Excitement.......

I had a meeting with our SS this morning to go over a few things.

My god the weather was shocking going up there..

Anyway, showed him the junction box at the front porch which should be in the roof, showed him the lights in the rumpus room and asked if they can be moved , asked why the power point for the projector hasn't been installed, showed him the linen press door...it is supposed to have a dummy handle but its made up to have a normal handle...why?..who knows, took a photo with me to show him how i want the shelving to look in the pantry....hopefully it will end up like that.
Found out that the carpet will go down just before PCI, while the fireplace will go in just before handover...speaking of PCI, asked him when that will be, he is hoping it will be August 16th...hoping? i said...yeah it depends if he can get everyone booked in to get it all finished by then, so, if we do have PCI on the 16th, handover should be the week later, thats if we can get the Cerficate of Occupancy in time.

Hells Bells....thats soon...i'm not ready yet....Arrrggghhhh...so much to do and so little time to do it.....

This is going to be the longest month of my life....

The Bi-fold door has finally been stained, it looks very good, better than the other two doors...(different wood), the plumber has finally been out and fixed up the bath, so the tiler can come back and finish now.

Bi folds

the bath finally plumbed

Builders sign in the study window, a sure sign that we are about to lose our porta loo

Jewellry...

Every time we go out to see our baby, she has more jewellry (items) on.
There was no one at the house today, but we did manage to get inside :)
Lets see....the tiler has finished grouting, he is STILL waiting for the plumber to come so he can finish in the bathroom and do the tiling above the trough in the garage (trough needs to go in first tho).....
The duct man has been again, our missing in action vents have made an appearance, along with the covers for all the ducted vacuuming points, and my vac pan...
Junction box is still not in the correct spot...
Smoke detectors are in too...
Painters haven't been back since the other day...why they left the bi-fold doors is anyones guess..
Took pics, they probably aren't that interesting to any one else but they are to us, so lucky you get to look at them...hehe
Oh yeah, and next door have had their site scrape done, so i guess we will have neighbours all around us in the near future..

vac pan...this is going to make life so much easier

ducted vac point

return air vent

smoke detector

exhaust fan

Sunday, July 25th 2010

We arranged to meet Warren and Jeanette at the house today....I almost didn't make it, my ankle let go on me while out with Mia this afternoon, poor Tony had to run home and get the car to pick me up, its the same ankle that i hurt earlier in the year...its a bit of a worry it just going like that.
Anyway, the house, the plumber still hasn't been there so the bathroom isn't finished, the entryway has been grouted, so has the family room, dining room , laundry and the ensuite, so that only leaves the pantry, kitchen and bathroom to go.
The painters have done the french doors, front door, study window and the sliding door, they still have the bi-fold door to stain, they have also painted under the eaves and the alfresco ceiling.
Had time to play with all the lights to see which switch turned which light on....still no change to the wall lights in the rumpus, but our SS comes back from holidays this week, so i guess he will be busy...and not just with us either.....noticed that the junction box at the front door has been put in in the wrong spot, the electrician put it in 30cm from the porch base instead of in the ceiling, the electrical diagram has it in that spot but it is wrong and we thought we had addressed that problem after first fix....see what happens when your SS goes on leave.
The return air vent for the heating has been put in facing the family room...grrr, so we had a good look at it today...damm, there is not enough room for it on the hall side of the wall, there is still no vents in the dining room either.
Didn't take many pics today, just wasn't thinking straight.
Also on friday I rang to order my blinds...yay...just waiting for them to email their banking details so i can pay the deposit.

dining room grouted

doors in the alfresco stained

What a busy bee....

Tony wanted to go out and check the distance between the wall lights in the theatre room.
Boy! there were cars every where at our place.
The tiler is still there, still waiting for the plumber to come, he was tiling the pantry when we got there and had finished around the edges of all the rooms now that the electrician has been, the entry way is nearly completed, while the ensuite is finished.
The painters were there in force, one was doing the cutting on the eaves, one was in the study doing a coat of stain on the window, and two were in the alfresco area starting work on the french doors there. The front door has had a coat of stain on it, it looks soooo different.
The base board in the garage has had another coat of paint as it now matches the door frames.
Our heating and air ducts are now in...hope they haven't finished cos there is nothing in the dining room which should have both heating and cooling.
Will have to check but the boys said that the return air vent has been put facing the family room, on the plan it is in the hallway which is where we preferred it.
As for the wall lights in the theatre room, they are too close together, yes, they are 2.5m apart but that is from the centre of each bayonet, won't be able to fit the screen in as it IS 2.5m wide.
Oh yeah, all our lights have little hats and globes in them, and they work...we were playing with the dimmers in the rumpus/theatre room......checked out the downlights above the sink area, yay, lottsa light to see with.

