Paint tins :)

We have paint tins, holes for powerpoints etc and cupboard shelves today :)

I think they may have painted around the cupboards but it's hard to tell when we are locked out. I'm guessing they won't be leaving their stuff there for long, the paint should be going on pretty soon :)

Check out the painted CD player!

More paint tins in living room, you can also see a few holes for power points, phone etc

Supports for shelving in cupboards

Supports for shelves in main bedroom. These are meant to be on both sides, I'll have to check to make sure they don't just leave it like this. They have also put in holes for door handles in all internal doors. Still missing some skirting boards.

We went to the local 'sand soil & gravel' supplies business today. At the moment we are pricing up things for the garden. They had some really nice pavers - tossing up between these and a deck now. We could also use pavers as a driveway to the shed. The business sell compost, top soil, mulch etc so we are deciding what we want. I think the tea tree mulch is really nice, and we might get the compost too :) i really like the pavers and we can lay them ourselves so it might be a cheaper option (and ready for Christmas!)

Tea tree mulch :) Left over from processing tea tree oil. It's cheap, good for the soil and it's meant to smell lovely in the rain

The ones we looked at today were 'Quadro' pavers in Oatmeal by Adbri Masonry

No news on the shed, we won't have a slab this weekend :(



Our doors are reaaady to paaaaint :D

I finally got some pics of the cupboards and doors :)

I had to go around to the house today to meet with the guy who is doing the slab for the shed. We have been busy organising things - it looks like we could have a slab by the weekend if the rain holds off :D
The main issue is getting the pipe that was put in for the tank moved as it is right in the middle of where the slab is going. The concreter said once that pipe is gone he will start boxing the frame for the slab! :D We are currently negotiating with our builder so we can have this done ASAP, then once we have a slab we will have a few weekends available to construct the shed kit :D :D :D

Anyway, here are some pics of the doors & cupboards:

Pantry & Linen (or vice versa, depending on what needs the most space!) It looks as if they have had to make a special order for those double doors - we stretched the house lengthwise so this cupboard ended up being a little larger than on the standard plan.

Our bedroom cupboard - also stretched out a little.

Second bedroom cupboard and door. I'm interested to know if the doors have that design on both sides or just one side (?) Hmmm.

Storming in the distance and a pretty rainbow :)

And again from the 'garden side' of the house :D

Cupboards & doors!

Just an update:

I visited the house on Saturday morning to meet with the guy who was putting in the blinds (not 'the blind guy' as I called him, confusing the builders who were trying to work out who was blind!)


Action!

While i was there waiting for him to arrive i had a chat with the SS who was having smoko. He told me that they would get the cupboards and doors on in 'no time' and confirmed that the painter was in fact coming this week :D. Eventually the man with the blinds turned up and we had a look at a few. He fanned them out and they all looked exactly the same to me :S I liked one called 'putty' but he thought it might be a bit dark. I had a look at the names and 'biscuit' sounded like a good one so that's what we are having (based on the name alone! lol) It is a pale beige(?) and should go well with the kitchen and paint we have chosen. ( I have no idea if this is the right colour in pic below but it looks similar, i just googled and this is what came up)

We  decided to go with 'hog bristle' by dulux in 1/4 strength for walls and 1/2 strength for doors, door & window frames etc. The ceiling and cornices will be 'ceiling white'. I considered getting frames/doors in white but DH insisted he wanted colour on the doors. Oh well, i'm happy either way so it wasn't a hastle.

While I was there choosing the blinds, the builders were in there busily working away. They had already done a few doors and parts of cupboards since I was there the day before :D
(This pic was taken on friday through the front window, when i was locked out)

The bath tub and another box have arrived and are in the garage. I didn't get any pics as I was there with the SS and he might think I was a bit strange (let's face it, he does already but i didn't want to make it worse lol)

Bring on the paint!!! :D

Garage, cupboards etc

We now have full approval for the garage :) We are currently trying to find a good concreter, hopefully one who can do the slab sometime in the next couple of weeks.

The house hasn't had much progress this week. As far as I could tell, the only addition was the installation of the built in cupboard in the third bedroom.  The equipment was all there, so hopefully they get lots done over the coming week. We still need the tiling, doors and skirting boards to be installed.

The GOOD news is that the builder called us up today to request the paint colour. Why? Because he says the painter is coming NEXT WEEK!!??!! I'm not a builder, but you'd think all the doors and cupboards would need to be done before they can paint?!? Oh well, I guess it's progress.

