Construction update 14: What a difference a holiday makes

I’ve just returned from sunny Queensland and boy-oh-boy am I over the moon with how our house is tracking! Canberra’s cold and foggy weather can’t get me down when our move in date is so close, I can almost touch it!!

The external of the house is almost fully complete — just a few more trims are needed around windows and lights. Of course as you can see we’ll also need to do A LOT of landscaping but we’ll wait until the weather warms up a bit before planting.

Related article: Construction update 15: Will my house ever be finished?
Related article: Construction update 16: Timber flooring, kitchen benchtop and even a spot of landscaping

Front of the house
Front of the house
Side of the house
Side of the house
Back courtyard construction update
Back courtyard

The progress that really knocked my socks off was internally though:

  • painting almost complete (just waiting on the other trades to finish before doing a final coat)
  • concrete floor polishing almost complete (also waiting for trades to finish before doing a final buff)
  • kitchen installation begun

On Monday we’re getting the stone for our benchtops measured so fingers crossed our kitchen won’t be more than 2 weeks away 🙂

Kitchen
Kitchen started to be installed
Construction update living room
Almost finished painting in living room

Tiling in our bathrooms will also begin on Monday. Our tiler was seriously not impressed with me and my choice of ensuite tile… He called me a ‘Sheeba wife’ which isn’t exactly a compliment in Korean, ha ha.

I think I’ll just avoid going to site while he’s working 😉

In the meantime, I’m keeping busy selecting the final bits and pieces for the house. I just returned from shopping for door handles… and trying to find a bath that won’t cost me my first unborn child! Stay tuned for more next week.

Check out more from Gina’s home build

Bathroom
Bathroom ready to be tiled
Ensuite construction update
Ensuite

Gina Beschorner Style Curator

Welcome to Style Curator, your destination for daily interiors inspiration, styling tips, reno advice, home tours and DIY projects!

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    24 COMMENTS

      • He he, thanks Nicole 🙂 All our bathrooms are finally tiled, YAY, and now we’re just waiting for the vanities to be installed so the stone can go in and the plumber can fit off. Crossing all my fingers and toes to move in in a week or two!

    1. The exterior looks great! Your vision is coming to life. If I was you, I’d put up with the tiler’s wrath and go check on his method early. He’ll dislike you more if they are laid incorrectly and he has to do it twice. (BTW, comment following options are spot on! Thank you.)

      • Yay, so glad I finally got the commenting options right 🙂 I did have to go to site the other day and talk with the tiler – so funny! He was nice enough to me but you could tell there wasn’t much love there, LOL. I’m so happy with how it’s coming along, can’t wait to do some bathroom reveals on the blog soon!!

    2. Haha, that could be fun :-).

      Oooh, that copper tap with a black sink will be gorgeous!

      I meant just a small water filter tap on the sink that connects to an under bench water filter – just for drinking water. Ahhh, a plumbed fridge is the answer! But we have already bought our fridge and unfortunately it doesn’t have a water thingy 🙁

      • Oh ha ha, yes, now I know the tap you mean 🙂 Pity I couldn’t find one of those either… I wonder if you could buy a regular one and get it coated? Some of the hardware in our bathrooms doesn’t come in black so we’re getting it powder coated but I’m not sure how easy that would be with copper? Might be worth looking into though! Fingers crossed you find a solution 🙂

    3. Our house is really coming along also. The tiler has been working here for the last couple of weeks and the tiling is almost complete. For the main bathroom we ended up choosing a charcoal floor tile which goes up over the bath with a plain white wall tile. The vanity will be timber with a charcoal stone top. The ensuite tile is a large 600 x 600 tile with a marble through it. The ensuite has the same tile floor and wall and will have a charcoal vanity with pure white stone top.

      Our kitchen isn’t in yet but the cabinet maker is working on it. CANNOT WAIT to see it go in! We ended up going away from an all-white kitchen. We will still have the Silestone carrara marble look benchtops but the cupboards will be a charcoal color in 2 pak and there will be timber lining at the back of the island bench – facing our living room. I’m still going with the white sink and copper tapware. I think we may also have a copper pendant light somewhere. So I’m feeling a wee bit nervous but excited to see it all come together.

