The painters were hard at it for the last few days. They had intended to paint the stair treads this afternoon, but there was no paint available at the paint shop. They will be back on Monday.

The blind man came in and measured the windows. We will be getting plantation shutters, but they will be a few weeks away, so we will have to have temporary blinds in place.

On Monday the carpet layer will come in. We will be having carpet in the new bedroom and vinyl plans elsewhere.It will be so good to have that down and be rid of the omnipresent dust.

The tiles went up today.The white tiles provide a strong contrast to the white walls, the white ceilings and the white cupboards.The red clips will disappear when they do the grouting tomorrow.

I talked to the builder today, after I received his latest bill. He tells me that they have had a dream run, with tradies turning up when they should and material being delivered correctly and on time. We told him it is God’s blessings. He also told us that he might come in under budget! Woo hoo!

The painting is well under way. The ceilings are done, and the walls have to have another coat. The doors are painted also. Tomorrow they will be pretty much finished with just the final touches and cleaning up on Friday.

We went to Anderson’s this afternoon to order some blinds. Having hears that we are under budget with the builder, Margaret felt inspired to splurge on the window coverings. We are going with plantation blinds, the cheap imports rather than the wooden variety. He will come in the next day or so to measure and quote.

The painters moved in yesterday, and there wasn’t much to show for it – a lot of prep and some undercoat. Today they finished the undercoat and we are all set for top coats over the next couple of days. The builders installed some bench tops.

The appliances arrived today. There is no power yet so they don’t do anything. Apparently the oven was a very tight fit and some adjustments were needed.

The kitchen door is now described as “mostly painted.” The bench is new.

The painters hope to finish up on Thursday, a day earlier than expected. Tomorrow, I think the electricians are rocking up to put in new wires to the pole. It would be nice if they can do the power points etc. We will see!

Today was about some cleaning up work that needed to happen.

There were lots of handles, with some still to be installed. We have a total of 65 handles, inclding a dozen or so in the bedroom.

Of course the plaster had to be sanded. After running heaters all last night, the plaster was mostly dry enough, but there were patches that he needs to come back to on Monday. Thankfully, he doesn’t expect us to run the heaters all weekend.

The steps at the doorway to nowhere went in today. This is a new door from the (new) kitchen to the garage. We test drove them and found them very satisfactory.

Skirting boards and cornices went in. 130 holes were drilled for the 65 handles that some lucky apprentice will get to screw in.

The plasterer was distressed to find that the plaster board was not drying, so we have heaters running to warm the house up for the comfort of the plaster. As he said, he can’t sand it until its dry, and in this cold weather it is hard to get things dry.

I paid the first payment to the builder today. It only hurt a little bit 😀

Today it was all about the trimmings- cornices and architraves.

Tomorrow they finish the architraves and do the skirting boards.

Painters possibly move in on Friday, or on Monday if the builders are still working on Friday.

Kitchen appliances are due to arrive next Tuesday.

Happy days!

Today was another day of activity. The most obvious progress was some doors on cabinets.

And drawers…

The old hall cupboard got its new doors, too!

Tomorrow they are planning to finish the cabinets, put in architraves and cornices.

Next week the painters come, and after that the floor coverings, electrician and bench tops.

Today was all about cupboards. With the rain forecast for today, Dan and Richard took a couple of hours yesterday to get all the cabinetry moved from the workshop to here.

This is the huge dining area cupboard which will be pantry on the right. The centre part will have glass doors to show off our various ornaments, teapots, trophies etc. Who knows what will find its way to the left cupboard?

This is a narrow cupboard above where the sink will go. We had to make it quite shallow in order to make sure that the taller person doesn’t bang his head when he does the washing up. It will be ideal for cups and medicines.

Meanwhile in the bedroom:

The oak finish on the doors is an exact match to our bed – the one we weren’t going to move from upstairs. There is nothing special about the top drawer. They just didn’t get the front on yet.

There is something special about this though:

This cupboard features two hanging poles, although the lower one hasn’t been installed yet. The top one can be pulled around and down to retrieve the garments. It is a pretty cool way to double the hanging space. The builders were worried that the springs would make it too hard to pull down, but Margaret seems to be able to manage it quite well.

Outside, the electricians started digging a trench by hand to run the upgraded power cables from the power pole to the house.

Tomorrow, it will probably be more of the same.

The rooms are starting to look like rooms now with the plastering of ceilings completed today.

The doors are also starting to look like doors with knobs and latches attached. This door is an unexpected addition at the bottom of the stairs.

We noticed this afternoon that even though the doors have been open all day, the house is surprisingly warm- the west facing windows used to only warm up the side bedrooms, and the walls were not insulated. Now the house will be much more thermally comfortable.

Monday they get stuck into skirtings and architraves.