Repairing the plywood ceiling

The joys of aged maple plywood ceilings end when the reality of repairing them slaps you in the face!

The hole left behind when we removed the wood heater

As many of you would know, we recently removed a wood heater from the main living area. You can read about it here if you are new to the blog.

The hole after the roof was repaired

A lot of creative thought went into repairing the hole left in the ceiling after removing the heater flue. The ceilings are made from rotary cut Queensland maple plywood panels. They are the most sumptuous ceilings to behold and was part of the reason we fell in love with this home when we first saw it.

a distance shot of the hole left after we removed the wood heater

We tossed around various ideas with the help of Danny, a builder who has great experience working on mid-century homes. Initially we thought we could replace the whole ceiling panel; it had sustained water damage from where rainwater must have seeped through over the years.

Sadly, finding rotary cut maple plywood is next to impossible. We tried to source it second-hand and we also looked at the newer plywood products with a view of colour-matching it to 50 year old maple.

Another idea was to steal a panel from one of the bedrooms, and substitute it. You know, do the old 'switcheroonie' trick with a less attractive repair being relegated behind bedroom doors.

In the end our final solution would be the least intrusive and most efficient. We recycled the doors of an old maple plywood cabinet (the original kitchen overhead cupboards to be precise) that had been left behind in the garage by the previous owners (bless them!). Re-purposing the doors and converting them to a ceiling panel seemed the most viable option.

It was a slightly unorthodox solution but it meant we could colour match the ceiling without it being horribly obvious. It also had the added benefit of being free material!

Danny came over and did the job for us...with surgical-like precision...

Cutting out the damage with the help of a template and small cutting tool.
Yep, Danny is a surfing hippy who like all our recent builders is extremely well-read! Tick!

Danny made a simple template, based on the plywood doors which he had jointed together, as guide. With that template he was able to cut out the damaged ply and make a new space in which to fit the re-purposed plywood doors.

A neat ceiling gap in which to place the re-purposed plywood doors

Making the plywood piece fit proved slightly tricky. There was a lot of hand sanding the edges and corners to get a precise fit. Poor old Danny spent a lot of time getting it perfect which is just a beautiful thing to see in action - he took so much care.

A good fit. The plywood piece is in.

Danny planned to nail the piece in place but was afraid the nail heads would detract from the final finish. He changed his mind and decided a quick drying super-grip adhesive would be the best option. He used the Sika SuperGrip 30 minutes and held it in place with a telescopic prop. We left the prop up overnight just to make sure the plywood was not going anywhere!

The final product.

Et voila! You don't instantly notice the repair, particularly if you weren't aware a wood heater occupied this space. Nonetheless you can still make out there was a repair which I guess forms part of the new history of the home.

We couldn't be happier with the final result...and now we have more flexibility with this space and the ceilings still look great despite the repair.

One wall a weekend painting

The long weekend provided us the right impetus to clear out some of the overgrown garden and to continue painting the living/dining room. Three whole days in a row is such a decadent luxury in DIY land and we didn't want to waste it.

One wall a weekend painting. The living/dining area 

Jason got stuck into the painting. The goal is to paint one wall a weekend, so our living room is cleaner and fresher. Small bite size pieces is the method of attack. The most time consuming part is the taping up of the walls for the cutting-in as there are so many timber architraves and strips in this mid-century house.

The finished product...it's like we never painted. Ha!

Jason painting the black timber ceiling beams. Notice how he hasn't taped up. Go  steady hand Jason!

We also have lovely black timber ceiling beams which need to be repainted. Jason used a matte black chalk paint to freshen it up. It provides a crisp contrast to the Queensland maple timber ceiling. He only painted one of the beams and already it has given our living room a real lift.

The finished product...it's like we never painted. Ha!

Most of the changes we have been making to the house are very subtle. When people come to visit us, they don't actually notice if we've done anything new to the house. But that's okay. I kind of think that is the mark of a good restoration/renovation when people think it is as it should be. Hopefully the cumulative effect of all the changes will bring this house back to its former glory.

