilings are two different colour, we are making do with the current window fixtures and furniture we already have. 
I'm hoping to make some cushion covers and throw rugs to brighten things up a bit but that'll probably be as far as it gets in the foreseeable future. As hubby and I keep saying to each other this is the home we are planning on being in for the next 20 years, so if its not perfect right now that's OK, we have time.  

Well this post has been a little longer than planned, I think I will leave the story behind how my sewing machine collection increased almost overnight by 13 for the next post ;)

Til then....

Happy Sewing !

Kate :)

2 comments:

Cherie said...

I feel like we're living the same life! We are 3mths in on a master bed/ensuite reno on our 25yo house. We've only been here 5yrs but it was time to get rid of the peach/rose ensuite. Hopefully all will be done in the next 4-6wks - its greatly affecting my motivation to sew.

Kate S said...

I hear ya Cherie! Though we were lucky to have our renovation done with in a few weeks, not sure how I would be if it was a few months :( At least if it's an ensuite then hopefully you have another bathroom/toilet to use in the meantime- just adds that extra layer of "fun" when you have small kidlets! Must be fun to see the peach/rose decor go (as lovely as that was in the late 80s/early 90s) and be picking out something you like! Good luck for the rest of the reno! Kate :)