Here's something you don't see everyday.....

.....a house in it's lived-in, untidy, true state! lol I'm either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid for posting pics like these, but we live here, no use pretending it looks like a disply home when it doesn't. lol

You can all laugh (I do!!), I took these pics on the spur of the moment, couldn't be bothered cleaning up.... so this is how it looks most of the time. haha
We have no artwork up, no decorations or lamps etc yet, it is very bare. Nothing we had really suits this house so it will be a long work in progress just picking up things as I find them.

We have no fences and three dogs, bit of a nightmare at the moment. One of the dogs pulled over my Mum and shattered her arm so she had to have surgery and had steele pins/plates inserted in her arm. She can't do much, and I can't go anywhere for any length of time becasue she can't take the dogs out to the toilet with one arm. It's been fun. lol

Add to that the construction, dust flying everywhere all the time.... it's a losing battle trying to keep the place clean. A quick sweep everyday, a quick dust everyday... that just has to do for the time being.

Splashback at night with undercupboard lights... they finally work now!


Family room... all the furniture will eventually be replaced (except the lounge suite). Just need to find the right coffee table, then side tables and a new entertainment unit will be bought to suit. It's a struggle to find just the right coffee table, so that has to be bought first I think. Our redi-shades are working wonders in this room for the time being. And that little fan is all we've needed on the hot days. High ceilings are awesome for keeping the place cool.


Dining area... until we get window coverings, I've had to chuck a table cloth on the table as the sun was going to damage the varnish. I'm looking for some high quality fake Birds of Paradise for here... can't seem to find any though. Note our sparkling clean windows! lol


Pantry... I haven't been able to set up my stuff under the bench. They still have to come back and install a support beneath the bench to the floor. We'll probaly add another higher shelf as well.... didn't even think of getting the builder to do it to be honest.


Internet/phone nook.... random junk collection point... at least the crap is off the kitchen bench though!


Second TV area... my son had free reign over this area, he picked the furniture. There still a little bit to be unpacked here, but that's his job and problem. lol


Apparently this is a lounge room... under all the crap. Apart form the boxes of books in the study, these are the last boxes to be unpacked.... until we get all the crap from the storage place.


Another new pet...


This table was wiped the day before believe it or not.... dust city here!


All because of these guys... this is apparently where our driveway should go, except they collapsed it and flattened it so the earth movers could go acrosss our yard.


We can't put a driveway in until it's all finished....

Back on-line to see some really classy stuff.

I am back on-line. Thanks for some of the lovely comments after the previous post from most of you.

As for the two anonymous comments...... it must take an amazing amount of bravery to post such comments under the guise of Anonymous. What fortitude, what integrity, what guts it must take. I wouldn't know. I have made many comments on the internet, some may have been harsh, some may have been out of line, some may have been unfair.... but ALL of them had my name or moniker attached. I was willing to stand by and discuss my comments, discuss in person if need be. I have never, on the internet, or in any other medium, hidden behind the tag of "anonymous". I may be a bitch, but at least I am happy to be me all the time.

If you are going to post on my blog, have the integrity and guts to attach your name. IP adresses are traceable.

And for the record I asked to be removed from the forum. I wasn't banned. And this kind of crap was the exact reason I asked to be removed. **insert rolling eyes emoticon**.

A Finished Kitchen.... Finally!!!!

Our kitchen is finally finished. This is pre-clean, so it is a bit messy looking..... oh let's be honest, it'll be this filthy most of the time. The splashback is Dulux Army Issue and I love, love, love it! It has really pulled everything together for me. The Stipple Hemp has taken on a slightly green/grey tinge now it is wedged between the tiles and the splashback. The bench is Quantum Quartz and the colour is Coral Reef.

And our drainerless sink is in. This was a stupidly priced upgrade, but it couldn't be done afterwards and I am so glad we bit the bullet and did it. The sink doesn't dominate the bench and we have more stone and more usable working area.

Definitely not everyone's idea of a perfect kitchen, but I am really happy with it. The colours don't seem to show up properly.... the splashback is quite green/grey in person.

Lots and lots of little things have been done.

The roof has been fixed up, we have mirrors, laundry tap, the correct downpipes and carpet!

We took the flooring promo with Porter Davis. We are not expecting this carpet to last forever. We'll get a few years out of it then install something of higher quality. Most likely a pure wool Cav Brem. But this is more than adequate for now and I love the charcoal colour.

Bedroom 2.


Lounge


Master bedroom. Looks like it has a slightly blue tinge, but the tinge is actually greenish.


We have scribbles over the wall and ceiling where things need to be fixed up.


The joins in the playroom are the worst. But they have picked up pretty much everything I could find.


Full width mirror across the vanity and bath. Tiling still needs to be fixed up here, but the tilers will be back to do the pantry splashback after the stone bench goes in, so they'll do it all at the one time. They have been back to finish off some grouting though.


Laundry with vegie sprayer. Much easier to clean the animal's dishes and also to clean the sink itself. So glad we did this.


Laundry now with grouted tiles.


Fixed up roof. The pointing stuff just needs to be coloured.