This one whole section of wall is now finito...as is that one strip of ceiling beam...

And the skip bin was a great investment for the long weekend. We cleared most of the vegetation which was covering our garden shed. It's just tidied that portion of the yard and we were able to give the rest of the garden a much needed prune. Hooray for long weekends!

Skip bin being delivered. It took us one morning to fill up!

Happenings and a house profile

Not a huge amount has been happening around here, and is the main reason for the very quiet blog...can you hear the crickets?

Plans are underway though to tackle a few jobs this coming Queen's Birthday long weekend. A skip bin is being delivered later today - a long overdue garden clean out is required and we have to prune back some of the many established bushes and trees, to bring them back to life.

A mature bottle tree and Birds of Paradise are among the treasures to be found in our garden.

We also plan to paint another living room wall in our one-wall-a-weekend method of attack 

And in other news,  if you don't already read Walk Among the Homes blog, you should! It profiles our new house. You can see the before shots of our mid-mod home HERE. The lovely Elizabeth dropped in one morning, a week or so before we moved in, and took some fab photos of the empty house. Enjoy!

Original joinery at Mid Century home in Brisbane’s south.
Photo by Elizabeth Santillan www.walkamongthehomes.com.au

Hope everyone has a happy and productive long weekend!

Low cost home improvements

As is the case with most people who have moved house, funds become severely depleted and the life focus is generally trying to get settled into the new place and bring the finances back on track.

We'll be all about the very low cost jobs around the new house - things which don't require a big financial or time outlay but still make a cumalative impact on how the house looks. 

The built-in cabinetry in the bedrooms are coming back to life with some furniture restorer and a good oil.

Some of the jobs we've been doing since we moved here are just TLC kind of jobs. Re-oiling the timber panelling, doors, cupboards and timber architraves is one such job. We're doing it progressively...but gee it looks good. The timber doesn't look as sun faded and tired and it is definitely a worthwhile endeavour. And no, we will not be painting over the Queensland maple plywood...it's survived 50 years intact and deserves respect.

Eww...laundry door knob was particularly grimy

Another small job is polishing all the old Schlage (American brand) door knobs throughout the house. Under all the years of grime, the door knobs are a shiny chrome...you'd never know they were 50 years old in their shiny state. There are 22 knobs to do and we've tackled the worst of them. 

shiny schlage door knob

Jason also whipped out his huge gerni, as one does, and has started high-pressure cleaning the brick work and paths. It's an instant pick-me-up for the house.

Cleaning the blonde bricks on the curved driveway

After shot of the brickwork 

There's nothing like a good old basic clean to make everything look better. Like our poor old ceramic stovetop...it's a little bit beyond redemption, aesthetically, but at least the knobs are white again!

One white knob...

We also ripped up the 1990s style floor vinyl in the kitchen. We've scraped off most of the adhesive from the timber floor boards but the floors will need to be refinished at a later date. Again, just having the vinyl off the floor is a step in the right direction, despite it being far from perfect.

Jason in DIY mode

 Anyway, there is a lot to keep us out of mischief over the next few weeks...

Salvaged building materials

in partnership with Quicksales

We are very big advocates of sourcing and using salvaged building materials in our renovations. It is the ultimate in recycling in an industry which is notorious for its high level of waste.

Most of our casement windows and other joinery were salvaged from old Queenslander houses to replace windows which were not sympathetic to the era of our 1928 home – the Sow’s Ear. It is a little bit more fiddly work to use salvaged materials but the results, from our experience, have been well worth it.

Using second-hand joinery is easy on the renovating budget too. Having timber doors and casement windows made from scratch is gut-wrenchingly expensive when you are renovating an entire house. Salvaged VJs, weatherboards and joinery can cut down the costs of renovating substantially, particularly if you are a DIYer.

Salvaged French doors which we replaced in the sunroom/kitchen

When we plan the next stage of our renovation, which is to fit out the underneath of the Sow’s Ear, we will try to source internal high-waisted timber doors and more hopscotch French doors to be consistent with what we have upstairs.

