A Home by the Sea

Nearly There

October 13, 2019 Forestwood

Set for ‘Practical Completion’

We have a Practical Completion Date for the Home by the Sea, and it is very close.

Moving date will actually be a further couple of weeks after that. That gives the builder a chance to fix up all the defects, (hopefully none or not too many), prior to handing over the house keys to us and us handing him the big fat final cheque!!

It is getting exciting, but also somewhat daunting knowing what I have yet to do, before I can lay my head down on the bed in my new home by the sea.

The Carpenter returned to re-do the beautiful Western Red cedar roof on the alfresco area, and on the front panel above the famed and maligned cornerless window.

You can see him there hard at work, cursing and teasing me a little good heartedly for making him re-do the section at the front. He is a lovely guy, despite all his intimidating skeletal tattoos!

And for all his tattoos, I asked him if he would let his young daughter get a tattoo when she grew up.

“No way,” he said shaking his head emphatically!

“Good luck with that,” I thought, under my breath.

Further progress included the installation of the Energy Efficient Air Conditioner (an absolute must in northern Australia). Yay!

I won’t have solar power again for a little while, so the less we use it, the better for the planet, right? Mind you, the breeze that persists at the water’s edge might mean we can save a little of the planet’s ecosystems and shut it off for most of the year.

We see that the house has had a QA check and they have found some, well many spots to touch up with the paint. So there are blue dots of tape sprinkled throughout to identify the spots that need fixing with paint.

The bathroom mirrors and shower screens were installed. And I now have somewhere to hang my towel and toilet roll! Yay for that!

The stairs also were dressed with timber grade handrails this week.

All the timber work is to be stained in a teak colour.

The Lows

We discovered that the lovely oak bedside tables we purchased for a reduced price, during a closing down sale won’t fit in our master bedroom with the existing bed frame. Darn it all.

They can go with the two lamps I purchased that were also a mistake. The MOTH took the opportunity to remind me that I had purchased seven lamps this year! Surely not.

**Lesson learnt here. Don’t buy furniture or lamps, without measuring accurately and before your house is complete.

The Highs

We have a resident Mamma Kanga and Baby Joey in our park and sporting fields. Eager to find some freshly watered green grass, I spotted them safely tucked away behind the fencing this morning.

I think we need a name for them.

Do you have any suggestions?

building

We’re Cooking

September 25, 2019December 15, 2019 Forestwood

Why we are Moving to the Home by the Sea

I am anxious to receive a Practical Completion date for the Home by the Sea, particularly after a rather intrusive incident at our rental townhouse which was detailed over at Something to Ponder About – [StPA]. Should you be interested in how to save a ton of money in real estate advertising fees and piss off a rental tenant at the same time, for no extra cost, you can read about ‘Mrs The World is My Oyster,’ on my other blog.

Despite not knowing exactly when we might be moving in to the Home by the Sea – we do know that the painting is complete and most plumbing and electrical fittings are installed.

Today, I met with the Electrician to position the pendant lights in the lounge area. He was such a very young man, to be in charge, but obviously highly competent at his job. It is a shame he had a long time girlfriend, as I do keep an eye out for a good quality future son-in-law. [lol]

The taps have been installed and we could have indulged in a shower or bath, if we needed to do so. We passed on that opportunity today as I forgot my towel….

The pendant lights were installed over the Island bench and the Oven and Cooktop are in!

Yay! Hot Christmas dinner – here we come!

The stove is an Induction model, and I am a complete novice in that realm, having only used electric ceramic cooktops for the past 25 years! I had to go out and buy some new utensils and pans. It is wide so I am hoping there will be no more juggling trays to fit in all the roast vegetables my tribe loves to eat on Roast nights.

Still to come at the Home by the Sea: Carpets, minor fixes, hand rails, cupboard shelving for walk in pantry and linen cupboard, mirrors and shower screens, as well as Landscaping and Fencing. And then perhaps, we are done! [excluding the re-do of the Cedar ceiling].

Surely not long now till we move to the Home by the Sea.

melbourne alley pink restaurant laughter

building, home

The Downside to Hipster Living

September 10, 2019September 10, 2019 Forestwood

This is how it all started

https://forestwoodfolkart.wordpress.com/2019/05/30/the-downside-to-hipster-living/

blogging, building, home

A Seachange

September 10, 2019September 27, 2019 Forestwood

How does one handle change?

Change might be disruptive and jolting, a shock to the system but it also heralds new possibilities and opportunities.

I will soon be moving to a new location. A new house, new area, new neighbours. It is exciting but a little daunting.

Some of you know that we have been prepping for this move for over a year and soon it will become reality. Add to that, I will be semi-retired- whatever that means?

Have you some moving tips for me? Last year when I moved to my current townhouse, I become stressed out and exhausted. I used to be an ace at moving house, when I was in my twenties and moving flats every year or so.

Thirty years on, I am older and need some tips on making it less stressful.

