Jarrah Floors

When we demolished our old house to build the current one we salvaged the jarrah floor boards with the aim of using them in our new home. We pain stakingly pulled them up by hand and have now stored them for over eight years in the shed. We had to use recycled boards from a salvage yard to do the floating floor in the main living area because the ones from the house did not have enough with the tongue and groove intact. So we planned to use ours for the passage ways and main entrance. Laying them was one of the things we needed to do in order to finish the inside of the house. Laying them required doing a direct stick to the cement and also a lot of cutting in around doorways etc and was a little daunting. So we decided we needed to ask for help. Enter Uncle Bill (pictured left with Vince). Bill and Moira are some of Vince's folks oldest friends. Bill is an amazing carpenter who is now retired and works mostly on jobs that he wants to do. We asked Bill for help and he kindly obliged and after two hard days of work we are over half way there and the floors are looking amazing. Big thank you to Uncle Bill and his Daughter Lou (who I have mentioned earlier). Also a big thank you to Moira who dead headed our roses while we worked. Tomorrow we will continue on without Uncle Bill,  as he took the time to teach us what we needed to know so that we could keep on going ourslelves. Our DIY skills are growing all the time. Once these are finished then we are going to get them sanded. We are not going to polish them with polyurethane, instead choosing to wax and polish them. It will mean a little extra work but we prefer the look. Plus the kids will just scratch the hell out of them. Today was really fun. It was also great in that we got a visit from both Dad's. My Dad called in and gave us a hand by sorting the broken boards from the salvageable ones. Vince's Dad Rob also so called in to have a quick look at how it was all going.

Bill and Moira are off to Cambodia in January. They are going with Louise and her partner Mike. They are going over to do volunteer work. They all participate in fundraising events through out the year and them go as part of a team. I know that they do some amazing work. If anyone would like to become involved or offer a donation let me know and I will put you in touch with Louise (I am so stuffed that I cannot think of the charity, so I will up date this entry later when I have more information).
I have caught up with Lou and the name of the charity is Blooming Kids and you can contact them at bloomingkids@iinet.net.au  

I have so much more in my head that I want to write about but I can hardly keep my eyes open. I am completely knackered. Louise asked me tonight after everyone had left and she had kindly made me a cuppa, whether I had pictured what it was going to be like in a few months time when we are home settled with Pati and Poppy. I said that I could see myself sitting in the same spot feeling just as knackered. And just as content.

Today we are 29 weeks. Night.

J.

PS: Happy Birthday Gramdma for tomorrow.