more toys! :D

Here's the latest:

Hand towel holder ( it looks big! :S) And that isn't my drink...

Near invisible soap holder and glass shelf!  :) Hopefully it will match the shower screen :)

They have painted the shelf supports (the ones they forgot to do with the rest)

We have a toilet!
Not so happy to see that it's been used - or should i say ABUSED!! :( :( Bleughh. HOW RUDE. They better be cleaning it til it looks brand new again.


Oh, and you can see what the door handles look like :)

Gas cook top minus the black trivet (?) things that go on top. I realised today that they hadn't put the oven in yet. The electricians were there today doing all the power points and putting the oven in :)

Sink looking good. Not sure why they got the blinds to hang at that end of window :S Might have to change that...

Dishwasher! :D :D

Painters were there painting on the skirting boards Tilers have finished laying the extra tiles (the ones that were missing after they tiled the extra room by mistake)

Not sure about green verandah posts... and they painted green around the door - i think that should be cream as it looks a little strange...

They were staining / lacquering the front door (or whatever it's called :P) Happy to see action! :D

We (meaning I) have drawn up a plan for the garden - and a plan for the watering system with pop up sprinklers and water weeping hoses :D We (Meaning DH) plan to dig the trenches and put in the pipes this weekend! YAY!

Lastest additions

Here are some new things (I can't see in the house because the blinds are all CLOSED - how dare they, lol!)

New front door and door handle :) Door needs staining - this will be done when the painters come back to paint the skirting boards (not in yet), verandah posts and touch up paint.

We have a pump (a teeny one but still it is a pump) This is for the tank water as only some of our inside taps are fed by town water (Part of the BASIX/council water saving conditions). We still need to work out exactly which taps are tank water - each of our neighbours has a different idea! :S

And this is the tank - now fully installed. It will be beside the wall of the yet-to-be-built shed. Shed will be built on the right of the tank. One the left and behind the tank and shed will be my veggie gardens :)

 Another view of the tank and backyard. The shed will be in the foreground, the remaining dirt will be turf, gardens, veggie patch and pavers :D

Speaking of turf - it will be laid in the next week or so. I went to the 'Bunny Warehouse' today to find out about lawn and yard watering systems. The dream is to have one that works itself with pop up sprinklers, burried pipes and timers. Hmmm i think the budget may have other ideas :(

Welcome to our home! :D I'm just imagining a Christmas wreath hanging there in a few weeks time. YAY, i can't wait :)

Don't let this boring box fool you - the instantaneous gas hot water system is one of the best toys in the house! It's going to be soooo good at Christmas with lots of people in the house and not having to worry about the hot water running out. Oh, and we're not paying for hot water that we haven't used! :P

The next time you see it, we will probably have turf! :)

Tile drama sorted :)

We ended up going with the tiles. The builder actually said he thought it looked better as tiles once he saw it this morning. It seems the tiler thought it was meant to be tiled and didn't check the plan.

This means we get a free room of tiles, feature tiles laid for free and we don't have to pay extra for laying diagonal tiles! Wooohoooo. Glad they stuffed up now lol. They have all been very generous and gone out of their way to make up for it. One happy customer here :D :D :D

When we were there meeting the builder it seemed like it was all systems go - we had the guy just finishing up installing the blinds, the plumber doing the vanity and taps, someone else installing the kitchen appliances and the carpet people came to measure the rooms!

Below: Guy taking the dishwasher in the front door :D

It is looking really nice now :) We have kitchen appliances all in, blinds finished, vanity and bathroom taps all done :)

Still waiting on: Skirting boards to be installed, tiles to be finished, paint to be touched up and skirting boards and posts out the front painted, carpet installed, power points, light fittings and switches, gas HWS installed, pump and tank connected (tank now in right place), grass going in  next week, clothesline, mail box and then the KEYS :) Not long to go now, approx 3 weeks plus the time for council to approve and let us in.

Left: Shower tiles and taps yay :D The shower head may not stay though, it's just a water saving one i had already so we didn't have to pay for a cheap normal one.

: D

Loving this! :) Mirror still to go in.

New toys!!!

Blinds in living area. They match perfectly, considering i didn't have a paint sample to comare it too. Mmmm 'biscuit' :)











I didn't get any kitchen pics as the guy was there the whole time installing everything, i thought i'd be a bit strange to ask for him to move or have him in the pic :S  Photos of kitchen next time.

Tiling Mega DRAMA!!

I went around to the house on monday to see how the tiles were going. We had the laundry floor grouted, wall tiles in place, bathroom floor and wall tiles in place and concrete cleaned/polished ready for tiles. All looking good so far :) I thought it was a bit strage that they had polished the loungeroom (which was having carpet), but didn't think much of it. That night i casually said to DH 'I hope they know the lounge is having carpet' and he goes 'They did the feature tiles right so they must be going off the plan. They were probably just cleaning it all up, it'll be fine' And the topic was forgotten.

On Tuesday afternoon I went back to see the progress. The first thing i noticed was the nice cream tiles laid on a diagonal IN THE LOUNGEROOM!!!! Gahhhhhh, they DID lay tiles in the lounge :S :S

The rest of the house was perfect, the tilers did a fantastic job. I called the builder and told him they'd tiled the lounge. He said that they wouldn't pull them up now they were laid and he'd pay the difference. He just wanted to know if we still wanted carpet and i said we'd be happy to keep the tiles. Little did i know...

Left: The room that was meant to have carpet.

When i got home DH was really annoyed at the mix up, and was insisting we get carpet. Here started the many phone calls between builder, tiler, tile supplier and us :S The builder gave us two options:

1: Keep the tiles, no carpet

2: Install carpet OVER tiles, using glue and nails to pierce the tiles, wrecking the tiles completly and having carpet raised higher than tile height.

