Delays :( and Outdoor ideas

We went to see the house on Friday, hoping to see lots of new additions. We found no changes at all!  :(  Everyone is busy and booked out for the next few WEEKS :( The builders are busy with one of the government funded school building upgrades (A huge new school hall) plus two other big housing developments. Apparently our little house isn't much of a priority, the Site Supervisor said he comes over 'When I get a spare day' BOO not happy! Looks like we won't be finished anytime soon :(

He did say the tilers might be over in two weeks time, but not to expect anything else between now and then. I guess they would be delayed anyway as the tiles for the wet areas were out of stock. We had to reselect the tiles ( now we will have the same cream 333ml floor tile throughout the whole house, and the same wall tiles and feature tiles throughout the whole house) I guess it will keep it simple, i decided to just go with one floor tile rather than have to go through the whole selection process again.

We also had to order extra floor tiles as DH decided we were having diagonal floor tiles in all living areas (adding an extra $10/m to lay plus 5% extra order for tiles = $500+!!!) The wet areas will still be straight except for the tiles in the shower which will also be diagonal. I can't say i mind either way in terms of direction of the tiles, but as we keep saying, we can only do them once so we may as well get what we want. Too bad it all costs money.  This pic is a small tile on a wall, but you get the idea!

In other news we are making plans to have an alarm system installed by a family friend. It will be a fancy set up with movement/glass break sensors on every window, corner sensors is every room, a blue flashing light out the front and connected to the security monitoring company in case of break-in or firealarm activation. DH's mum used to sell them and has one installed in her house so we will get a good deal :) It won't look like this, I just put it in to break up the writing!

We are also looking into getting a double garage with workshop for the backyard. It will be colourbond to match the house with side access along the narrower side of the house (the right side of house) We are not sure whether we will pay for it's completion, pay for a slab and put up kit ourselves (my choice) or do the lot from scratch as a kit. It will look something like this: (same colours too but stretched to make it a bit longer)

Hubby gets the shed on the condition that I get my timber decking, shade sails and garden :) Hopefully we can also get a good price on the timber as one of Hubby's friends works at a timber mill :) I think the boys will all chip in to help with all of these builds - boys and their toys :P

My ideas for the deck are a combination of this:

And this:

With a pergola looking something like this: (i have found an Bali imports shop in our town who sells them for a decent price, there are also different sizes available, some with seating attached)

or this is a more realistic option:

Then i plan to add lots of lovely green plants! And a few flowers of course!

KITCHEN!!! Garage door & front door :D

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of update as i've been away for the weekend.

We now have a kitchen! We think it was installed last thursday, around the same time the garage and front door went up :)

I LOOOVE  the kitchen! The colours have come together really well, maybe even better than i expected. Everyone else seems to go with black and white but there was no way we were having that in our kitchen, It would feel depressing to me for some reason (oh, and black gloss benches are a NIGHTMARE to clean, trust me) The only complaint is the size of the kitchen itself, i really wish we could have somehow made it a bit bigger. Oh well, we will make it work :)

Things i love:
The diamond gloss bench top (Lunar Stone)
The pot drawers
The touch-catch door under the breakfast bar
The overall colour scheme and how it's come together :)
ALL OF IT!!! : D : D

I should also mention that i love the look of the garage door, and the remote that comes with it! The front door is actually the wrong one so we will have to get it changed.

As you'll see in the photos the shower tap fittings have been changed to a mixer :D and are now awaiting the gyprock.

Onward to the photos!

duckboards and wading pools at the front step/garage (It was flooding in Tamworth)

wading pool!, post on stilts wating for concrete and a plop of mortar left from the brickies

Swimming pool in background, anyone?! You can just make out a line of floodwater in the distance.

Ooh a tap! Two actually, and they even work!

Front of the house today after we found an unlocked window to climb through! We'd been locked out for a week now.

Internal doors ready to go

Remote controlled door :D

Here it is! :) Top cupboards and kick board -peruvian clay, Bottom cupboards -Pumice, Bench - lunar stone diamond gloss (covered by cardboard). All laminex selections. Handles are slim bow handle in satin chrome, also by laminex

Loving the drawers! Dishwasher space

Oven space and gas cooktop space above it covered by cardboard

Top cupboards with room for exhaust fan and fridge space

The best shot i could get of the sink under the cardboard

The offcut from the gas cooktop space - we scabbed it out of their bin along with the one from the sink space! If we can find edges for them we might be able to make a little movable trolley or something to match the bench. It's a shame to waste such beautiful glossy bench top!

Yes! please be careful and look after our lovely kitchen!

Skirting boards ready to go in

The offending shower pipes have now been changed and we have our mixer tap installed. I wonder how cranky they were having to re-do it??

