Week 21 and beyond...

Firstly, my apologies for the delay, I note our last post was 3 weeks ago, oops. Things have been a little busy. We moved in as scheduled (2 weeks ago), taking our total construction time to five months, one month ahead of schedule. Props to our builder and his team who delivered our house to us well ahead of time :-)

This week, photos of some of the highlights (in my opinion!). Michael may have different ideas ;-) We've managed to unpack most of the house, although the downstairs bedrooms have a touch of the 'bomb has gone off' look to them.

It's been really nice over the last week to have a little bit of time to appreciate just living here. Moving was stressful (as it always is), exacerbated by some bond cleaning issues and both of us working full-time during the whole process. Those of you who have moved with kids - all credit to you! And special thanks to my parents who gave us so much help around the time of the move.

So onto the piccies!

The little corner with the stained glass that I had restored has turned out beautifully (despite the 7 year old couch!). Our pseudo-Christmas tree is currently taking pride of place!

The powder room is finished now with the 'panic sink' that I managed to get from Argent at the last minute after we'd purchased one that unfortunately wasn't fit for purpose. Opposite the sink is a full-length cupboard containing wine, wine, cleaning products, shopping bags, some mops, and more booze...

The guest bedroom upstairs isn't quite finished but I'm loving the Tilly bed from Scout House (our one piece of new furniture so far!). I bought the bedside tables ages ago after falling in love with them (and the 50% off at the time). I think it really suits the older part of the house with the VJ and heritage architraves.

The kitchen is looking much more lived-in now! The pendant lights from West Elm are still available but they do go on sale from time to time so my tip is to wait (I think I got 15% off). I am particularly loving the Maximera drawers from Ikea - fully opening, soft close - so much better than ferreting around in cupboards.

The glass balustrade is now installed!

The main bathroom downstairs is finally unpacked, some greenery has warmed it up nicely.

I how these outdoor lights throw shadows on the weatherboard. 

And finally, one of the more spectacular sunsets we've been fortunate enough to see in the couple of weeks we've lived here :-)

So that's some of the good stuff! Regrets - we have a few ;-) We'll cover these next time! In the meantime, happy to answer any questions either on the blog or you can write to me via social media. Also happy to pass on the name of any suppliers I've missed! Thanks for reading!

Weeks 19 & 20: One week to go!

The last couple of weeks have seen many changes and finishing touches, keeping Michael & I very busy. Biggest news of the fortnight has been the installation of our benchtops for the kitchen and bathrooms!

We went with a company in Cleveland who put us onto a brand of engineered stone they import from Germany, at a similar price to Caesarstone. We had mentioned the Calacatta Nuvo in an earlier post but decided to go a similar look with this brand as we found the base colour to be less grey and more white.

The rest of the cabinetry fronts and handles have been installed in our Ikea kitchen. The corner pantry as you see there was custom made by our cabinetmaker as Ikea doesn't offer anything similar. He even matched the door and colour, and as you can see, it's seamless. So don't despair if you can't quite fit an Ikea kitchen, there's always the option of mixing Ikea and custom cabinetry to save some $! We estimate doing an Ikea kitchen has saved us $15,000.

In the powder room and laundry, the timber benchtops we purchased (and I sanded/polyurethaned - see my mini-workshop below!) have come up beautifully. Will be interesting to see how they wear in wet areas.

Elsewhere, the feature light was installed in the stairwell. Can't wait until the electricity is on and we can see it lit up at night.

And we have (half) of our shower screens!

Outside, the deck has had a couple of coats so it's coming up a treat. We had also seen how our front door will look in the feature colour we've chosen - Dulux Domino. 

And finally, we have new retaining walls and a new driveway and carport.

Happy to pass on any contact details for any suppliers we have used - just flick me a comment or message!

Also this week a note on things that are easy to forget and not always quick to sort. Firstly, disconnecting and re-connecting electricity and gas. It really depends what sort of renovation you're doing and whether you need a temporary power pole, or to do some digging. Because we had to dig around the whole property, we had to get the gas company to physically remove the meter and gas line from the street to our place. And then to reinstate it! There was a small abolishment fee but reinstating a gas line and meter is free in QLD. As for electricity, there is a fee from Energex to come and re-connect power. There is also a wait for all of these services so make sure you contact the companies early, as waiting for disconnection and reconnection could potentially delay the commencement of construction, or your move-in date!

The other thing I hadn't thought of is handles. We went with Ikea handles for the kitchen. But I needed handles for the powder room drawer and cupboard storage and the laundry. For the Brisbanites reading, I found a great supplier at Archerfield, who had most things in stock and got the other ones I chose ordered in within 48 hours. See https://www.bauers.com.au. 

Thanks for reading along, and stay tuned for next week's post where we have (hopefully!) moved in! We will also try to do some before and after shots!

Weeks 17 & 18: Floorboards! Kitchen!!

Things are getting busy as we head towards the finish line, hence combining two weeks into one. Our first week back from holidays was crazy - even the day we landed, I was on the laptop all day organising things. Michael spent 4 days in a row last weekend laying floorboards, putting Ikea together and installing the kitchen with the help of our cabinetmaker. We are still engaged after over 8 hours flat-packing so that's got to be good right?!

The first things to happen a fortnight ago were grouting, and more painting (including architraves and cornices).

 

Then the floorboards were laid, it took only a day to lay whole lot - living, dining, kitchen and downstairs corridor. We have used spotted gum engineered floorboards (4mm timber thickness) with a 2mm acoustic underlay (please note we did not use the supplier on the underlay link, Quiet Step is available from multiple online sellers). 