All I can see to be done is benchtops, sink and splashback.... and minor fix up bits and pieces. I'm looking forward to seeing the kitchen completed.

Lots of fit-off pics.

We are getting there slowly. The cupboard fit-offs are done.... robes, linen, broom and butler's pantry.

Nearly all of the plumbing fit off has been done and the plumbers have managed to smash a heap of tiles. Some necessarily (back of the toilets), some unnecessarily. We are running very, very, very low on tiles and there are none left to purchase anywhere. If anyone by any chance has grabbed a sample of Ricocco Mocha and they no longer need it, could they please let me know? I am that desperate. :(

Powder room toilet. It will have to be replaced, the lid is attached to the toilet out of alignment. It is very noticable in person, not so noticable in this pic.


Powder room.


Ensuite toilet. Lid is also attached out of alignment, but not as obvious.


Ensuite shower with dumper rain head and also rail/hand held shower head. We have mixer taps everywhere. The tap shown at the basin we have in the bathroom and powder room as well.


Main bathroom shower with rail/hand held shower.


One of the minor bedroom robes. All shelves have been raised to 1950mm to allow for easier double fit out later.


One of the WIRs in the master bedroom.


Walk in linen.


Other side of walk in linen.


Butler's pantry shelving. We definitely didn't want the support pole here as the bench will be Quantum Quartz. Our SS was very good in ensuring we got the under shelf supports instead.


Sink space in the pantry.


Our render colour has been applied.... and I despise it. It's Self-Destruct, but I have a feeling it is wrong. Didn't have my sample card to check. But whether this is right or wrong IT IS GOING!!!!


Our handover will not be November 30th. My SS was not happy head office had forwarded that date. It looks like second week of December now, but that's not a problem as my son has to finish school down here anyway.

Oh sh*t!

I went up to the house today as the kitchen was to be rectified. Well some of it is rectified.... and some of it isn't. Our kitchen was delivered on the 10th of September and installed on the 11th. I informed everyone straight away that there were problems. They have not left enough clearance for the pot drawers to clear the oven handles. I was very specific when we did the kitchen plans.... and they were still wrong.

The drawers underneath the bench for the internet nook are far too deep. So deep that it is impossible to use for it's purpose.... they have raised it by 10cm.... this is not an answer. I cannot use a laptop at 900mm with a 15cm drawer underneath (try it at home.... NOT comfortable). I want my my 800mm high benchtop with around 7 or 8cm deep drawers. I could handle the 900mm height, but then my chair would have to be higher, so the deep drawers have to go.

They have also failed to alter the cut out for the sink... and the wrong sink has been delivered. I will let them know again before the stone is ordered and cut too big.

On the bright side, the bulkhead is in over the appliance tower. The cornice needs to be added and it needs to be painted.... and they'll need to repair the cornice they chipped putting it in. The under sink cupboards have been altered to the correct size in the pantry. Looks so much better.

I'm just a little concerned that it has taken this long for part of it to get rectified.... I can only hope they get the rest fixed in the next three weeks.

And I have been thinking about my Tri-Locks since I posted earlier and something wasn't sitting right.... and suddenly it has hit me. They are the wrong ones.... all of them. They have installed the Precise Leverset instead of the Angular Leverset. At least they got the satin chrome part right. lol

You can see the difference between the two in this link...
http://www.gainsboroughhardware.com.au/hc_TrilockSeries.aspx


We picked the Angular to go with all our other internal door handles and because we preferred the look. They will have to be changed.

Lots and lots of pics.... and an official date!

We have been given a handover date of November 30th. Porter Davis have changed their procedures, and now handover happens on inspection day as long as nothing is wrong. My SS has said he likes to do an inspection with the clients a few days earlier anyway, just to make sure handover will be smooth.

We are nearly finished, render still to be painted. The garage door almost looks like Surfist in this pic.... it isn't. lol


All the staining has been done. French doors from the ensuite.


Bi-fold to the alfresco... the ensuite doors are further around to the right of this pic.


Bi-folds from inside.


Front door. As we have higher doors, I got them to put the door handle a little higher so that the handle went over the wood rather than over the glass.... OCD much?? lol


Another Gainsborough Tri-Lock. We have four in total. Front door, French doors from the ensuite, laundry external door and this one on the pedestrian door from the garage to the mud room.


All our internal door handles are Lamaar Mecina. I absolutely love them.


Shower screens have been delivered.


These lights will have to be altered... the two in the kitchen are too close together. The one closest to camera has to come this way a bit and the pendant over the island has.... ummm, missed the island. lol


Our extended garage with workshop storage area. Worth every single penny. I'm thinking of picking up a cheap second hand kitchen off ebay to fit out here along the wall. Much, much cheaper than installing shelving. Something to think about.


The rear garage pedestrian doors and laundry door have been painted Evening Haze. Eventually the rear doors will be changed to metal colourbond doors. Mum had that at her house and we like the security of them as opposed to the cheap wooden ones. Our downpipes still have to be changed over from zincalume to Colourbond Evening Haze.


The back yard from the rumpus room.... what the hell are we going to do here?? Whatever we do will just have to wait anyway. lol