Bricking, Cornices and a Missing Kitchen?

Last week saw our bricking being finished off. We only have a small amount of the house to be bricked. Hate how it is looking right now as because it is being rendered they are using some cream bricks with grey mortar and it it looks pretty ordinary. Hard to get past it visually. Also not sure how much I love the parapet over the garage but I guess it's going to have to grow on me, should look better once rendered and painted.

As I mentioned in another post we have to have a rendered strip running around the perimeter of the house under our weatherboards due to the glass termite barrier (not our choice) but we got them to at least lower the height of this. Now that that row of bricks is done hubby checked measurements and noticed they had done a row too high, a call to the ss and he let us know that he had already noticed and had the brickie booked to head on back to fix it up. Happy he is on the ball but also pretty pleased with my hubby that he picks these things up.

Our tiles and weatherboard has been delivered and the weatherboard is due to start this week I think. Just looove weatherboard but I am wondering it it will look odd on our gableless (is that even a word?) house, joys of building a project house and not sticking with standard brick or render means you have no idea how good or stupid it will look.

I have been stressing about my kitchen and have actually not been looking forward to it going in, I know that's weird but not being able to talk to kitchen company and relying on emails and pictures to convey what we want adds to my stress and also no detailed kitchen drawings. So I admit I felt a little relief to hear that our kitchen will be delayed due to a headoffice stuff up. It seems that a variation we made a few weeks ago to the kitchen and bathrooms created a mix up and our kitchen was not ordered. So instead of us getting our kitchen before Christmas shutdown it will now be installed after. I guess at least we won't have the worry of our kitchen sitting there over the Christmas break but this has now delayed other things like tiling, which was also due to be done before Christmas.

Like I said in another post each new stage brings with it issues big or small and I am glad I realise this now and I am learning to not stress and just roll with it.

In other news we swapped our 75mm cornice for the Sydney Cove 90mm and we are so glad we did as it looks gorgeous. My hubby is especially taken with it.

Architraves and doors have started to be done and the Chippie will be busy at our house until Christmas.

So what does everyone think, blessing in disguise kitchen is delayed til after Christmas break or better to have had it in with less delays regardless of Christmas break?

Pics!

Bricking is nearly done now can't wait til it is rendered.

Much happier with this Cornice, can't wait to see them painted

Sitting room doors and the same door to go on pantry

Crooked photo or our internal doors and architraves

Entrance ceiling not plastered which must be because
we are having it lined?

Something similar to this will line the entrance ceiling

Our internal doors

Plaster,Fireplace and Cornice Issues

I am  late in this post as plastering started on Thursday. We were a little nervous about it as it had stormed the night before and the plaster had been sitting in the open doorway of the garage. Hubby took down some coke and doughnuts and the plasterers let him know that it was dry and it had been under black plastic.

While he was there he noticed that our fireplace which was due to have gone in on the Tuesday had not been done, a quick ring and our plumber was in fact on holiday and had it booked to be installed the following Tuesday. Gah! It needed to be installed before plaster and with the plasterers working fast we needed it done asap. He managed to find someone to come and install it on the Wednesday and the plasterers left that area down the bottom til the end. I tell you every new stage I am learning will bring it's own issues, surprises or delights.

We also of course had our insulation put in before the plaster went up but I stupidly assumed that it went into every wall of your house not just external. After reading so many forums and blogs how did I not know this important detail? I didn't necessarily want it in every wall but I would have put some insulation around the powder room and laundry for sound proofing purposes. Oh well live and learn, not much I could do as we completely missed this stage of the house build as hubby was away and I was too buggered at the end of the day to drive out there.

First row of bricking has started and the termite barrier has been done as well.

By Friday afternoon plaster was up. We checked Saturday afternoon and somebody had obviously just finished working as there was water out the front and the plaster joins had been painted over with whatever it is they use. Workers on Saturday, woohoo!

But it wouldn't be a house build without issues right? While there on Saturday my husband wanted to show me the cornices. We paid an over inflated price to upgrade them from standard so we were looking forward to them going up. Hubby pulled a piece out and really until they are painted they are not that impressive yet. We noticed we also had some standard cove cornice and had pulled a piece of that out and that's when we realised something didn't look right. The standard cornice comes in 90mm and our upgraded cornice that we spent a lot of money on was only 75mm. We have high ceilings so we are unsure what this will look like. Looking at Gyprocks website however shows that this particular cornice only comes in this size, we just happened to pick the one that doesn't come in the larger size. Aaargh! Another live and learn moment.

