Front entrance floor tiles

We finally got around to laying the floor tiles at the front entrance. We thought we would have a go at doing it ourselves as we were a bit disappointed with some of the tiling inside the house and thought we could do better. Well now was a chance for us to to see if we could, or eat our words.

We had a few tiles left over from the upstairs balcony and so we just had to purchase another box from Beaumont tiles for us to have enough.

Here's the entrance before we started.



We started laying the tiles.





Here are the tiles all laid.



We waited until the next day before we grouted the tiles as shown below.



Here they are all finished. We're very pleased with how they turned out.

Stepping stone pavers

We finished the stepping stone pavers at the side of the house today. The roadbase had been put down a few weeks ago when we did the retaining wall. We then had to screed a layer of river sand for the pavers to be laid on.



Here's all the pavers laid. We ended up with a few left over as we spaced them more than we originally planned. Better to have too many than not enough, we can always use them elsewhere in the garden.



We then surrounded the pavers with blue metal gravel. This is good for drainage and we quite like the colour of it. We also made a border using some left over block pavers from the driveway.
The area under the window will be a flower bed.



Here it is all finished.

Retaining wall

We managed to get the side retaining wall finished today. It's a dry block wall which does not need morter to hold it together.

We had to dig a trench at the front of our block of land as this is the highest part. This enabled us to get the wall level all the way down the side of the house.



The wall was laid on a bed of Roadbase and levelled using river sand.



It's important to get the first coarse laid level.



After that the rest of the wall is easy as the blocks just lay on top of each other.



Here it is with four coarses laid and capping on top. The wall is four blocks high at the front and gradually steps down to one block high.

Decking

We have finished the main part of the deck now. We used treated pine for the frame and the deck boards are Merbau hardwood 90x19mm.

Here is a break down of how it progressed.

Tuesday 3rd Feb

We had already dug the holes for the posts which would hold the frame of the deck. We had to remove some excess soil so that the frame would be sitting off the ground.





Here the first bearer has been bolted to the house.



We then attached the joist hangers to the bearers.




Wednesday 4th Feb

Next we started to screw the perimiter beams to bearers.



We then dropped the joists into the joist hangers.



Thursday 5th Feb

Here is the frame finished with steel posts cemented into the ground.



Friday 6th Feb

We then started to lay the deck boards out ready to be screwed to the joists. This took a bit of working out so that we would not have too much waste.



We started to screw the boards down



We then couldn't do anything for a week due to work commitments.

Friday 13th Feb

We finished off srewing the deck boards down.







Just need to add a step down to the garden and some fascia around the front and sides. We also need to add 1.8m high privacy screens at the sides of the deck to comply with council regs.

Garden takes shape.

Started on the side access today. We hired a mini kanga and a hole borer from HireOne and got a really good deal over the Australia Day weekend. This is the side before we started.



Started to dig and found a HUGE stump which we had missed when we hired the stump grinder. Would of taken ten minutes to take out using the grinder but in stead took half a day chipping away. Thank god we had some help.



Road base down for the pavers, pebbles and retaining wall.

The next job was to remove all of the rubble from the deck area.

After a few trips to the waste management centre and a heap of cash later.

It was looking good.

Side access from the front of the property.

Just a bit more road base to go down and we can get on with the retaining wall.

Drilling the holes for the deck.

One done.......9 to go.

Holes all bored

Air Conditioning unit installed

We had the Air Con unit installed yesterday. We couldn't use it for a day so that it could settle. It works well. Can be switched to come on either upstairs or downstairs or both.

We are dissappointed with how the ducting outside has been left though. We shall be speaking to Allcastle about this to see who and when it will be finished off.

We have moved in!

We moved in today and saved a fortune with truck rental by hiring through HireOne so much cheaper then going through a car rental company. Managed to not break anything as well.

This was our 6th and final move for a very long time, thank god. We can now un-pack our boxes from the UK......yippy!!!

Still waiting for the hood and Air con to be installed by Allcastle. Optus are booked to install the cable on the 21st.

After a few days of unpacking we are pretty happy with how our house is looking.



The garden has come up really well. The turf is still green.

Appliances installed (well some of them)

Allcastle are back at work this week. We had our appliances booked to be installed on 14th Jan. This included the freestanding cooker, rangehood, hot water heater & 2 bathroom heat lamp/extractor units. The cooker was delivered early that morning but not the rangehood as it was found to be damaged when it was inspected at the warehouse. We were told another one would be couriered out to us later that day. The plumbers came later that morning to install the hot water heater and the gas connection for the cooker. We also mentioned about our ensuite taps which had poor water presure. They had look and found the ends of the taps had become blocked up with grit. A quick clean and the were sorted. Later that day the electricians came to install the bathroom heat lamp/extractor units and connect the electric for the cooker. They were also supposed to install the rangehood but it had still not been delivered so this wasn't done. Later that afternoon the rangehood was delivered but the electricians had already gone.

We re-booked the electrician to come out and fit the hood, this took 3 phone calls to get someone to give us a date. When the electrician arrived and took it out of the box it was the wrong one. We needed a full stainless steel hood and they one that had been supplied was stainless steel and glass (very nice but doesn’t go with the stainless steel splash back).

We were back on the phone to Allcastle to make them aware of the mistake. CS asked did we install the splash back ourselves, to which we explained we paid extra to have the one in your show room and that Allcastle installed before we got the keys. Unbelievable!

Still waiting!!!

They also fitted the Heat lamp / extractor unit's to the bathrooms up stairs. These are made by Heller

Main Bathroom

Ensuite

Back garden

View of the garden after we got the keys!!!! Where should we start with this one.



After a bit of strimming it looks a little better.



Day two - we took to the trees and bushes with a chainsaw, trimming branches. We were amazed how much bigger the garden looked. We just have to get rid of the rubbish. Thank goodness there is a council clean up in a week.



Still a bit to go down the back.



Few hours later!!!

We hired a stump grinder for the day to get rid of the old stumps......not a bad little tool. Quite easy to use and quick.

This area did have a heap of privet stumps and a huge pile of wood.

This is the biggest stump we had to tackle.

That afternoon....no more stumps.

View from "what will be" the deck. Still a little work is needed.

View to the right.

We decided to call in the professionals to lay some turf, they arrived early Saturday morning.

After a few hours things are looking better.

Even later that day, we have grass........beautiful grass!!

The Veggie patch and Frangipani look much better.

Our orange tree.

Grass all down and looking like backyards should. We just need to sort out the decking now.

View towards the back of the house.