Anyway, I was pleased to hear about a ‘new to me’ website called Quicksales classifieds which is an online auctions and classifieds website – it is the Australian version of other well-known auction sites but without all the fees.  A big hooray for more buying and selling options!

It sells everything you can imagine both new and second-hand, so it is another good resource for renovators looking for elusive heritage building materials to suit old homes.

Have you used salvaged building materials in your home?

Eleven Queenslander house renovation blogs and resources

I've been gallivanting around the countryside flirting with mid-century modern design and architecture and sadly neglecting core business which is the Sow's Ear and renovating this old Queenslander. Ha! Talk about sidetracked!

I guess after four years or so we can afford to slow down and take our time with this interwar Queenslander house. It is far from finished and we still have quite a few projects that we need to tackle...but all in good time. Jason's lost his mojo somewhat too...which is not a good thing when he's chief renovator...

Anyway, there seems to be quite a few other bloggers who are well and truly in the midst or about to embark on a major renovation.

Here is a list of the links,  if you want to get a fix of Queenslander house renovations via blog reading:

Crazy House Capers
West End Cottage
Bungalow Bliss
The Old Post Office
Life in our blue house
Sunshine and Paint Pots
Family H.O.M.E
Heart Hanworth House
Restoring the Old Girl
Old Pearly Jenkins
Hill Manor is a new to me blog about a young man renovating his 100 year old house in Toowong. He's got a big job ahead of him.

Some of these blogs have been on the scene for quite some time while others are new to me. They're all different and I think such diversity is always good when one is contemplating the task of renovating their Queenslander house.

If I have missed someone off the list, please let me know in the comments so that I can add them.

Also, for those who are keen DIY'ers there is a great book called The Building of the Queensland House: A carpenter's handbook and owner's manual by A L Jenner which was first published last year. It is a book full of advice, diagrams and has lots of details about the restoration of a Red Hill Queenslander - written by a local Brisbane carpenter who has years of experience restoring these magnificent homes.

I think the book is independently published and is available at Black Cat Books in Paddington and the Woolloongabba Antiques Centre.

I have yet to get my hands on the book but am keen to give it to Jason. The man needs his DIY mojo back!

Renovating Sexism: Can we speak to your hubby?

It's a funny old thing the world of renovating and home improvements, which is largely a sexist industry from my personal experience. Case in point: this morning, I received a telephone call from a solar power supplier confirming an appointment I had made with them for a quotation next week.

Apparently, they want Jason, as my husband, to be present. But Jason's not interested and is happy to be a passenger on such matters...which makes perfect sense since I am generally around home and he is at work.

I told the lady on the end of the telephone this, but she said that they couldn't proceed as they wanted to speak to both of us at the same time.

It should read: "That's why tradies prefer to speak to men." 

I said, that wasn't possible, explaining that Jason won't take time off work and is not really interested in having someone come after hours to our house. He genuinely couldn't care less and is happy enough to go with whatever I think is the best option, if at all...

Then, I started posturing that I was the main decision-maker in the family...that I was perfectly capable to make a decision without The Hubby (Well, I am! Jason does the shirtless grunt work, while I do the strategic planning). Anyway, the lady agreed with me 100 per cent but she still had to check whether it was okay for me to still get the quote and would get back to me!

You have to laugh. If they do call me back, I am tempted to say that Jason can make the appointment after all and that I can't make the appointment. I wonder if they will still insist that we both be present? I wonder...

Jason finds this whole scenario highly amusing and is now dancing around the house, singing I've got the power. You gotta love the 1990s! Or is that 1890s?

Bog carpentry

Real craftsmen/women please don't judge us.

Remember, last week when Jason was figuring out how to re-mould the decorative top for the batwing lattice door? Read here to refresh your memory.

Well, he's done it. Have a look in the photograph below and see how he's matched the top bits. For those not in the know, it looks for all the world like there had never been an issue with the doors.

