OB in SA

Hi Marshall! Cheers! How are you settling in your new house? Hope everything and everyone is well.

Hi Adelaide Girl! Our stone is from Smartstone -Astral. I couldn't tell you the name of the colour of our cabinets because we got a sample from one kitchen mob a long time ago which we kept. We settled on a different kitchen mob and we couldn't find the sample colour that we had in their range so they did colour matching for us.

Hey Bruce, hope all is well! How's your build coming along or are you still at planning stage?

Howdy Twylamc, we have the DA approved and now getting the certifier. To go through council it would cost $1700 which includes the CC, 4 inspections and the occupancy certificate. To go private was double. We are going with the private certifier as I rang council and they said it would be a couple of weeks before someone wouldn't be be available to talk to me about it. I didn't want to be held up with an understaffed council employee when I needed concrete poured. It must be so good to be at the near end of your build. Did you find the last part, the finishing off, the hardest? Thanks, Bruce

Not long now! Cannot wait to check your thread for updates!
Regarding your question, not really. Maybe partly because we haven't moved in yet cos we don't want to fall into the trap of not finishing little things here and there. It's actually easy. I guess you've done harder things before in the build, the little things to tick off are sort of nothing, for the lack of better word. And each little thing like paint touch ups, filling in missing silicone, painting & putting in quads and skirting in garage, etc makes a lot of difference. Hombre goes in each of the room and checks what needs to be done. Not a lot now. Haha! We are awaiting for our refinance to hopefully afford heating/cooling, decking, curtains etc. which is mainly the reason why we cannot do these remaining big stuff but we do the little things while waiting, I guess. Apart from decking which we will probably install DIY, the rest we don't have to do. Someone else will do it for us. I wanted to start styling but we are so poor we cannot afford anything. Haha! So just the money side really at this point. Hombre even had time weeding yesterday for the first time in a long time.
P.S. Hombre says it's the tiling of our open plan that killed him.

Talking about styling, I got a few shops that I have in mind. Just cannot afford it at the moment.

I ❤️❤️ this shop from Sweden, (calling Tomcat, you go to Sweden a lot for work, don't you? ). I love love everything about this shop! Probably can't buy the big stuff but the little ones like candle holders, vases, plates (I ❤️the clear oval glass plates), etc. Lol!






Aura home towels are ❤️
https://www.aurahome.com.au/

Linens are the best bed sheets, once you go linen, you won't go back. Lol! I bought a set from sheetsontheline and that goes back into our bed after washing even though I have got other really nice and organic cotton ones. They're nice too but linens are another level. Lol!
It's good there's an option now to not buy the flat sheet as we don't use it.
https://www.sheetsontheline.com.au

This we were able to afford and our only "styling" in the house. Hombre repainted the tank using Georgian grey. Bought 3 more littler fishies to give company to our lone fish, new plants and new air stones. I love our little fish tank/family.

Additional thoughts:
I would have liked to make our windows full height and wall to wall where it looks out to the front in the open plan so you see the water where I put the dining set but alas, not to be.

Our open plan is in the middle of the house. We got solid doors in all of the bedrooms and home theatre and our appliances are really quiet (tested the Bosch washing machine and the Bosch dishwasher and soo happy with them). We paid for someone to install our internal doors, asked Hombre why we did have solid doors in some rooms. When told that it's my choice for noise, he said "Noise is a sign of life."

That's the plan for us as well, we have another property we can stay at till the end of the build, I think there is a trap to move in too early and things start being put off. I hope to save some $s on the build but it's more about the adventure.
The hardest thing for me, I think, will be deciding whether I do something myself and save a $ or 2 but take longer or pay and get it done faster but cost more .

Bruce, for us it's always been the former. An adventure it will be regardless! Though it has caused a lot of friction between Hombre & I as there were times when I just want to pay for someone to do it but he won't budge. I do get him now because what we saved on doing things ourselves, we were able to spend on good quality appliances, soundscreen insulation all throughout the house, a solar evac tubes hot water system (which is brilliant by the way!) - just to name a few or just splurge a bit on the styling (Lol! Hombre can't and won't complain, his movie stuff in the home theatre are not cheap!) which I plan to do for the house.
We might not have a flashy design but I am happy with the quality everywhere I look. I wished to do something like drop-down ceilings etc but Hombre's not into it.

I won't build again though. Lol! And Hombre is as stubborn as &$@/ that he would never build with a builder. Maybe renovate rooms but owner building? I know you don't say never, but I want to do other things in life now. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Lol!

By the way, does anyone know where to get a bath shortener in a shop here in Australia? I used our bath once but my feet don't touch/reach the other end of the bath so I slide. It's good for Hombre who's 6ft +. He at least can use it properly when he wants to without folding his legs. I am too short for it!

Hombre finishing the painting of our outside rendered walls, quads around the eaves to be done soon.


Garage. Skirting boards for the garage painted a second coat of enamel paint, then Hombre's dad to put on, including window frames. We painted the inner rendered piers same as the walls to make it more coherent. Didn't intend to put the flashy light switches in the garage but our sparky ordered by mistake so just used them instead of try to replace.

Looks fantastic! What colour is it again?

It's hard finding the balance between doing the work yourself to paying someone else. I ran a few different scenarios each time in my spreadsheets to help work it out

Thanks for that, your relationship sounds a lot like ours. Re the bath, maybe a small fold up plastic stool ****** on its side, the ones you push the sides in and they fold flat. You would have to add some anti scratch to the feet though if it's not baked enamel. I guess it depends on how much space you need to fill

The render colour BB? It's Colourbond Dune. Render is already tinted but was told to paint them to seal.
The paints are from Solver.


So true BB. We have given up on spreadsheets at the end. We just say, don't look at how much we spent but look at how much we saved.

Bruce, found this on the web. Lol! Who knew a long bath is a problem? But want to see one up close so was hoping there's one in an Australian shop.


For reference, I am 5'5" and a half. And I am slipping in our bath. Hombre thought it was funny Lol!

Thank you!

Wouldn't a rubber bath mat work and look better? My wife uses one from IKEA and she's the same height. Much better than a pillow hahahah.
You could even cut it smaller so you just sit on it.

Edit: http://m.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/art/70168618/
Seems you can only get a crocodile now
Just look at target or big w for a rubber bath mat

Hi,

Settling in well thanks, I almost can't remember what it's like to not live here now still got loads to do but we've decided to save up for a nice holiday instead. We deserve it!!

Hmmm, will it work even though I cannot actually reach the end of the tub? Hombre suggested it before cos we thought will stop me from sliding. Might get one to try.

Go Marshall! We would be doing the same thing once we are moved in.

Hard to find an art. We are trying to be careful so our house doesn't look like a gallery.
This art though we might get or I am set to get to put somewhere in the kitchen area of the open plan. Hombre loved this drink called Orangina which he drank a lot of as it's free in our Paris hotel and couldn't get anywhere in other places in Europe that we went to. So we want to get the Orangina art which I saw from The Block magazine.

The actual Orangina drink when we were in Paris


The Orangina art



This bowl from Singapore sits on our island bench for now but will be moved to our hallway table. Our hallway will have a table, a humungous art and pendant lights of some sort.



Our sparky is doing stuff in our house at the moment. I am hoping my undertile heating is done when I come home later.