The plumber has been working in the bathroom this week so things have been moving again, albeit slowly.
We came home on Wednesday to find most of the bathroom plumbing fittings installed. As we looked at the progress Trixie, our cheeky spoilt Burmese cat had to inspect with us.
Next decision is when to move back up to the bedroom, as there’s still some finishing paint touches to go and some electrical to be installed. This weekend is looking good…
After a couple of weeks where progress has been slow, things are moving again. It was great to finally see how the major design element in the bathroom looked, have been trying to imagine it for weeks. It has lived up to expectation which is a relief.
The glass splash back wall in the bathroom is looking good, but there were some learnings on the journey from templating to install:
Plumbing and final electrical over the next week, so really looking forward to moving back into the new space, timeframe is now in days not weeks or months.
Over the last couple of weeks we have moved from entering the house via the laundry door to using our new front door.
At last we can use the front entrance without having to clamber up to the door and worry about the safety of friends when they visit. Now we just need the light fittings installed.
I’m in love with the amazing front door our new keyless entry and doorbell from OZ
The keyless entry is easy to use with either a PIN or a proximity card. It’s very clear when it’s locked or not with different sounds telling you the door is shut and locked or failed to lock. Plus it locks automatically, so no worrying about whether Stewart has remembered to lock the door after himself!
We found that the doorbell was essential with the plasma door as knocking on the outside was virtually soundless.
The end is now in sight with glass for the bathroom due in the next week, carpet laying planned and installation of wardrobe scheduled for 17 February.
The scaffolding finally came down yesterday and the new look is a great transformation.
Unfortunately the project isn’t as far along as we would’ve hoped for Christmas. Hopefully plasterer and then painter will be here early next week, but it’s unlikely that they’ll be finished before Xmas, so everything remains packed up in the container. We’d been hoping to get the bedrooms on the main living level restored back to normal, but it seems that’s not to be.
Wednesday wasn’t the best day to be home sick, with the slate tiles in the entranceway being ground off, as they were so firmly adhered. Very noisy, dusty and long. I wore ear plugs most of the day that took it from a loud intrusive noise to a duller still intrusive noise. I thought I’d moved vulnerable breakable items off shelves in the cupboard backing onto the area that they were working in, but found all the vibrations had dislodged a glass candle holder which smashed when it hit other items on the floor of the cupboard. At least it wasn’t something really precious.
With builders not back until mid January, the master suite is unlikely to be finished until the end of January and walk in wardrobe likely to be installed in early February. Between now and mid January the tiler should’ve completed the bathroom and hallway tiling. Bathroom waterproofing inspection due tomorrow.
Fingers crossed, the front door could arrive and be installed on Monday – here’s hoping that it’ll be the bow on top.
No sleep-in today as the builders were due to arrive at 7.30am for a morning of putting the gib up in the new areas. They were trying to make up for some lost time over the last few weeks.
The bathroom and walk-in wardrobe are starting to look like real rooms.
But the builders did strike a problem on Friday that could hold us up. The old front door and the wall were removed to create the new front entrance and the builders found that the existing structure wouldn’t cope with the new span, so we’re now looking at options of a steel beam or not cutting the wall back as far. Not helped by the fact that this is now about to hold up the tiler who can’t waterproof the bathroom until the structure below is complete and stable.
The Christmas break is looming and losing a few days with this will have a major impact on what is complete before the holidays.
Took me a moment tonight to work out what had changed today. Spouting finally up so looking even more finished. Will also be great for the rainwater to be collected in our water tank instead of ending up on the ground and contributing to a muddy mess that gets trekked inside.
The building seems to be progressing with speed. New spaces are all nearly formed and the new roof has been built over the entranceway/bathroom structure. Plaster cladding has been removed from all of the front of the house. We’ve been really lucky with the weather while the new roof was built.
We’ve had to make decisions on bathroom fittings, tiles and lighting plan so we don’t hold up progress. We were really pleased when we found the tiles we liked the most were some of the most affordable.
Also found a light fitting for the stairwell which matches in with our colour scheme and was reasonably priced. We’d found some options that were several hundred dollars and one had been suggested that was $800 – as beautiful as it was I couldn’t bring myself to pay that much for a light fitting. My mantra of looking a million dollars but not costing a million dollars kept running through my head. So to find a perfect match for the colours we’re using at $63 was a bargain. Reflecting on the purchase I’m not really sure why I didn’t buy it the first time I saw it, guess it’s that buyer psychology theory coming into play where you want to be really sure you’ve made the right decision.
When things seem to be moving slowly it’s worth going back and looking how far you’ve come.
It’s been feeling like there has only been small changes day to day, but the photos tell a different story.
Looks like they’re close to starting on the roof of the new section.
Gas meter got moved today as planned, but took most of the day so Mum was without hot water until mid-afternoon.
TV aerial got moved yesterday but for some inexplicable reason Mum now isn’t getting TV3. So now trying to work out why. She’s been very forgiving about the impositions on her day to day which I really appreciate.
More is being demolished each day with most of the deck /porch now gone plus the walk in wardrobe cabinets were dismantled and removed.
Doesn’t take long for the place to get dusty, can see me vacuuming in the entranceway/hallway most nights so we don’t track it through the rest of the house.
Was a bit of a shock when I tried to run hot water in the bathroom before going to bed, it was stone cold and my first thought was oh no cold showers in the morning! But worked out fairly quickly that the builder had been disconnecting electrical fittings and in the process had only turned off the power supply to the instant gas hot water, so not quite so tragic…
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