New Cladding for the house

We have lived with ugly vinyl cladding for the last seven years and I knew a bit of a face lift could really transform our home. There is only so much paint can do so it was time to put our hand in our pocket and spend big biccies on a whole new outer for the house.

Our house in 2010 when we moved in

Mr L'Orange never seemed as keen to part with the cash or more likely, spend many months of his free time completing this DIY nightmare. Luckily I found a handyman with experience removing asbestos who was needing some work and everything fell into place. So after many years of discussing, we have finally got around to re-cladding our home and adding insulation to the walls. Hoorah!

Re-cladding is a pretty horrible task as it involves stripping the current hideous vinyl cladding (the easy bit), getting the asbestos sheets removed (slightly dangerous part). These have to be wrapped and then taken to the tip for special attention and you pay extra fees. Still very reasonable compared with having a company come in and remove the asbestos for you.

Next comes putting insulation into the walls and covering with sarking before cladding the entire thing in Weathertex and then painting the lot. This sort of project is not for the faint hearted.

The new cladding we are using is called Weathertex and is the same as the cabin. It looks exactly like weatherboard but is made of sustainable materials and easy to paint and maintain.

Because this is a bit of a mammoth project, we are completing the new cladding in small sections with one wall at a time.

Once the project was underway, we realised it made sense to replace the gutters and eaves on the house as well. A bit more money and time but definitely worth it for the finished result.

New eaves & gutters in place

There were a few issues when it came to painting as our handyman decided to complete this task on a very windy day with a spray gun. Not only did the house get a few coats of paint but also all my plants, gates, front door, verandah, outdoor lights, guttering, plant pots and baby buggy!

Lovely new weathertex on left, old vinyl cladding on the right

Why bother, I hear you cry? Well, this big investment of time and money will mean that our home will at last have some semi decent insulation inside of its walls keeping it cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

We should also no longer hear our lovely neighbours next door as there will be more than a skinny bit of cladding separating us. Sadly insulation isn't taken very seriously in Australia and the standard wall insulation here is still pretty woeful when compared to cutting edge environmentally sustainable options in Europe or Canada.

Flashings added to keep everything water tight

We are very hopeful that the end result will have the house looking and feeling a million dollars plus stay warm in the winter and add a serious chunk to the value of our home to make it all worthwhile.

Front of the house with new cladding & gutters

New Washing Line

When we cleared our garages and sheds to make way for our super fab new cabin, I sadly lost my existing washing line.

After several weeks of taking washing around to friend's houses to dry, I got a temporary washing line erected (a piece of rope between 2 trees) by a kindly person staying with us - who probably felt sorry for me.

Rustic Washing Line

This temporary measure has been in place for the last 8 months and hasn't really been big enough, doesn't get as much sun and is right at the end of the garden.

I managed to find a bargain hills hoist online a month ago and Mr L'Orange's parents kindly collected it for us. Unfortunately, the old lady I bought it off must have had the onset of dementia, as she assured me it would pull out and fold away and was packed up and ready for collection.

However, on arrival Mr L'Orange senior found it stuck in the ground with cement,  then spent an hour digging out the base with a bad shoulder, the old lady only knocked $10 off the price!!

Last weekend Mr L'Orange roped his brother in to help install the new washing line, Gary very kindly dug the hole (whilst not stepping on my new grass - unlike Mr L'Orange) and then started adding the quick set cement, Mr L'Orange had brought from the shed, to secure the post.

After about 20 minutes of trying to do this, I popped outside and noticed Mr L'Orange (who was somewhat hungover) trying to cement in the post with Gary with gap sand!

First load on the line

Somewhat frustrated, Gary had to dig out all the gap sand, find the correct bag of cement and start again.

New Washing Line Installed

The finished washing line is excellent, I can get several loads of washing on at once and being green it blends in with the garden.