Packing!!! :)

We spent all yesterday packing boxes. We will also spend most of today packing so that we can move this weekend :D :D

The builder has been chasing the council all week. They are meant to be insepecting the house today (fingers & toes crossed!!) Once they give it the all clear it is ALL OURS :D :D and we get the keys and can start moving in.

It's been raining all night and all day today (34mm this morning alone) and it looks like rain all weekend. The roads are starting to flood so it might be interesting :S

The slab for the double garage was poured on tuesday so here are the pics:

It came a day early = happy campers :)

Graffiti ;)

ohhh i like a good slab... (of concrete! lol)

Side of house - now with weed lawn and stakes to mark our pop up sprinklers

Latest pic of the front - complete with weed lawn :P If it keeps raining we might still have grass to mow before Christmas LOL. Oh well, it's better than mud.

digging

On the weekend we did some digging:

We were digging trenches to put in pipes and sprinklers for our watering system.

We dug out all the trenches with the dingo, but were a bit afraid to dig too deep as we weren't sure where all the pipes and underground phone/power was :s
So then we had to shovel out all the dirt and dig a bit deeper in places. We then linked up all the sprinklers but it was getting late so we decided to come back on the monday (which we both had off) to finish.

That night it RAINED and RAINED some more :S  :(  :( We haven't been back to do anymore as we've both been busy.

Light covers are included (for everything that isn't a downlight) We didn't realise we would get these so it's a bonus!! :D :D :D

The best pic i could get of the oven taken through the window on an angle :S

Front door with varnish. Love it, not so much the green :S Told the painter to do whatever he thought would look good!?!. At worst we have the cream paint so we can do it ourselves as if we have to. The rest of the paint looks good.

These were another bonus! :) One set on the side and one set out the back. Love them!

And finally a pic of the door handles. Still waiting on the carpet, hopefully it might come tomorrow. We are so close now, i hope it doesn't take too long. I guess we should start packing huh? Lol

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

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:

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 :)