A work in progress!

shower before and after

I'm sooo in love with this vanity!

A little piece of home

Well the bathroom is more or less finished. Its the smallest room in the house, so at least a task I figured I could start and finish with a sense of completion. The finishings in the house are really looking stunning, but eish they take FOREVER!! I chose a duck egg blue for the walls in the bathroom. In the photos the tiles are actually more correct in colour in the before photos. {Its quite late here in the afternoon and not a good time for taking photos so a shot them without the flash, hence all the yellow undertones!} In the New Year I need to get all the window treatements sorted out and blinds made, everyone's closed over the Christmas Holidays so there was no point in rushing to get it done.

We are down to the last boxes and bits and pieces that need to find a home and that seems to be the hardest! I need to prime and paint my kitchen cupboards, and I'm feeling so painted out at the moment that its really the last thing I feel like doing. I'm thinking of doing them with a French Antique finish in white and they'll look great when they're done. At the moment its just the raw superwood that's visible.

Have added downlights to the top cupboards and 3 hanging lights over the centre island

The front door and dining room table, looking like a right royal mess:(

Lounge

Passage from bedrooms looking into the kitchen area.

21st Nov, 4 days left to the big move!

The kitchen cupboards (floor only) were installed this weekend, the tilers started today and completed Sam and Paige's bedrooms. The Granite Studio are coming tomorrow to do the templating for the counter tops. Installation of the the granite counter tops will probably only be around 4th December, and only when that is complete can the rest of the kitchen cupboards be installed :(
James and I primed all the skirtings and dado rails today, they need 16 hours to dry, so we can only start painting them tomoro. Also painted woodoc on the door frames.

Kitchen wall cupboards stacked next to centre island

My pantry cupboard (to die for!)

View of kitchen from the lounge

Paige's room with tiles

The septic tank is still just a groot gat, but at this stage not worried about that.

View of septic tank from Lounge window

Entrance & Dining room (how pretty are the lights!)

Doors

Ok, so seriously, I keep forgetting my camera but this is what's happened in the last week.
The bathroom wall for the shower has been water-proofed, we're just about done with the painting of walls and ceilings, the chandeliers have been hung, and today the doors started going on - Sooo excited to see it all coming together now.

Kitchen cupboards arrived today and installation starts tomorrow. Guys coming to template the granite tops on Monday and the tiler is starting on Monday, not much time left and things getting awfully tight as we move on Thursday 25th.

Chandeliers Painted.

This is the chandelier when I first started painting it. Its not that easy to see, but on the top are 6 twirly struts that come out of the top and then there's a chain that it hangs from the ceiling on. 

I wasn't all that keen on the twirly things, so i've unscrewed them, taken them off, and removed the chain. Our ceilings aren't high enough and the photo below is basically what it going to look like hanging from the ceiling. I'll just need to attach the bling to it.

I think they're going to look just yummy!

Making our bathroom dresser fit!

This is the dresser I bought. I was so excited about getting it into the bathroom to see the size - perfect, colour its been painted - perfect
PROBLEM - the pipe from the basin runs along the wall where the skirting would go and is boxed in. The leg style juts out, and the problem is that the back of the unit is now 110mm from the wall ARGHHHH.
SOLUTION -  lets cut off the back legs and bolt the back of the dresser to the wall. As it is i've already been looked at squiff by painting an oak dresser and now i'm wanting the legs cut off, and cut a groot gat out of the centre to accommodate the basin. James ever the star with my, "james please help"
I'm now a happy Tracy, isn't that worth it!

Painting Prep - a team effort!

Well the walls are all up, and we've primed and got everything ready. Dave had words with his builder, for basically stuffing around, not watching his boys and doing a shoddy job. As a result, he's not coming back on site. Problem is there are sections where the dry walling has been screwed in, and they didn't tighten some of the screws and have put polyfilla over them, but even when you sand them down, the heads of the screws are sticking out. James and I had to go over all the walls today, trying to fix up. We managed to find a cheaper paint that is actually a roof paint and 100% acrylic to paint the ceilings and walls at only R500 for 20 litres as opposed to R1200 for 20 litres, only thing is it doesn't have the greatest coverage and requires 3 coats. Still at the price, I don't mind, but its kak painting ceilings!

bathroom table

Yuk, is all i can say about the ready made white melamine looking bathroom cabinets. I really don't like them. Soooo i was on the hunt, and this is what i've found, not quite what i wanted, but i think she's going to look really pretty when i'm done with her. I even took my basin shopping with me to check for sizes.

