An end of September status report

September was to be the month in which the house was finished. Luckily, we are not waiting to move in at the earliest possible convenience. There is a lot finished. There is also a lot on the still-to-do list. New additions include:

A front door - Dulux Tristan



Shower screens



A new concrete slab awaiting water tanks but good for picnics in the meantime.



A tap or two

Not long now before we can turn on a tap...and water will come out. Magic.

The bathrooms are on the way

I ummed and aahed over the mosaics for ages. I love the look of mosaics. If I look at bathrooms in a magazine, my eyes are drawn constantly to mosaics. Mosaics in the shower, mosaics around the bath, mosaics on the floor. It's fair to say my heart was set on mosaics. However, along with mosaics comes all that grout. Grout that can get grubby and mouldy and take nasty chemicals to keep clean. The green side of my brain knew I should be choosing tiles as large as possible to minimise the cleaning, so for a while there it was going to be big tiles all over everywhere. And yet, I love mosaics! Eventually I reached a compromise with myself. There's room to both be green and to love mosaics. In the ensuite the mosaics are well away from the shower and should stay dry and mould free most of the time. And as for the mosaic clad bath in the dowbstairs bathoom, well, I love it and....better pass the toothbrush.

Cabinets are still a go go

Status report:

#1 The family room cupboards (just needs a coat of paint and the window seat around the corner):


#2 The children's study nook (just needs the desktop attached and the shelving put around the window):
#3 The downstairs bathroom (just needs the proper benchtop and to be, you know, attached to the floor):
#4 The laundry (only needs handles!):

Terrific tiles

I managed to find one spot of newly laid bathroom floor tiles that had not been covered with plastic. Of course there's no grout yet and there needs to be wall tiles added plus paint and taps, but it was so very exciting to see another finish.We initially wanted 300 x 600 tiles, but faced with a 6-8 week wait for them to arrive on a ship from somewhere, we decided the 300 x 300 would work just fine.

To ablute in peace

A bath in the downstairs bathroom...


and a walk-in shower with floor tiles draining to a grate in the up.

That makes 2 bathrooms, TWO! bathrooms, meaning we will have the ability to get up in the morning and go to the bathroom without 3 busting children immediately materialising outside the door. When can we move in?

The importance of choosing a loo

No longer is it simply a matter of whether to put it inside or outside. No, the 21st century brings us loos that are squat, tall, squarish, oval, soft-closing, narrow rim, wide rim, hidden cistern, back to the wall......the options are endless. On the one hand one thinks 'it's just a loo in it's own little room, it doesn't really matter, who's going to notice, so long as it flushes...' but on the other hand you troop off to the loo shop (about the only aspect of house-related choices the kids have truly enjoyed) and the sheer weight of options makes the choice become, well, kinda important. You do have to choose one loo over another loo and another and another...and there must be a reason why you would choose one over another so you want it to be a good reason so you consider all the options...and before you know it a disproportionate amount of valuable life time has been spent worrying about which loo to choose. I mean, really.

And it's a choice (along with the bath) one makes very early in the building process as it affects where the plumber was putting his pipes last week.

Here 'tis:

The Villeroy & Boch Arcitectura back to the wall S-trap rear water entry with soft close seat!!