After shot of the batwing lattice doors

Jason's managed to shape and fashion a new decorative top with plain old builder's bog. Yep, a wannabe tradie's best friend...guaranteed to make you the Rodin of the carpentry world.

It's a slightly unorthodox approach to fix the problem but it seemed better than the alternative, which was to get new doors made. The batwing lattice doors are not a standard size - it would probably have cost us the best part of a grand to get new ones custom-made...

So, for about $25 for the bog and hardener set, the doors have been salvaged.

And now Jason's OCD twitch has dissipated substantially and all is right with the world. Amen.

before shot of the batwing doors for the sake of comparison

Triple Gable Queenslander

Remember that Triple Gable Queenslander that was up for sale and which I blogged about in May? If you missed it, you can read about it here and see some internal shots when I went to the inspection.

It was eventually sold and it seems that the house will be kept as a family home which is such fantastic news. I just wanted to share that information since it received a lot of complimentary remarks in the comments section of that blog post.

The home was being marketed as a splitter block with the house to be moved to the front with the prospect of new apartments at the back of the block. Quel horreur!

Anyway,the old home is undergoing major renovations as you can see in the picture below. It is very cool to see an old home get a new lease of life.

Triple Gable Queenslander

I obviously had a soft spot for this home, as I have a photograph of it from earlier this year, a few months before it even went on the market. It's just lovely.

Triple Gable Queenslander 

Valance construction mode

The work on the valance has begun. Bright and early on Saturday morning, it was a hive of activity at the Sow's Ear.

Mr D, our builder, is also back. Jason was so happy to get the extra assistance, company and use of  better quality tools. It's never much fun doing this kind of work by yourself with the bare minimum of tools...

Together, the two of them accomplished quite a bit in the morning. All the frame work is up and ready for the palings to be nailed on to it.

If all this nice weather holds up, the valance should be finished by next week. Here are a few photographs from the weekend...

sanding and dressing the timber

The brackets 

Jason painting the primer onto the woodwork.

All the framework is done. We'll get some primer painted on the timber this Wednesday when it is the public holiday

Operation valance

After 15 years of marriage, it has finally dawned on me that Jason is not one to enjoy idleness. The man needs a reno project. Thank goodness we own the Sow's Ear.

For the last few months Jason hasn't sunk his teeth into any major project, and he's not been a happy person. He really is a wannabe tradie and is truly at his happiest when in full-on construction (and destruction) mode.

It was with glee that he ordered the timber to start the frames for the valance or timber battens for under our back deck. It was a project which he started last year, but for one reason or another he lost his motivation to finish it. But with the warmer weather nearing, Jason's got his mojo back. (I can hear his fans cheering and doing the Mexican wave for shirtless Jason...)

This weekend Jason's going to make a start on the valance. It should be a fairly straight forward job and it will make a huge difference to the look of the back end of the Sow's Ear.

The deck really looks like it is perched on a pair of sticks and the valance will give it more body and substance...if you know what I mean. It will also keep poor ol' Jason busy.

shot of the deck from the back yard

You can see the valance that Jason did late last year. The valance under the deck will just be a lengthier version

Sealing and gapping weatherboards on a Queenslander house

Sponsored by Sika Australia

One of the unhappy delights of owning a Queenslander house is the almost continual maintenance that these timber and tin beauties require.

Last year, we removed the asbestos cladding from underneath the Sow’s Ear and replaced it with hardwood weatherboards. It looks so much better than before, with the added benefit of not being asbestos!

Unfortunately, after sealing and painting the weatherboards, the new timber has shrunk over time leaving some ugly gaps between the weatherboards. It’s just one of those things when working with natural materials – timber shrinks and swells depending on how old it is and with the weather. 

Gaps between the timber weatherboards

The unmistakable dark lines of the opened-up gaps look unsightly particularly on our all-white Sow’s Ear exterior!

So it was very fortuitous that the makers of Jason’s favourite sealant, Sika Australia, contacted us about testing their products. I had to laugh as we’ve been using Sika sealant and extolling its virtues for a number of years, ever since our first builder Mr Rooney put us on to it. You can read all about it here and here. Jason’s a convert and there’s nothing more zealot than one of those!