Was too busy looking at the tiles that i failed to notice that the inside of the door has also been stained

Cooling vent in the family room, notice the gorgeous light fitting...lol

so now we can keep warm

One of the floodlights

one of the external power points...as you can see the taps are yet to be finished

my beautiful front door which i forgot to add....silly me

Electrics.....

Our next door neighbour asked for our help in locating his site pegs, as his builder won't start without all 4 of them.
When we arrived we noticed that the electrician was at our house.....Had a look inside to see how the tiling was going, it seems that everytime i pop my head upto the sidelights at the front door, one of the tilers is there, this time it was the younger tiler, he told us to come in.....he was working in the ensuite grouting the shower base, nothing else had been done as they are still waiting for the plumber to turn up.

The house was in a bit of a mess, there were holes in the walls, ceiling etc where he was getting ready to install the bits and pieces.
Kelly's bedroom and sitting room now has power points, light switches and witches hats and globes, the laundry is also completed while the bathroom has its batten light and exhust fan in, when we left he was busy working in the pantry on the many power points that are in there.
There might be a problem tho, Tony thinks that the wall scones in the Theatre room are too close together, not allowing enough room for the screen....we had to ring (text) one of our soon to be neighbours for her SS's mobile number as he is looking after us while ours is still on holidays....he is going to ring the company and get them to check the distance apart, hope they are the correct distance otherwise we will have extra holes in the wall...then that will mean more delays...

Only took a few pics.....

Playing it Smart.....or so we thought...

We thought we would play it smart and visit the house on a Sunday so we could 'get' in and have a look at our tiles.....arrived at the house to find the tiler there.....have to give him a big gold star for being there on a sunday, but  WTF.......ahhhh maybe he's finishing off the showers we thought.

Looked in through the front door...."what!"...nothings been done since Thursday.....went round to the ensuite window.....the shower base has now been done, only the lip of the base is yet to be tiled.....walked up to the bathroom window...ah ha, our tiler was in there, come in, come in he says...

Went in via the garage, had a look in the ensuite, wow it really does look huge....

Walked down into the kitchen area....yay, they had finished the kitchen...

As you can see, the pantry is still to be tiled.

The dining room and family room haven't changed, went and looked at the laundry, the second bench now has a row of tiles.

Back down to the bathroom where there was work in progress... there were some tiles at the back of the vanity and some on the top of the bath, he was currently working of the shower base, he is hoping that the plumber comes out today (monday) to cut the holes out in the bath surround for the taps, so he can finish tiling the bath and splashback, he also waiting for a delivery of the border tiles for the entranceway, they were supposed to be there last friday....okay we think to ourselves, that still doesn't explain why the rest of the rooms haven't had the main tiling finished.....so, we have no idea when tiling would be finished, more delays...are we ever going to get into our house.

This last pic was taken before the tiles were put into place.

A better pic of our entrance way, Tony managed nicely to not show the uncompleted parts.

And more tiles.....

Adrian and I popped out to see if the tilers were working this afternoon.  Not only were they there working, they invited us in to have a look, the ensuite is nearly finished, there is only the shower base to be done which should be on saturday, the bathroom has the shower base and around the vanity to go. They have also done the floor in the toilet as well the laundry floor and splashback, the head tiler tells me that he has a few of the splashback tiles over and would i like them done over the second benchtop or above the splashback he's already done or would i like nothing at all.....Adee and I decieded to go with the second benchtop.
The Entranceway....all i can say is 'WOW!!!'......it has come up different to how i had pictured it, but boy have they done a good job on it, there is still a few of the borders around the edges to go in yet but it will be stunning.
The walkway from the entryway through to the rumpus room has been completed, they dining room is about 3/4's finished, the family room was about to be finished and they were starting on the kitchen wrap around.  We had been so worried about the brown tiles but need not...they have come up really well. The head tiler was explaining to us how they had been making sure that all the veins in the tiles all ran the same way, wouldn't have thought of that to be honest.....it was really nice to see someone who takes pride in his work, he was so excited when we turned up, pracitcally dragging us into have a look at the ensuite and then the bathroom.
We also saw that our utility benchtops are now back with the correct edging on them...yay.

ensuite

kelly's bathroom

laundry

entryway...half tiled

Family room...this is a level floor, not split level as it appears

Dining Room

from the rumpus room looking back towards the front door

Bathroom tiles....

Went out in the pouring rain after Tony finished work tonight to see how much tiling had been done.
Must say that we were very disappointed at the lack of progress, the floors in the bathroom and ensuite have been done and he has finished off the showers. Hmmm....cant see him being finished by the end of the week.
What we did find was that the bathroom window hadn't been closed properly, so we were able to open it and attempt to take pics of the shower.  You will have to excuse the pics as it was a point and snap...no viewing due to the angle.
What I like about the tiles we have used in the bathroom and ensuite is that the vein running through them taks up the colour of the feature tiles.

