Actually the kitchen was completed a couple of weeks ago but it was too messy to take any decent photos. So here are a few night shots which attempt to show the copper-tinted lighting that is above the island.

A fantastic amount of effort has gone into this: Rozita’s design, the problems with the kitchen company, the wait for the installation and then the extended installation time. But it’s done now and we’re having fun figuring out how to use the new appliances and trying to remember what goes where.

We need to get some stools for the island and a couple of electrical bits need to be finalised.

What’s left on the renovation? A shower screen in the laundry/bathroom, various electrics (including hanging a couple of lights), a few minor jobs for the builder and a final inspection. Nothing urgent but we’re keen to finish it off of course.

The kitchen company (Salvarani) saga continues. You may recall that they provided the wrong laundry cabinets (after taking a ridiculous time to produce the kitchen). So in the last week they finally installed most of the laundry. There’s still more to go but progress is being made (here is how it looked while the builders were still here). Meanwhile we had to send back a couple of panels for the kitchen due to quality issues so this delayed the benchtops which had been booked for delivery and installation. These guys weren’t happy as it takes the entire staff of the benchtop company to carry the island benchtop and they had already loaded it into the truck!

Now the current plan is to continue with the kitchen and laundry installation (and wardrobe fine tuning) through to Wednesday then on Thursday install the benchtops and finally get the electrician and plumber in on Friday to finish it all off.

Meanwhile our fireplace company (Abbey Fireplaces) also tried to mess us around with extra fees but Rozita put a stop to that pretty quickly. They are due to finish the fireplace on Wednesday.

So hopefully a big week coming up to finish off the installations. Then a final lick of paint and a few more bits and bobs should finish it off…

While the Sydney storm prepared to strike over the weekend, our floors had their final sand and polish. We stayed with friends overnight (thanks Chris & Yudit) while the fumes subsided. All the time we were worried that our boxes and furniture that were waiting outside for the floors to dry would be exposed to the storm. Luckily the tarps held and there wasn’t any damage.

Given that this was the second sand and polish, it wasn’t quite as exciting when we returned – as the floors looked pretty similar to when we left. What was more exciting however was that this allowed us to bring the rest of our boxes and furniture out of storage. Woo hoo – one step closer to returning to normality.

We now have functioning ovens and a kitchen exhaust fan. But no word yet on when we might get our laundry cabinets.

In preparation for the installation of the kitchen on the 29th, the new timber floors needed their first sand & polish. The rather major impacts of this were that we would no longer have any furniture downstairs (we only had a table and chairs but this enabled us to eat and type comfortably) and we would no longer have a kitchen (not even the makeshift kitchen that has been serving us well for the last 2 months). Our plan was for the sanding to happen on Tuesday next week but the sander brought it forwards to suit himself so we are without a kitchen for 6 extra days.

The photo above shows the sanded floors. The photo below shows where our kitchen used to be (and one day will be again).

Floor sanding

On Saturday the first polish was completed. We had to stay out of the house for as long as possible so we sent the kids to our friends house (thanks Najmeh) while we watched a late film at a cinema! We probably still didn’t give it enough time to dry as our footprints were visible the next day, but that should be fixed up when they do the final sand & polish after the kitchen is fitted. The good news is that it looks fantastic and exceeded our expectations.

Downstairs – first polish

Upstairs – first polish

The painters have finally finished. It look longer than expected (and costed more of course). We changed our minds about one or two things and there was quite a bit of patching up to do. The painters weren’t exactly quick but they did great work and were good to deal with.

Internally, the colours are the same upstairs and downstairs. Similarly, the colours outside are the same, but with a catch: we used to have exposed brickwork at the front half of the house, and now we have painted brickwork! It was a scary decision but has really freshened up the house and made it more beachy.

There is now almost no work happening until the kitchen is installed. We FINALLY got a delivery date from the kitchen people but it’s not until the end of the month – they blamed us for changing our minds about the design and we blame them for not managing the process better/faster. Anyway, now we have to orchestrate the complicated set of tasks and dependencies that will start on 25 April. This will involve at least 9 trades plus multiple deliveries happening in the right order on specific days…