Curtains and blinds chosen

Today I met on site with Kevin from Kresta Curtains & Blinds to measure our windows and quote for curtains and blinds.

We are lucky in that we do not have to have all our windows covered. Here is what we have chosen.

Master bedroom will be double track with sheer curtain in the front and blockout fabric behind on the second track. The curtains will cover the entire wall. 

The sheer curtain is a lovely straw colour with vertical stripes. I didn't think I'd go with a pattern but it was very pretty and elegant looking. The fabric has a beautiful sheen to it too.

The highlite window above our bed will have a basic blockout roller blind in White. I wanted to keep that one quite simple so it didn't detract from the large curtains on the other wall.

The front Study (our spare bedroom) will have both windows covered with a double roller blind. The sunscreen blind will be Sterling and the blockout blind will be Taupe.

The laundry sliding door will have a sunscreen blind in Sterling. I wasn't concerned about having a blockout blind in the laundry. 

Bedroom 2 & bedroom 3 will have a blockout roller blind in Taupe. Sunscreen blind is not required as those windows will have window film on them. The bathroom will also have the blockout blind in Taupe.

The theatre room will have the sunscreen roller blind in Sterling. We will then have a blockout curtain that covers the entire wall in a dark grey colour called Shadow. 

The two windows in the west side of the man cave will have double roller blinds in the below colour combination to compliment the mid grey paint colour. 

We were happy with the quote from Kresta and we will phone them next week to order and pay the deposit. If we order these ASAP we shouldn't be without window coverings for long after we have moved in.

Gas connection delays

We received an email from Origin Energy today who confirmed that they attended our site last week but couldn't dig the trench for the gas service line due to the scaffold being in the way and the site not being clean. We have forwarded this email to the builder for their attention. The email also instructed that the builder has to rebook the job once the site has been cleared and scaffold removed. It's usually a 28 day turnaround time for gas connections so that's not looking good for our 5th May handover date :(

The brick window sill has been redone on the master bedroom window which is great. The broken window wasn't covered up again so I hope it doesn't rain. 

Most of the doors were rehung after painting and there are quite a few that do not close properly. I hope this is a simple adjustment.

Painting continues

Most areas of the house have received their two coats of paint. I'm really liking the wall colour now. I was worried about my decision for the last few months but now that I see it with the floors and kitchen I like it. I really love the contrast between the white architraves, skirting boards and walls. The skirting boards haven't received their white gloss paint as yet but will shortly.

These pictures were taken after work as it was beginning to get dark so I apologise for the bad iPhone photos. Had to share these as the plastic drop sheets have now been removed from the windows and floors. 

The ensuite

Facing the bathroom. Powder room to the right. 

Front door. 

Standing at the theatre room doors looking towards the bedrooms. 

Family room 

Kitchen. The pantry cavity door hasn't been painted yet as I think it's going to be replaced. 

The bedroom window that is awaiting repair. 

Our other bedroom window. 

I have someone from Kresta curtain & blinds coming out on Saturday to measure and quote. Victory blinds are coming out to see me on 10th May. I have also asked Interlux (a small local window furnishing company) to provide a quote. Interlux have asked me to send them the floor plans detailing what coverings I would like. They will then provide me with an initial quote before they come out to measure. I thought that was a much better way to do it as I don't want to waste hours on site with them if they work out too expensive. 

Luckily due to the design of the house and placement of windows there are only 9 windows that will require windows coverings. 

Painting has commenced

Most of our house has had it's first coat of paint. Dulux Vivid White high gloss on skirts and architraves and Dulux Beige Royal half strength on the walls. We wanted a paint that didn't look too yellow or pink and the brown undertones of this colour has achieved that for us. We also wanted to steer away from white walls as we've lived with white walls for over 10yrs and thought it was time for a change.

It is good that some of our previous issues appear to have been addressed, although the builder has not communicated this with us. It is however unfortunate that some of our concerns were not addressed by the time the painters have had to come through, especially the ones that effect the painters ie. window frames, architraves, robe & cavity doors, incorrect doors fitted etc. 

