More exterior photos

It's a little difficult to quantify what has been done over the last week, so I thought I'd mostly just put up some old photos of the exterior as it has occurred to me that there are not actually that many on here!  I think that we took so many that I felt as thought I'd posted a lot.

Regan has continued with the never-ending task of painting.  He's almost been doing it for three months now. He's on to the ceiling of the kitchen/dining room now.  I brought down the coffee after he'd been sanding for the morning and those bits of his face that had not been covered by the air filter were covered in dust.  The first top coat is on now, which is great.  He's also primed Bedroom 2.  Slowly but surely, we're getting there.

The kitchen has not gone in yet.  Somehow I'm not surprised.  But the Builder is working hard at it.  Maybe next week...

My contribution: lunch prepared on site

The builder has also been putting in more of the doors in the storage wall, so that is looking more like a continuous wall now, as it is meant to.  He's also been doing general finishing work, which is always difficult to describe.  It is all feeling very near but very far at the moment!

Stairs in

Main staircase, plywood

Painting continues...  Regan has actually taken some time off work, so he has progressed the painting quite a bit.  Unfortunately he is also sick, so he's probably not doing himself too much good.  He's completed the main stairwell now, which is looking pretty damn awesome.

He's also started sealing the ensuite, which is another milestone for us.  I thought that the sealing work would be a nice break from the painting.  I didn't realise that the sealant is all painted on...

The Builder has done a little more work on the macrocarpa storage wall.  He's cut out some MDF doors and is working on affixing the macrocarpa boards to that.  He's got the boards aligned practically perfectly - you can barely notice that there are any doors at all!

Spot the door in the macrocarpa wall?

The Builder has been spending most of his time away from site because he's working on the kitchen.  This is hugely exciting.  It has however lead to another Thing That Went Wrong.  Our gorgeous new microwave/convection oven was being moved to facilitate some measuring and the ceramic plate that sits in it got broken.  I haven't had the strength to price a replacement yet... Or risk being told that it will take six months to get the replacement part!

The metal frames for the two benches have arrived from the metalwork shop and are sitting in the dining room, waiting to have the formica cupboards (with soft close drawers - it came in on budget!) put into them.  They are very industrial looking.  They will probably need to be given all the parties that we're planning!

Toe board for a future kitchen bench

The Builder has also delivered one of the toe boards for one of the benches (for the non-kiwis:  the "bench" of cupboards.  NOT a bench that you sit on).  In the photo, the toe board is roughly in place.  There will also be another bench parallel to that one (about where the orange chairs are).  The fridge, oven, microwave and pantry will go in that cupboard space perpendicular to the benches.  The first installation of cupboards may even start this week.

Metal frames for the kitchen benches

A post in which things go wrong

The staircase & entrance hall

We have been a little distracted, dealing with post-CHCH earthquake issues.  And Regan has been sick, so he has done very little work.  And Things Have Gone Wrong.  In the end, there has been nothing that could not be fixed but they did feel a little major at the time.

Regan called on the day of the earthquake to say that when the carpet layer was fixing the carpets (which could now be done as the little stairs were in), he managed to drive a nail through the underfloor heating system.  WHOOPS.  That had the potential to render the underfloor heating for that zone unuseable.  Luckily however the engineer came up with a solution.  They have managed to chip out the concrete around that part of the pipe and apply a patch.  This does mean, however, that we currently have a large hole in the floor and exposed pipes.  It will get fixed though.

Timber reveal on the doors

The big staircase has also gone in, which means that we can actually use our front door now.  The staircase is made of the same plywood that the little stairs are made out of.  They have had one coat of the three coats of varnish applied.  They look somewhat odd in the photo as they have had cardboard treads put on them to protect them while we are still in the building phase.  So they are the colour that you can see on the left of each stair, and there will not be any weird cardboard tread on the centre (or off-centre, as the case may be) when the place is complete!  There will also be a black steel balustrade, as the health and safety regulations don't allow otherwise.  And truthfully, that void at the top of the stairs does get a little frightening!

Macrocarpa wall, near Master Bedroom

And that brings us to the second Thing That Went Wrong.  Once the stairs went in, The Architect and The Builder realised that the door had been manufactured slightly bigger than it was meant to be.  Which meant that the door, when opened, was butting into the staircase.  One minor redesign later...

Official bog inspection

The Builder has also been doing lots of little jobs, like putting in the window and door reveals.  The Architect has decided to put in door reveals that are made of the same timber as the staircase.  So when you step inside, you step onto wood and then on to the concrete.
All of the macrocarpa walls are now complete, and it appears that the timber matches.  So another worry can be crossed off the list.  The final part of the internal wall was the section up the small set of stairs and next to the master bedroom.  It has a low level window, which is set off beautifully by the timber.  Bedroom Two is opposite this wall, and so when its door is open, you can look from the back of the house, through the hallway and out through the front of the house.

Looking out from our bedroom

Why you should not sleep in sawdust if you have a beard

We also now have a working toilet!  It has been installed in the main bathroom.  I think that the rest of the plumbing will only be connected once the Plumber's Apprentice (Regan) and the Tiler (Regan) have sealed the showers and tiled the bathrooms.  No pressure on Regan.

Our permanent electricity supply has also now been connected.  The Master Sparky has connected one electrical socket, so we no longer have to run an extension cord through the storage room door and up the stairwell and pray that a strong wind does not cut the cord in two!

Work has also been continuing on the house in front of us, and we are thrilled that they do not take any of our view!