 The builder also asked us to get the carpet dealer's details (we didn't go with his usual carpet dealer) - he estimated the carpet will go in in about 3 weeks!! Well, all i can say is they better get moving if they plan to be ready for carpet by then!

Anyway, progress is good :) We'll just be waiting with baited breath to see how all of these deadlines go. Let's hope we have cupboards and doors by this time next week.

Delays... hmmm

We have had no work on our house for the last three weeks. Last week we found out why. The builder hadn't recieved the third payment (for lockup) and so our contract was extended by 14 days. The reason it wasn't paid was:

1. I was away when the email was sent in JULY and didn't know anything about it until early August
2. Hubby doesn't check his emails anywhere near as often as he should :S We also thought it wasn't at lockup when it was as the front door wasn't on. The plaster was the next stage, so that's when the lockup money was due.
3. When I gave the release form to the SS he held onto it for a week not knowing what to do with it as the Builder was away in Perth for a month.
4. The bank held onto the form for another week before they processed it.

We are very lucky that the builder didn't charge interest on the money - as they are entitled to this according to the contract :S

So the GOOD news is that the drama is all sorted, the builders will be back to work next week :D, the front door needs to be reordered (which means i can now upgrade to wood stain, something i was going to pass off if they already had it ordered) and the tilers will be coming soon :)

I think the delay actually helped in a way, as it meant they could catch up on all their other work. So *hopefully* they will now have some more time working on ours :)

The builder also said that we were lucky that our slab went down when it did, as they have another house that has been waiting 6 WEEKS for good enough weather to get the slad done :S

We also got to decide on our cupboard set out while we were there.

So back on track and hopefully lots of progress soon :)

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

FINAL selections list (locked in !)

Well the ideas have changed a bit over the last few months but we have finally locked in our selections. Now we are just waiting... waiting.... waiting for the bank to give the official go ahead so that our builder can start. It is very frustrating at the moment but hopefully we will be starting soon :)

Selections:

Roof and gutter: Colourbond wilderness

Fascia: paperbark

Brick: PGH 'Bathurst'

Front Door: Hume Vaucluse XV5 either wood stained or painted a cream colour to match 'Paperbark' facia

Internal door: Hume standard oakfield

Carpet: Carpet choice nylon twist stainmaster carpet. Cream/pale brown in colour

Tiles:

Main living area floor: 333mm square light cream tile

Wet area floor: 250mm square light cream tile similar to main floor

Bathroom and kitchen wall tile: 250mm x 300mm (?) light cream gloss tile with a slightly darker 'vein' running through it.

Feature tile:

3 high horizontal strip across bath and shower
3x3 (as shown) square in diamond on kitchen wall

Bathroom:
Mixers to vanity and shower
full porcelain close-coupled toilet
standard bath.
vanity with water overflow and integrated semi-recessed bowl
Kitchen:

We added pot drawers and moved the dishwasher, includes basic mixer tap and 1 and 1/2 sink with basket waste.
Appliances are all Omega. Retractable exhaust hood, gas hotplates, elactric fanforced oven/grill and dishwasher, all in stainless.

1. Bench top diamond gloss 'Lunar Stone' with round edge, 2. Top cupboards and kick board 'Peruvian clay', 3. Bottom cupboards 'Pumice'.

 

kitchen!!

Yesterday was a busy day for me, first I went to the kitchen shop to have a look at choices. It was lunch time so i was free to roam and look at whatever i liked while all the assistants had their break. I think  i prefer it that way as i could think for myself without being followed around. Anyway I had a look at some of the larger samples of Laminex and other laminates.

At the moment we are looking at getting Laminex Coolum (pale blue/green with cream tints). This was a compromise between DH's blue bench and my choice of creams/browns etc. It will still be fairly adaptable but will add a splash of colour. It's fairly light so it won't be too obtrusive even if a future buyer doesn't particularly like it. See sample below.

and here is a sample of it as a laundry bench (it changes colour with the wood pattern they have used)

and as a kitchen bench:

I went through all the creams, beiges & brown laminate brands to find a match. I ended up choosing Laminex stone beige. It picks up the cream/brown flecks of the benchtop.

The colours together. Benchtop: Coolum Laminex, Kitchen cupboards: Stone Beige Laminex, Paint: Hogs Bristle Dulux (idea only)

I love the look of the kitchen doors with an arch design (eg in photo above with coolum bench and white cupboards) but it is going to be too expensive so i will just have to stick with plain laminate cupboards.

While i was at the shop one of the assistants gave me a copy of the kitchen plan :) He had only just finished drawing it the day before so the builder hadn't given it to us yet. I'll post pics once i have scanned it