Monday 10 September 2012

Chugging along - September 2012

Nearly a month has passed since my last post and not all that much has happened. It's great when we go to site and see lots of changes and signs of things moving along but I know it won’t always move fast and apparently I have to be patient. Unfortunately I was born without patience and they don’t seem to sell bottles of it at the supermarket. I think the best thing for me to do would be to go overseas for a month – hint hint Mr R.
Most of the windows have arrived and they look amazing, even better than we had imagined. Saying that we could not imagine much as we had not really ever seen really great windows and doors, most new homes seem to be built with narrow profile frames and we knew we wanted thicker, more substantial looking ones. The back stacker doors have not yet arrived and also the triangle window for bedroom 2 as it needed to be measured up on site. This has probably slowed progress a bit as there is not much more that can be done until the site is watertight.
Our gorgeous windows - love them!

The biggest visual change is that the majority of the external cladding (Sycon Axon) has been installed and I think it looks great. It will be painted a light colour so it looks like a box stuck on the top of the house.
View from rear and our lovely big bedroom window

View from neighbours house and our hall window (up high so no one can see our nude bodies)
Trevor and I met up with the Joiner (Chris from Hills Joinery), on site, to discuss the kitchen, wardrobes, bathroom vanities and entertainment unit. A lot of details were discussed that I didn’t understand but at least Chris and Trevor were on the same page, so hopefully this will mean we get a high quality finish.
Really excited about the entertainment unit, it will be 4.8 metres long, wall hung and finished in Dulux Natural White polyurethane. We are going to paint the west long (living/dining/kitchen) wall a mid-grey colour so that the entertainment unit and floating shelves do not get lost in the wall. Also I didn’t want to end up with a room that looked like a long white box and as it faces north I think it can handle a deeper colour.

6 comments:

  1. No overseas holidays for a while!

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  2. Your reno is coming along really well. I can't even get tradies to come over to my place!

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    1. We have had so many problems with trademen, they don't even want to give us quotes. Sometimes they come over and then don't bother giving a quote, or they just don't want to even come over. Must be a lot of work out there and they don't want ours! Just dealing with an architect and builder is much less stressful than trying to deal with the other trades (who seem to speak their own language)

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  3. Hi,

    I have a quick question about your blog, do you think you could e-mail me?

    Brian

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  4. As a soon-to-be Sydney terrace renovator I have been astounded at how little information on the very esoteric process of 1800s Australian terrace renovating experience/info there is online - surely tonnes of people have been doing it for years, just not sharing with the www I guess!

    So THANK YOU! for making your blog :)

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    1. I was a bit worried about sharing the information, especially costs, as it's so much cheaper to buy a project home and some people just don't understand why anyone would bother. We love the area and want to live close to the city and cafes etc, we also like the character of the houses. I think I wanted to let others know that the prices listed on archicentre are a crock of S*&t and I have never been able to get anywhere near the amounts quoted. On a positive note, using a architect full service has meant that so far it is pretty much stress free and there's really no price for that.

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