We’ve had a busy week-end painting.

Paul has almost finished painting the kitchen. There’s still some trims to paint around the windows, and the tiles still to lay above the bench.

My sister Wendy and I painted some primer on the lounge room walls. The pantry was stored in a corner of the lounge until the painting was finished in the kitchen, so we couldn’t paint that corner. Also we couldn’t reach to paint above the fire place, or above the window and pelmet. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get to finish the missed corner, and if Paul lifts off the pelmet I should be able to paint above the windows. I’ll try and reach the ceiling beams too as they have to be painted with primer before the ceiling white’s painted on. Paul will have to complete above the fire as there’s no way I’ll reach that, and he’ll do the ceiling. We’ll put the top coat on between the two of us.

We’re happy with the progress made so far. We still have a long way to go though. We’re hoping at the end of this coming week that all the painting will be finished, the kitchen will be completed, the flooring laid and the curtains and blinds will be fitted to the lounge and kitchen. Plus we’re hoping the outbuilding is finished ready to store our belongings.

We have done soooo much, but theres still soooo much left to do. We’re whittling it away, and each job completed is another job less to do. At the moment though there’s a lot of jobs in progress nearing completion, so still feels like a momentous task. But it’ll only be a matter of days and there’ll be loads finished, and it’ll feel like we’re nearing the end.

The end of day four into the kitchen renovation.

Today the remaining 70s brown carpet was removed from the dining end of the kitchen revealing some very colourful old tiles, and we’ve also found the remnants of some plain grey vinyl tiles in another part of the kitchen.

Under the carpet we found the remnants of what must have been the wood fired oven. The boys have had to chip away concrete from over the bricks and have poured in a self levelling compound to smooth over the floor. Unfortunately, the local hardware store were low on supplies of the levelling compound, so we’re hoping what they had will be enough. We can now see there once was a single door going from the kitchen to the lounge.

We can see the original kitchen was wall papered. Then at some stage the wood panelling was added over the original walls.

We keep asking ourselves why they didn’t do the job properly and remove the existing wall finish before adding the wood panels. Now, because we’re short of time and because we’re tidying the house up to be used for renting, we’re doing what the last people did. We’ve added another layer rather than remove the existing layers.

Some time in the future we may be re-doing the kitchen for our own use. This will include adding a wide verandah and cutting out french doors from the kitchen to provide access. At that stage the house will have been rented for some time, so a new kitchen, or at least a bit of a make over will not doubt be needed again, and that’s when we’ll do ‘the proper job’. If, however, we don’t get to add those touches for ourselves then I’m sure some future owner will be scratching their head and wondering what on earth possessed this particular owner to add ‘yet another layer’.

Paul’s dad has been moved from hospital to a temporary medium level care facility. He’ll stay there until we arrive. We’ve booked our air fare for 14th October. So, we’ll fly to Melbourne on the 13th and arrive in Manchester on the 15th. OMG! I hope we get everything finished.

Tom the builder is here and has ripped out old kitchen. Paul is acting as his apprentice, and he’s loving it.

This is the kitchen we’ve been living with. The hole above the window and the unfinished wall beneath the window have only been there since the new double glazed window was fitted. We had to raise the window to allow for a bench to be fitted underneath.

Paul’s chipping away the remnants of some 50’s carpet that had been left in place under the cupboard unit.

We’re in speed mode now. Paul’s dad is in hospital for the second time this week and isn’t doing so well. We’ve been told medically there’s no urgency, but he’s not able to cope caring for himself at the moment, and it’s doubtful if there’s any chance for improvement. He is being assessed over the next few days. We don’t know what the outcome will be for the short, or long term.

We’ll be going back to the UK as soon as we can, to do what we can. Our hope is to assist his dad to live out the remainder of his time in his own home. Until we get there we hope the Social Services will perhaps place him in some interim care. If, however, the time has already arrived for permanent full time care, we’ll need to be over there to organise the sale of his home. We hope that’s a bridge we don’t have to cross.The joys and tribulations of either being an only child, or being married to one. Especially difficult when we live a 30 hour plane trip away.

Although we had been expecting this, the suddenness of the situation becoming urgent has us at sixes and sevens trying to get things organised here. We have two choices, the first being to take a short trip to the UK leaving this house vacant. We don’t like that idea for many reasons, not the least of which is, it would prove a costly drain on our finances.

The second option, which we’re pulling out all stops to make happen, is to get the house rented out so as to be able to stay for as long as needed in the UK. Tom, the builder fortunately has agreed to help. They should get the kitchen finished this week. Then Tom will patch the ceiling in the lounge. It really needs replacing, but we’re going to make do for now. We’ll be using our evenings to paint the walls.

