Building Madness in Mt Vic

The Master...

2011-03-01T00:33:00.000-08:00

Suite that is... This is our bedroom. I have to admit that I still think its cool!

The wallpaper is just awesome - if I do say so myself. Its got a texture to it, and the sheen of the paper changes as you walk past it. The sheer curtains are great too - we've hung them over the top of the drapes, so they draw behind them.

The light fixture came from Sydney... Matthew and I bought it back as oversized baggage! There's two more upstairs in the spare bedrooms - but they're slightly different.

And here's the ensuite. It's not huge, but it works very well. We searched long and hard to find fixtures that we liked, that we could afford - store after store, every sale there was - and eventually we managed to get stuff that we liked.

And the shower is huge! Its about the same length as a bath, so plenty of room to dance about - or do whatever else you like...

The outside

2011-02-06T00:04:00.000-08:00

So as promised, here are some pictures - starting with the outside.

This one's pretty obvious - the front door. The window on the wall does look quite low in this picture, but it sits at bench height inside, so makes sense from the inside.

If you look in the middle of this picture, you can see the little plants in the planter box on the other side of the windows. I wasn't convinced about putting these windows in, but they do make quite a feature, and let light into the entrance area. The plants are Lancewoods - they're really weird, but quite cool!

Here's the courtyard! It took a while to get it all sorted out - and then it took even longer for us to finish painting the fences and staining the deck and the planter box. It was a pretty big decision for me, but my 10 year old yuccas have been planted in the ground! I've carted those round about 6 flats and the apartment, but well, now they have a permanent home.

Just underneath the washing line is a herb garden. It doesn't look that great in this picture, but I can assure you it is currently a picture of health. Parsley, rosemary, oregano and mint are doing really well. The rocket went absolutely nuts, and is now producing huge amounts of seed pods. Hopefully it will self-sow and spread through the garden. The thyme is doing ok, but the sage doesn't really seem to be doing much. The coriander was a fizzer!

And last, but certainly not least - here is the finished cottage from the street. The fence is finished (finally finished the painting!) Doesn't she look great?!

yeah, I know - I'm a bad blogger...

2011-01-23T22:25:00.000-08:00

So I had the best of intentions to actually do a post on here with some pictures of the house - and a bit of an update. But, as they say, the best of intentions... I honestly AM going to put some more pictures up though - I was inspired by meeting a person who was following my blog! You know who you are...

Anyway - of course I have gotten to the end of the holiday weekend (Wellington Anniversary) and, as I am prone to do, decided to start cooking something which I really don't have the time to do, and I've still got to finish all the chores that I haven't done yet! So much for finding pictures of the house - or taking more - and actually getting them in a state to go on here... It is going to happen!

So the ultra quick update before I go back to the kitchen is:

still loving the house
outside landscaping complete!
Most of the garden planted
nearly all the fences painted!

We're still working on the actual decoration - i.e. the interior is finished, but it still looks a little bare. We've bought a spanky new dining table and some fabulous chairs (that will be a whole post), but we need to work on some art for the walls, and some cushions and things. I did make it (early) to the Kirks sale today, so have now got some lovely Egyptian cotton sheets for our bed! They're so thick and luxurious!

Ok, the dinner's probably burning so must go!

Definitely more soon!

Interior shots

2010-03-25T01:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry that it has once AGAIN taken me so long to get these pictures up - but I have a good excuse! I have started my own business! Early days yet, but things are looking very positive. If you need any policy advice or economic analysis - get in touch!

So here is my lovely kitchen.

As you can see, its very much about clean lines - as few protrusions as possible. And that lovely shiny black granite!

We've maximised the storage by taking the cupboards right up to the ceiling. Love the glass splashback too - keeps up the shiny theme with the granite and the stainless steel.

Stairway to heaven? Just a sunny day and our great skylights!

Love the wee wall mounted light up in the stairwell - it creates a great effect on the wall.

And here's the guest bedroom - well it ours for the moment until the curtains actually arrive. You can't really see the effect in the wallpaper that makes it so spectacular - several of the stripes are metallic silver. It really is a very bold wallpaper, but I love it! Hope my guests do too...

And the verdict is...

2010-02-07T00:40:00.000-08:00

... The house looks great!