      Are you still having copper tapware in your kitchen? Have you looked into a copper water filter tap at all? I don’t think the company where I’m getting our tap from does one.

      • Yay, that’s such great news!

        It all sounds amazing and the charcoal cabinetry in the kitchen sounds hot! I can imagine it will bring a lot more warmth to the space 🙂

        Yessss still crushing on copper tapware and I just put in the order yesterday for this Astra Walker tap in copper http://www.astrawalker.com.au/collections/icon/A6908 and we’ll have a black sink 🙂

        I haven’t heard of a copper zip tap before (you mean the ones that do instant hot and cold water?) and I just did a Google search but couldn’t find any 🙁 We’re have a plumbed fridge so it will do cold water.

        I’d love to see photos of your kitchen or better yet feature it in a story on the blog?? 🙂 Let me know if you’d be happy for me to do a little interview with you, no pressure!

    4. Hi Gina,
      It is looking fabulous! I’m so looking forward to seeing it all come together now. Can’t wait to see your next kitchen update 🙂

      • Thanks Anthea, how are you going? How is your house coming along? Your kitchen must be getting installed now too right? I’d love to hear how it’s all going!

        I’m really happy with how the kitchen is turning out and I can’t wait to see it finished 🙂

    5. I have been hanging out for an update! Wow! It’s really looking like your vision- that must be so satisfying! I have found bath-hunting in budget the most painful exercise. I remember in your bathroom (perhaps your ensuite) you needed a small bath (1500mm?) And one of your readers had found a cheap alternative that fits a small space (thanks to that person really helped me!) I have a similar small space max of 1500 but also can’t be freestanding. Debating doing a back-to-wall or just going old school and doing a luxe inbuilt… which i was very against but now quite liking. Any thoughts?

      Looking forward to seeing the kitchen!

      • Hi Lisa, sadly in the end we couldn’t squeeze a bath in our ensuite… If would have been too cramped and so we’re just having one in the downstairs bathroom which probably worked out better given the bath I like is over 4k! Looks like online we may be able to find a similar product for much less, I’ll let you know what we end up going with 🙂 I love all the help and suggestions people share here – it’s definitely helped me pick products and finishes for my house and love it when others get ideas and inspo here too! The kitchen is really coming along and I can’t wait to share it with you guys soon 🙂

    6. Very cool. I like the view from the back courtyard. What are your plans for the landscaping? I can’t remember, will you have a covered or open deck? Either way, looks like you’ll be in to enjoy it in Spring!

      • Hi Jane! How is your project tracking? Has work begun? At the moment we’re rejigging our landscape plans a bit… I’m pretty lucky that my step dad is a landscape architect so he’s coming up with some new designs that I can share soon 🙂 Our house has a front undercover outdoor area where we’ll put the table and chairs and a back undercover area that opens out to the garden. The back area will have informal seating and eventually an outdoor kitchen. I’d love to know how your house is going!

        • Ooooh, nothing like having family to help out on these types of projects! I bet you’ll enjoy every minute of those outdoor entertaining areas come Summer 🙂 Our house is not far off demolition. The temp fences are up so that’s a good sign! I’m hoping the build will start by the end of next month. I think I lost track of when we originally planned :b We are going to check out some recycled brick places next…

          • Oh YAY! Demolition is when it actually set in that we were doing this, such a surreal feeling!!

            End of next month will come so quickly and I bet you’ve got a lot of decisions to make in the meantime 🙂 I love recycled brick but it’s really hard to get your hands on in Canberra – everyone wants it, ha ha!

            Can’t wait to hear more about your build soon 🙂

            • Haha now you’ve got me worried I should be making decisions. Oh dear. We are meeting the builder again tomorrow. Maybe that will send me into a frenzy. I’m not entirely sure the bricks I want exist. Which would be somewhat unfortunate given the entire colour scheme hinges on them. I will let you know when it gets real 😉

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