Showing posts with label home construction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home construction. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

DAY 90 - Garage Roller Door

We love the splash of rich warm colour that is the garage door :)
 It is an automatic roller door that we upgraded to get a “timber-look”.  This was to add more colour (and interest) to the overall look of the house.
I really didn’t want to end up with a boring, monochrome home… I LOVE houses that have more character and colour.  I was happy that PJ Burns allowed us (even though an entry level budget) to make choices that added simple elements within the “project home plan”, additions that didn’t cost us the earth… 
Eventually the front door and timber post will be stained to match the garage door. Also we will have horizontal slats above the front portico area also matching.  
(The section above the front window is a "custom orb" infill - a colourbond like product - that is in "Woodland Grey" - see the colours / design page)
I like… what do you think?

 Oh... for those that may want to see the inside (not as colourful or as interesting but still a necessary part of a "roller door" blog post)... here you go:
Speaking of DOORS...
I'd like to share
a hallway / front doorway pic taken on Day 90...
(titled "path to sunshine")
Thanks for stopping by :)
Many more photos of the progress are just around the corner... 

Here's to new doorways!!!

Friday, July 30, 2010

DAY 71 - More Plaster and first row of BRICKS :)

Catch Up Post #12 - 
Day 71 (Friday 9th July) - More Plaster-boards are going up :)


This is one of the bedroom ceilings
with the fan/light wire poking through...

 



 




This is looking down the hallway to the front door. We have one side with walls and one without...

(The frame without plaster is the back kitchen wall)



We have a 'niche' next to the door of the main bedroom... 
It's at the end of the hallway so I am looking forward to choosing what to display in this feature spot... hmmm, will have to wait and see...


Looking through the bedroom window... 

The kids LOVE running through the house... I suppose its how they show their excitement... (there's sooo much room compared to the small 'sardine can' unit we are renting... so why not run around crazy?!!!)








Which brings me to our next bit of exciting news!!!
The bricks have started :))))


Finally....  

...happy dance... 


Blue walls have been fun... 
but BRICKS are the ones...we want... 

yes, very bad rhyming but typed with a big smile :)))))))


Bring on the bricks!





Day 70 - PLASTERBOARDS and dirt...

Catch Up Post #11 - 
Day 70 (Thurs 8th July) - Its PLASTERBOARD time :)


This is the ceiling of the Media Room being put into place...

The laundry door was delivered...

A huge pile of dirt also arrived at the front of the house (to be used for bricking maybe?)



The kids were getting into mischief in the various dirt mountains so we went for a walk through the estates walking paths...

or rather, for a scooter...

As we went through the nature reserve, their goal was to find interesting items for me to photograph... such fun!!!

We also names the unusual tree trunks eg. "the monster alien crocodile tree"... (Don't you love kids' imaginations) 

Here are the two pumpkins (minus jumpers and a pair of shoes - guess who has to carry them?!) finally making it back to the street... we were all thoroughly exercised.... :)))

To finish Day 70 - Here is one fav pic from our afternoon's adventure..

Friday, July 16, 2010

DAY 64 - Windows, Wiring and Wonder!!!

Catch Up Post #9 - 
Day 64 (Friday 2nd July) - Much Progress to report...

The Meter Box is now attached to the wall...

WINDOWS are all in place...  

We like windows...


Peak-a-boo :)))

It feels different to look out from the rooms through a window...  fun!


The window glass is all solar tinted to assist in the energy efficiency. The only glass that didn't get the tint is the stacker doors and living room windows. This was due to the fact that the stacker doors are under the alfresco (away from direct sun) and when open, the doors are stacked back together - 3 layers thick and the tint would then become very dark...  

We really want these stacker doors to connect to the outside, so we were concerned if they were tinted it would obstruct the view/detract from the openess...  Then the living room windows are right next to the stacker doors so they needed the same glass look for consistency in this main living space (our family 'hub')... 



 










 We also discovered that during the construction, the windows/door glass is covered with a protective coating called 'Goop'... thus the sticker on the front window...  

It means the glass have a skin-like opaque coating for the moment... Looking forward to seeing through them clearly when construction is over...

The Gas Points are now in place...  

These are the 3 points for the large gas bottles for our house gas supply.




Its very interesting to see the plumbing lines weaving over the outside walls - it will soon be all under the layer of brick.


Here is my man, posing at the loo window hehe :)





We also have Gas Point in the alfresco.  This particular gas point (for the many BBQs we intend to have) was taken out at one stage due to cost cutting. We thought we were being clever and eliminating the need for a Gas Supply...  but soon realised that we would need Gas anyway for the Hot Water System... silly us... so the alfresco gas point went back into the plan as soon as we could manage it...


