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Our living spaces!!

Thought I'd post a few photos to show how we are living at the moment. This is Tim's little hidey hole. This room is a little bunk room off the guest room.

Here is our study, actually set up in the study!! You can see all our toilets in boxes on the left. We've got the phone line in and the internet working. Essential for me!!!

This is our room, and Nicky's and Amber's!!! When we moved out, our friends pulled the carpet up at our old rental house. They gave us all the big pieces to put on our chipboard floors. It adds a touch of warmth and cleanliness.

All our worldly goods in the rumpus room. Jake has a little nook in the back corner (see the burgundy doona back left!!)

Our lounge. This is a "theatre" style room with 2 levels of seating. We are using our two red couches, one on each level. It looks a bit daggy but it works well!! We had our antenna installed and were surprised to get fabulous digital pictures. We had to get a more expensive antenna with a booster but we are really happy.

Moving in!!

Yes, finally we have moved in, although the house isn't quite finished! It's kind of like camping. We have no kitchen (see empty space above, but note lovely polished boards!!), no bathroom, no hot water, no stairs. But, we have made do and it is really quite livable.

One thing we DO have is a loo!! There's no door but an old quilt does the job.

This is our makeshift kitchen (in what will be the laundry). For the first few days we had no water inside at all. We had to go to a tap outside. That was a bit hard so we rushed out and bought a laundry sink which Darren has installed on a temporary frame.
We managed to get the tank filled and a water pump on so we have got running water. The gas line has to be brought onto the property from the other side of the road. This is happening next week and then we will be able to install a hot water service. Darren is busy tiling the bathroom downstairs so we will be able to have a functioning shower. At the moment we are travelling to friends to bathe and wash clothes. It is actually working out OK. The house is very spacious even without using the top floor. We have set all the kids up with a "space" and it is quite livable.
Darren did the floorboards himself to save money. He worked so hard with the hired machines but he wasn't happy with the smoothness, even after 2 coats of lacquer and hand sanding in between. He rang a professional just out of the Yellow Pages to get some advice. He turned out to be a great guy who felt sorry for Darren and came out on Saturday afternoon to run his buffer machine over the floor. It is very rare that a professional floor sander would do this especially for someone he didn't even know! The floor came up heaps better just by using a professional machine for 15 minutes!! He also gave Darren some tips on how to apply the lacquer (with a roller, not whatever Darren had used before). It was fantastic and the floor has come up beautifully! He did it all for $50!! What a blessing.

Floorboards

Just a few photos of our floorboards going down.

Lights and floorboards

Our entrance hall light, needs to be a little lower we think.

Our front door. The panels will all be filled with a patterned glass.

At last, stairs from the dining room down to our loungeroom. No more worrying about slipping down a plank!

Our magnificent cornice all painted up. We are so happy with our choice to go for the big stuff!

The Rumpus Room.

Looking into the Dining Room from the Kitchen. These pendants will hang over our dining table.

My cafe area. You can see the edge of the kitchen bulk head with it's downlights in!

Things are going well. Painting is all done, floorboards have started. The power got connected today which was great. We were told we might have a delay due to all the work that needs doing in the fire areas. So now we have light switches and power points that work!!
Plumbing is going well, one toilet at least will go in on Monday and the water and sewerage will all be connected. We just need to raise one of our tanks a bit and get them filled with some more water. Now we have power, we can connect the pump up properly too.
So, by early next week we will have the basics of a functioning house! True, I don't have a kitchen yet and the stairs to upstairs aren't done. Still, we can move up there into our caravan and survive quite well for a few weeks.
For anyone who is worried about our insurance situation, we have informed out Construction Insurers of our plans to live in the caravan and use a bathroom and the laundry. They are fine with that and we will still be insured. Once we have our Occupancy Certificate, we will then get ordinary Home Insurance. I have had a few friends mention that we need to be careful and that is true. Making sure we are insured properly over the transition period is important. With our Contents Insurance, we have advised them that we are moving and they give us a two week cross over period where things are insured at both addresses. As long as the new house is lockable (which it is now), we are fine. Just something to think about if ever you build you own home!!! Cya.

Our gorgeous cornice and the deck!

Excavation work done at the back.

Stage One of the deck. It will eventually extend out another 8 metres or so straight out over the fern gully. It also runs to the left of screen to the dining room and kitchen servery.

Our lovely Victorian cornice. Our plasterer hated it (very hard to put up) but we love it!

The cornice in the kitchen. Darren loves bulkheads!!

The paint colours on the dormers. I've waited a long time to see this finished!!

Almost there......

At last, the weatherboards are done on the dormer windows. The whole outside is done now, boards, eaves, everything except paint on some of it.

This is Jake's room with the doors out onto the balcony.

Darren doing something, Amber watching.

The bath is in!!!

Our beautiful house.