Kellys shower with its pencil feature tiles in Mauve and Aubergine in a brick pattern.

Tiles finally started...

Our tiling finally started on Friday, after 3 days of not much happening......from what we can see through the windows the tiling has started in the ensuite and bathroom.....I am very happy to report that the feature tiles in both bathrooms go nicely with the main tile.
Unfortunately it is too hard to get any pics of the bathroom tiles, the window keeps reflecting off the camera so all i get is what ever is behind me....this is mainly cos the shower is beside the window and i have to angle the camera to try and take a shot, but we are able to get pics from the ensuite.

Turf....

Last Saturday while paying our fencer, I spoke to a garden and building supplier from Wandong who was doing a quote for the girls next door, he gave me his card and during the week Tony rang him and made arrangements to meet him at our block on Wednesday at 2.30pm.

At the duely appointed time we turned up and met with him.  Our plan was to have the courtyard laid with instant turf, thus giving us an instant beautiful lawn......did the plan come to fruitian...not really, when he heard what we had planned he offered some suggestions and gave explanations as to why he suggested it. It was suggested that we put sandstone down at the end of the garage going down the side between the garage and the fence, with a small path leading towards the side of the alfresco.  Upon learning that we are having a spa put in at the end of the house he also suggested a sandstone path leading from the other side of the alfesco to the spa.
We also found out that he does colourbond fencing, so we have arranged to get a quote to erect a fence behind the spa.
Being a local, he was able to give us some tips as to which way the weather comes in from...will put paid to us having the BBQ at the end of the alfresco as that is the direction the weather comes in from.

The tiler was no where in sight but the bath and showers had been painted with the waterproofing membrane....yay!!

Top pic is the bath in (obviously) the bathroom.

bottom pic is the shower in the ensuite

Tiles and other things....

We had a 8am appointment with our tiler this morning to go over where all the tiles and the borders were going to go.
We have a very nice tiler, he should be finished around the end of next week (fingers crossed).  We did have to find out from Kelly where exactly she wants her feature in the shower, as we were going out to the house again at 11.30 it was decieded that we would let him know then.

We arrived back at the house at around 11.15 to find our SS there but no tiler...okay...apparently we need some parts of the slab ( lounge area) ground down so the tiles will sit flat, so until that is done there is not much he can do ( well we thought he could have started in either the laundry, loo or kells bathroom).

Our 11.30 appointment....which was 15 minutes early...was for an official quote on getting all our blinds, curtains and plantation shutters.  I had been going down to the place in Greensborough  over the last month organising colours and materials and styles etc.
I was very impressed with our consultant as she is on holidays this week and took the time to come all the way to Wallan to do our quote...they could have used another person.
I really liked our consultant, she was good in offering advice...but she also kept asking hairy questions...good god...how do i know if i want pinch pleating or pencil pleats in the curtains...
The whole operation took just on two hours...imagine how long it would have taken if i hadn't already picked out all the materials.
As she is on holidays we won't get our quote until next week, which isn't a problem.

Also, last night I had a call from Beacon lighting letting me know that they are still chasing the last of the lights that we ordered, the manager was worried cos they might not get them until the end of this month...assurred her that we didn't need them till mid to late August anyway.

Our Pantry appliance benchtop is up now :)

the main tile throughout the house.

Pantry bench...underneath all plastic, its a laminate version of our stone bench top in the kitchen.

two thirds of the internal part of the garage.

garage again.

Because I could :)

Roller door

As promised I took some pics of the roller door at the back of the garage......I did debate after seeing the panel lift doors whether it was wise to have the roller door in the surfmist or whether it should have been in the monument.  After seeing it up it looks okay in the surfmist.

back garage door

Roller door....notice how the colour picks up the colour of the morter....lol

Garage....

Kell and I had to go out to the house this morning to finish paying our fencing contractor.
While there we meet up with our next door neighbours who were waiting for a quote on getting instant turf and some landscaping done.  After they had finished talking with the contractor I had a quick word with him and took his business card....Tony and I had been talking yesterday about putting instant turf down in the alfresco area.  Will contact him during the week to get a quote for our yard.

While we were at the estate a van and trailer rolled up to our house, at the time we were on our way back from paying the fencing contractor....oohhh we thought who is that?  We walked over trying to see what was in the trailer...ah ha...what did i spot....a roller door.....yes!  our garage doors had arrived.

So, after Tony got home from work we toodled up to have a look....Wow, both the front doors were up and only the roller door at the back was left, we are going up tomorrow for a get together so I will get some pics of the roller door then.

Pretty house

close up of our garage door.......B & D caprice with Sherwood windows in surfmist

What this does show is how much the render needs to be painted