18 years in the making

We've been doing a little housekeeping before we fly to Europe. ‘What’s that?’ you say? Why that’s the new planter box feature along the north wall of our rooftop balcony. The whole affair has taken months of planning, followed by two days of solid work last weekend.  However, the final result looks phenomenal. Thanks to Garry's handyman skills the troughs include hidden irrigation and feature lighting throughout. I've always wanted a feature piece like this since we first bought the apartment. It’s only taken 18 years to finally install it.

The final tweak

Almost two decades ago I brought a corner TV cabinet from IKEA. When we moved into Crescent Street we'd always intended to replace it with something more in keeping the new apartment's look and feel.  18 months later we relocated to London and these plans went on hold. At the time the cabinet fitted reasonably well with the look and feel of our home in London.  

However, when we returned to Australia in 2011, the cabinet was once again no longer fit for purpose once we'd refreshed the apartment. For the next decade it became a daily reminder of unfinished business. Last month I finally decided I'd had enough. I searched online and eventually found a suitable, interim replacement.

Garry thought I was mad buying furniture, sight unseen, online. Incredibly the cabinet I bought came from the USA. Remarkably it's survived four weeks of air travel, moving in and out of multiple transit depots before finally arriving this week.  The physical product isn't too bad.  Its finish is a little "cheap" but it's a vast improvement on its predecessor!  What took us so long?

Garry's also gone shopping and bought us a portable car fridge.  He's decided we're doing enough road trips that it's time to ditch the old Eskis and replace them with something that'll keep everything cold without the need to constantly buy bags of ice or refreeze chiller blocks.

Oh yes, I should also give a quick shout-out for the "new" rug. We bought it last year while shopping one afternoon for a microwave to go in our office kitchen. On a whim, we decided the rug we'd brought with us from London was well past its use-by-date. We saw this rug on sale and ultimately came home with it, but no microwave.

Set for Summer

Garry has been hard at work refreshing our entertaining space.  The gardens have been replanted, the pot plants repotted or replaced and the new built-in BBQ is looking simply awesome.

Recently, our building also finished its "once in twenty years" facade refurbishment.  Every external surface has been repaired and repainted.  The contractors have even filled and repaired gaps in concrete formwork that the original builder never rectified.

Everything is now looking literally as good as new.  It's all been finished just in time for Summer. We have just one small task to complete.  Garry is keen to install a permanent internal gas line under the garden bed for the BBQ. Once this is done we'll be able to remove the external gas hose currently exiting the front of the built-in frame.

FYI. The new stainless steel spotlight pole visible on the left has been installed plumb with the walls. Unfortunately, the camera has warped the perspective in this image. It’s honestly not about to drop off.

Death of a fridge

Our apartment building is less than 18 months away from celebrating the 20th anniversary of its construction. As I've mentioned in earlier blog posts the building is now in midst of its first major repainting and facade repair program.  Garry and I are also less than four months away from celebrating the 15th anniversary of our purchase of the apartment itself.  At the time, moving in drove a host of supplementary spending on furniture and appliances.

As the years tick by, it's been interesting to witness one appliance after another slowly giving up the ghost.  In the last three years we've had to replace the dishwasher, the oven, the microwave, the coffee machine, the laundry dryer and our back-up laundry fridge (also know as the beer and wine cellar).  We've reached the point where only our main kitchen fridge and plasma TV are still original purchases.

However, last month, our kitchen fridge finally called it a day.  Thank goodness we had the back-up downstairs.  I'd noticed a few months earlier that the fridge was starting to cycle through its cooling function more frequently.  At the time we thought it was on its way out but decided we'd wait until the new year.  Our optimism proved misguided.

Needless to say, a flurry of frantic unpacking and repacking saw us filling our "wine and beer" fridge with fresh and frozen goods from the kitchen.  We then spent weeks searching for a suitable replacement. Frustratingly, the search is always compounded by the entrance door to our apartment.  In a moment of madness, the architect who designed our building failed to install over-size doors.  As a result, we're forever measuring furniture and appliances to ensure they'll fit.

Garry and I have talked about a fridge with French Doors for some time so we duly traped the halls of every appliance store in the area looking for the perfect model.  We decided not to spend more than absolutely necessary as we still harbour aspirations to renovate in the future and thus replace the appliances to match the new look.

