In the final stages

Its been nearly 2 weeks since my last post and so much has happened, the house is nearly finished. Im so in love with it. There really isn't much more that needs to be done apart from the mirrors and the shower screens.  Im sure there are a lot of other little things that SS will be busy organising before the house clean starts! 

Now into the final stages and we will be finally able to call this place home!

The garage door and the front door are now on, still madly in love with Dune. Our downpipes are all painted too, we chose monument and when i first saw it i thought it had been painted black I was so used to seeing the white DP's that the harsh change from white to almost black really threw me. Im getting used to it now, and it does blend in well. And definitely is monument.

Dune Garage Door

Monument downpipes & Gutters with Dune Fascia

Corinthian - Eden 4G Stain Grade Front door with spotswood glazing
Walnut finish - looks quite red though?

Colour Selections - wouldnt say my door looks like this colour!
Very different in fact!

As per usual SS is still on top of everything, and would never doubt that he wouldn't be! Its become a ritual that i send a sunday night email with many questions for him to answer, and just like clock work he rings me by mid morning on monday with answers on everything.

Things queried so far have only just been quite small, and easily rectified. SS was able to get the tiler to fix my grout colour issue (see previous post) which i was so happy about. Actually over the moon about because i just wouldn't of been happy with the white and off white grout being used on the same tile.

Such a smooth ride so far, and too think we are nearly at the end of our build 
PCI is booked in for the 7th April and we will find out our settlement date on this day too.

I have to have my house insurance organised by the 7th April as that's when EBH will halt their cover. For any EBH builders reading along, please make note of this, i only knew about it from other EBH builders who had mentioned it.

Right now im compiling a PCI checklist for myself so on the day we can go through and ensure we have checked, and cross checked all the important things. Im hoping there wont be anything major, my SS and I are covering off most things as the trades come through to try and elliminate a stack of trades coming through after PCI. Painters and plasteres will be on site straight after PCI to fix the issues Tyrells, SS and we pick up. 

The driveway will be done at the very end once all the trades are finished going through the house as SS doesn't want anyone driving on it. Our flooring is ordered and will be ready to put in as soon as we settle.

Pretty much time to start packing now............this is not the fun bit! 

Will update with more photos as soon as i can get a walk through inside.

Tiling Observations - Things to consider

For those who are reading along that are also building (sorry to family and friends this post may bore you a little bit) i wanted to point out some of the things ive noticed with the tiling that you might like to consider which i over looked. And while they aren't major things they're things to keep in mind and perhaps mention to your SS.

Shower Niche 
I extended mine to 300mm - this is frame to frame, and at the time of admin i didn't realise this. I measured all my bottles and thought that was plenty. Now with tiles added its only 250mm and doesn't fit my large shower gel bottle. No big deal ill put it into a smaller bottle. But please get this updated to atleast 300mm, the standard 270mm that you get will leave you with a very small niche - Perhaps EB should just make the standard 300mm to save everyone the hassle of remembering to change.

Laundry Floor tiles
My tiler hasn't realised that i will be putting in cabinets after handover, i completely over looked this, but he started the full tile on the edge that will be covered by cabinets, and because we chose 45x45 tiles we only get 3 1/2 tiles across. it would of been better to start the floor tile form the right and work across to the left so the half tile was covered by cabinets.

Laundry & Toilet Skirting
Our skirting is done in the same colour as the floor tiles, standard is to do the wall in white grout and the floor in off white. I didn't even think about this, i presumed that the grout would be the same as the tile is the same. If i had of selected a diff wall tile then i would of thought the white would be used.

Silly me for presuming that that it would be - where floor tiles are selected - off white is used (regardless of floor or skirting ) just so it would all match.

The end result is this - it doesn't look at all neat. and my eye is instantly drawn to the difference in colour.

If you're having the same floor & Skirting tile PLEASE remember to ask for the grout to be the same colour so you have the consistency through out the room because the tiler will just do what is on your DiL sheet.

Choosing Tiles
It was really interesting talking to the tiler and seeing how the choice in tile can affect how they get laid. There was instances where a smaller tile perhaps would of given a better job, and even a tiled laid vertical could make the space appear differently.

Our Main bathroom is really small, we chose the 200x400 tile and laid it horizontal to make the room appear wider. I also chose a light neutral colour to create light in the room. I have then extended the mirror all the way from the vanity over the top of the bath. Hopefully the reflections of the mirror will make the room appear bigger.

Think about placement of the feature wall. I had selected it to be at the front of the shower, but my tile size meant that it would of been going through the plumbing, after discussing this with my SS we were able to put the feature on the back side of the shower so that it wouldn't hit anything.

