Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Starting to take shape..

It's getting pretty exciting now! With the framework going up we can finally start to visualize heights and space after gawking at 2D plans for over a year!

One of the architects more *interesting* ideas was to design the roof with 6 different elevations so the building will "hug the block" and not overshadow neighbouring properties. This means that the ceiling is higher at each level as you move up the slope of the block: the kitchen is lowest, then higher in the dining and higher again in the living room and outdoor room. To make more of a feature of the ceiling variations it will be clad in hoop pine rather than gyprock. When we asked the architects what they thought about changing it to a flat ceiling (like everyone else!) they encouraged us to stick with their idea, so here goes nothing!

Side view (see variations in height of back walls)





Above will be our 'outdoor room', which will have a plywood ceiling the same as the interior. There will be a kitchen across the back with uplit black bamboo planted behind the kitchen to form (my concept of) a living artwork. The floor has just been jack-hammered and re-poured and still needs to be polished the same as the interior floor. The below shot shows the general idea for how this room will be furnished. Got the table from a great store called Habitat :))) and managed to track down the awesome Hedgehog chandelier light which will hang from the ply ceiling.


 For the love of buddah, please let the rain stay away so I can get out of the grotty, pokey and generally useless 1960's kitchen sooner rather than later! And if that doesn't send me loopy, sharing a bathroom with 3 teenagers almost certainly will!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Out of the ground...finally!

A fair bit is happening after a few stuff ups and delays. The concretors mucked up the slab to the courtyard by letting it dry with a big dip in the middle which mean't it had to be jackhammered and re-poured. Also the surface to the open plan living area was not done particularly well and we ended up needing to get a concrete grinder and polisher onto that and now it looks magnificent!

Here's some shots of the recent progress...

Earthworks and retaining walls..


Formwork & rio..




A big team of concretors turn up - unfortunately none of them wearing the 'quality control' hat :( and even worse, not one bit of eye candy amongst them :(((





Mr Stress-Head watching the concretors (for good reason as it turned out)..



After sucking up some additional expense, the grind & polish..beautiful!! The left-hand side which is not polished is to have a teak deck over it.