Cupboards galore

Lots of stuff happening in the last couple of weeks.  The floors are finished and have protective covers whilst other work goes on around them.  This has meant the final bit of plastering (the TV wall) and all the skirtings can go in.  These have been primed already and the doors are all hung, with hardware waiting to go in shortly.  Joinery is in progress and nearly finished for the kitchen, office bookshelves, main bathroom, master bedroom and laundry.  Still waiting on doors and drawers in some cases but most of fitting is done with the exception of the ensuite.  We now have lots and lots of storage (although the pantry is a bit smaller than we imagined and somehow we lost our tray cavity, but that can be fixed).... I'm sure we'll manage to fill it somehow. 

Tiling is nearly finished in the main bathroom but yet to start in the ensuite.  We're thinking of getting a new washing machine straightaway to get it installed - but it depends on whether we have time to go shopping as much as anything else.  They had to redo the ensuite trench grate and floor fall as apparently it was more than 30mm that made one feel like standing in the shower was like being on a listing ship!  On the outside the vitrapanel is nearly all in and looks nice - although i'm not a big fan of the fixing rivets.  The painter has made a start on the gutters and fascias, as well as the eaves, and prepped most of the window frames.  Painting seems to have stopped though - not only has there been heaps of rain but waiting on various plumbing items such as downpipes to be fitted and rotten fascias replaced (or so we assume).  

Usual robust discussions on colours - all done far too late in the process but hopefully we're nearly onto the last of these.  The main outstanding one will be the splashback glass colour in the kitchen.  We met with Sam the landscaper on site too to discuss the front fence.  He's done a preliminary cut so the fence can go in by the end of the month.. We've also done lots of rehearsing 3 point turns in the front yard to make sure we can get the car around the gate ok.  We've decided to minimise the amount the front fence is set back from the boundary, and also increase the width of the gate, just in case.  Hydronic heating also due to be fitted towards the end of the month.  All in all, it's finally more obvious that things are moving at full speed ahead!

Chartres

well not quite Chartres, but it does look nice (still too fancy)

Polar bear in a snowstorm

Not much time for updates today, but floors in... check, painting well under way.... check, joinery started... check, deck nearly finished.... check.  Everything is very white... like trying to find a polar bear in a snowstorm.  Latest move happened on the weekend - back to Chris and Jen's to earn our keep looking after the cat whilst they're on holidays.

No time to learn the wonders of html to format these images better either.

Easter plaster

 Back from the Easter break and the plasterers have been putting in some overtime on Easter Saturday just gone and last weekend also to get things covered up.  We've got a wonky wall in the passage which won't work so well with the sharp shadowline specified at the wall-ceiling junction, but we'll live with the character.  Other than that the plasterwork is nearly done.  All the plasterboard and final coats of the hard plaster areas have brightened the place up quite a lot.  Tiling to start in the next week or two also.  The final paint coat's done on the external steelwork, so the final steel cladding should also go on soon and then we'll be very close to lockup.  Back wall is in place and waiting for steel cladding also.  The floor's been sanded down to be level, in preparation for the bamboo floor to be laid next week.  This will then get covered up with protective foam and boards while everything else happens, with joinery carcasses to follow soon.  And the deck timber is due to go on next week.  Full steam ahead! We've had the tree out the front trimmed and it's looking a lot better but still so enormous that it casts a lot of shadow on the front yard.  May have to rethink that plan for a fruit orchard.

24 March update

Another month, another house.  Late this month saw us moving out of the Bayswater rental to a house sit in Ormond, where we're looking after Milly the labrador, Tigger the cat, and lots of fish (no names that we know of).  We're here for all of April and DrK is enjoying having kitchen utensils again.  Ruby is enjoying the company of Milly and discovering her inner bully.  Now that the window saga seems to finally be over, the builder can finally make some progress on the interiors.  So the insulation is in and the plasterer is shortly going to be covering all this up. After a bit of a clash with the architect, we've also picked colours for the outside trim (gutters, fascia, porch posts etc) - all done in a bit of a rush as the builder needed it to finish the roof flashing.  Woodland grey has triumphed over federation green.  It's good to see things on the move again.  And we've found some housing that'll take us to the end of June, so here's hoping that'll be the last move.

Slowly, slowly....

