an early xmas present?

Well, there is a week to go until xmas but we're still not sure if we will get handover before then, the tiling was getting done this week and i'm pleased to say it is looking fabulous! We're really happy with the tiles we've chosen (we agonised for over 2 hours choosing tiles) and now that we see it in place, all my worries about how the colours would go together are gone. The house is looking very good now and we're happy with all the choices we've made.

We will be going on holiday for a week in early Jan so hubby says he'd rather handover was after xmas anyway as the builder will be closed for the hols and we may not have tradesmen available over this period to do the work we need done like the driveway etc

Anyway a few more weeks is not a problem for us. A few pics for you but in no particular order :), these were taken two weeks ago so there has been more work done since then (mainly tiling, battens for the lighting.

The master bedroom on the first floor, you can see the walk in wardrobe and the ensuite, tiling and tub have been installed by now

First floor family room, you can see the top of the stairs and the metal and wood banister. The balcony can also be seen and the doorways into two of the bedrooms on this floor (4 bedrooms up here)

First floor bathroom, the tiling and tub have been installed now though

the living and dining room, the kitchen island can be seen here and the alfresco area though the sliding doors

The laundry with nice big storage cupboard, floor tiling has already been done though and the sink has been installed already too

The kitchen, splashback tiles have been done

Entry way and lounge room, the door to the study which we converted into a room can be seen near the front door. The lounge room windows were made smaller and raised due to council restrictions about privacy but in hindsight we may have been able to use bigger windows with obscured glazing instead as its a bit darker than we'd like here

Next photos you will see will be the handover photos...

the home stretch...

Hubby went past today and dropped in asking if he could have a look around ... the kitchen is in! also the vanities in the bathrooms are also done and the doors have been installed! Everything is looking great and we're getting excited. It has been so worth it now at this point. We're very happy and relieved that the colours have come together nicely so far. There is still a fair way to go before we can move in as we are doing the flooring, landscaping, decking and fencing etc ourselves but at least the builder's job has been moving at a rapid and reasonably well done rate. Will try to schedule a visit for next week and take some photos.

Hubby is investigating options for the front fence which we want done in matching brick and metal fencing with automatic gate. He's currently replacing the side gates for our current home so the handyman in him is gonna be getting a good workout in the next few months.

We had originally asked the builder to tack the skirting boards on as we are doing the tiling on the ground floor ourselves (or rather getting someone else besides the builder to do it) and they were happy to do so but when hubby checked today, they had nailed it in fully but left us a gap below the skirting boards so the tiles would fit. Hopefully this will be ok when we get the tiling done.

there still needs to be painting, wall tiling, some electrical and plumbing and some finishing touches to do but this shouldn't take that long.