We have a kitchen!!!!!

The end of this week has seen a lot of activity, not much happened at the beggining but our SS and Wisdom have surely made up for that on Thursday and Friday, as we have.... a Kitchen and bathrooms vanities!

We love the colours and the sides of the island bench has worked good, not quite a waterfall edge but we are really happy with it! It sure beats the cost!

So happy with our SS, we had a few glitches this week but he swifltly fixed them! He is a credit to Wisdom!

Oh, can't wait to cook in this kitchen! I think I'll spend the first few weeks just cooking and cooking! mind you, might just get side tracked looking out at the view...

The barback and overhead cupboards are the same laminex - Smokey Sappelle but with the light the barback looks heaps lighter.

We have a water tank and downpipes!

Well, some more progress on the house, I guess now things are just slower and not as big as all the steps up to here (apart form the kitchen and vanities, the arrival of those will be huge!)
But happy with any little progress. We have down pipes:

And a nice fat 3000L water tank! I say fat as it's too fat for its pants! ;-) it doesn't quite fit on its concrete slab, haha. It's hanging a bit on either side, the pics below show it a bit clearer. I guess they'll have to add a bit more concrete to the sides when they do the driveway later on? not sure, I'm sure our SS will let us know. Really like the ironstone colour!

More tiles pics - with grout!

Our brickies were back today to try to repair all the damage done by the other trades (especially the roof tilers). Unfortunately they did not replace all the chipped bricks as they were afraid that they could not match the mortar colour as they were using a different batch of sand - how I wish they or the SS had told me this when they did the bricks as I would have happily kept a couple of buckets full of that sand! oh well, we'll have to live with chipped bricks and I guess we won't see them after a while (or so each trade keeps telling us! haha).

Ok, back to the interesting stuff - thanks to the brickies we managed to get into the house and we have grout! yep, our beautiful (well, at least to our eyes) niches are grouted and so are the wall tiles! oh, we also have a tiled bath.

Sorry for the pic overlaoad but do you notice we LOVE our bathrooms? ;-)

Main bathroom niche

Main bathroom niche - do we love them? ;-) the photos don't really do them any justice, here it looks like brown and olive colours when they are more like grey and taupe...

Main bathroom bath and shower hob

We have a tiled bath!

Ensuite - the vanities will be were there's missing tiles

and the ensuite again

and again....

Some wall tiles and niches pics!

We got up nice and early and went to the house at 7.30am and our nice tilers were there so they were more than happy for us to admire their handywork! I love it when they are so proud of their work!!

Very happy so far - Wisdom, and specially our SS, seem to really know how to pic their tradies! ;-)

Ensuite shower and niche - the niches look darker at the moment as they haven't been finished and they still have the black of the waterproofing around it, can't wait to see them finished and grouted.

Smart tile (well, the outside frame) in ensuite - for you again Fee ;-)


And ensuite again...

Grouted floor tiles in main bathroom




Niche in main bathroom

1st pics of the floor tiles...

We went down to the house today just after 7.30am hoping the tilers were there so we could get in and they were and hard at work so we were able to have a look and see yesterday's progress!

We really like how the tiles are coming up and very happy with the progress, I keep telling hubby that our SS is a magician!

Tiles at the portico - he was doing the step in this pic

Toilet - the size of the tiles worked perfectly here as they are 450 x 450 and the toilet is 900 wide! ;-)

Main bathroom shower & the cut out for the smart tile (this one is for your Fee)

Main bathroom floor

Laundry

Tilers Lunch - Korean's do it in style!

The tilers are on site! we met them at the house on Saturday to explain how we would like the feature tiles in the niches laid and while we were looking around at all the progress the hard working tilers were having lunch in our theatre room (they had spent the morning laying the bedding for the tiles in the wet areas).

I couldn't help but take this picture after they finished, they sure do it in style! There's no comparison with the wheelbarrows or picnic chairs the other tradies have been using to have their lunch on. Nope, they had chairs (gypbrock buckets) with colourful cushions and a makeshift table - our laundry tub! Check it out, it's just too cute!

I really don't think there was chicko rolls or petrol station pies on the menu either!

Recipe from my mother Country!

Well, I've had an special request from two cheeky buggers that are tired and bored of seeing bricks, plaster, more plaster, more bricks and roof tiles! they are obviously not building their home!!! And I must admit they do see this at work day in day out... They have asked me to "spice up" the blog with authentic food recipes from The Mother Country - Spain!