As luck would have it we came across an end-of-line model marked down as the last in-store and couldn't resist the bargain.  Much to our surprise; the new fridge ultimately cost $500 less than the model it replaced (despite the passage of 14 years).

Just another brick in the wall

Our building is currently in the midst of a major capital works program.  This work includes repainting the exterior, inspecting and repairing the facade and fixing water penetration leaks across the building. Our building is eight stories high. Access to its facade has involved the installation of a series of swing stages supported by temporary scaffolding rigs.

Regular readers will know that we have a rooftop apartment in the building. As a result, we've had rigging assembled, disassembled, relocated and re-assembled on our northern balcony and apartment roof continuously since March this year.  We've also enjoyed mind-numbing bouts of drilling and pounding.  At times this has made working from our home office a rather stressful affair.

In recent weeks the works have moved to the southeastern corner of the building.  We've been waiting for this work to start for some time as it also involves extensive facade repairs designed to finally fix a persistent water penetration problem we've been tackling in the apartment for almost three years. The leak has progressively damaged carpet and wardrobe fittings in our main bedroom.  It's become a regular event to pull back the carpet in our main bedroom and distribute towels to mop up the water that's slowly leaking in.

To date, the building has completed five separate projects designed to plug the leak.  Each has progressively reduced the flow of water into our apartment.  However, until now nothing has completely sealed the building.  Although, on a positive note, the water membranes surrounding the perimeter of the apartment has progressively replaced.  This should give us several decades of trouble-free living.

The latest attempt to finally plug the leak has been more comprehensive then we'd anticipated.  Builders and engineers have opened up several sections of our southern wall, repaired its cavity and rebuilt troublesome sections. Fingers crossed we'll finally see an end to our much-despited towel mopping entertainment.  We'll then be able to start making plans for some long-anticipated renovations.

UPDATE: 3 November 2018
I'm delighted to report that the recent works have left us high and dry for the first time in years. Despite a week of heavy and unrelenting rain in late-October not a drop of water made its way into the apartment. Hooray!

Hotel de Wheels

Everyone raves about the Museum Art Hotel in Wellington.  The hotel had a great room rate on offer last week so I decided to try it for myself.  The fish sculpture you can see above greeted me every morning as I waited for an elevator.  However, the most interesting exhibit in the lift lobby was a display case capturing the story of the building's relocation several years earlier.

The building once sat on the edge of Wellington harbour.  In 1993 the 3,500 tonne reinforced concrete structure was moved 180 metres along the waterfront and then back across a major road to its current location  It was relocated to make way for the new Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa.  The entire feat was achieved by carefully cut its foundation piers, then lifting the  building onto giant rail trolleys which were then pushed delicately along temporary rail tracks by enormous ram jacks.

Here's how Stuff.co.nz summed up the relocation on its 20th anniversary last year:

• 3000-tonne, four-storey building - the largest ever shifted in New Zealand.
• $2.4 million cost ($3.7m in today's dollars).
• 3 months of preparation for a 3-day move, in two stages
• 120-metre shift - 80m east along Cable St (August 14-15, 1993), a 90-degree rotation and 40m south across Cable St (August 21).
• 5-10 metres an hour - the average speed of the building when moved
• 3 kilometres of rail line on 8 tracks.
• 96 "bogie" rail trolleys pushed by 8 hydraulic rams.
• 120 tonnes of push needed to move the building.
• 48-hour closure of Cable St for final track-laying and relocation.
• 1000-strong crowds watching the various stages of the move

A garden for 2020

Our outdoor living space is finally set for another decade of entertaining.  Garry and I have spent the last three weekends replacing and upgrading everything on the main balcony.  The balcony’s recent refurbishment left us with a garden to plant, an irrigation system to install and pots to refurnish.

It took a full day to replant the main garden. We first had to top it up with soil.  For some reason, the garden’s level dropped more than 10cms once the original soil was shoveled back into place. The building’s management agreed to supply replacement dirt which duly arrived in the form of more than a dozen 30kg bags of earth.

We then spent an entire weekend installing a new, upgraded garden irrigation system.  Garry decided to go for an impressive gold-plated version built from custom-cut hard-shell PVC piping.  The final installment looks impressive.  It’s definite improvement on the original system.  At some point we plan to paint the white plastic tubing to match the colour of the surrounding walls. 

