Friday, October 30, 2009

Current home on the market

Our current home is now officially on the market. We took some time in "refreshing" the house with a new paint job, cleaning windows, carpets, re-doing the floorboards, re grouting tiles, cleaning up the landscaping, etc, etc. We still have a few things to do, but all in all it's come up nice. It feels like a new home.

Hopefully it brings more than we expect, and we can complete the new home with the pool.

Plasterboard ready to go...

I've been slack with taking photos, but I thought I had better post some updates as very soon most of it will be covered in.

The brickwork is probably a day or two away from being complete, and rain is forecast for the next week or so ! It's not a major concern as it won't hold me up any longer. I just hope the roofer can still get to site next week to install the garage roof and the box gutter behind the bedroom parapit.

All services have been roughed in. Electrical, plumbing, air conditioning, heating, smart wiring. Over the weekend I'll rough in the alarm system with a friend of mine, and probably rough in the theatre cables.

The double sliding doors to the lounge/theatre were hung and they look great (well as good as they can without any plasterboard installed). The room will be able to function as a closed up, "as close to soundproof as I can get" theatre, or as an open lounge room - depending on what happens when we move in.

The plasterboard is due to start Monday 9th November.

Front of house:




Future pool area:


Alfresco:


Looking down into house. Lounge doors open:


Door closed:


Kitchen:


Family, with Rumpus behind low wall.


Rumpus (looking at low wall). The wall will feature a bar unit built in on the right hand side (full height). On the small side, there will either be two glass sliding panels and a cabinet created for memorabilia, or a couple of reptile cabinets built in.


Looking past the ensuite and WIR into the master bedroom.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Kitchen layout - I think I have finally done it !

After what seems to be an eternity of headaches and changing designs, I have finally come up with a sketch of something we both like. It's not the world's biggest kitchen and we want a nice "clean look" so it's created a few probelsm.

I've changed a couple of things, and one wall between the study and the kitchen will have to be moved in order for it to work, but I can live with that. I have also deepened the nib walls from 600mm to 750mm to fit the fridge. I could also move that back of the fridge wall back 150mm, but that would create a hassle with the bedroom and study entries.

The final result that I am hoping for is a nice clean wall where the cooktop is (drawers each side of the underbench oven and overhead cupbaords with an undermount rangehood). The overhead cupboards will probably be handle free to keep the clean lines.
THe sinks will be undermount, and the pantry doors glass with an aluminium frame. One door slides into the adjacent bench, but I am thinking of sliding the other one (the left one) behind a fake cupboard (a joinery wall), rather than a plasterboard wall.

The microwave, toaster and kettle will be placed on the prep bench and serviced with an exhaust fan over the bench. THe pre bench also doubles up as a pantry, with shelves over head. I am thinking that two rows of shelves won't be too high, and will provide about 7 metres of shelf. I can also put shelves or cupboards, or food drawers under the prep bench. I've seen a couple of house with the pantry over the prep bench and it seemed to work.

I may also chase out the slab so I can fit a sink into the corner of the prep bench - but I am yet to decide on that.

I have gone with an extra wide island bench in order to create space for placing food, etc when guests come around, as well as reduce the width between the island bench and the cooktop bench. The island bench will have granite waterfall ends and be open on the family room side for seating.

THe kitchen will be finished in 2 pac as I love how it looks.


Wednesday, October 7, 2009

FInally we have some bricks !

After a couple of weeks delay with the bricklayer, due to hold ups on other projects and wet weather, we finally have a start.