After the kitchen is finished Tom is going to help Paul to get an outbuilding re-roofed and weather proofed. We’ll use that to store and secure our belongings. That will probably take another week if we don’t hit any hiccups. Then our laminate floor can be laid. Again, Tom has agreed to help if needed.

We’ve put our little car on the market, and later this week after we’ve taken the old kitchen to the tip, we’ll put our little trailer on the market. Hopefully they’ll sell quickly without us having to sell them at too much of a loss.

We’ll put the caravan and ute into paid storage, ready for our planned two year trip around Australia. Our original, tentative plan was to get the house ready and rented for the end of next summer, with our belongings secured on the property, and then we were going to set off around Australia for a good two year period. So, plans aren’t deviating to much, just not as relaxed getting to the departure date for Australian trip, and we don’t know when it’ll start.

We’re hoping 3 – 5 weeks will see everything finished, and see us on our way. We’re due for some good luck this year, so we’re hoping it arrives now. I hope we’re not hoping against the odds for that 3 – 5 week grace to get ourselves organised.

The house is taking shape despite outward appearances.

The bathroom has now been completed.

The old, brown bathtub was removed to make room for the addition of a toilet. The window has been replaced and relocated, and we now have a lovely, big shower cubicle complete with both a removable and large overhead rain water shower head. What a difference – especially nocturnal loo visits which previously meant a trek to the back porch. Although enclosed, the porch is freezing, so nocturnal visits were only manageable with slippers. Now its a quick barefooted visit to the bathroom adjoining our bedroom, and we hardly need open our eyes. Size constraints meant we had to forfeit having a double vanity, but we can live with that.

We’ve had the windows to the living area and our bedroom replaced with double glazed aluminium framed windows. The kitchen window has been raised which meant new weather boards were needed, and also on the same wall a lot of weather boards had deteriorated so needed replacing. Our kitchen has been ordered and we’ve booked Tom the builder for the 21st of this month to come and fit it. Paul will be his labourer.

The hedges and trees have now been pruned, and garden beds have been started. New perennial plants ordered on line are now planted, along with cuttings, bulbs and other bits and pieces donated from both my sister, and our good friend Peta.

Rather than remove old concrete slabs around the property, we’ve utilised them. One concrete slab had the remnants of an old built in barbecue on it. We’ve placed the old brown bath on that, have filled it with good soil, and have planted some herbs and spring greens. We intend to place large pots of herbs, cucumbers, tomatoes etc around the bath garden. In a month or two I think that’ll not only be looking aesthetically pleasing but it’ll be supplying food for our table as well.

On another slab Paul erected a little green house that just fits perfectly. We now have a good few containers of seeds sprouting in there ready to transplant when the weather allows for it. So far we have Sweet Alice, Cosmos and Snapdragons for the flower beds, and several heritage types of tomato seeds planted.

Digging new garden beds is a lot harder here than in the sandy soil of Perth WA. This garden bed dug out of the lawn took almost a full day to dig. It was like digging refrigerated butter. Hopefully the three Just Joey rose bushes planted here, along with some Bearded Iris, peonies, geraniums and dianthus will thrive and reward us for our hard work.

New garden beds aren’t all hard work though. Years of pruning neglect inflicted on the hedges and trees around the garden have resulted in mounds of hidden leaf litter underneath. Now the pruning has been done the result is lovely friable, easy to dig soil underneath. Whilst the garden beds are yet to be defined properly, I’ve started planing in them anyway. A bit of pea straw to mulch and a bit of lawn edging will define the beds when we get around to it. I’m hoping the recent plantings of Oyster Plants, Peonies, Hostas, Lambs Ears and Foxgloves will soon be providing a spectacular show.

Despite all the hard work though, apart from the bathroom, nothing else looks very different yet. Most of the work done has been groundwork, both inside and outside the house. Give it all another 4 – 8 weeks though and I think our hard work will be showing. The kitchen will be in, the laminate flooring to the living area will have been laid, and the gardens should be well on the way to flourishing.

Tasmania is experiencing an unusual cold snap. Snow is a normal winter occurrence in parts of tasmania during the winter months, and certainly the Western Tiers surrounding the Meander Valley and Deloraine gets a good picturesque covering on their tops. Its not common though for snow to come down as far as the township.

However yesterday Deloraine, along with the majority of Tasmania was treated to some really good snow falls.

