New Retaining Walls!

Over the long weekend, our very dear family came out to stay and they built our retaining walls. They look amazing!! We are so pleased and grateful to them for all their help and hard work (in very hot, dusty conditions too!).

We will probably add another row of sleepers... silly me didn't order enough. I ordered them from a sawmill in Epping (which I found on ebay). They only cost $16 each for 2.4m x 75mm thick ones, a pretty good price, methinks! 

I can't wait to lay the drainage and fill them with dirt, lay the irrigation and put in lots of beautiful plants... it will be stunning!

Thanks again guys.... you rock!! 

More Progress

It's funny... sometimes I think there is nothing much happening with the house. I drive past and there is no one there. It's a bit frustrating given the fact that we get evicted in just under two months! However, yesterday I spoke to our supervisor and I felt good again! He said that we are getting very close to the end. He even gave me a date for our walk-through with them... 11th Feb!! I couldn't believe it... to me there still seems so much to do. So, I went to have a look tonight, and this is what I saw: 

OK, this makes me cross. The controls for the heating/ cooling are in the most ridiculous spot. Here is a nice niche in the wall for our book case, and they go and put the controls right in the middle. In the display home they are over the air vent in the hall near the bathroom... much more sensible and far less unsightly. There is nothing on our electrical plan saying where the controls go, so I am not sure if we have grounds to complain... but if you look at the display home, which is supposed to be the same unless stated otherwise......

So I will ask tomorrow if it can be moved. If it can, then good on Carlisle, great customer service... if it can't, I will be very disappointed, but accepting. 

They have taken down the top row of cupboards so they wouldn't be damaged when the forgotten bulkhead went in (thanks again for pointing that out Andrew). The afterthought bulkhead went in a day or two ago... big improvement! Beneath the cupboards you can see where the downlights above the bench will go... and if you look down further you will see....

THE CAESARSTONE BENCHTOPS!! 

Aren't they bewdiful?? 

Our en-suite is pretty much finished too... I can't wait for the bath to go in, but that's won't be 'til the end. It doesn't look as big as I remember it though. 

And today they started finishing off the facade. You can see the start of the pergola here. I can't wait until they get the liquid copper paint on the front doors!!

Anyway, that's it for today. It's been a bitch of a day, and I don't feel like writing at all. 

Hopefully there will be more to post after the weekend. We're having a bit of a working bee in the backyard, so that should be productive!

On To It!

Today the feature tiles went into our shower (laid the correct way!). It's hard to see them here, but they are a really nice tile, browny colour with light grey pattern in them. I must remember to take a close up photo. 

They have also added the grout to the floor tiles. I can't wait until they are cleaned so we can see what they are like! This is standing in the hall looking back at the kitchen. It's about 8pm, so there is a lot of evening sun coming in. 

It took me a little while to notice everything that had been done today, but look what I found!! How exciting! For someone like me who is unable to tolerate the cold, this was a welcomed surprise! 

The little problems mentioned in the last post have been rectified already... impressive! 

This is how the tiles in the guest bathroom shower should look. They have also tiled the surround for the bath and relaid the tile above the vanity the correct way (horizontally):

Back To It Then!!

They're finally back at work after the Christmas break. It really dragged for us because we are so keen to get into our new house. Adding to the anxiety, the house we are renting sold last week. After being assured that we'd get 90 days, we got a letter yesterday saying it was only 60. Honestly, after what we've been through, I'd never get Stockdale and Leggo to sell my house! 

Anyway, back to far more exciting things!!

The tilers have been very busy. The floor tiles are down now. We decided that we would leave the tiles in the hall way, as that area would get a lot of foot traffic and it would show wear in no time. They have also started tiling the laundry (below and bathrooms).

The tilers have  made a big mistake here. The feature tile, you may agree, looks ridiculous! It was supposed to be laid vertically. From what the site supervisor said they seems to find horizontal and vertical a bit confusing! Anyway, I am sure it has been fixed by now!  They also laid the feature tile about the vanity vertically... and wait for it, they cut them in half so they would be the right height!! How funny! That will be fixed too. 

The following pics are tiny, but they show the awesome work our excavating guy did over the break. You may remember from previous posts that we had a pretty revolting site cut... well not any more folks!! The redgum sleepers for the retaining wall will go in over the Australia Day long weekend. It is going to look amazing!! 

 A flat part of the backyard. Now we just have to chose an appropriate laws seed and get it all nice and lush for the kids to play on... easier said than done, I'm sure!!

So, it looks like things are well underway again. I hope we will be in sometime in Feb. They have to fix the kitchen where the plasterer has omitted the bulkhead above the cupboards for some reason. Thanks for pointing that out Andrew!! Sometimes I wonder if they read the plans at all!!

The baths have arrived. The carpet goes in just after Australia Day and then its just the appliances to go in, some electrical and plumbing work. I think that's it, but it's probably not!!

Very, very exciting times!!