Before and After: Rendering The Exterior Bricks

I've teased you with the house exterior before photos and now it's time for the pretty after where our 1960s bricks are given a new lease of life with some sand + cement + lime = render.

The renderer came one day to set up the big scaffold we had hired, around the back and side of the house, it was a scorcher of a day and too hot to do any plastering work. It worked out to be much cheaper for us to hire and set up the scaffold ourselves and we hired it for about 3 weeks, not only for the renderer to use but we also put it to use and painted the house while it was up.

On the first day of rendering, the renderer put in 10 hours of work rendering the back walls of the house and wasn't even going to stop for lunch until the lure of my apple and cinnamon muffins wafting from the oven convinced him to stop for a well deserved break!

The render takes just a few hours to dry especially on a hot summer's day, which also means the renderer had to work fast to smooth out the plaster before it dried and set.

The next day of work, the renderer finished the back. Then came on the last day to render the side of the house and then it was all done.

So many windows and door frames on the back of the house, it was a bit of a fiddly job out here!

After just a few days work it looks so totally different now that the are bricks covered, it's like a brand new house!

I think rendering the outside of the house is the best bang for your buck you can get and is definitely worth considering if you have old bricks and want your house to have a fresh new lease of life without breaking the bank.

To give you an idea of what it cost - for the back and side of our house set us back less than $2500. This includes the renderer's labour (who's a friend of ours so we get mates rates), we supplied the sand, lime and cement and hired the scaffold.

What do you think of the rendered bricks before and after?

Our next job is to paint the exterior of the house - this includes the eaves and scotia, rendered walls and window frames. If you follow me on Facebook and Instagram you will have seen snippets of our progress painting over the last few weeks and this will be up on the blog soon!

Sharing with link parties:

Savvy Southern Style - Wow us Wednesdays

The Dedicated House - Make It Pretty Mondays

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Book Club Book Review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist By Mohsin Hamid

The November Book Club read which was also the last book for the year was The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid.

My book club always has December off from reading and we have a Christmas party instead! This was our fourth Christmas party and we went out for cocktails, a degustation dinner and dancing! If you've ever wanted to start your own book club then check out my post on How To Start A Book Club it could by one of your new year resolutions!

This story is narrated by a Pakistani man Changez who sits in a cafe in Pakistan talking to an American man. Changez tells the story of how he use to live and work in New York but after the 9/11 attacks everything changed and he no longer felt he fit in to the American life, he was judged on the street, in his workplace, and especially at the airport when he was travelling for work or back home to see his family in Pakistan.

The writing style of the author was brilliant and unique, it felt like I was in the cafe being told the story, it really reeled you in and you felt like you were a part of it as well. 

This was an interesting story to see the other side of how Muslims feel amongst the fears of terrorism and when it was written some years ago I can see how it would have been a welcome voice to have an insight into different cultures.

I wanted to like this story more but it left me feeling a bit flat and uncertain, especially the ending, but I won't go into that and spoil it for you.

I recommend this book to everyone of different cultures I think it will give you an understanding towards people from different countries and cultures.

I give this book 3 stars out of 5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:
1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch paint dry than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd give away my last tim tam for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

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[Image via Dymocks]


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Carnival Legend Cruise Ship - A Culinary Tour

Late last year I had a blissful 8 night cruise holiday with Mr P and my parents on board Carnival Cruise Line's - Carnival Legend.

We all came back well fed, well rested and relaxed. Mr P and I even got engaged on board the ship on the very first day as the ship set sail from Sydney Harbour which was so romantic and beautiful, and a perfect start to the holiday!

I've been sharing my happy snaps on Facebook and Instagram and I have lots more to share in this blog post too as I take you on a culinary tour of the Carnival Legend cruise ship.

I love cruise holidays so much because you can pretty much eat 24/7 if you want too! And the best thing is that it is all FREE because it's included in your cruise fare. There are a few speciality restaurants on board that charge a small fee and we dined at a few of those, but otherwise all meals are included which is fantastic.

While all you can eat buffets are good for the variety, I'm much more a fine dining and specialty restaurant kind of girl, I will take quality over quantity any day and was in my element on this cruise because it had exactly that.

Room Service - Being a blogger on board did have it's perks because I was spoilt with treats being left in my cabin a few times which was lovely.

You had to pay for room service which was a shame because room service is usually free, but to make up for that we just took some snacks from the Lido Restaurant and The Taste Bar back to the cabin when we wanted to chill and watch a movie, it just meant we had to go and get it ourselves!

The Lido Restaurant is the buffet which was set up with different foods in each corner of the room, salads at one end, made to order sandwiches at the other, pies and snags, which made it a bit tricky to manoeuvre around with your plate of food. I think most buffets work the best when they are all in a long line and you can see everything on offer and go along and load up your plate.

My favourite part of the Lido Restaurant which was open 24 hours was the Pizza Pirate. They made pizzas to order from a set menu which were delicious and we ate here a few times for a quick and easy snack.

