Current update - where are we up to?

Well I've been painting now for what seems like an ETERNITY and it's getting closer (albeit slowly!) At least one coat is on all rooms except study and spare rooms (they'll be last - they're housing all the doors at the moment!), and I'm going to finish the final ceiling coat in the kids room, hallway and theatre room tomorrow. Then I will be able to paint the kids walls (they are really excited!) and the hallway, as well as the family/dining room walls. Bikeman has finished painting the verandah out the front ready for the roofer to come in next week and finish the roofing as well as all the guttering (yay! no more puddles on the ground when it rains). Verandah painting (now finished)

Painting the bulkhead above the cabinetry

Tiler has been in today to do the waterproofing, ready for tiling next week.

Painted hallway (undercoat)

So what's to come.....

Tiling - tiler (Daniel & son) to be back on the weekend (he's a good man, working weekends to get the job done!)

Electrical - Sparky will be back in tomorrow to pretty much finish the rest of the electrical. I don't even care at this point that the painting isn't finished. Just need to get things moving!

Plumbing - Hopefully Snr and Jnr will be back in over the next 2-3 weeks to finish off the plumbing fit off and installing the rainwater tank and associated plumbing. Will all depend on other subbies and when they are able to finish their bits and pieces

Pool - yes, where is the pool? Pool shell manufacturer not very forthcoming as to when shell will actually be delivered (was supposed to be this week). Hole will most likely be started next weekend, so hopefully it will arrive sometime around then! Driveway will also be started when the pool hole is dug (soil to be transferred) and big pile of dirt up the back to be spread out ready for the tank to be installed.

Timber flooring - mid-end November, once all the other trades have finished (and we have Certificate of Occupancy - $$$$!!)

Laundry Cabinetry - mid November

Farewell Dad

I haven't posted for a few weeks as we went to Lorne to farewell my dad one last time, and to celebrate what would have been his birthday with our extended family. We had a wonderful weekend, doing what Dad would have enjoyed (drinking wine, eating mum's slices and walking around Lorne). We then scattered Dad's ashes together, it was an absolutely perfect day and it was so lovely to spend the weekend with everyone. So thanks to our wonderful family and friends for making it just perfect, and bye to Dad - enjoy your final resting place where I'm sure you are at peace. x

Kitchen and cabinetry is officially in!

Well the kitchen is in and it looks absolutely wonderful! Just as I'd imagined, (luckily! :)). Colours are great, go really well with the wall colour. Wasn't without some little dramas - had to move the L shaped bench over a little as it was just too close to the sliding door to be comfortable, and also decided not to have the 300m overhang on the same side - just a little too much pinch! Jim the cabinet installer was a great bloke, with good suggestions as required and he did a fantastic job of the installation. Some of the handles weren't quite right but they're being fixed, and the microwave space ended up being a white carcass rather than the brown colour I was expecting. So we're thinking of getting a door put on, or a surround for the microwave. Probably won't even notice once the microwave is in there! Anyway enough chatter here are the pics: Ensuite Kids Bathroom

Butlers Pantry

Kitchen!

Kitchen

Obviously the lovely chipboard on top of the benches is not the final benchtop .... the template was created and picked up a couple of weeks ago, and so the stone should be arriving any time in the next couple of weeks. Can't wait!

Kitchen - check!

Today our kitchen was delivered... WOO HOO! At 7.30 in the morning no less, so that meant getting the kids up early, getting me up early (always a struggle) and getting there on time (leaving at 7am). Amazingly enough I was able to get there (with a little help from Bikeman and Nana C). As you can see from the pic, there are lots of cabinets! Bear in mind though that there are the cabinets for the ensuite, bathroom and toilet as well, and the kitchen and butlers pantry. The chocolate brown colour will be for the base cupboards (and in the bathrooms) and the lighter colour (you can just see the lovely wine rack peeking out at the back on the left) is for the higher cupboards. The freshly painted walls - big big big thanks for Mr Reichy and Bikeman who pitched in and helped on Sunday to finish it all off (nearly). Ignore the fact it looks a little pink in these photos, it's actually not in real life - it's a bit darker actually. (Dodgy mobile phone camera!)