I am also at the moment having a panic about our island bench being too large for the space. We (hubby) widened it and to my eye it is now too wide and will look like a giant whale of a thing you have to walk around especially if somebody is sitting there on a stool, he disagrees. I really hope it's not as bad as I am imagining. I am a panicker and worrier about everything, my poor husband.

So that's what has been happening, will do another post on things that I think are better than expected and things that are not now that plaster is up.

Sitting Room (Craft/my room)

Fireplace without it's front

Rumpus Room looking out to the backyard

Kitchen, Fridge space and doorway to pantry

Kitchen space with doorway leading to our bedroom and Laundrey? I can't remember lol

Delicious little nook outside of sitting room

Ensuite, vanity will sit between those windows - have no idea how I will cover these
as they are tiny but I don't want to lose the light

Tash

Ceramic Stools

Ceramic stools, anyone else have trouble finding these under a $100? I have seen some recently on Ebay starting at $50 which for me is the cheapest I have seen them but they are located in Melbourne.

Anyone know of any in the Brisbane or even Gold Coast area selling for a decent price? I have looked on and off but not too seriously. I have even thought what a great idea to import them as they cost literally nothing but where would I store a thousand or so stools? Haha. Really I need to be saved before I become desperate and spend a stupid amount of money on one.

We are heading back to Brisbane this weekend to pick up an ebay purchase and would love to bring one of these back.

Here are some pics for anyone unsure of what I am talking about.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kitchen Island Pendants

After looking and looking for lighting to go above our island bench I decided to go back to one of my original choices. If I were in America I would have had just as much trouble because I wouldn't have been able to narrow it down to just one choice. But I live in a little regional city that while has a lot of the major stores it is really lacking in the homeware area...and it's pricey too. We live near Brisbane but I don't go over enough to know where the best little homeware stores are and often when we head over it is usually a mad dash to do what we need to do and it leaves little time to do the type of shopping I want to.

Some of my favourites.

By Lamps Plus - I love the shape of this one

Home Decoraors Collection - This is of course similar
to the one used in the Mel's (Georgica Pond) gorgeous perfect kitchen

West Elm

I really considered this one as this is available
at various places in Australia but decided the conical
shape wasn't quite right

I checked back over my favourite pics and one type of light kept popping up. It has been done in so many kitchens on Houzz but I think they give just the right type of look for my kitchen and they were the right price (on sale) so that won me over as well. Bit scary buying stuff that you have only seen over the internet in pictures but we think the size should be okay.

We bought three of the Schots Parisian Pendant lights in the brushed nickel but I think the Chrome would have been nice too.

Schots Parisian Pendant

Out of box shot

Linda Mcdougald Design - I hope they look a little like this, wish I had the kitchen coming too.

I am so excited about them and can't wait to see them put up. For an ordinary everyday suburban mum it is surreal to think I get a little slice of America in my project house to make it a little bit special.

 My lovely hard working husband organised to have these sent from Melbourne through a courier through his work. This is the second time he has organised special lighting for the house, the other one I will do another post on as it is my most favourite thing of all for this new house, although there has been some dramas about the size of it.

Tash

Windows Doors and Solar

We have had our front door and windows installed and it really looks like a pretty cottage from the front now. Our sitting and rumpus room windows have not been fitted in yet due to the adjustment to frame not being correct. I am loving the front windows they are my favourite thing.

The two whirly birds and the solar panels and solar hot water have all been installed. I kinda thought that the whirly birds looked really daggy up there on the roof but I don't notice them now, yes I know they're not there too look good.

The front door fits in really well with the look that I was going for while still being a modern pivot door. I couldn't find a pic of this door anywhere on the internet and it didn't cost anything extra to switch to this style from the standard style door. I would love to paint it a blueish colour like Melinda from Georgica Pond but piked out at our colour selection appointment.

On the weekend we went out and swept and tidied up the site and my husband noticed that a pipe out the front was leaking, on closer inspection it had been broken and taped back up. We let the ss know and the plumber fixed it up.

We are having a private inspector out today to have a look but I am leaving that stuff to hubby to worry about. He had a panicked moment thinking that they had put the solar right where the flue for the gas heater is to come out but it is all fine.

