Mid-week Madness

Just a brief update letting you know  that the long list of work due this week is well under way. I popped by this arvo to see a young guy hard at work, putting on our skirting/architraves etc. The wet areas had indeed been waterproofed...woohoo:) and the most exciting bit...the cabinets have arrived!!!!

I am sooo glad that we changed our laundry colours...another thanks to our SS for organising this to happen. It was a bit hard to see, but colours look great.

The carpenter had our bi-folds open (no glass in them yet) and we noticed that they've actually been installed the wrong way around. They open in towards the middle pier instead of opening out. I hope this isn't a big deal to rectify - we won't be leaving them as they are.

Anyway, here are a couple of pics. Taken on my iphone, therefore poorish quality...must remember to pack the camera from now on!

Waterproofing in bathroom. Ensuite was done too.

You can see one of our sets of timber/glass doors plus some other bits n pieces

cabinetry!! Asian night and white poly

Our front door:)



Here you can see (well sort of - sorry about the picture quality) where the trim has been put around the windows

So lets hope that things keep rolling along. We asked the chippie if in the main kitchen/living and entry hallway, he'll just tack the skirting on as we'll remove it to get the flooring right. Travertine is planned but after seeing the beautiful bamboo that Shayne has had laid we are discussing our options again... either way we'll need to remove the skirting. He is happy to oblige - just hope SS is OK with it. Ran it by him in an email a little while ago so hopefully it will all be OK.

Onwards and upwards for the remainder of the week I say! Sooo lucky we are at a stage where the rain isn't holding us up! I am going to later in the week, for the very first time, ask my SS if he has any approximate goal for PCI. Am I way too early to ask that question? I just thought it might be handy to know for starting to get quotes for blinds etc. I am hoping for mid to late August...what do you think? Let me know:)

Cheers
Kylie

You Want to See More?

Gyprocking was completed today:) As some of you well know, you can really start to see your room sizes and layouts well now. I've found myself looking at how long walls are and imagining furniture and the rest. Especially the kids bedrooms. As they aren't huge, I'm already trying to work out the best way to furnish them...decisions, decisions!

We are one of the lucky ones (by the sounds of some of you guys) to have a SS who is quite good with communication. I sent him an email last night and there was a reply there when I checked first thing this morning. Plus he rang DH for an update. This has been the trend each week so hopefully it will continue!

Doors and cornices etc due next week. Bifold glazing and front door. Also wet area waterproofing (and hopefully inspection of this) and kitchen cabinets - next week is set to be another big one!! By the sounds of it I may lose my easy access to snooping around but it's a sacrifice I must make in the name of progress.

Sorry but I am going to bore you with a couple more gyprock photos. Only taken on my iphone so they aren't great but here they are none the less.

This is part of the ensuite.

Main bedroom

Looking from the front door.

My big open kitchen/living. Have I told you lately that I LOVE it!

Kids bathroom

And nice to see the outdoor room with a ceiling too! We will install 2 fans here after handover - extra support and electricals in roof for this already.

Ok, I promise, no more gyprock pics! Hopefully my next post will show more exciting things! DH and I plan to check out carpet tomorrow and get a quote or two. Maybe the following week I will start to check out who I may get to quote for blinds.

Have a good weekend...it's now wine o'clock and I must be off.

Cheers

Kylie

Hear All About It!

Good evening my blogland friends. I'm happy to report that all promised work has been happening this week.

Calling by the house earlier in the week I noticed my house had gained stripes (you can just see them through the fence).

This is a distant shot as the rain was pouring down at the time. I wasn't aware that the rendering was scheduled to start...but start it did! Here I think they were filling the hebel joins and I also saw them sanding/preparing the surface.

Today calling past I stopped in to check out progress a bit closer. They have indeed started the rendering:)

Obviously you can still see the stripes but a good paint job will solve that problem. 

This one allows you to see the rendered bit compared to above the doors where it hasn't been done yet.

On the inside, gyprocking was well underway as my pics show.

My mini master bedroom

Rumpus

Entry/hallway

So tomorrow, (Friday) should see gyprock completed and perhaps the renderers will be back.

This week I also got my samples I'd requested for our pool colour choices. Nothing is locked in, but this combo is our favourite at the moment.

This tile is blue with a copperish swirl through it and the main pool finish is gemtex called turquiose glow...what do you think?

 I am hoping that they finish planned work tomorrow. We just paid our 'lock up' invoice so bring on the fitout!

As usual good vibes are being sent to all of you in blogland and I hope all is well with your builds.

Cheers

Kylie

Weekend Work

Not from us though! We had a lovely Hunter valley getaway. It's beautiful there this time of year...still lots of Autumn colour. It peaked at 26 degrees! Glorious weather, great food and wine, peace and quiet...what more can you ask for! Plus we got a few very special bottles for christening the new home when it's done!

DH hadn't stopped by the house to see last weeks progress, so we popped by when we got back this afternoon. To my surprise we found that the front door frame, bifold frames and cavity slider frames had all been installed yesterday. Plus on our way north on Friday we had a call from DiLorenzo. We need to finalise our payment for upgrades as they have been instructed to have our tiles ready for release from the 2nd of June. WooHoo!

Here are a couple of pics...

Front door frame. Translucent glass in side light (as will the door)

1st set of bifolds 

2nd set of bifolds. We love how these open to our outdoor room! 

Cavity sliders. There is one for our WIR too.

And the beautiful Hunter

Morning coffee spot...ahh the serenity. 

And our lovely open fire. 



We really feel we have reached a new and even more exciting part of the build.

Have a good week everyone!

Cheers

Kylie

Power to the People!

