Week 22 - Lockup

Lockup arrived this week (and with it, the lockup invoice...).

Lockup means that the external cladding, roof, doors and windows are all fixed. The weatherboards are 99% finished with just a few corner stops to go on. We are still missing the left hand side wall of our downstairs deck, but that's on its way, and it's not keeping anything weathertight so it is not urgent.

The gable detailing has started. We decided to install cedar shingles in the top triangle of the gable wall to replace the existing painted shingles - but the new ones we will just leave as raw timber. There is a before and 'during' photo of the gable walls, the wide timber boards should finish it off nicely.

The timber trim work around the pillars and our bathroom louvres has been done - these are nearly ready for rendering. I had to send some sketches to the carpenters, because they and I had very different opinions on what a rendered pillar with a  window should look like...

Inside the open plan living space ducted air-conditioning went into the ceiling cavity, and the ducting is roughly in place. It looks so industrial for just one room, but I guess it is a big open room with a stairwell, so it needs good air flow. Electrical rough-in should happen next week, and then the ceiling and wall sheeting should start.

The builders let us know that the exterior painting will be starting on 1 August! So the pressure is on to choose a paint colour... Whilst we love the mustard undercoat colour of the new weatherboard because it represents progress, I think we'll choose something a bit classier :P

The kitchen supplier that we had already met with is now looking wobbly - so the builder is considering moving the project to a different cabinet maker. That doesn't really bother us - I'd rather put another day into planning and discussion with the new cabinet makers to get a great product on time, than end up over-schedule or with a product with which we're not 100% happy.

Once the exterior painting starts it is going to start looking like a finished product outside - and the scaffolding will come down progressively. Before that happens, we have a solar hot water tank and 22 solar energy panels going on the roof - so I guess those are not too far away either.