Monday 25 August 2014

Three months in

Can't believe it's been three months since handover, though technically we've only been living in here for half that time. Still little things to do here and there but we're settling in nicely and Rawson has been quick with our small list of rectification work. A plumber, an electrician and a carpenter were all on site yesterday to address minor items.

Hallway
Display Home

Actually waiting for Elba kitchen to do a shelf that we ordered on one of the niche (the smaller mirror one) that we stole the idea off in one of Rawson's other display home. No idea what's taking them so long, perhaps it's waiting on all the kitchen drawer fit outs, that we also ordered, to arrive. 

Bedroom 3

The downstairs guest bedroom has been turned into a gym room (and temporary storage) for now. 

Lounge

Old lounge set and rug from our old place. The discolouration on the smaller two seater was because it was a warranty replacement four years after we had bought it. According to Plush, that's the same colour code as the three seater and somehow it's within their acceptable colour variation range. Might end up replacing them both with a corner lounge suite when there's sufficient fund. In no rush though, since these are still perfectly fine (except for the fact that they don't match).

Dining

Dining room still feels empty and a buffet table has been ordered. It will sit right under the mirror. Perhaps the rug was a bit too small after all. Something else seems to be missing here. Can't quite work out what it is.

Alfresco from inside

The curtains did not turn out how I would imagined it. It does look like it's protruding into the open plan living area now. Kinda reminds me of a hospital bed. Definitely have to leave it open rather than closed.

Alfresco from outside

Our old dining table has a new purpose now in it's new location. The hanging egg chair used to be in our study and we really wanted to place it on the balcony but it didn't quite fit. Perhaps it turned out for the best, since it can now sit under the cover and away from the weather. Probably why it still look brand new all these years. 

Home Theatre Sofa

Home Theatre System

New three seater lounge (really a six seater since each seat is almost 1m wide), entertainment unit, TV and rug.

Family Room

Family TV

The family room upstairs also got a new chase sofa and ottoman. There's even a small couch for the dog! The entertain unit was old but the TV was new. Still haven't painted the patch work next to the aircon controller yet. Only got around to the plaster and sanding it.

Study Left View

Study Right View

With the exception of the three drawers chest, the study was furnished with all existing pieces. The layout just looks a lot better now that it's all not cramped into a small space (maybe the configuration has improved due to the removal of the hanging egg chair) . Actually is very empty in the middle, and that is why we placed the large monkey cushion here. That used to be in our lounge room. 

Bedroom 5

The old bed set has been relocated here. A matching dresser and mirror sits right opposite the bed. 

Main Bedroom

The reason for a new bed set? To upgrade to a king size! Managed to find a matching chair and foot rest too. Took a while to find bedsides and storage units to go with the bed. In the end we settled for these (the ones we liked were literally close to $1000 each, and similar ones online were even more expensive at $5000 each. Who pays this much for bedsides?). The old TV has also been demoted here.

Expensive Bedsides
Main Bedroom TV

The other two bedrooms (2 & 4) are still empty, though another queen bed has been ordered. No idea why we purchased it, since it's not really needed at the moment. I guess seeing a room empty, over and over again has that kind of effect on ya.

Garage

Still a lot of junk in the garage. Heaps of foams and packaging material that I have no idea what to do with. At least the boxes can be dumped at the local recycling center (over half the garage was filled with flatten cardboard boxes before I dropped them off). Will take me months to crush and fit them to the recycling bin each fortnight.

Wednesday 30 July 2014

Grass

Grass was finally laid so now the front and back yards are no longer plain old dirt.

Front Yard

Back Yard

Have also added two more pendants to the void to fill it up a bit more. The lonesome one was a little small for the space. A bit hard to see, but the air con zone controller can be seen in the background. The two blank plates beside it was to cover the old NavEase controller and zones switches. Something I haven't gotten around to patching just yet.

Pendants above void

The remaining wallpaper in the walk in robe took me two weekends to finish off...

Walk in Robe

which was just in time for the Ximula shelving system to be installed.

Left side

Right side

Lots of shelves in the linen cupboard to store all the shoes along with a hanging section for coats and jackets.

Linen cupboard

Bedroom 3

The other bedrooms are in the same configuration as above (going from left-to-right, double hanging spacing, two shelves above 4 drawers, long hanging above a shelf) but with different widths to accommodate the size of the built-in robes.