The view out of our bedroom window, this will eventually all be built out :(

Close-up of bench top and breakfast bar

Best shot i have of the touch-catch cupboard door at the back of the breakfast bench

Taken through the window when we were locked out - the best colour indication of the top cupboards plus the pantry and linen in background

The first drama of the build...

Today i went to see our SS to check on a few things. It turns out the tap fittings are wrong in the shower, and for the vanity :( The only way to have mixers is to pull off the gyprock and re-do the plumbing. The builder went off the original plans as we hadn't told him we were having mixers. We had assumed that the people we got the taps from would have told him or he would have seen it on the quote and when he ordered them. That's ok, it was a mixup and probably mostly our fault.

I told them not to worry, we'll just have normal taps. When i told DH he had other ideas and insisted we get the mixers, so back to the builder i went to say we did want it fixed. Problem is 1. We have to foot the $500 bill to change it and 2. They have to have the mixer tap to install into the wall when they do the plumbing. So off i went to the shop to find out where our order was at... and the lady couldn't find our order!

So now we need to wait for them to find out where our order is (arrived, on order or lost in the abyss) so that we can take the mixers so that the plumber and plasterer can be booked to change the plumbing and re-do the wall again!

It's going to be one expensive mixer by the time we are done!

Bricks, gyprock and cornices!

I survived our 3 week Cape York trip and had a great time (away from the winter - 32*C up the top! mmmm), so now it's time to update you on all the house progress :)

The bricks were finished around the 5th of July. As we had a lot of wet weather there was little progress until the following week when we had the gyprock installed on 14th-16th. Since then we have had more rain with minor flooding in local creeks so progress has slowed again. The cornices are all installed as well as the lining of the garage and framing (?) around the front door way. We are yet to get skirting boards installed.

The water points/pipes are all in place in the bathroom (with a possible wrong fitting for one - we are having a mixer in the shower but there are two pipes sticking way out of the wall, not sure if this is just hot and cold or if it needs to be changed to one pipe. We will need to look into it) The reverse cycle aircon wiring is also installed in the wall in the living area.

Current things to discuss with builder/SS are: mixer in bathroom, relocation of tank as it looks like they are planning to put it where the shed is going to be, finding out if the verandah will be cemented - i hope so but not sure! and whether we are having flyscreens (windows currently do not have them, we think they will put them in before handover as we are pretty sure they are meant to be included)

Photos care of dear husband who kept me updated while i was away :)

above: pink batts in our bedroom to reduce noise & insulate as hubby is a shift worker. Below: kitchen/living wall with wiring. Thick wiring with orange cord is for reverse cycle aircon unit

above: plaster people hard at work. Looking down hallway from front door. Below: My beautiful corner niche which is visible from lounge room and front door/hallway (see above pic) soooo glad we added this :)

above: kitchen and sunlight :) on left is pantry and linen then hallway to front door. Notice aircon cord poking out! Below: same room from opposite direction, this will all be open tiled area. The doorway to  the right leads to bed1, bathroom, toilet and bed 2

Below: Shower pipes that may need to be changed.

above: gas tap for bbq and external powerpoint for future outdoor area. Below: water pipe and power for pump (we are on all tank water except kitchen tap and two outdoor taps). I think other cords coming from ground may be the power for the shed.

North side of the house in late afternoon. The sun makes the bricks glow a lovely golden colour :)

Bricks :)

The brick layers started on Thursdy as planned. I went around to the house thurs afternoon to find one row of bricks right around the base of the house. On Friday I went back at around 11am and this is what i found:

Bricks!!!

I was talking to the builder today (after a mix up with their pay which is now sorted) and he told me: the bricks start tomorrow! Wooohooo :) The brickies are booked in and bricks will be delivered in the morning. He said they are waiting at the freight company as the ground was still a little bit soft today to deliever them. Sooo excited!

I'm going away for pretty much all of July on a family 4WD trip to Cape York! I'm leaving Tamworth on Friday and won't be back til the last week in July. Hubby can't come due to work so he is holding down the fort & keeping me updated on the build. I hope I don't miss too much :( (but then again, I hope I miss a lot as it means it's closer to moving in!! lol) So I'm unsure as to where I stand and what I want to be finished on my return. I guess I'll have to wait and see. A lot can happen in 3-ish weeks, expecially with the rate this build is going!
I'll be sure to post some brick pics before I go. :)

There's a house with a roof, with a roof, with a ROOF!!

Here are some more photos for you. The roof  and windows were done either Thursday or Friday. They are yet to put the ridge capping on the roof. Will it leak without it? We have had a lot of rain over the last 24hrs :S

The colour is 'Pale Eucalypt' by Colorbond.                                                            I was pleased to see this visitor dropping by, maybe it will be a friend for the kitty we are going to get after we move in :)