Windows in, frame complete

In the future when you are standing out in our rear garden asking us if we are ever going to get on with some landscaping, you will be able to look back up at this view of the house. We are a bit pleased that it looks just as lovely as the front. 

A neighbour from down the street, whom we had not met before, actually crossed the street to tell us it looks "magnificent". Did I mention she is my favourite neighbour -now?

Also met the neighbour on the non-church side - lovely and friendly too. The vibe on this street seems very positive.

So the frame, roof trusses and windows are all in, and the excellent painters are right onto getting a coat over those precious window frames.

Our kitchen/butlers/laundry cabinetmaker was also on site for a check measure. As an aside, it was the actual owner of the business who came out to measure. When we commented on that he said with a smile and a heavy European accent "Gerry gets the big jobs". 

And now to finish off this post, here is a shot of the huge and pretty camellia currently flowering out the front of the property:

Roof trusses on

It's not getting any higher...phew! Took the big Homemade Girls there for an upstairs tour:

This one is thrilled with her "views". Can just see the Dandenongs from her room.

The famous double-sided laundry chute provision: one side opens from kids' bathroom, and one side opens from the master walk-in robe. Nifty, hey?

Complex roof trusses - attic storage will not be easy but I'm sure my treasured collection of American Xmas decorations can be safely stowed, at the very least.

Started activating suppliers for the internals who have been on stand-by for frame completion - lots of check measuring and site meetings in my future.

Second storey pops up

I now know from experience that our excellent Framers work FAST! So I shouldn't have been surprised when the second storey framework went up in the space of less than a day. What did startle  me was the height of this now-towering edifice. 

I know in my head that it is all within building regulations etc, but I did have an oh-my-goodness moment when I saw how it was holding its own against the church building next door. 

And the roof trusses are still to come! And it is a traditionally high pitched roofline!

I did go up for a walk around the upstairs - of course exciting to see the rest of the floor plan in its earthly form. If you know me well enough, however, you might know I hate heights.

As the wind whipped around me and the precipice threatened menacingly from at least 5 metres away, I scurried about torn between trying to savour the spaces and just wanting to get the hell out of there.

Returned to Earth safely and can report that upstairs seems very excellent. Especially the laundry chute, around which the entire house plan pivots in much the same way my life revolves around actually doing the laundry.

Meanwhile, I also spent 2 hours with a Scottish lighting designer (sounds like some kind of euphemism but really isn't). Voice EXACTLY like Sean Connery. Other attributes included a very thorough review of our lighting requirements, and the provision of an education regarding LED, halogen, 6-star energy regs, dimming modules, and who knows what else. Definitely time well-spent as it was one of those occasions when you realize you don't always know what you don't know.

And I certainly didn't let on to Sean Connery that we had been buying a few light fittings willy-nilly without his guidance (or permission)!

Scaffolding

Nothing too exciting about scaffolding I am afraid. It costs a lot of money, you don't get to keep it, but nor would you want to. At least it keeps our highly regarded tradesmen "on top of things".

Windows on today

Housework

So now we have two houses to clean and maintain!

Captain Laird set off with grim determination and shovel to un-backfill the perimeter of the slab following the Oppositional Defiance Disorder behaviour of Dirt Man last week. With the slab edge all but buried and rains imminent it was only a matter of time before we had an un-intended water feature inside.

Somewhat conveniently, an old friend and colleague resides extremely close by. Whether the continuing school holidays had something to do with it or not, Old Friend was only too willing to join the dig. It took a mere 3 or so hours for the moat to be dug, good honest physical labour for my otherwise desk-bound heroes.

It has been the week for receiving visitors at the new abode too. In addition to the King of Rock (also an old friend), and the Old Friends from around the Corner, I also had the pleasure of receiving the excellent Mrs Harris (from an earlier post) along with her sweet family.

As I always do, I had the broom out before her visit -eager to make a good impression. Her home is always immaculate and I felt quite certain that the massive nails littering my floor would not impress her design eye.

Mrs Harris has her own building project in the pipeline at the moment which is super-convenient as we can happily natter away about matters that would make a normal person go stiff with boredom-induced rigor mortis.

Mrs Harris claims naming rights over the cute nook that affords access to the powder room and laundry. I am a little concerned about her request that it be known as Mrs Harris' Ablution ARENA (!!). It suggests an exhibitionist side of her I didn't know existed but friends are friends and I shall not judge.

How to deliver a house

This would be the easy way:

took this pic at around 7am this morning. It's actually one of a group of hot air balloons that passed over our building site at about 7.15 am in the morning. In a misty middle of winter morning that is a strangely poignant sight. (If you can't quite tell, it is a house-shaped balloon, eerily similar to our house design).

It's a sign. Not sure of what.

With Captain Laird away, it was up to me and the Homemade Kids to roll up on site at 7am today to meet with the King of Rock. Short story: boggy driveway, 20 tonne truck coming, threats of $1000 per day crane. King of Rock came from afar on his day off, sized up the situation, made a few calls and even stayed to spread some rock around. Far more than I would have asked of anyone with no warning in the midst of winter. Didn't stop me from then spending the day at his house, making him cook me lunch, and then getting his beloved lady to deliver me my forgotten bag. Sheesh - I sound REALLY annoying!

In other matters: identified incorrect wall, had it rectified, yay me.

All in a day's work

At approximately 7am this morning our naked and lonely slab was awakened by the arrival of The Framers. There has got to be a better term for this team of guys who, by 3pm this afternoon, had brought the ground floor to life:

Front of The Bothy (it's a Scottish term, look it up)

Rear of ground floor

Middle Homemade Kid in Family/meals area

Oldest Homemade Kid in kitchen

Middle One testing out the powder room (note to self: get more fibre into that kid)

View from family room to the Captain's study

Butler's pantry (applications now open)

Now all I need is an Allen key....

So what's happening with the actual house?

The slab has quietly attained its maximum strength whilst waiting for the frame to be ready. We've had a great old time wandering around on it, tape measure in hand, working out the reality of room sizes etc. Lots of fun for the girls, who seemed concerned that this house would not favor them in terms of bedroom size. They seem happy enough now the measurements are becoming "concrete" - ha!

The slab had been residing in the centre of a mountain range that emerged when the footings were dug, so Dirt Man came and (finally) scooped that all up for us on the weekend. Can't help feeling totally gouged by his bill at the end of it but nor do I want him to bring it all back!

At least we now have room for the framework to be delivered at the end of this week - hooray! It had been delayed by a week due to the wintry conditions but as of next week we will be able to walk through the ground floor level. Can't. Wait.

What else? Insulation company booked, carpenter details getting finalized, and the return of the Special Ops Painting Team from "the Northern Estates" episode happily booked in too :)

Some time spent deliberating over 8mm in relation to the front door sill height. We are ALL OVER these minuscule details!

And it all came down to this:

White square tiles and white rectangle tiles - that's where all that tile discussion took us.

The rectangles are for one dado-height wall and the shower in the master bathroom, as well as the shower walls in the girls' bathroom. They may also show up again as the splash back in the laundry.

The little square will be set on the diagonal to make up the splash back in the kitchen and butler's pantry, tying in with the white components in the drawer handles and knobs and hopefully getting along nicely with the Kashmir White granite benchtops.

We're not just all little white tiles though, you know. We also cut loose and bought some bigger white tiles - with their friends  the chess black tiles. The idea is to make a checkerboard floor in the butler's pantry and the laundry:

So what's left?....something nice for the powder room splash back and some deep soul-searching about those hexagonal tiles for the girls' bathroom floor.