Lights, Camera, Action - Electrical Light Up!!

Photo overload today!! Yesterday when we went past we were lucky enough to get inside as one of the doors had been left unlocked. We made the most of the opportunity! As well as taking lots of photos and having the freedom to have a careful look around, the main reason I wanted to get inside this week was to give the floors a good clean. The carpet will be close to going down and the floors are sooooooo dusty and dirty. You would assume that the floors would be vacuumed cleaned beforehand but I honestly don't trust they would be. The painters had swept the dirt away from the bottom of the staircase but it all sat 30cm away and would surely end up all through the house again. I actually took our old vacuum and started upstairs. It was quite a scene. Within 3 minutes of vacuuming the dust was pouring out the end of the vacuum and the room was thick of dust - I opened every window in a mad panic as it looked like smoke and the last thing I needed was the fire brigade turning up to a dust storm!! So instead, I attacked it all with a broom, brush and shovel. It was much cleaner (took a lot longer) and I opened the back and front doors which limited any dust. It's spotless now! By the time I finished sweeping, darkness had crept in. So I tested out all the lights! It was definitely a goose-bump moment!! It looks like a real house, like a house you would really live in!!! We were really surprised with the brightness of the downlights too. We had excepted that we may need to change most of the globes over to brighter ones once we moved in but they are great!! The photos don't really show the true effect of them - in real life is even better!  

Looking Through the Front Doors

Down the Hall (forgot to turn the bulkhead lights on)

(Dust Free Floors!!)

Stair Lights (with hall lights on)

Stair Lights Only - LOVE THESE!

Study - this room is super bright

Theatre Room

Downstairs Powder Room

Ensuite

Looking the Other Way Down the Hall

Kitchen - only had these ones on for a split second as even the dangling ones were working!

Clean Floors!!

Lounge Room

Laundry

Upstairs Activity Room

Upstairs Bathroom 

Upstairs Powder Room

Balcony Tiles, Deluxe Staircase Staining and More Jobs Off the List!

It was great to get into the house yesterday and see that not only was the balcony tiled, but it had also been grouted! 

Tile - Lifestyle Charcoal Textured 400 x 400 (standard)

Grout - Charred Ash (should be darker looking than it appears but it hasn't been cleaned yet)

Paining works continued yesterday (and again today). The painters were adding silicone along the weatherboards and doing some other exterior paint touch ups. The front doors had their second coat of stain and we are so excited to know that the stain on the stairs has started!!!!!

Front Doors - Cabots Rich Walnut

Stairs Cleaned and Ready For Staining Today

Staining Began on the Staircase Handrail Yesterday

More Tiling Works

Now that the spa bath has been installed, the tiles on the wall (back left) and the front (centre) tile have been completed - they haven't been grouted yet 

With the window in the shower finally in, the tiles were able to be finished 

An extra row of tiles has also been added to the bathroom shower - we think this is due to the height of the showerhead

Theatre Room Reveals Replaced

One was replaced last week and the remaining ones have since been done - yay!

The ensuite bath tap has the incorrect tap so when we go in yesterday and went upstairs it was interesting to see that the bath tap is different, but also wrong!!

Incorrect Tap!

The painters have been using one of the back taps and it is now constantly dripping - note to self! 

Need to check the height of our timber flooring as this part of the wall looks like it might need fixing as it will still be exposed

Portable Scaffold Delivery

We assume this is in readiness for rendering the facade and the tiles 

Facade Tiles

Eco Alabaster Grigio Lappato  

Our Timber Flooring Process

As I have mentioned before, we are having our timber flooring done post handover. Our flooring company have been great to deal with and have been very understanding and accommodating with our difficulty of locking in a date. We have had to move and change the dates 4 times so far. We now have it locked in again in three and a half weeks. Our SS was so confident it would be fine for the dates (and some of those dates have passed us already - by weeks!). I'm feeling very nervous about it now as we have just under 4 weeks until we have to be out of our rental property. That means the house needs to be done and the flooring finished in that time..... It's not going to happen! Looks like we will have to put everything in storage for a few weeks - what a pain!!!!!! Anyway, we also found out something with the flooring that we didn't know or hadn't anticipated;

The flooring will be laid and take approximately 3 to 4 days to lay.
As the flooring is Queensland Spotted Gum and the temperature and humidity levels are very different here in Victoria - the timber will then have humidity testing over approximately 3 weeks and when they are happy with the results it will then be sanded and polished. This process takes approximately 3 days and after those 3 days we will not be able to go into the house for 48 hours minimum. Which means - for about a month we wont really be able to set our furniture up on the flooring (or we will but then have to dismantle everything). We will also have to be out of the house basically for the week! It's going to be worth the wait but getting the house set out perfectly (as everyone wants when they first move in) is going to take a little longer than the first weekend!!!

3 Steps Forward, 2 Steps Back.

At the moment if feels like we are taking a few steps forward, only to find other things that need to be done or followed up that takes us backwards! Last week was a really quiet week. Most of what our SS told us would be done, wasn't and things that have been done have either only half been done or are now affecting other things that need to be done.

Termite Protection is now Complete! 

Tick that one off the list!

On Friday the plumbers were there connecting all the downpipes to the drainage points. This is great, except that the downpipes on the facade and sides have yet to have the coloured render applied....... The downpipes were lengthened earlier in the week and they thoughtfully only tacked the brackets onto these areas as it was obvious they would need to be taken off. A week goes by (without renderers) and they need to connect them into the pipework below and now they seem somewhat permanent... Wonder what will happen here (they will be coming off!!!) 

It's great to have the downpipes on so that the rain isn't pooling around the sides of the house. They were put on just in time for the warm weather!

Lots of pipes and unknown drainage points!

This one is out the front and has a different capping to the others - sure to find out more during the week.

This point looks like drainage to clear off excess surface water. It is oh so close to where the concrete for the driveway will be. Maybe you concrete it in to the area to help runoff? 

You can see it's position on the edge of the crossover

The painters were there today. When we went past they were staining the trim (architrave) of the front doors. We thought the stairs may also have been done (as our SS said it may be done last week). The front door architraves were done, but not the actual doors, the alfreco ceiling was painted, but not the small eves at the side of the alfresco, the garage wall that was re-plastered was painted, but not the walls inside that had been patched..... 2 steps forward, 1 step back..... 

Alfresco Ceiling

Garage Wall Painted

Garage Eave Painted

Upstairs Bath Delivered (sitting in the study here)

Tapware on Ensuite Spa Bath

except it's the wrong spout.... (It actually hasn't been connected properly so we think they are aware this is the wrong one.  

I took this photo today because I absolutely love these doors! Sometimes you don't want to lose sight of the amazing things by getting bogged down in the things that no doubt will work themselves out in the end! Looking forward to many dinner parties looking through these babies!! 

'Our' Backyard

The weather the past few days has been amazing! Although it's not going to last long, it has been nice to shake off some of the Winter blues! Yesterday was an absolute pearler!! Building our new home has been so exciting and we cannot wait to get in now. We are also super excited and still coming to terms with the fact that we get to call this part of the world our home. Here is a snippet of 'our' backyard!!