The door between two worlds opens

I've been living a bit of an illusion ... it has been as though the renovation is a house on its own ... not really connected to the part I'm living in. Two very different worlds ... but today, for the first time, the door between the worlds was opened ... we have connection!!

The door was quickly closed again to keep out the heat :-) ... but gone is my illusion of a separate existance ... and hopefully soon there will be even less of a difference between the two - they are talking about putting the floorboards in!!!


Today I came home to find many of the cornices installed ... below is the laundry hallway (with manhole or womanhole!).
The bathroom is looking closer ... the hold up on the bath is the tap company sending the wrong tap thingie (they don't seem to appreciate my re-naming of tap parts?!?!). Hopefully tomorrow they will live up to their promises and actually turn up with the right bit ... can't see why they couldn't have posted it two weeks ago ... the whole "customer care" thing seems rather silly if the care takes a whole lot longer and distrupts building!!

The last of the windows are in ... the kitchen sink window and the bay windows ... oh ... and A door. Note: only one door ... we seem to have a case of the disappearing doors. One day the french doors are there, the next they are gone ... I look in the morning and watch them install them ... then they are gone by the afternoon ... so far I think they've gone in 3 times ... and still no doors (not sure I really want to ask!!).


One of my very exciting pickups this week (it is like Christmas with all the boxes arriving!) ... were the fabrics for the window seats. First up is the dining room ... the gold stripe is Warwick Port Norris Gold for the main window seat upholstery then cushions in: the creamy one that is above the blue is a gorgeous soft fabric (Warwick ), the houndtooth one is Warwick Grove Beach ... and there is one more cushion to go - a bright gold one.


The kitchen window seat fabrics ... missing the main upholstery fabric which is a light blue ticking stripe on white, and one of the cushion colours is missing (because I haven't picked it yet ... going to be a solid bright red) .... the other cushions are: Hoad Torquay Claret (the apple green motif one), Warwick Toulouse Cherrywood (the red pattern) and Warwick Provence Marina (the blue toile). I LOVE these colours!!! So exciting to see them together ... can't wait to see them on an actual window seat!!

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!

The first room!

Here it is ... the first room! The living room has been extended, and it is the only new section that is being lined with boards in the same way the old part of the house is. You can see near the french doors that they reused some of the old boards (which I'm happy with ... I wanted to recycle as much as I could).

The floorboards have arrived ... not quite the recycled boards I wished I could have ... the builder wasn't really into that concept!! Let's hope they look OK in the end.
I have finally ordered my rangehood ... that really was an icky decision ... nothing really was right ... so I've gone for one that has the fan on the outside of the house, to hopefully make it quieter. There was another one I would have liked ... unfortunately it wasn't going to be available until December ... and that wasn't really going to work (I could just see me trying to get it installed the day before Christmas!). The one I've chosen isn't quite big enough (those were twice the price) but given I don't really cook that many things that need the exhaust, hopefully it will be fine.

I'm starting to realise I'd better get my orders in if I want things installed before Christmas ... but it is a bit hard since I don't have a sealed roof yet ... and I can't measure windows when they don't actually exist! Curtains I think are going to be really important ... summer is going to be nasty and I'll need the block outs in before Christmas.

I've got a list of must haves before Christmas:
- air con for the kitchen
- solar hot water system
- carpet in the dining room
- window seat cushions
- new TV

I'm sure I'm forgetting something important!

Your first look at the full house

Whilst the weather was lovely they got quite a bit of the roof tin on ... and I finally got to see what the final look will be like. Gone is the little cottage side ... now it is a lovely big house!!

Below is the window that today made me cry in front of the builers (how very embarrassing!!) ....

&^*(E#&(@! architect!!! His lovely design on paper ... doesn't actually work in reality. It was supposed to match the existing windows (below) ... the specifications say "match existing windows" - but even the dimensions given don't match the existing window!

The red line shows the line of the veranda rafter ... the window was supposed to go up to where the open section is ... obviously ... not going to work. Soooooo frustrating!! If certain people had measured properly, if they had actually looked at the design, if they had actually thought!!!! I suppose I should have know - but I thought he knew what he was doing ... and that if I read something said "match" then it was going to ... match!! The pretty pictures (not sure they can be called plans) looked right.

The poor builder is fairly cross about it all (being nice of course!) ... other than 1 window, every single window in the specifications is wrong. He's been unable to order in the windows and the wall frames have had to have alterations.

