Tiles Tiles Tiles...

Delivered but not installed...  At least that was from last weekend.  Hopefully this will be a different story when we visit tomorrow.

On another update, our wheather board wall has apparently been painted with the color we wanted. 

Tiles delivered

Tiling preparation

Kitchen sink

Wheather board painted

The Show Goes On...

We are now officially at "Fixing" stage, in Metricon's term of stage progression.  This would only mean that this is the last stage before the D-Day, which is the "Completion" stage or some might call it the "Handover" stage.

Although from our recent visit, it doesn't feel like it was at fixing stage as our horizontal kitchen window was pulled out from the wall!  I suspect that they needed the extra space to put the caesarstone benchtop on!  I am being biased here but I'm really loving our selection of the color :)

Other "fixing" they have installed are the sinks for kitchen, laundry and all the bathrooms.  I must say they are looking good and we can't wait to move in!  Hopefully we are not far from it... :)  I have also been told that tiling has commenced on 18 Oct.

Despite having the kitchen window pulled out,  I guess The Show Goes On...  (This video below does play the song "The Show Goes On" by Lupe Fiasco, it just that I like this version better :)).

Alright enough talking from me, here are some illustrations of what has been happening.



Where is the window?!?!?!?!?



There it is... but why is it there??



Kitchen sink and benchtop installed... checked



Laundry sink and benchtop installed... checked

Powder room sink and benchtop installed... checked

Bathroom sink and benchtop installed... checked

Ensuite sinks and benchtop installed... checked

Until the next update :)

Stained

We are still waiting for the tile order to be delivered by Di Lorenzo.  I guess this delay is unavoidable as the bill wasn't settled on time.  Nevertheless, it would be nice if tiling can start sometime this week.

In the mean time, from what we can see from our last visit, there were some more work done to the house.  Like Phil and Bel said there were some painters working in our house on the weekend.  We've noticed that the entry doors, front and back, and stairs have been stained with the merbau color as we selected during the internal color selection.

Hopefully when we visit this weekend a little bit more progress on the tiles would have been lovely.

Bi Folding door in the outdoor room

Stair railing

Front entry door

Breaking and Entering

Well there is not much to report or update from our last visit as we've just settled our bills with Di Lorenzo earlier this week.

I have let our SS know about this and he said he will organise the tiler to start working on them as soon as the order comes through.

We did, however, from our recent visit found that the back door was unlocked!  It appears to be inviting and beckoning to be broken into... (of course you wouldn't want this happen when the house is finished and ready to be lived in :)).

So this is a golden opportunity for me to take pictures of the interior of the house, including the kitchen!!

Kitchen reloaded!

Same kitchen with different angle :)

Above the fridge wine rack

I have had few people asking us about the location of this wine rack.  Refrigerator being the electrical nature as it is produces heat from the mechanical motor installed at the back of the fridge.  Some wine apparently can't be exposed to this sort of heat and will damage the content of the wine.

Obviously we didn't know about this as we rarely drink alcohol and all of our collection of wines are either gifts from friends or we actually bought them from the duty free shop at the airport because they are so cheap!  So despite the fact that we rarely drink alcohol, we still buy them just for the sheer decoration value out of it.

Moving on with the rest of the pictures...

Laundry up close and personal

President bathtub - Ensuite

Shower - Ensuite

Main Bathroom

Staircases

Entry to the main bedroom with the translucent glass door

I've also taken some picture of other things that happens around our place.

The wind has been quite strong this week that it blew the porta-loo outside out of it's place.

The bridge behind our place is also nearing it's completion.

Staircases and Kitchen

We're up to the stage where we have the kitchen build minus the caesar stone benchtop, the laundry cupboard fitted to the way we wanted them to look and the wine rack above the fridge have also been fitted.  Additionally the staircase looks like pretty much done.

We're still locked out of our house when we come for a visit. (I hate it when they're being meticulous but I equally hate it when they're not! lol)  Thus we can only peek from the window of our house, hence the picture quality that I am about to show you.

