The all important PCI date

We had a phone catch up with our SS today and he has tentatively given us the 14th May as our PCI date! Hooray! That is so much closer than we expected. 

There are a myriad of tradesman booked for the next few days and I think our flooring will be one of the last things, booked for next Friday the 9th May. 

I feel like this is the calm before a tidal wave of things that I need to be organizing and booking. I need to get a quote on a retaining wall so we can then mount our fences on top. I also need to sort out council application for our driveway ($250 apparently!). Harvey Norman are on standby with our fridge, Carpet Craft have ordered our carpet and the plantation shutters have arrived ready for installation. 

Building a house has been like a master class in organization. 

Rumour has it our tilers are coming back tomorrow, so I hope I will have stacked stone photos soon. 

Happy days :)

Shining Bright

All I can say about today is WOW. 

The amount of work achieved in just one day was incredible, finally it seems as though things are moving toward completion. We dropped by the house to meet the electrician this morning and it was like the set of 'The Block'. There were sparkies, plumbers, carpenters ... Tradesmen in every room of the house. 

Today we had our appliances delivered and installed, electrical fit out, more plumbing and even some shower screens started. Still waiting on tilers to finish, but it doesn't seem to be holding anything up. 

I will let the photos do the talking, but we are so very happy with the house. Beside ourselves with excitement actually! There are so many amazing features, I can't pick a favourite but those Gessi Riflessi taps come very close. 

A super big thank you to our electrician David for such an incredible job. The electrical is worth every cent we paid. 

One tiny little mistake... Somebody smashed the oven. I feel sorry for that somebody who had to fess up to our SS! 

Here are the pendants and our amazing saturn switches in the master bedroom

              

              

Ensuite tapware, shower and lights

              

                 

               

    

Kitchen with the gooseneck tap, appliances and lights installed (note smashed oven door...)

    

    

                 

    

    

Main bathroom and powder room

                

                

    

Activity room and front hall, all lit up (okay, maybe a tad over lit really)

                 

                 

Laundry

                 

Telecommunications Fit Out

We didn't expect much to happen given this week is a short one between public holidays but we did have the telecommunications guy arrive first thing to install our antenna, TV points and wall mount solutions. Once again we saw the results through the back window as we are well and truly locked out. Not sure what else is to come this week, but the electrician called to say he is doing his fit out next Tuesday and we know the plumbing will be completed, along with installation of our appliances on Monday. 

It feels like we could be getting close to the finish line, not too much more to do! All I have to offer in photos today is a shot of the TV solution above the fireplace. You'll never know its there once we have mounted a mirror TV on it.  

  

Ensuite Tapware Installed

We were hoping to see a little bit more work this week and were very pleased to see the guys from Reece Plumbing today. They started installing tapware in some parts of the house and will return on the 28th April to finish as the tiling is not completed yet. 

Our tilers do appear to have returned and have done the tiling behind the bathroom vanity. They will be back next week to grout inside and then start working on the stacked stone columns on the facade. Apparently appliances are going in on the 28th as well, and I'm guessing our electrician should be back to do the lights and switches. Splashback, shower screens and shelving have all been measured. We are hoping for lots of activity in the next few weeks! 

We couldn't get inside the house but I do have some photos of the ensuite from outside of our bedroom doors. I am dying to get inside and look at those amazing Gessi taps!

                

     

Benchtops and Sinks Installed

The installation of our benches was one of those milestones I've been waiting for and today was the big day. We were so excited to see them go in and the majority look really fantastic! Our island bench looks much larger with 40mm caesarstone on top - bench space is never going to be an issue for us again! 

True to the typical form of our build, there was a mistake in that the main bathroom had white shimmer installed rather than linen caesarstone. We spent a long time looking at it, deciding if we could live with it. I'm still undecided but leaning towards a 'no'. You can see the difference in colour between the laundry and main bathroom - I would love to hear comments if those reading have any thoughts on whether we should just run with the white. 

