Friday, 1 July 2011
Touch wood, but The Block is now approximating something very like a house... The tradies are slowly moving out in order to make way for the fitters (I have no idea if this is the correct term), and not a moment too soon as we now have a date that we need to be out of yet another rental house in Blackheath: 9 August (hi, Anne and Maria!). Yes, we seem to have a rental curse of some kind upon us, but fingers crossed it will all be fiiiiiiiiiinnnneeee... Warwick seems to think it will be, anyway, so I'm going with him. Either that or I'm camping until we're in.
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| Lounge with fireplace |
Trent finished up the internal walls, fireplace and chimney today, and quite an impact the latter makes, even if it is basically for show! We will have a firebox of some description in there when funds allow and a flue running up its innards, and hopefully it will serve some fab thermal mass purpose too. But even if not, it will be a heart of the home... Trent returns Monday to do a light bag over the internal bricks, then he's off – we'll miss you, Trent, and your massive Coca-Cola addiction! He did yell down to me from the roof as he was chimneying that in Germany there is a brickies' tradition that when the chimeny is completed (always last in a job) a flag is stuck in it and then said artistes are presented with a case of beer or the like. He then mentioned that he doesn't drink beer, so maybe a case of Coke will do the trick, 'cos I don't want to mess with tradition...
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| Reverse of fireplace wall |
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| Versatile lot, brickies |
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| Hallway to bedrooms |
The boys have been finishing off internal details like trims around ceilings, windows and doorways, as well as hanging doors and installing handles. They've also been doing the formwork for our external concrete terraces and carport, then the concrete for some of those areas was poured today (and the rest next week). Warwick called to check whether the swirly, woodgrain finish he'd trowelled the concrete into was okay and I dashed up to look. I hated to do it to him, given the effort he'd already put in, but I had to admit that I'm a bit of a 'flat' and unfancy girl. So he started reworking his swirls then Ivan pops out of the house...and mentions that I might want to rethink that, as the flat concrete in his garage is a veritable deathtrap when it gets a bit of water about it, and what about the kids and the postman? Sigh. So under pressure I went for safety over aesthetics, against my better judgement... Hoping the swirls won't annoy me for the rest of my life.
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| Entry formwork |
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| Carport formwork |
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| Entry slab |
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| Safety swirls up close... |
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| Shower shelf |
Stephane has been in and out of the bathroom and laundry over the last week, and now all tiles are laid and half are grouted, mostly just the bathroom floor mosaics left to grout. Was a tiny bit nervous about my floor mosaics when I saw them – I think I love them, it's just that my expensive 'bling' tile colour (what I thought was a white mother-of-pearl shiny thing) turned out a lot pinker than I ever imagined... The white wall tiles I love, though, so I'm hoping once we're all grouted in that I'll forget I ever chose anything else. I think they'll make me smile, if nothing else.
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| Bathroom floor and front of bath |
Richie is ordering materials for the kitchen, laundry, built-ins, shelving units, window seat and various other bits and pieces – it'll be an expensive endeavour to get it all done (not all was included in our quote) but I feel lucky and relieved to have him working on it all as he seems completely capable, skilled and confident about it all. Plus he promises 9 August will be no problem!
So it's all snowballing now: I fear this next month is going to fly by, and there's still so many little details to organise. Off to Sydney tomorrow to stay with my sis for a night or two and for the kids to run wild with their cousins while I trawl a few last shops and suppliers. Most decisions are basically in place, but lighting is really the last big challenge. I happened across some ebay bargains last weekend, though (well, I hope they turn out to be bargains when I finally see them in the flesh on Monday!) – I see the words 'Danish designer lighting' and I just can't resist...
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