Tiling Finished!!!! Yayyy!!

Here is the hard working crew at the beginning of grouting.. Tim, with sons, Luke and Jack. Katelyn was also working hard, out of camera view.

All grouting complete and all it needs now is a good mopping tomorrow. Here is the entrance, in all its glory. We just love it!!  The mosaic tiles seem to match the chocolate tile a bit better now.. not sure why.. but doesn't it look great!! 

The kitchen , dining and family rooms..

Dining and family room again,  and then the hall way

Here is a picture looking from the family room toward the kitchen, study and entrance. Notice the darker tiles of the entrance feature in the picture :)

It is wonderful to have such a talented hubby! 

-Sha

Decision made....

Well, we HAD to make a decision.. and since Tim was really pushing for the darker tile, this is what we went with.. He went and bought them today (just these tiles cost a small fortune, as they werent on special.. glad all the others were!!) 

They arent grouted yet and still need a good clean, there is dust all over them from being cut, but I couldn't wait to show you all :) 

I will take a pic next weekend when I have the brown carpet etc in.. I am sure it will really blend in well in the house..

 

Thanks for your opinions everyone.. greatly appreciated. 

I am not sure why some of these pics let you open them up bigger and others wont.. it really is random. 

-Sha

oh! PS.. we got our flyscreens installed today :) 

tile choices..

Tim has almost finished the tiling, with only a few areas left to do.. then the grouting. 

One of the areas to complete is the front entrance. 

He has now installed the mosaic tiles - don't they look good! -  but we are a bit stuck with what to do in the middle. 

Here are the options

1) Lighter tile -laid square, same as main floor

2) Lighter tile  - laid diagonal, so it looks like a diamond

3) Darker tile - laid square

4) Darker tile - laid diagonal

5) a different tile all together (maybe a different brown , more similiar to the one in the mosaic.. not sure where I would find it though)

6) a star or something made from different coloured tiles in the middle like this one..

Any advice welcome!!!! 

The wall looking straight ahead will be painted as a feature wall, with a dark framed mirror on it (havent decided on colour for the wall yet). 

Rooms either side of the entrance (lounge room and study),will have carpet like this, but a bit darker in real life.. (notice tile colour is a bit lighter)..

These taken at same time, so not sure why they are different shades.. I believe the second one is the truer colour. 

What would you do??????

-Sha

More tiling and other updates..

Here is a closeup of our tiles.. (ungrouted)

I have taken both of these pics tonight, but they are close to the true colour of the tiles, firstly at night, then during the day.. big difference huh! - at night they a lovely warm yellow,  and during the day, they remind me of sand (maybe just slightly darker than this pic)

These are the mosaic tiles we have bought for the entrance. We are going to make a rectangle from them, and inside the rectangle we will use the same tiles as the main floor but on a 45 degree angle. (diamond instead of square) - (excuse the dirt ;))

They moved our rangehood up a bit higher, but we aren't sure why. Our SS says it was not needed, but we like it better this way.

Our flickmixers are installed throughout the house now... these are the ones we have in all of the showers and baths. 

thats all for now.. 

-Sha

Handover postponed...

We had a call from "B" today to say our handover is now confirmed for the 1st of May - one week after we were meant to.  This is really good news for us as I am so unprepared for moving, plus we couldn't get our carpets installed until that weekend.. which means now we wont have to move in without them! Yayyy! 

Tomorrow is Jack's birthday (Son number 4). He is turning 11 and we have promised him a trip to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary ( I have tickets that I need to use before June, so good excuse lol)

I am hoping we can get home early enough to go to the house and do some more tiling. Tim has had two really long and hard days at work so no tiling done after work lately.. 

We got our Rudd bonus today.. so like good little Aussies, we went and spent it lol 

We bought new innerspring mattresses for all of the kids (not sure if they are aussie made, but the kids needed them). 

Stay tuned for more tiling updates over the weekend.. Have a good one everyone!! 

-Sha

Tiling in progress..

A small update.. 

Tim is currently in the middle of tiling our new home. We spent half of the Easter break levelling the floor first. The slab was really uneven, and even though we bought more than we were advised, we actually ran out of the leveller!  My Dad and I drove to every hardware store in the area (and being out of town, and Easter holidays, there weren't many!, but we managed to get just enough. We didn't get to level the pantry or the fridge space, but those areas are pretty good anyway.

