Im baaaaack....

Ok so that post title is probably a lot more jovial than I feel right now!

After a long door to door journey and sad goodbyes to Bali and my gorgeous girlfriends I am back, firmly dumped unceremoniously into real life once again.

I already have PTD (post trip depression) and am dreaming of how and when I can do it again!).

Yesterday this time I was looking at this:

While sitting on this after a hard day in the sun:

And today I'm not (boo!).

Today I'm back to my head filled with flooring, driveways, landscaping, wardrobes, window coverings, carpet & furniture..

While away I received word that the following had happened at the house while I was away:

First coat of paint finished, gyprocking complete and waterproofing of master bedroom balcony complete, and this week will see tiling finished and then painter will do the second coat. AND by next weeks end we should have an end date in sight - woohoooo!!

Will go by tomorrow to take some pics :)

The suspense is killing me..no, not really..

Greetings from beautiful Bali!!

I am having a fantastic week, sunning, swimming, shopping, champagning (yes, I totally made up that word) and eating - the house has crossed my mind briefly but to be honest I haven't thought about it much at all..

Of course I would love to know what is happening but hopefully our SS will call Jason today with an update on what has happened this week and what is scheduled for next week then as soon as I hit Sydney i will head over there to see for myself!

Until then..

I will continue to enjoy this -

Our private villa - living area

Our private pool :)

Gardens in our villa

Open air living area looking toward bedroom pavilion

Looking from the couch to our pool - bliss

The resort restaurant - literally right outside our villa gate

The main pool within the resort

See you back in Sydney!

Another Saturday surprise..

I took the opportunity  to go to the house today to see what the carpenter had achieved yesterday, and to have a last peek before I went away on Monday for a week..and was very pleasantly surprised, I dare say I may even have some words to eat!

It seems the tilers have been back and appear to have have done almost all they can do before a few small issues are corrected so they can finish up. They cant finish the powder room until the window is moved, or the kitchen until the gyprockers finish off around the window. I am so keen to see the mosaics (which are all separate and are laid individually!!) I chose for around the window laid.

There are still a few doors to be fixed, and skirtings and architraves to be finished (we are expecting a delivery on Monday of more materials and Corinthian need to supply a few more doors I believe) but it is really starting to come together.

Here are some pics - you may notice a bit of a "Wheres Wally" theme throughout..

The study complete with architraves. We are having ground floor skirting left off in preparation for our bamboo flooring and will have it fitted after handover ourselves.

Stacked stone feature tile I have been STRESSING about! I was SO worried the colour wouldn't look right but in the flesh it actually blends really well :)

Master CJ inspecting his very expensive feature tile!

Bathroom - So happy with how this room is coming together - and its the one I have worried about the most!

Bathroom shower area - also really happy with those wall tiles. And I LOVE that the tilers matched up the grout lines of the wall and floor tiles in the shower!!

Ensuite - tiling almost complete.

Ensuite feature tile - subtle but I LOVE them! These are on the wall behind the vanity.

Looking forward to our sinks arriving!

Tiles now grouted in laundry

Love these feature doors - they will be stained to match the sliders in the living area, and the front door. Note imp exploring at fast pace on the right ;)

Exploring his new habitat.

That window without architrave? Its the one I mentioned yesterday that needs to be moved - oops. It needs to come a little to the left.

Looking toward front door. CJ dancing up a storm while exploring.

LOVE these tiles :) Same feature door as laundry to go in here.

Well thats it from me - next post may well be from (hopefully) sunny Bali!

Have a great weekend!!

Friday fridge love and weekly update

Just heard from our long suffering SS (who suffers from incessant messages from me regarding this crazy building process..) with a weekly update.

Seems there are lots of little things needing to be rectified at the house which are holding up lots of other little things.

A window in the powder room needs to be moved, which is holding up the fixing of the architraves, which is holding up the tilers.

We are waiting on more fixing materials, due to be delivered Monday.

A few doors are missing/incorrect - more waiting.

The kitchen window needs to have the gyprock finished off so the tilers can tile around it.

The master bedroom balcony cant be waterproofed until the cladding/boards are fixed to the walls (which in turn is holding up the tiling!)..

As I was on the phone our SS was waiting to meet the fixing carpenter on site - the one with the dodgy wisdom teeth perhaps??

He assured me the painter would be there next week, and that the tilers would be back soon too (but I am guessing they dont work in tandem due to the dust from cutting tiles? Unless one works upstairs, one down?).

So HOPEFULLY when I get back from Bali the fixing and painting (undercoat) will be finished - not sure I am hopeful the tiling will be done however..

At least our SS gets a break from my calls next week!!

I have shown incredible restraint and decided NOT to go by the house since Tuesday - in fact I was almost trying to ignore the fact that it was there, in order to de-stress before my trip :)

Last but not least I thought I would post some pics of my new love - our lovely big LG French Door Fridge!

Cant wait to move into that baby!!

Oh, one more thing - remember this?

My lovely husband gave it to me for Christmas (among other things!) and after a false start with a faulty one I now have a gorgeous one just like the above in my possession and waiting for a big new bed to live on!

Happy Friday!!