Here's the finished product!

Apologies to my loyal readers - that's you Dons - for being so slack in keeping you updated on the happenings with the house. Things moved quite quickly going in to the end of the year, as we tried to organise all the stuff that needed to be done - carpet, curtains, decorating, etc etc. The builders reached practical completion on 23 December - and what with the time of the year, and a mission with the bank to get the mortgage sorted out, well the blog has taken a bit of back seat...

But yes, we have moved in, and it is fantastic! Everything we were planning it to be and more. The move went very smoothly, and importantly, everything fitted in. And everything fitted down the side of the house to the front door!

It looks narrow - but it doesn't actually feel that bad - and the sofa fitted down there, so it can't be too bad. The deck/boardwalk was a great idea - it takes you down to the front door at floor level which is nice. It's a very neat finish too. We're probably going to stain it - but we've got a few other things to sort out before we get to that.

Got home to this just this Friday past... I was talking to Matthew on the phone before I got home, and he said 'you are going to hate the chimney'... Quite why our chimney needs to be THAT high, we've got no idea - it looks ridiculous. We're yet to query this with the gasfitter / builder. Hopefully it can be made shorter!

And the final picture - don't you love my street numbers?

So it has been a real big deal to get to this point. We've had such a lot of support since we moved in, which is just really nice and confirms that we did the right thing. We've got some further stuff to complete around the outside - and more unpacking of all the 'bits and pieces' inside - but its great to finally be in!

More pictures of the interior to come - including my spanky wallpaper!

I am SO EXCITED!

2009-12-22T01:41:00.000-08:00

Matthew and I have just been over to the house, and it has really come along such a long way - in just a day! I feel so much more excited about it now! Probably helps that I've just finished work for the year too! Yay!

As promised (sorry its taken me a while loyal readers...) here are some more photos. I've gone for a detailed set. Above is a sneak peak of the ensuite off the master bedroom. I'm really pleased with the floor - and I absolutely LOVE the tiling! They look absolutely fantastic!

Here's a close up of the loo in the ensuite - though you can see the lights are still to be installed.

And well - had to show you this! My fantastic wardrobe! As you can see, its absolutely enormous! You may not be able to fully appreciate how big it really is from this picture, but I can assure you, it's big. And it gets better... There's TWO of them!

Because I know you appreciate my sense of detail, here's a close-up of the architraves and scotia. We've gone for a traditional approach, with colonial style architraves, and the style-ly scotia.

And here's the second bathroom - with bath. Only half the glass screen is installed here - hopefully the rest of that goes in tomorrow. Once again, tiles look great!

And I can't believe we haven't put up a picture of the spanky front door before - so here it is! It's a lovely glossy black, with a stonking great door handle. V. cool.

We went over to the house tonight to pick up a light fixture that turned out to be the wrong colour, and the electricians have gone to town! Most of the fixtures are in now - and the electricity has been connected. Its really starting to feel like a home now - and the lights look great. The under-cabinet lights in the kitchen are cool, and the pendant fixture in our bedroom (the one we bought back from Sydney on the plane...) looks absolutely amazing! The entry deck is very nearly complete - so we will actually be able to get in to the house from the footpath - and it looks great.

Can't wait to move in.

The sense of excitement is palpable...

2009-12-21T13:39:00.000-08:00

Well, actually it's not, but I thought I had to say something like that... I have to admit that I am starting to get a bit excited about the house, but there's still so much to be done, well its hard to be too excited. I am kind of enjoying the furnishing things though - curtains, etc. Would be great if we could buy all new furniture too...

We are VERY nearly there! Last finishing things are still going in, and hopefully we will have electricity today. The final part of the deck is being built, so we might actually be able to use our own access off the footpath to get into the house soon - rather than having to use our neighbour's driveway.

Apologies to loyal readers about the lack of pictures recently! I have taken some - and will get them up soon! (Need advice from my technical director on resizing etc...)

Scaffolding's down - the countdown is on!

2009-12-01T01:38:00.000-08:00

Well things have moved on quite a bit!

The scaffolding has been removed, and the house is looking quite good really - if I do say so myself! It fits in with the neighbours pretty well too.

