Beautiful rugs

Hello folks- I know it's been a while since I last posted anything. As some of you know I have been traversing the world; currently I am here with hubby in Damascus, taking it all in.

So I honestly have no idea what is happening with the house. I assume, as usual, Plantation Homes is going at it with full steam. So probably by the time we get back most of the external will be done?

While we were in Turkey we indulged and bought some absolutely stunning rugs for our new place. Originally I had wanted modern style rugs for our place, but after seeing all these works of art, I couldn't resist. All handmade with stories of their own, especially the antique one (last one). And all excellent quality. We can't wait to see them in our new house.



This blue rug is going in our family room- a perfect contrast to the red accessories and dark wood (I hope)



This beauty is going in the front lounge room

This one is about 40 years old and going in our library

These photos really don't do the rugs justice. They are breathtakingly stunning pieces of handmade art.

And we've got walls!

Our home is definitely coming on, again with pretty amazing speed. In last night's post, I mention that it would be wonderful if we had walls up....and sure enough ALL walls are up. My little boy and I wandered through the downstairs of the house today and were amazed to see the rooms come to life. It is amazing what plaster can do!

Here are some photos as promised:

The kitchen- the heart of our home! The opening there is the butler's pantry



And here is the butler's pantry all plastered



And the soul of the house- the library!

Not happy about the window here or the one in our main bedroom- I wish we had paid more attention to the plans. I don't like how they open out! It's too late to do anything about them, without incurring more charge, so we are going to have to live with them! If you are thinking of building, pay attention to everything, including windows....Serves us right for being such busy people and overlooking important things like that!

Now the front of the house is looking like this at the moment:

The front cladding still needs to be done (perhaps by the end of this week) and of course the render facade needs to be painted! A few more things on the outside and then the chippy arrives to build the kitchen, bathrooms and laundry! Oh did I mention that the brick is growing on me....





A long overdue catch-up

Hello folks!

Many apologies for not keeping you all updated on the build. I was away for two weeks (you can check out that travel blog at http://www.noratraverse.blogspot.com/), and hubby didn't have the energy or time to keep it going. And when I did get back, it was full on with other things.

We did meet with the SS the second day I got back and if I liked him on the phone, I liked him even better when we met. He walked us through the house, explained everything and answered all our questions. I can't wait until we meet up with him again when we have walls up.

In terms of the buiding since I last blogged a lot has happened. The roof and guttering are on and I really like the colour combination (evening haze for roof and monument for guttering). If you remember I was a bit anxious about the whole colour thing, but now that I see it all up and together, it looks good! Yay!!

The bricking is also now complete, the render is on and most of the cladding for upstairs is on. We are only rendering the front part of the house and I am not sure I really like the brick..it's too creamy and yellow for my liking. Perhaps the bricks will grow on me...or then again, we may end up rendering it completely later on.

But the rain has slowed things down a bit, and it is supposed to rain again on and off this week.

Unfortunately I don't have photos to showcase...tomorrow I shall showcase I promise. As I haven't been inside in the last few days I am not sure what is going on..wouldn't it be great if the plasterboards were up?

In the meantime, hubby and I need to start thinking about the pool. Hopefully when we get back from our overseas trip (yes I am off again!!!) in May, we will start chatting to pool companies to discuss our options. Personally I am happy not to have the pool (a savings of $30K), but the kids would be very unhappy. We have a pool now in our present house and it is very loved and used in the hot months. Here are some inspirations:

As you can see we love more the free form, informal pools or lagoon styles (like our present pool). We love tropical plants so I guess it is natural we want a "tropical" style pool with a waterfall, of course. But as we have a pretty small space to work with, we may only end up with a lap pool..boring...fingers cross we end up with something like the pool in the last photo.

What do you guys think? Have you built a pool in a small space?

Rain, rain- go away please

As much as I love this rain because it cools things down a bit, I wish it would simply stop so that the building can progress. A bit selfish on my part, I know. At the moment the house is still in the framing stage although the other day they started putting the steel frame on the roof trusses to hold the Colorbond roof in place. So the next step is to put the roof on, but unless it stops raining, then it's a standstill. I was hoping to see the roof on before I leave for Vietnam. And I just checked the weather and it looks like it is going to rain off and on all next week.

  

			Wind	Rain	Humid	Min	Max
SUN		Showers Early. Morning Clouds. Mild. Humid.	35 km/h SE	1mm (35%)	76%	20	26
MON		Partly Cloudy. Mild. Breezy.	29 km/h ESE	-	63%	20	27
TUE		Showers Early. Mostly Sunny. Mild. Humid.	23 km/h E	1mm (35%)	69%	20	27
WED		Mostly Sunny. Mild.	15 km/h E	-	75%	20	27
THU		A Few Showers. Mostly Sunny. Mild. Humid.	19 km/h ENE	2mm (35%)	68%	19	28
FRI		Mostly Sunny. Warm. Humid.	17 km/h ENE	-	76%	21	28
SAT		Mostly Sunny. Mild.	22 km/h E	-	66%	21	28

I guess I can simply be patient, but as the roof colour was one of the most difficult decisions in terms of colour selection, I am a bit antsy. We didn't want to go too light, but not dark either. And of course, the crucial question- will it match the render, linea board and brick? In the meantime I can imagine that the roof will look something like this:

It's not a cream, more like a grey, green, cream tinge all mixed together. And the garage door and the down pipes are also in evening haze. We decided to contrast the guttering and fascia and use Monument which is not exactly a black, more of a charcoal grey (one of our favourite colours).

