Karina's House Project

Are we painting the fence this long weekend?

NO!!

OK, this is really getting beyond a joke. Last weekend it rained on and off ALL weekend, so no painting for us. This weekend was better, but we had things on so very little time to paint. We did manage to at least get the undercoat on the front of the fence so it looks halfway decent and not a patchwork quilt of colours. Still have a lot of the back of the fence and then another two top coats. Painting, I've decided, isn't hard, it's just hard work if you want to do it properly. I would estimate that at least 70% of our time has been in prep work - puttying, sanding, taping etc.

It's been almost a month now since the fence construction was completed and every weekend we've been thwarted with our efforts to paint. The first weekend was full with events and we just didn't get time. The second weekend it was raining. The third weekend we did manage to start prepping by plugging up the nail holes and sanding back back and this weekend was supposed to be our big weekend of painting. But... A category 5 cyclone has hit the Queensland coast causing widespread damage and flooding. All my thoughts are with those affected. I'm a North Queensland girl, born and bred and while I grew up with cyclones, I don't ever remember going through a cat 5. It's a doozy. Anyway, the first world problem that's created for us further south is that there's been rain. Lots of rain. Rain all weekend. So painting is OUT. In the meantime, as you can see from this pic, the tannins from the hardwood have started leaching down the timber and these were the nail holes before we started prepping.

We plugged up the nail holes (there were a few!).

And sanded it all back!! It's ready to paint now whenever it decides to stop raining!! It definitely won't be this weekend though. Guess I'll have to just do other things.

I've narrowed down the paint choice for the posts to Dulux "Guild Grey" (on the left) and darker Dulux "Ticking" on the right. I'm not sure I can tell just from a small sample. The Guild Grey is a shade darker than the "Simone Weil" that is on the front door, so I don't know if there's enough contrast.  On the other hand, we don't want the fence competing with the house so perhaps a light colour would due better?

Actually I prefer the Guild Grey, I'm just not sure it will provide enough contrast. Everything is just 50 shades of grey…

It's FINISHED!!! It was essentially finished last week, but we were waiting for a bracket and for some final adjustments to be made which stopped us from shutting the gate. But now that's all done and dusted and woo-hoo, construction is complete! We're sooo happy with everything. The design and the look has come out exactly as planned and the quality is beyond our expectations. This fence is S.O.L.I.D!

The letterbox is in as well! We were a bit limited in the types we could have because the sliding door went all the way across the pedestrian gate, we couldn't have an in-wall letterbox so we had to have one that just mounted from the front. No matter, we're happy with this!

The gates are in!! Huzzah! The pedestrian gate is on the left (looking out, obviously), sliding gate in the middle and swinging gate on the vacant lot on the right. 

I'm pleasantly surprised that the gates are steel. It wasn't in the quote and I just assumed it would be timber so jumpy claps for that. The sliding gate is quite long and does slide over the pedestrian gate, but that's unavoidable for the type of gate I wanted and the narrow frontage of a small lot.

No comments please on the state of the garden. I'm well aware, but really looking forward to putting some plants into this bad boy. Tomorrow the railings go on the gates go on and then it might be even be ready for the weekend for us to paint!

On day three, I changed my mind about the size of the gap between the rails, after the fencer had nailed two bays on. He totally loves me…NOT! This was the bay with the 38mm gap. I wanted to be able to see through to the plants that I will (eventually) plant in the garden beds, but still have enough for privacy. After he sent me this pic I thought they needed to be a bit closer together.

Hmmm you probably can't see much difference to the first pic, but this gap is 33mm. Not too much of a difference, but I'm happy.

The end of day two and the fence on the vacant block side is up. It's not fancy schmancy, but it's solid and straight and will do the job. There's space for the double swinging gates and the sliding gates for the house side and both are on order (apparently).

Today is the 4th anniversary of the floods which claimed our little home. It seems like such a long time ago. We didn't plan it that way, but on the anniversary we started the next stage of the house project - the fence! I like to think of it as another chapter in our building journey. This one has been a long time coming. Like everything when you're building, it's expensive and with a 20 metre frontage the costs can be astronomical depending on what type of fence you choose. We've decided to do different fences for each block due to costs. The fence in front of the house will be a timber fence with 100mm X 100mm hardwood posts and horizontal rails set back with a top hardwood rail. The rails are 62mm and will be set 38mm apart. There will be a sliding gate and pedestrian gate for the footpath that leads to the front door. The vacant block will just have a (very) plain pine fence with vertical batons and double swinging gate. It's not fancy, but a good temporary solution and I guess if we ever build there, you could certainly leave it up for a while.

U-G-L-Y!

The next problem caused by the great skirting board stuff up is the door stops. (It's like the gift that keeps on giving…)

The door stop set. The latch on the right was the bit thrown out with the skirtings.

This issue was caused when the guys I hired pulled the skirtings off. The latch that clips onto the "stop" on the door was turfed out with the broken skirtings. So effectively for over a year we've only had a rubber stopper to stop the door handle banging into the walls and damaging them. We've had nothing to keep it open and doors would slam loudly at random times and scare the bejesus out of us.

Paint marks :-(

I've always hated those door stops anyway, they were U-G-L-Y (you got no alibi), but of course when I went to find replacements for the stops, I couldn't find any, anywhere. So I decided to pull them off and replace them with much nicer chrome ones. Sigh. Removing them revealed a lovely yellow mark, which means that the new one would have to be the same or larger and of course there are none!

Only a little bit to patch up

This is the best I could find. It was about 10mm too short so I covered one hole and the other one I will have to sand back and paint at a later date.

Finished!

I have to make a decision on what kind of front fence to get. I was originally going to get hardwood timber posts with pool fencing in between mainly because it would be quick and I thought quite economical. Something along the lines of this -

Image from www.ilandscape.com.au

Everyone though (like 5 people) keep saying that it won't match the house and will look cheap. A totally hardwood fence is waaay too expensive, so the consensus has been for timber fence with top rails.  The thing is…I just can't picture it. So I've done a super dodgy photoshop job for a vertical option and horizontal option and I STILL can't make up my mind.

The horizontal version with white palings and top rail in the same colour as the front door - Dulux Simone Weil. I'm leaning towards this version cause it matches the horizontal timber on the gables.

The vertical version. Obviously there will be a bit more palings between each post, my photoshop skills just aren't good enough to match. I don't love this style, but I don't hate it. This is apparently better though cause there's less chance of sag over time.

Totally, totally in love with the work of Ali McNabney-Stevens.  I would so love these for my dining room, would add a bit of colour.

Am a bit over my DIY canvas art. I loved them at the time, but they don't really suit the style anymore. Which is a shame…it took me ages to make them.

We're finally starting to see the fruits of our labour in the veggie garden (as we should, it's been over a year). These little babies are super hot chillies which I'm really looking forward to eating!  Josh and I have chilli eating competitions - first one to go for the water is the loser.

The mint is going crazy, but I don't have anything really to put it in. I don't use mint that much except for rice paper rolls.