House is almost complete

All systems go. I went past this mroning and there were 7 cars out the front and tradies everywhere.

The exterior painting is complete and the exterior looks awesome. They only need to do the driveway which is going in this coming Friday.  M has to go and move the council tree tomorrow as it is in the way.

all painted including front door etc. M was dubious about my choice of window and doors colour but let me have it( he wanted black). I got my way and he said he sees what I was meaning and envisaged now and thinks it was the right choice because he loves it. I love it too. The painted and bagged feature was a good choice and lifts the facade. We are really pleased with the result and colour 

The back patio was done today. Looks good so far although the concreter hadn't removed the stencil yet. Apparantly he got delayed as someone stole, that's right stole, the stencil out of our garage so he had to source another really quickly.

All the remaining tiling in the kitchen and bathrooms has been done. Kitchen tiling looks really nice, plain and simple, which is what I wanted. Looks nice with the stone top although I was only looking through a window.

I think we will be moving in about three weeks as there is only three things to be done now. Driveway, cleaning and carpet. Yah! Can't wait.

This is how I envisaged the playroom

How sweet...

This room is so similar to Chloe's playroom, furnished and decorated in a similar manner to what I want for her.

Caesar Stone is in

I only got a very quick look from the outside because the casaview guy on site was a stickler. Bench top looks nice from what I saw and quite white. I can't wait to see it for real.

The house is almost done

All the painting is now complete it looks awesome both inside and outside. All that is left to do is...

• add shower screens, towel rails, mirrors and tile above vanity
• add kitchen bench top, appliances and tile splash back
• clean house
• lay carpet
• lay back patio(which is already formed up) and driveway

The exterior is looking awesome. Looks a little blue in the pics but it's not.

New paint



Chloe's pink wall. She loved it when she saw it. I quote "Look Mummy a pink wall in my room, oh it's beautiful. I like it!" Well that was a sucessessful choice. It does look good, cutting in is really good and it saves me the trouble. It will look fantastic once the carpet is laid and the mirrored doors are installed, they will bounce alot of light around the room.

Bagging painted - love it. Great contrast. All down pipes, meter box, under eaves etc painted. M and I need to talk about where to put the back gate because the natural place for it has a window. Hmmm hadn't thought about that before.

Bagging looks good.

the concreter was also there forming up the back patio

Spoke to SS

In response to the soap holder being off white and not brilliant white he said that has been an issue for years. My response to that is well they should advise you of that. Not sure is anything can be done about it but he will let me know.

In response to the tiler cutting the border off the feature tile he said he will first make sure that the tile was in fact one entire white tole with feature attached(which it is) and then he will find out why the tiler did it like that because you wouldn't normally. I advised that the feature tile looks rough like this. He is going to get back to me.

The way I would rectify this is to take those dreaded tiles off the top and replace with plain white tiles. Poor workmanship and wrong colour gone. Remove a vertical stripe and add a vertical feature instead and insert the soap holder on the vertical stripe where the off white won't stand out like a dogs proverbial!

I'm going to have to wear the soap dish in the master bathroom possibly but at least all those ensuite issues would be gone.  Alternatly they could maybe replace the soap holder with a tile and then insert a different soap holder.

Landscaping quotes

Just had our second quote come in. $8500 for retaining walls as opposed to $12000 for retaining walls plus $6000 for other minor landscaping and I mean minor. The $8500 can be reduced to $6500 if we can get the certifier to agree to a different concrete block. We emailed them to discuss. Praying, praying, praying.

A few issues

Mostly minor but still

Oh this ensuite M hates me to say but it is the BOME. Yet another issue with the tiles. The feature tile was originally a white tile with a border on it. One tile. The tiler for some unknown reason cut the feature part off the top of the tile and laid it as two pieces. It looks stupid up close, not to mention the more grout, the more mould can grow and the more I have to clean. I think the cuts may even be crooked. That tiler is a real a worry. I have no confidence in them. I only noticed this today. The tiles are all dirty as well making it look worse I think but and the overall room isn't doing it for me. Again some guidance from the tiler would have been appreciated but I guess you can't expect an idiot to advise you well...I have more issues to raise with SS. This photo shows the mismatched floor feature colour. Don't get me started.

 

The toilets got installed. The master toilet looks a bit unsightly. You see we changed the bathroom layout meaning the vanity was pushed back, that meant it showed more of the toilet bowl. Oh well can’t do anything about that. It doesn't really bother me that much it just would have looked better with a different bowl. Otherwise I like the overall look of that bathroom. Gee I love those doors. I like the vanity too. Taps are all in.

