Sunday, February 27, 2011

It's not the quantity, it's the quality...

Hi everybody, hope you've had a good week.

We did the usual drive-by of the house on Saturday morning only to find it quieter than a library. Interestingly, we were inspired for a second detour that way during the afternoon and were pleased by the sight of a couple of tilers on site ... well, eating their lunch in the garage at least.

So I wandered inside to inspect, and found that the first solitary tile (in the whole house) had been laid between the late morning arrival and breaking for lunch - hilarious!


Still, at least good to see that more paining has been done, all the tiling surfaces have been prep'ed and loved seeing this luminous glow effect at the entrance through the opaque glass.

That's all for now. Good luck for the week ahead everyone.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Wednesday update-Painting continues, caesarstone installed


Went to the house bright an early this morning @ 7:15am, for an appointment with our painter. This mtg was scheduled after a phone call late Tuesday night with our SS to question one of the colours on the stairs...
The painter picked up a mistake made by Studio M!! They had our stairs with the dark oak stain for the hand rails and 2 bottom risers as well as the zig zag pattern on the side of the stairs which was all OK. But the bottom hand rail as Dulux Lexicon Quarter not the dark oak stain as it should have been. I'm very grateful that the painter questioned this on his sheet, instead of just painting it anyway. It would have looked awful and I would have gone totally bonkers!! Just ask Craig :)

After this almost disaster, OK slightly exaggerating a little..... was rectified, we had a quick look around the house..

This is what has been done so far since my last post...

All the ceilings throughout the house have been painted, as well as the undercoat of the downstairs and upstairs areas. Architraves, skirtings and cornices also under coated. He started on the doors today, and will continue that till the end of the week. As well as staining of the stairs and all the wooden doors, including our front door.

Will have to make a trip back on Friday to check out what the stairs look like stained. We wont have all the stairs stained, as it will be carpeted for the kids safety. Afraid that now that we have two kids, some of the 'oh that would look so fab' factor has to take a back seat over, 'oh the kids might slip down the stairs' factor. Will still look fantastic, I hope.

Caesarstone benchtops have been installed in the kitchen, bathrooms, powder room and laundry,all looks great. We went for Osprey with all the Concept Oak cabinetry and 'Ivory' for the kitchen benchtops. Thought that it might be too white, with the white cabinetry and wanted something a little warmer. Sinks have also been installed in all the wet areas. Except for the main bathroom.

Cardboard stuck on the bench tops for protection

A lift of the the cardboard reveals the beautiful 'Ivory' colour caesarstone bench tops

The splashback mosaic tiles for the kitchen, can't wait to see these up


The kitchen sink
Laundry sink
Laundry, wishing that I had more cabinetry here, will do that after handover.

Ensuite sinks and bench tops, just beautiful..

Powder room sink and bench top


As we were leaving the truck came to deliver the sand for the tilers tomorrow. Can't wait to see the tiles. Very anxious to see that all my colours are coming together.

Watch this space for the next update:)





Monday, February 14, 2011

Fixing and water proofing




After a week of not much happening, we have some things booked in for this week and next week...

Week before last they started on the fixing, kitchen and installing the ensuite, bathroom and powder room cabinetry as well as the laundry. The doors and architraves were installed and cornices and skirtings were completed.

We met with our SS on site last Friday (for the first time in 6months). He mentioned that the Caesarstone people will be coming to the house this week to measure up for the bench tops, and they will be fitted in the next week or so..

We are missing a few doors, they ordered the wrong doors for the powder room and butlers pantry..they are supposed to be the upgraded ceiling height, the ones delivered are standard height.
They also ordered the wrong doors for our master bed. This has held up the tiling in these areas as they cannot do the tiling before the doors and architraves are on.
I understand that the tiling cannot be done for the powder room..however this should not hold up the tiling start for the kitchen and ensuite bathroom..i'm quite annoyed about this!

So instead of the tiling starting this week. The painter started this morning and will work this week on the undercoat throughout the house. Then the painter has another job to finish at the end of this week, not sure when he will be back. Guessing that the painter and tilers cannot work side by side, due to the dust when cutting the tiles.???

What I don' t understand is why they have only one painter for a double storey house. Come on Metricon, you can do better than this.

We haven't been given an exact date on when tiling is due to start, we hope that when they start they stick with us till its finished and don't go to another job.

Our SS will not give an approx date for completion, his response is that once painting and tiling is finished, he will then be able to give us a realistic estimate for completion. The frustration there is that we cannot give a tentative date for all the post handover things that we need to organise. Arghhh.


Ensuite cabinetry. Love the Concept Oak colour! Think it will look great with our osprey Caesarstone bench tops.

The bath hob will be tiled in the same colour as the wall tile.

Missing door to our Master bedroom. We need this door to keep the kids out:)


The main bathroom, our girls bathroom
Powder room, will have feature mosaic tiles around the mirror.

Other than that we had a great weekend with great friends and cannot wait to entertain our friends and family in our new house. We know that it will all be worth it!!

Our 4 year old daughter got her first valentines present...yes at four years old!! Will have to build a big gate to keep the boys away :)

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

More kitchen pics..

Hi all, as promised here are a few more kitchen pics taken last night through the window hence the poor quality....
Kitchen looks fantastic!! Top cabinets are 'slate grey' and bottom cabinets are' 'frosty white'.
Island splashback is also slate grey.
Top cabinets are a combination of lift-up cabinets and open shelving on each side.
Cooker will slot-in on the left side in the middle of the splashback window.
Pantry and fridge space. Dishwasher and microwave space in the island bench. Kitchen sink will be in the middle of the island bench.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Kitchen Kitchen- Excitement beyond belief

Now this is too exciting...

There is some kitchen action happening as I type. Went passed the house this morning, and there was two vans and one ute at the front. This was a good sign... Went inside for a quick peek and there was someone installing the kitchen cabinetry. He was already half way through and it was only 11am. Upstairs was someone working on the waterproofing of the ensuite.


Can't wait to go back tonight to see through the windows how much was completed today.


A good, good action day.

Just a couple of pics..till my next post.


Kitchen cabinets...
Waterproofing of ensuite...