The benchtops on the right hand side and not sure what the dark brown ones are for - that's for the Jigsaw Man (aka Cabinet Maker) to figure out!

Told Blue today that it was all one big jigsaw puzzle that had to be put together and that the 'Jigsaw Man' would be there tomorrow to put it all together. He thought that was pretty funny!

And we're putting in a pool?!?!?!?!

This is how cold it gets in Romsey. This was last Tuesday at 3:45, when I was picking up Pink from kinder. Plan was - pick up Pink, take Blue to basketball, go back to the house and do another hour of painting. Scrapped that when I saw the temp - 2.5 degrees (and even the little snowflake which means it is cold enough to snow) and hail and freezing cold winds.

Take 2 overtired kids back to a freezing cold house with no heating - and then paint? No thanks. We went home instead to our other nice warm house which doesn't require as much maintenance!

In the Buff!

I'm excited to report that we now have 2 whole rooms painted with a coat of the topcoat colour, 'Buff It' by Dulux. I was sooooo excited to be finally putting that paint on the walls and I'm really really happy with the final result. Although I think we'll need 2 coats, but regardless it really warms up the house (mentally anyway!) and looks just beautiful. Perfect! Can't wait to see it against the cabinets next week when they go in. Ok so the rooms are the toilet and the ensuite, but hey a room's a room right? Photos to come when I have a more exciting room to show!

A house with a view

We made some excellent progress this weekend! We managed to put up this custom made triangular window above the front entry door with a minimum of fuss (well the first attempt didn't quite fit so a little adjusting and it was in!) It is verrrrry high up and that makes me a little nervy, not to mention trying to lift up a very heavy window and nail it in place LEVEL - amazing! Bikeman then set to work today (while the ferrets and I scoffed our faces with cake and fizzy drink) finishing some major milestones. He finished the verandah beams off, ready for painting (adding more work for me this week - can i put in for overtime??) and then the roofer to put on the verandah roof. He also bricked up the bits around the triangular window (yes he's multi-talented - brickie now as well) effectively saving us heaps of $ in saving us from getting the brickie out again, with scaffolding as it was at heights, to muck around with the bricks. And it looked very professional. He's so clever at this stuff! As for me, yesterday I finished the second undercoat in all the rooms that need cabinetry (don't get too excited - still have the bedrooms to start on!). But it means i can start on the real stuff this week - the final ceiling colour and then the walls. I'm so excited! A little dampened by the fact that the sparky came in and installed powerpoints, light switches (and even a light baton in Pink's room) to about 1/2 the house - nooooooo, cutting in! Not happy Jan. Luckily we can just unscrew them and then paint around them so it's not really that bad. So another mammoth painting effort this week. But I am looking forward to finishing off each room, one by one and being able to cross them off the list! And I'm also off to buy tap fittings, waste points, shower heads etc so that will be fun, I love spending money!

Splashback - HELP!

I need help - with the splashback, and the wall for that matter. I'm stuck on how to treat the wall to the left in the picture, with the underbench cabinets and the rangehood. Before you laugh at my horrendous Photoshop effort please bear in mind I am a visual person and need to SEE things to be able to get me through decision making! Bikeman says I'm thinking too much about it, just to paint the wall in one of the feature wall colours I've picked our (say a dark brown), pop the splashback over the top and there you go... but I'm not sure! Please tell me what you think...... Existing colours: Underbench cabinets: Laminex 'Mocha' (dark choc brown) Overhead cabinets: Laminex 'Angora' (lighter mid brown colour) Benchtop: Caesar Stone 'Ice Snow' (white with brown flecks through it) Walls: Dulux 'Buff It' (light brown 'latte' type colour)