Putting up dry wall frames

Sorting out the flooring

The less said about this floor the better!!!! :(
The entire weekend spent trying to remove the paint,  R1000 worth of paint stripper, I've aced using the pressure washer, and guess what there's still paint!! Seriously stressing over this part of the project as we need to get it off in order to do the cretecote floors!!

Up goes the ceiling.

It's time to head off to the shops

Ok, well I bought windows and doors, but seriously that wasn't too exciting, however buying the other stuff - woo hoo I'm in my element, only problem is I have champagne taste and beer money, and seeing is we're R50 000 over budget on what I've got to spend, we've had to cut back and cut back seriously. Dave sat down and re-worked the costs and gave me my new budget for lighting/cupboards/kitchen bathroom fitting etc. and they've literally been halved in places - but i love it, always up for a challenge. So yesterday mom and I were off in search of sanware and tiles and I also wanted to look for chandeliers in Durban.
My lighting budget for lounge, dining room and kitchen R2000. Bearing in mind the chandeliers I like are all well over a R1000, the challenge was set. I'd already managed to find some hanging pendant lights in the Mr Price Home 'priced to go' section (my fav part of the store!) they were R49.95 each marked down from R149.95. The in The Lighting Co in Springfield park I found this baby. (I meant to take a before pic and forgot) Hows the price R899 marked down from R1899. They only had 1, but are sending another one down for me to collect on Monday from another store. I'm going for a very white pallete in the house, so am painting the chandeliers white. They also have bling hanging off them - too cute, and I'm a very happy puppy :) Total cost R1950 - mission accomplished!

{this thing is a mission to paint though - just saying!}

I bought this basin

This is the effect I'm after!

I'm not sure which shower to go for, there are two options. Either a pivot door, or where there are 2 sliding doors that open up from the corner. Both of these showers are on special for R1999. I'm going to get the builders to brick a base for me, i don't want one of the shower bases you can buy. Then I've got to choose the mosaics for the floor. These are some of the options I liked, but again, it'll come down to the price. I never got to look at wall tiles, was too stressed about the fact that I can't find any plain white tiles, who thought it would be so bloody hard. The porcelain tiles are DEVINE, but they're also R169 a square metre, and my budget R100 a square metre, thats got to include R40 per square for labout to lay the tiles, so i'm allowed R60 per square metre for tiles - eish, going to be a tough one!!

Love these!

Also like these

But I think this is what I'm going to have to buy

 

Corner door

Pivot door

End of week 2

Well things are progressing nicely, however we've only got 5 weeks before we have to be settled in, and that's concerning as there's still so much to be done.
Where are we at now? Well all the wet works are finished. Windows are in, and the lounge door frame has been done. Both the lounge door and front doors are going to be left until last to fit so that they don't get damaged with moving everything around! The inter-leading door into the garage is in but I haven't bought a lock and handle yet, so its boarded up on the building site side for security reasons.
The ceilings were started today and should be finished by this afternoon aswell, putting the ceiling in is starting to make it more like a home as opposed to a garage, so its getting exciting now.

Bricking up existing garage door area.

Starting to take shape. These windows will be for Paige's room (came from lounge area) and frame is in for the front door!

Breaking down & bricking up!

Lounge wall all bricked up, and the breaking down for door can start now that the window has been removed. Below a view from outside

To the left is the garage door, when this is removed, the area will be replaced with our front door, and a window for Paige's room.  The 2 windows in the corner will be Sams room, my window on the far right. The bathroom will be between the 2 windows on the left.

This photo is showing what will eventually become our kitchen, and the double window will be removed and we're including a fire door which will allow us access into the main house at night.

 This is going to be our lounge. I've chosen to remove the window (going to go into Paige's room) where the dud is in yellow, and our tv is going against this wall and its going to get bricked up. The other window is also coming out and this is going to be replaced with a double door and 2 windows which will go outside.

This is it!

It has taken weeks to clear everything out of the garage. My dad bless him I don't think he ever threw away a nut or bolt. James and I spent endless Sundays sorting out, and James again during the evenings in the week. Finally with the clock ticking on my existing lease, we got around to the last of it. There are still things that need to be sold including an old Jaguar with all the bits, windscreens, engine, bumpers etc. Sets of tire rims etc etc. So I'll take photos and put them onto Gumtree and see if we can make some more money to do some of the finishing we need!