Dreams Impossible Dreams: May 2013

Last Wednesday was the first day in nearly four months that we didn't get up and let our builders in the back gate. I felt both liberated, from the burden of handing out large sums of money, and a bit lost. These guys have been my focus for nearly four months. I have dedicated my days to driving around Newcastle looking at things, buying things and hours and hours on the phone ordering and researching thing. I have lost nights of sleep over all the decisions that had to be made, and trying to stay one step in front of them. But last Wednesday I had only five small mundane things on my list, and I was a little lost…..

I would love to tell you that everything is done and our house is complete, but that is no where near the truth. The big building part is done. All the structural things, and for the most part the electrical and plumbing work, is complete. But now starts the part that we are doing ourselves. All the painting and the finishing that has to now happen to finish this place, is for the most part all up to us. And don’t even talk to us about the landscaping! I don’t think either of us realised how badly this build was going to affect our yard!

But before I launch into decorating dilemmas and trying to furnish and style all my new spaces, let me show you where we are and how we got here over the last 6 weeks ….

When we got back from our holiday we had a deck:

It was so nice and clean then!

Then the frame for the new laundry and bathroom went up:

Archie being Site Manager - he loves a good box......

Windows go in and Sarking goes up:

And then the cladding went on:

And the roof goes on. What you don't see here is four weeks of mistakes, miss-orders, leaks and general roofing incompetence - but finally it was done!

Our deck got a ceiling, got painted and had lights and speakers installed:

And my favorite find: the deck wall lights! It was love at first sight.

My wonderful Dad made the fly screens for our louver windows and installed them just before he and my Mum jumped on a plane to Europe for 9 weeks....a life saver with all the fly's!

The new laundry and bathroom both had some brick work that needed to be fixed up:

Then plumbing:

And finally some sheeting went on and we had a room!

And then there was finally tiles......

So this is where we are up to now with the back bathroom. We have tiles on the walls and the floor has been finished. The plumber is booked in for next week and the wonderful J and I are busy doing the final coat of paint in there.