 
Our garden lighting has also been upgraded with new bollards and fancy enamel-coated tracks that hide the cables.  Then finally, today we refurbished our free-standing pots.  This includes topping their soil, replacing old weed mats, washing ornamentals stones and upgrading their irrigation system. 
 
We now have a balcony restored to pristine condition. It got a new water membrane, new tiles, a fresh coat of paints and all of the fancy refurbishment work we’ve undertaken. Garry plans to complete the picture by building the BBQ into the garden.  This’ll open up additional space around our outdoor dining zone.  Roll on Summer!

Crop circles in the carpet

 

The repairs to our balcony are finally drawing to close.  After six weeks of construction, interrupted by more than a week of unrelenting rain, the finishing touches are underway.  As you can see from the photo above new tiles have been laid and the walls have received a fresh coat of paint.  It's all come up rather well.  The final result is terrific.

While the neighbour's water penetration problems are now resolved unfortunately we've discovered a new water pentration problem indoors.  Earlier in the week I discovered our large indoor pot plants had been leaking onto living room carpet. The internal drip trays overflowed and the water has soaked through the pot's pressed concrete wall.

We now have two thread-bare "crop circles" in our carpet where damp pots have rotted the wool and left rather unpleasant mildew stains.  I've spent the last few days waterproofing each pots with a special membrane coating.  It's thick rubbery compound that you paint onto in progressively thicker layers.  Hopefully this will prevent any futher damage.

We're trying to look on the bright side.  The ruined carpet is another perfect excuse to begin planning those renovations we keep deferring.

Wet, wet, wet

The apartment directly under our rooftop balcony has suffered water peneration problems for more than a year.  Nurmous attempts have been made to solve the problem.  This included lifting balcony tiles in several locations and repairing the protective water membrane unerneath.  These efforts proved fruitless. 

The building's Body Corporate has finally decided to resolve the issue by replacing our balcony's entire water membrane.  However, sitting on top of the membrane is tonnes of terracotta tiles and supporting scree.  The scree a solid mix of sand and cement. It keeps our tiles stable and provides an optimal incline for drainage. At it's highest point it almost 15cm thick. Removing it requires a jackhammer.

As a result, our balcony became a building site last Monday. Furniture, plants and accessories were transfered to the smaller balcony at the back of our apartment.  For four days, three workers jackhammered away.  The rubble they created was then scooped into sacks and precariously winched down the side of our building.

By Friday we were left with stark grey concrete shell. All was proceeding to plan. That is, until 8:00am on Saturday morning when the heavens opened. A large high pressure zone has stalled off the coast of New South Wales trapping wet, moist air over Sydney. 

As a result, rain has fallen continually and is forecast to fall for another two days. As of 8:30pm this evening almost 83mm had fallen. That's more than two thirds of June's average rainfall in 36 hours.  By the time the sun appears again on Tuesday, more than 80% of the monthly average is predicted to have fallen.

Without doubt, its the sort of weather you don't want when your roof's protective water membrane is missing.  We think our neighbours are dripping wet.

UPDATE: 8.00am June 24
Overnight rainfall reported over the last 24 hours rose above 50mm.  This means that more than 106mm has fallen in 24 hours with more to come. Since records began June's rainfall has averaged just over 120mm per month.

UPDATE: 9.30pm June 24
It's official. Since Saturday morning we've had June's entire average rainfall dumped on Sydney.  So far 123mm of rain has fallen in less than three days.  The forecast predicts more rain ovenight.

Winter takes its toll

We’ve enjoyed another weekend of blue skies sunshine. However, temperatures struggled to rise above 16°C today, unlike last weekend when the high hit 21°C. With sunshine almost every day for the last two weeks even my daily walk to work has been rather pleasant. In fact, I felt uncomfortably warm at least one morning while simply wearing a leather jacket. The sunshine is forecast to continue until mid-week with highs reaching 18°C.

We’ve put the sunshine to good use potting around on our main balcony making minor repairs outstanding since our return. This included tying down irrigation pipes, repairing the outdoor lighting and staining an old teak bench. Today’s endeavours saw us applying a coat of marine varnish to the bench before the sun slipped behind nearby building.

