Decking around with a pav ... illion

[VPS]

We have to choose the colour for the water tank asap. Ack!! Who knew there were so many colours possible??!!??!!

it will be the view from the laundry ... I am having crazy ideas of getting someone to do some kind of graffiti painting over the top of it anyway. Not that I’ve told Mr Katie that yet.

I have a small back courtyard in my new apartment that I had painted but once I've finished all the important stuff I'm going to get someone to paint a trompe l'oeil (graffiti) on it to make it more fun

 

[RB]

We have to choose the colour for the water tank asap. Ack!! Who knew there were so many colours possible??!!??!!

it will be the view from the laundry ... I am having crazy ideas of getting someone to do some kind of graffiti painting over the top of it anyway. Not that I’ve told Mr Katie that yet.

Definitely not white. I think our new neighbour is regretting his choice

 

[Katie]

Definitely not white. I think our new neighbour is regretting his choice

I am considering a dark blue, then a navy splashback in the kitchen, navy cushions on the furniture and in the fascia highlights. I think it’s because I love navy and I saw @samh004 ’s navy/dark splashback in his new house.

Also, fuschia doesn’t seem an option without “after market detailing”.

 

[Pushka]

I am considering a dark blue, then a navy splashback in the kitchen, navy cushions on the furniture and in the fascia highlights. I think it’s because I love navy and I saw @samh004 ’s navy/dark splashback in his new house.

Also, fuschia doesn’t seem an option without “after market detailing”.

Apparently that olive deep green colour is the colour that 'disappears' more than any other colour if that's the look you are trying to achieve.

 

[RB]

Definitely not white. I think our new neighbour is regretting his choice

Well seems they did regret-now a different colour! We went with basalt, it does blend away-I think some tank brands must have a different range of colours available.

 

[Katie]

End of week 4
(Gosh, I haven't kept up with this reporting!!)

Side garden bed reataining wall was demolished. All of the old tiles on the patio were removed (the plans only called for half of them being removed - the ones needed to remove for hooking up new pipes to storm water, etc). We realised this was ridiculous, and we would end up with two lots of tiles looking, well, ridiculous. So a change to the quote, and remove all the other tiles, too.


Removing what we thought was the main root ball for the Orange Trumpet vine has made very little difference to its life. Hmm.


Muddy puddles. But no Peppa Pig.


Kitchen area and dying tree branches. :/ (The grass that was under these branches still hasn't recovered)


DARN nut grass!!!



Highlight - back steps are on!

 

[Katie]

End of week 5

Ant nest that "popped up" when the tiles were removed!


Trench work - a drain going in between the tiles and the steps, waste and storm water hookups for the sink, rain water tank overflow.

The plasterer also came to do his plastering work on the ceiling, etc.

On the weekend at the end of week 5, we had to go tile shopping (Naationaallll Tiiiiillllezzzzz ) What a discovery - greige is a colour we've never heard of. We wanted lighter than the speckled black tiles that we had, and I thought a light brown would work well up to the wooden steps. Who knows, but they were chosen, took ages to arrive. We made the teen come tile shopping with us - to bribe her, we went to Logan/Springwood tile shops rather than closer ones, and went to Ikea afterwards (she wanted to go to Ikea). Now we have another project - rather than just buy Ikea cupboards and bookshelves, get some shelving/desk/cupboards built in to her room ... suckers for punishment. I talked to a designer about doing this when we bought the house, as her room is small (3.5m x 3.5m) and has no built ins, but I was talked out of it until she was older to see how she'd use the room. Though, knowing her and her ADHD now, we won't get closed shelving for her books and nicks nacks, as what she cant' see doesn't exist.

 

[Katie]

End of week 6

Drain is in. After some discussions, settle on the front steps being like the back steps, as the changes we considered would take another three weeks min and require different drainage (basically, building wider steps and building them in a bit).

Ready to pour the new concrete.


Existing house slab and where the new concrete will be. Who really thought different tiles could go in those two spots? And buying new tiles 15 years later to match the old ones. SMH.


