The Builders have finished...

On Monday December 13th 2010 our builders completed their last day on site - almost 4 months to the day that they started!

This process has been no where near as traumatic as I feared, in fact we have nothing to complain about. We were never without a kitchen or bathroom and I even had a makeshift laundry for the entire build.

Our builders have been honest and open, turned up on time and completed the job to a very exacting standard. I can't recommend them highly enough!

All that is left is the painting, fitting of walk in robe and office nook shelving and landscaping. I'm tossing up whether or not to have the floor in the hall and new master bedroom sanded and repolished. We are also going to install crimsafe on the new windows as soon as possible. Now I've listed all that out I realise that there is still a fair bit to do....as we will be doing it ourselves I'm sure it will take the better part of 2011 to truly finish!

But all good - pics to come soon.

The old part

Now that the extension is completed (for the most part) the builders have moved into the existing house.

The changes in this section are quite extensive:

• The original kitchen is being removed to become the main bathroom.
• The original dining room will become the hall, part of the new bathroom, a walk in robe and a study nook
• The original living area is becoming a third bedroom
• The original bathroom will become the ensuite to the third bedroom

Before we commenced this build I had it in my mind that it wasn't that major, we were essentially just putting a box on the back of the house. Now of course I appreciate the scale of it all and realise that there are only 2 rooms from the original house that remain untouched!

After demolition of the original kitchen

After demo view 2.
The doorway goes through to the soon-to-be third bedroom.
The other door is to the original bathroom

New bathroom with framing and insulation

New bathroom during tiling

View down the new, very long hall!

Loving it!!

On Sunday I stood in the new kitchen and prepared dinner. I surveyed the room and saw my mum playing Monopoly with Hunter, my dad working on the computer at the table, my grandmother sitting on the couch talking to Peter while Riley ran around the room. It made me truly appreciate how perfect this new room was and how the environment we dwell in impacts our well being.

Even though we proably have about another 5-6 weeks left before the builders completely finish, followed by 6 months of painting and landscaping on the weekends by us, I feel already just how positive this change to our living space and life will be.

Messy already - us moved into the extension

Floors are in!

Today our floors went in!

Three Chinese guys arrived this morning at 8am to lay our bamboo floors. I was a tad nervous! I speak no mandarin or cantonese and they spoke no English...so I acted out a few things....they laid the floor where it needed to go so I guess my miming skills are ok!
Have a look - I think it looks pretty good.

Dramas!

It's been a frustrating week this week. So far everything has gone along very well with very few hiccups...this week....well, let's just say there is no such thing as a trouble free reno!

First up the kitchen drawers, they were supposed to be soft-close (an upgrade to the cabinetry which costs around $1000). Unfortunately, despite the order being correct at our end it was not at the Laminex end and instead of upgraded drawers we have standard ones. It's OK. In the whole scheme of things it's not a major issue - let's face it we've all been closing drawers without some amazing mechanism forever anyway!

Next was the laundry, instead of a cupboard base unit they sent us an upgraded set of drawers....not sure what's going on at Laminex! But that was an easy swap so no real drama there.

And now for the piece de resistance! The floor. The plan has always been to have vinyl planking on the floor. We have a client who used to work for a company that made high-quality vinyl planking (or Luxury Vinyl Tiles - LVTs for those in the know). He put us on to his old workplace and managed to get as an amazing deal on the flooring as well as a lovely guy to come and install them for us. All was good till I got the bill on Thursday which had the wrong product on it. Assuming it was a typo I asked for it to be corrected, no problem, but it turns out that the floor we want is out of stock won't be available until the end of November! Despite looking through the entire range there was nothing that we liked or would work as well!YIKES! We had the installer booked for Saturday 23rd. Demolition of the kitchen etc in the existing house starts on Wednesday which means we need to have moved most of our stuff out of the existing part of the house before then.

So most of Thursday I spent frantically looking for flooring alternatives that could be delivered and laid within 4 days. One of the benefits of living in this part of Sydney is there is always someone out there who can do something! I found a company that can do a whole range of different flooring and were able to install on Tuesday. We settled on Bamboo flooring. After reading up a bit about it I've learned that not only is it, water and stain resitant, as or more harwearing than solid timber, significantly cheaper than solid timber, able to be stained and sanded, it is also an environmentally responsible option. Bamboo is fast growing and renewable. Bamboo used for flooring is harvested in 4-5 years - trees used for flooring can take up to 40 years before they can be harvested.

So, the lovely Mr Sam comes out to measure up the floor on Friday afternoon and drops off a few samples. We deliberate and select one we like. On Saturday I ring up to order and organise the installation only to be told that the one we like the best won't be in stock till mid November. DOH!!!!!! But our second choice is in stock now. So, we have settled a little bit. The one we are having installed is a bit yellower that we wanted (it's alot like pine). But as we have pine floors throughout the rest of the house perhaps it's not a bad thing. Also, like pine the bamboo will darken with age and exposure to light so I think that in about 5-6 years time the floor will be about the same colour as our kitchen benchtops. Hey if we really hate it we can always sand it back and restain it (now there's a job for another  lifetime!)

So not having the floor in means that we can put another coat of paint on the ceiling. While we could get away with it as is, in different lights you can see a few spots we've missed. After spending all day yesterday in a bathroom supply shop, spending Sunday painting sounds like the end to another perfect weekend.....

After the first coat of paint

Lock Up

This week we got to lock up. The back bi-fold window and bi-fold doors arrived. Also this week the kitchen cabinets went in and the doors have arrived.

This is the first time Pete and I have actually contributed to the extension. Today we undercoated the entire extension except for the laundry (the waterproofing wasn't dry enough to walk on). Every muscle is aching tonight and I am exhausted. Pete must be feeling 100 times worse as he has a terrible virus and was feeling awful before we even started.

Tomorrow we are going to top coat the ceiling and do the laundry undercoat as well. We are pushing to get is done because the tiler comes on Tuesday to do the laundry floor and the rest of the floor should be going in next weekend. I don't want to be painting ceilings once the floor is in - way too messy!

The kitchen cabinets and a half built island bench

From the inside looking out

From the outside looking in



Riley's helpful undercoating



The trenches....the deck...the windows...the walls....

It's been a couple of weeks since the last update. We've been off in Queensland to a little place that Telstra hasn't quite covered yet....

But so much has happened here at home in that time.

First of all...the trenches!

For a week there, the backyard is a location shoot for a war film....there was not a blade of grass in sight and there were massive holes and trenches everywhere! The boys had the trusty excavator and Kanga back to dig a few massive holes in the backyard for a drainage pit. As we have no way of getting the stormwater from the back of the house to the street (short of a pump) we had to dig a huge drainage pit to take the run off from the roof.

Next step was the deck and gyprocking. Both of which have happened while we were away so I'm afraid I've got no exciting anecdotes to share about that...

This week is the kitchen and waterproofing for the laundry....wow a kitchen AND a laundry are coming my way very soon!!!!!!