Earlier in the week wind warning were in effect for much of the region. Despite our apartment’s location we only saw the odd gust from our balcony. However, the hills surrounding Sydney were hit hard. In the Blue Mountains west of Sydney trees were blown across rail tracks. One tree even struck a passing train. Nobody was injured. We later heard that winds had been gusting up to 70 km/h during the day.

On Wednesday morning I also witnessed a tree being toppled while working to work. My attention was initially drawn by a loud crack barely 50 metres ahead. I glanced up in response and was stunned to see a spindly pine tree gracefully descend across the pavement in a shower of needles. As I watched it slowly came to rest on the back of a parked car. Again, nobody was harmed while I was left to marvel how I'd found myself in the right place at the right time to witness such a rare event.

Trees aren’t the only things coming to grief at the moment. In the last few weeks we’ve had three appliances fail. First, our Italian coffee machine broke after seven years of faithful service. Second, our iron began blowing fuses around the house. Then finally, our new toaster’s release mechanism stopped working. Winter is clearly taking it toll.

It's done!

Several weeks ago we order a new console table for the entry lobby in our apartment. After some delay it finally arrived today.  The new table has now taken pride of place in its new home.  It looks grand.  Much to my surprise it's made the entire entrance feel more spacious than it actually is. I can confidentally say this is the final touch planned for our apartment refresh; almost three months to the day since our return to Sydney.  There's nothing left now but to enjoy our new surroundings.

Family for dinner

My parents have dropped into town for a long weekend.  After a week of rain they've timed their arrival to coincide with four days of sunshine and Summer temperatures.  Garry and I have filled their time with a variety of tourist highlights including lunch at the Fish Markets, an evening at the Sydney Theatre Dance Company, lunch in Manly by the water and a leisurely walk across the harbour bridge. 

Their visit was also a great excuse to ensure our apartment refresh was finished in time for their arrival.  As a result we successfully entertained both sets of parents on Friday evening with a gala BBQ dinner.  We even used our trip to the Fish Market as an excursion to collect fresh seafood for dinner.  I even found time before heading to the airport to dash to the florist and buy flowers for our entrance lobby.  Our extended family dinner was a roaring success and everyone praised our refresh efforts, including Garry's garden lighting.

Lunch at Manly on Sunday was spectacular.  We dined at Hugo's on the ferry wharf.  The restaurant gave us the best table in the house right on the waterfront with uninterrupted harbour views.  We also squeezed in a quick wander to the beach before heading home on the ferry.  The timing of our departure proved fortuitous as rain began falling as we docked at Circular Quay.  This was the only respite in the otherwise perfect weather during my parents entire visit.

Today we caught the train to Milson's Point and walked across the Harbour Bridge soaking up blue skies and sunshine.  A light lunch at The Rocks and a stroll around the bay to the Opera House completed our excursion.  As always the views in every direction was simply stunning, reminding me yet again how pleased I am to be back in Australia.

Windows to die for

Our new blinds have been installed. They look spectacular. Here's just a couple of quick photos; taken with an overcast sky behind them. They make the apartment look like a million dollars.  Their installation marks the conclusion of a comprehensive refresh we've undertaken since returning to Sydney. It's taken two months but I finally feel like we're home.

The outdoor room

Ta da! Here it is. The new outdoor room. Our new dining suite, mega-man BBQ and lounge suite have safely arrived. We think they look grand. In fact the entire set-up looks better I expected and everything seems to fit comfortably on our main balcony. Hopefully you're able to get a sense of the layout and the open space around it. We're looking forward to entertaining our international visitors next weekend. Pray that the weather will also play its part.


Come back soon for photos of the new window blinds currently scheduled to be installed on Sunday.

The first look

The new outdoor lounge suite has arrived. Here's a quick photo to wet your appetite. Our next challenge is to work out how we fit it all on our balcony! More pictures and details shortly.

It's here!

