A View With A Room!

And lots of rooms to view too!! Making our weekly trip down to the house today we had a lovely surprise. There were three young men, two of whom were on stilts, and no, we were not at the circus, these were our plasterers. They weren't the surprise however, well maybe a little one because they were working on a Saturday afternoon and there was three of them, all in shorts, but the big surprise was the change in the house since last week. Every room has been plastered and they were now working on the cornices. I think that's the right word...cornices on the ceiling, architraves on the floor? Correct me if I'm wrong..because I have known to be at times. Not many times mind you..just the odd time. They were busily balancing on their stilts in our bedroom working on the cornices and doing a very nice job of it too. Anyway, as you can see by the photos, a LOT has been done.
The space for the manhole has been cut out and I guess there will be lots more holes cut into the plaster for power points and light switches and the heating and cooling ducts..thank goodness for blue and green and red coloured markers, because that is how the 'hole cutters' will get the right spot, as every room has marks on the ground indicating where all the cabling and wiring are hidden behind the plaster. Or directly below where they have to cut holes in the ceiling for the ducts. Once again, it is very technical stuff. You can also see in one of the pictures that our front doors have been delivered, obviously they have to be painted but you can see the panelling in them and this is what our internal doors will be like. The internal ones will not have the glass bit up the top, but I reckon I didn't need to tell you that, I mean how silly would that be?!
They finally cleaned up around the block, so that looks heaps better. Ready for the next lot of building rubbish to be left. And more rubbish left means more things have been done, so that is something to look forward to.
Oh yeah, and just when you though it was a safe bet that the spa saga was over...nope! Had an email yesterday saying there were 'issues' with the spa. Apparently the headrests that were on the order form were not available for the spa we wanted. Hmmmm, is this ever going to end I thought? Then we read back over the contract and the headrests they said we can have were the ones we originally asked for, and someone had incorrectly ordered the ones we couldn't have and we didn't want them anyway. Pete thought this would be a good excuse to try and get the second spa we liked as according to them we couldn't have the spa and headrests that we wanted..after they told us we could of course, and they don't need to know they had originally ordered the ones we didn't want..so anyway he tried, and got the usual.."I'll have to give Michael a call" blah blah blah..so we shall see..either way we'll be happy..well, as long as the taps aren't up the end where our heads will be because you know who (with the big head) won't be happy!.but why not give them a push and see what happens!
All in all the house seems to be progressing nicely, and with no problems at all..except the one room we were so excited about, but even those problems are relatively minor in the big picture. Everytime we go up there something has been done, so I'm a very happy camper!

We Got Plastered and Locked Up!!!

'hic' and not a single hangover in sight..haha got you there, didn't I? I'm talking about the house. It's at lock-up stage now which means, besides more money to payout, you can't (well shouldn't) be able to get into the house without a key. Obviously we did, as the photos show. And no, I did not make that hole in the plaster. It's in the sheet of plaster they have used to block of the garage to the house and it must have been made by one of the workers..NOT ME! After not venturing up to the house on Saturday because the 'photographer who shall remain nameless' didn't want to get his hair wet (what there is of it anyway), we drove up today and the sun came out and first thing we noticed was the garage had been plastered. It looks like a room now, I mean after all, our car needs to have a place to live that's as nice as it deserves. Well actually, the very first thing I noticed was the lack of cleaning up that had happened around the block. Michael had told Pete that he ordered a clean-up crew to be there on Thursday to tidy up the site and remove all leftover bricks and tiles, etc...empty takeaway food boxes, drink bottles, you know, all the important stuff that is required when one gets a home built. Well, because we always believe what Michael the wonder supervisor says, Pete and I took the day off on Wednesday to move the rest of the bricks we wanted and place them down the back of the block, near the fence, for use later, for postbox, paving, whatever Pete decides he wants to do..(as that means stuff being done outside, I leave that choice to him). We had moved over 300 bricks last Sunday, 2 at a time from the front of the house to the back fence. That made over 150 trips of which I reckon I did a few more than Pete..I wonder what they invented wheelbarrows for? I would have thought that would have been a smart move, but someone, ie 'the photographer who shall remain nameless' thought it would be a lot better and more exercise to lug the bricks 2 at a time, all those miles (okay meters). Funny though how when Wednesday came that the first thing in the car was the wheelbarrow! We could take over 20 at a time that way!! All in all we moved over 600 bricks, and as the photo shows, they are stacked very neatly near the fence.
So, back to today, and we have ceilings..which gave me the feeling of smallness after having nothing but roof trusses and tiles for so many weeks. But I got over that feeling and was really pleased with the amount that has been done during the week. They have done a lot in the kitchen/meals area/family room as you can see by the photos. We were surprised by those things hanging from the ceiling that looked like places where those big flourescent lights would go. After careful thought, Pete came up with the idea that they are there to hold the plasterboard that has been joined together in place. Ok, so who's a clever boy then?!
As for the outside, nothing new to report apart from the brickwork is finished and the plasterboard has been done above the windows ready for painting and some putty stuff that matches the colour of the bricks has been put into those joins in the brickwork..which I do believe are called articulation something or other...impressed?!
Ok, till next week, enjoy!