I had a dental appointment mid morning. The dentists surgery is in with the general medical centre in town, so there were quite a few patients in the waiting room. What an air of excitement in the room. Doctors were lined up in the shelter of the front porch with cameras in hand. Patients were gathered behind the window looking out to the tiers excitedly watching the snow falling outside.

The dentist commented to me that, “snow makes people smile”, and indeed, he was right. Strangers all talking to each other with smiles from ear to ear.

Paul saw a man skiing downhill across his paddock, and children (and some adults) have built snowmen in their gardens.

Today, although freezing, it’s not snowing, and the expected hail and storms haven’t as yet arrived. Hopefully they won’t materialise. we still have a small amount of snow on the ground in our back garden, but most has melted away – just slush now. Im looking forward to going for a drive later to view and photograph the tiers. I’m sure they’ll be special at the moment.

As promised, a photo of the curtains in one of our spare rooms. The other spare room has the same, and as soon as our new windows have been fitted in the main bedroom, we have the same curtains for in there as well. The curtains for the lounge are different, but they won’t be hung until after the room has been painted and the new windows fitted.

A lot of the progress made so far on the house is the progress of ideas, arranging tradesmen and preparation. However some things are well under way.

The entrance, once dark brown, has now been lightened and brightened. Firstly the ceiling received two coats of ceiling paint – goodness me, what a difference that made. I’m sure it must have had at least fifty years buildup of smoke and yellowing on it. The wood panelling had lost a good few knots from the wood, so a lot of filling was needed. Then Paul gave it all a light sand, painted it with a primer to block out the darkness of the wood, and finally top coated with two coats of warm white.

We purchased an old drop fronted writing desk from a second hand shop some time ago. When Paul gets the time he plans on cleaning up the hardware on it, but intends to leave the wood with the existing lovely aged patina. The writing desk resides in our entrance. We found the mirror and box of artificial lavender in Kmart – $29 for the mirror, $12 for the lavender, and the grey stone chook was $7 from an art shop in Deloraine. We’re thrilled with how its come together so far with just the floor to finish it off. That has to wait though till the rest of the house is finished.

We liked the mirrors so much we brought two for our bedroom. We’ve decided not to paint our bedroom, so the mirrors have gone a long way to brightening the room from the effects of the heavy brown wood. We bought the two white cabinets from a cheap furniture shop, and now we just have to find something to put behind the bed. We’ve been looking for some soft coloured canvasses at a good price. To date though nothings turned up. Im thinking of perhaps getting some nice fabric and padding some MDF to attach to the wall for a head board effect. It certainly needs something to cover the white power point stuck in the middle of nowhere on the wall. Why do people do things like that – it looks an eye-sore, and removing it from the wood in such a visible area will create further problems in need of covering up.

Today we found this framed picture of Horseshoe Falls in Mt Field National Park on Gumtree. We have a nicer photo of the falls which we took ourselves and may replace this photo with our own one day. For now though we have enough to occupy ourselves, so this picture will suffice for a time, and it adds a touch of something to otherwise blank walls. The walls are yet to painted, but that has to wait until after the lounge room windows have been replaced with double glazing. The windows have been ordered and should be finished ready for fitting within three weeks. We brought the sideboard before we moved into the house thinking it would fit into the entrance. Sadly though its too big, and too big for anywhere else, so we think that’ll have to go. For now though its ok where it is.

We love finding bargains, and it helps to have our eclectic taste for decorating. We loved these farmyard ducks which we found at K-mart for $9 each. They sit just nicely either side of the TV. The TV cabinet with its corrugated tin wine rack was another Gumtree bargain. It awaits a shabby chic Annie Sloan paint job when my wrist is out of plaster

We’re really enjoying the odds and ends we”re finding, like this mother of pearl urn. We’ve attached a small chopping board to the top and it makes a great little side table. We have two of these on either side of one of our couches.

Thank goodness for changing trends and the people who follow them. This week we found enough good quality drapes for our entire house for a total cost of $345. They’re all fully lined with heavy block out and come with either matching padded pelmets or matching valances, and all the tracks to hang them. It seems padded pelmets are now yesterdays look, and valances went by the by a good few years ago. Compared to our existing drapes these are like gold in both quality and style. So, we’re happy not to be dedicated fashion followers. I’ll post photos later in the week when Paul gets a chance to hang them.

Once begun, half done – one of my favourite inspirations. And, we have begun our mammoth reno, but it’s a long way from being ‘half done’.

I’ve completed two out of six chairs, giving them a shabby chic look. The table is almost complete as well. I’m happy with the result so far, and I should have the remaining four chairs completed over the coming week.