Our final apartment refresh purchases are about to arrive. Over the last couple of days we’ve been contacted by the company manufacturing our new window blinds and the retailer supplying our new outdoor lounge suite. Both suppliers are delivering their wares a week ahead of schedule. The suite arrives tomorrow while our blinds will be installed on Sunday. We’re thrilled that everything will be in place before my parents visit in ten days time. They’re in town for a long weekend to see the fruits of our labour (and see for themselves how boldly we’ve burned a hole in our wallets). Stay tuned for more images. For now I’ll leave you with a wonderful rainbow over the SCG and a look at our refurbished home office balcony.
 

Just like the catalogue

Our new outdoor dining suite has arrived. Ironically it was delivered on a day of heavy rainfall, giving its durability an immediate test. As I noted in my last post, our table was floor stock used for photos in Harbour Outdoor's new season catalogue. The catalogue went on online today. You can see our furniture in catalogue photograph above. The store even gave us the bowls that appear in this image. Below is the same table at home on our own balcony.


Below are the chairs that came with our suite. The first photo comes from the catalogue, the second was taken on our balcony. Perhaps we'll publish our own catalogue? We love our new dining suite!

Some finishing touches

Our apartment refresh reached another milestone this week. After week of searching and driving all over Sydney we’ve found the perfect outdoor furniture for our main balcony. Even better, we took advantage of the end-of-Summer sales, and saved thousands. Our shopping spree has netted us an outdoor dining suite, an outdoor lounge suite and enormous BBQ. With luck it’ll be delivered by early-April.


Our dining suite was floor stock used to shoot photographs for next season’s catalogue. It’s delivered next week. We’ve been promised a catalogue when it comes back from the printer. However, you can see last season’s range in white, above. Our table is the same style but has a light tan frame with charcoal coloured slats. The chairs also have a tan frame with white fabric. We’ve bought the six-seat version. To give us additional seating capacity we’ve also ordered a smaller two-seat version. It will live on our bedroom balcony and move any time we need additional table space on the main balcony.


The lounge suite we’ve bought looks identical to the one you see above. The cushions are covered in the same chocolate brown tone but we’ve bought a sofa, two armchairs and a coffee table that doubles as a sun lounger. It was marked down 25% but we managed to get delivery and scatter cushions thrown in for free. We’ve been promised delivery by April 7. The frame is constructed from artificial wicker and aluminum so it should survive life on our balcony without problems.


The new BBQ is Garry’s pride and joy. It was floor stock and the last in the store. We got it for a bargain and talked the store into throwing in a filled gas cylinder. Garry then decided we could save the delivery charge if we partially dissembled it and carefully fitted the pieces into our tiny rental car. After several attempts we finally managed to squeeze it into the car with millimeters to spare. I still marvel at this feat as it has to be the largest BBQ I’ve never set eyes on. Needless to say Garry’s fired it up at least twice since we got it home.


Finally, inside the apartment I’ve been spending my evenings working on the new staircase joinery in our entrance lobby. Unfortunately the custom woodwork I ordered was poorly installed. I arrived home one evening to a scene that almost made my blood boil; two immaculately crafted joinery pieces had been literally butchered by crude saw cuts and other unsightly flaws. Repairing the damage involved a ten-day remedial project. I meticulously prepared paper templates, cut and glued new sections and finally painted the entire ensemble. The result is now much like the image I’d been carrying in my head.

I almost forgot to add that we've successfully secured the services of a cleaner. Incredibly the cleaning lady we had five years ago was still available. She'd even kept the same mobile phone number. Juilet was thrilled to hear from us and immediately made herself available to clean and iron once a week. She's easily the most efficient, thorough cleaner I've witnessed. Life in Australia is definitely falling back into the same familiar rhythm.

The big reveal

It’s done! Our relocation back to Sydney is complete. We’re about to unpack the last box. After more than a month of painting, repairing and unpacking our apartment finally feels like home again. We’ve reached a point where Garry’s been filling his day finishing minor handyman jobs rather than painting ceilings and finding new homes for the contents in dozens of boxes.


Here in all its glory are a few photos of our almost normal home. You’ll see the new carpet adoring our internal staircase, the new feature wall and the painstakingly assembled TV bed. You’ll also see the joinery that went in yesterday at the base of the stairs (yet to receive a coat of paint) and the bookcase wall I’ve assembled in the spare bedroom. Our new blinds have yet to arrive and we’re still searching for the perfect outdoor dining suite. I hope you’ll agree it’s all starting to come together. Home sweet home.