Michael and I had both spent quite a bit of time researching how to reduce noise from the upper level. I'm sure most of you have been in older houses where you can hear literally every noise from upstairs like it's in the room next-door. Basically there is no perfect solution in a timber house (even in concrete buildings, if your upstairs neighbour installs floorboards your noise will get much worse). Best option is carpet with a good underlay. There are many, very expensive, options like acoustic plasterboard, thick underlays etc if you want to lay floorboards or tiles. Being limited on budget, we went for insulation in the ceiling space downstairs (of dubious effect according to the internet), plus effectively a 'double layer' of floorboards as we kept the old ones, lay the underlay on top and then the new boards. We are thrilled that you really have to stomp to hear walking noise, so that solution has worked for us!

After the high of the floorboards, reality set in as Michael and I set out to make all the drawers and remaining Ikea kitchen carcasses. Over 8 hours later, and here is the result...

On Monday, these kitchen bits & pieces were put together and installed by Michael and our fabulous cabinetmaker Wayne. Ikea is designed for DIY, but having an older (and therefore not perfectly square) house, as well as wanting a good result, has meant having professional help has been invaluable. If you want a polished result, Michael would recommending recruiting a bit of help for your Ikea kitchen install! We are stoked with how the Bodbyn fronts have fitted into a classic Queenslander.

Outside, we had another 2 days of earthworks to work on digging out for the new retaining walls, another concrete pour and the blockwork has mostly been completed now too.

And painting has continued, including the skirting boards which could finally be fitted after the floorboards were installed. Amazing how skirting and architraves finishes off a room.

We have not made all good decisions unfortunately during this reno - none of the three sinks we pre-purchased actually fit in the cabinetry. Oops. I've bought 2 replacements for the downstairs bathrooms and will grab one for upstairs tomorrow. So if anyone wants an undermount sink, or a wall-mounted sink - I can send you photos!

If you've made it to the end - well done! Would love to hear your comments, if you have any questions feel free to message.

Week 16: It's all happening

The week before we came back from holidays was clearly a big one - all the finishing trades have started up, and we are getting an idea of how the house will shape up in the end!

The tiler has started. A little while ago, possibly influenced by 'The Block', I decided I'd like a feature tile in the niches. After a little googling, I discovered that I didn't like the look of a different colour feature tile, but preferred something textural in the same colour. You can see that we've gone for a simple gloss white wall tile, so I decided on gloss white penny mosaic tiles for the niche. Hopefully will look great when the grout is done!

Cabinetry has also started going in. We are thrilled with the vanity designs for the main and ensuite bathrooms. The Navurban timber veneer has come up a treat, and our cabinetmaker has done an awesome job on the finger pull handles. Because the bathrooms are small, we wanted everything as sleek and minimalist as possible, while trying to maximise storage.

Amazing what a lick of paint does to make the rooms lighten up! We have gone for Dulux Natural White in the living and bedroom areas, and Lexicon Half for the bathrooms and laundry.

Speaking of laundry, the laundry cabinetry has been installed.

Upstairs, cornicing and architraves have been installed, and the first coat of paint applied. 

Things are going to motor on from here! LOTS for us to organise in the next few weeks - carpet measure and install, kitchen install, benchtop measure and install, Crimsafe/flyscreen measure and install, coordinate fence removal and install with one of our neighbours, organise a new gas line and meter, buy a fridge... the list goes on. 

We are also waiting on delivery of floorboards for upstairs, which has been delayed by several weeks. We ordered from an online company at a great price, but since we ordered, several negative Google reviews have appeared. Not so shonky as to take money and run, but very slow delivery. So buyer beware! We should have done better research. 

As always, thanks for keeping up with the blog, and look forward to your comments and thoughts!

Week 12 to 15 summary!

We've been away on holidays for a few weeks so are playing catch-up! Here is what's happened during the end of September and first half of October. Stay tuned for another post with the most recent piccies!

As for catching up, here's what's gone on...

We got some external paint! We have chosen Dulux Tranquil Retreat with Lexicon Half for the trim. We spent a lot of time looking at different greys. Tranquil Retreat occasionally throws a bit of blue, which I much prefer to green or purple.

The existing ceiling upstairs was replaced with new gyprock.

The stained glass window got installed! Around a year ago, I found 2 run-down pieces of stained glass at a demolition yard. Between the 2 panes, there was enough to reconstruct a new window. I found a stained glass expert on Gumtree who restored the old glass for me, and I'm thrilled with the result.

Glass at the demolition yard

Glass now!

Gyprock was installed on the walls and ceiling downstairs.

We also a privacy screen installed on the deck (you can see our proximity to next-door!). Originally we had screening on the plans for the carport downstairs, but this isn't really necessary as we will have a fence anyway. So we moved the screen and we're really happy with how it's come up.

We also got a balustrade for the front patio! This is a '3-dowel' style which was popular in the 1920s (speaking of which, we also got a finite answer on the age of our house, see next post!).

Thanks for following on, and stay tuned for an update from the last couple of weeks!

Week 11: Lots of piccies

This week, our house really started to look like a house! We got our new roofs too! (more on this below).

The insulation and cladding upstairs is pretty much complete. See our kitchen window onto the front patio below in progress.

Hopefully once the upstairs is painted then the scaffold can come down and we can really appreciate how the house looks as a whole (and access the sides!).

The most exciting development of the week was getting the new roofs which I discussed a couple of weeks ago. Michael and I are thrilled both with the new deck roof and decision to replace the existing roof, and we're pleased with our choice of colour too - the least heat attracting one we could find - Colorbond Surfmist!

These piccies show how the new deck roof 'ties in' to the existing house roof, and the underside of the deck roof (still to be insulated and sheeted with gyprock).

The inside is looking much the same but here are some photos of it without building stuff lying around.

Thanks for reading if you've made it this far! :-) Have a great week... K&M