Upstairs each of the bedrooms will have a feature wall which is a v-groove panel, often associated with the Hampton style.
The doors are Shaker doors, also associated with the Hampton style.
You can also see the brushed chrome door handle.
The wall and door in the photo have not been painted yet. I’ll write about colours soon.
On Christmas Eve we invited the builders to lunch – from the left: Dan (not a builder, but enjoys a good lunch), Anthony, Mark (the boss), Rhys and Paul (the electrician). They’ve got a week off now and will be back on the 4th. Much of their work upstairs is apparently done now so Mark has organised the gyproc guys for next week (walls and ceilings) followed by the tiler and a couple of visits from the electrician. The stairmaster (a skilled stair professional as opposed to the mechanical stair lift) will measure, create and install. They still need to lay the timber in the hallway and the plumber will to finish off the bathrooms. The final tasks will be wardrobes and carpets (I think).
We’re hoping to move upstairs by Australia Day…
Meanwhile the builders will move downstairs and the fun will really start…
We have new rear deck doors. The frame is huge so the builders had to carry it through the neighbour’s garden where there is easier access then they hoisted it over the fence to our back garden.
As you’ll see from the before/after photos, we have changed from hinged to sliding doors, from wood to aluminium and also enlarged the doors.
The enlargement gives the room more light and makes the already high ceilings look higher.
The only problem we have is that the ventilation from the cooker isn’t quite a efficient. Hopefully this will improve once we have some more windows installed in January.
Happy Christmas!
Exhaust ducting for the extractor fans, doorways, wall insulation and some attic flooring.
Stay tuned for some big advances over the next few days…
The top floor has been wired up to allow for GPOs (wot you plug your hairdryer into), downlights, a pendant light, a low voltage night light (for the babies), switches, extractor fans (for the bathrooms), Ethernet (compooter cable) and TV.
These days you can get GPOs with built-in USB ports so we’ll probably get some of those as I’m seeing more things (other than phones) being charged via a USB cable.
After the walls are installed, the electrician will return to cut holes for switches and GPOs. Then later still, after the walls are painted, he’ll return to finalise all the fittings.
This week the upper floor was wrapped in cladding. You may recall that this process already started downstairs 3 months ago. It means that upstairs is now mostly enclosed, other than the front which will remain open for ease of access.
Next week we understand that the electrician will wire up the top floor and then the gyproc crew will come in and build all the internal walls and ceilings.
Rozita has chosen the bathroom and balcony tiles and she’s close to deciding on the carpets for the bedrooms (the hallway will be timber to match the stairs and downstairs). She also needs to decide on the internal wall style, architraves, skirting boards, cornicing, ceiling fan, downlights. And get quotes from painters… Plenty to do and all before Christmas!
You may recall that 2 months ago we finally chose and ordered our windows. Well, this week they arrived. It took the builders no time at all to install most of them and they’re looking good…
Also the plumber has done his initial work upstairs so the bathrooms are ready to have the fittings installed once the walls are installed.
Rozita has been looking into wall and floor coverings, including carpets and timber for upstairs and wall/floor tiling. Given the amount of time that goes into all this research, I’m amazed that other renovators manage it – Rozita has a diploma in interior design and doesn’t have a full time job. I guess others just outsource the design and/or don’t care so much about quality or budget…
Scott Renovation 