Inside Painting has started.....& no kitchen tile!

Quick update...

The ceiling has had 2 coats of paint.... the internal walls, 1 coat.

The painter was at the house tonight at 6.30 pm - he's starting to fill all the nail holes made when the carpenter nailed the skirting boards etc. on.

The security fence around the outside has been taken down.. it looks so different.

Did I tell you the big folding doors at the back were wrong. The manufacturer made them about 10 to 15 cm too small, so if you're 6 foot and visit my house, you can't get to the alfresco area without ducking your head as you go out the door! The builder said he wasn't trying to influence us, but he could probably get us a discount if we kept the doors. We all agreed that they were too small and so the company will have to make a new set PRONTO!

The tiler is coming tomorrow to do the front portico in a dark grey tile. We cannot find a tile for the kitchen, so am considering doing a glass splashback.

The stone benchtop should be put on this week. We needed the kitchen splashback tiling done after this, but we are stuck trying to work out what to choose.

We were going to have plantation shutters at the front of the house, however, the curtain man told us that our last quote isn't valid and the shutters have gone up 30% That's a HUGE increase, so we said we don't think we want to do that. However, he measured again and gave us another quote which was only slightly up. We saw a fabulous roman timber blind we loved for all the back rooms, at a very reasonable price, however, they only are made up to 180 cm... wide, we need 210 cm. So we are at a loss of what to do now.

The yard has been levelled and cleared. The driveway has been prepared and the concrete will be laid any day now.

We really are on the home straight now!

Here is the front of the house!!!

Looks fabulous I think....

On the portico (porch) we are having a dark grey tile.

The concreter will also put in a path up to the front door.

Inside the roomy 3 car garage. We are currently deciding where to place everything... the 2 cars, the "man's workshop stuff" and all the other stuff. Lucky the manhole (or personhole) in the roof is quite wide and roomy in the roof so there is plenty of roof. We put a light in there for the purpose of storage. "good thinking McGyver"!

It is a little hard to see the colour of the cupboards in the laundry. It is a darkish grey.

The bench top is in pale grey. The spashback, I think if we are having one, will be in the same tiles as the floor, the creamy gloss porcelain. And, look at my clothes hamper! My man just piped up..."I'm not having the same tiles as the floor"... I replied "you get what you are told"! Fight averted... he thought I was talking about the kitchen... he thought it would be too predictable if we had the same tile there... however, in the laundry as the colour is quite strong, a plain splashback will be ok! (ah... domesticity!)

More laundry

And another laundry... I have gone overboard on the laundry pics... oh well!!

The bathroom, although the bath is still in it's "protective wrap"

Bathroom vanity in "coco"

Here's a close up... the vanities in cocoa.... excuse the builders dust!!!

Here is the ensuite where the overhead mirrored cabinet.

More wall mounted vanity shots

The large front door with high ceilings...

The doors to the master bedroom... they are yet to be painted..

The master bedroom windows

The front door

The door from the garage into the hallway.....

Hope you like.....

Heading down the home straight!!!

The painter has finished the front... we used dulux jasper on the front portico and dune for the remainder. We originally were not sure about dune because it was so similar to the windows and roller door however, the builder said he could help. He said he'd get the painter to add a dune coloured tint to the primer/base so we could see what we liked then we could alter the colour of the first and/or second coat. As it happened we went with double strength Dune. I would of even been happy if it was a bit darker, but it's too late now. Here is a pic of the front without the paint, I'll show you the painted finish tomorrow!


Here is the interior of the portico... it is about 3.5 m high... the door is 1200 wide and can't recall how high, but the inside hallway is 3 m high.

Nice view down the side of the house.....

As promised... here is the bathroom shower area with grout!

Here is the bath... looks small but it is a 1700 long, nice and deep. We had a bit of an issue with the tile edge. We were told we needed to decide what colour it was so the tiler could start tiling tomorrow. We liked one colour but we needed to see it in a full length sample to be sure. Disaster loomed when it could not be found and if we didn't decide it would hold up work for a week. The tiler wanted us to go with a silver trim but from the beginning I was adamant that I didnt want that as it would take away the look of the bath and you'd just notice this odd silver line around it.


Here is the shower area in the bathroom with a view of the door


A lot of fiddly things were done over the last few days. All the doors were put on. They have drilled holes so the door handles can be put on. All the architraves have been done. The inserts in the minor bedrooms have been done. The master ensuites will have a different kind of shelving insert.. (we get the expensive one... after all, we're paying for it!!!)

The front door has been put on!! Looks huge and is SO heavy!

The downpipes have been painted in Dulux Dune. They look great against the bricks.z

What could be in this parcel? I know!!! It's our wall mounted ensuite vanity!! The builder checked it with us to make sure it was what we wanted and he said..."really nice". I think he likes it and might suggest the same vanity to other folks.

A few little issues.. and I mean little.. compared to some.

The kitchen co who are making the laundry cupboards said they were having trouble getting the colour we chose so we had to go immediately and choose another one. We chose a similar colour. We are having dark grey cupboards with a pale grey benchtop. I saw this in a home magazine and thought it looked really smart. I love one idea I thought of... there is a laundry hamper in the built in laundry unit.... it will keep things nice and tidy instead of having washing on the floor or a hamper sitting in the middle of the floor! These were installed today and look fabulous!

The big problem is the kitchen spalshback. The tile we chose that we love doesn't look very nice against the kitchen cabinets. We sent an email to the builder and I'll call him first thing to make sure they don't go up. We'll have to change them! If he has brought them we told him we'd just pay for those and the new ones... no point in looking at something we don't want for the next 10 years.

More pics tomorrow... stay tuned!!!

The Kitchen & Doors!!

The Kitchen is in gloss, smooth edged cupboards in Mountain Pepper. We didn't want a rangehood that would be a feature of the kitchen, so went with the under cupboard one. We also went with horizontal door handles on the cupboards, rather than vertical. The appliances are Blanco, with the oven and cook top being 70 cm. A stone benchtop with an Oliveri undermount sink, with a Scala mixer will complete the kitchen.

On the left hand side of the pic you can see one of the doors which has the 4 panel insert cut out. Because of the design they had to be a solid door, which is pretty heavy... and unfortunately added an extra thousand to the price because of it.
The bulkhead over the kitchen cupboards was just built today.



The painters dropped off a few paint supplies... the render painting will start soon! yeah!

Tiling is 95% done!!

Floor tiles of course.....

The bathroom shower recess....

The bathroom shower wall tiles... without grout

Bathroom bath... without grout again

Main ensuite bathroom shower with "cut out" feature. Sans grout!

Ensuite floor
Another pic of cut out.

Tiling is nearly finished!

The houe is coming together in a big crecendo!

The floor tiling is finished. The bathroom tiling is finished. The wall tiles were being done at the moment.

Next week everything is "go" - I'll have some great pics for you then. The fit out starts.

The render will be painted on Tuesday and when finished he'll move inside.

The kitchen and built in laundry will be put in on Tuesday.

The bathroom vanities, shower screens, doors and architraves will be started early next week.

I am so happy with the way things are going. The builder is a perfectionist which is definitely showing in the quality of his work. He is moving along quickly without substituting quickness for quality.

I'll get some pics of the tiles on the weekend for you!