The nice people of Sika kindly sent us a number of Sika Acrylic tubes to helps us seal our gaps. They also sent Jason a new Sika caulking skeleton gun because Jason has never invested in a good quality one after four years of painting and sealing.

Sika Skeleton Sealant Gun

The number of times he’s had to stop what he’s doing mid-gapping stream because of caulking gun malfunction is too many to count… We’ll let you know how long this one lasts, but so far so good.

In the past, we’ve used Sikaflex Pro for filling exterior gaps but apparently the Sika Acrylic is a better and cheaper alternative because it will absorb a little of the paint you use on the outside of the house, giving a more seamless finish and a more consistent colour.

Jason in Sika motion. He even shifted the tube to show off the branding. Classic! I told him to think about sealing the gaps properly and leave the spruiking to me!

Sika Acrylic is easy to caulk and still provides the same level of sealability and is just as waterproof when it is painted, and  suitable for all types of paints including oil based enamels which can be problematic when painting over polyurethanes. The clean-up is also much easier as it is water-based.

No more dark lines

You can use it for sealing low movement joints around brick, concrete, plasterboard, windows, doors, ceramic tiles and filling of cracks prior to painting. It also adheres to most building materials and can be sanded back once it has fully cured.

For Queenslander home owners, it is a great gap filler for VJ (vertical join) walls which are notorious for splitting open during dry weather conditions.  Sika products are available from Bunnings nationally.

Anyway, we can now tick the gapping and sealing the weatherboards job off the list as we prepare the Sow’s Ear for spring. 

Have you been doing any maintenance on your house for the change of season?

p.s Sika has also recently launched a new spray adhesive called Sikabond Sprayfix which I’m dying to try out. I’m currently working out how I can use it for making a new lamp shade and a couple of small art projects that I have planned. So stay tuned. colour. 

Dishwasher and kitchen design thoughts

Sponsored by Reckitts Benckiser 

Jason used to be the chief dishwasher of the family, wielding his very own dish mop. But that was back in the dark ages BD. Before Dishwasher.

Someone told us that running a dishwasher saves you the equivalent of three solid weeks every year. That’s a vacation you never knew you had!

                                                                                                                        

When we were planning our kitchen renovation, that fact made Jason’s dishpan hands tap and click with joy. There was no way in this world we were going without a dishwasher – we were going to make one fit…whether we had room for it or not!

But we are so lucky these days, because space is no longer an issue with the new range of dishwashers on the market. We’re not limited by the size of our kitchens and fortunately smaller kitchens don’t need to miss out.

If I had my time again, I would think less traditionally about our choice of dishwasher. We tend to run our dishwasher once a day like it was an event, waiting for it to be full with the day’s dishes before switching it on before we go to bed in the evening.

However, our lifestyle is changing now the children are getting older. We are eating more takeout or Jason is away or we skip lunch…which means the dishwasher is not full enough to do a wash.

It really sucks when we have to retrieve all the coffee and breakfast things to hand wash for the next morning. I sometimes wish we could do smaller loads on the run.

Fisher& Paykel 7th generation DishDrawer dishwasher

The Fisher & Paykel DishDrawer has the most practical design for doing smaller loads and can squeeze into the tightest of spots. We used a DishDrawer when holidaying in a tiny apartment and it was a breeze to use.

The Sow’s Ear’s kitchen. We have drawers everywhere including under the sink.
image from Elizabeth Santillan here 

Having drawers instead of cabinets was one of the best design decisions we made for our kitchen, as it is the most efficient use of the space. A DishDrawer would have been a natural extension of that, especially with the new wider and taller dishwashing models which are now on the market.

I like how the DishDrawer is designed so you don’t need to bend down to fill it up. Pulling out a drawer at waist height makes dishwashing more effortless. It is clever design.

There are lots of ways people are integrating dishwashers into their kitchens to better suit their lifestyle and available space. Pinterest has a plethora of inspiration images of kitchens that are handy when planning a renovation.