Shower Hob
We also had an incident with the shower hob being done in the white grout. This is silly. Hands up anyone who would want different colour grout lines running through their bathroom floors (sorry if anyone takes offence - each to their own) but to me it doesn't make sense. you have these beautiful tiles and you want to hide the grout lines as much as possible - isn't that the point of choosing larger tiles = less grout lines! so why on earth would a tiler "chose" to do it in white - i don't know!

SS said this is how he does it! This isn't the only time ive heard of this, other EBH builders have had the same thing happen, perhaps its the tiler in our area that chooses to work like this. I think DiL should be adding another check box to their sheet that includes "hob grout" with a selection and customers can choose what colour. Then when the tiler is reading the sheet he can see clearly what the customer wants. Saves everyone's time! no one likes re-doing what they have just done - wasting time and wasting money!

Thankfully my SS was able to get this fixed as he has realised its an error, and shouldn't be done in a different colour as it is actually part of the floor.

Skirting height
The standard skirting height is the 1 tile high, which mostly is 200 or 250mm. I didn't like the look of the high skirting tile, id seen in display homes that its usually thinner. In the Drysdale Kellyville Display home its actually only 100mm because that the size the tile is. I loved this. I tried to get 100mm but DiL would only do it if i agreed that its not their fault if the tile doesn't cover the waterproofing which will show through the paint. I opted for 150mm high tile skirting in most rooms. In the bathroom i left it at 200mm as the bottom row would be 1 tile high around the bath so i wanted to continue the grout line the whole way around at the same height.

Drysdale display home only 100mm high tile for skirting

Tiled floor waste
These look AMAZING! seriously, spend the $36 and get them installed over the standard ones. They hide the floor waste so well. Worth every penny to hide those drains.

Drysdale Vanity 
only 750mm standard on plan. Both Drysdale display homes have these vanities. Definitively consider these for over the bath. We couldn't do it as we changed the layout of the room around so this style of vanity wouldn't go over our bath. But its a much better use of space.

I spent a lot of time looking at photos of bathrooms and what look i wanted, i looked at photos and wrote down why i liked certain photos over others and made note of it to show SS and the tiler. Tiling is so important. Youre stuck with it for a long time, its not something us DIY's can do alone so i wanted it to be perfect.

The tiles look amazing! im so happy with them, cant wait to see them all finished and cleaned now.

Tiling starts

Its been a crazy few weeks, and i haven't had a chance to update you all on the progress of our house. The tiling started the other day - each day goes so fast i cant remember what day this actually was now! I was able to meet the tiler on site and introduce myself and run through the process with him. I was very particular about the way i wanted my tiles to look, my SS knew this. He rung me several times one morning just to make sure i was happy with what the tiler was doing and to ask my opinion. I felt very confident in the tiler's job and also trust my SS 100% so left some final decisions upto them. He said he had been doing it for 9 years and was able to do exactly what i wanted. I wanted clean straight lines, and as little grout lines as possible. Most importantly i just wanted everything to line up.

The Floating vanity kickers were able to be tiled in the floor tile. This was something i had seen on websites a lot more frequently, and i tried to request this with DiL because the kicker selection on my DiL sheet was crossed out. When i questioned this and said i wanted the floor tiles i was told that EBH don't tile this because its a floating vanity, and that i had to take it up with the SS. I was so confused i started to even question what vanity i was getting. I thought perhaps i was getting a wall hung vanity that was completely floating - perhaps it was part of the upgrade. I waited until the vanity was in, and SS confirmed that's what EBH class as the floating vanity - and yes it would be tiled in the wall tile as this was standard. Shame i couldn't request otherwise because DiL confirmed EBH don't tile it. I don't know if it was me not understanding what was on the sheet, or DiL not understanding what i meant. but there was certainly no option on the sheet for me to choose to have this done in the floor tile.

Anyways my SS spoke to the tiler and if there were floor tiles left he would do the tiled kicker in the floor tile. Thankfully there were tiles left and i was able to get it done to match the floor. I think it hides the panel alot better.

When i met with the tiler, he said someone else was coming to grout the tiles later on as he had to head to another job. Not to sure why he couldn't finish the job himself.

This is what it looked like after my tiler had laid out all the tiles. I was so excited i couldn't wait to see it all grouted.

Main Bathroom - Chose Matte Tiles - LOVE!

Main Bathroom Shower

The TINY Drysdale main bath vanity! its a very small 750mm.
Would of loved to of swapped cupboards for drawers

Ensuite Tiles. LOVE the large 300x600mm tiles

Shows the kicker in the floor tile.

The tiles we selected were all part of the standard range apart from the bathroom Wall and floor tiles. They didn't cost that much extra to upgrade either. I was really worried with the tile selections its so hard to choose tiles from only viewing 1 or 2 tiles, and not being able to view them in natural light either makes it hard.

Here is the link to the tile seelctions - Bathroom Selections