The overall look.....

The carpenter will be back tomorrow to do the cladding in the front & also the rest of the eaves, & anything else that needs doing.
I spent most of yesterday trying to find slumped toughened 12mm glass in quite a big size, for the top of the stairs, one of our customers gave me an estimate for the size that I wanted of around $10,000 I thought that my Husband would have fallen off his chair but as it's for something that he's not happy with, he will have to live with it!!!!!!
Anyway I eventually found some that I am happy with & they can slump it in one piece, which is what we need, so looks like everyone is happy cause I just love slumped glass.
So part of my sleepless night last night was because I am now worrying is this glass going to look ok????? Who said building a house was easy??? It wasn't me that's for sure!!!!

Top Balcony

Really happy with the colours so far, spent another sleepless night worrying about what is going where in the house, how many weeks have we got left?????
We have a dead rat somewhere in the walls at the rental house we are in OMG it is awful, it's somewhere near my side of the bed, my husband has been in the roof to try & find it but we think it's died inside the walls. I want 1 bedroom, my kitchen & a bathroom done at the new house so that I can move in NOW!!!!!!!

Top Story Cleaned

Yesterday the brick cleaner was there doing his little bit of magic, the top story has been cleaned, you can now see the difference between the two lots of bricks, so we are really looking forward to the bottom being cleaned & the scaffolding going down.
The painters were there early this morning & I went back over after they had done all that they could do, the timber on the balcony has been undercoated in "Dune" but we have picked "Ironstone" for them, I like them in "Dune" but with the stainless posts they will look better in the ironstone. Only time will tell on that one.

Front Translucent Side Lights.

The front door will be a double door & on either side we will have these translucent side lights. I wanted translucent so that no one could see from outside in (if that makes sense).
The timber frame will be painted ironstone to match the eaves.

The invisible Staicase

Looking from the front door to the back door. The staicase will go straight in front & we will lose the ladder, I know what you are thinking that ladder looks stylish, but it will have to go.
The inspection was done on Friday & it passed with flying colours, we were told that it was the best one that Howard had done for a long time. Well done to Wisdom on that & keep up the great work.

Alfresco Area.

Note to one's self don't take photo's where you can see yourself in the window!!!!
I hope that I haven't put too many photo's up this morning but I was asked to put some more on the blog.
We were over there yesterday as we had a family party for a Birthday that happened during the week, we had gone out looking at furniture on Saturday & the upshot is we have the door in the WIR in our eldest son's room on the wrong side.
I have sent a email with a please help us message & am waiting to hear from them. What it means is that if we don't move it he won't have enough room for his queen size bed & the desk that he has picked.
I know that it will cost us heaps but we have to fix it now as we will have no chance once the gyprock goes in.
The electrician is going to have to come back out so we will have to pay for that as well as the $500 late variation fee.

Front Office

Scaffolding still in place, tiles still to go on the roof above.

More Ailens!!!

Alien Invasion!!!!

The ducting for the air conditioning goes all through the roof & it also comes down in between some of the walls in the linen cupboard & eldest son's WIR.
It looks like there has been an invasion from outer space.

Main Bathroom

This is waiting for that all important spa bath, not for me but for my Mum & Husband, I hate bath's so I would be happy not to have one in the house, I am sure that the kids will have a go as soon as it goes in!!!!

Inside the Kitchen

This wall & what goes on it will be where I spend most of my time. I love to cook & I can't wait for my new oven, induction cook top & the most important thing in the world a Dishwasher!!!!.
You can see where the ducting for the range hood is & also the power points. There was a telephone point there as well that we didn't notice on the plan (we moved it into the cupboard under the stairs) so they have since taken that out. So if you ever ring & leave a message & I don't get back to you that's cause I have forgotten to check the phone in the cupboard under the stairs!!!!

Inside the Garage

Not much to report on from last week, the electrician came back & fixed a couple of things that were in the wrong place & added an extra light that we needed in the Alfresco area. We have the fan going out there plus 1 light but after looking at it, we thought that we would need another light, we have made that area bigger by 1.1 metres, so we didn't give it a thought as to how many lights we would need.
It is really hard to judge something on a plan & it's not until you see it up that you think maybe we could have changed that or put it somewhere else.

Back of the house

We are getting there, Inspection is booked for Friday, fingers crossed that everything will come up ok.
We went out looking at furniture on the weekend, trust our kids the bedroom suites that they picked were a few thousand dollars each, that is on top of the $2000 beds that they got!!!! We found a really nice outdoor setting for the back area, they said that they will hold it till we are ready to move in, so we will probably pay for that & that's one thing off our list to get.
The kitchen handles all arrived & I have packed them in plastic sealed bags by the rooms that they are for & labeled them all, I am thinking that it is not possible to get them wrong but we will have to wait and see with that one.
Still heaps to think about, the window covering are driving me nuts, eldest son wants plantation shutters for his room, which would mean that the 3 windows at the back need to be the same, I am thinking duel rollers for the front windows, but I will wait until the skirting boards go in. Maybe newspaper would look good & I can change it weekly so that they don't get bored with what they are reading.