The ensuite is the star and will look more finished once the tiling is complete. Our poor painter painted that whole wall behind the vanity and we didn't have the heart to say it will be covered. Our tilers are still missing in action and it's really becoming a hold up. I don't know how they can just abandon a job like that. In other tiling news, I have come to the startling realization that I hate the light grey grout between the mushroom tiles. Really a bad choice by the colour studio and I'm kicking myself for missing it. I've decided that after handover I'm going to use a grout stain and bring the grout to more of a travertine shade. I suppose that means I'll be spending many hours with a tiny paintbrush... 

It was a gloomy, dull afternoon so these photos aren't the best (I still had to share though).

     

     

     

     

                  

                  

    

Cabinetry and Painting Complete

It has been an uncharacteristically long time between blog posts for me. We haven't seen much of our house until today as we were away due to the passing of my beautiful pop. Without his help and many little handouts over the years we would not have been able to build our dream house. We took him on a trip out to the display homes last year, so he was at least able to see what the house will look like. 

We are creeping towards completion and the work seems to come in little bursts. Our tilers haven't been back to finish but the cabinet installer came back to install the kick boards, built in bin and handles. It's all looking very good. 

We have had the basin in our powder room installed and the others will go in with the stone bench tops next week. They did deliver a couple of extra Manooga basins by accident as the guys from Edstein Stone took our Caroma Basa ensuite basins to measure up. 

Painting is all done and it is such a great job. I couldn't praise Greg our painter any higher, he has been fantastic. The colour of the smooth pebble interior paint has actually muted down with a second coat which is good as it was looking very yellow against the grey ensuite tiles. I've also ordered our carpet and changed to bedroom to a more sandy tone which will hopefully match in. 

Ensuite with handles, still awaiting tiling behind the vanity. 

    

Kitchen with stainless steel velour kick boards and handles.

   

The long awaited pull out bin!

                

Laundry under bench cabinets with handles. I found choosing handles really hard but I'm super happy with the hettich handles we chose.

     

     

Power room vanity and main bathroom

     

     

A couple of painting shots (media and children's activity)

     

     

The Painting Continues

Since our cabinetry installation earlier this week we have had tradies in fixing a section on the roof which apparently wasn't bolted down properly. We also had our painters back today doing the last coats of paint. Today they did the down pipes, front door, internal doors and bathrooms. They should only have a day or two left next week. 

Next week the tilers are due back along with the fireplace installation. The measurements have been taken for our stone bench tops and the cabinet maker has to come back to install our kick boards, soft close cupboards in the kitchen and remaining vanity in the powder room. Our SS said he may have a handover date for us next week! 

This afternoon I spent longer than I'd care to admit opening and closing the soft close kitchen drawers. So cool, can't wait to try and slam the cupboards when they are done haha! 

I got a few more shots of the main bathroom with cabinets installed, along with our freshly stained front door (which is amazing). We also have the desk installed in the activity room - never knew it was going to have a random metal leg *puzzled*

     

     

                  

Hallelujah! It's a kitchen!

Finally! After one burnt down warehouse, three new delivery dates and a heated discussion with our SS we have our kitchen and bathroom cabinets installed *happy dance* 

I think we were reasonably patient with the long kitchen delays but it all came to a head on Monday when it failed to show again. We were a bit frustrated at builds behind us having their kitchens installed and us being given dates with nothing happening. I think our SS was cranky at us for hounding him but with the pressures of our current accomodation selling we have been pretty anxious about seeing progress with our build. We are all friends again now though. 

To our immense relief the kitchen finally arrived today and the lovely fellow installing the cabinets let us take a peek.

I love the L shaped island bench, so glad we asked for the change.  

   

     

Stainless steel velour kick boards still to be installed.

   

     

Laminex pesto linea up close 

                 

This is my favourite so far! The exposure is a bit bright in this photo, but I love the wood grain against grey tiles. With the white shimmer caesarstone and wall tiles in I think this will be crazy good. 

   

                 

Laundry cabinets (also in the main bathroom which wasn't finished when we visited) in Oyster Linea. I was SO worried about this choice being too light, but I love it.