Tiles with grout

I took my parents up to the house tonight after picking them up from the air port. We snuck in to the house and the tiler has grouted the bathroom.
It actually looks a bit better with grout, and the middle 600 tile actually stands out like a feature in itself. So I will stop complaining.
My Mum said "Oh wow" when she walked into the ensuite, that is a HUGE compliment for her!
Unfortunately my camera battery went flat so I didn't get any photos of the kitchen splashback grouted either.
But here are some pics.




Painting has started

Disappointed with Bathroom Tiles

I don't think the tiler thinks outside the square much. Look at what he has done in the bathroom.
He has started the shower tile at 2100mm (which is what the build notes said to go to). Then he has followed this line around the bathroom. Because the bathroom tiling is only going to 1200mm I end up with this...

 
Yep my lovely 600x300 wall tile is cut in to 3 different sizes!! I am not happy. You would think 1200 high = 2 tiles, nice simple elegant. NOOOOO I get this 400 and 600 and 200.

I called the client liaison today, she asked me to send her some pictures. I am going to suggest that maybe they can take off the top row and put just one full 600 tile on top, maybe that will make it look a little more balanced?? rather then re-do the whole wall.

But it looks stupid having 3 tiles all different sizes.

It is not as noticeable where it goes up over the bath hob
 
This is my shower step in the ensuite *sigh* not as super glossy white as the super glossy white tiles
 
Hubby moved the excess bricks on the weekend while I took the boys to the Doctor, ear infections and antibiotics for the both of them *sigh*


The kitchen splashback
 
I hate it against my white valencia benchtop. Getting a smoky mirror splashback, or painting the tiles red or something is going to be high on my to-do list.

While he was waiting for me to get back with the boys my husband tidied up the front a bit.
We just stood out the front cuddling and admiring out house, it was nice moment. Then son number 1 found us.

My husband wants to put a brush fence from just in front of the down pipe to the retaining wall, where the fence will be. I HATE brush fences. I need to photo shop one in there to show him how ridiculous it will look.
 
I think some sort of wooden slat fence back where the very edge of the house is will look much better.

I went up to the house this morning to meet with the painters. I asked him to paint the door frame black. His English wasn't so fantastic, but I think he understood what I wanted. My married name is Hungarian, the painter is Hungarian, his wife works at the Hungarian club, and knew my husbands grandfather!!

I didn't get the chance to go up today to see what they had done. Hopefully tomorrow.

6 more weeks because of the Garage door!!

I got a call from the SS yesterday. Apparently the old SS hadn't ordered our roller door! So it is going to be at least 6 weeks before that arrives. :(
However he said if we are happy we can move in without the garage door.
However the old SS hadn't ordered the shower screens and they are going to be at least 4 weeks :(
He did however say he was going to get someone to come in and do the steps from the garage to the kitchen.  No more climbing up this huge ledge to get into the house.

The right sized pot drawers are in

Overhang on the kitchen bench - I hope it is enough to put a few stools under.

He asked why the kitchen window was missing a ledge. I explained the whole 1mtr high kitchen bench top debacle, he said he would have gotten them to lower the window before doing the bricking if he had known that. I said I would rather just leave it, I never really liked the idea of the kitchen window being level with the bench top anyway as we are going to have the sink there. So he said he would get someone to come in and put in the window ledge.
I was there briefly today, and a tradesman turned up to put in the kitchen ledge.
The tiler was there also, cutting out spots to put in our foot rests.
He was happy cause now he can do the kitchen tiling.
Apparently the painters are starting on Monday, so I have to go up there early and talk to them, and see if we can work something out in regards to painting the external door frames black.
The eaves are almost done.

I asked about the excess bricks, he said that normally they keep the extras and take them on to the next house that is using that brick "Everyone is using the Bianca at the moment" he said that no-one else is building with our brick, so if we move them down the back of the block we can keep the excess  I am thinking of using them as a border to the driveway, and maybe a brick letterbox. I think I have settled on just a plain charcoal driveway, no fancy stencilling or anything, I think our house bricks stand out enough without needing anything extra for the driveway.
Oh and we have to sign a waiver for the smooth finish garage door apparently it shows all the bumps and knocks and dings.  We just didn't want a door that had that wood look. I wonder how smooth  the smooth finish is???
Also I was talking to the tiler about him doing our floor tiles after handover. I can see now why the quote he gave us was so cheap, he stated that he was going to start the floor tiling in the corner of the meals area, and where the tiles fell in regards to the front corridor that is what they where going to be.   So I said "well how about if you put the first time smack bang in the middle of the front door so that we have a row of tiles running up the middle of the hallway. "oh yeah you could do that and be fancy".  So I am thinking I might need to keep on eye on him when he is doing the tiling. As long as the first one goes in the right spot the rest should be easy.
We have had a huge delivery of new computers at work. Do you think I have enough packing boxes?

(there is another row behind that one)

My kitchen bench finally arrives!!

I wasn't able to get up to the house yesterday, and I thought nothing would be happening any way as everything seems to have slowed down a bit.
So imagine my surprise and delight this afternoon to find out that things have been happening!!
The first thing I noticed was that they had finished the cornices and plasterboard in the garage


They have also started with the eaves. Hubby noticed they have done the cornices around the windows, a look that I hate. If it was square cornices I could handle it, but that angled stuff makes me feel like the windows have droopy eyelids.

They finally finished the brickwork *yay* - however he forgot to put insulation between the wall and the brickwork. They replaced a lot of the brown bricks out the front, but he missed one that has a big cross on it.

I peeked through the kitchen window and saw my bench top

So I rang my husband and asked him to come help me break in to the house so I could get a better look.
Warning Excessive Kitchen benchtop photos follow
The benchtop is Laminex Diamond Gloss - White Valencia
Cupboards are Laminex - Charcoal




The right sized pot drawers

The missing piece of benchtop

Hubby checking the range hood works "yes dear now stop playing with it"

Look at the shine! Look how wide it is!


The underside - you'd think that it would be better finished, but it is only going to be seen when your passed out on the floor and then I think the last thing people will be looking at is the gap.

Tiling – Ensuite grouted – I don’t like it

We asked the SS to unlock the house on Saturday so that hubby could put on the face plates and patch in all the network cables. (There is likely a correct way to say that, but you get what I mean)
He has grouted the main bathroom. I almost cried when I saw it.




Bright white grout! Bright white!! The whole point of the feature wall is ruined.
He hasn't done the main bathroom yet, I am wondering if I should buy him some charcoal grout and give it to the tiler to do the main bathroom feature tiles with, and maybe see if he can do a layer over top of the ensuite.
Or maybe a grout pen? Or maybe dig it all out with a grout chisel thing and re-grout it ourselves later on.
Hubby thinks it looks great!!! He thinks it really shows of the dark tiles???!!!??? I am going to have to take him back up to Blackwood park and show him the display homes I was trying to mimic.
There was a plasterboard guy working on Saturday, he was sanding all the walls down ready for the painters. Apparently when the painters finish on the house over they are going to start on ours.
The tiler said he is going to be back on Wednesday to finish up.

Tiling – Ensuite almost done

Since I have the tilers business card I rang to tell him we would go ahead and use him for the floor tiles. He told me that he had finished the ensuite!! So I got up super early this morning and on my way to work went up to the house.
Ensuite - Shower alcove






Ensuite - RHS wall


Ensuite - window wall - opposite shower


Ensuite - LHS wall - where the mirror will be. It should start at the tiles and go almost to the roof


So there you have it, a full 360 degree view
He was still working on the kids bathroom
Toilet

Laundry