The Giant Door

It's official, we are locked out. I don't like it, but good to think that the next time we let ourselves into the house it will be with keys. 

The big door went on today and wow is it huge! I have no idea how the chippy lifted it onto the hinges. We also have our Omni Tri-Lock handle on and it's so shiny *mesmerised*. 

Our tilers have been MIA since Wednesday, so I'm not sure when they will finish grouting. Our SS is sorting out whether we should use the stacked stone we had delivered or replace it with a similar product that has corner pieces (so our tilers aren't cutting mitre joints in stone for the next 50 years...). Maybe the tilers will come back once the stone situation is resolved. 

Rumor has it, Monday will finally be kitchen day. I have the highest hopes, but will believe it when I lay my eyes on it :) 

                   

                   

Tiling Update

In spite of the miserable weather over last two days our hardworking painters have been finishing up and will now just have a last coat on the walls to do once the kitchen comes. Our tilers have been doing half days but getting through a lot of work each afternoon. 

The stacked stone has been a bit confusing, as we were originally told that we had to have metal joins down each corner of the poles. We weren't really fussed on this but figured we wanted stone so badly we would compromise. Our tiler and SS both think the metal strips will look rubbish and so we are all trying to think up a solution. We are so grateful for their honesty and opinions because it's such a big feature of the facade. 

Our tiles are looking great so far and we are super impressed with the work. We have also come to that sad, sad day when the house is finally locked up. Our huge front door arrived today and will go on tomorrow. 

I took a whole lot of photos today to sustain me until I next can get inside the house. It was so dark and gloomy that I had to use the flash on my iPhone so they aren't the best shots. 

Here is our ensuite with a varying degrees of grouting. Black grout will go onto the floor soon.

     

                   

                   

  

Main Bathroom, mostly complete now. 

                   

                   

      

Powder room and laundry

                   

                  

New week, new outlook!

It's only the first day of a new week, but things are certainly looking up. We had some fairly significant plumbing issues last week and to MDJ's credit they were all fixed first thing this morning. Our tiler and painters were also on site today and have obviously been busy. We were so relieved to see the water inlet for our shower fixed so quickly and the waterproofing will be touched up tomorrow morning so the tiler can continue as planned. 

Speaking of tiles, some of the wall tiling went on today and it looks amazing. Even half finished its even better than we envisioned. Our tiler rang today to talk about the grouting for our charcoal ensuite tiles which was a huge relief as I've been worrying about using misty grey grout on charcoal tiles. We were never given a choice of grouts at colour selections, but both ourselves and the tiler agree that a dark grout is the way to go on the ensuite floor. This makes me relieved and excited at the same time.

Other highlights include the second coat of stain to our Lin one doors - wow they are fabulous! So glad we worked with the beautiful wood that is already there and enhanced it with the clear gloss. 

Happy days, here's hoping the dramas are over! 

Bathroom tiles (very poor lighting for photos today).

       

                     

Our glorious ensuite tiles (again terrible light, but it is glorious trust me)

                    

                    

Tiling Part One

This week has been a comedy of errors but progress is creeping forward. Our kitchen was due for installation last week but there was a communication error and it has actually not been made yet. This means we are in for a much longer wait than expected. In the mean time our painters have been back to work on the skirting boards, doors and architraves and they have been doing a great job. They will only have one day of work left after the kitchen is in.

Tiling has commenced, only to then be put on hold due to a plumbing issue. We noticed that the water inlet in our ensuite is incorrect for our raindrop shower and it turns out that all of our special order items weren't on the plumbing plan and possibly have not been ordered. I sent a whole lot of plumbing specifications to our SS and the plumber is opening the shower wall back up on Monday to fix the problem. I'm not sure that anyone pays much attention to the colours documents. I'm just so glad we picked up the issue before tiling was on the walls. 

I think tiling will be done by mid way through next week and then we continue the wait for our kitchen. The fireplace supplier have been keen to get started but usually fireplaces are done towards the end of the internal fit out. 

