19 days to go

After a busy week of work and being all over the place (Hervey Bay for work for two days) it was so nice to come home to see my poochie, the house and the weeks progress.

This week on the block we saw installation of:

·         cedar cladding to the façade

·         rear garage door

·         water tank

·         mirrors  

·         external eaves

·         wardrobe shelving

·         frameless glass and;

·         kitchen splash back  

The external painting is almost complete with ¾ of the house finished and the façade has been given an all over undercoat. The colours on the façade don’t quite look like the colours we chose but the painter assures me that it’s an undercoat only and not the exact colour yet. The painter requires the cornices and trims to go in before he can complete the painting which should be happening this week. All the cedar windows and doors were vanished too and they’ve come up really good.

The electrician should be out today to start fitting out the lights and switches. I noticed on the weekend that a couple of light switches were in the wrong positions and that all the cupboard shelving had been installed at the incorrect height and the second rail in the WIR wasn’t even installed! But on a positive note I spoke to our site supervisor this morning and he’s already attending to having them all fixed.

We have a delay in receiving our range hood for the freestanding oven and have been told that it’s due to arrive on the same day as hand over (provided there are no more delays from the supplier). It’s most likely that it will be installed after handover. This is a bummer but also not a biggie!

Anyhoo! All dissapointment over the stuff ups were soon forgotten after an afternoon hike up Mt Coolum to watch the sunset and the full moon rise. Abosolutely magic I can not wait to be back on the Coast! So much to look forward to.

Mt Coolum sunsets with Flame Hill Crimson. The goodness...

Urangan Pier, Hervey Bay (little pic for brother Benno & Britta who will be moving here in June-July) 

Sunday adventure to Maleny and Flame Hill Winery

Rendering complete

What a week our Retreat has had. In addition to the internal painting being complete (with the exception of a few architraves) we now have a full layer of render. Which, I believe, is getting painted this week along with the wood staining and garage door being installed. Very much looking forward to seeing the external colours and garage door (hopefully) this weekend. 

Our site supervisor gave us a few completion dates for works that are to be carried out and it's all starting to feel very surreal now.....he gave us a completion date (subject to change, but lets hope not!) eeeeep!

27 May - electrical work complete

30 May - security system and data cabling installed

3 June - ensuite cabinets and plumbing rectified 

4 June  - meeting with our site supervisor to go through the house 

10 June - bank evaluation (still to be booked but hopefully around this date)

14 June - HAND OVER DAY!!! subject to change of course, but let's be positive here people.

Four weeks to go until the Retreat is finally in our hot little hands.

Domino & China White

When did it become May?!

This week on the block we finally have bricks wooo! So nice to see some action happening on the outside of the house, even if the bricks are hideous. The rendering is suppose to start this week although I'm not too sure how far they will get because the weather report is not looking to good.

Along with the brickwork being complete this week so were the wet areas. Unfortunately I did notice that Plantation have made an error with the ensuite cabinets. Long story short but the cabinets were in the design 'style A' and the basins have been left in 'style C' which means we have off centred basins! I was totally distraught when I realised but so far Plantation have been great about it and they are going to work out how best to make it work. Which is likely to end up with the cabinets being changed to 'style C' rather than ripping out the stone bench top, tiles and plumbing to reposition everything so its centred. It will still be a large job changing the cabinetry but hopefully not as lengthy as having to change the basins and wall hung taps.

Alex and I got busy painting the fence on the weekend (well one side). We went with Dulux Domino - the best colour ever for the fence I'm so glad Porchlight Interiors put me onto this colour, it looks amazing against the tropical green of plants and fits in with our whole colour scheme. It's a privacy screen fence so took a little longer than a regular divider fence to paint. We rolled the outer panels and cut in with a paint brush to do the in-betweens. We managed to get one coat on but need to apply a second coat - we'll leave that for another weekend! Saturday was great weather and we're so lucky we managed to finish almost the whole fence because on Sunday the weather wasn't as great and I was struck with a seriously bad headache that I had to spend the whole day laying down in the car while Alex worked away on his own. Yes he's awesome!

While we were working away on the outside fence the painter was working hard applying the first coat to the inside ceiling and walls. The colour is looking great and we're really happy with it. We chose China White for the walls and Lexicon Quarter for the ceiling and cornices etc. Not sure how those guys work with paint everyday - I'm sure it was part the reason for my cracker headache!

Looks like a scene from Dexter at the moment

 Our daily views...

 Fence before

 and after

Sunset