We also have our feature pillars in monument as well as our window frames. I can't wait to see it all put together- so exciting!

Light Fittings All Done, Time to sort out the Rest

Finally managed to go to the lighting shop to get all our light fittings- not that we had too many to get. Just 11 fittings as the builder is doing the rest (all energy efficient downlights and ceiling fans in all rooms). But there were a few ones which I wanted to get ourselves and get them to install. Did I mention how expensive lighting can be?! Previously I would have bought the cheapest ones around, but wanting this to be the dream house I wanted to get quality stuff. I think lighting is such an important aspect of the whole ambience of a home and I didn't want to cut corners. And even though the fittings are still in the boxes,  I am one very happy camper. And the Almera series (wall light and pendant as per photo on right) should be on their way from Sydney any day now.

While the house construction is going on, I guess it's also time to start getting serious about our flooring. Being wood lovers, we have decided to go with bamboo flooring as it is hard-wearing and is sustainable, which is very important to us. Alhtough it is expensive, we think being eco-friendly is worth the money. According to http://www.bamboozle.com.au/why-bamboozle/why-bamboo.aspx bamboo is:

• Tough – bamboo floors are up to 73% harder than Jarrah.
• Fresh New Look - bamboo is a whole new kind of warm, natural flow that is very difficult to achieve in timber.
• Colour consistency – bamboo colours are achieved through a controlled process of caramalisation, so there is less variation between the colours you choose from our showroom and the colour you have installed in your home.
• No Mess – timber needs to be coated inside your home, bamboo does not.
• Easy Clean – bamboo floors are wiped clean in minutes.
• Quick Installation – because bamboo floors can be installed with the polish already applied, you won't need to camp out at the in-laws. Installation is fast and clean, and the floors can be walked on the same day.
• Environmentally friendly – bamboo grows incredibly quickly (up to 1 foot per day) and the plant still continues to grow after being harvested

Look at how great and warm a house looks with the natural beauty of wood. Photos from http://www.solarandbamboodirect.net.au/bamboo/gal/litebox/index.html

We are fortunate one of our good friends works for House of Bamboo in Sydney and is offering us a great price! http://houseofbamboo.com.au/ Now we just have to work out the measurements and send them to her!


With regard to carpet we really like the textured look- perhaps something like this from Carpet Court:




Ebb Tide from Carpet Court



It is different from the textured cut and loop and modulated cut and loop (see photos below) that are in many of the modern homes.  Also we think the ebb tide (I love the name) will compliment the bamboo flooring and tiles we have chosen as the carpet appears to have a grain running through it. Not sure of the colour yet either...Too many choices I tell you. Oh here are the other loop textured carpets:

Textured cut and loop from Carpet Court

Modulated loop

What are your thoughts?

Happy Autumn!

The first day of autumn- my favourite season although here in Brisbane it is still very hot and no orange or brown leaves in sight. Alas. I miss Californian autumns. I guess I can always view images like these when I get nostalgic.

Now back to the house- I went for a visit yesterday and it looks like all the framing is up. Second level is complete with roof trusses on. Some metal rods have also been added to the frames, although I have no idea what that means...but I assume it is good?.

It is good to see the house take shape and it gives us an idea how we should landscape. I can already see the shed tucked away in one of the corners as well as my foldable clothelines (much to the chagrin of my in-laws who live and breathe the rotary clothesline!) on one of the fences. And we also have room for a decent size cricket pitch for the kids and an extended patio off our alfresco, plus of course the mandatory pool. Any recommendations on pool companies folks?

We are thinking of fencing our front yard so that the kids have more room to play, but we will wait and see on that as right across the road is the communal park in our estate. It has a nice grassed area as well as a level path for the kids to ride their ripsticks.

Finally managed to get a photo of the front of the house (although fenced in).



I am going away for 2 weeks next week so hubby will hopefully take over with the updating of the blog because I assume a lot will be happening then. If not, we may have to wait until I come back.

Lots of Pine everywhere

Kids and I managed to get to the building site before the sun had gone down and took some photos of the framing stage.

So now we not only have the first floor framing done, but also the second floor is up. They only need to put up the roof trusses and then the framing is completed. Then I believe it's the guttering, roofing (and because we are getting colorbond it will be on pretty quickly too) and of course the windows. Then doors (front and garage) and then we will be locked out. :(

So this is what our build looks like in all its timber glory, This is the side of the house. See the opening (indent) on the ground floor- that's my large window of my beloved library!

This is what the front of the house looks like. Sorry I couldn't get the whole shot as I was too close. There's a fence behind me that prevents me from going further back.

Plantation Homes has not only been busy building our house with speed, but also they are building the house on the corner of our estate as well as our next door neigbour's house (see photo below) At least we will all completing our build around the same time- less noise, dust and construction traffic.

This is one of the most exciting stages of the build...to see your house dressed in all its timber finery! But I guess the character of the house truly reveals itself when all the colours come together...render, roof, garage, windows, guttering, and brick. I hope we managed to pick the right colours. If anyone has been through this process they know how difficult colour selection is, but I guess you won't know until you it is all put together. Any good or bad experiences friends with house colours?