DAY 75 - We have a kitchen!

Monday 29th October is a great day :)  We have kitchen, laundry, and bathroom vanities!  It's so exciting and we really like how it looks.  It's kind of a 'phew' moment when it 2" colour card look better when they're 2' doors.

There was one strong man and in 11 1/2 hours he achieved all this!  I don't know how he manages to hold the upper cabinets in place whilst he secures them.

So without further delay, here's some pics...

The kitchen!  
Licorice Linea natural lower cabinets and Pumice silk upper cabinets

The cupboard for the rangehood.  They made me a nice little shelf up top!

Microwave shelf - will be strange as we've always had it up high.

Sink cutout and drawers

One pot drawer has a cutlery tray in it which is removable but the dividers aren't

The last time my bench will be used for a drop saw!

Powder room in same cupboard colour as the lower kitchen cabinets. 
Obviously the drain pipe in the centre of the room will be cut at floor level :)

Laundry in the same cupboard colours as the kitchen. 
I love the rail over the trough and all the overheard cupboards.  Decisions, decisions... what shall I put in them :) 
There will be a bench right across with under bench appliances.

Bathroom

Ensuite

A close up of Oyster Linea cupboard grain (laid horizontal)

Door handles

 We're 99% happy with it.  Inside the ensuite vanity cupboards there's a board across the top.  One cupboard has a wider (sits lower) board than the other cupboard.  So we'll be asking them to fix that.  We think there may be a couple of scratches but we'll wait and see once the plastic coating comes off. 

And they've put in the cupboards next to the cooker back to front (they open the wrong way).  I'm going to sleep on that one and go again in the morning and may ask him to swap them over.  It's not a huge deal but I'd thought long and hard about which way to have them opening for what I plan to put in them and how the handles would flow across that area.  Hugely important, I know. 


Here are some other pics of work finished over the weekend.

A good look at the painted cladding...

And the window & door sils...

We find the small bricks around the doors weird.  But it seems that the bricks only have one good face and one good side so that's how they cut them.  I'm sure in time we won't even notice them.

The porch roof was also measured up this morning for the roofing materials and guttering, so that shouldn't be far off now.

Tomorrow the bench tops are to be measured up and by mid next week they will be installed.


123 days... it won't be that long.

DAY 73 - A nice suprise - the painters are here!

Saturday 27th October - we got a nice surprise this morning to see a car onsite.  We thought it was the kitchen installers, but instead it was the painters!  They were painting the upper eaves & downpipes and the cladding.  I took a couple of quick pics and will take more next time as they were still working.

The painters were friendly and seemed to be taking care.  They can't do the front wall of the house (fibre cement sheeting) and the battens until it's finished.  The battens can't go on until the porch roof is finished.  The roof tiles can't be checked and cracked ones replaced until all those things are done and people stop walking on the roof.  So I think next week will be a bit of catch up by a few trades to get upstairs finished and get rid of the scaffold.

I asked the painter if he had been booked for the internal painting yet.  He had been told it's likely in 2 weeks time.  That's exciting!  Having painted our old house before we sold it, I'm so glad we're not painting this one... these guys can paint all the eaves, downpipes & cladding in a few hours so inside should be a breeze!  It would take me months... 

Watching them paint, I had a moment of roller envy.  We did some painting this morning at a local school with dodgy cheap rollers.  These guys have the good stuff!

We also moved another boot load of bricks - about 80 of them out of the way.  I'll move another couple of boot loads during the week.  And also safely tucked away the large pieces of leftover cladding and some timber as well.  We will have a good start to the kids' cubby :)


125 days left...

DAY 72 - Eaves & cladding but sadly no kitchen :(

Friday 26th October.  I woke up early this morning and thought the kitchen installers would be arriving soon... but when I went by to drop off our sink they weren't there :(  I called the SS and he had been at the house earlier that morning and had expected them there too so would chase them up.  Maybe they will work Saturday?  The stone bench tops are supposed to be measured Monday so they must be coming soon...

At least a few other things got done today - the eaves & cladding were finished, the upper downpipes were installed, our electrician came to cut out the wall plate holes before the painters come, and our tiles were delivered!

Our pile of internal doors which were delivered yesterday

Tiles for the ensuite, bathroom, wc, laundry & powder room

Eaves are finished - I wondered how that downpipe connected to our tanks

The door frame had to be altered as it was too far right to fit the laundry bench. 
The cut the frame out on the left and attached it on the right.

Only 126 days of our contract left...

DAY 71 - A busy day today! Bricks, wet seal, doors, kitchen & stairs!

Thursday 25th October and lots of trades working today!  It looked like a parking lot with 6 or 7 cars parked out the front of the house!

Bricks - the brickies got around 1300 bricks yesterday (they had asked for 2000) and the rep brought another 100 bricks in his car later today.  The brickies said there must be more at the yard but it's likely they're on the bottom of the pile and noone wants to search for them.  Apparently they stack the bricks several pallets high in long rows and each new batch goes on top.

The boss has asked me a couple of times if we would be happy to keep the incorrect bricks in the garage wall so that they don't have to rebuild it.  Unfortunately for him we would like all our brick the same...  The rep said they plan to colour match the bricks and 'paint' them to match.  Apparently it's a done thing and whole houses have been colour matched when they have been bricked in the wrong brick.  Must be cheaper than rendering :)

If we're not happy with that they will need to come back with an angle grinder to cut out and replace bricks.  What fun :(  And I'd been keeping an eye on it during our warranty period.

There is a whole pallet load of the lighter bricks which has been left for us so that's almost 500 bricks.  All up I think we'll have around 1,000 bricks to use - and they said they're worth about $1 each so that's great for us!

They will be back on the weekend to finish off the window and door sils but all the main work is done.

Stairs - I got to walk on the stairs this morning :) The man who did it has built them well and I'm really happy with how they have turned out and the amount of storage space below them. Maybe flatpak with a fine craftsman to build them onsite is not so bad after all!

Wet seal - the bathroom, ensuite, wc, powder room & laundry were sealed today, ready for tiling next week. The also built the shower hobs from timber which are then sealed too.  It's really smelly and was still wet at the end of the day so I guess it dries overnight as they're putting the vanities in tomorrow.

 

Doors - our internal doors arrived when we were there this afternoon.  We didn't stay until they were all unloaded as there were lots of them.  The nice timber one below one is our pantry door (note to self - keep the pantry tidy!)  The front door wasn't with this delivery but it must be coming soon as our site super says next week the locks will go on and we'll be locked out :(
But that's ok cause it means we're getting close to done! 

Kitchen - our kitchen, vanities, laundry cupboards, pantry & linen cupboard shelves & mirror backings arrived!  The delivery men said the installers would be finished later afternoon tomorrow as it takes about 10 hrs... I guess they're starting early!

There was a note on the laundry wall to move the wall opening so they can fit the 600mm bench top.  Hmmm, not sure what's happening with that.

The kitchen!

Butler's pantry bench top

Shelving for pantry, linen and maybe robes?

Kick boards and other bits for something...

Cupboards for either side of oven

Pot drawers

Cupboard for above fridge - the upper cupboards are lighter in colour and silk finish (glossy)

Rangehood cupboard - on it's side - with a small shelf.

Substrate (support) for under island stone bench top

The substrate has a 'stainless steel' finish but really it's shiny laminate :)

Backing boards for mirrors in bathrooms and powder room

Bathrooom & ensuite vanities

Basins for bathroom, ensuite & powder room.
We love these basins and were told they were standard but it turned out they were extra,
but because I had it in writing they gave it to us for no extra charge.

Laundry tub

127 days left... but my guess is around 50 - 60 days.