Dying of thirst? Find a rose!

Today I'd planned to chop down the big Cecil Brunner type rose at the front of the house ... it's got a bit out of control and was wrapped around one of the veranda posts - which needed painting. Good thing that was my plan ... I'd gone and got the tools, to come back and find the builder and painter considering what was going to be done with it today!! Once I got it down to just a tiny bit ... everyone noticed ... the rose was DRIPPING! One of the builders put a bowl underneath to see how much was coming out ... the bowl filled over! So if you're dying of thirst ... find a rose and chop it down!! (dead soft toy donated by the puppy to complete the scene!!) Lots of other developments have happened over the last couple of days ... finally we have windows in the dining room. Click on the outside window photo to see the larger version ... you might be able to see the detail of the weatherboards they've put between each window. The bath frame is in ... can't wait to see it all tiled up!! The builder was saying he's going to put some insulation around the bath in the frame ... which might help keep the bath warm!

The back door has glass in the panels - a door would be lovely too! With the veranda posts being painted I can now see how they are turning out ... I did really like them when they were white ... but the green does look fabulous too! Maybe in a couple of years I might change them back to white. The solar hot water was supposed to go in this week ... but it has been put off for another week. It is such a pity it has to ruin this pretty roof line!

Slow going

Things are still very slow around here ... not many of the original crew working on site ... and days when no one turns up! The roof is at least on and apparently water tight - rain will tell!! Gutters are nearly done, some down pipes and I might start getting some water in my big tank. The plastering that was supposed to be done the other week ... hasn't happened.

The big thing this week was the arrival of the bay window roof bits ... I've been dying to see how they would turn out ... they look a bit smaller than I was expecting ... but they certainly do finish off the bay windows! Much prettier than other options I've seen.

Below is the corner of the french door to the kitchen ... the fun with the veranda has meant that the corner doesn't work properly ... it will be changed again from this ... hopefully I'll get a bit of architrave around the window - as it is going to look odd with the architrave being dark green.

Solar hot water system should be arriving tomorrow ... the joiner was supposed to come out last week and discuss the kitchen etc ... he still hasn't arrived. Christmas is looking more and more like a BBQ :-(

One post I missed doing last week was after talking to the interior designer ... we spent a couple of hours going through fabric choices ... a fairly difficult task, nothing seems quite right! I have decided on about 11 fabrics though!!!! Just got to hope they are all available now! I chose the colours for the curtains in the dining room, the dining room window seat ... and the kitchen window seat ... still to be confirmed are the kitchen curtains ... the colours just weren't quite right (it seems so simple ... just a shade of cream!).

After picking out all the fabrics (and not thinking too much about how much it cost) ... I thought I'd google the fabrics to put together a document of them all (and maybe share them here) ... didn't find many of the important ones so the others don't seem very relevant ... but whilst googling I found myself a bargain ... one of the fabrics which I need most of, I found on ebay ... the right amount of fabric ... and the cost for the entire amount was less than a 1/4 of what I was going to pay!!

I'm currently trolling ebay looking for the perfect kitchen table ... that'd be nice Christmas present to myself!

Busy bee ... quick decisions!

Last week talking to the builder I asked if there were any decisions coming up that he needed me to make (I was thinking it was a bit quiet) ... no ... plenty of time yet until the next lot of stuff he assured me, really it would be weeks away ... of course ... a couple of days later I get "I need to know exactly where to put your plumbing ... tomorrow"!

So off plumbing shopping I've gone. Lots of decisions ... that got quite tricky because I don't want mixer taps everywhere ... the world is completely orientated to mixer taps ... I highly recommend developing a liking for them if you want to renovate because it would be so much easier if I could!!

I've had to give in for one tap - which will be a twinner tap ... so still two levers for hot and cold, but only one spout section thingie (just showing off my expertise in tricky building technical terms!). After going around the shops and despairing at the differences between the budget (thank you Mr Architect) and the reality of the prices ... I decided that I would just seeeeee how much it would be for my dream taps (the ones I'd agonised over for the ensuite because they went over budget) ... just one little quote so I could squash the dream ... and ... YAY!!! They've come down in price (clever me not ordering all the taps earlier!) and now are the equivalent of the others I was looking at (still a bit over budget)!!!

I think I could invent a new reality TV show for Mr Architect ... it goes something like this .... you've been given a budget of $500 for items that usually cost $1000 ... you must find something that fits the style of the house, that doesn't look ugly, that works, comes in on budget, is deliverable to woop woop, fits into a space designed by someone who didn't think ... oh ... and you've got to find it within the next hour!

I think that would be quite entertaining for me ... would be quite fun to watch someone else scramble (especially if he was the silly one who put the silly budget together in the first place!). I'm thinking of donating my rangehood problem to him ... still no luck solving it!

Other wins were the window in the bathroom ... OK so I accused Mr Architect of stuffing that one up ... but it wasn't him :-) ... the builders had changed the window, but not centred it on the wall (had nicely centered it on an oustide wall that wont be relevant once the weatherboards are up!!). So ... they should be moving it!

Today's urgent decisions were the tiles for the laundry etc ... luckily I have a wonderful friend who doesn't mind me copying her fantastic ideas ... so I'd already thought about using her tiles ... and since I had to tell them immediately what I was going to use .... I rang up to confirm they are still available ... and could hand over the tile we'll be using within the timeframe.

Next urgent decision ... hot water systems ... to gas boost or not to gas boost ... that is the question!! Definitely going solar ... but which sort?! Off to research a bit more!

Oh ... and the builders got a lurvely box of chocolates from my chocolate dipping class ... empty box got returned with a note of thanks saying they were "swell" ... must be the irish coming out!!