Sophia's Bathroom

Done and dusted, ready to shower.

Kitchen Confidential

Here's Sarah's beautiful kitchen, benches and splash backs finally revealed in all their splendour.

Needs a fridge, and it will be done.

Whats Through The Round Window?

The funky porthole window has been restored, and the frame and glass replaced with insulated glass and industrial surround.

Looks more substantial than before (and safer glass).

Finishing Touches

Painters are putting the final touches to the balconies before the ballustrading goes on.

Zen and the Art of Furniture Removal

You learn quickly that the buddhist principle of not being attached to possessions has a lot going for it.

First Furniture

First Furniture

It's a big day ... We've cleared out our storage unit and moved everything to the new garage. The first piece of furniture is installed. Moving house is SUCH fun.

The Saga of the Polished Concrete Floor

A year ago, the concrete floor to the games room was poured.

The first pour ended up with an uneven and irregular lumpy surface, so it was arranged to be fixed. They removed the half that was lumpy, and repoured. Then it was finally polished, and we found that the two halves did not match - different concrete, different aggregates, and a big stained joint in the middle.

The whole floor was then wet-sawed up and had to be hand carted out.

The whole thing was removed and replaced. The result, now, is a beautiful terrazo floor, which the kids dig.... Well worth persisting with to get this right. Happy client, happy builder - great result.

Original Grey - with big old join/split down the middle

East Berlin / West Berlin
West Bank / Israel
Ruddy / Julia
Nobody likes an ugly divide.....

Sawing up the whole damn thing into massive blocks (which sadly, were not re-cyclable, because the reinforcing steel inside would rust if installed outside)

Block-by-block removal - each of these probably weighed 80 kilos

Kids lovin the SPECTACULAR new floor -and especially loving finding the glass marbles which are scattered throughout the aggregate... it IS their play-room after all.

Back on track... January action has started

And there, suddenly, looming like the prow of a mighty ocean liner, is the ballustrading around the "front yard"

Craning in the dirt

Everything about buillding on a hill adds difficulty. In this case, we had to try 2 cranes to get the soil up to the level needed for our "front yard".

We're Cactus

Some planting selections for the garden. e need lots of tough plants which can deal with the tough coastal conidtions combined with our brown thumbs.

Beautiful frangipanis are hopefully going to feature.

Inspirational Courtyards

Here are some great courtyards in Morocco, from our holidays in 2008. We're hoping to incorporate some of this in our new courtyard - maybe the great pots and amazing succulents. How Do they get them up the 4 or 5 stories to the roof - via the tiny, winding internal stairways, or over the side with pulleys and hoists?

Check out the other images here at Picasa