Internal fit out

Last week was very productive with all the internal cabinetry installed and the benchtops measured up for the Caesarstone.

First up was the kitchen and Butler’s Pantry:

Followed by the waterproofing of the wet areas and installation of cabinetry:

En-suite:

Plus the shelving for the media alcove in bedroom 5/ upstairs media room:

And the shelving for the feature pop out master bed head wall:

The tiler started on Saturday, after the waterproofing inspection, by screeding the wet areas and the front porch:

Also last week the understairs cupboard was gyprocked and the gas connected to the mains.

Meanwhile back at the rental we had a visitor  🙂

Kookaburra on the Hill’s Hoist

Kitchen time!

I don’t wish to jinx myself but the build is continuing to progress well. This week we reached a milestone with the kitchen going in. The units were delivered at the end of Friday and we went from this:

to this:

Warning: photo overload coming up 🙂

[extra cupboards accessible from Leisure area]

[Oven housing for two single ovens & fridge space]

Then last but not least the Butler’s Pantry which made my SS laugh with its pantry within a pantry:

I did a double take after the delivery when I saw the sheer volume of carcasses but they do say that you can’t have too much storage 🙂

So far so good and I’m really pleased with what I can see.

Our kitchen is by Timpelle with the base cabinetry in satin polyurethane ‘Laminex White’ and the wall cabinets in Laminex ‘Espresso Ligna’ silk.

I looked at an awful lot of show kitchens before finally deciding on this mix. It was a balancing act between cost, practicality and aesthetics. The fact our two sons, ages 21+, will be using the kitchen factored into the equation too.

Whilst sorting things before we move I came across this in one of their treasure boxes.

Well 16 years down the line and I can still find plenty of fingerprints and I don’t need a CSI to dust for them either. They better not turn to a life of crime.

With that in mind I went for easy to wipe surfaces with handles on the lower cabinetry rather than the handle free shark nose edges I quite liked. I have compromised on the wall cabinets and left off the handles but made the doors overhang the carcass so you can finger pull them open from behind. I have also put soft close mechanisms on everything so they can’t crash, bang, wallop around – hopefully. I will keep a stash of microfiber cloths handy too so I can do a quick clean up.

Only one minor worry and that is the height of the wall units. I am – ahem – vertically challenged and took this into account in the design stage. The wall cupboards were dropped as low as they could be in order for me to reach the bottom shelf.

This was driven by the height the gas cooktop has to be from the cooker hood. Australian standards state the cooker hood must be a minimum 650mm from the top of the trivet. So my cupboards came down to right above the window and my cooker hood went up. However the wall cabinets seem to have been installed a few inches above the window which wasn’t how it was on the signed off plans.

My SS is going to check it all out and come back to me on it. I will already be having a step tucked away in the WIP so I can reach things but I would like to manage the bottom shelf by myself 🙂

Once the kitchen is in they can measure up for the stone benchtops and glass splashbacks and fingers crossed they look good together. Hopefully I will get a chance to take the internal measurements of the large drawers and sort out my linings prior to moving. I am going to DIY it by using pegboard and dowelling to secure the plates etc and non slip liners in the others to recreate this:

 

This is the link for these products but Bunnings here I come!

http://www.kitchensource.com/drawer-organizer/d/pegsystem/

Next up this week is waterproofing followed by the arrival of the tiler – fingers crossed!

Frames in progress

The chippies started the framing last Tuesday and they are powering ahead. Weather stopped play on Friday but they hope to be finished on Wednesday.

Here’s where they were up to at the weekend:

 

This was the first time we have stepped on the slab and entered the house. A momentous occasion to be sure, I almost thought of asking to be carried over the threshold but didn’t want to wreck hubby’s back 🙂

This is where we begin to see if what we have planned and altered actually works or not. I’m pleased to say so far so good!  The main changes downstairs are:

• Split level
• Gas Fireplace
• Butler’s Pantry
• Under stairs cupboard

Well the split level has given us extremely high ceilings, at 3m they are up in the stratosphere for me at 1.58m  🙂  I certainly won’t be changing any light bulbs or painting any ceilings. The gas fireplace position looks great and the under stairs cupboard looks huge – at least the door into it does.

The area I was most keen to see was the Butler’s Pantry as we had redesigned it. The standard Majestic Butler’s Pantry is a very large walk in pantry (WIP) with ‘U’ shaped shelves and double doors from the kitchen:

I haven’t seen a standard WIP in any of the show homes as they are always upgraded with kitchen units etc and look great.

By making our Butler’s bigger we could mirror the look of the kitchen and keep a WIP in it. On the LHS there is now a window with base and wall units to match the kitchen and space for an additional fridge freezer. On the RHS there is a WIP behind two feature doors.

 

I’m pleased to say it looks like it has translated well into reality from the plans.