Chaise Love

I haven't mentioned yet that we ordered our new couches about a month back - with an average of a 12 week wait we thought it best to get our skates on and order those babies!!

We are going from one living are to 3 - hence the plural. We needed 2 new couches ;)

And the best part of all?

A long time dream of mine came true when I found THIS:

Any of my friends know I have been coveting one of these for years..

So - I met this lovely piece in Bay Leather Republic, and the original price tag was $3,995. Ouch. However it was reduced to $1,500. Still ouch. Sales person tells us as we are buying two couches and they only have a few of these left we can have it for $1,000. Hmmm.

We ended up getting it for considerably less than that in the end and I am thrilled!!

Now I just need to decide if it will go in the master bedroom or my study.. Decisions decisions.

This will be going in the main family room (the large open one with the kitchen and dining), in this colour, with an extra armless one seater to slot in between the two pieces to bulk it out. Eventually we will get an armchair too as we have the space and could use the extra seat when entertaining.

And this will be going in the leisure room upstairs - in the colour pictured. Jason is so kindly modelling it for me!

Very happy with those choices, big tick of the veeeeery long list of things to buy and do!

If only I could decide on a bed I would be even happier..

Why do I bother?

Warning: Slightly rant-ish post ahead









Not sure why I bother going past the house sometimes - another day of a locked gate and NO work completed. This house is going to give me an ulcer.

Tilers haven't shown up again - nor have the carpenters who were "a big crew who will finish in one day" (on Saturday).

Have contacted our SS and he got back to me via text to say he was off work until Thursday and would contact me then. So as I predicted yesterday I'm guessing the painter won't be able to start until next week at the earliest.

I just want things to keep rolling along - my life is in limbo and I am sick of it. I want it back!

Thank goodness I am going away next week - I need it.

On a good note - I am going to see Michael Buble in concert tonight, hopefully that will cheer me up (or at least a wine will!)

Slow day..

After all the excitement of the benchtops and FINALLY seeing some doors/architraves go on in the house, as I should well expect by now - today it was a ghost town.

The carpenter told me they would be back today so not sure what that story is.

No tilers either - I'm thinking they cant start wall tiles until doors/architraves are on? Not sure though.

My bet is on the painter not being able to start until very late this week - if at all.

We went back Saturday evening to see what had been done Saturday and they are maybe half way through the job? Maybe. The doors that were installed incorrectly on the Laundry & Powder room hadn't been changed over (I'm wondering if maybe the correct doors don't fit??), some of the downstairs windows have been framed and they have installed the frames of our 3 sets of sliding stackers, and the front door is on.

 Upstairs they have installed a few doors (one seems to be upside down looking at the height of the hole for the handle - pic to follow), and have framed out windows in a few of the rooms. The sliding door frame for our balcony haven't been installed as yet.

Our front door looks so small in this photo - its 1020mm wide so its quite big!

Hello big expensive doors - nice to see you not leaning up against a a wall!

Family Room

Dining Room

Dining (right), Family (left)

Under the stairs gyprocked - loving all the storage space.

Bedroom

Looking out the front door - hello lovely porta-loo!

Heres to something to see when I go past tomorrow!

Saturday Surprise!

I received a call yesterday from our SS with a quick update - the tilers were back (Friday) and the carpenter was still having issues with his wisdom teeth so our SS had organised a large crew to go in today and get most of the doors/skirtings and architraves fitted.

Great news!

Popped in this morning and there were no tilers - for some reason I thought they would be working today, back Monday I guess, and there were two carpenters there plugging away at the doors and architraves.

The big surprise however was that we now have benchtops!! And all the sinks have been installed except for the powder room sinks - SUPER exciting!!

Here are some pics:

Powder Room. Benchtop - 40 mm Caesar Stone Osprey

Powder Room - architrave fitted around left window. On the right there you can just see the door has been fitted - wrong one! I chose timber framed frosted glass feature doors for the powder room, laundry and master bedroom. No big deal, the doors are there ready to go and are easily changed.

Laundry - backsplash tiling. White gloss tiles = LOVE. Still to be grouted.

Double undermount sinks fitted into benchtop. Bench also 40 mm Osprey Ceasar Stone

I deliberated over moving the sinks closer to the end of the bench rather than having them centred but decided against it so I have bench space free opposite the fridge.

I extended the end of the stone by 20mm so we could put a few bar stools at the end and so our son can eat meals there if I am cooking etc.

Sorry about the dust - the carpenters were hard at it sawing timber in the next room.

Looking to study from on the stairs - architraves finished.

Bathroom. Osprey benchtop.

Upstairs toilet tiling almost complete - skirting tile to be laid.

Ensuite - sinks still to be installed.

We also noted today that the gyprockers had been back and had finished off around and under the staircase - was great to see how much space we have for storage under the stairs.

So this week coming at the house

 - the tilers should finish up

 - the fit out carpenters should finish up Monday or Tuesday (I asked today, the guy said if he had his whole crew he would finish today but there were only two of them)

 - the painters will be in to do the first coat

 - I think we might get our next invoice!

Things are really happening now - happy days! Hoping to see lots of action this coming week as next week I am off to Bali for the week with girlfriends :)

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!