Floors are finished!

Three days off work, and I'm getting bored already! After sometime having to stay away whilst they polish and seal, the floors have finally had their last coat of urethane on them yesterday. They have hardened overnight and when I saw hem today, it looked like someone had poured liquid glass all over the timber. It was an awesome sight, and now it means that we can get back in there tomorrow and get stuck in on finishing the rest of the building internally.

Looks like it is still wet!

I have a site meeting tomorrow with the owners, The Aboriginal Lands Trust, to discuss the façade of the building, and what can be done about it all. We are hopeful of a productive outcome to that, John Chester has been so very supportive of what we are doing here, I don't expect it to be anything but productive really. A few planning and funding applications to sign off and we will be in business with that as well. I am going to get stuck in on finishing the second coat of paint on the woodwork, so that wont take long. The only jobs remaining then internally are bathroom (floor tiles, basin, toilets, shower screens, exhaust fans and lighting - all booked) kitchen (floor, electrics, and fit out), Dining room cupboards, scalloped 1/2 round on skirting all around, rear counselling room carpeting and plastering, internal camera's, fireplaces reinstalled and fit out with furniture. I'm hoping we can get all of that done in 6 weeks. Pray, pray, pray.....

The end of another week

Busy week. Painting, getting the main counselling room ready for the last two walls being plastered, removing the old air conditioner and gas heater, and making a start on stripping the old fire place mantlepieces and getting them ready for installation in the next few weeks. Ken is with me a lot more now and that has been great for getting stuff done. Got the guys in to quote for stripping the paint and re-pointing the plaster coins and sandstone on the facade of the building too. Even the floor guys have sealed the floor on the other side. It looks fantastic, and the floors will be finished completely next week. Yes... Monday off (so they can polyurethane the floors).

They look great

Trevor working his magic around a fireplace....

Me working my magic around mine...2 more coats to go to hit the wood

Ken and I in our outside office today 

(The floor sealer absolutely stinks!)

First coat on

I had the Heritage Architect, Kevin Sullivan, out from the Adelaide City Council this morning. We had to discuss colours and stuff for the outside of the house, and I am glad that I called him in. It turns out theat we need planning permission fro  anything that happens to the outside of the building, regardless what it is. The good news is that only takes 2 weeks, and better than that, if the work is restorative and brings the building back to its original heritage, the council will pay half of the bill. Fan-dabby-dosie then. 

We need planning permission for the new gutters too. They can only be made of galvanised steel, must be OG (Old Gothic) section guttering, and cannot be painted, end of.

OG Section Guttering

BUT...they will pay half. When I talked about the front of the house, it appears that the last time it was painted, permission was not sought, so the pointed sandstone they have painted over has to be cleaned off and bought back to original. The woodwork and the rest of the building outside must be in heritage colours, which is fine. We just need to decide which ones and apply for permission. But the front stone work is going to be a $10,000 job! Well....$5,000 after the council chip in anyway, so it looks like there will be some more negotiating with the buildings owners over that one.

The result will be absolutely delicious no doubt. And we are allowed to up light the front of the building externally as well, so it will look gorgeous. And that is how we want it to look too.

I have finally managed to get the first coat of toffee on everything! Proud of that, now I can go over it all and paint it again. Yipee!!  

 From this...
 

...to this. The woodwork has its first coat...

Centre punched and filled nails, and the gaps between the boards raked out

Preparing the floors on the RHS house for sealing

Still Painting...

I managed to get the toffee colour paint on the corridor and one of the bedrooms by close of play yesterday. I get this feeling that it wont be long until that part is all done, perhaps by the end of next week. Alarm systems are going in, gutters all around the house are being replaced (rusted completely through...), Telstra have installed a line for us, and the plasterers and the floor guys are back to finish their parts as well. I worked a really long week to try and break the back of what seemed to be an endless task. But I'm getting there, and Ken is able to help from here forward too.

12 weeks and two days in.....

...and I'm still painting! Been at it now for weeks, (5 weeks and three days to be precise...), but I am on the home stretch now. Woodwork will all be undercoated by the end of today, I've been putting in 11 hour days this week to make sure that its all finished this week. The Floor team are staying away until we are done with the woodwork, so some time next week they'll be back to finish the other side of the house and final coat it all. 

We are meeting with the Adelaide City Council Heritage people next week to discuss what colours we can paint the outside, and there are a few others coming through today and tomorrow to quite on alarms and gutters, as well as Telstra coming in tomorrow to install the phone line to the business.  All fun and games. 

Ken today finishes his consultancy work, and is free to help me full time complete the rehab. Perfect timing, and with two of us at it, it wont be long now. Personally, I'm looking forward to putting on some clothes that aren't spattered with paint...:-)

More Floors....

I'm really impressed. The Hutt Street side has been done. They look better than expected. See what you think...

Corridor...

Rear Bedroom...

Dining Room...

Office

A sneek peek...

We stopped in at the rehab on the way home from the beach tonight. Paul (floors) told me they were aiming to get two coats of urethane on by stumps tonight, and that was the state of play when we got there at 6:00pm. It was all still wet, but the bit we could see looked fantastic. Just the ticket indeed. More pics tomorrow...

...ooops....that's the dog...

There we go, a sneek peek.