Bricks started - retaining

Brickies were on site today laying bricks for the retaining wall between the store room and downstairs lounge room. 

The bricks we chose are Boral Barwon with rolled morter. These will look great once cleaned. They're a brown brick with black flecks and hints of bluey/purple patches. 

We also had our water tap installed today

I was impressed that the brickies were working today as it was raining on and off all day. There is rain predicted for the rest of the week but I hope it's not heavy enough to cease work. We will visit the site again later this week to see the progress. 

I'm started to get really excited now!! 

Foundations

A little bit has happened since my last post. We had the plumbing done for the lower level. 

We now have foundations poured. The bricklayer is starting the retaining walls this Monday. Some pics below of the progress to date. 

Foundations around the store room on the lower level 

Foundations mid way down the length of the house

The electrical and phone cabling running to the garage

This is a bad iPhone pic of our view at night from the rear of the house 

The site portable loo. I was very excited when this arrived. Lol! 

We've been pegged!

We were pegged yesterday. I just had to photograph one of the pegs! LOL!

Slab shouldn't be too far away!!

Plumbing selections

Today we took a hike down to Reece Plumbing in Heidelberg to select our tap ware, basins etc for our build. The staff were lovely and had a great sense of humour. Encouraged us to both get into the bath to make sure we'd both fit. Lol.

I'm rapt with the bath. It's so deep and I can imagine having a soak after a long day.

Some items we upgraded from standard so we are waiting to hear back from the builder for the total upgrade cost. Hopefully it's not too excessive!

Details of some selections:

Ensuite basins: AXA H10 400 above counter basin

Downstairs powder room basin: Ideal Standard Vessel above counter basin

Upstairs powder room and bathroom basins: Caroma Pearl inset basin

Basin wall mixer taps, shower mixer, bath mixer and spout: Phoenix Cruise range 

Kitchen tap: Mizu Drift gooseneck pull out sink mixer

Bath: Mizu 1700 Deep Soaker

Towel rails & toilet roll holders: Mizu Drift range 

Tile selection

Today we had an appointment at Sketch Tiles in Richmond to select our tiles. I came across this company as they were the importers & distributers of a specific Italian tile I wanted for our kitchen splashback.

Here are the tiles we chose for the bathroom, ensuite and two powder rooms. We also chose a white high gloss tile for the laundry splashback although I don't have a picture of those tiles.

The last photo is a photo (although a very crappy one) of the tiles we are having imported from Italy for our kitchen splashback. I really should have taken a photo at the tile place as this pic really does it no justice.

Wall tile - Entiva Ferrari 01 White 300 x 600 semi polished porcelain tile
Floor tile - Marazzi Solid Ash 600 x 600 Lappato porcelain tile
Mosaic tile - Entiva Evolution Silver Stone/Glass/Metal 15 x 15 mosaic tile

Update: here are two pics of the bathroom wall tile which better show the texture/pattern

Update: see my post on 13th June 2013 for pics of these splashback tiles when we picked them up :-)

Carpet selection

Well that was easier than we thought! Selected our carpets today. We were happy to go with the builder's standard carpet as we are only having carpet in two rooms - theatre and study.

We chose Flinders Green carpet in the colour Taupe. Here is a picture that shows the carpet against the paint colour for the study and theatre, and a picture showing the carpet pattern.

Colour selections (minus tiles & carpet)

Today we spent several hours with our builder's colour consultant and chose all the interior and exterior colours. Here is what we have chosen. I feel very relieved that this part is over as I was so indecisive with colours.

Still need to select plumbing (next week), tiles and carpet.

Exterior:

Brick - Boral Barwon
Roof - Monier Tile Elabana profile in Barramundi
Gutter/Fascia/Downpipe - Colorbond Monument
Windows - Aluminium awning windows in Colorbond Dune
Feature render - Dulux Champignon
Garage door - Eco Garage Doors insulated garage doors in Monument. Ribline profile.

Double entrance door to be painted in Monument. Corinthian Madison PMAD 106.

Our front door handles - Gainsborough Trilock Contemporary G2 Series. Angular leverset in bright chrome.

Our internal doors - Corinthian Impressions CMB internal doors

Internal door handles - Gainsborough Lianna in satin chrome

Internal colours:

Kitchen cabinets - Laminex CrystalGloss in Platinum **NOTE: this colour changed to Palladium**
Kitchen bench top - 20mm YDL Stone in Bianco Gentel
Ensuite, bathroom and both powder room cabinets - Laminex Stipple Smoke
Ensuite, bathroom and both powder room bench tops - 20mm YDL Stone in Silver Star White
Laundry cabinets - Laminex Moose
Laundry bench top - Laminex New Ash Dust

Wall colour - Dulux Beige Royal half strength
Skirting, architraves, internal doors - Dulux Vivid White
Ceiling & cornice - builder's ceiling white

Flooring hallways, kitchen, living areas & bedrooms - Tasmanian Oak solid timber floor