Brick Clean - Boral Mocha with Off White Mortar

Last week our bricks were cleaned. I thought the brickies had done an amazing job and they didn't even look like they needed a huge clean. It's not until they are that you see the true colours! The walls were still a bit wet in the photos. We still have a few sections that need to be bricked - above the balcony door, kitchen wall and dining sill. Unfortunately our brickie has fallen ill and hence the delay. He should (hopefully) be back on this week...

Here they are; Boral Mocha Bricks with Off White Mortar

Before the Clean

After!

Bricks are still a little bit wet, so I will get another photo next time!

Brickwork Nearly Done, Internal Paint Nearly Done and Kitchen Nearly Done!

I've been missing my blogging the past few weeks. Every time I think I have a second to update things something else gets in the way! I've been trying to write these things for over a week now! 

Things have been moving along smoothly and in some ways also slowed down. The brickwork is oh so close to being finished. The brickies ran out of bricks, so they have a few areas to still finished off. The bricks were delivered on Saturday (2 pallets) but we are assuming the brickies have started another house this week. No doubt they will be back in the coming days to finish off. The window over the kitchen was fixed, yayyyyyy!! The wall was deconstructed, lintel in correct position and the wall rebuilt! 

Boral Mocha Bricks - Cat 4
Off-White Mortar - Upgrade

Brickwork above Garage Complete

Kitchen Window at Correct Height! 

Upper Eastern Wall Bricked

Living Room Wall (including fire place)

First Floor around Balcony Bricked (missing above door)

This looks like an infill as they haven't left room for a lintel. Our plans/contracts show brickwork so we will definitely be following this up during the week.

Alfresco Piers Finished

Almost Finished! 

More work was done to the kitchen too!

The overhead cupboards that had holes in them for handles have been replaced with flush cupboards and the panel shelf above has been put in the correct position - to make a useable shelf!! The wine rack has also been put in. Looking forward to filling this up - if I can reach it!!

Vinyl Wrap Gloss - Polar White - Upgrade

More Completed Cabinetry in Kitchen

                             

Open Shelf with Correct Panel and New Flush Doors

Our Benchtops are not Red!! Ready for Caesar Stone!

                       

                         

We were so excited to get into the house over the weekend! I even took the broom and gave it a lovely sweep out! Couldn't help myself! We're in for a mighty shock though when we move in as it took me nearly 3 hours to sweep it all out.'What do you do?' 'I work a few days, I'm a mother and I sweep...... nice to meet you!!!' Loving the paintwork!! Oh the gloss enamel doors are amazing. I think I ran my hand over the internal garage door for 5 min before I opened it! Don't know how they get that finish, but we sure do like it!

Dulux Lexicon Quarter - all walls, roof and doors

Admiring the Front Doors! - 

Check out the swept floors!

 Crisp and Clean 

The Upstairs Bathroom 

Ready for Stone 

Master Bedroom Doors - Still being painted 

Cheeky Monkey!

Upstairs Activity Room 

 More Paintwork

Theatre Room - We are going to paint this room grey/charcoal after handover

Can we move in yet?!!

 More Walls and Doors

Study

This window will be replacing the one in our ensuite. It has hardwood reveals, rather than MDF as our SS thought that it was more suitable being above the shower and in such a wet environment. Happy they made this decision without us even mentioning it. We actually assumed that all the reveals would be hardwood. In hindsight, we would have upgrade all reveals to hardwood if we had have known they were going to be MDF. The theatre room reveals are still to be replaced too. 

More Brickwork Pictures - more than half way!

Starting to see the finish of the bricks with brick capping - this is all going to be rendered though!!

Brick Sill with Carefully Cut Bricks Underneath (slivers!!)

The Window is Dropped to the Correct Height!!!!!

(Lintel to be lowered and wall to be knocked down and rebuilt - bit sad to see the work knocked down in some ways.......

Fire Place Bricked Around - Getting More Water Tight!

Front Doors Being Stained - Rich Walnut

Won't be running around the house in my undies with these ones!!

Front Doors on!

Door architrave and mushroom still to be stained - not yet vanished

You can also see in this photo that the bricks are coursed to the top of the door. Hooray! If the window, to the left, was dropped by a few mm it also would have been, that's where the frustration is!

Western Side is Really Taking Shape

Looking a Little Larger than Anticipated!!

Brickwork - The Highs!

We've had a busy week, in more ways than one. There have been highs and lows this week. I'm going to start with the positives then get into the negatives.

The brickwork has powered on during the week. The weather has been very kind and our swamp of a yard has almost completely dried out, to the delight of the brickies. The rest of the week isn't looking as optimistic though. 

Our concerns of the off white mortar continued. We were still questioning whether or not it was off white. We were usually seeing the mortar a few hours dry and as the week progressed we have seen how the colour changes and the whiteness comes through (some of these photos are taken of still wet mortar). It's nice to see the clean colour with each day it dries. The western side of the house is showing more of the authentic colour now.  We are really happy with the colour of the bricks and the work brickies have done a really neat job (there is more to this though). It's great that some walls are almost complete and we can see how our colour choices are coming together. I'm writing this with a heavy heart this week, from our disappointments, so it's hard to be too excited. Lots of positives though and we know the final result will look great. 

Back of the garage (extra wide door - to fit a wheelbarrow)

Can see the Woodland Grey Roof against Boral Mocha Bricks = HAPPY!

The Front Coming Together

Dining Room

Lounge

Mortar Yet to Dry

The Garage

This wall did have to be built internally. Therefore the plaster, cornice etc needed to be ripped down.

We thought this would be the case.

Up She Goes!

More Bricks Delivered (there were at least another 10 pallets)

The Rubble

Boral Mocha with Off White Mortar - Week 2

The bricklayers have been hard at it this week. Not too much else to report on. Work continued to the front of the house on Friday, the eastern side on Monday and Tuesday and the alfresco pillars today. When we visited on Monday, I was a bit disappointed in the colour of the off white mortar. When we went around the house to the part that had been bricked the previous week it was obvious that the mortar takes some time to dry and for the true colour to be revealed! Very happy!! The windows and cabinetry have also all be wrapped inside ready for initial paintwork to begin. I went through some displays over the weekend to have another look at blind options (and lets face it, get another fix - it's been a long time!). Even though our house is getting so much closer, when you go through a display it feels quite some way off!

Day 3)

Day 4)

Thinking that this has something to do with the off white mortar, but will need to do some investigation on this!

 Not really looking like off white mortar........ More drying time, should show the result (hopefully)

Day 5)

Alfresco Area Brickwork

Probably the Neatest Trade Onsite Yet! 

Trying to picture what it will look like completed with our black windows

The Off White Mortar

The bricks to the left have had 5 days of drying and are also on the western side in the sun (when it appears). We think the mortar shows it's whiteness after it's had drying time????

Looking forward to more bricks on this side of the home to finally protect it from this lovely Winter we are having......

The inside wrapping of the windows and cabinetry - ready for paint!!!!!!!!!

It is all so tightly sealed. Someone is going to go nuts with a spray-gun we think!!