I would love to hear your suggestions.

building, home

Lakes Entrance

September 9, 2019September 10, 2019 Forestwood

Can you imagine two billion litres of sea water? Well it is about 1000 Olympic sized swimming pools. That is size and volume of the lake created near our soon to be Home By the Sea.

The man-made lake which is about 14 metres deep, abutts another Quay development (still under construction), behind which is the sea, itself.

The seaside housing estate sits on 143 hectares of excavated soil that has been removed and re-distributed through the estate. On a typical day there are around 160 personnel on site and 60 earthmoving machines in operation. Mind-boggling statistics.

Meanwhile, at the Home by the sea, the tilers have been hard at work, and this coming week the painting and rendering will commence!

The painting will take about ten days, apparently. Three coats of Dulux Snowy Mountains Half. It will take a bit of paint to cover those walls.

I chose a neutral colour to go with the Coastal Scandinavian colour scheme. Most of the colour and tones will come from the furnishings and fittings.

More to come next week.

Cheers from Amanda

building, home

It Wasn’t FuTile

September 3, 2019 Forestwood

Our almost weekly visits to the house at times could at time seem over the top or fuTile, but humans being humans, mistakes are not uncommon.

On a large project such as a double storey house, and a large scale commercial building company, tradesmen’s crews work on multiple houses, at the same time. Add to this, there are so many different options and choices for fittings and selections, it is little wonder that mistakes occur.

Such as the installation of the cedar ceiling – the wrong way, or the delivery of the wrong bricks. Remember that?

And so, with this latest visit, we were pleased that we found everything in order.

Or was it?

The Kitchen and Laundry Cabinets and Splashbacks were certainly looking great.

Before
After

The Benchtops had been installed, and were really looking smart under their protected covering. And the floor tiles and bath/shower tiling was all but complete – just the balcony to be grouted.

I worried that I did not have enough variation in the colour scheme in the upstairs bathrooms? I am regretting not adding a white subway splashback tile to lift the cold neutrality of the bathing areas. Ah, first world problems.

The Laundry showing off the Coastal Scandi theme at the Home by the Sea

Before tiling
Benchtops and tiles
Ensuite shower

Even the garage door had been installed, but was not yet wired up. The electrician is to return to install and connect the lights, fans, power, cooking, and smallish air conditioning unit. (Notwithsdtanding a smaller carbon footprint, I live in the sub tropics so I have to a small A/C unit to be able to breathe and function in the humid summers we have).

Waiting for the A/C Unit Installation- Before Summer’s on its Way

I really was born in the wrong hemisphere!

This pic of me, is more my climate, of choice.

Pristine Balcony – lights hidden inside presumably

On returning home, from the site visit, I was proudly looking through the photos, when the MOTH announced that he had not seen any lights installed on the balcony. Almost simultaneously, I spotted a another problem, albeit a minor one. Sigh….

You might remember I said that this was our forever house, and we don’t plan on moving from there, until we are forced into a nursing home, or into the good earth itself.

Therefore, our design had factored in all the “Old persons’ gadgets and fittings, we could, such as Extra Nogging for future Grab rails in the downstairs bathroom, a wheelchair accessible walk – in shower downstairs, and a downstairs media room, a.k.a Mancave, [should that be MOTH cave??]. The Mothcave could quickly become a bedroom, if necessary for oldies who can’t manage stairs.

And also we requested:

Lever lockset doorknobs with a long easy to open handle, for potentially (sorry Manja), gnarled, arthritic hands! In fact, the MOTH went to a lot of trouble and emails to ensure there were NO round Knobs anywhere!!!!

We also wanted a lockable internal door to prevent break-ins via the hall. (One of the benefits of Social Media was that this had been a popular Burglary tactic, and design locks to foil this, if possible).

So on zooming in on the photo, I spotted this. Can you see it?

How did that round knob sneak in?

Something for Tim, our Supervisor to sort out!

Bye from Amanda and the Home by the Sea.

building

Cladding and Cedar Installation

August 29, 2019August 29, 2019 Forestwood

The outside of the house is almost complete!

Second Storey Scyon Cladding

In the past week or two, the exterior Scyon cladding to the upper storey was installed and painted, almost as soon as it was up. It makes sense, I guess, to make use of the scaffolding, while it was still there. And naturally the soffit was also painted. ‘Soffit’ – such a strange word. I wonder what its derivation is?

I can now get an impression of the final look of the house – less the rendering on the front outside corner, of course, which will be a lighter colour, to lift the darker wall shades.

Roof

Meanwhile the Roofer has also returned to complete the flashing around the vents on the roof. That means the roof is finally finished and with Spring around the corner, (if not here already), we will have no worries with the oncoming storms, that are prevalent here, in Springtime.

Not that Queensland really has much of a Spring. Usually it jumps straight to a mild summer around mid September!

