Cabinetry Finished

A few more pics of the house before the painters started. This one shows the downpipe on the side of the house over the render. This is the render base coat - with the second coloured coat to come. The colour is "amberwood" which is a sort of coffee colour (we think). So we don't think the Jasper of the downpipe will look quite right. Elsewhere on the house, against the brick, it looks quite nice. We will paint this one to match the render if we can't live with it.

The laundry cabinets. The overhead cupboards do not have handles - same in the kitchen. We actually do want them so the SS is going to arrange - don't know why this wasn't mentioned at colour selection.

Kitchen again. Can't wait to see the granite benchtops.
Another pic of the render.

The view from the upstairs bedroom window.

Render!

This week, the render first coat was applied. Looks OK though I am hoping it looks a bit smarter with the colour. The downpipes also went in. We chose Jasper because it goes quite nicely with the 'accent' colours within the bricks - we also have Jasper on the alfresco beams and cladding as a feature colour. However, it does NOT go with our render and unfortunately the placement of the downpipes at the front of the garage and house does not excite me! I think it detracts from the facade. Dave and I will have to paint them to match the walls so that they blend into the background.

The plaster ceilings for garage and porch were also finished and our SS got back to us - he is arranging for the vanity to be relocated per the plans.

A pretty productive week! Pics to follow.

Just Stuff and a Few Defects

Visited - again- today. Plasterer on site working on some defects identified at inspection. Also took a few more pics of cabinetry from different angles. I am getting quite impatient and can't wait to see some more activity! Below are some of the defects we have seen - not big deals but I would like them sorted. Just waiting to see whether they will be addressed, most have circles pencilled around them.

Gap between skirting, architrave and wall in the second bedroom - angle not quite right.

Obvious - skirts do not align.

This may not be easy to see but this is not a defect I can live with. The door jamb and architrave are not straight resulting in a jutting out piece. Also, there is an obvious gap between the door jamb and the skirting board. This is not acceptable. Will see what the SS thinks.

Hard to see but the length of the lower skirt is about 1mm too long, resulting in a sharp angle and a gap with the skirt on the left. Should be an easy fix.

Below are just some more shots.

In the dark - the vanity in the powder room. Doesn't look like much yet. We, quite excessively, paid extra for a granite benchtop in here.

Kitchen from another angle.

Doorway to bedroom. These are the sort of features I love about Henley builds: Rebated doorway, bulkhead through to dressing room and bedroom, opening up onto 9 foot ceilings. Just so not boring and these touches make all the difference to the overall aesthetics. Also - heritage archs (paid extra).

Laundry base cabinets. Need a clean!

Timber bi-fold doors for the study. Antique Ceramica glass up close.

The doors full length. Looking forward to setting up the study, working and studying has not been easy over the last couple of years - our current "study" is really a draughty, leaky extension to our rental. It is also cluttered and musty as the ceiling leaks with every good downpour. I cannot wait to move!

Ideas From the Display

The family room downstairs. This is where our TV will go. The display has three sofas set up, which I think looks great.
The Alfresco looking through to the family room. The timber sliding doors come as standard in this house. We chose a golden colour (dark oak) for all of our timbers.
Main bedroom - you can see the alfresco beyond. Again, timber sliding doors. It was the type of light fitting I was interested in. This one was a little too ornate, but we also have chosen a multi light pendant here.
The staircase with ribbon balusters. Light fitting is close to ceiling - we selected the close to ceiling Sheffield fitting.
Similar layout to the one we hope to use. We do not have a mantle around the gas log fire-we will wait and see what, if any, suits. Again-more formal pendant light fitting selected.

Getting Ready - Matching Red Peugeots and Other Stuff

Money is of course extremely tight right now, with rapidly increasing interest payments and the vast amounts we seem to need for the new house. We downsized a few years ago from a 12 square house to an 8 square apartment while we were studying - so not only did we have little money, we also had little furniture! We haven't increased much in the way of furniture and a lot of what we do have will need replacing so this is also adding pressure. However, ebay is always good for a look and I have managed to put together some ideas for the new home. It will be a little "daggy" for a while as we replace and buy things over time.

We will need to get the finances together for carpets and driveway or else we won't be able to move in under our covenant. We have managed to buy the light fittings for the house, all except the outside front lights. David chose the light fitting style and I decided which ones were going where. The wet areas will all have oysters and we are putting a large flouro oyster in the kitchen and upstairs TV room.

The style Dave chose was Sheffield from Beacon lighting, we have various items in the range and have different fittings depending on whether the area is formal or informal.

I have bought lots of new bath and bed linen and tea towels over time from DFO, which isn't far from us and always worth a trip. My sister was visiting from Pakenham a few weeks ago and we went off to DFO, looking at the kitchen and homewares stores. This is a dangerous activity! I spotted a gorgeous set of salt and pepper grinders - they were red, shiny and eyecatching. When I found out they were peugeots I had to have them, even though the price was.....well. I justified them to Dave by explaining that they were top class, the store was giving away a $100 Baccarat baking dish with them and it was likely that this was the closest we would ever get to matching peugeots!!

(He wasn't convinced).

New fridge - bought before we started the process in 2007! Currently not in use - nowhere to connect the water in our current house!!!

Up to Date

With this entry we are now up to date with the build. We started this process last August with our first visit to the display village and first sales consult, and we are now 10 months down the track. Yesterday we received the "fixing" invoice making our current mortgage ridiculously huge! I hope this means we are getting close.

We visited the house today - all of us, and were able to have a good look through because the tradies had left the sliding door in the family room open. Tomorrow I will go back because I want to take some more pics. There are a few skirting boards, door frames and archs that need fitting still. I have noticed some relatively minor areas where the carpentry isn't quite perfect. There is only one spot that I will bring to the SSs attention - with the rest I will see what the inspector identifies.

This week the facade mouldings and the base (we hope!) for the render was installed. I must say it looks pretty awful right now! And I was getting quite used to the bricks, which I have always really liked. But I am hoping that once the render is completed and tidied up it will look good. We'll see!

Plastering and Cabinetry - Lock up and Lock OUT!

Many Pics were taken through the windows because we are now locked out! Occasionally we have been lucky enough to catch the workers on site and peek through. Dave never goes to the house without the camera!
Our plastering crew were a lively bunch of young lads. They had bucket loads of energy and worked long and hard to get us totally plastered within a few days. Touch ups and minor work is still to be completed but it is great to see the building looking more like a house.

Not long after, our staircase arrived. It is almost perfect (apart from the dirt etc), but it has one metal baluster missing. Again, not worried - I know it will need to be there at handover!

The fitout carpenter was on site over the last week and has almost completed the skirting boards and architraves, doors and jambs. The front doors are in and my lovely bi-folds are sitting in the study waiting to be hung.

The cabinetry is now in - all areas, and waiting for their granite or caesarstone benchtops, plumbing and appliances. We think the vanity in the ensuite might be about 10cms off centre according to the plans so we have emailed Henley and await their response. We would greatly prefer it if the vanity was centred for the aesthetics but if it means damage to the work we would forego - this is because the job so far is really pretty good and we don't want it ruined.

I absolutely love the heritage archs and skirts and am very happy we decided to pay the extra, as it was not that significant a cost.