Internal painting commences

More great progress today as they have completed a full first coat of paint to the interior of our house. The painter met with us to talk about our stain for the doors and said that they have lots of jobs waiting but ours was the only one with supplies ready to go, so they started early. We are hoping for lock up soon so that people from the neighborhood can't move the security fencing and wander through the freshly painted house.

We have painted our internal walls in taubmans smooth pebble with elusive white on the ceilings and the colour looks great so far. We also used leatherwood in the media room which I have been so unsure about but it looks amazing!  So exited to get our furniture and art in there!

Hoping we see some doors (especially the garage door) soon. 

Media room (not sure if I like those ladders leant up against fresh paint)

  

Front entry (obviously some work to be done on the cornices tomorrow). 

  

  

Master bed

 

External Painting and Door Deliveries

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw our house today, the moroka has been completed along with the painting of the eaves, front patio and alfresco AND staining of the wooden columns and door frame.

I have been having nightmares about the builders mix stain being too dark on the wood and although the contrast against our moroka is stark, it still looks lovely. I don't think we could have gone any lighter due to the caoba garage door that will be going in. Hopefully there aren't any more coats to go on tomorrow that will make it darker. 

The moroka colour was another gamble as paint almost never looks like what you would expect. We have used Taubmans Pebble Bay and I feel that it will all come together beautifully once our stacked stone is on the columns. This should carry through the warm tone from the roof and lightness of the windows. Finished with some greenery and decking in the entryway it should be fab! 

The difference a coat of paint makes!

    

    

The paint studio AKA our media room

    

Glorious Cornices

I was like a kid in a candy store this afternoon as we looked at the work that has been done today. All of the cornices are now installed and all of the tiny plaster imperfections have been sanded smooth. Cornices don't sound that thrilling but now the interior actually feels like a house. The four step cornice in the entryway is stunning and gives a really grand first impression.

We met another concreter at the house for a second quote and it was really gratifying to hear his awed comments about the design, the high ceilings and the workmanship. So well done to MDJ, as I can imagine our concreting companion has seen a lot of new houses in his time. We are now thinking of doing a coloured concrete driveway, both from a budget perspective and because we don't want to take away from the stacked stone feature on the facade by using a big slab of rocky aggregate. 

Speaking of the facade, it has turned green today! It appears the moroka has started and I'm busting to see the rest complete. 

Classic cornices as in the majority of the house

                 

Cornices above the fireplace (I seem to just keep snapping pictures of the fireplace)

                 

The glorious 4 step cornice in the entryway

                 

Green house!

      

A Water Tank and More Plaster

We have had a week of horrible building weather with storms, down pours and extreme humidity. The plasterers have been in the house every day, but I can imagine that the conditions haven't been great for drying plaster. We had a huge storm on Wednesday night and as I was driving home (past our block) I noticed an open window that might let in rain. By the time I got in and out of the house to close it I was drenched and covered in sticky red clay. It's horrible stuff when wet - it sinks, gets into your shoes and stains as it dries. Even our bricks are stained red where water has been splashing against the ground. We are now thinking that having a driveway, side path and grass are going to be fairly essential in keeping our new house from getting filthy when we move in.

We had a progress update today from the regional building supervisor (as our SS is away) and things happening in the near future are:

- Plastering to end Monday or Tuesday next week.

- Carpenters returning to install skirting boards, architraves and doors next week. 

- Installation of garage door upon completion of cornices.

- Kitchen fit-out in the next fortnight *happy dance*

The cornices were delivered today and the plastering just looks like it needs a little more of a sand. The cutouts for most of our electrical were also completed and the electrician has redeemed himself a bit as all of the light placements are spot on and perfectly lined up. As we were standing at the back of the house talking about landscaping this afternoon, we realized that we were leaning against a newly installed water tank! It looks great, and matches in perfectly with the height and colour of our neighbour's existing fence. 

The detached tank

     

Switch cutouts by the bed in our master

                    

The kitchen (yep, that is a power point in the pantry and no, 

I'm not sure why I felt it was essential lol)

       

Our stunning entryway (Yes, there are 8 downlight cutouts there... 

What can I say, I just love lights!) 

                   

Looking toward the front hall from the children's activity room

       

Plastering Commences

With a streak of good luck, our internal work continues while the rain comes down outside. Our gyprock installation was finished yesterday and the plastering has now commenced. The plasterers did a lot today and we are seeing some lovely straight edges appearing on the doorways and picture recesses. 

Watching gyprocking has been quite an interesting process. I have been surprised by the way gyprock is cut and installed, in that it really is a very rough process. I was worried yesterday looking at so many jagged edges and holes broken into the gyprock but I feel a little better seeing some plaster covering this today. There's no way I could do that job - I am obsessed with straight lines and symmetry. 

There are a couple of little things nagging at me, such as the way services are run through the gyprock by essentially tearing a big jagged hole. I'm sure as the week progresses some of these practices will begin to make sense. 

