it's still a mess...but it's our mess

With a few days to simmer down and catch an update on how some of the QLD flood victims are slowly pulling their lives and homes back together, it's a good wake-up call that we chose for all of this to happen. The move, the mess, the stress - we took it all on for a larger goal. I know I'm terrible at 'seeing the forest for the trees' at the best of times - lucky I have such a supportive (and forest-seeing) husband.

Here's a little snapshot of where things have come from...
This is the lounge room when we first started renovating a few years ago (prior to even contemplating the whole house-moving thing). Love the 70's firebox!



It's amazing what a lick of paint, some sanding of floorboards and some gorgeous flowers can do! What a transformation.



When moving the house, we had to make a decision about the fireplace. Upon moving, the exterior brickwork would no longer be stable and coupled with a rusted-out flue, we decided to take it out completely.

This involved demolishing it from the inside-out...



...putting in new structural beams to secure the house...



...and re-covering the inside and outside walls.



We're not finished yet - there's still more sanding, priming, and painting to go, but I guarantee you'd never know there used to be a fireplace in the house when we're finished. I'm just looking forward to the 'finished' shot now!