WHEN I GROW UP .....

..... I want to be a tradie.
Specifically, a Concreter or a Fencer.
Perhaps both.
That way when I call myself for a quote I will either a) answer my phone or b) return the phone call.
And when I make suitable time with myself to go out to the house to quote, I might even bother to turn up.
Grrrrr, what is it with some people???? Obviously not in need of the work, money or a good reputation.

Fencer #1 supposedly was going to the block 2 weeks ago and was going to pop the quote in the mail. Perhaps it is catching a ride on a snail because I'm still waiting. Strike 1.

Fencer #2 came highly recommended and impressed at the onset with his ability to return phone calls. We made arrangements to meet last Saturday morning. I kept the appointment, he unfortunately did not. And he has not been seen or heard from since. Strike 2.

Concrete guy was initially hard to pin down to a time, but I finally managed to organise a meeting with him. Not the most convenient of times for myself, but I was willing to be flexible, so again off I trotted with a tired 1 y.o in tow. I arrived at the scheduled time and I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised to find that I was there alone. Half an hour later I thought I should call him just to make sure he wasn't lost or something. Sorry, he said, can't get there today. Ummmmm, and you were going to tell me this when?????? Strike 3.

Big mistake on my part to give this guy a second chance at getting our business. Another no show at the re -scheduled appointment. WTF? Strike 4.

At least the " Blinds and Curtains " man turned out to be gold. Professional, punctual and reasonably priced. At least one thing is organised!!!!

Not that I probably need to be in too much of a hurry. Progress over the last 3 weeks has been very slow indeed.

I had an inspection with SS 2 1/2 weeks ago. Let's call it a Clayton's Lock-up inspection - the Lock -up inspection you have when you are not actually at Lock - up ( on going missing roof drama. )

He told me then that the roof would be complete within days, the painter would be onsite in 1 week ( and would take about a week ) then the tiler would be in for roughly 3 days work. Meaning that right about now we should have a roof in the front bedroom, freshly painted walls and tiled wet areas. Well, 1 out of 3 ain't so bad I suppose. They have done the roof, but it was only finished off on Tuesday!!!!! Hence the very wet slab in that room. God knows what sort of condition the plaster is in.

Oh, and they have flipped one of the Rumpus Room doors now to give us a nice matching set.

And they have ripped out the wall between the Laundry and the Hallway which was framed up into the wrong position, then plastered over in the wrong position. Fellas, the lady with the baby on her hip could tell a long time ago that those Laundry taps weren't in the right spot just by looking at that them. Couldn't you have figured it out, armed with a tape measure and all?

Thankfully the BSS inspection picked it up. Not so pleased that the expensive Independent Inspection that supposedly included a fancy " laser light measure " to check room dimensions did not. :-(

Oh, and the Bricks have been washed...finally.

Looks great for the most part. Does it have to be perfect? I'd like it to be perfect, DH thinks I'm being too picky. A few bricks now have holes in them after the high pressure wash. Is this normal and/or to be expected?

And there is an area in the alfresco that looks a bit wonky, for want of a better word.

Here are some pics....



AUSTRAL'S HAWTHORN BRICKS WITH FLUSH OFF- WHITE MORTAR



From the front

From the back

From the side

Looking " not quite right " to me in the Alfresco. Hmmmmm.......

So, that is about it from me at the moment. ( Sorry J for not having more to report, lol! Hopefully you're the one that will be full of news tonight! ;-)

Good luck with your builds, decorating, landscaping, concreting, fencing etc wherever you may be.... hope you are seeing more progress than us!

K.

EENY, MEENY, MINY, MO......

.....Which way up should this door go????

Answer : Hedge your bets, put one each way and you're guaranteed of being at least 50% correct. Must beat being totally wrong, but still, you've gotta laugh. Hehehe.... By the way, this is the entrance to the Rumpus Room.

So, fixing continues at a rapid pace. Looks like I could quite easily get the fixing invoice before the one for Lock up is paid! They are really moving so, so fast now that I'm worried we might miss something along the way. I've booked in an inspection with SS early next week to go over the Lock up stage, so I'd better take a little list of queries with me. Couldn't believe it when he said he expects to have the painter in in 1-2 weeks!!!! 8-o

Here is the Laundry door - replaced after the first one grew legs and walked away.

Porcher Heron Basins installed in the Master ensuite.

The main Bathroom's Porcher Heron Basin..... shame they put it in the Powder Room

Here's the Porcher Kado Cirque Inset Basin meant for the Powder Room and popped into the Bathroom- oops!

