First MDF Panel

MDF in dining room

Things have been moving!  The first piece of MDF is now up.  As I said, on those areas where there is gib bracing, the MDF goes over the bracing.  That's what's happening in the dining room.  In other areas, it will go straight over the pink batts.

It has a rebate at the edge so that the next piece will lap over it with a small negative detail.  The joins between the pieces of MDF won't be stopped, so you will be able to see clearly that the wall is made up of separate panels.  And the MDF will also be in line with the white soffit so that it will look like one continuous wall, interrupted only by the window.

The builder has also been putting in more batts in ceilings (in the master bedroom and Bedroom 3), putting up more ceiling panels (master bedroom) and putting batts in walls (Bedroom 2).  He is concentrating on getting himself into a position where he has done as much as he can before the carpet is laid in the bedrooms (they are the only rooms to have carpet).  The carpet is being laid on 22 December!

Staircase

As we are using MDF panels, the carpet actually needs to be laid before the MDF panels are affixed to the walls.  This means that the carpet will slot in under the walls with a negative detail (ie. a space) between the carpet and walls, and we won't have any skirting boards.  So what happens when we want to paint the carpet?  Good point.  Apparently we'll just have to deal with the ignominy of having skirting boards at that stage because the MDF panels will get mutilated if we have to replace the carpet.

The builder has also put the bracing and ceiling lining into the top part of the staircase.  It's a bit difficult to see on the photograph, but it is taken from one end of the stairwell (where there will be a balustrade), across the void towards the entrance area.  There is a temporary framing balustrade across the void.

Main bathroom

The main bathroom and laundry are both completely lined with villaboard now.  In the photograph, you can see the shower base and the ladder is where the bath will go;  you will be able to lie in the bath and look out the door.  The idea with the door is that anyone who lives in the house and happens to work in the garage/workroom and get covered in grease from cars will be able to walk around the outside of the house, straight into the shower and hose themselves off so that they will leave only clean footprints in the house.  Hypothetically, of course.

We may or may not get a stopper in tomorrow to do the stopping of the bathroom and laundry.  It depends on our costs debate...

We have also been working.  Ray and Regan did some more work on the wiring over the week-end.  The HD cable for the TV in the lounge is now in.  Whew!  Regan also did some more staining of the back wall of the house.  He's added another coat and then stained another panel.  That leaves just one more to do.  But we ran out of stain.

Another plywood panel on the back wall done

We've also now met the newest neighbours.  They just started excavating this week.  They've got the section in front of us, so we were pretty nervous that they were going to put up some three-storey monstrosity and obliterate our views.  But it is all looking good!  And they seem lovely.  It turns out I'd met one of them before, which was funny.

The sunset tonight was also amazingly pink and gorgeous...

Acoustic panels

Kitchen/dining acoustic panels

So it's been a dead couple of weeks.  The builder was off-site for 1.5 weeks, installing a kitchen for someone else.  Argh!

But he is back on site now, and has been fired up putting in the acoustic ceiling panels that we so lovingly completed.  We found a quicker way of sanding the grooves in the panels, so that moved it along for us.  The Architect wasn't overly happy with the installation of the kitchen/dining panels.  He'd already "stopped" a lot of the screws when he realised that!  So he's had a word, and the lounge looks great.

And the builder still reckons that he will have it all lined for Christmas.  Please, please, please.... The Germans next door, who only started a few months ago, will be in in two weeks!  But the house won't be complete, and given that Number Two is due imminently, they have got a lot of motivation to be there.

Staining the plywood cladding at the back of the house

We (Regan) did some work staining the back of the house.  We've got an awesomely thick black Resene stain.  It's going on rough cut plywood, and it looks like velvet almost!  It is incredibly black.

Sparkies on the job

Jeromy (stairwell behind him), between kitchen and lounge)

After Regan spent most evenings this week down on site doing the apprentice-type jobs (like putting in the rest of the flush boxes), he, the electrical engineer (his dad, Ray) and the authorised electrician (his brother, Jeromy) descended on site this week-end to wire the place up.  It's looking like a proper site now - chip packets, takeaway coffee cups, empty insulation bags and sawdust all lying on the floor, and wires lying everywhere.  They're putting in phone jacks, data cables and normal electricity wires too.  Reams of wires.  We've got a cupboard in the library/lounge that most wires will run from.  Regan assures me that a PS3 will be the most appropriate operating system for all of these things.  I, naturally, remain unconvinced.  They're also wiring the place for the future, for things like speakers outside.  The very, very distant future.

 After spending the whole day wiring the place, they realised in the evening that some of the lights were halogen and some are fluorescent, and have different voltages.  This all lead to spirited dinner table conversation about transformers (not of the Megatron/Optimus Prime variety).  Some amended plans were made this morning, and work continued.

Regan (with foot on tv cavity)

I was meant to facilitate all of this by doing my very best Desperate Housewives act by turning up with morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner.  As it turns out, I had a (totally undeserved) killer hangover, and managed to stumble down at around 4.30 pm with salt & vinegar crisps and some Coke.  If only the road down there wasn't so windy...  I attempted to make up some lost ground by delivering fresh muffins for morning tea this morning, but I'm not convinced that it worked.

Ray in the hallway

The Builder has started putting in the pink batts (insulation) on the walls in the lounge and master suite - before the wiring went in.  We have taken this as a sign that he is dissatisfied with the amount of time taken by the sparkies...  The ceiling batts have also arrived, and the Builder has made good use of the stairwell cavity, storing them all down that hole.  It is very tempting just to jump onto them!  The dog has certainly been eyeing them up.  She tried to have a nap on a piece of pink batt this morning, but may come to regret that if any of those fibres stuck to her.  We are also happy to report that she has figured out how to deal with the glass now, and is no longer refusing to enter the house.  She is also making good use of the windows, barking at every car of rubberneckers that comes into the subdivision.

The garage door has gone in now, so downstairs is finally weathertight (we're still awaiting some small windows and two doors upstairs).   Another nasty cold front has come in this week-end and there were lots of cars parked outside the house, so we haven't taken any photos of the garage door.

Ceiling batts in the stairwell

The Builder has also finished the plywood cladding on the back of the house, and the roofers have finished the flashings and canterbury prickles on the crest of the roof, so that is looking more finished.  Now some painters' apprentices just need to start staining the plywood black.

The back (east) side, awaiting staining

First plywood cladding

The north face and east face (east = back)

The first lot of cladding has started going on the back of the house.  It is plywood, and will be stained black.  We've also had the Great Cladding Debate concerning the non-plywood faces.  The bank manager won.  Macrocarpa it is!  I think we're leaving it untreated so that it will weather silver.

I've spent some quality time looking through the paint swatches and have presented The Architect with 9 shades of white to choose from.

The plumbers/roofers have continued their work on the flashings, and you can see that they've put the big flashings on the back of the house as well as most of the front.Two big boxes of lights have arrived, but they were all the small boring ones.  Hoping for the big, exciting ones!  Not all of the glass arrived on Friday for some reason, so the glass hasn't gone in yet.

The electrical engineer (Regan's dad) and electrician's apprentice #1 (Regan) went down on Saturday and started putting in the flush boxes that the electrical plugs will go into.  But the freezing winds that blew up soon put a stop to that!  It was snowing up where we live now.

Some floating flush boxes.