Now for some pics (of course!)

The first tile goes down -  Of course the kids wanted a go too! 

 

These pics are taken with the crappy camera on my phone . My batteries went flat in the camera but I did manage to get one which shows a more accurate colour. 

Kitchen and Pantry - Family room

Hallway(half tiled) - Another kitchen pic

Family room - (this is closer to the true colour at night.. during the day, the tiles look more like a beige. If you ignore the red flash above you can kind of see the colour in the pics above)

The cuts around the edges have not yet been glued in, so may look a little out of line at the moment.. and none of the grouting has been done yet... Grout colour is called 'Misty Grey'. 

More updates shortly.. 

-Sha

Walkthru complete!

We met 'B' onsite at 3pm to go thru our walkthru.. He is a man of little words, so we would have been unsure what to do had it not been for the wonderful and informative people on Homeone! 

He handed us some green tape and said put this where it looks wrong.. 

Fortunately we didnt have too many places to put the tape (compared to some that I have seen). 

There is still a bit to do, but he told us he will have it all done in two weeks, maybe sooner, and as soon as its done we can have handover.. Not sure if the bank will be ready by then! 

Things yet to do:

install insulation and manhole cover

install air conditioner

install kitchen sink and tap ('B' delivered them to site today)

install toilet in ensuite (it had a crack in it so has been replaced)

repaint some of the downpipes (only one coat done)

change half the door handles 

add two more tiles under the rangehood where they raised it up

repair paint where it has been chipped, smudged, etc

fill in the trenches to water tank and hstp

replace a chipped tile on ensuite floor, and one listello on face of ensuite bath

repair our front entrance where a truck hit the post and rail

site clean 

(and he thinks he can have all this done in 2 weeks, with the easter break in the middle?!)

We were advised he doesn't clean down the bricks!? .. does anyone else's builder not do this? 

He said it was because they have too much trouble with the bricks changing colour.. We will probably do it ourselves after handover.. 

I booked the kids into their schools today and bought uniforms. They both seem like great schools (high school and primary school), with very similiar amount of students as their previous schools.. they should settle in really well. 

Until next time.. (which will most likely be after moving day! woohooooo!!)

Thanks to everyone for following our building journey and a happy Easter to you all! 

-Sha

I know how much you all love pics...

YIPPEEEEEEEE!!!  We have walk-thru next Wednesday, and handover in 2-3 weeks! OMG!! So much to do and organise!! 

Our SS has also said we are allowed in to do our tiling (and maybe carpet) during the Easter break (yayyy) so I have arranged to have the tiles delivered on Wednesday, hopefully while we are doing the walk-thru.

Here are some pics from our visit tonight (we were able to sneak in).. We noticed a bit of plaster and paint that needs repairing and also half our door handles are polished chrome, and the other half are satin finish??!! They will need to be changed to all satin finish. 

I hope you enjoy the pics.

-Sha

Everything but the kitchen sink

Thats right.. (nearly) everything has been done, but still no kitchen sink.. 

Here are a few pics from tonight's visit... excuse the quality as it was almost dark, and we are still locked out, which I am sure we will be now until hand over.. (which cant be far away!!)

Our chinaman hats and light bulbs installed.. Wonder where the 40% energy saver bulbs are.. 

The downpipes and the rest of the blueboard above the windows is now painted 'paperbark'.

This weird looking power switch is for our split system air conditioner (yet to be installed)

Connection for the gas is now on.. time to call the gas company and get some bottles delivered!

vents

Power switches and aerial connection for the tv in the alfresco

Yayyyyy!! Our oven and rangehood are installed.. It looks like the oven can still be pushed back a little more so it wont stick out as far..  (no they aren't ghosts, they are the flash bouncing off the windows lol)

There is not much left to do now... 

Things that still need to be done:

BEFORE HANDOVER

Toilets 

Insulation

Air conditioner

Kitchen sink and tap

Electricity and pump on water tank, and HSTP

Tap to fridge area

Clean house

AFTER HANDOVER 

Tiling by DH

Carpets by BIL

Tv aerial

Clothesline

Decking to alfresco and patio

-Sha