Category Archives: painting

The roller coaster ride!

If I had written this post on Thursday night it would have been mostly ranting; but the passing of a few days has been more positive.  We weren’t supposed to do “house stuff” last weekend; we were supposed to be having a few child free days away at a vineyard.  Unfortunately our baby sitters for Oscar were sick so we had to cancel, but we had the time off work so we thought we’d make the best of it and go out for a nice lunch together. It didn’t turn out that way, but perhaps cancelling our weekend was a blessing in disguise as we didn’t have to deal with all this stuff today.

Hubby stopped by the house Thursday and Period Details were there to install the pressed metal sheets, he just happened to notice that the splash back sheets were the wrong colour.  After some frantic checking on what we had asked for we told the builder it was wrong .  These sheets have a six week lead time, so we weren’t happy.  But then it got worse; the colour we had chosen was no longer available!  It hadn’t been available at the time it was ordered either but was when we chose it several months earlier.  (This is the third time we have missed out on our selections because they didn’t get ordered when we chose them.)  So our relaxing day off was spent trying to choose a new colour.  Kath and Dave from Period Details were very helpful with suggestions as was Dulux Powder Coatings in sending us sample paint chips overnight. The biggest issue was that we wanted a metal look and it had to match the colouring in the stone bench top.  Friday afternoon we made our decision:

New Kitchen Splashback Colour
New Kitchen Splashback Colour

Dave from Period Details has cut the sheets to the correct size and they will be re-powder coated, so the delay should only be one week, not six.

The next issue we discovered was the paint in the ensuite.  It was supposed to be the Dulux “Off White” but looked brown.  Hubby thought it was the Hog’s Bristle for the main areas, used in the wrong spot.  It turned out the paint was tinted incorrectly. The rep from ecolour came out pretty quickly, acknowledged the mistake and replaced the paint today.

These things always come in threes! The stained glass has been installed, and looks gorgeous! The only problem is the glass around the front door was supposed to be obscured glass so no-one could see in, but it’s clear.  We called Harkaway and they agreed to organise the replacements straight away and have someone coming out to do the swap over. 

Stained glass on front door - clear not obscured
Stained glass on front door – clear not obscured

 

Update on kitchen splash back: things did not go so well with the recommended selection.

 

Verandah roof, plastering, base boards and more painting

The plastering has continued this week and look almost complete.  The bathroom and ensuite are done, as is the roof in the living area.  All the joins have been covered over.

The verandah roof over the back deck is completed, and so are the steps leading down.  The Harkaway verandah guttering has gone in, and the roof has started.  It will be beers on the back deck next weekend (Melbourne weather permitting)!

The baseboards are on around 3 sides of the house.  We’ve decided to paint them the same colour as the main house colour (Pearl Lusta), however the merbau decking keeps leaching colour in the rain, so I’m not sure when they will get painted.  Meanwhile, the exterior painting is continuing, plus a bit more inside.

There is still a lot of dirt around the site, which Oscar is having great fun playing in (although the builders did clean up his collection of sewerage pipe pieces!).  Wait until we start on the garden.

 

Loving the dirt!
Loving the dirt!

 

Progress Update

I have been on holidays since my last post.  Hubby stayed home to hold the fort on the house front (which was a bit of a nightmare, but that is for another post).  Oscar and I went onsite today to see the progress, and wow! we have real rooms now.  The plastering is up on all the walls except the bathroom and ensuite, and most of the roof, except for the living area.  Everything looked so much smaller, but with more definition.  The exterior painting looks almost complete, and the base boards are going on.

Before I left:

The brown insulation is sound proofing – between the bedrooms and pantry, laundry and bathroom.

Today’s visit: