Been flat out building, and stressing and trying to live some form of normal life in the mean time, which has left me with little head space for a blog update. But I realise that it’s been a while and there are lots of little updates to report… as well as some pics… so here goes.
I mentioned in the last blog that we were in the midst of putting plasterboard up. Our scaffolding got another workout as we plasterboarded the huge front wall. That made such a difference to the interior, it now looks significantly more ‘finished’ with the pine studwork and my tetris-like polystyrene insulating covered up. Lifting the long plasterboard sheets above our heads to attach to the ceiling in the bedroom and bathroom was a challenge but, when I stand on our little scaffold my head is exactly ceiling height so I used a cushion on my head and supported the weight of each board while Bernt screwed them up.
Supporting the bedroom ceiling plasterboard with my head while screwing it in place.
Plasterboarding finished on the front wall. The two white rectangles show the back of the exterior cladding which we will cut away when the windows are ready to go in.
Our electrician visited each Saturday for a month and a half to get our electricity in and on. We tweaked the lighting designers’ plan a little because we weren’t so confident that he had allowed for enough light in some spots. We replaced his idea of one uplight in the bedroom with 3 downlights. I’m not a huge fan of downlights but they achieve the selective-minimalist look we are going with for. Instead of allowing for bedside lamps we have installed a hanging pendant light each side of the bed. I have yet to design the shades for these, but have a fair idea of what they will look like. Our brushed stainless steel light switch plates look amazing! I’m so glad I went to the extra effort to source these. It certainly was an exciting and long awaited day when we could flick a switch and see light!!! We have been working in the bathroom a lot lately and are making good use of the new heat lamps J There are still some lighting and power point bits and pieces to get finished so we will get the electrician back in within the next couple of weeks to complete the job so we are ready for Certificate of Occupancy.
The hanging pendant bedside lights. The window Bernt has already installed is looking amazing (just above Charlie) and the long horizontal white rectangle will also be a window.
Our spectacular brushed stainless steel light switches! They sit flush to the wall, cant wait to take all of the protective film off them J
After a couple of months worth of waiting (and more than a couple of broken promises) the company supplying our tiles told us that they weren’t going to be able to get the ones we wanted so we’d better choose another option. It was a bit of a blow, purely because we knew that finding another tile that we liked was going to be super tough and we no longer had the luxury of waiting for weeks for something to arrive. We scoured every tile shop in Hobart with no luck, then decided to re-contemplate our initial idea of sandstone. I did some ringing around and found a lovely guy in Kingston (30mins away) who imports sandstone from India. It was exactly the colour we were looking for, but couldn’t find from local quarries. As much as I cringe at the thought of the embodied energy of stone carted half way across the world; it was there (with no wait time), it was beautiful and it didn’t cost the earth…. So we snapped it up.
Trying to chose a new tile which would work with the basin, myrtle (door frames and built in cabinetry) and celery top pine (window and structural frames).
Our last couple of weeks have been focussed on getting the bathroom finished. First I sealed and waterproofed the floor, after giving the room the scrub out of the century (amazing how a good sweep can make a building site seem civilised). Then I spent more than a week tiling the column which the toilet will hang from. We used the wine coloured slate (originally intended to be border tiles) which I cut into 3 different size strips and attached slowly in a pattern. It was very involved but the result is well worth the effort. We bought an electric tile cutter (a standard scorer didn’t work on our tiles) with the intention of reselling it when we are finished but it is such a handy machine that I’m now really reluctant to part with it. We then laid out a pattern with the sandstone which I cut to size and Bernt glued in place. We also tiled what will eventually be the inside of a cupboard housing the washing machine and dryer (I thought tiles would be super easy to clean). The sandstone looks breathtaking and I’m now so glad that we had such a hard time with the tile company, making us search elsewhere, because this is exactly what we wanted from the beginning. Bernt built the floor-to-ceiling windows for the bathroom and installed those. They are gorgeous too, giving the room exactly the inside/outside feeling I hoped for. He is now working on the door frame (which is made from Myrtle) and starting the base coat for our plaster. Ill go in to our special plaster adventure when its finished (because if I brag about it now and it turns out to be a disaster I’ll feel like a bit of a wally).
I designed a niche in the shower column for shampoo bottles etc, we were able to squeeze it in at just the right height despite concerns that the in-wall toilet cistern would be in the way. This pic shows my laborious tiling job in progress, still a bit grubby and without grout.
Bernt knocking through the exterior cladding in order to install the bathroom windows. It was beautiful to have sunlight stream back into the room after a dungeon-like couple of months.
Laying out the sandstone tiles was quite an intricate puzzle. We wanted a random, but not too random, pattern so we bought 4 different sized tiles. It was also important that we chose tiles which fit together colour-wise to make the wine slate column work. It worked out so nicely!
The lovely windows in (the vanity with countertop basin and whopping mirror will sit in between) and our super lovely sandstone floor all grouted.
Last week we hit a bit of a milestone when we got to ‘lock up’! Bernt finished the beautiful timber/glass doors a few weeks back but he was reluctant to fill in the gaping hole in the wall which separates the apartment from the workshop. It was rather handy to be able to move big things in and out with the pallet trolley but the time had well and truly come to make the apartment lockable. So he plugged away laying blocks by himself (as I had a busy week full of shifts at work) until the hole was no more. Being able to store things safely in the apartment freed up the spare bed in the ger (which has been acting as tool storage for much too long) just in time for a whirlwind visit from my mum. Now we have a bit of a sprint to the finish, we need to get to Certificate of Occupancy within 3 weeks. Wish us luck!
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Bernt showing off our doors. These will act as the front doors for now. Eventually, when we unpack the container, the antique door we brought with us from Perth will sit in the wall to the left of the glass. The antique door will be the front door and these will be used to open the apartment up to a beautiful courtyard garden (which exists only in my mind at this point) while we entertain our multitude of friends on lovely warm sunny days (... both of which also only exist in my mind… at this point).