We have the same rafter problem across the french doors going out from the kitchen and dining room - the builders had already agreed that the rafter will have to be cut so it doesn't block the door... there is no other alternative anyone can think up!

Weatherboards going on

Because I see it everyday sometimes it looks like there is no progress and no point taking photos ... but when looking through today's I realised there have been big changes and it is starting to look more and more like a house vs a frame.

More windows have gone in (and they fixed up the holes from the other day so I've got my other room back!). I was quite excited to see a new part of the veranda going up ... this part I'm going to try to work out how to turn it into a courtyard ... but it is a bit smaller than I was expecting.

The tin for the roof arrived on Friday ... but the weather expected this week is not so great so I doubt it will go on immediately.

Check out the countdown!!

Yup ... countdown is at zero ... completion date was supposed to be Saturday ... surprisingly enough it isn't done! Not even close!! And we're going to have quite a bit of delay this week ... the roof was supposed to be going on, but with high winds forecast ... it has been put off until next week.

Gives me a bit more time to search for various things ... roller screen fly doors, canopy roof for the bay windows and bath surrounds.

The canopy roof is being tricky ... looks like a custom job ... of course in the UK they have a zillion and one options!

Walls!!

The architect managed to come back in daylight ... and we went over the frame. I hope he knew what he was looking at, because I have noooo idea!! He seemed quite happy with everything. The builder was around so we went through a couple of issues I'd raised.

One issue I've been concerned about was the bay windows. I thought they were going to be sash windows but the builder pointed out that on the plan the markings indicate a casement window (I had no idea that is what those lines were). I'd sort of resigned myself that I must have not checked it over properly ... but I went back for one last look at the specs ... and on the window schedule it says "sash" ... so I wasn't wrong. The architect just made an error having sash on one document and casement on another.

After some discussions yesterday ... I'm getting my sash windows!! Yippeee!! I really didn't want fly screens inside the house ... and leaning against fly screens whilst sitting on the window seat wasn't something I thought would be nice. (oh ... and so much for the builder's comments that the windows were ordered and couldn't be changed ... he didn't even bring that up in front of the architect.

After more discussion we've also managed to reduce the amount of balkhead for the hallway section ... it is still going to look odd ... but the compromise should make it a tiny bit less obvious

By the end of the day we had the first lot of walls up ... the external weatherboards.

Also I finally got my shower screen for the ensuite ... it still is waiting on the proper vanity to come before it really is finished ... but it is my first "after" photo!!

I'm fuming - WRONG septic installed

Got home on Wednesday and looked out in the dark by torchlight ... hoping they'd have installed the septic during the day ... they had ... just the WRONG ONE!!!!

I'd done quite a bit of research when decided on the water treatment system I wanted, I'd asked around ... and made sure it was in the contract documents.

But ... not much help when they've dug a massive hole in the ground and installed it. Calling in the lawyers is not exactly going to help.

So who's fault is it?! well ... a little bit of a couple of people ... the builder for sending details on the wrong system (whilst all the while telling me "yes the xxx guy has been and checked it over, it isn't a problem to have the xxx system") and the architect for sending off the permit for the wrong system.

They're of course now selling me on the benefits of the other system ... but I'm just fuming at being presented with something that I've had no choice in and that they've done this behind my back ... and not the "accidental" we forgot to check the specs they're pretending.

Good things about being on site yesterday - tiler was there and we discussed the direction of the tiles (I'll get what I want) and he's going to do up a tile with some different grout colours so I can choose the one I like.

Had a meeting with builder and architect and, apart from my fuming, quite a few things were sorted - my worry with the windows not looking right seems to not be an issue and the builder is on it. There is a slight issue with the way the windows are hung - as I want them to be either opened at the top OR the bottom - not counterlevered by each other.

They poured some more concrete - just a small section of front veranda ... and some was left over so they've done a mini path for my dog enclosure ... I waited until it was nearly set and let the dogs run on it - cute little footie prints!! Not quite so cute: little puppy must have run across the front veranda when I wasn't looking - oops!!

Architect finally came up with the electrical plans ... which are all wrong!! Electrician is going to meet up with me next week and go through them all. Hopefully we'll be able to get them finalised quickly ... though I'm having a hard time looking through lighting websites - too many choices!!!

Ensuite is coming along nicely - they are saying possibly mid-next week for it to be complete.

Then they will smash the remaining part of the house down ... not that there is too much left to go, they've cleared out the inside. It is quite amusing, standing in the shower and, other than I've only got a lamp for light, it could be just like the house was before ... then I step out the door to chaos!