"It's Electrifying"

"I've got eaves, they're multiplying
and I'm losing control
cause the doors, are ready for sliding
It's electrifying"

This post is dedicated to my friend Melinda, you said you loved my cheesy titles.
We had a tradie overload today.  Ben went over this morning and rang me to report that there were at least 8 utes parked around the house with tradies galore busily working on the house, some in the heavy rain.  Two guys were working in the rain to install the eaves (thank you guys).  Carpenters were busy installing the frames and track for the cavity sliding doors and electricals were done today as well.   The main power box was installed with a lot of wires all over the frame in accordance with the electrical plan we agreed on.
The ducting for our vacuum system was installed.  We're also having the solar panels installed by EB so looks like they did some preliminary work on that as well.  We're doing our air conditioning ourselves and my son (with Ben doing most of the work I'm sure) will be doing the down light installation.  The council and Tyrell's inspection is due later this week.  I've got to say, loving your work EB!

Eaves above the garage

Downpipes installed



Cavity installed for sliding doors to media room



Frame done for bulkhead in passageway

Ducting for vacuum

Electricals at front door

Dedication

Thank you to the two tradies who braved the heavy rain to install the downpipes this morning.  Now that's what I call dedication.  Ben drove by at 7.30 am on his way to dropping off our daughter at school, and saw the two guys working in the heavy rain.  He rang me to let me know while I was on my way to work.  It was teeming down with rain and apparently these diligent tradies were busy doing the installation.  Our SS must be cracking the whip or something.  Thank you guys for your dedication and sorry if you catch a cold.  

True Colours

"I see your true colors 
shining through 
I see your true colors 
and that's why I love you 
so don't be afraid to let them show 
your true colors 
true colors are beautiful 
like a rainbow"

Render done and our bricks have been cleaned  today.  Didn't think anything would be done today but I drove over to the house and two guys were busy blasting the bricks.  The bricks have really revealed their true colors.  They are looking fantastic.  Exactly how I hoped they would turn out. The ugly scaffolding just needs to be removed from the roof now.  Don't know what happened to the guys who do the eaves.  All the material is still sitting outside the garage, open to the elements. Everything is blending in beautifully now.  Looking good!  We even met fellow bloggers, the lovely Bel and Phil who are building, The reedman home,   a street away from us.  Also met a few of the other neighbours from around us.  Seems like all the neighbours were out checking on their builds today.

Render Me

Ben went over to the house today and was happy to report that the front section and top of the columns have been rendered.  The renderer was still working on the wall around the entrance when Ben went there this afternoon.  From the pictures it looks like a pretty good job.  I will have to go over tomorrow and check it out myself, not that I'm an expert.  These rendered portions will be painted to match our fascia boards and garage door.  A stained timber beam sits on top of the columns.
Seems like eaves are next on the to do list as the material for the eaves were delivered yesterday.

Mmmm, don't think I asked for this part to be rendered.

Can't wait for the bricks to be cleaned now so that the true color of the bricks come through.  Should look good!

"The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe!"

We have been researching on how to fit out the wardrobes in the three bedrooms.  We asked EB to leave the square set openings for the wardrobe spaces and they credited us for the doors and shelves.  We wanted to get better inserts and doors installed instead of paying EB a fortune for them to do it.
Ben has visited a few wardrobe installers at Wetherill Park, they all seem to be around that area for some reason.  Anyway, he's been told that we can have quite a few door options, theres mirrored, polyurethane, melamine and opaque glass doors.  We think we should have a mixture of mirrored and opaque glass doors.  I can't see the kids keeping the mirrored doors spotlessly clean.

The wardrobe inserts depend entirely on what our requirements may dictate.  I think we need some drawers and lots of shelves and hanging space.  I don't allow shoes in the bedrooms, so we won't need shoe racks.

We really need to sort this out soon as it's definitely required right after we move in.  More decisions to make and dollars to spend.  

Blinded by the light!

Now it's time to consider our window furnishings.  My bedroom windows are fairly large and are at the front of the house.  I decided to use hinged timber shutters for these windows.  I had to consider the view of the house from the street as well.  As our floors are going to be a dark wood , I wanted to use only light colours for the blinds so that the house doesn't end up looking too dark on the inside so I chose Pearl White.

In our family room we have two large windows and I certainly don't want to loose the light coming in from these windows as they light up the family room, dining and kitchen.  I also wanted something that was more tailored and formal looking.  I chose Roman blinds for these two windows so that they can be rolled up to allow the maximum amount of light into this area.  Chose the colour Magnolia, which is an off white. 

Roman blinds

 For the rest of the bedrooms and the media room I chose double block out roller blinds.  It consists of two roller blinds on one bracket, one sheer view blind and one block out blind. This gives you more control of the amount of light in the room and the block out blind can be rolled down for total privacy at night.  

Double roller blinds

Decided on not putting anything over the stacker doors that lead to the alfresco. Don't see the point in having these nice doors covered but Ben disagrees.  So the debate rages.  Will keep you all updated. 

