Reno - Week 27

The past week was all about bricks and bucket loads of white paint. The terrace, a suspended concrete slab that was poured right at the very beginning of construction, finally got a makeover - being completely covered in a carpet of bricks:

All the gaps between each brick will be filled with mortar and then sealed. The same brick blend that was used around the fireplace has been used on the floors however as you can see they are laid in a different pattern, adding further interest and a nice textural element to the space. I've already been sourcing some outdoor fabrics for cushions, etc that will be used for casual seating.

The painters came armed with brushes and rollers to tackle the internal painting this week. After a lot of preparation and a couple of coats of paint (one more to go) those VJ walls now look absolutely amazing:

Hallway looking towards the front door

Sitting Room

The architraves, skirting, timber doors and window are next on the list - they are being painted in a gloss enamel.

The weatherboards at the rear still require another coat of black paint, but there is a small section that is finished where old meets new:

I still can't believe that I have black weatherboards - and possibly more painted black elements to come, but I'll tell you about that later. I've been working on some landscape schemes which I think will look really hot!

The Tiler finally got on-site this week and prepared the wet areas ready for tiling, starting off with installing a waterproof membrane:

No - I didn't choose the colour (it was just a co-incidence)

He did some tiling work on a previous renovation of mine and he was that good that I insisted he do the tiling here. (I booked him months before this renovation started as he is in high demand. He is already booked out until April next year.) We talked at length about how the tiles were going to be set-out and during our discussions we opened a box of tiles and discovered a slight problem. The white subway tiles were slightly smaller than the sample tile I had originally. It was used to size the square bluestone tiles that I had custom-made which meant that they would not align perfectly. CRAP

There was no way that we could re-order, given the 10-week leadtime, and it would have been too difficult to cut them down to size. So while I started to have a melt-down, Andriy suggested we offset the skirting tiles and slightly alter the spaces which will hide the size difference. He assured me that no-one will notice - I hope he is right. Tiles that don't align bug me for some reason.

There have been moments where I've wished I stuck with the original tile selection (remember the square pistachio green tiles?) I still really like them, but at the time I just felt that I needed to choose something a little different to the standard OVP tile of choice. I hope these hex tiles look good and wear well - still deliberating over the grout colour for the floor tiles.

The joinery in the Master Bedroom is just about complete with the installation of the built-in bedhead:

Of course it still needs painting, but it does look really cool (maybe not from this angle though.) And yes, there is a decorative cut-out in it as well. The bedhead also incorporates a hidden shelf and the room's main source of light which in theory will shine up the walls on either side of the window and wash out along the floor on either side of the bed. (The pendant bulb that was hanging in the middle of this room will be replaced by a ceiling fan.)

The rest of the marble was installed in the laundry (L.O.V.E. it) and the stone mason kindly left the following note - but I don't think many people on-site know how to read, hence why it has now been covered in cardboard.

 One week of work left before the holidays.