Kitchens, Bathrooms, Tiling - it's all happening!

I got my Friday fix yesterday afternoon and boy was I happy!

It had been a week since I was able to drive past so at the request of my eldest and not needing much convincing, I did a quick drive by on the way to pre-school and after dropping them off again before heading to work for the day.  It is only a couple of blocks away after all.

In the space of 15 minutes, it went from an empty site to having a truck there delivering our doors (on the designated day & all) and about 3 other guys who I assumed to be the tilers as well as the older couple who are putting in all the architraves, skirting, cornices and hanging the doors.

I noticed the truck that had backed up the drive had hit the water main at the end of our drive way too but in the time I was there I think the SS for next door pulled up and turned the water off.  Phew!

In the afternoon, I expected the house might be at lock up considering all the promise of the morning but it was wide open with no new doors being hung (at least I didn't have to flash my unmentionables at the poor neighbours while trying to climb in an unlocked window somewhere). 

My lovely little kitchen's splashback has been done and grouted and the tiles are exactly what I hoped for - a gorgeous, something-special feature while not screaming look at me, look at me.

The tiles are meant to go up behind the rangehood which we notified our SS of at the beginning of the week yet nothing has been done to fix it.

And because you can't have enough pics from different angles, here's a few more ;)

Here's a close up of the yet-to-be-cleaned tile

And not to stop at the kitchen, the bathrooms are making good head-way too!

Here's Dad's shower, floors yet to be tiled

The washing machine / dryer alcove in Dad's bathroom

Dad's vanity.  I wish we tiled to the ceiling now, we increased it from the standard to 1200mm but again, had to reign in the costs.  The remainder of all bathroom walls will be painted in 'Crisp White' by Taubmans so it should all blend in nicely enough.

Below is the main bathroom.  Tiles are yet to be grouted.

Feature tile is natural stone and I love it.  Similar but still a bit different to kitchen splashback.

Floor tiles will be in all bathrooms.

Here's the shower, looks like they're getting ready to put a hob in when we said to put no hob in the main bathroom or our ensuite.

French Doors and Main Door to unit have been delivered

And this secret not-so-little package is our front door!

Here's our laundry and our sad, lonely little tub in the corner.

I would have loved the whole bench & cupboards set up but the coffers were bone dry after all the other upgrades.  We'll give the laundry some lovin' later on.

Really impressed with Di Lorenzo's workmanship on the whole!

Last but not least, an example of our skirting, etc in the garage.  

I didn't take any pics of the newly laid skirting in the house probably because I was a bit annoyed that the skirting has been fixed well & truly to the walls when it stipulates on the order that skirting is to be lightly tacked to the wall so when Di Lorenzo come in to lay the flooring, they can then fix skirting over the top properly.

I even emailed our SS on 29th April as a reminder about only tacking the skirting to which he responded to.  Sigh....

I'll be giving the SS a buzz on Monday as I don't know when flooring is scheduled for and they won't be able to do it properly with skirting the way it is.

The communication between Di Lorenzo and Eden Brae hasn't been great - rangehood installed without checking to see what was going behind it and now the skirting with the flooring.  Hmmph.

Anyway, to end on a happier note - it's all coming together and by some miracle everything is looking great (well we think so anyway).

When did that happen?

So I met up with our SS this morning and there we were casually walking through the house with him pointing out the doors that have been hung, the architraves that were going on (contractors were there as we spoke) and we walk into the main area of the house and there it was......

Our kitchen!  Not just delivered but installed!!!!!  *Insert bulging eyes here!*

It's only week 11 out of a 28 week build.  We weren't expecting that yet for weeks!!  Woo hoo!  No, woo hoo is an understatement.  Yeeee haaaaa! Whatever, you get the idea!

We've got Polar White Laminex on all wall cupboards & pot drawers with Stipple Seal Laminex on our bench tops (all colours found here).  We have a 30cm overhang on the bench top for a decent space to sit on the stools.

I had been a bit disappointed that we couldn't justify the cost for 2pac doors / drawers but seeing the Polar White Laminex in real life - I love it!!

We extended the height of our upper cupboards to take into account the higher ceilings and added the bulk head.   Lovin' our handles too.

We have Alaskan Laminex on the outside and ends of island bench.  It's very subtle which is just what I wanted.

Here's our hideously-expensive-but-awesome bin drawer

Love it!

Nice bonus of getting a cutlery tray in the top drawer, wasn't expecting that.

Our sink - not quite the under-mount sink I wanted with essastone bench tops but hey you get that!  (Some more kitchen info here and here)  Might get stone later.

You can see our external 'touch' cupboards here.

Offers a little storage (24cm deep) in an otherwise dead space.

Here's another - stands out a bit more but the stools will go here to help hide it.

Loads more space in this cupboard

Here's our splashback tile!  Natural stone, brushed stainless steel & white glass - perfect to tie all our kitchen colours together!  I got the call from Di Lorenzo yesterday saying my original tile (which was the same tile but not so long & thin) was out of stock with no known re-stock date.  Think I slightly prefer this one anyway on reflection.

We're so happy with how all the colours have come together.  I have literally spent hours agonising over colour selections.

Not only is our lovely kitchen in, so too are our bathroom vanities!  Here is the vanity to our ensuite.  We have Fudge Stream Laminex for the cupboards (which I'm lovin'!) and Pure Calcite Laminex for the bench tops.  Kind of wishing we got some more exciting basins but when you feel that you're literally upgrading everything, there were some things we just had to go easy on.

Left of our ensuite

And the right of our ensuite (and wouldn't you know it - I've just realised the taps & shower rose have been put on the wrong wall!!!!  I've just let SS know) ETA: We're letting it slide, not worth the set back and hassle of changing it over.

Here's Dad's vanity

And here's the vanity to our main bathroom in Polar White Laminex. I know it looks teeny tiny for a main bathroom but it fits well within in the room and it leaves a perfect space for a big heated towel ladder to the left.

And here's the low down for the next couple of weeks according to Saint SS our new best mate our SS:

Internal doors & trims............................finishing today
Bathroom/laundry/splashback tiling........starts tomorrow
Rangehood...........................................going in this week
Skylight to our ensuite...........................this week or next week
French doors & front door.......................arriving 13th May
Door hardware, toilet roll holders etc.......13th May
Painting................................................16th May
Garage door..........................................Straight after painting

Oh and somewhere in the next week or so, plumbing & electrical come back to do their thang.  Said something about floors happening in next week or 2 too....Some of the details were lost as I gazed adoringly at our kitchen.

And then it's pretty much internal clean up and we're done!

Here's the main living areas as a whole so you can see how it's coming together as a whole...

When I said to Saint SS our new best mate our SS that surely at this rate we'll be in before our expected completion date of 30th August - the answer was, "shit yeah".  Couldn't have said it better myself.