We have walls

Mia & Me in James’ fully lined “man cave” aka the Garage

OK so I admit, I’ve been a bit slack on the Blog posting front, but slack is not what I would say we have been on the house front.  Its been so busy with things happening.  It’s as if we blinked and then all of  sudden we had walls – so cliche haha.  But truly it does feel that way.  Once the roof went up it didn’t take long for the action inside the walls to take place. The action being – wiring, plumbing, central heating & insulation.

Filling the walls started with getting the EAV team in to put in our electrical wiring.  These guys are the seriously leaders in the electrical world and really know their stuff.  We worked with Matt and the EAV team on The Block and they helped us to create ‘the smart home’ by operating a smart device to control lights, music, tv and even let people in to the home without having to leave the couch.

 

 

Matt & Rob from EAV

getting wired up

Like the last time we worked with Matt, he got us to really think about how we would use the home and consider the most practical places to position power points, switches and TV connections.  We had to consider how we were going to live in this house, plan out where we expect to be using the power points for vaccuming, side lamps, charging devices etc., where we would want to switch lights on and off from and exactly where we wanted our light fixtures to be – and all without living in the house!  Its so easy to think, oh just put this here, or put this there and we can change it later, but that’s the thing, it’s kinda hard to change things out later because later your probably going to have to knock a hole in the wall or force your sparky to climb in the roof and change things up – this will cost you! So in order to help keep our budget on track we really thought this plan out and let The EAV guys get to it.  We did give them a few headaches with the changes we asked them to do once they finished our original plan – ekkk.

Plumbing work in the walls

The next thing we had to forward think was the placement of our plumbing.  Without even seeing walls we had to lock in our shower sizes, where we were going to turn the taps and showers on from, whether or not taps were coming out of the wall and start planning where our vanity were going to be and if they were going to touch the floor or hang from the wall.  Seriously, so much planning!  Alesana & the Levi Plumbing team were our plumbers on The Bock as well and just like the EAV crew, Alesana knows his stuff.  We had big plans for our bathrooms, plans that were on trend and astectically pleasing – but soo not practical for a young family.  Alesana made me think about how I want to clean the bathroom and whether or not I wanted to get myself or certain areas wet when turning on the shower.  He also made me think about how I would use the bathroom with 2 or more kids.  Clearly I was not thinking that way when I dreamt up a “wet area” – shower and bath in one zone.  I’m predicting Alesana has saved me some of my sanity in the future when I will be cleaning these 3 bathrooms.  The Toilets I’ll leave for James.

How I had originally planned out the main bathroom where the shower & bath were in one area.  This one would have been a bit easier to clean being a built-in bath but we’re going for a free standing bath

Next in were Comfort Solutions who set up our beast of  a Ducting Heat Pump unit.  I’m totally not kidding when I call it a beast because everyone who has seen it has commented on how huge it it.  Thank goodness it gets hidden in the roof.  This heating system is by far a luxury for us, but we consider it a very smart luxury.  The unit is designed to pump air into all rooms of  house and keep all areas the same temperature throughout.  Even in the  summer time you can use this to keep the house cool as well as warm and toasty in the summer.  James sweats so much in the summer so we’re looking forward to testing this out and getting rid of the fans this coming summer.  Both Alesana & Matt have similar heating units in their homes and have told us that getting one is something we wont regret – especially with kids.

 

 

Lastly to fill the walls we got Earthwool insulation put in to keep the noise down and warmth in.  Insulating was my Sunday & Monday night fix on the Block.  I found it so therapeutic, especially after was crappy judging session and those stressful weeks we had.  We were so familiar with this product  and knew the quality and noise control of the insulation was so good that we had to get it in our house.  The team at Knauf were so good to us and organised some professional installers who insulated the whole house in 2 days.  Two days!. I watched the 3 men install the Earthwool and I  was seriously impressed, yeah I know they do this for a job all day every day, but I wish I had watched them work or got some lessons from them before we went on the Block.

 

 

Earthwool insulation

The Knuaff Earthwool is made up of recycled glass bottles and raw material and being natural brown in colour it has no bleach, dyes or chemicals which helps to keep it pretty much odourless.  The other thing I loved about using this insulation is that is practically itch free thanks to it’s super soft fibres – not that I recommend installing in shorts and a tee – be smart and cover up.  And if you do find yourself putting in insulation wear googles and gloves too.

Now that the walls are packed the GIB plaserboard is up and the house is looking bloody damn good! We have the Advanced Plasterbroad Fixing Ltd in doing everything ‘walls’ GIB, plastering & paining – yep that’s right, we don’t have to paint it ourselves YASSSSS!!

 

James checking out his ‘man cave’

Learning’s so far:

• As soon as you get your house plans, start considering your lighting & plumbing plan straight away, this will help you when you sit down with your trades.
• Plan in early what type of heating (if any) you want in your house.  We left the decisions a bit late so held up the schedule a couple of days – Martin wasn’t too impressed.  Luckily the Comfort Solutions guys could come out and work in the weekend to get the job done.
• Build a good relationship with your Plumber and & Electrician.  Really explain how you plan on “functionally” living in your home and they can help you to avoid things that might not work or annoy you later down the track.
• Consider how your going to clean your house, always! vacuuming, cleaning the areas no one likes garage, cars, bathrooms, kitchens.  Put power points & taps in the most practical place to do these things.

In other news, our girl Mia turned 10 months WTH?! time has gone so fast.  Shes crawling heaps, climbing up and down chairs & stairs and when were at the house she loves to have a good ol’ chat/flirt with the boys.  She’s getting really confident on her walker and its scaring us – please slow down baby.

Mia – 10 months and trying to walk