We've Got Bats in The Belfry!!!

Ok, so they are actually batts, as in insulation, and it's not exactly a belfry, but it sounded good!
What we have is insulation in the walls and I was so pleased because I thought that plastic stuff they had wrapped around the house was actually our insulation. That's probably why I am just the customer and we have professionals to do all the thinking. Speaking of thinking...I'm not sure which way round the guys read the plans but they have put our ducted cooling unit thingy on the opposite side of the roof to where it is on the plans. Maybe they were looking in the mirror while they looked and it was in reverse?! Now, that might sound like a problem but we are both quite happy with it because it means as you drive up to the house you don't see that thing sticking out of the roof.
The roof is a maze of huge worm-like things (I am pretty sure there is a more technical name for them) criss-crossing all around the space. Blue is heating and Red is cooling, although I thought that seemed backward as well..but there goes my thinking again!
All the brickwork appears to be done and we are still very happy with our choice of colour. Notice how I say 'our' haha, cos if I didn't like it then it would have been Petes' choice!
We have downpipes now and some of the woodwork above the windows has been done. This will be painted in a rusty colour to match in with the bricks.
We have a bath which has been boxed in, or whatever they call it. It looks like a nice deep one so very happy there. Our spa isn't in yet, but after the caffufle (is that a word?) we had this week with that..phone calls telling us they could not get the spa we wanted as it had been discontinued, then we came home and picked another that we might have liked better anyway, then another phone call telling us that indeed miracles do happen and voila! the first mentioned spa we wanted was found in a warehouse somewhere. Drats we said, because we got used to the new one, especially Pete, as he has this thing about not wanting a tap where his head is, go figure, cos his head's that big it will be near a tap wherever they put them!! haha
There just seemed so much to look at today, we were really happy with what they had done in a week.
Then our 'alarm specialist' came and Pete went through everything we wanted, so we left him there to do all the prep work for cabling, alarm and that video intercom thingamajig out the front that I am very excited about!!
So, all in all a good week I think. There I go thinking again, but I feel that this time it's justified!

It's Good Friday

In more ways than one!! Well for all you interested parties who have been following this blog through the weeks, you will all be SO so pleased that I will finally be shutting up about ..guess what...yes! that darn ensuite window. The really funny thing is that now that it's been moved, I stood back and looked at it and thought hmmmmm, is it now too low? But Pete assured me, as he always does that it is where it should be, so now I'm happy. I could not be blamed for thinking the glass is still wrong, because even blind Freddy could see it's not clear, so I am going to give blind Freddy a call and get him to call our site supervisor Michael and tell him. Seriously though, we don't care if they haven't changed the actual glass yet, because we know it has to be done, and by hook or by crook it will be done before we move in. It's probably a good thing you can't see in because I'd hate to have all the neighbours jealous if they look in and see that gorgeous spa we are getting.

Ok, on to other things - the electricians have obviously been busy this week as all cables are hanging from the roof where the downlights will be, and also to all the light switches where the on/off switches are..and also to the vast amount of double power points we are having. I think we have placed them in all the right spots, so Pete should be okay when he wants to vacuum, or do the ironing, or make me a cuppa while I'm lounging on my comfy chair..ahhh well a girl can dream can't she?!
Pete has been in touch with a guy who, because of privacy rules we shall call "the Alarm Specialist". We are meeting him at the house next weekend to go over plans for our alarm system and also to see about Smart wiring the house for data and Foxtel. I am so excited because we are going to have one of those video intercoms so we can see people who are at the door, and hide from anyone we dont want to see..ha ha as if we'd do that! Anyway, the "Alarm Specialist" seems like a nice guy so hopefully that all gets done with the minimum of fuss.
Well, that's it for the week, Happy Easter to you all!!!