Landscape Update

The freshly-laid and somewhat-planted car parking area, designed by the very clever Z.A. Carboon.


And the freshly planted roof deck screens. Grow, wee little plants, grow!!

quick update

The builder has given us a Date for Practical Completion of 18th February, due to the fact that we had to re-think and they had to re-do the entire floor of the house after it came out of the construction process stained, chipped and filthy. So the floors will no longer be a clear-finished, troweled concrete slab, but a trowel-finished 'X-bond' material (almost like a rough plaster finish, in a dark grey).

In the meantime, we have been taking care of the garden and the hardscaping. Zac has been in charge of the landscaping and came up with a brilliant solution to the on-site car-parking requirements. The original intention was to have off-the-shelf open concrete pavers, like a driveable lawn product, but that proved to be too pricey. In place we have collected stacks of breeze blocks of the sort common in North Perth, and Zac stumbled across some concrete stormwater products that look like stepping stones.


Arranged in a grid, these 'pavers' are strong enough to park on and the openings will allow our ground cover to flourish through, which will reinforce the concrete & greenery look that was our intention for the house.

leaps and bounds

Well! I have been away for the last 5 weeks, out in the South Australian bush trying to have a break and calm things down before moving into the newly completed house...except they hadn't finished the works before I left, and they haven't finished the works now that I'm back either. No bother. There has been a lot of work done and now we are down to a few quality control issues and some problem solving. Christmas plans blown out of the water, but as I tell my clients, the only thing that can be guaranteed with a custom house build is that it will take longer than you think. Every time.









I'm not going to write too much because it is the 23rd and I haven't even begun to prepare for Christmas celebrations, but here are some photos of the house as it stands today, including the beautiful and happy little garden planted by Zac in my absence. The Flame Tree is my Christmas present. Beautiful.

Have a Happy Christmas and a safe New Year.

Balustrades are on, concrete steps are in!

Things are grinding to a halt at the Apartment House...too bad the place isn't finished yet!

The last weeks have been slow and full of canceled tradesmen. It is a strange thing indeed to experience; I can't think of another industry where the participants find it acceptable to book in a day, not turn up at the allotted time, then wait to be called by the supervisor at which time they advise that "sorry, I can't make it today...maybe tomorrow"... If anyone else did business in such a manner they would be out of business within a month, but with trades for some reason it is acceptable. Our supervisor is working himself grey trying to keep them all in line and on time!

Anyway, the trades that have turned up have done a chunk of work - the balustrades, roof screens and stair treads are all in (the screens and balustrades require their mesh still, but the frames are up) and the 'verandah' deck and the concrete steps have been poured and acid-washed. And it looks aces.



Plus, the scaffold is finally down! The grey box is revealed in all its grey, boxy glory!

Door detail

A not-especially-good photograph of the sliding door from the Bathroom into the Bedroom, through the wardrobe. I am glad we finally got all the lines to ...line up.


I am working on the assumption that my photographer, with his knowledge of cameras and what-not, will be able to get better shots of this house when it comes time, but the spaces are such that it is hard to get the distance to take a full photo of an object, hence the mash-up...

Bench-tops & blue boxes

The Kitchen bench-tops went in yesterday...and they are awesome. There is something very special indeed about having work surfaces made up of fossilised prehistoric sea creatures. I imagine it to be not unlike the feeling Vader would have experienced encasing Han Solo in carbonite...

Apparently the stone masons all grappled to do our job in the factory as it was the first time in over a year that they had worked in anything but man-made stone - I don't care if it is harder-wearing or easier to clean; stone made out of the entombed skeletal structures of tiny, tiny animals is waaaay cooler.

You can also see in the photo that our very limited ceiling has been installed - just enough to deal with exhaust fans and what-not.




Most exciting of all, though, is the Bathroom skylight. Its a big...blue...box. And its bad-ass! The light inside the Bathroom is amazing and the presence of the box on the roof deck is just downright good fun. Plus you can see it from the street, which is cool. I was somewhat worried that this house would come off as far too serious and wouldn't have enough joy in it, but the box puts that to bed.





Plumbers next, then electricians, stairs and cleaning up...

Tradie Explosion!!!

Yesterday was probably the biggest day on site for the last 6 months! Painters, carpenters, cabinet-makers, sparkies, stone-masons and plumbers! The most of the cabinets have been installed, save for the doors and a damaged piece in the bathroom (doors don't go on until the end due to the high risk of damage). So the kitchen looks mostly complete, the retina-damaging yellow of the bedroom is now apparent (hopefully it will be a happy start to every morning) and the boys' blue bathroom is taking shape.

Fitting the Kitchen shelves

Kitchen taking shape

The 'Study' end of the Kitchen cabinets, complete with filing drawers

The door to the Bedroom slides back to reveal a storage cupboard for brooms etc

The view of the Bathroom/Laundry pod from the Bedroom

The other side of the Bathroom/Laundry pod

The carpenters fixed on our door furniture, which means we can finally lock up the place, and can take to site all our lights, plumbing and what-not that have been cluttering up the boot of my car for weeks and weeks.

The place is starting to feel like it can be lived in, and I can finally see if some of the little interesting details worked out the way they were intended...it seems right now that they do.

3 and a half weeks to go.