We’re building

The past week has seen the tiling get underway. Our builder’s tiler is from Masterton and he has brought down a crew of 7 for the duration of the work (they got themselves an Airbnb!)

Leading up to the tiling, our builder contacted us because the tile company did not have enough stock of our chosen tile, as we needed ~150sqm worth. He then went through half a dozen tile places to find tile options, and somewhat amazingly, found one that was practically identical including the dimensions (450×900). Legend.

We met onsite with our builder and the tiler to go over the layout of the tiles, the finishing trim and the grout colour. Who knew how many colour options there are for trim and grout!

The following week we were back onsite for the landscape walk-through – fencing, paved areas, driveway and grass. The tilers were well underway, people laying the tiles, people cutting tiles. We popped in again on the weekend and the bathrooms are now tiled and they’ve done an impressive job.

Although the tiles have variances, the tiler has managed to find pattern’s that match between tiles and blended 2 or 3 tiles in some area’s. It makes quite a difference from the mis-matched jigsaw look you can get with tiles with veins or patterns. The non-tiled areas on the floor that are visible are the channel drains for the shower, these will also have tile inserts for a cleaner look.

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Not much happened last week as our builder took his entire team to Queenstown for 4 days, what a top guy!

They’re back on site this week and full steam ahead. More doors have been installed and we’re really happy that we went with the full height doors. It makes the ceiling seamless from one end of the house to the other and also has the effect of making the ceiling look higher than it is and seamless from one end .

Because all the bathrooms are fully tiled, the sub-floor has been dropped under the showers in the master ensuite and main bathroom in order to fit a special sloped shower tray which the tiles are laid over. Without dropping the sub-floor the showers would require you to step into the showers because of a special sloped shower tray that gets installed. By dropping the sub-floor under the showers, the tray’s can be installed and the tiles laid so that the showers are level entry. It is quite a bit of work as extra joists need to be installed and fixed to the existing joists but set lower so certain areas of the flooring can be dropped.

Window and door trims are going on as well and they look great.

We’ve also had the wall between the living and lounge rooms built out to where the cavity slider opens to. Originally, (and as per the plan) the wall was stepped because of the cavity slider on the lounge side of the separating wall. By having the wall extended to match the cavity slider frame, the awkward change in wall thickness was removed and door is less obvious.

The retaining wall is coming along. It’s been back filled now so the last thing that needs to be done is to set the height once the back yard ground level is finalized.

And fencing is coming down in preparation for the landscaping work.

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Well Auckland is back at Covid-19 Level 3 and we’re at Level 2. Thankfully our builders can stay safe onsite with their precautions and carry on working.

All remaining scaffolding was removed this week, and the house can now be viewed in it’s entirety. It marks the completion of the exterior works except for the last of the plumbing, electrical and security.

On the inside the plastering continues. It’s got to be a laborious job when every join and every screw has be to be filled and sanded, and our builder is meticulous so it will be spot on.

The first of the interior doors have been installed, these are the cavity sliders and so far the big one separating the living/dining area and the lounge, as well as the pantry and our walk-in wardrobe upstairs have gone in. These have the top guide rail set flush with the finished Gib so the finished look is very seamless.

Also we now have a garage door! No more plywood and framing screws to close up every night. It is also insulated which is a bonus. We tossed up having a cedar garage door to match the front door but settled on this one, which has a nice texture to it and won’t need the kind of maintenance that a cedar door would.

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Installation of the Gib is almost complete, with just a few a couple of small area’s left to do. The bathroom’s have now also had plasterboard put up. This is a heavier grade fibre cement product, similar to what the exterior cladding is and instead of being fixed with screws it’s fixed with stainless steel nails. This is required in order to hold the weight of the tiles as all bathrooms are fully tiled.

Cutout’s for all the light fittings have been made, and the plastering has started in some areas and for the recessed LED strip lights.

Being quite a sunny day, it’s was nice to see the amount of light that comes through from the stair window into the downstairs hallway – this was looking to be quite dark!

Also this weekend we took a walk up through the surrounding hills where you can look down on the sub-division and see the whole area and what is yet to be developed further into the valley. Lots of mountain bike tracks in the area so it’ll be fun to explore.

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The scaffolding is starting to come down – which marks the completion of the exterior and house can now be seen a bit more clearly. The scaffolding on the front remains as the plumber still has some fitout work to do.

On the inside, the builders are charging ahead with the majority of Gib going up. With the GIB up the house is really starting to look like a house with the spaces now clearly defined.

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With all the electrical and plumbing done as well as the data cabling, our builders have wasted no time in getting on with installing the insulation.

To compliment the 140mm exterior framing, we’re installing R4.0 rated insulation in all exterior walls and in the ceiling where are putting in R6.0 (these are 260mm thick!). These are the highest R value single batts we can obtain for the space. The interior walls are R2.6 and the midfloor are R3.2.

GIB plasterboard supplies are also onsite ready to go up in a few days time.

Work on the retaining wall continues as the palings are now being added.

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The exterior painting continues with the finished colour now going on.  Looks very bold and contrasts really well with the white eaves and trim.

Posts for the retaining wall are now in and concrete has been poured, the builders are making the most of the patchy weather at the moment!

On the inside the electrical fitout has begun.  The fuse box has been installed into the garage and the lighting and switching cables have been run to wall brackets throughout the house.  Data cabling yet to be done and will be run back to a separate cabinet. Going into the ceiling space upstairs is the   for the ducted heatpump, vents for this go into all the rooms upstairs.

Also being run at this time is the piping for the Beam vacuum system.  We’ve upgraded the system so instead of having to drag around 20m of hose (and then store it), there is 3 separate outlets positioned around the house and each has a 15m retractable hoses which gets retracted into.

In the bathrooms the shower niche’s are in (main bathroom shown below), the master ensuite has changed from having a niche at each side of the 1.8m wide shower to having a single niche running the full width.  

Rondo battens are also going up – these are what the plasterboard will get secured to, so we’re not far off from having walls we can’t see through anymore!

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The cladding installation is now complete and the exterior painting has started with the primer going on.  Less beige and more white!

The rear boundary has been excavated and the full size of the backyard can now be seen.  More spray painting marking out where the posts are going to go, there’s going to be a few of them!

Stairs are now in.  No more ‘builder’s ladder’, although it was full of character, it’s great to see stairs in that space now.  They’re not as steep as the stairs in our current residence which will be quite nice. 

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The cladding installation is almost complete with just a small area at the front to do. 

The corner door has now gone in and as well as the one missing window due to the anodized finish not being up to our builders standards – the house is now locked up.

Now that the cladding has gone up on the top half of the house, they’ve been able to take down the scaffolding around the rear of the house in preparation of Earthworks Part 2.0. 

Running behind all the houses on our side of the street is an engineered batter which our rear boundary is halfway up.  We’ve decided to excavate into this batter and build a 1.5m retaining wall, effectively doubling the outdoor area at the back of the section, visible by the orange spray painted line. 

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This week we had our plumbing and electrical walkthrough. 

With the electrician it was deciding on where every power point and light switches will be, data cabling requirements, security requirements and lighting.  Fortunately, we’d already pre-planned where we had wanted the light switches so it was really straight forward.  Although when we got to the main bathroom the door swing and the shower size and location meant we had to shift the towel rail to a different wall to be able to locate the switches in a logical place.  Things you don’t notice on the floorplan!

Then with the plumber on the location and position of taps and shower heads as well as exterior taps.

The joinery for the corner sliding doors and delivered and installed as well, doors to follow and along with one last window for the front of the house, will complete all the joinery.

Also we have more beige cladding installed and not far from it being complete.

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