Update on the construction side of things, is that I had an update from the SS today telling me what was scheduled for next week.  Brick cleaning, rendering and eaves are all lined up for next week. 

The Roof, the roof, the roof is on fire!

Well not literally but it's looking HOT. The sarking and battens were installed yesterday and tiling started today.  According to the supervisor it should be close to finished tomorrow.
Here are some pictures of the work in progress.

Alfresco and back complete

Monier, sambuca roof tiles in the traditional profile and they look fabulous. Very smooth clean lines. I was a bit concerned about the amount of light we would lose in the house once the roof went on but was relieved to find that the house is still bright inside.  We bought the roof vents and the roof tilers were kind enough to install this for us as well. We're very happy with our colour choices so far. The added bonus is that we're not slaves to the weather anymore.

We're Guttered!

That's right the gutters and fascias were installed today. So glad I chose Woodland Grey gutters and Paperbark fascias. The colour combo looks really good together and offsets the brick nicely. Will look even better with the bricks cleaned.

Meanwhile, Ben met the supervisor from Monier Roof Tiles while he was visiting the site. He said the roof tiles will be delivered on Monday and installation will start on Tuesday. Yay, we'll have a roof by the middle of next week. Can't wait, we shouldn't be delayed by rain anymore. As you can see from the photos, the scaffolding is already set up for the roof tile installation. Going to buy some roof vents this weekend and have them installed next week as well. We did some hard work today as well. We stacked almost 300 bricks at the back of the site.  Going to use these for our post box and front wall.

This weekend my electrician son is going to wire the house up for the intercom system. Fingers crossed.

It's Finished!

Bricking is finally finished. The two front pillars were finished today and boy do they look good. Spoke to our SS and he advised that fascias and gutters will be in by Wednesday. I asked him if he can ensure that the extra bricks don't get thrown out when they do a site clean and he said it was no problem. Suggested we move them to the back of the site. So I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

Bricking @ 99.5%

As promised more photos from today.

Front, no pillars done as yet.

Left Side complete

View from front door, looks so long

Well, the bricking is 99.5% done now.  Drove up to the house this afternoon and the brickie was just driving away.  So he did do some work today after all.  Only the two pillars left to do in the front patio.  Well at least not another beautiful day was lost.

We then had a very busy Saturday sorting out the lighting.  We drove all the way to Ingleburn Lighting.  Nick was very helpful and explained all the different LED globes. He explained things like colour, beam angle and brightness. We have been to so many lighting "specialists" and always walked out more confused.  Finalised exactly how many we needed and managed to negotiate a good price.  I also decided on my fitting for over the benchtop.  Really like this one as it is satin chrome on the outside with an opal white inner lining.  It is 1.3m across.  

Chose these lights to hang from the ceiling on either side of my bed in the master bedroom,  instead of bed side lamps.  They are 300 mm in diametre and have a modern crystal look.

Bedrooms 3 and 4 will have brushed chrome ceiling fans with a light.  We also bought a brushed chrome fan for the alfresco and will add 4 down lights around that as well.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change!

So after nearly three weeks, including public holidays and LOTS of rainy days, our bricking is nearly finished.  They're really testing my patience.  Today was a perfect day but Ben went over there,  low and behold, no one was there to finish the last bit of bricking.  Maybe they ran out of cement or something, I thought.  Then again maybe they just decided to take a day off.  Was really not impressed.  "Don't stress", said Ben. " It's  like 99% finished.".  Well I want it to be 100% finished and soon.
It seems to be well worth the wait anyway because the brick layer is doing a great job.  Cannot find a fault as yet, a very neat and professional job.  Going to get him back after handover to do our post box as well.  Only thing is it might take him a week to finish, LOL.
I am more than happy with the bricks though  and glad we chose the off white mortar.  Amazing how big it all looks too. Come on now guys hurry up and finish this thing so we can get the gutters, fascias and roof on.  Cannot wait to see how the colours all come together.  Here are some pictures, will add more tomorrow:

Right Side of house

Rear of house with alfresco

Retail Therapy

The bad weather has only resulted in us resorting to some retail therapy this weekend.  Bought a few more things for our bedrooms.

Frameless mirror for Sandrika's room

2 cut glass candlestick holders
for my room

2 x 60cm by 30cm chandelier stickers
for Sandrika's room 

The update on the house is that the brickwork is more than half complete.  We went over to the site yesterday, Saturday and the bricklayer was busy working on the laying of  the plain bricks for the front portion which will eventually be rendered.  Hope the weather behaves for the next week so the bricking is completed soon.

We attended a Ponds Dreaming Art Workshop at The Ponds on Saturday morning and worked with the artist Jill Chism, who was commissioned to do the artwork for around the main lakeside park near the Blackthorn release.  Was a really interesting morning spent meeting other residents of the area and we participated in a brainstorming session on ideas of what was important to us in the area.  

Some of these ideas will be used in the artwork, which is being made from glass and stainless steel.  It will be lit up at night by LED lights.  I was really impressed with the artist and some of her previous work.  Looking forward to seeing the finished product.