Appliance Bench in the Pantry - " Sand Pebble ".

Still missing part of the roof in Bedroom 5!

Robe doors are in.

Architraves have commenced......

... quite a lot of Skirting Boards are in.....

....and most of the Internal Doors have now been hung.

The front has had a little bit of a tidy up.

Apologies for the darkness of the photo. It's really hard to do a mid week inspection that we can both get to at the same time. Bring back Daylight Savings!!!!

At least we got to see a great sunset from the Park out the back. :-)

Surely this pace can't continue. Or can it? I'm all for progress, but not at the expense of quality.

Funny thing is it all seems to be going so well, and I'm so paranoid that this isn't meant to be the case ( Hi Liana! ).

High quality in a reasonable time?? Well it is what we paid for.....time will soon tell if we get it!

Have a good weekend! ;-)

K.

Bricks, Plaster and........

Hello all!

I have a few updates tonight......

Firstly....Bricking has finished! At least for the most part I think so!

We are very happy with our choice of Bricks, and the boys appear to have done a good job.

The mortar joins look slightly "chubby" in some parts, but on closer inspection it seems that this is just mortar overkill covering some of the Brick's edges, so fingers crossed it comes up even better after a clean.









Front facade finished. I like the Bricks so much it seems a shame to render them.

Temporary Front Door in place.

Finished in the Alfresco too.

Rear of the house ( Master Bedroom windows & WIR ).

My bum ain't gonna fit through that little gap! :-o

We even have Window sills.
So, just need a door on the Laundry, and I guess we will be at Lockup! :-) And then we should expect the invoice! :-(

Also, my lovely Internal access door from the Garage has been flipped!!!! Big panels to the top, small panels to the bottom. And a door handle just at the right height for an inquisitive 1 year old. Bummer!

Secondly......

We've been plastered!!!!!

The whole house is done!

These guys move quick.

We went by the house Monday night to check out the Insulation that was scheduled for that day, but nothing had been done. :-(

By the time I got back at 9.30am on Wednesday, the Plaster was up!!!!

Hmmm, is all the Insulation in???? Not too sure. I did a bit of "thumping" on some of the walls today as an experiment. The walls that I put Soundscreen in last weekend sound very "dull" when thumped, and sort of "sturdy". The other walls, the ones that we paid to have done for us, sound very "hollow".....just like the walls that we were not having any Soundscreen in.

Hmmmmm.....I feel an Independent Inspection via the roof space coming on!!!

Anyway, here are some plastering pics....

Master shower with niche.

Bedroom 5. Still missing part of the roof, hence the wet floor. Hmmmm.....

Looking into the Master Bedroom.

Rumpus Room.

Lounge Room.

Master Bedroom again.

Dining Room.

Games Room.

And Thirdly.....I'm sure there was something else that I needed to report.........

Oh, that's right, we have Cabinets!!!!!!

That was a real surprise. We thought we were going to check out the Bricks and Plaster, only to discover that we have a Kitchen!!!!!

.......with a very ugly and noticeable join in the rear of the Island Bench. Didn't notice that design feature in the display home. Disappointing.

Love the front view though....minus the knobs! The colour is meant to be "Parchment", which is a tad creamy, although in this light it just looked white. We didn't like any of the "knobs" on offer, so we just picked the smallest ones we could and plan to replace them after handover, perhaps with something like this....



....or this.....

Even the cornices are done! Concerto 90mm.

Had enough yet? There's more!

Cabinets in the ensuite.

I think this looks quite bizarre. The cupboards are really short, and that plinth thingie underneath is really large. Why can't they just make the cupboards longer, with perhaps 4 drawers??? Hehehe, they probably do and I just missed that option. D'oh

Polar White cabinets, Limestone Benchtop.

That will be the loo, that little room off to the left.

But wait!!! There's more! Cabinetry in the Powder Room - Oyster Linea.

Not to be left out....the Laundry all decked out! Oyster Linea again.

A door would be nice.....

Overhead cupboards.

Under bench cupboards.

...and a bit of both.

Main Bathroom.
Sad looking little thing. And there's that plinth thingie again. What's with that??? It even looks to be a different colour.

OK, that's it from me for now.

All in all, quite a productive week in the life of our Illoura.

What's next??? Brick cleaning?? Skirts and Archs?? Painting??

They've moving so quickly now, I can't keep up. I should be careful what I wish for! ;-)

Have a great week,

K.