Another site meeting last week - window still not fixed then, but done by the time we dropped around at the weekend.  Yep, it is now not possible to stick you hand between the frame and the glass.  But to counterbalance this we also noticed that they didn't make the glass in the bathroom/laundry door obscure like it's supposed to be. Yet another thing for the window manufacturer to fix.  No doubt they hate this job by now, although probably not as much as we resent them for being a big fraction of the builder's expected SIX WEEK delay past the original completion data..... sigh.  This puts us moving in around early-mid June so we're on the hunt for more housing for May-June.  We had been hoping that our current house-sit bookings (through to mid-May) would have seen us through to moving back home.  

Other things that have happened recently - battens are in for the plaster work and the electrician was just finishing off the first fix of all the wiring, so we expect to have insulation and plasterboard coming soon.   The builder has had to reframe the opening for the attic stepladder, as the supplier has suddently decided that the one we originally specified isn't available any more (after being "on order" for six months and just waiting for stock to come in) so that's a bit annoying for him, but at least we didn't have to pay an extra $300 for a custom made ladder.  The lining for the staircase is in, although we hope they're going to frame the gaping hole that currently exists to the underside of the kitchen floor.  Spent a not too painful period choosing between about 12 shades of white for the wall colour and joinery colour.  When we say "not too painful" it was a bit like being at the optometrist's doing pairwise comparisons - which looks better, antique white or shoji white?  Now which looks better, antique white or chalk?  About 20 comparisons later, we managed to make some choices, no doubt which we won't be able to tell the difference between when they're all in place.  

 Finalised a few minor changes to the pantry - i.e. making the door taller so that Rob can actually go into it!  Water tanks are in place although not connected yet - they're pretty big but the drop in level makes them not too bad once in place.  We'll put some shrubbery (ni!) in front of them to hide them hopefully.  And we have an enormous storm water drain at the base of the driveway now - should keep back the floods we think.

A grand designs moment

A bit of a delayed post - photos from 29 Feb in this one - as DrK's been really frantic getting grant applications done.  So at the last site meeting, just as we thought the window saga was all over and done with, they came and did the install of the big window.  This involved a crane and building a platform big enough to take the 500kg of window + the 10 men required to lift it into place!  Looks alright from the outside so far doesn't it......  well look a bit closer, where we've apparently been given extra ventilation.  Yep, after all the saga about getting the measurements incorrect, which led to an increase in glass thickness, which led to an increase in price.... THEY BUILT IT 5CM TOO SHORT!!!!  So apparently now that it's going to cost them $$$ to do a new one, they've also discovered that the opening window that goes next to the corner, CAN be wider than designed - in fact, coincidentally it's 5cm wider than designed.... so now they're going to have to redo the frame.  The only good news from this particularly sorry saga is that they're going to take back the price increase provided we agree on accepting the (incorrectly) sized windows they've already made.  All this was supposed to be to everyone's benefit as it was only going to take a few days to fix rather than 2+ weeks to manufacture a new window, and obviously it saves them quite a bit of money to avoid making new glazing units.  But today Rob happened to drop by and found not only has the big window not been fixed, but also that the back door glazing to the bathroom/laundry is not obscure as it should be but clear.  All I can say is this window company has held up the job probably around 4 weeks and they're the most incompetent bunch of clowns we've ever come across.  We're feeling more and more like those hapless folk on Grand Designs whose builds run grossly overtime and over budget. Other minor things that have come up are what the finish should be for a bulkhead in the kitchen (usual robust discussion about what the architect wants to do vs what we've already told them is our decision on what will be done).  Waiting on a paint sample to finalise the joinery colours.  This week we also took advantage of 25% off tables at blueprint and bought a dining table.  Fortunately they're ok to store it for quite a while....    and I've just had to tell the lighting retailer for the dining table pendant that we're not quite ready to pick that up yet so could they store that for a bit longer.... sigh.  This week sees us moving from our short term rental in Glen Waverley to a different rental (same management company) in Bayswater.  Not too bad a commute for me, but we're going to borrow Mum's car for a month to make it a bit easier for Rob.  Turns out the Bayswater place is a fair bit nicer than the Glen Waverley one, for exactly the same price, so at least the commute is worth it.  This one's a unit so not so much room for Ruby as it's only got a small yard, but she seems happy enough.