Sunday 29 June 2014

Stairs

With the last round of trademen it's finally time to peel off the protective board and stain the stairs.

All natural

Looks great from this view, but once the stairs turn at the top, the carpenters did not butt the treads and risers against the wall. Instead, they have cut into the wall so there are now small gaps that need to be fill in. More work that I wasn't expecting but I think I'll start staining first. At least I don't have to be too careful about getting stain on the wall at the top. 

Stained

The job took longer than I thought (almost two days just to do 1 coat).

Vanished

After two coats of stain, it's time for the clear vanish. 

Sealed Garage floor

Also sealed the garage floor with two coats of acrylic sealer with the same colour tint used in the driveway (metal grey). Noticed several cracks too and wonder should I mention them in the 3 months defect list? 

Round Pendant

The round pendant was finally up and it did appear to be too small (40cm diameter) but the next size up (60cm) might have been too big. Wanted it a little lower but would have had to replace the prewired cable. Not so bad I guess.

Drum Pendant

The same style pendant in the drum version for the dining room. A bit hard to judge the height without the dining table in place.

Wednesday 25 June 2014

Plantation shutters

Another quick update with loads of photos of the plantation shutters. The installers said they don't normally see dark colours with the majority of orders being white. However, we liked how the seaview display home had the dark colour so we opted for the same. Especially against the dark feature wall. Turned out well and matched our flooring nicely.

Dining

Lounge

Home Theatre

Study
Bedroom 2


There was a slight problem with the windows in bedroom 2. Because the wall wasn't bricked (the cedar panelling in the front fasade), the window frames was more narrow than usual. After the plantation shutters were installed, the lock levers and winding mechanism were totally inaccessible. Only solution was to hack the plantation shutter frames a little and shorten the lock levers. At least its all hidden away.

Staircase

The window above the staircase really needed some covering, it's right opposite the neighbour's window and there is a full view of their dining room. Though there is always someone there so it might also double as their lounge? 

Bedroom 3

Bedroom 4

Bedroom 5

Main Bedroom

Walk in Robe

From my last post, the aim is to wallpaper every wall here so when the Ximula wardrobe system are installed, it will provide a lovely background.

Tuesday 24 June 2014

Wallpaper

Spent the last couple of days hanging wallpaper. Have never done it before so I did a lot of viewing on YouTube for some instructions.

Bedroom 5

After building up some courage I thought I'll tackle the easiest one first, the textured random pattern. I don't have to worry about aligning the strips and only have to deal with the two power points in the corners. Worked out well and hopefully will hide the purple tint in the wall paint (this bedroom is fairly dark throughout the day). There was two full rolls left over, might just be enough for another bedroom or two. But first, let's try the next one...

Bedroom 4

I picked this wall next because it had no obstacles and part of it is behind the door. A great place to start and hide any imperfections while I get familiar with the pattern matching. Turns out this one was very fiddly, the pattern doesn't really line up with each strips. If the top matched the bottom would be off by 3-4mm and vice versa. The paper was also a lot thinner and therefore prone to ripping when the paste was applied or when you try to slide it into place (Masters recommended to prepare the walls with sizers first, so the wallpaper can be moved slightly before the glue dried. Worked out well with the first roll but this one is too fragile). Took me twice as long and I don't particular like how the joins have turned out. It's fairly visible...

Main Bedroom

At least this one had a better pattern match, though some parts are still off by 1-2mm. I guess these wallpapers are never 100% exact. The good thing was the paper was thicker like the first roll, much easier to handle with. I also have the same pattern in beige for the walk in robe to do, but that involves internal and external corners around the air conditioning ducts, plus a window. So I'm going to leave that till I work out how to do them properly. More YouTube videos to view. 

Flyscreens with Sliding doors opened

Flyscreens with Sliding doors closed

In the meantime, the fly screens to the corner stacking doors were installed. A bit annoyed that Rawson did not include this, but at least it didn't cost too much to get done. 

Rear Security screen

The rear security door was also installed. Initially wanted the pet door on the corner stacker but was advised against it since it would result in another horizontal bar. Hopefully the dog is smart enough to know and remember his door is in the laundry. At the moment, he is scratching/tapping the sliding door at our current place to get in/out. A habit he'll need to forget. 


Driveyway and Fence

Lastly, the bricked fence and driveway is finished. Though the driveway and concrete around the place still needs to be sealed. Otherwise the lovely stencilled pattern will wear out in no time. The metal gates and infills should be in later this week.