The other favourite was outside by the pool Off The Grill where you could make your own hamburgers, this was open until late afternoon so perfect for days when you were in port and came back late and wanted to make a delicious home made burger and fries and enjoy it pool side.

Truffles Restaurant is the formal dining room where you can dine for breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner and afternoon tea at no charge.

This room was spectacular with a grand staircase, beautiful chandeliers and ocean views. We had the same table with the same waiters every night which is the best way to go because they get to know what you like which means they know when to give you double servings!

For breakfast, brunch, lunch and afternoon tea we dined in Truffles Restaurant a few times because it had a big selection of dishes and there were no queues you just sit down and enjoy fine dining service. 

We sat at different tables during the day, usually to the back of the ship with incredible ocean views.

For dinner in Truffles Restaurant they provided a different 4 course menu every night, a big variety of dishes - entrees, sides, soups, salads, main and dessert.

There were quality dishes on the menu like lobster and escargot which is usually hard to find on some cruise ship restaurants so we were all impressed with our menu choices.

Personally, I'm not a huge sweet tooth I usually go for the cheese board but Mr P worked his way through the desserts and the Chocolate Melting Cake was a firm favourite, I even managed to track down the recipe for him which you can find here.

For a special dinner we dined at the Nouveau Restaurant which was $40 a head and well worth it because the quality of food and ingredients used were amazing .... blue swimmer crab, lobster bisque, mouth watering steaks just to name a few!

Not to mention the trolley they come around with for you to select the cut of meat you would like. This was a really beautiful dinner, we stayed for hours enjoying the intimate ambiance of the restaurant and amazing food and wines.

We also treated ourselves to Japanese for lunch one day at Bonsai Sushi Bar. To order you tick the boxes on the menu which the lovely kimono dressed waitresses take to the chef and then eagerly await your meal to arrive!

There are rolls and bento boxes but you can't go past the sushi boat for two which cost $40 and tasted as good as it looked. All our dishes were beautifully presented and there were roll combinations that I've never tried before and I eat sushi every week! We all really loved this place it's a must for Japanese foodies!!

There was The Taste Bar which was open on sea days and served small tapas style dishes from the featured restaurants on board like the steakhouse and sushi, which was a great idea because if you like the cuisine you'll dine at the restaurant.

Once we discovered The Taste Bar (it took us a few days!) we would go down for dinner early so we could have a drink at the nearby RedFrog Pub and enjoy an appetiser before dinner.

Next time I would love to try Chef's Table which includes a tour of the galley and a delectable dinner with a small intimate group - this is a must do on my next cruise!

If you're mouth is watering and you're looking for your own cruise holiday getaway, Carnival Cruises has two ships cruising from Sydney - Carnival Spirit and Carnival Legend which sail around the Pacific Islands for 8-12 days and some shorter weekend getaways too. The Carnival Spirit sails from Sydney year round and the Carnival Legend will sail over the summer months until April 2015 and then return to Australian waters in September 2015.

Fares on Carnival Legend's 10 night Pacific Islands cruise in January 2015 start at $1499 per person.

What is your favourite thing about a cruise holiday? 
The food? Port stops and destinations? Unpacking once? Cocktails poolside?

Disclosure: Carnival Cruises partnered with me to help promote their company. I received dinner for two at Nouveau Restaurant and complimentary WIFI throughout the cruise. I have not received any payment for this review. As always, all opinions are my own.

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[All images my own]

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Exterior Updates - Preparing The Bricks For Render

The whole exterior of our house has now been rendered and holy moly what an impact a bit of plaster can make!

But before I show you the juicy after shots, here is the before post and the work we had to do to get the exterior bricks ready to be rendered.

The back of the house couldn't be rendered until we had finished renovating the laundry because we had to change and move all the plumbing and pipes from the wall which ran down the back of the house. We also cut out a window and installed french doors which made a mess of the brick work too.

To get the back ready to be rendered we had to remove everything from the bricks - down pipes, air conditioning pipes, and the old wooden bridge that takes you from the house into the granny flat.

We were lucky that underneath the old bridge was the original steps into the house so we can use them to get in and out until we build the deck. 

We kept the bridge attached to the granny flat so that we still have access to it. It's a little tricky to get in and out of the house at the moment, but luckily Lexi has learnt to jump from the bridge onto the steps into the house ..... A trail of black dirt also comes in with us but that's all part of the fun of renovating!

We used a power saw to cut off the bricks around the window ledges and make grooves in them so that the plaster will stick, it makes it easier for the renderer to get clean square lines around the windows too.

The side of the house is way too high to reach with a ladder and we needed to hire a scaffold for the renderer to reach the high points of the house and so we could finish cutting off the window ledges. 

The side of the house is about 4+ metres off the ground, great views from up there but not so good if you're afraid of heights! 

Once all that work was done, we gave the bricks a quick hose off to wash all the dust and dirt off them and they were then ready for the renderer to come and work his magic.

Since picking up the sledge hammer we have made huge progress outside in the last few weeks, our vision is coming to life and it's a great feeling!

Sharing with link parties:

Savvy Southern Style - Wow us Wednesdays

The Dedicated House - Make It Pretty Mondays

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