The third option we came up with was: Keep the tiles, get a piece of carpet fitted to the room (matching bedroom carpet as planned), overlock the edges (?) but NOT install it so tiles are still good underneath - good when we come to sell as buyer has both options there. Still sits higher than tile height.

The builder didn't like this idea and said the only way he'll pay for carpet is if it's INSTALLED. I think he won't give us the warranty if it's not installed and we think he may consider it a trip hazard (?) / hastle if it frays etc.

We had pretty much decided last night to keep tiles and get carpet over the top. Then this morning...

Dahhh dahhh dahhhhh...

The builder rings to inform us he has booked a JACKHAMMER to pull it all up :S

Can we really justify wrecking a room full of perfectly laid, brand new tiles??? So now we are back to square one. I like tiles as it is better value, easier to clean, you can just change/clean the carpet, and it is good investment to leave them for when we sell the house down the track.

DH wants the carpet as it is soft, it creates a different 'zone' so that people know that carpet = shoes off and no eating on our new lounges, carpet is good for crawling little kiddies (when we have some), it's not cold on feet like tiles and it gives us the option to have that room as an open walled 4th bedroom/kids play area/office/formal lounge.

So there you have it. We are at stalemate. By tomorrow morning we have to give the builder either permission to rip it out or leave it (with or without installing carpet over the top) I think he plans to work out where the decision was made and have them pay or have it covered by insurance to cover the extra costs.

action at last!

We have good news :)

The excavator has been and the pipe is moved :) They left the black (power supply?) pipe sticking up though so we will need to look into that, i'm really hoping that we won't need to get them to come back AGAIN to move it too. Really, i have no idea why they didn't just move it while they had the hole dug. Anyway, at least something has been done. It has been raining all day so if they do need to come back it will be a big delay of at least another week :S :(

The REALLY good news is that the tiler arrived late yesterday (thursday) afternoon! He was just setting up but he is finally there! :) :D Today i did a 'drive-by' and there were two of the tilers cars, an open garage and it looked like they were busy so i wasn't going to hold up their progress for anything!

I might get some photos if i go past tomorrow. Sooooo happpy to see the tilers arrive, the builder gave us an estimated move in of 5weeks from when the tilers finish. It feels so close, i want time to hurry up but the tilers to take their time and do a good job :) lol

New Pics :)

We have been talking to the builder again this week.
The good news: The tiler *should* be starting this week :)
The excavator *should* be coming Tuesday to dig up the pipe causing us all the drama


The not so good news: We won't be moving in until AT LEAST mid November :( The builder estimates we will move in 5 weeks after the tiler finishes (the first time he has even given us an estimate of a move in date) Nothing much can be done until the tilers are finished so we are hoping that we will get lots of tiles done this week!

The site has been levelled. This is where the garden goes :)

The line is where we are going to pave. The pavers will go past the sliding door to the BBQ gas point, and around the corner up to where the air con unit is. 2m wide near door, 3m wide along side of the house









Looking towards the street. This side will all be garden (except for paved area)

We have shed roller doors!!











Tile boxes! :D Now we just need a tiler to put them all down!

333ml floor tiles. These are the same throughout the whole house.

 The feature tile for the bathroom will be three rows of these squares wide and will run horizontally above the shower and bath. In the kitchen the same tiles will be used in 9small squares to make one square, laid as a diamond.

Wall tile, feature and floor tiles are all the same throughout. Wall is garage lining painted in 1/4 hog bristle
















The shed kit has arrived. They just dumped it out the front :( so it took us about 3hrs to break it up and carry it into the garage piece by piece :P

The front door is also here :) This is the top of it, it will be stained by the painters when they come back after the tilers come.

The paint is looking awesome! This is the niche all painted and ready to be go :)

 Not a good pic but you can see the finished paint and aircon installed :)

 The top cupboards look darker now that the paint has been done (peruvian clay - laminate)

The daiken air conditioner :D :D

 Bath ready for tiles












Shower base is done

 The backyard and paddock crazy with weeds

 Looking from the front door

The front of house now that the site has been levelled. We even have a strip of turf left over from the house across the road! I don't know if there is much point though, it'll just die as we won't be there to water it :(

Updates

We have had a few things happening at the house over the last week or two. My parents were in town today, so I took them around to have a look at the house (they hadn't seen it since it was just a dirt block)

The builder happened to be across the road on another build so we were able to get a key to have a look inside. I haven't been inside the house since it was half painted. The paint is now complete (except for skirting boards which will be done after tiles) and it is looking really good :)

The tilers haven't come BUT the waterproofing has been done and all of the tiles are waiting in the garage. I had a look at the tiles and they look good. We only have one style each of floor tile, wall tile and feature tile to keep it simple. They looked exactly the same as in the shop so very happy so far :) We could be waiting up to 2 weeks for the tilers as they are booked out. Nothing else can really be done untill they have finished.

The roller doors for the shed/garage also arrived this week. We had to meet the guy on site (He'd driven all the way from Sydney that morning) so we could sign for them. We also had to carry them around the side of the house - just to be on the safe side as we didn't want someone to come and help themselves to them :S

The shed kit will arrive on the 7th. We still don't have a slab :( The builder still can't get onto an excavator! At least he has been there with the bob cat and our yard is now levelled out. We also have our reverse cycle aircon installed. It's a Daiken and looks really nice - can't wait to use it. We are still waiting on the kitchen appliances, electrical fitout and bathroom fitout. The internal doors are all on but no handles on yet. The front door hasn't turned up yet either.

That's all for now. I forgot my camera so no piccies :( :(