And insulation for that matter. And gyprock has been delivered along with cornices and something that I think may be connected to our cavity silding doors.

Yes, I'm happy to report our first electrical work has been done and most of the insulation is done. Ceilings still need to be finished but the rest appears complete.

Unfortunately they won't be able to start gyprocking until Wednesday. All our fault mind you... we are putting the air con unit in the roof cavity ourselves and our guy was already booked up. Luckily he is squeezing us in Tuesday so it is only a couple of days worth of hold up. SS told DH that he really wants gyprock finished next week as fitout is booked to start the following week. Am I excited...absolutely! Can my fellow bloggers enlighten me as to what this might entail? Not really sure what it means but it sounds exciting!!!

I guess at this stage photos are still a bit boring but I will share them anyway, as they are not boring to us!

Le gyprock

Le insulation

Le powerpoint

Le electrical work 

Le cornices

Le ???NFI 



So with some luck I will have rooms with walls by this time next week.

DH and I are off to the Hunter Valley for a kid free weekend. Looking forward to sipping wine by the open fire we'll have in our room and just kicking back. 

Hope everyone has had a good week. (Can't wait to see those tiles finished Tonia!)

Cheers (literally this week!)

Kylie

4 days in a row!

Can you believe it? I think it's a record! There has been work onsite to some degree everyday this week. Today they did a little more to the front portico. I also noticed that our beautiful bi-folds have been delivered (although this may have happened yesterday). Some blueboard has been attached to the inside front section of the garage.

Front portico. Last time I spoke to SS he said they weren't sure if they were going to hebel or brick the pier...still not sure what's planned.

My bi-folds:) Can't wait to see these installed and then stained sometime down the track. 

Piers completed. 

Just another shot of my new eaves. 

Blueboard that I mentioned. 

Would love to see more done tomorrow. Every little bit helps. I plan to email our SS to see what's next on the agenda. Here's to more progress next week.

Cheers

Kylie



It's a beehive!

The Hebel guys worked again Monday and half a day Tuesday. I think they'd run out of Hebel...though not too sure about this. When I drove past this morning about 8.30 there was no one on sight. I was filled with feelings of de ja vu...imagining that I'd seen all the work for the week finished by Tuesday.

I got a text from one of my trusty spies around midday saying there was people working onsite. I busted a move straight there after work to see (lateish at 4.50pm) at least seven tradies still swarming over the site. In fact it was so busy I didn't dare step foot on site, worried I'd get in their way! Utes, equipment, tools, generators, building materials everywhere!

So what were they doing? Finishing off the hebel, doing the eaves and starting the little front portico area. Not sure if anything else was happening... couldn't see amongst the workers!

So here is a sneak peak of how it's looking. I only got a couple of shots...as I said I was scared to get in the way and slow them down. Very happy that with the front hebel done, it's looking like a real house now!

This is where down the side was finished earlier in the week.

The eaves being done today. Looking good:) 

Another shot down that side with the eaves done.  

The hebel at the front finally being completed. They are also attaching timber where the portico roof will be built. (and another of the vehicles onsite)

A little closer up. Plus the guys working on eaves. 

Very happy with the amount of work completed so far this week. Really hoping to see them back tomorrow soldiering on. Finally feeling like we are getting somewhere...just don't want to jinx us. 

Hopefully I can update you at the end of the week with news of even more exciting things happening. Hearing lots of good things happening on other blogs too, keep up the good work. In particular, good luck at presentation tomorrow Shayne!

Cheers

Kylie

Hebel day #2

I was suitably pleased to see the boys back the next day to put some more panels up. I am suspicious that Friday was well less than a full day of work - didn't seem to me that nearly as much was done. Obviously beer o'clock struck early! Perhaps there was more cutting involved? Who knows.

Driving past I spotted SS onsite so I stopped off for a quick 'get up to speed' chat. The hebel boys will indeed be back Monday and Tuesday morning to finish off. We aren't sure if they will continue straight on with rendering or not. SS says that if it looks like they'll take a break before continuing, he'll organise for the eaves to start. Now he says if so, this would be Wednesday... and I also believe pigs might fly! Lets hope that I am 100% wrong with this prediction! Maybe I shouldn't be so cynical...but after such a long delay it's hard to trust what's planned. DH says that once eaves are done our next invoice (the biggest one) will magically appear so maybe they will indeed get eaves done!

I also asked about the pier at the front portico. They are discussing whether or not it will 'work' properly with hebel or whether they should brick and render it. Says he wants to get it right and not have to pull it down and start again if it looks crap...very pleased to hear this!

Couple more pics - similar to previous and not too exciting. (front not done yet unfortunately)

They've started to do the piers on the outdoor room.

They did a bit more down the side but like I said not an impressive amount.  

This is where they filled in where the water tank will be, which they hadn't done previously. 

This was taken from up the back looking towards the outdoor room. The pool will sit beyond:) Really happy with how this is looking and can't wait till it is landscaped! Think it will have quite the 'Metricon' look that we fell in love with I think. (once another of the rubbish piles are removed!)

Looking from outdoor room through where one of the sets of bifolds will be. This living/kitchen area is going to be nice and open...very happy:) 

I picked up our DA approval from our pool builder today. Will now need to hand in the application for the construction certificate ( that's code for the council wanting another $600 for a piece of paper!!!)

We also visited another supplier for our travatine today. All good!

Lets hope things keep progressing for everyone! Some of you fellow bloggers are building such gorgeous homes and I'm truly enjoying watching your builds:) Happy Mothers Day tomorrow to all you mums out there...here's to a sleep in and being spoilt!

Cheers
Kylie