Air Conditioning Installed

I've been MIA lately as we had no progress with our house last week at all. Our glass splashback, which is one of the items I have been most excited to see, was due to be installed on Wednesday however several days later it is still not there.

Fortunately we had some site work today in the form of our air conditioning being installed.

Now I have been quite wary of our air conditioning after we opted to stick with the standard Derby unit rather than upgrading to the Actron (or even getting something like a Daiken after handover). The reviews I had read online said the Derby unit was noisy, unreliable and I was not exactly thrilled by the day/night cooling system - lets be honest, I like to laze around in bed all day so being able to only heat/cool the bedrooms OR the living areas was going to be difficult for me & my partner (who is likely to be in the home theatre).

To my surprise, I arrived at the house today to a Braemar unit (the BC183A to be precise). It appears that MJH have been using these lately due to lack of stock with the Derby units and frankly I am pleased that we got this one instead. Reviews for the Braemar unit seem more complimentary and no more day/night system yaaaaay (i think!)

An electrician will be back tomorrow to connect the AC together and fingers crossed our splashback finally gets installed.

Shower Screens Installed

Another surprise today - shower screens installed on a Saturday! Good one Stegbar & MJH

Ensuite glass panel. There are little foam squares all over the glass from either packaging or installation

Main bathroom

May have also gone completely crazy at IKEA today. Had some Xmas vouchers to spend so ended up with a bed, bedside tables, 2 sets of drawers (all in white) as well as some cushions. There are going to be some long nights ahead of us with an alan key.

Plumbing Fit Out + Mirrors

Plumbing fit out was completed today which means all taps, shower heads, toilets and a bath tub were installed.

 Oh hey, bathtub (I JUST WANT TO CLEAN THOSE TILES)

Shiny taps

Shower - main bathroom

Toilet - appears to have already been christened

Ensuite

Tap glamour shot - Dorf 'Enix'

 Taps installed for kitchen sink

The above photos were taken by my parents at around 2.30pm, and when I dropped by tonight I found a couple more surprises (excuse the shoddy iPhone photos)...

Huge mirror in the main bathroom - needs some Windex!

And another big mirror in the ensuite - LOVE IT

Electricians have also covered up the wires on either side of our garage

 Nice and tidy

Electrical Fit Out Complete

All lights, powerpoints, tv points etc. were installed today.

We're doing downlights ourselves after handover so we've only got a few lights scattered around the house at this stage.

Got excited and went to play with all the switches when it occurred to me... we don't have lightbulbs haha

I think plumbers will be in tomorrow to install the goods sitting in our garage. Our SS Mark advised shower screens/mirrors will go in next week and we're looking at PCI on 15th April (which is exactly a month ahead of schedule) with handover a couple of days after.

Can't believe the journey is almost over.

Entry - smoke alarm and light fitting (with no bulb!)

Downlights in the overhead cupboards in the kitchen - the only downlights we paid for with MJH

Heat/light/fan combo in the ensuite. These I could play with given they have bulbs built in, woohoo. That said, the 'light' is absolutely useless but the heat lamp and fan seemed to work well

Ensuite colours under the heat lamp

Shelving Complete

It's official. I am in love with my walk-in pantry. All shelving was installed today and I was particularly excited to see the pantry, given the display home I went to had a butler's pantry rather than a WIP.

It is spacious and I can't wait to fill it up with lots of unhealthy food haha

Shelves were also installed in all wardrobes today (including our walk-in robe) and linen cupboard.

Pantry - the shelves wrap all the way around, like a horseshoe

Melamine shelving in our walk-in robe - there is an ovehead shelf and hanging rail which extends the length of the robe in an L shape

Toilets and bath were delivered today too. Looks like there may also be taps and perhaps shower heads?

Can't wait to sit in that bath

Splashback Measured

Had to tilt my head to the side to read this handwriting though ;)

Lounges

Couldn't pass up Freedom Furniture's buy one sofa get one free deal.

Put some cashola down on these bad boys today:

Hilton Modular in 'Coal' - this will go in the home theatre

Signature Modular in 'Napa Cement' - this will go in the living area

Can't wait to get some colourful cushions in a variety of prints and textures to spruce it all up. Perhaps a black and white chevron rug as well.

And here is a photo of our facade with the garage door down - the builders mix stain is a perfect match.