And here it is a bit closer - colours look great, and I'm really pleased with the windows too.

The builders are really not that far away from finishing now. The interior painting is largely complete except for touch ups and some other bits and pieces. The tiler is coming in to do the bathrooms, and the electricians are starting their final fix too.

House should be finished before Christmas!

The kitchen is in!

2009-11-24T10:56:00.000-08:00

Only one cupboard door to go!

The bench-height windows certainly make more sense now.

Week 16 (where did the time go?!)

2009-11-19T00:51:00.000-08:00

Isn't she gorgeous?! The finishing touches are going in place. As you can see, the finials are now in place - though a little more painting to happen before its all done.

You wouldn't believe how big those things look on the ground - they're over a metre long - but really pleased that our local finial supplier convinced us to go for the big ones! They really do look in character with the house, and I think the size is just right.

The roofers are putting the guttering in and the downpipes - which are square -and there's STILL a bit of work to be done to complete the flashings on the skylights.

And this is how the plasterer gets round - and gets up the stairs to reach the high bits! clever!

More photos to come soon! The kitchen is going in, so we'll have some more pictures to show you it in all its glory!

Keep away witchy-poo!

2009-11-18T11:51:00.000-08:00

The finials have gone up on the house! Cool! That should keep the wicked witches of Mt Victoria away...

And...

The kitchen is going in! We have photos - will go up soon - but I just have to say it is looking absolutely fanstastic! The benches are lovely, and the finish of the cabinetry is suberb. It'll be finished early next week!

The house is getting it's clothes on

2009-11-11T01:34:00.000-08:00

Well after some feverish activity (well I think it's been pretty fast!), the house has been painted!

It's a little difficult to appreciate the actual colour from the pictures, but it is in fact a pale grey, with a darker tone of grey as the highlight - classic we hope! The soffits are bright white to match the windows. Very pleased that the windows blend into the house now - its starting to look really good.

No finials yet...

Roof is basically complete now - though apparently there is still some minor work to be completed. Some of the flashings are not yet finished, but it looks like its nearly done.

And the most exciting bit - the gibbing and plastering has been finished in the pavilion at the back! The skylights look absolutely fantastic! The sunlight just floods in through the skylights and fills the room up with light - it really does make a huge difference to the room.

I think it will look even better once it's painted!

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

2009-10-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-25T22:52:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-10-12T00:44:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-08T01:44:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-06T01:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

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!

Exciting! We've got foundations! Photos from Week Three

2009-09-29T01:15:00.000-07:00

Wow - all the piles are in and the subframe has started! What a lot of piles! There really are a lot of them... At least it means the house won't go anywhere!

Given the problems with the ground conditions that the engineers discovered, we've also had to have more piles put in - even under the ring wall foundations.

It wasn't really until this point that we realised the actual size of the house. It fits onto the section nicely - and we'll have a really nice, sunny courtyard at the back.

And here's our standard photo - looking down the section from the back to the house on the other side of the road.

Week Two - the next problem...

2009-09-27T02:07:00.000-07:00

Well, we did always knew it was a possibility, we'd just hoped that it wouldn't turn out to be the case... Our foundation design is not suitable for the ground conditions on our section. After this piece of news came from the builders, and the engineers were called in, we've had to splash out on driven piles

Here is the lovely pile driver!

So the original plan was for the builders to auger holes for the piles down to 1.2 metres, and then concrete them in place. None of that now! This delightful little Toyota has now pounded MUCH longer piles down to 3.6 metres! We knew that the foundations on the old house were dodgy - that's why it was sinking on the sides (but not in the middle...), so it wasn't a huge surprise.

So here we are at the end of week two - some long bits of wood pounded into the ground. The new house won't be going anywhere!

Lots has happened... Week One update

2009-09-27T01:30:00.000-07:00

Apologies to everyone who has tried to have a look at our blog and has not been able to get into it. We have been making progress, so I'm going to stick up some pictures over the next few days to bring you up to date!

Well it may not look like much to you, but to us, it looked like a whole lotta progress!

Picture below is taken from the front of the section looking toward the back - complete with drainage lines dug

And here is a picture looking in the other direction (love the house on the other side of the road). The site fence was probably the most exciting thing because it just makes the site a bit more secure...