Electrical's went in yesterday.

All the electrical's were done yesterday, I got a call from our SS to say that there was a problem with the media Room & could I go over & have a look at it, well the plumbing has been put where the downlights were to go, so what can we do? Nothing!!!! so we had to change the amount of downlights cause they won't fit ...... Anyway we had already paid for the downlights so they were moved into our bedroom.
So note to anyone else building this design make sure they leave room for the downlights when they put all the plumbing in.
The house looks so different with all the electrical's hanging out of the walls & from the ceilings.
I have booked the Building Inspector for next week as it looks like we will be about a week away from lock-up.
The electrician said that we should be in the house in around 8 weeks...... 8 weeks that is fantastic if that happens, the cladding & doors still have to go on.
Bring it on, we had visitors last night & I must have washed up 4 times, I am so looking forward to that Dishwasher!!!!

Garage Roof On.

We just popped in to have a look to see what had been done & the tiles are now on the garage roof. I am not sure if the back is finished they were up on that roof yesterday. It is really windy so I would hate to have the job of laying tiles in this weather, we just spent most of the day out at the NASSA Cross- Country at Macarthur Anglican College at Cobbitty & I thought that we would all be blown down the hill, both our kids ran in it, I use the word ran lightly the youngest ran all of his 2klms, but the older one walked most of it he only got into this level cause he took the right way home & came 5th in his School Carnival (and that was much to his horror).

Roof tiles completed

The roof tiles have been completed on the top floor, the bottom ones still have to be done but the scaffolding is in the way, they still have to put in the cladding, so I think that the scaffolding is there for that purpose.
I went over today & the Solar panels were being installed on the roof for the hot water system, so that's another roof job that needs the scaffolding. I remember when they put the scaffolding up I was really happy cause it meant that the bricks were going to be put up on the top floor, now I will be really happy for them to take it down, they just can't win can they?
Had a few hassles with the handles for all the cupboards, the ones that I picked were out of stock but there was a shipment due in at the end of March which I thought I would get them off that delivery, well I rang to order them today and they have no stock with stock due in 4 weeks. So I have to pick something else, when I was overseas I looked at all the handles that they had but as I didn't know the quantities then I couldn't get any, and I also couldn't find exactly what I wanted in Stainless. They had it in Aluminum but not Stainless & that was what I had to have. The supplier is sending me samples of one that I have picked but of course they are more expensive than the first ones I picked, oh well we will be stuck at home & never going out again with what I have upgraded on this house!!!!

Air-Conditioning Installed

Friday was the day that all the ducting for the air-conditioning got installed. It is everywhere all through the bottom story & also in the linen cupboard & the wardrobes. It looks like silver aliens have landed & exploded in all the rooms.
This is a photo of the kitchen, the duct hanging is where the vent will go there & the one that keeps on going is for the leisure room (that will be our main living area) though I am thinking it will be my area as the kids & hubby will want the Media Room, (lucky we will have Foxtel in both rooms) so I can watch all my cooking shows.
They also spray painted the floor with fluro pink paint, so that when the gyprock goes in they know where they vents are to be cut (well hopefully it will work that way).

Roof Tiling Continues....

I just popped over at lunchtime & the roof tilers were busy doing their stuff. The roof above the 4th Bedroom was tiled & all the tiles for the other sides were sitting up on the roof in plies.
They said that they would take 2 - 3 days to finish, & then they would have to come back as the scaffolding is in the way for them to tile the Alfresco Area & the back Leisure room.
We have a broken window in the front, it was smashed with one of the timber batons, I have paid for an extra call out service on the windows (as we made a mistake & didn't make some of the windows translucent) so I am waiting to see if I get some sort of credit as they would have had to get them out to fix the damaged window (will wait & see what happens!!!!)
The kitchen company needed our microwave trim kit so I organised for it to be delivered to them but when they opened it, unfortunatly it was damaged. I called the supplier & they are going to have to organise a replacement for us & send it out to the kitchen place. They said it looked like it was second hand, the stainless on it was all scratched and the plastic was broken, so much for a new one in a box.
Our stainless steel stand offs for the glass balustrade arrived last week, my husband was overseas & I opened them to find them damaged. I emailed them straight away to tell them I was not putting them in our house & what were they going to do about it? After my husband got involved they are being remade & they will be air freighted again but this time better packed. These were specially made to match the size of the handrail bracket so I am rather dissapointed in them being so badly damaged.