Week 12 - Hooray, the windows and skylights are in!

Well, after much waiting we are now pretty much watertight! In 2 short days all of the windows and exterior doors were fitted.

It is amazing how much outside noise it immeadiately cut out with double glazing.


Still not painted ... but much closer now!


We have different windows in the "old" and "new" parts of the house - white in the "old" cottage and silver in the "new" pavilion.



The stairs are also in! The gradient is considerably friendlier than the old staircase.



Looking through the window in the back bedroom on to the roof of the pavilion and its pair of skylights.



We also have a couple of skylights in the cottage, one at the top of the stairs and the other over the bathroom.


Next week, the electrical fit-out starts and the finished solid wood floor goes down.

Week 10 - We have a roof!

We are nearly watertight - just need some windows now. Most of the roofing and cladding is now in place.

Looking out the upstairs back bedroom window on to the roof of the pavilion

Street view - weatherboards (old style "Wellington" rusticated weatherboards) and bay window roof now in place

Inside the pavilion

Rear view - colour steel and modern-looking sleek cedar weatherboards

Looking out the window of the upstairs front bedroom

Roll on those windows and skylights!

Week 8 - Action a plenty!

Scaffolding's appeared, wall cladding's flying up - so much has happened, which is great!

The pavilion at the back - the modern extension - is clad in a square-ish profiled colour steel. It sounds kind of weird, but it actually does look really cool. The ends of the pavilion will be clad in a thin profiled weatherboard - lots of long tight lines running through it. Its very cool, and very different to the weatherboards on the front, emphasing the difference between the old cottage and the new pavilion.



This is the roof of the pavilion - it will honestly have more on it than chicken wire on it...



So we are quite close to the neighbours - though not as close as the old house; it was 20cm over the boundary. We decided it was more sensible to build this one actually on our land.

And here it is from the street - partially dressed, but starting to really look like a nice wee cottage. And no the weatherboards are not going to be that colour - that's the primer.

The rubbish pile...

Week 6 and Week 7 - now its really happening

So turns out that we didn't take many photos at the end of week 6, so we've combined the two weeks together in this post. And what a post it is! For the first time, the whole "house" structure is in place - the two levels of the cottage, the roof, and the pavilion at the rear. Cool!


You can see the shape of the bay window at the front - just poking over the top of the fence - though it doesn't have any of the roof structure on it in this picture.

Below are the photos from the end of week 7 - this one is taken in what will be the laundry, looking up to the roof of the cottage. The laundry is tucked under the stairs to the first floor, so once its complete, you won't be able to see all the way up.


This picture is taken from the back yard looking through the living spaces (can't see the neighbours' houses on the other side of the road any more). Thanks ITM Building Centre - building paper isn't that matt black stuff anymore - its more like some kind of woven fibre material - like those reuseable shopping bags.




This photo is taken standing in the front door porch area (the "Portico"), looking up at the first floor of the cottage. There's a set of three windows in the back bedroom, so should get great morning sun.




And finally, here's another one of our lovely cottage from across the road. The roof structure is on the bay window - hopefully now the neighbours will know its going to be a bay window - NOT a garage. Replicating one of the features of the old house, the upstairs bedroom window 'pops out' of the facade - it will have a large window sill inside that you can perch on and watch the world go by (or the trolley buses rumble past...)

Week 5 - Pink timber galore!

We've got a house! Well... lots of pink timber in a sort of house shape. Very EXCITING! We were just amazed at how much progress the builders had made at this point - its just flying up.

This picture is taken from the living areas, looking back at the cottage, which contains the bedrooms and bathrooms.



This is the front door! There's still a little bit to be added in, but it's starting to take shape.



Here's the side of the living pavilion - you can see the cut out in the framing for the long window that sits on top of the bench in the kitchen. The piles remaining are for the deck that goes to the front door from the street.



And here's me - enjoying the view of the backyard from the lounge. Yes, we're missing the french doors, and the roof and the floor - but still, I'm pretty happy with how its turning out.

Week 4 - Foundations are done

The foundations have been largely finished now - fantastic! As you can see in the picture below, we've got a concrete ring wall foundation at the front, which sits over the piles that I posted in one of the pictures last week. You can also see the pipes for the stormwater connections.



The entire subframe at the back has been finished - this is the living area, including kitchen and dining.


Not entirely sure what's happening here...


This picture shows the connection between the living area - the pavilion in architects' speak - and the entry area - the front door. The front door is in between the "old" cottage (well it would have been old had we not pulled it down to build a new "old" cottage that will actually stand up for some time to come) and the new extension at the back. You can see a little inset area on the left of the picture below - this is going to be a little garden, that you can see through large windows directly opposite the front door. Don't know what we're going to plant in it yet!


And finally, the whole length of the house - looking to the west from the back yard.

Its starting to look pretty good!