 

 

Kitchen part 2

 

On Saturday we went to the Decoglaze showroom to double check our choice of glass splashback. At our colour appointment with Wisdom they suggested ‘Latte’ would go well with our choices of cupboards: Laminex Espresso Ligna silk and polyurethane white satin, against our Caesarstone benchtops of Emperadoro and Oyster. The sample in the Timpelle showroom looked good but I just wanted to make certain.

I’m nervous about all the colours, especially tiling etc because of getting it wrong previously. I chose the tiles in my last kitchen thinking they were a rich cream but in situ they became mushroom. It detracted from the overall look of the kitchen and has bugged me ever since, hence our little road trip.

I’m pleased to say that the latte looks great. The Maltese looked nice as well but then the sales lady said ‘it almost has a mushroom hue in some lights …’ and that was that – Latte it is!

Maltese on the left, Latte on the right with our samples:

Quite a few people make a bold statement with their glass splashback colour but not us I’m afraid, nice and neutral this time. I did like the one which was wine being sploshed around … you can have any photo put behind the glass.

 

We have signed off our kitchen plans from Timpelle. Lots and lots of pages but here is a sneak preview:

 

There will be a join in the cooktop benchtop unfortunately as the bench at 3.1m is longer than the piece of Caesarstone. There are bulkheads over the cupboards and the gaps are for the double oven, microwave and American fridge freezer. The overhead cupboards have been dropped for the vertically challenged – that’s me!

 

Butler’s Pantry looks good: 

 

So does the Laundry: 

 

 

Kitchen Appointment

Kitchen and Butler’s Pantry

Finally the appointment I have most been looking forward to – the kitchen consultation with Timpelle 🙂

We had visited the showroom a couple of times to get ideas and colour samples which certainly helped. I had also taken photos of lots of different show home kitchens I liked, not just Wisdom’s. Plus the Kitchen section on the Homeone forum was a great help especially their ‘Show us your kitchen’ thread.

http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewforum.php?f=16

The kitchen is the hub of the home and in the Majestic it is central in the large open plan living and dining area so we want it to be a feature. The design needed to be contemporary to suit the space which is a bit different from anything we’ve previously had. Our last kitchen was real maple wood in a shaker style and I still like it. The current kitchens with laminates and polyurethane remind me of my parents’ brand new kitchen in the 60’s just not quite so bright!

With two sons in their 20’s practicality came into play, whilst I like the look of no handles and a shark tooth edge we will be going for handles on the lower cabinetry – less finger marks. Silk finish over gloss for the same reason and soft close doors and drawers to help stop them bashing and crashing around.

Lower cabinetry in white silk polyurethane and upper cabinetry in Laminex Espresso Ligna silk finish.

We have a large island bench, 2300 x 1000mm, which we will make the main feature downstairs. We have chosen to make it a 70mm breakfast bar with waterfall ends in Caesarstone Supernatural ‘Emperadoro’. Yes, I know on previous posts I said we might be sensible and stick to the standard range but it is lovely ….

All other Kitchen and Butler’s Pantry benchtops will be standard Caesarstone in ‘Osprey’.

The Decoglaze glass splashback will be in ‘Latte’.

As I am chief cook and bottle washer we are going for a built in double oven and a gas cook top rather than the standard freestanding range cooker. After nearly 30 years with a double oven I’ll stick with what I’m happy with although the steam ovens do look good.

The Butler’s Pantry will have the same colour scheme as the kitchen. The original plans had the pantry as a large store room with shelving on three walls. By shifting some walls slightly we have enlarged it to take cabinetry and made a walk in pantry (WIP) off it and a window. The window is offset to allow for a fridge freezer in the left hand corner but it should end up central in the space. The double oven will go in with the microwave (MW) and the fridge space (REF) will be made slightly smaller. We have made the fridge space bigger for a future Samsung French door style fridge freezer. Of course since we would like one our current fridge will last indefinitely…

Our consultant was really helpful and we’ve ended up with a nice contemporary kitchen design with a lot of cupboard and drawer space which is great. He’s dropped the overhead cupboards down so I can reach them as I am vertically challenged! I would have liked them a lot lower but they have to be a certain distance from the gas flame so I’ll settle for the bottom shelf and a little stool in the pantry 🙂

 

Crikey!

Greetings from Queensland and in the words of Steve Irwin “Crikey!”

Last day of the hols and fresh in my inbox are our eagerly awaited house plans – all 18 pages of them. Even better they were ready in the time frame we were given! Hubby has ordered me some sets of A3 prints of them from Office Works so time to dust off my ruler and start double checking them and marking up any mistakes.

It is so good to finally see what the house will look like on the outside and to see my changes to the Butler’s Pantry, bathroom and master bedroom drawn up professionally. Unfortunately I can’t share them with you just yet as we are away and I am on my iPad. I will post them up once we are back and I have my computer and it’s amazing snipping tool to play with.

Also on Sunday we have a meet and greet coffee morning up at Gardener’s Ridge which I am really looking forward to. Hopefully we will get to meet all our neighbours and put the sold sticker on our ‘For Sale’ sign and take lots of photos.

Busy weekend ahead 🙂