A friend also pointed out to us that it could be used for those Gas Outdoor Heaters - I really really like that idea... I LOVE those gas heaters that mean you can still entertain outside even in cold weather... I can't wait to use our alfresco to its full potential - all year around...


The other development is the ELECTRICAL WIRING...
We met with the Electrician around one and half weeks earlier and chose the location points for switches and light fittings etc... He went around the house frame and wrote locations and info in crayon on the cement ground... (Amazingly the writing stays there for later on when the guys come in to do the work)


 



So it was a little bit of a thrill for my hubby to see the media room cables were done...
 
We can't afford a theatre system now but included a HDMI cable for a future projector... and cords for the speakers etc...

This way its all in place for a couple of years time when we might be able to afford the 'home theatre' to be added in.   This future planning idea makes my man happy :))) and me too :)))






What else to show for Day 64???

Well, here is a few more pics of where things are at... 



 




And here is a pic of the kitchen plumbing (to go into the island bench)...






The view looking out from inside the media room. The two frames are for the cavity slider doors to the media room. Where my daughter is scootering is the dining room.

This is the side view (standing on our neighbours land). 
On the left is the nature reserve and to the right is the front going out to the street.

There is still a bit of water around from occasional wet days...
... and the bricks are sitting waiting for their turn...  
...soon soon brickies...

Well that was a very long post... It's because I have sooo many photos to choose from - I probably post less than 50% of all the photos I take on site...

Extra cheers to those who make it to the bottom here :)
Way to perservere!!! haha :)

Thanks for stopping by :) I appreciate your visit :)

Comments very welcome....

Day 63 - Plumbing FIXED :)

Catch Up Post #8 - 
Day 63 (Thurs 1st July) - the PLUMBING is FIXED!

Those of you who read earlier (or heard my man stressing about this) know that the plumbing laid under our slab had a small issue. One we didn't realise until the frame was put up. 

The issue was the laundry drainage pipe was NOT located in the laundry but in the media room...   oops :P (insert jokes here about a toilet / lounge chair combo to watch TV on)....

So on Day 63 we visited in the late afternoon and saw this media room pipe was now filled in and a new pipe was in the correct place in the LAUNDRY! 

Alls well that ends well :)

Looking through the garage to the media room... Pipe Gone :)

Looking into the Laundry area... Pipe Added :)


So the other news from Day 63 is:
The large STACKER DOORS are in place!!! (with Mr 7 also :)

These doors are a major design choice of ours - we are holding our breath that they add to the living space as much as we hope they do. The idea is to tile the alfresco area with the same tiles as inside the house and the door 'tracks' are also recessed (flat against the floor) to hopefully provide a seamless connection inside and out.  

More than anything our goal (within a limited budget) was to create an attractive spacious open plan living area that will be the 'hub' of the house for our family.

These are the living room windows that will also look out to the back trees...

The bath has also made it... The kids are having lots of fun with this addition...


 This is the last minute upgrade (thank you PJ Burns) of a door frame to my WALK-IN-ROBE
(with a door soon)

I think this door will prove VERY handy... It was initially taken out when we were desperately cost-cutting (anything non-essential went) to make our build achievable.
So now I look at this door frame and breathe a sigh of relief... I always intend to be neat but I am a "creative sort" and that lives with a bit of mess sometimes (that's my excuse hehe :)  whew... a door to hide potential untidyness... sigh with GRATITUDE....

Cheers :)

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Celebrating the Slab...

Whew I never thought it would be this long between posts - my apologies to all you who have been asking and waiting patiently for more pics ...

Catch Up Post #1 - 

So quick summary...
Slab was finished on Day 40
(Tues 8th June)

Of course it required toasting this huge step towards our dream with a great friend and soon-to-be neighbour ...

 
The Frames were delivered the next day and before we knew it - our house had 3D shape!!!


Then Day 44/45/46 was the long weekend in June - which meant we had visitors and got to celebrate the slab (and frame) with some friends and family. Sooo good to show it off and at the same time pinch ourselves that it was finally looking substancial :)))







Big weekend :)))

Thank you to those who made the long trip to visit us :)))


It made it even more real to be onsite celebrating with those who have supported us so much on this journey!

We got to walk through the site with our friends...  Having frames up meant it was easier to describe our thoughts for each space etc... 


Needless to say the kids had a ball seeing their friends also...


HORRAY!!!! 

What are pipes for but yelling into? haha
(the kids discovered they could speak to each other from the pipes in different parts of the house)

What a highlight of the construction process. Well the first time we had decent visual evidence!!!! 

A weekend full of celebrating, coffees, chats over our plans, and catch ups...
Sooo good :)