Some more, VERY careful tile work out the front (no spares!) to get ready for plumbing in the gas line. It will come from the meter, which is in a garden bed at the front of the yard, along the right side (in this photo view) of this path, under the path, through the garden bed at the left, and then down the side of the house.

 

[Katie]

Oh, and by week 5, we decided to plumb in the gas. I played somewhat bad cop/devoted spouse in an email to the builder, saying how I wanted my husband to get what he wanted, and we're sorry this detail wasn't in the plans, but not changing gas bottles is a Really Big Deal for him. The plumber and builder had been trying to talk us into LPG tanks.

What made Mr Katie change his mind and be OK with the extra $3k expenditure and plumbing in the natural gas, even after we couldn't find how and where it was coming in to our stove top?
Using the BBQ in the front yard one night, and having to change gas bottles at night, trudging back to the shed in the back yard in not-much-light.

 

[Katie]

Still need to upload photos, but my work laptop is just not wanting to copy pics from my phone (I tend to read AFF mostly during my lunch break). I just selected 40 pix to upload to OneDrive so I could then copy down locally for some more posts ... and the phone wouldn't give me the option to upload them to OneDrive. Bugger.

Anyway, the pavillion is now mostly done. We're arranging a splash back, colour has been picked, and will hopefully be installed in the next few weeks (colour just confirmed today). We're adding a handrail after our "soft launch" P) on Easter Sunday. The Building Designer also came to see the finished work last Monday, and took some pics.

 

[Katie]

End of week 7 (28 Feb)

This is going to take longer than we all thought. A few times towards the end of the project, the site manager commented a few times about how he's never seen the construction industry in Brisbane so busy!

Guess what? The plumber found the original gas line! I think it was under the slab after all. Now we had a wider pipe feeding into the stovetop in the house, and going along the side to the pavillion.

Not particularly impressed to find this is how the pipe was connected through from the meter.

I *really* don't think this plumber wanted to do the gas at all. The site manager and I discussed the locations, and the pipe was meant to just be at the top of the retaining wall above the garden bed, then along the wall, then underground next to the path to the front door.


Plumbing work is done, so new concrete! And some rain to test out the new drainage flows .... :/

 

[Katie]

End of week 8

Work is starting to slow down for the builder's team now.


New pavers and gravel installed. The laundry is to the right of this pic.

The rain the previous week caused stains/rusting on the stringers for the stairs. :/



We chose a tap for the sink. When the builder went to order it ... it was sold out! So we had to go tap hunting again - the second time we just stuck to online browsing, and checking that the tap was still available.

 

[Katie]

End of week 9

Yup, this isn't going to be a 10 week project.

The gravel has been boxed in

The storage room was meant to be wider, but we had to sacrifice some space for the kitchen/bench area.


After the rain, the Golden Pendas are showing good signs of regrowth.


Cabinet work starts. The empty space is where a drinks fridge will go. Gosh, they're so much more expensive than a mini fridge (like in motels). BUT, we won't have the useless freezer space, the door storage space that bottles are either too round for, or fall out of ... At some point I decided to spend an extra few hundred dollars to get a two door fridge rather than a single door fridge. Of course, when I researched, Appliances Online had a great sale on, and I didn't realise those kinds of sales didn't happen often. I held off on ordering the fridge, just in case the cabinets weren't wide enough.


Painting starts. The undercoat gives off a clean, white Hamptons vibe! We've chosen white, pale grey and a navy blue as our colours. The blue will be an accent on the screen and the kitchen wall.


The tiling can finally start! So many plastic bits that are only used once!




Now that the plumber's done, the tilers can put the foot path tiles back in. They do a great job putting them all back into their original place. I think one got chipped in the overall process, but the style is shabby chic (if they use that phrase for tiles ... ) and so it doesn't seem obvious.


Tiling at the back is done!



Garage door installed on the storage room. Maybe I should have made it a highlight colour as well.

 

[love_the_life]

This is a huge project - not just a little gazebo number in the back yard! You'll love it when it's finished though.