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.

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.

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.

Concrete

Finally some good sunny weather and the concrete can be poured and the stencils applied. Not possible to tell from these photos, but the windows on the ground floor all had 3M security films applied too. Out of 23 panels, only one door to the sliding stacker came out milky/cloudy. May have to ask them to redo it before the gaskets are installed.

View from Home Theatre

View from Lounge

Once dried, this is what it looks like. Can't wait for the front and driveway to get done.

View from Laundry

Back wall

Ramp behind Garage

The Pakman parcel delivery box/mailbox has also been installed. Was a bit tricky trying to sort out how to place it in the fence but we got there in the end. Maybe a bit too wide, but there wasn't much room between the front gate and the driveway to have more pillars and any space for in fills. Hopefully, it will look like a feature pillar and not too weird. 

Parkman Mailbox

Flooring completed

Three days in and the flooring was completed. Not to happy about the scotia around the kitchen island but there was no other way around it. 

Front side

Back side

Pantry

Not visible in these pictures, but I wished they would have aligned the scotia joins with the polytec joins. Would have made it look more seamless. They had to use two pieces anyway but they instead used one full piece with a shorter extension.

Home Theatre

Dining

I was expecting scotia along the low windows too but the installer managed to trim the frame and fit the floorboards under it. Was initially skeptical since the skirting would be higher (thicker) than the bottom window frame but luckily it's not that noticeable. 

Stairs

Could have avoided the scotia here at the base of the stairs, but the installer has concern about cutting into the wood. He said it may or may not weaken the support of the stairs. Better not to risk it. 

Common fence

Since the rain kept away today, two more full pillars (and three, one thirds pillars) were laid. I honestly thought he would get all five done today so that he could start on the other side next time. Doesn't seem like much progress but I guess he did spend most of his time looking for dry bricks from the pallets that's been left in the rain. Just in case, he even stacked up the bricks he will need and made a little shelter for them. No idea what's the reasoning for not using wet bricks.

Flooring started

The bamboo floor boards were installed on the first floor today. Under the downlights, they don't seem as dark as I thought they were. 

Bedroom 5

Study

But under natural light, it is a lot darker.

Bedroom 4

Bedroom 1

Walk in Robe

Hallway

Didn't expect such a huge difference between the height of the floorboards and the wet areas tiled floors. Definitely a trip hazard and more importantly, we'll probably regret not planning it better beforehand. Especially in the future when water spills out and ruin the floorboards. Not a huge fan of the gold trimming either, which is another surprise since we never selected it. The installer said there were only three choices, grey, gold and a greenish one. They just assumed we wanted gold.

Floor transitioning

Scotia

Gold Trim

At least there were similar coloured scotia that made the floor transition a lot more pleasing. Unfortunately, nothing can be done about the sliding door or around the void. The scotia is just too tall for these areas. Might have to just paint the trim black to blend it in the frames of the sliding doors. Not sure what colour to paint the one around the void though. 

Void

With the wet weather, there's no progress with the exterior. These fence pillars have been up since last week before the weekend and the rain. If only he was available to work on the weekend when there was a little sunshine.

Fence Pillars

Still have to decide on what to cap the pillars with too. Everyone is suggesting sandstone but most of the facade is wood and we don't want to introduce another element. Leaning towards just having the bricks placed sideways but we were advised against it. Then there's the slats for the upper portion of the fence. Personally, I don't want to add more wood so the main focus remains on the wood feature on the facade. That leaves metal, but then which colour? Monument to match the gutter and downpipes, or black to match the window frames?

Night time

As promised, here are some night time shots of the lights in action. I tried to position them in the same location as before so you can compare the day and night shots

Brightgreen D900 in Main Bedroom

A little bright here with four D900 at 100%. Luckily we'd added dimmers to tone them down if necessary.

Brightgreen D700 in Hallway

Seems like the wattsaver's warm white colour are slightly more yellow than the BrightGreen's warm white colour. It's hardly noticeable (specially since there're different areas) but the little gap view of the bedroom clearly shows the difference to the hallway. 

Brightgreen D400 over vanity

Wattsaver DL16 in Bedroom 2