Stairs and the Last of the Gyprocking

Last week was a crazy week around here.

It began like this:

with everything covered late on Sunday night

in anticipation of the gyprockers 

arriving at 7.00am on Monday morning.

But they didn't arrive.

Again.

So I prepared for a day of no progress.

Except for the painting outside ....

But ... then at about 10.00am the stair man arrived,

and the plumbers to install the taps and connect the water upstairs..

By the end of Monday 

our beautiful staircase was complete.

Although the staircase intrudes into the living area

the posts line up with the side of the front and back door, 

which is great.

here is the view from the other side,

showing space for the understairs cupboards,

which the carpenter is building as I type.

And our interesting angled toilet door,

the subject of a future post.

I love this view of the stairs where you can 

see the light flowing in from the windows on the landing.

In the next few days I will start painting the bannisters in white.

All the maple (handrails, steps and postcaps) 

will be stained and varnished in a few weeks.

The next morning we were back to this:

and this time the gyprockers did arrive,

shooing us out of the kitchen before breakfast ...

we grabbed our bowls, spoons, cereal boxes and milk

and huddled into the study, 

the only "safe" room,

the four of us in one square metre.

Good times.

huh.

They sanded for the morning and left at 11.00am

in a cloud of dust.

I spent the afternoon cleaning.

One of the spaces they worked was here in the kitchen,

you can see in the top left corner where the bottom of the 

staircase eats into the kitchen.

A similar thing happens in the toilet next door.

There were also plenty of repairs to the ceiling 

and in our bedroom where a support post had to be put in.

So really, the only unaffected rooms during the whole renovation

have been the study (otherwise known as the holding room for 

everything we've had to suddenly move!) 

the girls room (nearly always a mess!)

and the shower/bathroom.

It was such a relief after the gyprockers left to 

remove dropsheets for the last time from all the 

furniture and floors in the living room.

Each day a little bit more is done

and we get a little closer to finishing!

The carpenter will finish today,

and then we wait for the showerscreen and the tiler to do a little more,

before we finish painting and have the carpet laid

in a few weeks time.

Yippee!