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!!!

Day 72 - Walls take shape

Catch Up Post #13 - 
Day 72 (Sat 10th July) - Plastering continues :)

 

I reakon that you can tell what stage a build is up to by looking in the skip out the front... 

Well this is our skip at the moment ...

What do you think?  

Yes MORE plastering...

The build is getting another step closer to completion

and beginning to feel like a proper enclosed house...

We have the enclosed HALLWAY :)

The bedrooms, robes and ceilings have become solid...

 Here is the bathroom... 

(The purple is a layer to protect the bath from damage)

The laundry has always been an interesting space in this build... It got tucked away at the back of the garage as we tried to make every inch of our house count... Now that it is enclosed by the plaster I am spending lots of time just standing in it, figuring out how I will set it up...  I want to be clever with my set up... 

I believe that I CAN be organised - positive thinking yay!

(I assume the green plaster-board is for the wet areas)

Here are two different views of our niche #2... (the one at the end of the hallway - see previous post)

I like :) 

how about you?

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To finish this post - here is the few pics from Day 73 (Sunday 11th July) 

Due to being a sunday, there are no changes to report... except for this day being 

...the LAST DAY we said the kids could 

SCOOTER through the house...

Now that the walls have plaster we don't want to risk a scooter crash and plaster damage... much to the kids sadness... They have had such a ball wizzing around through the rooms :)

I am so glad that the kids are having this journey of building with us... they are experiencing the house evolving with each stage and have the opportunity to really OWN this new home together - as a family we are starting fresh in this new place... Sooo grateful :)

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 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 :)

Gutters and Roof Battons

Catch Up Post #4 - 

Day 55 (Wed 23rd June) 

saw work on the roof's GUTTERS and TRIM.

Trim on the Portico (entry)...

Guttering and trim put on the edges all around the house :)))))  

This was mentioned in an earlier quick post I did (as I got a little behind on sharing all the progress).

Our bathtub also turned up, and was put into the pantry to wait patiently to be put into place :)

Around Day 57 (Fri 25rd June) we saw quite a bit of RAINY WEATHER - making the house construction very wet work for the carpenters.

The guys were amazing and just kept on working - we are so grateful that the build is now continuing. We spent sooo much time waiting due to wet weather at the beginning... what a welcome relief it is to see construction progress in spite of the rain! Thanks to the great tradesmen!

 These pics shows the roof battons (the horizontal lines) now on the roof surface. 

Front left side view.

Back view.

 

The roof bracing...                    The roof scaffolding...

And the Front Portico Post is put into place :)))))

Good stuff :)

Kookaburra sits on the new guttering

Merry merry king of the bush is he-ee..... 

posts r coming.... lots of pics r coming... stay tuned....

Thanks for visiting :)

A Firm Foundation...

Hello to all the wonderful friends, family and visitors who are stopping by to read this blog... I want to start by saying how much it means to me to have your presence beside me (in the virtual world :) on this journey.
Building Sanctuary


The past week has seen the Building Sanctuary facebook page reach over 100 'fans'.  This is so encouraging.  Now I don't expect everyone to understand my facination with Social Media lol - but it goes hand-in-hand with gratitude for those who support me.   That said - a big THANK YOU to HG for officially being the momentus '100th fan' on facebook.

I've had quite a busy week.  Work and family commitments has meant that I am only just now uploading and sharing the exciting construction photos of the past several days.
So posts from here will be a 'feast of photos' to catch up... YAY!

To catch up -  
1st June 2010 was DAY 33 on the construction timeline. 

Up to then, our site had been continually rained on... The extremely wet soil and pooling of water around the plumbing meant that the construction work completely stalled. There were ditches of water everywhere...

By Day 33, our wonderful builders stepped in and dug trenches to help drain out the crazy pooling of water...  I think a pump was even involved to get rid of the water...

The result was the soil drying out enough for the next stage of the slab to happen...  What a relief!

DAY 36 (4th June 2010)
This Friday was one of the most exciting for a while.  I turned up early to visit the site and what do I see but trucks and men on site working away... Soooo good to see.  I walked around taking photo after photo - who knows what they thought? But I was not going to miss capturing this wonderful wonderful step :) Here is a few of the many I took...

They were digging the 2m deep holes for the piering and also trenches all across the house site.  The drilling machines were awesome to watch...



The other part they were digging out was the trenches. These trenches ran around the edge of the house plot and also across the site.  The long mesh pieces (that had been delivered to site way back on DAY 11) were placed in these trenches.



I will continue this story soon... can only do this post in bits and pieces ahhh...

Forgive this brief interlude :)))

Ok just one more photo :)))