And now it's late May

It's been a while since the last blog, but there's been quite some progress. Currently looking at landscaping and concreting quotes. 

Garage doors are in :)

Tiling is done, and taps are in. Powder room downstairs, and bath in the girls' bathroom

                                              

Our shower and powder room upstairs. Love the gloss tiles on the shower walls.

Kitchen with splashback and tap now installed

Laundry looking across to living room/study, now tiled 

 

Built Ins in our WIR, and shelving in butler's pantry.

Tiling begins

Went to the house a few times in the last few weeks, to meet with Rod to discuss water tank position and a few other things. Then with four concreters to get quotes for the new crossover, removal of the old crossover, new driveway with exposed aggregate, concrete behind the 3rd garage next to the laundry for the camper trailer, a slab against the fenceline in the far right corner for Garry's shed, and lastly for a slab for the rain water tank. I'd expected the crossover and driveway to cost $10K, with everything else it's looking more like $15K to $18K.... not a cheap exercise. But we can't get by without a driveway.

Good news is that where I'd heard some negative things about our council Monash not being in favour of double crossovers, when I spoke to them last week about the permit we need, the guy said a 3.5 m crossover sounds like it might not be an issue. Especially with needing to back in our camper trailer, and having a 21m frontage. We must remove the existing one though. I am going to write a letter along with 3 copies of a plan they need, detailing my requirements and justifying the 3.5 m crossover. Further justification is our neighbour's driveway opposite is 3m...  Stay tuned. 

Also waiting for a landscaping quote. And decking over the alfresco, and of the front porch.

Going round Thursday night at 6.30 pm pallets of tiles were being unloaded. And Anzac Day morning (next day) the tilers were there starting on our shower in the ensuite. Further good news was all the stone benchtops had been delivered in readiness for installation.

Lastly I had noted that the drawers in my island bench were on the left of the bench, opposite to where we'd put them in the plan. (I wanted them as close to the dishwasher as possible). Yes they will be changed! Good to have that sorted. And now for some photos:

tiles

kitchen benchtop above double ovens

powder room benchtop

laundry benchtop

We were warned not to choose one of the lighter exposed aggregate colours, as they show rubber from tyres, as well as any oil. So, here are the ones we are considering:

 

 

Painting

Progress in the last 3 weeks is that the cornices and skirting boards have been put in place, house has been prepped for painting, and painting started this week. 

We met with the landscaper yesterday for him to hear our thoughts on what we would like. We've agreed on an australian native theme plus a lemon tree, magnolia, and a vegie patch. He suggested putting a shed in the back corner with a spotted gum screen, showed us a photo of one he'd recently done and it looked great. We discussed the driveway and other concreting. I think it's going to be a sizable total but he'll provide a breakdown, am hoping we can postpone some things but obviously the driveway and a fence for Snowy is going to be the priority.... looking forward (not, lol) to getting it in about two weeks.

Dropped by this morning to find painting in full swing. We have gone for a neutral colour, Dulux white duck quarter, and it's looking good. 

Bathroom vanity

Painted doors for toilet and WIL

Painted doors in our bedroom, a bit dark as the windows are covered in plastic to stop paint being dropped

 Kitchen

Hallway upstairs

Shower in Bathroom

And I forgot to add that the two retaining walls have been done - looking pretty good:

it's all happening indoors

Talk about progress inside and out this week:
 Cabinetry delivered
 Cabinetry installed downstairs
 Stair case installed
 Retaining walls started

Are we impressed? yes :)

north wall of laundry

double bench oven cabinetry

when am I going to be installed?

ensuite

retaining walls starting to take shape

slightly blurry kitchen shot, showing overhead bulkhead for heating and cooling and much longed for island bench :)

we have a staircase! view from the front door

and then there was plaster

22nd March
it's been a while since my last post. The roof tiling has now been completed and electrical work done. We added a few more lights, powerpoints in various places, given it is much easier and cheaper to do it now then later. So pleased to get that sorted.

The pre plaster inspection was done by NHI on Wednesday 5th March so it meant the faults found at the post-frame inspection had to be fixed prior to that. The pre-plaster one found 9, all minor, which have since been addressed.

Plastering started only the day before these photos were taken, on Wednesday 19th March, with a downstairs team and a separate team working upstairs. Amazing progress.

We met SS Thursday to discuss the required 2nd retaining wall. For some odd reason the quote for the first retaining wall (along the north boundary) was included in the house build, but not the one needed going from that corner along the west boundary. Now quoted and both getting done next week.

The stairs go in at the end of next week. 

We are looking for water tanks of around 2.5 - 3 K L. We then need to get quotes for 

• a concrete pad under the water tank
• moving the crossover (I'm told about $3,500) and 
• doing the driveway (about $6,500). 

I've found the washing line I want, but we've yet to find a letter box, 3 lights for above the kitchen island bench, and 3 bar stools. Also, quotes for

• decking
• landscaping (and that's going to be the painful one).

Latest pics:

 

Alfresco looking into house

View from the street, hasn't changed much

electricals including for NAS

back room

Hallway looking to the front door

top of the stairs looking to the leisure room

kitchen, splashback window on the left

So quite looking forward to the next stages, including completion of the rendering, cabinetry being installed, painting etc. Looking more and more like a house :)

Roof on al fresco, garage and back room

Quite a bit of progress in the last week, just haven't gotten to the house for regular updates. Now that upstairs render is done, the roof over the alfresco and back room, and garages is taking shape, and electrical work progressing. An interim front door has been installed and we are close to lockup. What that exactly means I'm not sure. But I assume it means the house can be locked up with a key, and now they are ready to work on internals. 

One point to highlight - the stone and cabinetry we'd chosen in laundry/powder rooms/bathroom were no longer available and we had to choose replacement. This came as a blessing in disguise, as I'd made a mistake with the feature tiles I'd chosen for our ensuite. I'd matched them to the benchtop in the laundry not the benchtop in the kitchen. If the benchtop and cabinetry hadn't no longer been available I'd be none the wiser and the feature tiles would have been done looking absolutely awful ... fortunately we picked it up as a result of the above change and were able to change to the other benchtop. Phew. Thanks to CG for coming to the rescue.

some photos:

view towards the al fresco

My dark laundry taken from the hallway. I plan to install a skylight. The light from the left is the glass door. Light on the right won't be visible because the roller door will be there. 

just love my iphone - panorama shot of the back room. To the left is the kitchen, with the 3 stacker door going out to the alfresco, and the sliding doors on the right to the back yard

from the alfresco

carpet rose blooming in the back yard - thought we'd lost it after the demo :)

our new (interim) pivot front door

I'm really pleased with the colour of the Hebel. There is a house round the corner from us totally rendered in a dusky pink - say no more. I thought we may have gone too dark with the Dulux caveman but it's looking really sharp, especially with the black aluminium window frames. 

And let there be render upstairs

the latest

Garry, Alix and Rod met Friday morning.

Alix went by tonight and there was colour upstairs :)  So I thought I'd better go round to see the latest. Light was a bit deceptive - but here goes:

view from the street

up close and personal, showing upstairs front bedroom (that faces south) and the bedroom behind that faces west

from the back of the property looking south 

upstairs, facing north 

and this is the same colour as the others, this time this is facing south with the sun out. Doesn't look the same, does it, as the others? it's a browny/purple - or purply brown 

the colour is a discontinued Dulux caveman. So far, quite impressed.