Let's get it started in here.

It's Christmas morning and I'm back in California, cuddled on a cozy couch overlooking pastel cloudy skies above miles of pine trees and blue mountains. Feeling happy and grateful to be home with family. The new year is only a few days away and I wanted to start it off right with a way to document and share everything going on in my world. Life has brought many changes this past year, and I'm overflowing with thoughts and ideas and this will be the perfect creative outlet to get it all sorted out. While I settle into a new life in Florida, 2011 will see the transformation of a new home (or two), a new side business, more photography, perhaps a new workplace, and lots of creativity and inspiration.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

Roof, guttering and fascia 100% complete !

We've finally been waterproofed :)

Roof, guttering, fascia, lead flashing are all done and we are now ready for the electrical work to commence. We hope to have all the cabling done early next month.

We've also narrowed down the air/con installer as the first fix will need to go in very soon too. We've chosen to go with a Daikin inverter. Hope it's worth it :)

I think I'm in LOVE

Image from www.beautifulhome.net.au

With this kitchen!!! This whole time I've wanted a dropped ceiling in the whole kitchen (including the island as well), and now, all of a sudden I think I no longer want this. Although it would define the kitchen and separate it from our large open living space, I think it might date a bit too quickly and make the kitchen look darker than it needs to be :)

What do you all think?

The roof is almost done!!!

Can you see the roof above the garage? :) It's almost done, and so is the back of the house, and the detached garage! Now we need to wait for our guttering guy to do the lead flashing. Apparently there is a two week wait to get the materials :(
But at least something is happening :)

Prettyness

madebygirl.blogspot.com

Our ground floor guttering has been completed and roof tiles were delivered and most of them laid last week. Still not finished... One day... One day...

It's off!!!

The scaffolding is finally off!!! So excited to be able to see the house without those ugly things around it. By the way, the top half of the bricks has been acid washed, but the bottom half hasn't.

Bird's-eye view

Our upstairs guttering, fascia, eaves and roof have been finished. And the scaffolding should be coming off today :)

Here is a bird's-eye view of our build on the 30th of August, 2010.

The "mini house" at the back is my partner's hobby workshop (steel frame, brick veneer, 3m high callings, teracotta roof tiles... ) Could have had a huge swimming pool instead... He owes me big time :)

We have a ROOF!!!

Well, not yet and not completely, but it's a start :)

Our upper story roof will hopefully be finished today, and our eaves guy starts tomorrow. The on the weekend we will paint the eaves so the scaffolding can hopefully be taken off early next week. Fingers crossed!!!

Here is the back view of our house.

So close... yet so far

It has rained non-stop for the past week, so there has been no action at all. We are not too far away from being locked up, but this rain hasn’t been doing us any favours... Upstairs guttering and fascia have been done. And I just found out that the roofers made a start today. YAY! I hope rain stays away so they can finish as soon as possible, and we can finally get rid of the scaffolding ...

My partner received a call from them today, saying that there is an issue with gables, and that it will need to be sorted out asap. So we’ve asked our steel frame erector guy to come and sort it out asap, hopefully tomorrow. We’ll see... Still a fair bit to do once the roof is on, like installing and painting the eaves upstairs, then installing the downstairs trusses as soon as the scaffolding is off... I hope the weather gets better ...

Here are a couple of pics where you can see the gutters and fascia...

Things can only get better? WRONG!

Just when I started to believe things would get better ...

1. Firstly, at 10am my partner gets a call from the brickie saying that the brick hoist doesn’t work. He calls up the scaffolding people and arranges for someone to have a look at it asap. The issue was resolved within 3 mins or so.
2. At around 11am my partner gets a call from the brickie again, this time complaining about the scaffolding, something to do with it not being safe. By the way, we made sure our brickie met up with the scaffolding guy, so he would give him all his requirements just to make sure he’s getting what he needs. The brickie also checked out the scaffolding after it had been installed. My partner arranges for the scaffolding guy to be there as soon as possible. Once investigated the scaffolding guy informs our brickie that the maximum load for that particular bay is 400kg at any one time. Brickie calls my partner again, moans and groans, and what not.
3. At around 3:30pm my partner gets a call yet again, but this time it is from the materials (sand, cement etc) people. They tell him that the gate is locked and they can’t get in. My partner told the brickie this morning that sand etc is coming at 3:30pm and to make sure he is there... He calls the brickie, only to find out that they all left at 2:20pm!!! My partner leaves work and rushes to the block to open up the gate ...
4. Once he gets at the block, he finds McDonald’s wrappers all over the site, even though he specifically asked the brickie to make sure rubbish is placed in the rubbish bin provided.
5. On top of all this, they emptied out the rubbish bin provided to use it to keep water in it!!!

I am seriously beginning to think that things DO NOT GET BETTER!

So devastated right now :(

There's Light at the End of the Tunnel

The scaffolding is up, and we've also got a brick hoist. The bricklayers were meant to start on Monday but have now changed their minds are will be starting on Wednesday. I hope this stage doesn't take too long as the scaffolding and the brick hoist are costing us a fortune.

The roof looks a lot smaller than I thought it would, perhaps our architect didn't draw it correctly in the initial drawings. Oh well, I'm over it. I just want it finished so we can finally move in...

What architecture style is this house?

If anyone knows what architecture style this house is I would love to hear from you :)

Image from realestate

Not happy with the brickwork. Are we too fussy?

We are not very happy with the job our bricklayer has done in some spots. He started off doing a real neat job but then towards the end his work got sloppy. For example this is what one of the sides of our arched window's "border" looks like:

The gap is almost twice the size of all the other gaps

Close up:

If it was one of the side windows we wouldn't really care but this is the front window and is really noticable :(
Would this bother you?

My kitchen inspirations

White, minimalist, handle-less overhead cabinets, Miele appliances, blackbutt timber floor, light coloured benchtop in either CaesarStone or granite....

Chasecrown

The progress so far

Our slab was laid almost 6 months ago. Thanks to our steel frame/ structural steel supplier the build has been moving at a super slow pace and we are still waiting on the remaining trusses that are currently on their way to Adelaide.

Hebel PowerFloor

Boral Jarrah bricks with off white mortar.

Our Stegbar windows, in white birch.

Our slab was laid in mid August, almost 9 months ago :(

Floor plan

It took us months to finalise the floor plan. It is a custom build and we had an amazing architect do all the hard work. We are really happy with it and really looking forward to living in it :)

Ground floor























First floor

My first blog entry :)

And finally I have my own blog.