Well, here we go, there's nothing more authentic than Paella Valenciana and to make it even more real it's in Spanish, enjoy M & C! ;-)

Ingredientes:
1 Pollo
1 Pimiento
4 Tomates
100 gr de Bajoca
100 gr de Garrofó
100 gr de alubias blancas
4 Vasos de arroz
4 Ajos
Perejil
1/2 Vaso de aceite de oliva
Sal
Colorante
Romero

Comensales: 8

Se trocea el pollo en trozos pequeños y el pimiento en tiras, se pone el aceite en la paella y un poco de sal y se frie todo.

A parte se va rayando el tomate eliminando las pieles.Se pican los ajos en un mortero y una vez picados se le añade un poco de aceite y perejil y se pica de nuevo un poco.

Una vez dorado el pollo y el pimiento se añaden las verduras, hay un preparado de verduras que venden con la bajoca, el garrofón y las alubias que nos puede servir perfectamente. Una vez doradas un poco se añade el tomate y el preparado de ajo. Dejar dorar un poco.

Cuando esté todo doradito y homogéneo se ha de añadir el agua, Son dos vasos de agua por vaso de arroz, es una medida aproximada porque la cantidad depende del tipo de arroz y del tipo de agua, pero es mejor quedarse corto que pasarse porque siempre se puede añadir algo de agua si se ve que va a faltar, si sobra no podremos hacer nada y el arroz se pasará. Una vez añadidos los 8 vasos de agua + uno de propina se deja hervir unos 20 minutos a fuego muy lento para que no haya mucha evaporación de agua.

El paso siguiente es añadir el arroz de forma que quede bien distribuido por la paella, el colorante y el romero. Se mezcla y se distribulle el arroz bien por la paella y se prueba el caldo para añadir la sal necesaria.

Se deja otros 15 o 20 minutos a fuego muy lento para que hierva poco, el tiempo depende del tipo de arroz, pero visualmente y probrando algunos granos del fondo se puede saber cuando el arroz está hecho, si se ve que se queda seco y no esta hecho se puede añadir un poco de agua, pero hay que hacerlo poco a poco para que no deje de hervir.

Despues se ha de dejar reposar tapado con un trapo de cocina o papel de aluminio unos 5 minutos para que se termine de hacer por la capa superficial que siempre queda mas entera.

Los puntos claves de la paella valenciana son el aceite y el agua, no puede faltarle aceite y la cantidad de agua tambien es fundamental, solo con la práctica y usando la misma agua y el mismo arroz se puede conseguir el punto de cocción adecuado.

Architraves and cornices are on!

Sorry, have been pretty slack with the blog but have been having time off from the PC, I was spending far too much time on here! we've been looking around for lounges to fill our huge leisure room and it's not easy I tell you, that room is 4.7m by 4.7m!

Ok, here are some pics of the architraves and cornices, we were able to get in on the w/e as the tradies were there...

Bedroom 3

Pantry doors - we weren't really impressed at first with that bit of timber that they have put in the areas where the architrave is so close to the wall that it's a tiny gap that they can't paint properly, so they put this to fix it. The SS said that if we don't have it it will look like s#it, at first we weren't all that convinced but after having a look at the display homes again yesterday once they are painted they do blend in... I think in the pantry here we can probably do without it, I will ask our SS...

Entry hallway

Master bedroom - that bit of timber again...

Our SS sure is on a roll, there's no stopping him for sure! he is all systems go! Very happy with the progress so far, just hope that they are not compromising quality for speed but I doubt that Wisdom and our SS would do that...

Waterproofing done and cornices started

I like the fact that we are locked up because of what it means - progress!! but I hate the fact that I can't get in whenever I want!

The waterproofing got done last week but until yesterday I could not get in... The carpenter was there cutting the window frames, architraves and skirtings to size so we were able to get in and take a few pics!

Tonight we could see through the windows that the cornices had been installed in our bedroom and ensuite and also the theatre room, can't wait to see it in daylight! (sorry, no pics of this as in the dark through the windows was just not working!)

Waterproofing on ensuite - it looks so funny all black!


Waterproofing in the laundry, the laundry door is the wrong one, we had requested a half glass one instead, I guess they'll change it eventually!



Waterproofing in main bathroom - nice black bath! :-)

We've been locked up!!!

Yep, like the title says we've been locked up! no, we are not in jail or anything like that, our house has doors! yes! and now we've been locked out of it!

From now on we'll have to comform ourselves with looking through the windows and trying to be on site when the tradies are around so we can get it! but I guess we are happy to suffer all that if this means that we are moving forward!