Saturday, May 31, 2014

Mirrors, Teahouse and Decking

Went past the house today to take some pictures and look at the excavation of the driveway before it gets boxed up on Monday.

A few updates since my last post...

Dulux Teahouse to the theatre room. Cornice and ceiling also painted in Teahouse. 
dulux teahouse

dulux teahouse

dulux teahouse

Dulux Teahouse also used for part of the man cave. Ignore the bowing skirting boards, they are just tacked in temporarily. We have to remove them to lay our flooring after handover.
dulux teahouse

dulux teahouse

Lower deck is well on the way. Our spa will sit off the end opposite the single door (near the alcove bit) then the deck will continue around the spa. 
merbau deck

merbau deck


Mirrors are fitted to the ensuite, powder room, bathroom and downstairs powder room.
bathroom mirror

ensuite mirror

bathroom mirror


powder room mirror

Cornice fitted to the alfresco which finishes it off nicely. 


Pic of the front. You can see the parapet is yet to the fixed and the rain head collector is still to be moved. Excavation for the driveway has started. I can't wait until the front is fixed and rendered, it looks like an eyesore at the moment.

I cannot wait until the house is cleaned. At the moment there is dust and mud everywhere. I know that is to be expected on a building site but it still bothers me! 


Today I also met with Caitlin and her family who I came in contact with through blogging. They are building with the same builder and are currently in the early stages of having their frame built. It was a pleasure to meet them and take them through our home. This is the link to her blog if you want to follow their building journey http://themorrisontrio.blogspot.com.au/

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Shelves and handles

The interior door handles have been fitted - Gainsborough Lianna in satin finish.
gainsborough lianna satin finish

Built in robes and walk in robe shelf and rails have been fitted. This is about one third of the walk in robe. I think I'll put some drawers up one end. Still deciding whether to have something built or whether to just get some drawers from Ikea. 
walk in robe

The linen closet has also had shelving fitted. 
linen closet

I took a quick shot of the skyline. It will be nice looking at all the lights at night time. 
dusk view

The kitchen at night. Half the lights aren't on in this picture. I'm considering putting some lights under the overhead cupboards. I'm still unsure though... 

Found out today that we can't get our driveway done next week as the plumber won't be able to finish the site drainage at the front until early next week. So we have had to delay the driveway - again. Fingers crossed the concreter can fit us in soon so it doesn't delay things too much further. It's important that we get the driveway poured as they can't build the porch deck until the driveway is finished. 

The frame for the lower rear deck has been started which is good. 

Hopefully we aren't too far away from completion. My guess is that we are at least 4 weeks away. 



Saturday, May 17, 2014

Carpets, garage door and shower screens!

The last couple of days have been quite positive with the carpets, shower screens and garage door installed.

I'm very impressed with the garage door. It's very quiet compared to other doors we've had in the past. The door is from EcoGarage Doors

Garage door in Ribline profile, Monument colour. 
ribline garage door colorbond monument

ribline garage door colorbond monument

The garage door is insulated which I think is a great idea. The back of the door looks much neater too. 
insulated garage door

ecogarage door

Hubby wired up a button in the garage that we press to open and close the door. Saves us having to use the remote. The face plate has been taken off as the painters still have to paint the garage. 


Shower screens were also installed today in the bathroom and downstairs powder room.

bathroom

bathroom

The carpet layer was there yesterday laying the carpet to the study (aka spare bedroom / sitting room) and theatre room. These are the only two rooms in the house with carpet. 

We went with the builders standard Flinders Green carpet in Taupe. It's a nice warm mid grey colour and I think it will look great with Dulux Teahouse walls in the theatre (when they get painted) and it looks good with the Dulux Beige Royal half walls in the spare room/sitting room. I'm not sure how it rates in terms of quality but for two low traffic areas I figured it wasn't worth upgrading. 

flinders green carpet taupe

flinders green carpet taupe

flinders green carpet taupe

flinders green carpet taupe

flinders green carpet taupe

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Polished timber and driveway aggregate selection

Today we were able to go inside the house again since the timber floors were sanded and lacquered. The timber looks so much better as there is more contrast and definition in the timber now that it's lacquered. There is still one more sand and lacquer to be done but this will be done at the very end. The final lacquer will finish it off perfectly.

Now for some pictures... 

tasmanian oak floor

tasmanian oak floor

tasmanian oak floor

tasmanian oak floor

tasmanian oak floor

tasmanian oak floor

tasmanian oak floor

tasmanian oak floor

We visited a factory in Hallam and purchased a whole heap of these magnetic door stops. We seem to have great cross breezes through the house which causes the doors to slam so we thought magnetic door stops would be the way to go. These ones will match our Gainsborough Lianna door handles quite nicely.

magnetic door stop

We also took the opportunity today to visit Mentone Premix, on advice from our concreter, to pick the aggregate mix for our driveway. We ending up choosing a mix called Third 5%. It's a lighter colour with earthy tones and specks of black throughout.

exposed aggregrate driveway third 5%

A site clean was happening today so the front and back looks much better. Now that the front has been cleared the plumber can install the drainage and agi pipes to the front of the house. Fingers crossed this is finished soon as our driveway is booked in for Monday 26th May and we don't want to have to reschedule him again. 

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Kitchen lighting and bathrooms

We spent most of the day on site today fitting the alarm system and some of the ducted aircon and heating vents. I also put some light globes in our batten lights so we can see at night now - very useful! Lol


Some pics taken today. You will notice the caulking hasn't been done yet to the corners of the tiles and around the basins. Not sure when this is due to be done. 

Warning - lots of pictures ahead...

Loving my amber kitchen island bench lights. These look so good in person. I think they need to be lowered a little though. Plus they need a good clean.

kitchen pendant lighting

kitchen pendant lights

island bench light

Ensuite
ensuite

walk in shower

ensuite shower


ensuite basin

The glass for the balcony balustrade. 


Downstairs powder room

bathroom

Upstairs powder room
powder room

Bathroom
bathroom

bathroom

Kitchen tap
kitchen mixer tap

kitchen mixer tap

Laundry tap
laundry mixer tap

The view today once the rain cleared up. 
view

The shower screens, mirrors and robes were measured a few days ago so they should be on their way shortly.

The timber floors will be sanded and polished this coming week which means a whole week without being able to enter the house! I'm going to suffer withdrawal symptoms! Lol