Oh except this. brought to my attention today because my SIL is building and was telling us that their tiler has put a ceramic soap holder in the shower. They have white tiles and the soap holder is off white. Doesn't match. Today I had a look at ours and it’s the same, doesn't match. The tiling around it doesn't look to crash either here. Hmmmm Disappointing.I have to keep in mind that there is dust everywhere which makes the tiles look all dirty and not as nice. Still have to raise that one with SS. He's gonna love me!

Upside...The kitchen looks amazing with the bulk head painted and new cornice on. The cornice is coming away slightly in one spot but it is easily fixed. The caesar stone top goes in on Wednesday. It was to be done Friday gone but the rain and mud held it off.

All the electrics are done. Down lights etc. Looks great.

 More upsides...and there is always an upside. The family room is awesome. Love the giant space.

Love the gorgeous light and large windows.

Love our kitchen

We noticed when we went through today that there are quite a few dings and knocks in the doors and architraves. I don’t know how they fix those. Also the floor tiles are filthy because the tradies have been dragging mud through with the recent rain. The grout is all dirty. I really hope they can get that off.

The paint looks a bit thin in places, especially in Chloe’s bedroom but the painting isn’t finished yet so it will most likely be fine. We are also getting a feature wall in her bedroom now. We are paying the painter directly. He was there today and offered to do it for us. He's a nice guy.  It will cost us the same for me to do the job as it will be to have him do it. I chose Taubmans Bronte Pink. Love it.

Overall I guess there could be worse things but I have a couple of things to raise with SS.  My only real disappointment with the entire build to date is that ensuite and it all comes down to the tiler. Hmmm.

The latest

bathroom vanity looks great.

I'm saving the ensuite pics until later. The vanity is the same as above but at the moment I am a bit disappointed with the tiles. The workmanship looks great BUT the floor tile and feature tile don't match colourwise. I feel the tile company should have advised me that they really didn't go but they didn't. It's my fault ultimatley as I chose them but guidance would have been more than appreciated. I had dreams of ripping them out but M reassures me they will be fine in the end so I am reserving judgement. Maybe they will look different with all the fixtures in place. In real life they are more closley coloured than in pics (in which the floor looks really brown and the wall tiles really grey and black and I hate the pics of it)but they are not the perfect match like the master bathroom which I LOVE. Oh well. I keep telling myself to reserve judgement but I have to say I am a bit worried. M hates me for even thinking it. So in saying all this dribble no photos until it's complete.

is it possible to be in love with a door...all shiny and new.

I noticed when looking at the pics that the door handles are wrong. However I am glad for the builders stuff up and like them lots. We were going to get the same style but in satin chrome which would have matched the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. The main reason I chose them was that they don't get prints on them from little fingers. Anyway I have informed the builder of their error but also advised that we want to keep them. I really like them and the cost is the same to the builder plus I don't want them wasting a day changing them. I mean all this rain has already stalled our rear patio being laid and we don't need delays! NO MORE RAIN!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh pleasssse. 

Kitchen Cabinets Installed

We LOVE our kitchen! It is quite big and has heaps of storage space and looks fantastic.

This is our family room. Well half of it anyway.

This is the other half with DH looking very happy about the space.

The master bathroom tiling looks fantatsic as well. Very happy. Very!

Master bedroom has great light.

We are loving the house and are so excited.

Shutters

I got some quotes for shutters and blinds on Friday. OMG they are expensive. Some companies prices are riducluous!

Needless to say I was not paying thsoe prices. Luckily we found a great local company who will do them for much less than the major companies. We all know the major companies. So my advice to you is use the local paper and find a local company if you can. It's worth doing the foot work.

The company I found had friendly telephone staff who were able to come out when I needed them too(of course I'm limited access because the house isn't ours yet). The man who did the quote was very nice and is the owner. I managed to add an extra two shutters and under budget. Yippee! We are very happy.

The company name Blind and Shutter Centre.

I got to go into the house today

Looks amazing. I am so excited and can't wait to move in. The sun was streaming in and it was warm and bright and inviting. Love it.

master bath

family room...sun streaming in. Kitchen cabinets laying on floor

Chloes wardrobe. Height of room shown using door for scale.

ensuite floor

The painters were in still doing the job, actually I think they have days left of that. Kitchen was being installed but he was getting it done very quickly. Cabinetry anyway.

Tiles complete

Well except kitchen because it isn't installed yet.

I can't wait to see the tiles all clean and up close. My zoom is good but not that good, especially through dirty wondows. These pics are the best I could do for now.

Front porch tiles

Looking up to media room the interior steps - tiles are still uncleaned . You can see the neighbours frame going up outside the window

Family room - even during the daylight hours the tiles are a bit greyer than I first thought but I like them. We will need a rug for sure.

very blurry view of the ensuite feature and floor. I am really happy with the decision to go with something very plain just along the shower top as a feature and I LOVE the floor colour.

Laundry floor tile looks great and am really very happy with the substitute tile chosen. I can't wait to see the main bathroom.