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

Not much going on – Carpet sorted

Ensuite

Kitchen sink in the laundry cupboard

Little step bit outside the sliding door! That's a bonus I didn't think they where going to do that.


And what was in the basket????!!!!

My son took the little shoes and has them at home. I might put them on my kitchen window sill as a memento.
I rang the builder yesterday to talk about the pot drawers and the client liaison person told me that we where getting a new site supervisor, but that the new site supervisor doesn't come back from holidays for two weeks!!
I am hoping that the tradesmen our initial site supervisor put in place keep on keeping on.
I had a somewhat huge day Friday and Saturday.

Carpet: When I got the Cedar Park sample from Chris at Carpet Choice she told me that it was $10 a metre more then the Valley view one. Since we need 157sqm, I worked it out to be about $1500 more then the original quote. I told the kids in the car that Mummy was going to talk to the lady very nicely and see if we could get the carpet at the same price as the first carpet and that I wanted them to be SOOOO well behaved in the store, as compared to the running around madly they had been doing the last two visits to the store.

They where the best behaved children on the planet! They sat in the corner so nicely. I told her that I am writing a blog about the build and will put in big mention about her and the carpet. She did the figures and said "Well the best I can do is if we increase the price by $100" I almost fell of the chair. She changed the quote and I picked up the kids and ran before she changed her mind. It still includes the upgrade to the gold underlay for free also!
So if you are looking for the Cavalier Bremworth / Kimberly range of carpets and you are in SA, go to Carpet Choice at 1070 South Rd, Edwardstown and tell Chris you read my blog!
So now I have the carpet I love

Next was the tiles. I thought that since the Jan sales where on I might as well go to Italia Ceramics and see if they had any specials going to match the Beaumonts specials.
I went in and saw the ladies there, they told me that if I bring in a Beaumont tile sample and quote that they would match it, on the way home I went to Beaumonts and got a quote, the tiles where on special for $38sqm. I told him I wanted 127sqm, he said "Well I will do you a better price then" and made up a quote for $35sqm.
I went back to Italia on the Saturday morning, it was already 42 in the shade, I was thinking "I must be crazy driving across Adelaide with 3 kids in the car on a stinking hot day"
But it was all worth it. I showed the sales lady the tile and the quote, she said "the best we can do is $37sqm" Given that the tiles where $44sqm I was happy with that.
My hubby paid the 50% deposit for the carpet and 25% deposit for the tiles yesterday.
Now I have the carpet I love and the floor tiles I love.
Ohhh did I tell you the best bit? We asked the tiler who is doing the bathrooms how much he would charge to tile the house, and he quoted about $3500 all the other quotes we have gotten have been around $8000

Chat with the Tiler.

Since the tiler has started, but not called me, I was paranoid he was going to do the shower area without me asking him to go to the ceiling so I got up at an ungodly hour and drove up to the house.
As I approached the house I saw no cars and my heart sank, then I noticed that the side door was open. I went into the house, and the reason for no car because clear, he rides a bike!! Apparently he lost his license!
So I got some more pics
Toilet - beautifully centred

Main bathroom shower area

Main bathroom looking toward the bath

Plumbers finger as he explains how the bath hob works

I asked him about the front door and he said that he is going to build a bit of a step there  But he said "don't worry it will look good" so here's hoping it looks good.
We agreed on $50 for him to tile to the ceiling in the shower area and to tile one wall with a different tile, however I have to go to Beaumonts today and get the extra tiles he needs. So hopefully they play nice.

Porch Tiled

So went up to the house on the way home and saw the porch had been tiled.


There looks to be lots of glue under the tiles




What I don't get is this gap near the front door?? As he has cut the tiles all short.. What on earth is going to go there if not tiles?


Going around the side of the house I noticed these tiles outside the laundry door, so I think he is going to do the laundry floor next.


But he must have done something, either our bathroom or the kids, because look at all these cut tiles in the skip!! They are definately NOT the front porch tiles, they are thick porcelain tiles from somewhere in the house.


So I am getting up early tommorow to go up the house and try and catch the tiler.

Tell me how bloody hard is it to deliver a pallet of bricks?? I mean seriously!!


It looks like the guy has just dropped them of the fricken truck, ffs. Hopefully there are enough unchipped ones to finish the last of the wall.

There was also this in front of the garage next to the skip


If you're going to dump rubbish, dump it in the darn skip, don't go "hmm this is a nice basket someone might want it, I'll leave it on the ground" put it in the bloody skip. I'm to scared to open it, my first thought was that it looks like a snake charmers basket. I might use a long stick tommorow and see what is in it.

This is a sneaky photo taken inside a Medallion display home in Blackwood. This is the display home that I have based alot of my colour selections on.


See why I have to have the dark carpet. I have this vision, and dark carpet is part of it.

So I went back to the carpet shop today, and met up with secondhomebuilder (from the Homeone Forum) to give her my Hickies Colour Selection book.

I got the dark carpet from the Cedar Park range. It is about $10 a mtr more expensive then the one I originally picked 

I bought it home to hubby and he likes it. So now to see if I can sweet talk the sales lady down a bit in price for me.

Our neighbours son-in-law has given us a good quote on doing some tiling for us. He said that he could get tiles at good rates from Beaumonts, so we picked out this white alabaster tile, that again didn't really sit well with us. The tiler said he could get this tile for x amount. There is a tile we love from Italia tiles, so I think I might go for a bit of a drive tommorow and see if I can get it reduced a little. (It is $20sqmtr more) We might just have to paint the concrete and tile later. But here is the tile, the carpet my kitchen benchtop (White Valencia) and kitchen cupboards (Charcoal) together.