Painting Complete

Painter finished up today and despite some initial shockers, has done a spectacular job. We must have a zillion coats of paint on our wall now and it is finished perfectly. I had read up on some people having very average painters however our guy has been thorough and tidy. If I thought our house was indestructible before, it has been made even more durable with several coats of paint. Even our timber beams got the special treatment - a third coat of MJH Builders Mix stain as the colour wasn't looking quite right with two.

In other news, we've had an NBN box installed in the garage and not much else. Not really sure what to expect next week. I'm thinking it may be a combo of electricians and plumbers?

Front pillars have now been painted in Taubmans Smokehaze

Benchtops Installed

So much happened today!

Painter is putting on the final coats of our interior paint (in the right colours mind you). He has also done 1 coat of the MJH Builders Mix stain for the beams on our facade, as well as our front door. I know it will get darker with a second coat, however I love how it looks so far - I think it'll blend in perfect with the Caoba garage door.

Also had a surprise benchtop installation today, yaay. So Caesarstone benchtops installed in bathrooms and kitchen, as well as kitchen sink and bathroom basins.

Kitchen benchtops are all covered up right now though - they are white, not black ;)

 Looking good! Hopefully the brick pillars will be bagged and painted tomorrow

Close up of the beams - one more coat of stain to go

There are some Caesarstone Ice Snow benchtops hiding under that black protective layer

 Ensuite benchtop in Caesarstone Urban - gorgeous neutral grey/brown. Got the same colour in our main bathroom

Painting Continues

Feeling absolutely awful for our lovely painter right now.

He arrived at our place at 5.30AM on Friday and was still there at 6.30PM when I dropped by. At that stage, he had painted all of our ceilings, cornices, architraves and doors in Taubmans Elusive White and had started painting Bedroom 4 in Taubmans Apache Stone.

The darker colour Apache Stone was intended to be in the bedrooms only, and then Taubmans Marble Mist everywhere else.

Cut to Saturday and the poor guy is there at the same time again, continuing to paint Bedrooms 2 & 3 in Apache Stone.

Cut to Sunday, and suddenly there is Apache Stone through the entry, kitchen, laundry, bathrooms, garage, you name it. And then a little splash of Marble Mist in the master bedroom. With great difficulty, we had to explain to the guy (with his broken English) that the colours aren't correct. The moment he realised he had wasted his weekend by painting the wrong colours was devastating.

We ended up telling him to leave the home theatre as is (as it looks lovely dark), but that the main living areas and bathrooms were meant to be Marble Mist.

Cut to today......and the guy has painted over the Apache Stone in the main living areas and is looking fantastic. Until we get to Bedrooms 2, 3 and 4 where he has painted over the correct Apache Stone with Marble Mist.

I tried telling him to leave it as is as I prefer the lighter colour personally but he insisted that it is completed as per the plans.

So now our very pleasant painter is now at the house for another few days, repainting everything :( Feeling rotten about it all.

The painter only got given a PDF version of our colour selections which is pretty difficult for someone with extremely limited English to understand. Got a catch up planned with our SS tomorrow and as our painter will be there, I'm going in armed with a colour coded floor plan to help explain things.

Entry way - looking fab in Marble Mist

Master bedroom incorrectly painted in Marble Mist - I personally love the lighter colour, but the plans state that all bedrooms should have been Apache Stone and the guy is insisting on painting over it :( ughhh

Painting Begins

One guy has the unfortunate job of painting the entire house by himself and he was there again today after being there past 6.30 last night.

So far he has managed to paint the entire ceiling as well as all skirting, architraves, doors and window frames in Taubmans Elusive White.

He has now moved onto the first coat of Taubmans Apache Stone in the bedrooms and home theatre - a colour that is significantly darker than I would be inclined to go for, however my partner loved it and I have to say he was onto something as it is much lighter in person and softer than it appears in photographs. First coat has been rolled on and I wonder whether the second coat will be the same or if if will be sprayed.

The rest of the house will be done in Taubmans Marble Mist, an almost white shade with a touch of warm grey which is definitely more in my comfort zone.

Pillars on the facade will be bagged and painted in Taubmans Smokehaze

Apache Stone - looks very dark in this pic

Home theatre - colour more accurate

Vanities Installed

Vanities were installed today, site clean up of the front yard done and painters scheduled to start tomorrow

Ensuite - this will have a double basin

Tiling Complete

Tiles are now complete in our wet area and Peter (tiler) has done a fantastic job.

No idea of what is coming up next and when, but im hoping for some paint and benchtops :)

 

Charred ash grout

 Main bathroom - needs a good clean!

Ensuite shower - before grout