The painters are finishing up this Tuesday then they will be back at the end of the build to paint the theatre walls and ceiling dark grey (Dulux Teahouse), to paint the architraves and window sills that are still to be fixed and to paint all the robe and cavity sliding doors that have to be replaced as they were incorrectly routed out for long handles instead of the round ones we chose. The painters will also do any touch ups that may be required.

This is how they were routed but we had selected round handles at our selection appointment. It would be unacceptable to us to patch them (our thoughts are we are paying for a new house so should expect new un-patched doors) so we asked the builder the other week to replace the robe and sliding cavity doors.  In total there are 13 doors to be replaced. 

We have had to delay our driveway for the second time now as the gas line has still not been trenched in. Upon following this up we found out that the Origin Energy supervisor attended on site and said that he couldn't trench the gas line in until the site was clear and scaffolding removed. The builder has since advised us that the scaffolding will come down this week and the gas is to be trenched in after Easter. Fingers crossed this isn't delayed again. 

We have not received another handover date as yet so we are still assuming it is the 5th of May, which is the 4th handover date we have received. We have requested that the builder notifies us as soon as they are aware that they will be unable to achieve handover by that date as we have furniture deliveries booked. We are yet to hear anything to the contrary. 

Lighting

I purchased some of our lighting online so the sparkies can fit them for us.

For the master bedroom and my step-son's bedroom we are having a ceiling fan with a dimmable LED light. This model comes with a remote too which is great as we are pretty lazy! This fan/light combo was purchased from www.lightingillusions.com.au 

I bought three of these glass pendant lights. Two for the hallway and one for the master bedroom hallway. Now I have to decide which type of globes to put in them... These lights were brought from www.onlinelighting.com.au 

This is the stairwell light fitting. I'm not a huge fan of it so may change the shades when it arrives. It would be great to fit glass shades onto it. I will have to do a hunt once the fitting arrives. Our stairwell was difficult to find lighting for as the wall in the middle goes right up to the ceiling so we couldn't put one single light as there isn't a big space. We thought the below option was good as it will light up both sides of the stairwell. This light is from www.ozlighting.com.au

Our kitchen pendant lights. I'm bucking the trend of three by only having two of these over our island bench. I like that they are a little different and as they're a beautiful amber colour they will complement the colours of our dining suite chairs (black with small brown & gold flecks) perfectly. I purchase these lights over 12 months ago from www.beaconlighting.com.au 

This light will now go in the guest bedroom (marked as study on the plan). This is one of the only rooms with carpet and as we chose a dark carpet I wanted a light coloured light fitting. This light was originally purchased to be hung above the dining table but it will not suit the dining table we have since purchased. I also purchased this light from www.beaconlighting.com.au 

I will buy the rest of the light fittings later on. Most of the other fittings will be DIY so we can fit them on at any time.

Driveway retaining wall

Our driveway retaining wall besser blocks were laid and core filled today. They still have to come back and lay the agi pipe behind the wall. So far very impressed with Davnic Excavations and would not hesitate in recommending them.

The first two pics were taken a couple of days ago when the footings were poured and the first row of blocks laid.

The wall blocks laid and core filled. The part near the garage is lower as we will have the driveway laid on top and the decking/porch will butt up to it. 

A 'hole' lot of nothing

Today our driveway retaining wall company attended on site to dig a hole for the concrete footings. We were surprised they were there as originally they couldn't attend until the scaffolding was removed by the builder. It turns out that the retaining wall company (or more accurately, their engineers) worked out they could change the footings around which means that they can commence work whilst the scaffold is still there. Which is great news as at least something is progressing.

Here is the massive hole they've dug today. It is approx 600mm deep, 800mm wide, 10m long. 

Nothing has appeared to have happened within the house, although I'm quietly optimistic that we will see some action by the end of the week.

In more exciting news we have ordered our fridge - a Samsung french door fridge. This will sit in our walk in pantry.