Also have changed my floor tile in the wet areas, not the laundry though. I just wasn't feeling the love for the dark grey and if you'll remember it was not my first choice. So after searching around Brisbane we found a tile I am happier with and a size that can go in the shower. It now fits in closer to my inspiration pics and is totally impractical, haha. The dark grey will stay in the laundry.

Front windows - They are white but covered by black plastic

Garage parapet

Beautiful rafter tails

Our front door - will be painted not stained - 1200 wide

Side view of front porch

French door in main bedroom

Bifolds looking out to outdoor room off the dining area

Bifolds off family room - will deck or concrete this area

Looking out one of the pretty front bedroom windows

Standing in entrance looking back to front door

Solar and hot water panels and two whirly birds

Looking up at the 25 degree pitch roof

Gas fireplace spot in family room

Surfmist roof

Graduation Day and Formal

My 18 year old daughter has finally graduated from highschool. Our day started with dropping her off for breakfast at 7.30 at the school then a mad dash to buy shoes and a shirt for my husband (we like to leave things to the last minute) then back to school for last roll call where she recieved a vase with all of the graduating girls names on it.

It was a long day but it is something nice to look back on for her. I am relieved it is over and I now only have the house to worry about organising for a bit.

Here are some home grown non professional shots.

Us - My heels killed all night!

Off to schoolies to today, I have been telling her she needed to go all year but
she didn't want to then she changed her mind at the eleventh hour.

A Quick Rundown

Okay so silly me lost her cord that connects camera to computer when somebody pointed out to me that my computer might have an SD card slot (clueless I am). So here is a long overdue update.

So since my last post we had just started our frames and it was speeding along but all up it took about a week maybe to really finish everything off. We had been checking it as it went along and we knew that the windows in the sitting and rumpus room were sitting too low to the ground but after checking the plan they were correct as shown on plan but we had upgraded them to be longer so wanted them placed higher on the wall to match the height of the bifold. Something we missed when signing off on the plan but it was no problem to have them adjusted.

My husband had also noticed that something was not right about our entrance way but was not sure, as the frames progressed it became clear that they had given us 2.7m in the entrance the same as the rest of the ceilings but we had upgraded to allow for 3m. He gave a call to our SS late that afternoon and by the next day he had called back to say that the frame supplier had made a mistake and were making new trusses asap. I have been criticised for demanding they tear down perfectly good roof trusses but let me make it clear that conversation did not occur, there were no demands of any sort my husband left a message and by the time our SS got back to us it was being rectified, this was between our builder and their supplier. All up it delayed us about a week and we are very happy with how it was handled and how it now looks. Enough justifying, after all we did actually pay for it.

So frames are complete, our surfmist roof is on with most of the gutters as we have half round gutters only out the front and they are waiting on a bracket. Rafter tails to the front are also on.
We are further ahead than just this but I'll leave that to my next post.

Okay now to catch up on some pics.

Trusses started

Frame complete with preparation for roof started

Slighly blurry pic of the back of the house

Rafter tails at front only completed with removed trusses on ground

Roof on

Entrance

3m ceiling

MIA

Hi everyone, Sorry for my lack of posts recently, I don't take too well to nasty comments lol. It kinda took the excitement and fun out of sharing my build here and on H1. I have no issue with differing points of view but these were over the top rude and nasty. I won't go into specifics about what was said, it's all for public viewing on my H1 thread but it certainly was a totally unexpected point of view. I didn't think that something just written down by someone could knock your confidence even though I know what was written to be untrue.

Anyway a few things have happened since I last posted but probably not what you would expect!

Pics and post tomorrow and I will let those of you not following me on H1 in on what has been happening with my build. I need to get my mojo together again for this house!

Tash xx

Frames have begun

We had a site meeting yesterday with our ss about a couple of changes (he wasn't impressed about this) and three guys were getting stuck into assembling our frames. When we went back out at four we weren't expecting much but they had done a huge amount. Thinking they would leave soon we hung around so we could check it all out but they didn't leave til 6.30 when it was nearly dark.

 I feel a bit anxious to see how big the rooms are and unlike my hubby and the girls I opted to not wander around the frame in the dark and instead will wait til Saturday, I really do feel nervous about this.  I'm hoping the kitchen and family room are not too cramped as this is where we will spend most of our time.

Our roof has been delivered and gutters too. Will post better pics when I am able to view it in proper daylight.  

It was much darker than this but I used a dslr.

Little one being dwarfed by the frames and checking out a possible future bedroom.