Weekend report!!

I've spoken with our SS today and he told me that:

• The tiling should have been finished on the weekend
• The painter should have finished on the weekend
• The carpet was due to be laid today

He's not certain that any of it has been done yet but I've got an appointment to meet him on-site on Thursday so I will find out then. Still no word on when we're looking at handover (our SS is a man of few words), but given that the carpet is going in today and they keep telling us that carpets will be last, we can't be far off.

Our weekend was also a productive one - we only hope that they were as productive over at the house.

We managed to achieve a couple of things...

1. We purchased fabric for the remaining curtains. We've chosen a reddish fabric that is the same type as the green one that we have for the kitchen/living room. It's called Tobasco and is an dusty-orangey-red (not as bright as it looks in the photos - although that's the colour I would have preferred). This will also be made into Roman blinds.... soon I hope! I still have to remember the tape-measure for Thursday's meeting so that I can measure up and get started!



2. I did some reading on how to make the Roman blinds and now have a fair idea of how they're made/assessbled and am not at all scared by them anymore. My only real concerns are a) that I have enough fabric and b) that I get the rod pockets straight so that they don't look "home made".

3. We decided on a landscaping plan - and we both agree on it! This is pretty exciting as all along it seems that we've had different ideas/thoughts about what would work and what we prefer. Somehow we've managed to incorporate both of our 'wants' in a way that works both for the house and for us!! I can't wait to see it come together now! 3

We've decided on Conifers in the front yard with a couple of hardier maples for the autumn colour (and to meet the developers guidelines). We're going to put pencil pines out the back around the fence-line and we'll have a native garden outside the loungeroom window. There will also be a paved patio with a pergola. Now we just need to work out what this is all going to cost and which bits we can do ourselves and which bits we'll contract out...

4. We started buying plants... I've been reluctant to buy any plants until we knew what it was that we were going to do - I didn't want to end up with plants that didn't work with our final plan. Not that we're going to buy too many more before we move or get the keys but...

I took a drive up to the Dandenongs to visit the conifer gardens and seeing that I'd made the trip, decided to buy a few. I was a bit reluctant about conifers until I visited this nursery - it is amazing. If you think that conifers are just pencil pines and book leaf pines, take a look at this place and you'll discover that there's so much more to it!!!



Whilst up there I also found a nursery that had a heap of specials on the natives that I love and so had to buy a few of them too. Now we just need to hope that we're not too far off on hand-over.

We also found the maple that we want at a nursery in Geelong and will get that when we have the house - we'll need to hire a ute or truck for that one and so we only want to move it once!

Here's our collection of plants so far - there are also a few that we bought a while back along with a couple that we've rescued from the bargain sections...

A hive of activity!

When I visited the house this morning it was a hive of activity.

The tilers were there doing the bathroom tiles and finishing the kitchen wall tiles. The floor tiles in the ensuite, bathroom, laundry, entry, kitchen, dining and living room are all complete (minus the grout).

The painter was back - doesn't look like he was there at all last week.

and...

The heating guys were installing our central heating.

There's still quite a bit to go...

• Finish tiling
• Finish painting
• Finish heating installation
• Brick clean
• downpipes
• shower screens and mirrors
• plumbing fit-off
• electrical fit-off
• robe doors and shelving
• door knobs
• garage door
• carpets
• driveway
• ceiling insulation
• house clean and site clean

I didn't get to meet with the SS when I was there this morning (mix up with appointment times) so I have no idea what the latest prediction for completion is. Given all that is left to do I tend to think that we are still at least 4 weeks from completion - I happy to be proven wrong on this though.

So now for the bit that you've been waiting for - pictures!!

Entry tiles - they're filthy from all the muddy workboots traipsing in...


Living room


Close up of the ensuite feature tile


Inside kitchen cupboards - just 'cause!


Kitchen floor


Kitchen tiling - we're not sure what's happening here... there's a section to the left of the window that's not done but we've checked the plans and it's certainly supposed to be done. I didn't really notice until I was looking through the photos so didn't ask the tilers about it (doh!)






Bathroom shower feature


Ensuite

Tiles are progressing!!

I managed to get a sneak peak at the tiling yesterday!! I stopped by on my way to work and was taking a photo through the fence when one of the tilers spotted me and asked if it was my house. When I told him it was he told me to go in and have a look. I didn't hesitate and went in and grabbed a few snapshots. They've started on the kitchen/living area but not the bathrooms.

Painting continues...

We visited the house again on Friday for our latest update. There's not a lot to show since last time...

The painting has started and I'm pleased to report that I am happy with the colour. It is a bit on the 'cream' side (we really didn't want cream) but it's still a good colour and not too dark like I was concerned about. We've gone with a colour called 'Kid Skin' from Taubmans. I can't find a picture and it's really hard to describe. The ceilings and cornices are white and the skirtings, architraves and window frames are all Kid Skin.

I'm a bit concerned that the skirtings aren't the same colour as the walls (they are a gloss and the walls are a different type of paint) but the SS assures me that it's right because that's what's on his bit of paper... does anyone else find that strange? Just because the paper says the right colour doesn't mean that it's the right colour in the tin or even that it was mixed correctly? Anyway, we'll let them continue and see how it looks when the painting's done - perhaps it's just different because the walls have only had one coat.

Lounge room - with our laundry tub...


Wardrobe doors


The tiling is due to start on Monday so my next update (Monday week) should have something new to show.

Tiles sitting in the dining room ready to be layed (the feature tiles are in the pantry out of sight)


Given that the end is in sight, we went curtain shopping on Saturday. I had only intended to go looking and to show Bryan some of the ideas I'd had... We ended up buying curtains and/or fabric for all but 3 windows - a very impressive job.

We found some ready mades in the bargain bin to suit the 3 minor bedrooms. They'll need a slight alteration but I think that they'll look great. They're all the same pattern but in different colours. And such a great price - $130 for curtains for 3 rooms!!!!!



For the family room, dining room and kitchen (open plan room) we've bought fabric and I'm going to make roman blinds from it. No I've never made roman blinds before but how hard can it be?... I have a pattern!... I'm kidding, I haven't made them but I'm pretty confident in my abilities and think that they'll look fabulous too! This was also a great price - Spotlight have a deal at the moment where if you purchase all of a roll of fabric you get 30% off the price. We did that on two rolls (of the same fabric) and so save over $100!! We were planning on using this same fabric for the lounge, study and main bedroom but there wasn't enough which is OK by me because I'm still undecided about those rooms.

Fabric waiting to be transformed...


I'm still surprised that we were able to make a decision so quickly!