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

Busy week

A lot of work being done to the outside at the moment. Levelling out the front and backyard. Trenches dug out and ready for the footing of the fence. Had no idea how to move the pallets of bricks without a fork lift. Kinda had to work around it, luckily it wasn't really in the way.

Front

Back

Backyard

As for the inside, the electrician was able to install all the downlights today. Lots of batten light holders switched out to surface sockets. Now, I won't need an electrician to come out and switch any individual downlight in the future. Simply unplug and plug in the new ones.

Brightgreen D900 in Main Bedroom

Brightgreen D700 in Hallway

Brightgreen D400 over vanity

I was a little worried at firstabout having different sized downlights throughout the house. However, I think it turned out alright. Will try to take some night shots when I can. Definitely alot better in real life.

Wattsaver DL16 in Bedroom 2

Labelled switches

He was also kind enough to switch out all the buttons in all the bathroom to ones with labels, free of charge. That was a nice gesture and will definitely come in handy.

Dimmers and SockItz

A bit hard to see, but here's a shot of the dimmer dial (Luxman T400P trailing edge) and the SockItz power socket with USB charging ports. The combination of these downlights and dimmer dial, means the lights can be dimmed all the way down to 0% without flickering. I would recommend these to anyone looking to purchase lights and dimers.

Sanding

In the meantime I spent most of the days sanding down the stairs handrail. I think this is going to take me a couple of more days to finish.

Back to painting

Rawson was going to charge us $100 per wall to paint them in the feature colour. If I remembered right, it was slightly more to have it done in another colour. So definitely do them after handover. Luckily there was about 3 litres of left over paint for the feature colour, which worked out perfectly for the two walls.

More feature walls

The skirting boards came off easily enough (had them soft tacked) but what was disappointing was the painter's tape ripping off the paint. The cornice paint came off immediately as I attempt to realign the tape. Therefore I gave up on taping that up. Without it means I'll have to touch up the cornices afterwards. What's more frustrating was the walls were also peeling from the painter's tape when I removed it at the end of the day. It didn't when I initially had to realign the tape, and it wasn't even on for more than several hours. I'm suspecting that there was only one coat of paint instead of the three as stated in the contract. No idea how to prove this though. Might just have to stop painting more feature walls, too much effort if the tape does more harm than good (I can't paint the edges without them, tried those sliding applicators but there's always a small gap). Maybe wallpaper instead.