Sunday, May 3, 2009

Cabling

Driveway

A welcome omen

April 22, 2009

Carpet

April 14, 2009

Funny, I don't remember ordering purple carpet...?












Of course, that's just the underlay. Here's the real thing in NZ wool:

Personal touches

April 11, 2009

Handover Day

April 9, 2009





Tiling, letterbox

April 8, 2009


Fence

April 7, 2009

splashback

April 3, 2009

Colour is "shimmer blue" on float glass. There are hints of grey and green, creating a teal blue effect, which looks fresh and clean against the white interior.

Shelves, drawers and niches

March 31, 2009


Driveway and alfresco

March 24, 2009


Lighting

March 10, 2009

Brocaded drum pendant in the bedroom offsets the feature wall in Dulux "Regal Violet"












Pendants over the kitchen bench provide great task lighting while the fluoro downlights fill the kitchen with clear white light.




Embossed timber fans for the bedrooms






Sleek chrome fans in the living areas







Elegant glass covered fluoro for the study





Solartube - so bright it needed sunglasses (aka pearl dome and dimmer)

Front door

After all the agonising over sizes, colours, glass types, and how to structure the side lights, here it is...our stunning new front door (minus the final lock)!

Hallelujah! It's almost done!

March 6, 2009

Painting, Retaining Wall

March 2, 2009

It's starting to look like a real home, rather than a worksite, with painting completed inside and out.

Interior: Dulux "Whisper White"
Exterior: Colourbond "Surfmist" and "Ironstone"















There was an issue re the cost of the retaining wall. The plans clearly showed it, but it would appear the builder overlooked costing it into in the contract. I understood that it was included under the terms of the promotion I bought under and was surprised to learn that it could end up being a costly variation. To their credit, the builder accepted that an error had been made and bore the cost.

Tiling begins

February 23, 2009

Wet area tiling begins. I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing with 200mm tiles on the diagonal in the shower recesses and 450mm tiles laid square on the main floor, but they ended up looking great, especially after the shower screens went in. The wall tiles look really elegant.










Portico Arch

February 18, 2009

The final piece of the portico was put into place. The original design was for a fully bricked arch clad in stacked stone, but I preferred the rendered look. To brick across the top piece would have required some ugly metal supports, so it was decided to do a faux top piece in blue board before rendering the lot. I really like the look as it reminds me of the trapezoidal Incan arches of Macchu Picchu, a theme that will be carried through with my photographs and mementos of South America.


The home run

Well, it's been a long hiatus, and since my last post the house was finished and we have moved in! Yay!

The house looks fantastic and I can't say enough good things about our builder, Ausbuild. Everything seems to have been done above and beyond standards, any issue that arose was dealt with promptly, and the site supervisor was a gem. When I compare my experience with those of my near neighbours I realise just how fortunate we were.

Sadly, my posts will lack a little contemporaneous spontaneity, but I thought I'd post some pics anyway to keep the story flowing and update you all on the "home run".

Friday, February 13, 2009

kitchen and bathrooms take shape

A burst of activity after the Christmas break saw all the cabinets go in to the kitchen, bathrooms and laundry. We're now waiting for tiling to begin.








caesarstone benchtop


overheads in the laundry

towel shelves in the ensuite


black glass mosaic feature tiles