THE brickies promised us our hallway and bedrooms this week so of course we had to go up and have a peek. Better yet, half our front elevation is complete too, most of the garage is up, and all that’s left to do really is the walls to the dining area and for the rest to go up to plate height. Add the feature on the front facade and they’re about done. Woohoo!

Half-done feature wall and windows to master bedroom:

Brendan in the front door. It’s full glass, along with the side panel, and they will eventually get frosted. Security risk? Maybe. Boring? Definitely not. I might succumb and get a security screen put in anyway but we’ll see…

Brendan and Sky in the games room (originally cinema on the plan). We didn’t see the need to have a cinema and an entertainment system in the living room so we’re converting this into a bit of a man palace. The projector might find a home here until we put it up in the backyard but otherwise the plan is to eventually have a pool table set up in here… Gumtree here we come!

Brendan and Sky walking into the master bedroom:

He’s taking shade here in the recessed bit where the feature window in the elevation is centred. Bren reckons the master bedroom is small but unless he plans to park a boat in here, rest assured it will fit our bed quite nicely:

The walk-in-wardrobe behind the bed head wall. Sky is looking out another feature window. We now realise those windows will be annoying to fit with blinds and delightfully await the extortionate price tag that is attached to anything custom-made in Australia:

Unfortunately I only bought my little point-and-shoot so I didn’t have a lens wide enough to take a good photo of the bathrooms. Hopefully I’ll remember the next time round (along with a tape measure to get the window dimensions right) and you’ll be able to see the layout better.

Anyway, here I am standing proud. Brendan’s a little jealous because while he gets the garage (and later on a shed) to play around in, I get this study and a sewing room, which is basically Bedroom 2 converted to house a pattern drafting table and my sewing machines:

Brendan in the kitchen. He’s standing in the ridiculously wide fridge recess. Regret #1: Not plumbing it in. Regret #2: Not checking the measurements so I could narrow it to a sensible width and give me more kitchen bench space along the back! Again, Brendan thinks I’m crazy because my island is already 3.5m long, with 2.1m of dedicated work space (the rest is taken up by the sink). I’m sure my sister will agree, you can never have too much space in the kitchen! I can’t wait until the island is installed but that will only happen when the cabinetry in the house goes in:

Checking out our enormous pantry. You can just see the lines marked out for the walls in the concrete:

The man and his garage. Yes, it’s massive, and yes, he’s stoked. I forgot to snap a picture of it but that half-done wall in the limestone brick is another recessed area that should just fit Bren’s work table. I’m informed that this is where he’ll be making (and breaking) things, welding random scrap metal sculptures together and creating various wooden works of art:

The hallway to the sewing room, laundry, guest toilet, guest bathroom and guest bedrooms:

Me being silly in my walk-in-linen. All three walls will be lined with shelves and the wall to the right will have a broom closet built in. Note the shocking workmanship they produce in Australia when they know someone else (i.e. the renderer) will be covering up their shoddy efforts:

Now to the outside! We want to build a bit of a garden for Sky (and ourselves) and we’re thinking we might drop down some decking along where Brendan is standing. The area where Sky is running around will be paved when we get the keys, so we don’t have to worry about decking that just yet. Another option is to pave the whole lot, but we’re not too keen on the cheap pavers we got with the house so it’ll have to be another complete overhaul if we do. We’re a little tired of making selections this week but I’m sure we’ll get back into the swing of things next week:

The only bit of side area we have. Our laundry door leads out to this area and so it will mostly be reserved for the clothes line. The plan is to fill up the rest of the space with plants to hide the fence a little (as the study, sewing room and guest bathroom all look out into this area) and pave the remainder leading from the doors to the laundry area:

That’s all for now. As mentioned, we will be back up again next week to see the finished brickwork, including the alfresco, front elevation features and remaining walls.

One thing worth mentioning is that the neighbour to our left is in a band, and when we went to have a look at the site, he was having one of his regular Saturday jam sessions (he’s their drummer). You might be thinking, “Unlucky!” but I tell you what, they play bloody decent music! I do remember that when I had to get him to sign the forms for council approval—our garage was going to be built right on the shared boundary line—he mentioned they played at several pubs in and around Perth. But of course, I was so focussed on getting him and his wife to sign those silly papers I didn’t actually bother to listen for the name of the band. Anyway, my point is that at least we know to expect band practice on a Saturday afternoon and we’re guaranteed some good old live Motown music piped through to the alfresco… The playlist today: Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” and Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Let’s Groove”. Oh and what great walk-out music they played, with Ceelo Green’s “F*ck You” blaring as we left.

On a sad note, the house on our right went into foreclosure. The auction was today, so we’re going to have new neighbours soon. Wonder who they’re going to be…