Imre completed painting the walls and ceilings in the entry and bathroom this week and completed the wall in between them both.
There are still nice fancy architraves to be added on the wall niche, bathroom door and the doorway between the end and middle rooms Zoltan cut out last year.
Will do all of that on rainy days, as Imre has a lot of detailed outside work to do right now.
We are ready for the lighting to go in now on another rainy day and then all that remains is to get the the curtains in and floors done at a later date. I still can't figure out which will create the right mood, now that everything is coming together better than expected.
To get everything inside up to the 90% completed stage, all that remains now is a few days or so in the cellar, just sweeping down the rubbish on the steps that has fallen thru the cracks in the cellar door onto the steps and floor below, repairing the cellar door to use as a floor, rather than having a big sheet of timber over it, putting in lighting etc.
All rainy day day work now that the rooms are recognisable as rooms and not storage rooms anymore!
Then on another rainy day Imre will build a safety railing around the stairwell before I have my first medieval party...which I have not yet planned, but hope to once the house interior is finished soon.
Will leave all the lighting to do in one swoop, in a few weeks time so we aren't running back and forth to the shops for bits and pieces every 2nd day! I'll walk around in the entire house for the first time...yes, the first time... and see where switches should go, where the lighting would be best placed and so on.
Should there be dimmers? I like dimmers, they create nice mood lighting, but will it be too modern?
I also like ceiling fans as they create nice feelings, esp at night, whirring around, nice and comforting, plus they also do a greatjob of circulating air!
The Honeymoon Cottage and Big Room both will have ceiling fans, but am not sure about here yet.
I can't believe how good the entry looks now with its little wall niche all cut in for the antique mirror to hang in there, plus a vase of flowers on the sideboard ledge we'll create in coming weeks.
It's more important Imre get outside now and get on with outside work while the summer is here.
Honeymoon Cottage Update...
Ordered more cement, lime and a few more pallets of bricks as the guys can't/won't use the mud bricks on the corners etc as they set up the rebuild bases. They want secure corners, so they used the thermal blocks and have only used a few rows of mud bricks so far.
They said once they get up past the window lintels they will use a lot of mud bricks, so here's hoping.
It rained this weekend then a freezing cold wind blew from the north and it was delicious!
Obviously the guys did not work in the rain.
A lovely neighbour walked in on Tuesday and offered to show me something for sale in her tool shed...guess what it was?
Yup, 2 massive, full glass "folding type doors", a front door with architrave and fly screen door and 4 big windows...all as heavy as lead as they are all double glazed etc. I hope she is selling them as that's what I thought she said and she doesn't speak one word of English!
We'll see by this time next week, what I thought she was asking...
Now I'll hopefully have all the windows and doors for the big room, except the nice arched west window I want upstairs so I can take sunset pics without trees, chimneys and caravans being in the way!
Imre can easily build this one for me as the arch is not that bad and all the panes are fixed, so it should be a walk in the park for him!
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| Something like this window I'm thinking for the mez floor in the big room. |
They will be built to fill the spaces they originally occupied, but this time, planned spaces I create with to-days nice bright interiors and fit outs.
What a relief.
In hindsight I should have done the Honeymoon Cottage first, lived in it, then re-built the big room, sorted it out, rented them both out, then did this one. They will be so much easier as I'm creating spaces for purposes, where here I am trying to suit existing spaces to be as authentic as I'm able, pretty, sunny and light, but still retain an air of authenticity!
No easy task, as I'm finding.
However, it is good and we must be all but sorted out now as I unpacked all my crystal yesterday!
To-day, after I paint the front room floor, I'll unpack the linen and empty the few remaining boxes and last 2 of 6 suitcases I've gathered over time from my trips back and forth to OZ.
Have bought really big, cheap cases in OZ, which have been excellent as storage containers for my velvet curtains I brought from OZ and all my lovely white bedding etc. They have been life savers for things I can't find here yet.
I know I can get beautiful linen that I really want, later on in UK, Zagreb (Croatia) and Prague, so am not that worried for the final fit outs all round, but do want things I love around me now, as I continue the rebuilds.
Unwrapping my crystal yesterday, I noticed the date on the wrapping paper was 2010...dohh.
My life on hold that long???
Yes, I brought some of my crystal over, piece by piece, in my carry on luggage each time I came back from OZ...even the beautiful crystal candlesticks, which, funnily enough were bought at Wallace Bishop Jewelers, Gold Coast, years ago, but I just noticed were made in the Czech Republic! hahaha...