We have lost a bit of the excitement from our build at the moment, it really has been an up hill battle these last few weeks. We are feeling a bit under pressure as our current unit is for sale and we really don't want to end up relying on relatives (and putting everything into storage) if the house is delayed. Fingers crossed things will be back on track soon! 

Main bathroom 

       

Laundry

                    

Ensuite (tiles look brown here but they are actually charcoal).

      

Living area with architraves painted (final wall coat still to follow).

      

Our amazing Lin one doors with their first coat of stain.

                     

Screeding and More Painting

We have had a slow start to the week as no trades were working yesterday. Our kitchen was due to be installed over the weekend but the cabinets never arrived. We saw the guys from the stone supplier leaving early this morning, which we guess was because they had no cabinetry to measure for the bench tops. I really hope we see our kitchen soon. 

Today our tiler arrived and completed all of the screeding for the bathrooms. We also had painters back quite unexpectedly and they look to have been busy painting architraves and doors. 

There was also a site clean this morning following the big storm we had over the weekend. Our portaloo got blown across the front yard which was really unpleasant. Lucky our new neighbours are on holidays at the moment!

Our stacked stone arrived and will go on this week! It's so sparkly! 

 

Screeding shots

  

                    

                    

Carpet Choices

We haven't had any trades on site the last day or two, so we thought we might go carpet shopping and arrange for the guys from Carpet Craft to come and measure up. They have been so very patient with me as I have been in and out of the store with my colour swatches and plans. Choosing carpet was tricky and I suspect they think we are a bit mental as we are doing three different types of carpet in the house.

Now I know the value of 'flow' and the resale value of keeping the same carpet throughout, but we had different carpet needs for different rooms. The parts of the house that are connected (halls, living, activity and bedrooms that run off this) are all the the same scheme with a combination of senso pro-lock floor and a more heavy duty carpet. The master and media rooms are closed off by wooden Lin One doors, having their own colour schemes and plush carpets.

We ended up with Stainmaster Eversoft Silver Birch, Eversoft Maple Grove and Redbook Green Mountain View. 

Here are our colour schemes and carpet selections

Main Scheme: Entry, Living, Kitchen, Bedrooms and Activity

   

   

Media Room

     

             

                             

Master Bedroom

         

       

Waterproofing and Down Pipes

Today our site was bustling with activity as the waterproofing was done inside and plumbing of the down pipes outside. I'm not sure how many coats the waterproofing needs, but it looked good this afternoon. They also installed the tracks for the shower screens and metal dividers between tiled/non tiled rooms.

Outside the plumbers put in the down pipes and it looks like the expansion joints between the bricks have been filled too. Our down pipes would have been a pain to install as we are cutting down below the current ground level on one side so that our side path is level with the neighbours. It's amazing how high our house sits, even though the fall across the block from right to left is subtle.

I think the next thing to happen will be kitchen installation over the weekend, then we are meeting with the tiler on Monday, I've been keeping a keen eye out for the delivery of our stacked stone, I know I'm going to be in love with it.

Main bathroom 

                  

Powder room

                 

Laundry

                 

   

Ensuite 

                  

                  

 
  Pipes!

                  

Architraves, Skirting and Internal Doors Complete

Following the fiasco that was last week we decided to visit the house early this morning and ask the carpenter a few polite questions. Our main concerns were:

- Skirting boards not being flush with the walls.

- Very crooked architraves around some doors with up to 20mm difference top to bottom.

- The front door not fitting into its framework. 

The carpenter was polite and considerate in answering our questions. He immediately suggested that the gaps on the skirting boards be fixed with gap filler and this was done by this afternoon. It looks much better. It turns out the architraves are perfectly straight with the door frames, the problem is actually in that steel frames aren't level and therefore the walls are slightly wonky. As for the front entry, the door frame and glass sidelights are 30cm too wide. The solution was to either rip out the incorrect frame and start again or to source a bigger door. 