The symmetry of side-by-side dishwashers. Image from here

I’m envious of kitchens which have dishwashers installed on both sides of a sink. Great symmetry and so perfect for a narrow galley style kitchen! You can have one running a fast wash, while the other can do the pots – domestic bliss. Ha!

So what do you think about a dishwasher giving us three extra weeks a year? Are you a drawer person or a cabinet person? What do you like or dislike about your dishwasher (machine or person)?

Lost art of common courtesy renovating...

I've got my ranty pants on this evening. The demise of basic common courtesy is my general bug bear at the moment. Why are people so inconsiderate, everywhere you go? From shops to queues to restaurants to school pick-up zones. Everywhere! And it got me thinking about the art of common courtesy when renovating.

One of the things about renovating is that if you are doing anything that may directly affect your neighbours in some way, you should try to keep them informed. It is kind of the unwritten rule.

For us, we think very highly of our neighbours who call in or leave a courtesy note in the letterbox to let you know what is happening, whether they are lopping an overhanging tree or even demolishing a house. When they don't keep you in the loop, you feel let down.

image from here

When our neighbour at the back of the Sow's Ear had to demolish a house, which had been damaged by fire, he left a note in our letterbox explaining what was going to happen and when. He also left his phone number so we could contact him if we had any questions. And you know what, that was enough to keep us happy. The art of courtesy is so simple really.

We've been renovating for four years and we hope we've never done anything that has affected our neighbours adversely. Maybe we have?

Sometimes you are so caught up in your own renovation that you forget how your renovations may be affecting those around you.  I'm always on to Jason about not using power tools too early in the morning...but alas, he has been known to power-up first thing on a Sunday morning in all eagerness to get a project finished!

Is it just me feeling this way about the demise of general common courtesy? Are you guilty of doing some discourteous renovating?

Front entry windows

For a renovating blog there's not a lot of renovating happening around here at the moment. Jason's been tackling a few smaller projects this winter. They're not major things but the cumulative effect of these jobs finish off the Sow's Ear nicely.

Although we renovated the front entry when we first bought the Sow's Ear, there was one small job that Jason had put on his wish list when the opportunity arose.

That opportunity presented itself when I asked him one lazy morning,"When are you going to get your gear off and do some work around here?"

He got up and put on his King Gees and nail belt. He's totally embraced the work wear look, so the shirtless shots are becoming a rare sight.

The job involved removing some old D mould around the front entry latticed windows and fitting a decorative bull nose and scotia mould. Architectural bling. Jason can't get enough of it.

removing the old D mould from the window

the new mouldings are at Jason's feet.

I 'll show you what it looks like after it is all painted.

Lovely Queenslander home details and ideas

Today we visited some friends who own a lovely circa 1930s Queenslander home in Brisbane suburbia.  It is a very beautiful house which has been renovated substantially for modern-day living.  We love poking around other people's homes for ideas and inspiration.

This front gable has been extended forward to provide a more open and spacious entrance.
It makes it warm and welcoming as you ascend the stairs into the home and is like another room.

Although there were substantial changes to the home, the many quaint architectural elements characteristic of the typical Queenslander home had been retained. Nothing screams Queenslander more than the decoratively carved breezeways and archways dotted throughout the home.

I've not seen this style breezeway in real life. It is called the lotus breezeway pattern and is truly exquisite. These were found above each bedroom door.

This image is of the room division arch which is quite curvaceous in design

I just had to share some of the pretty features of this home as it is always helpful to see what works in homes of this era.

Back of the home.
Horizontal slats which provide cover to a set of  external stairs and allows private access to the underneath area of the house. 

This last image is of the back of the home which has covered external stairs which allows access to the lower level. Jason and I really like this way of gaining internal access without intruding too much into the original footprint of the home.

We are contemplating something similar to our side stairs (click here) but with vertical slats. That is a project for much later down the track if we decide to build living space under the Sow's Ear...maybe...