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| Breakie made with all local ingredients except a shaving of cheese on top of the quiche. |
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| Had a roast turkey leg and veggies for tea yesterday...Sooo good! I did the par boiled french beans in butter and garlic and tossed with toasted, slithered almonds! Yummmmooo... |
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| Then a lovely neighbour came with these freshly picked blackberries and raspberries for dessert. |
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| There are so many yellow wild flowers here. These are just a few from my jog the other day... |
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| They come up nicely in a vase... |
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| Hahaha...well, the tool shed didn't stay tidy for long! Imre will be putting in shelving in the next few weeks, once we see how we also use it for storage in the meantime. |
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| Here goes the bathroom wall again...this time moved back 5 inches and not a temporary wall! Hence the break in the lino join...That will be temporary though until we replace the temporary lino with something else. Tiles, wood, thick vinyl tiles, Parquetry???. |
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| Looking good. the big area will become a wall niche for a mirror etc. |
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| Sort of completed. Architrave goes around it and then maybe I'll paint it a pale colour on the indent? There will be wall bracket lights too on either side. Adding this niche to the wall has changed the entire feel of the house and now I'm really bamboozled regarding the floors. Something better than I had planned will come up later on, I know it, so am not worried at this stage. Still mega work to do all over the place yet! |
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| My plum trees...laden down with fruit. |
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| All over the village, branches are breaking off trees as the fruit harvest this year is amazing and bountiful. |
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| Every 2nd morning I get out here and smash up a few more bricks and level them off... Saves going to the gym!!! |
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| My sister calls these flowers/weeds, "living snow." They cover the paddock and I'm loathe to mow the grass, while they look so lovely. |
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| So pretty... |
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| The end room...filling the cracks in the beams before painting on Monday...The raw bit of wall on the left, is for the door hole into the big room...once it gets built! Will paint all the floors white for this year and work out what flooring will suit best next year. Too much going on now and even though I have found the correct flooring timber, it isn't as wide as I want to give the feeling I want, so will give it a miss this year. Also, we will use all the timber I bought for the middle room floor, on shelving, trims for the Summer Kitchen/Honeymoon Cottage etc, so nothing goes to waste here. |
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| The other view of the end room. It just needs a fresh coat of paint to the walls and the entire ceiling painted white...beams and all. Was going to have the never painted beams stained, but can't be bothered! |
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| A friend picking some wild little sunflowers from the side of the road... |
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| They came up all right inside too. |
Luckily I had paid Imre ahead of time, the day before and only had $5 left in my purse, so while that wasn't a concern, replacing my cards has been very costly. My driving licence replacement is $75 and the visa replacement ended up just on $80 with petrol and the visa replacement cost of $50.
Then I have to organise myself to replace my personal Visa card which was stolen too.
Luckily I had 2 Visa cards in separate places, and as soon as I discovered my wallet was missing at 7am, I transferred the last money from the card account to a sub account and then cancelled the card online, so was able to continue in OK, but the robbery knocked me around a bit. You feel violated when that happens, being alone here and so on.
I was out jogging just before 6am and the verandah window was open to dry the paint, as we had just painted it the day before...dohhh. The Police came at 9am and went after an hour or so, then 2 detectives came and were here for over 4 hours.
They locked the place down and sent my neighbours, who were here consoling me, sent us all outside the "CrimeScene!
I felt like I was in a TV show of 91210..or something!
The really strange thing was that the robber knew about my black dilly bag and unchained my purse, (which was on a 15 inch pretty solid chain,) from the little black dilly bag I've used for over 12 years.
The detectives thought the dog might have snuk in and took the purse...dohhh...As if???
The robber left my dilly bag on the end of my bed and unchained the wallet, deliberately!
Amazing...
So, without my visa I've been unable to travel to the places I'd planned in May and June. In the end I got over the incident and a friend offered to take me to Debrecen to replace my staying permit/entry visa/resident permit on Thursday, when I could face going thru' all the hoo-haa again.
It took almost 3 hours in the Immigration office...I had to do the finger printing, photo ID, fill in all the paperwork again and so on. I tell you, if you are a baddie or from a bad country, you'll never get into Hungary with their very EXTREME vetting, Thank the Lord!
Will sort out the 2nd Bank Visa card at Heritage in OZ, next week, now I've taken the first steps to get back on deck again. I can't travel with one card...I would not risk it, so I'm virtually "locally bound" for a while!
Next week, hopefully, we'll be able to see the place in some semblance of order...finally.
The windows and doors will all be painted by a professional guy in August, giving Imre time get on with repairing the front of the house and other necessary jobs, as we are running out of outside working time here.
Plus, he has to take his wife to the hospital, 90 klms away a couple of times a week for special treatment, so his work days are restricted now.
Next month is the last month of Summer...then the colder weather comes and painting and cement work don't dry as well after September ish...
I still have the cement paths all around the house to do, after the house is painted, after the front has been repaired...
Man, these season things are a real hindrance to progress on a building site over here.
It is taking me forever to adapt!
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| The long brown decorative trims have to be fixed, the cement trim around the windows has to be all pulled off and redone as it has all collapsed underneath the shell cover of paint and the brown cement things above the long brown things, have to be fixed as their ends have broken off too! Then the front fence will be replaced to the gate. It's only about 20 metres long, so will be OK and we may even be able to sneak it in this year, as the cement on the bottom 18 inches, can be done with special cement bricks, made for the purpose. |
Well, that's it for this very busy week.
Hope all are well,
Love to all,
Cheers,
Mary
xxxx
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