This week some of the new windows and doors were installed. After they went in the builders carried on installing the new weatherboards around them. It's starting to look like a house rather than a construction site!
The big sliding doors onto our deck are 2.7 metres tall, so 30cm taller than the ceiling in our last house. Oddly because the opening is so wide, I think they look shorter than a standard door. We had an on-site meeting on Friday with the electricians - to go over the lighting and power plans. You might remember that we changed our walk-in robe layout so we also had to change the lighting and power for that room, as well as the ensuite and master bedroom. We also made some tweaks to the final positions of switches, powerpoint and the circuit organisation based on how we think we will use each room. Nothing beats that feeling of always having somewhere to plug in the vacuum cleaner! On our architectural plans we had included roof-tiled window hoods over the windows down the sides of the house. These would have matched the existing 1930s hoods on the front elevation. We made a last minute decision on Friday (much to the builder's annoyance) to ditch them. It was so nice seeing so much sky through the windows upstairs, I think it would have been a shame to reduce the light and views with a window hood. We are still doing them to the front, to keep the house looking right - but the sides will be uncovered and much more modern looking. The pace seems to be picking up now - we are heading quickly towards lockup, which means a stage payment will become due (damn) but it will also mean that the interior elements can get started (walls, air conditioning ducts, ceilings, flooring - all the nice bits). Off-site, I continue my hunt for the perfect kitchen handle.
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This week the colorbond roofing went on to the front study, and the side bathroom. The study is in an old enclosed porch, and the bathroom in an old sleep-out (typical of Queenslanders), so these two areas are not under the main roof.
We prefer the look of the bathroom roof (with the 3 pitch directions) and wish we had done that to the study too, but they're so tall nobody will ever see the top of them again. One of those cost-saving decisions we will just have to live with! The plumbing rough-in happened, so the walls and ceilings are now full of pipes. We tried to take photos to avoid nailing through a water line when we hang artwork in a few months. This means that once the windows are delivered and installed - we will be ready for weatherboard cladding, electrical rough-in, air conditioning and internal linings! This week most of the building was covered in building wrap - the blue stuff. That's about all that happened, but it made it nice and warm inside the house, and shielded us from the winter wind.
We had to let the builders know about some tweaks to the framing - we have succumbed and are putting a TV in our master bedroom, for Netflix. So that means we need to recess the TV by the depth of the stud wall, to avoid looking at the side of the TV and bracket when we walk into the room. On Friday two chandeliers arrived in crates from the USA. They're the same style of light but different shapes - one for above our kitchen island and one for the dining table. We took them out of the box to ensure the glass bits survived the trip - but a lot of assembly is required so we'll be excited to see them put together on installation day. Until then it's a secret... You may remember that last week the roof trusses were installed and braced. This week the sarking went on (the green waterproof material that covers the roof trusses), and then the timber battens installed horizontally across the roof; these timber battens are the fixing point for the roof tiles.
Our builder scheduled a meeting with us and the cabinet maker for Friday - to go over our plans and confirm layout, material, joinery profile, and colours of our kitchen, laundry and bathrooms. So, nearly every night this week Michael and I went to Bunnings after dinner to look at swatches, buy sample pots and paint them onto boards. It's so difficult to make such a long term and expensive decision so early, when there are still no walls! The cabinetry is custom made and painted so they need to get started very soon to make sure it's ready on time. By Wednesday everyone in Brisbane was talking about the super cell storm forecast for the weekend. At that stage our roof tiles were piled on the roof - we were nervously hoping the rain held off long enough for the roofers to get all the tiles on and tied down before the skies opened. They just made it! All our mossy tiles went back on the front elevation, and they look great, just what we wanted to see. Our Friday cabinetry meeting snuck up on us and we still hadn't decided on final colours. The meeting still lasted 3 hours, and I think we covered most of it, other than colours and handles, which are TBC! We were waiting on our floor sample to arrive before signing off, which we now have, so no more excuses. Friday also saw our 3 metre shower cut into the floor, to allow for the grade down to the drain. It's so big that we'll (hopefully) never have to clean splashes off the glass door. The storm arrived and brought an inch of water through the whole house, but everything stayed in the right spot - good work roofers! |