We have a running joke in our house that I would make the site supervisor from hell because I'm just so fussy. I'm also being teased by my family because this fussiness extends to the trades smoking while they work in our house. I'm being compared to Jennifer Connelly in He's Just Not That Into You when she interrogates her carpenter (chick flick for the guys reading). I'm sure the fresh paint smell will eventually cover the stale cigarette odour :)

Media room TV recess

       

Looking across the kitchen/dining to the fridge recess and pantry.

       

Yet another shot of my beloved fireplace 

                     

Looking across the kitchen to the media room and laundry

     

Finally here is the a close up of the jagged hole that is bugging me. Did anyone else have this happen?

                    

Interior Taking Shape

Progress has been truly impressive this week and this afternoon most of our gyprock has been completed. There are just a few small sections to finish off tomorrow. The tradies have been doing a fabulous job, especially in the heat over the past few days. It is really looking like a house inside now and we are once again pleased with our decision to raise the ceiling heights. 

From the alfresco in to the living (I spy a fireplace!)

   

   

Kitchen with a pantry for tiny people (to be cut tomorrow). 

   

 

Children's activity (or for us, just plain 'activity')

   

Garage

   

The only person who doesn't get my praise this week is the electrician, who seems to enjoy ignoring our requests around placement of the plates for our $200 switches. I'm tired of arguing about something that is actually very simple. If I would have known we were paying so much money for a rigid approach that disregards our opinions, I probably would have left electrical until after handover.

We also had a call from our colour consultant due to our ensuite cabinetry being discontinued. We aren't too bothered by this but are having trouble making a decision on a new woodgrain option. Here are our new choices: Laminex Sublime Teak, Laminex Zebrano and Polytek Noosa Cherry (top to bottom).

      

      

  

We are considering Noosa Cherry in a gloss finish.... Hmm! 

Eaves and Gyprock

Wow today was a productive one! The carpenters worked until late this afternoon and got through a huge amount. Our eaves are now complete and more work has been done on our timber poles on the facade. There is still one more 'box' to fit on the columns which I am guessing they install over the top of the brickwork.  

                     

                     

     

I am in love with the urban one silver bricks and so happy with our choice in this range.  

Today all of the gyprock was delivered and I was stunned when I saw that gyprocking has started on the ceiling! It is strange looking up and not seeing into the roof but the high ceilings are lovely and tall. The pace has been fantastic so far, hopefully they keep moving quickly to lock up :)

     

                    

 

Furry Walls

We drove past our house this afternoon thinking that only a little more work on the eaves had been done. It turns out the external view of the house is deceiving because inside we found that the insulation has now been installed! We are now waiting on the electrician to return and fix our missing outdoor power point before the gyprocking can begin. There is also a little more work to be done on the eaves. I'm looking looking forward to seeing what the house looks like by the end of the week :) 

Insulated media room

Living room (I can't wait for the day that our fire place goes in)

          

Master bedroom wall

         

The Preparation for Gyprock

This week has flown and a great deal has been achieved on our building site. We had quiet days on Tuesday and Wednesday but the flood gates opened on Thursday morning. We met our SS early to complete our pre-lining inspection and there were carpenters, plumbers and the audiovisual guy all hard at work. Our plumbing and gas are now installed along with all of the wiring for the TV points, noggins have been put in for the wall mounted TVs and the eave installation is well underway. 

Our inspection went fairly smoothly and our SS is a very nice man and clearly very experienced. Everything looks good inside with the exception of the switch placements. We really had to push to have a few backing plates moved, particularly the ones near our bed which should have been low on the wall (for switching lights on from the bed) but ended up at standard height. Our bathroom switch was also moved into the bedroom because of safety standards, which I really don't like. We won the battle on the location of a couple (certainly not all) of switches but not without some grumbling from the electrician. The whole morning I felt like reminding him that it is our house, our decision and our money that is funding his employment. Yes, I'm grumpy I know!

Moving past the inspection, we have also had our wooden beams installed on the facade and the Urban One bricks cleaned. The beams are looking beautiful! We also met with a rep from Abode Blinds on site this morning and he was just incredible! We will be installing plantation shutters to all windows and are using basswood for our activity, media and living rooms, PVC with aluminum inserts for the bathrooms and a basswood frame/PVC blade combo for bedrooms to increase durability. 

Beams installed and looking fabulous

    

    

Clean bricks and eaves started

    

    

Brickwork Complete

Today was the last day of bricking on the schedule and the boys have done a fantastic job! We are really pleased with the finish and can't wait to see the moroka and stacked stone eventually go on to the facade. All of our timber and materials for the eaves have been delivered and we are due to have carpenters on site tomorrow. There are lots of odds and ends to be finished this week before the gyprocking commences next week.

We have started looking at carpet and are waiting on quotes from a couple of suppliers. So far we are really liking the Redbook Green ecology carpets which are made from natural materials like corn sugar. Completing carpet after handover is going to save us around $4,000 and that is still choosing high end carpet. 

I also purchased some great armchairs from Freedom Furniture in their sale over the weekend, along with a media room lounge from Lyall Buick. The lounge is being made in dark brown Italian leather to match the dark media room. 

It feels like there are a million things to do before the house reaches completion! 

Here is our amazing facade - 

Our front columns have been cut straight to allow for stacked stone -

Activity and bathroom windows -

Lounge and armchair purchases for various rooms :D