Progress for the sake of progress

Weekend two of the deck build has come along brilliantly. We set ourselves the goal of finishing all the structural work by the end of Sunday and .... success! It was a team effort with Mum, David, Steve and myself. But as with all renovation work- I am quickly learning - there are many speed bumps along the way.

Steve managed to finish all the steel bearers, and I had them painted and ready to go. What we hadn't planned on was the freak storm that ruined the fresh paint job, and left lovely rain drop marks for me.  I was so disappointed! But Steve assured me that we could still install them and re-paint after the fact.

And speaking of water- when drilling in the holes into the steel poles to install the steel,  we were quickly reminded that Mum's home was inundated with water during the 2011 floods. When we pierced through them spouts of water came flooding out, lovely stagnant 2 year old flood water - mmhmmm!

And due to the floods we came across more problems with uneven ground. The rush of water had pushed so much soil and rocks which had settled in the strangest place. It caused endless problems when trying to place the hardwood bearers level. We ended up having to dig out massive trenches - complete with rocks, concrete and solidified clay.

So with all of that we were pretty pleased to see the hardwood bearers finally installed by Saturday afternoon. Steve and I stole away to meet some friends on Saturday night to watch the Bledisloe Cup. A great game for Steve who barracks for the All Blacks, not such a great night for me as the lone Wallabies supporter!

With a couple of sore heads on Sunday morning we pushed on to complete the installation of the trimmers which went between the bearers. I was lucky enough to use tools to drill, screw and tightened the bolts into place. It was my first real time at using tools on my own- a very proud moment.

We hit a snag at the end of Sunday afternoon. There are currently stairs in place that we want to keep but we need to shorten in order to put the decking planks in. Needless to say it involved a fair bit of work and welding to get the staircase back together, especially as it wasn't properly installed in the first place. Steve spent a lot of time and effort working them into submission and I think we just might be finished.

We're heading to Sydney next weekend and Mum and Dave are away competing in a half marathon so we won't be progressing much further for a couple of weekends. It's bittersweet as we would love to finally finish the deck and start decorating but it may be good for sore joints to rest up and start a fresh in a couple of weekends. 

Practice makes perfect....

Living rent free at my mum's place as we diligently save for a home deposit is wonderful. We're one week away from opening our next "milestone wine. So when Mum asked both Steve and I to help build a deck she's been wanting to construct for years we jumped at the chance. Not only as an attempt to thank Mum for letting us stay, but it's also our very first attempt at renovating and building something substantial!

The deck is to fill a void under the house that enters onto the backyard. It's always been an empty space that's been screaming out for attention.

It's very handy that Steve is a mechanical engineer - for starters, Steve designed the deck and had drawings done up at his work. He wanted to try a timber and steel combination... something a little like this...

Steve got all the preparations ready for this weekend - ordering the steel, timber and had the steel cleats laser cut. The only problem... we don't own any tools. So off to the store we went first thing on Saturday morning. It's been something Steve has been desperate to begin, I on the other hand - not that fussed!

We ended up buying a welder and assorted accessories including welder protective gear, an angle grinder, a die grinder, tool box, paint, primer, paintbrushes, rollers, sandpaper and probably a lot more - it got to the point when I could no longer shop for tools. I suggest Bunnings and Trade Tools should have a "lady seat" much like the "man chair" in the change rooms of clothing stores. 

Mum was around for the weekend to help me out with painting the steel poles and steel bearers while Steve cut down and welded the bearers ready for installation next weekend.

We managed to prime all the poles except one due to the height (we may need to buy a big ladder- yay more shopping!). We got one coat of the Dulux gloss black done and it looks fantastic. It's so strange to see how much of a difference just a coat of paint makes to a space. 

Steve has cut down and welded two of the four cleats. He says his welds are getting better and better each go. And as someone who has absolutely no idea what a good or bad weld looks like, I was just happy to celebrate in his success!

Magic, right?!

I'm pretty proud of what we've done so far but I'll be honest we're learning a lot by error. 

A couple of things I've deduced so far:

*don't paint above your head cause paint will drip into your eye

* paint in your eye really hurts and makes your eyelashes stick together

* measure twice, cut once isn't just a catchy phrase!

And I'm sure they'll be many more things to learn before the project is complete.

We have a public holiday on Wednesday so we'll be back on the tools.

Under the Hammer

It was auction day last weekend and in the interest of more home research I headed into the city to see whether the home we've been admiring in Bardon would sell within our price range. As I've said in previous posts we're certainly not ready to buy but believe the more information we have, especially on the types of areas we are interested, the better.

I've never been to an auction before and this was certainly something to behold. It was an auction day on steroids. It was Realtor Ray White's "Urban Living" bulk auction, 30 properties - 30 auctions back to back! Now my knowledge of auctions pretty much consists of watching The Block and repeat episodes of Selling Houses Australia. 

There were more than a couple of things different between tv shows vs reality (go figure!)

• only registered bidders can bid (my fear of accidentally scratching my nose only to discover I'd just purchased a mansion was unnecessary)
• there are a LOT of sticky beakers like me - majority of people present were not there to buy
• auctions can be put on pause - unlike the fast paced world of tv, auctions can be put on hold if there is a need to discuss with the interested buyer. Almost 10 of the 30 auctions were put on hold with many bidders on the phone needing to be consulted before the bidding could get any higher.
• houses in Brisbane are expensive - If I was selling a house I think auction would be the way to go with the bidders dictating the starting price and the home owners able to control the bidding with their desired reserve price
• real estate agents are aggressive - when going to an auction know your limit because the real estate agents (yes, plural) can be very forceful in trying to up your bid to secure you are the highest bidder
•  sometimes it's just not ment to be - one house that was in shocking state and the definition of renovate / demolish was in the sort after location of Bulimba. I had hopes it would fall within our price range. The opening bid was $1,000,000. That's right count the zeros - $1million big ones! 

In the end the Bardon property never reached the reserve price. It's now back on the market and the new asking price is just out of reach by about $40,000 but due to result of the auction there might be a deal to be had. Well, a deal to be had for those who can actually buy it...... sigh!