We spoke with our acting SS who was very understanding about everything. We all agreed that a bigger door is the best solution to the entry issue. We are pleased with this outcome as we have now selected a huge 1200x2340 Hume XS24 door at no extra cost. As for the crooked framework, apparently there is an allowance in the compliances for this and therefore nothing technically wrong. All we can do is try and come up with an 'optical illusion' to make the architraves look more level with the walls. It's one of those things we just have to work with. Overall we think most of our concerns were dealt with very professionally by MDJ. 

The house has been cleaned up today and the carpenter is finished until the new door arrives. Water proofing will happen mid week and it looks like the control box for our water tank has been installed. Tiling has been delayed until next week but the plumbers will come to install our downpipes (we think) as our neighbours got flooded from the run off in last weeks bad weather. We had a chance to really have a good look at our tiles today and we are super happy with our choices. We also spotted our big, shiny 900mm channel grate in the garage :) 

Here are our ensuite tiles (30x30 charcoal on the floor and 30x60 grey on the walls)

   

We have the same wall and floor tile in the laundry and main bathroom (same sizes as above).

   

The Fridge Splurge

Carpentry continues inside the house, but the skirting boards and architraves aren't really that exciting. We are looking forward to our front and laundry doors arriving and for a bit of a clean up inside the house (which is a lovely sawdust green currently). 

In the meantime we paid a visit to Harvey Norman and just couldn't resist the urge to finally purchase our fridge. They gave us a great price and will hold off ordering the fridge from the warehouse until a couple of weeks before handover. We ended up purchasing a Samsung 680L French Door Fridge and I can't wait to have all of the space as well as the ice maker and clever features of this model. I really wanted the same model with Soda Stream built in, but the price difference was crazy ($4999 for that particular model). Thousands cheaper to just buy the non-sparkling fridge and a separate soda stream! 

                        

I love the idea of the counter height middle drawer which has adjustable sections and a choice of four cooling settings for wine, deli snacks, cold drinks and meat. There are also triple foldable shelves so that we can stand up tall items like jugs or cakes (I bake a lot). 

   

Bring on dinner parties, we are ready! 

I will finish with a sneak peak of our Lin One doors in the kitchen, laundry and master bedroom areas - can't wait to see them stained and with handles. 

     

                   

                   

Garage Door and Carpentry

It feels like this week has been a lot longer than two days. All things house related have been somewhat eventful and not entirely in a good way. 

Bad news first. Yesterday I was not the worlds happiest home (or almost-home) owner. Our first coat of paint was fresh from last week, our plaster lovely and smooth until the carpentry started. There were marks in the paint in almost every room and sizable chips in the plaster. I was a bit put off with the carelessness. This was also impacted by the fact that our SS is away and we weren't sure if someone was actually checking the workmanship in person and regularly. Tom drove past the house today and got lucky as he caught our acting SS (I suppose you would say he's the 'big boss') inspecting. Apparently he was very thorough and unfazed by the damage, saying that he checks after each of the trades and marks out repairs. This made us feel a good deal better. 

Bad news version 2.0. The warehouse in Port Macquarie storing our kitchen cabinetry burnt down last night. That means no kitchen for goodness knows how long as they will need to re-make it in Newcastle or Sydney. That Easter handover we hoped for is not looking possible.  

Moving away from the doom and gloom. Our garage door was installed today and it looks wonderful. The stain on the poles of the facade matches perfectly. Our front door has been delayed but they are expecting lock up by the end of the week. Water proofing is booked for the end of this week/early next week and tiling soon after. The installation of the internal doors, skirting boards and architraves is well underway and a couple of Lin one doors went up today, which all look great. 

They say bad things come in threes so hopefully between the fire, the damage to the plaster and our SS being MIA we are due for some luck! 

Our beautiful caoba garage door (still plastic wrapped). 

     

  

 

Internal Doors