The tiling should also been done this week but for some apparent reason we can't get them to progress as we need to settle the invoice with Di Lorenzo before anything can happen.  I was wondering why they haven't send us any quote with our upgrade yet and apparently they're emails are being blocked by our mail server!  They must have been blacklisted by someone in the past if this is the case...

Moving on, I quickly ask them to change the initial setup in the powder room.  I requested that the feature wall tile to be moved to the shower portion as oppose behind the vanity wall.  I've just received the amended quote as I am typing this paragrah!  That's quick...

So all I have to do now is to sign the acceptance form and pay our deposit money so the work can get started already.

Here are some pics to share from our last visit.  I apologise for the quality of the shots but given the circumstances of being locked out and taking them from the window, I hope you can all appreciate them.

Enjoy.

Another retake on our front entry door in the daylight!  Cloudy to be exact.

Staircases ticked! Balustrade ticked! Zig zag capping ticked!  Timber flooring no tick...

Kitchen! Kitchen! Kitchen!  I get excited with kitchen :)

Wine rack above fridge done, Laundry looks pretty much done, kitchen is almost there...

Just need the stone benchtop and the equipment that goes with it.

Gee... we ROCK!!

The latest update that I receive last week from our SS was gyprock should be done sometime this week and Wednesday the tradies should have started on building the staircase.  Next on the list would be sealing the wet areas with waterproof sealant.

This just means that we need to get our act together and have another look at our tile selections again and finalise the bill for that.

I can't wait for a sneak peek of the staircase.  Maybe we'll to get to see it when we pay a visit this weekend.

Other than that looks like everything is well underway with the progress and we are really hoping that we can move in by Christmas.  (Please Santa can we have our early Christmas present this year)

As promised from my last post here are some photos of the Gyprock progress

Entry hallway - Feels like a train ride...

The niche in front of the sitting room

Kitchen and dining room

Rumpus room - In case I missed it, the Bi-Folds will be stained with Merbau color

Family room - The wall niche decoration

Provision for the fridge - Laundry - Pantry

Main bedroom

Ensuite

Hallway leading to leisure room

Leisure room

Wall opening to the study room

We've all seen this picture numerous time but can you tell the difference? - It's the stacker timber post!! It wasn't there last week :)  This too will be stained with Merbau

What's Up Doc? The Frame of course!

We got a call from our SS on Friday to give more updates on what's happening with the house.  Although some of the updates I already learned from Thigee as Ben and her are always there and they are the nicest neighbor anybody can have.

One particular update of interest is the frame.  Thigee said that they were working on it on Thursday and sent us some pictures with the workers still working on them.  I, personally, would've thought that there won't be any work done on our home as it has been raining (and on some days are pretty heavy rain) for the entire week.  But our SS seemed to be determined to get our home done in time, to which we really appreciate the effort.

Our SS also told us that the bricks will arrive on Wednesday morning.  He said that he was hoping that they can start laying the bricks on the very same day once the frame work has been completed.

We went to the site on Saturday morning for a visit but it was too muddy to go inside the house.  We really should be considering in investing in couple of pairs of gum boots!

We also met with our neighbor Thigee and her husband Ben on Saturday and had a good laugh with them for about an hour or so before we are off to do our tile selection at Di Lorenzo.  What a lovely and funny couple!  We are so looking forward to live in the new home now.

After getting some lunch at the local McDonald's (a very unhealthy habit, kids please don't follow this at home!), we made our way to Di Lorenzo.  However as this is our first time building and selecting tiles, we were overwhelmed with the range of selection that they have in the shop.  We have been told the range that we are getting as part of the building package but still there were still a lot to look at and consider.

We ended up leaving empty handed but we made a proper appointment in two weeks with a consultant that can help with our tile selection.

Here are some pics from our recent visit.  Enjoy.

First floor up

A muddy side pathway

Picture courtesy of our neighbor Thigee

Picture courtesy of our neighbor Thigee