Inspection of House

Last week we met with our Site Supervisor to have a walk through the house so far, checking layouts and seeing what has been done. We are not supposed to enter the property unauthorized due to insurance and legality issues. Until the stairway is installed the only access to the second floor is via a ladder! A bit of a risk for those without WH& S training.

No one seemed to worry so much about that in days gone by, did they?

Outdoor Alfresco Ceiling Installation

When we came to inspect the ceiling in the outdoor patio area, we noticed the wooden feature ceiling that cost me SOOO much money, to include in the design, had been installed – the wrong way!!!!! What????

It was an error as they had not seen it with a “castellation” or routed profile facing out before! It WAS them that drew our attention to it, so we couldn’t complain they were not totally upfront in the matter.

building materials — Comparison of Sides of Panels

To be fair to the carpenters, cedar lining is often laid flat, but with a beveled intersecting edge and a flat profile in high-end homes and boats. However, there wasn’t any beveled edge to the way they laid this profile, so I was pretty disappointed.

The Site Supervisor has been brilliant, though. He and the Company don’t want their clients to be stressed, so they reassured us that the installation could be reversed, if we wanted that. Although I am worried about any obvious nail holes……

I decided that I couldn’t leave it as it was, given that it was the routed, “KIT KAT look, that says ‘COASTAL Scandinavian’ style, that I wanted in the original design.

What do you think? Would you leave it or get the builder to reverse it?

These things happen at the Home by the Sea.

To be continued….

building, home

Another Brick in the Wall

August 16, 2019August 16, 2019 Forestwood

Bricklaying the First Storey

What a change a week makes. The Bricklayers are all but finished, so we can finally get an idea of what the base of the house will look like.

You might notice the bricks are different on the front of the house – a bit patchy compared to the rest. This is because there is rendering to be done on the front of the house. The rendering and wrapping of the corner of the house, abutting the two street frontages, meets the Estate developer’s covenant requirements – not so our wishes.

I suppose it adds a level of interest and a certain look to the estate?

Internal Plastering

The plasterers are finished the walls inside and the waterproofing of the shower recesses and wet areas have been completed.

Cladding the Second Storey

The scaffolding that has now been erected is necessary for the builders to install the cladding to the upper part of the house.

Scaffolding in readiness for the upstairs cladding and completion of pier work

I was very excited to see bundles of vertical lined cladding and my treasured cedar roof arrive ready for installation on the next vacant block.

Of course the cladding is going to be painted.

I have chosen a Dulux Teahouse colour, at least I think that is what it was called. It is a bit hard to remember every paint selection, but in my head I have the colour hue itself, even if the name is wrong. It is a little bit like the cladding on this Stockholm house, (slightly different facade to ours).

Next week, the staircase will be installed and perhaps some cabinetry?

Then we get to walk through our Home by the Sea.

building, home

Tradies on Hols

August 10, 2019August 10, 2019 Forestwood

Progress has been slower in the last few weeks. School holidays might mean that the tradesmen have taken a break. But they were back at work early last week getting ready to lay the bricks.

However over the next week or two, the house will look a lot different as the external coverings are completed.

Weatherseal and windows have been installed. External and Internal doors to Laundry and Front of House. Now we could get much more of an idea of the ultimate size of the rooms.

I am being asked about window coverings. In building a house, you are required to think a long way ahead. Before you anticipate you need to do so.

The MOTH does not like shutters, yet everywhere we go – shutters are visible in many houses. I do agree I don’t want shutters everywhere, as it tends to look too much, but it does say Coastal, and we are at the coast.

Vertical blinds are out, and if it is curtains, they certainly have to be easily washable, otherwise they are major dust collectors, and blow about in the wind. And we do live by the water, when wind is a prevailing force.

What would you suggest? What do you prefer?

blogging, home, Uncategorized

Bricks and Tiles

July 28, 2019July 30, 2019 Forestwood

Although a few weeks have passed, progress continues on the little home by the sea.

Our Brick and Tile House.

So now it looks a bit like this:

It has been wrapped in a green weather resistant lining in preparation for the laying of the external bricks and cladding. And my much sought after cornerless butt-joined window has been installed in the MOTH’s mancave/future geriatric bedroom on the lower level.

The first Bricks arrived some time ago, after an initial hiccup with the delivery – read more about that hiccup here. But there was more pallets to come as you see here. The MOTH estimated about 11,000 bricks.

Installing all the electrical wiring, plumbing and services does take time. Which is fine if they do it right. And then there is insulation installed in roof areas and upper walls. This is what makes our new homes more expensive but more energy efficient.

New homes in Queensland must comply with a Six star energy rating. I do hope this will result in a cooler home in summer, but warmer in winter. It has to be better than the previous open plan home which has a partly insulated roof space.

My memories of that home meant we froze in the shadow of a double storey home on the northern side and melted when the summer sun hit the long southern side of the uninsulated hardiplank walls.

Linking to Friendly Friday – Bricks and Tiles