Paul’s started filling the knot holes in the wood panelling, and he’s taken the chain saw to some of the garden, removing a few unwanted trees and giving one tree that we hope to keep a massive trim up. Hopefully, we haven’t pruned it into the never, never, but if we have, it’s better gone than in the terrible state of neglect it was in.

We’ve arranged a plumber to re-do our bathroom, and will arrange all the fittings early next week. We’ve arranged a handyman to fix our carport – Paul will help him. We’ve designed a remodelled kitchen, but haven’t as yet decided on the style of cupboards etc. We’ve arranged a builder to come and quote on the removal of an internal wall, a new ceiling in the living area and a few other things. And we’ve arranged a glazing company to come and quote on replacing the rotting wooden window frames with double glazed aluminium windows. So, a lot of the ground work is under way. Now it’s just a matter of time and elbow grease to get it all happening.

Tomorrow though is going to be a caravan day. We’ve almost emptied our van, but it needs a really thorough clean and a wipe over with a solution of oil of cloves in water to prevent any mould building up over the winter months. We miss living in our rig, and are almost certain we’ll be back on the road again by the end of summer. We’re feeling the cold and damp, and we received an email from our Road trip friends Lucy and Wally today. They’re up at Cape York for the winter – living the dream. And we’re so envious…..

We’re back from our trip to the UK. Wasn’t the holiday we had hoped for, or the holiday we had planned. Unfortunately Paul’s dad was sick, so we never made it to Italy for our tour. The whole holiday ended up being a sequence of unfortunate events, and it would take a book to list all the things that went wrong. Anyway, enough tears have been shed over that, and apart from trying to claim the cost of the Italian tour back on our travel insurance, it’s now best put behind us.

We have bought a cheap weatherboard (wood) house in Tasmania. It needs a lot of TLC, so we’ve put our ‘Life of Riley On Wheels’ on hold for at least the remainder of this year whilst we get this place sorted out. Most likely we’ll be here in Tassie until the beginning of next winter.

I was going to attempt to start a second blog for the Riley Renovation Project, but without my grandson Tim in my back pocket, I wouldn’t know where to start as far as setting a blog up from scratch. So, rather than sending individual emails and photos to friends and family that may be interested in how this old house progresses, I’m going to continue posting updates here. Apologies to anyone who has been following this blog for the travel information only. It will be continued one day……

And now for a little bit about the house. The house is in Deloraine, a little town of just over 2000 people located in the north of Tassie about 30 minutes drive from both Launceston and Devonport. The house is on about 1500 sq metres of land, and both the house and the land need a lot of TLC to make them presentable.

The house had been a rental property, so no money or time has been spent on it I’m sure for some time. We can see potential here though……We think!!

We’re not sure of the age of the house, but we estimate it’s probably around 50 – 60 years old. It has casement windows which all need replacing, is lined with dark pine boards inside, which we will have ripped off and replaced with gyprock. It has an internal bathroom consisting of a hand basin and a brown bath with a shower over the bath, and there is a second shower, and the only toilet in the laundry which is located in an enclosed porch at the rear of the house. The kitchen is about as old and uncared for as the rest of the house, although the oven is reasonable.

As yet, we’re still to take a look at the floorboards currently hidden by a really grotty brown carpet. We’re hoping for the floorboards to be in reasonable condition, but just in case they’re not, we’ve postponed pulling up the carpet for a good look for now. We both feeling rather fragile after the unfortunate events of our holiday, and we have the flu (and it is the flu, not a cold – up there with the worst we’ve ever had), so we’ll save the removal of the carpet until we’re better able to deal with what is underneath. Fingers crossed, it’ll be a pleasant surprise.

The positives of the house – it has a long, high carport which accommodates the Travel home, although this also needs work. It’s located in Deloraine which we love. It has a fire in the lounge room. Other than that, there’s not much going for it. But, believe it our not, that’s a bonus. It means we get to do the whole house and garden almost exactly as we want it to be, instead of having to put up with something we’re not that fond of just because it’s too good to replace. Believe me, there’s nothing in this house that’s too good to replace…. LOL!!

Whether or not we do the house up for re-sale, to rent out, or just to use ourselves as a summer base remains to be seen. One thing we’re certain of is that apart from this winter we don’t intend to be spending winters here in Tassie. It’s way to cold…. We think that we managed to get the house for a price that should mean which ever way the future takes us, we shouldn’t loose.

For now though – we have a ‘project’. And what’s life without a project. Watch this space for photos.