Locked Out :(

Normally posts about being locked out are followed by happy faces not sad faces, but ours is a sad face because it's not due to our house being at lock-up stage. Our builder has locked our fence...they say it's to stop thieves but in reality I think it's to keep us out! ;)

Anyway, that means I have no awesome photos of the house to show you. They've started the pilons for the balcony but that was the only discernable change and photos would have loocked uninspiring...plus we were on our motorbikes so it definitely wasn't worth the effort.

BUT we have been busy! We've been choosing flooring and tiling once and for all. We've gone with a solid timber floor in Kempas for the Entry, Hallway, Kitchen, Meals, Study and first half of Family/Media Room. We will be installing carpet for the Formal Living, stairs (except first tread), raised floor in Family/Media Room, and all of the upstairs (except wet areas). We're tiling the wet areas, porch and balcony. We'll be decking the Alfresco.

The carpet we like is by Mohawk and is called Cosy Comfort. It is inherently stain resistant i.e. the fibre itself is stain resistant not a coating such as scotch-guard. Plus it feels amazing. Even carpet that feels soft to walk on feels rough to touch but this stuff feels silky. We considered the Godfrey Hirst version Silk Touch, but for not much extra money the Mohawk carpet comes with better waranties and feels thicker (not sure it actually is, that's just what we felt). At first glance the Mohawk is a lot more expensive (only available through Harvey Norman), but we simply told Harvey Norman the price quoted us for the Godfrey Hirst carpet and they almost matched it. We've decided on a colour called Bare Essence (cream), and to get the textured carpet. It's a little shaggy (not quite like shag piles of old!) so a little less contemporary than a "flatter" carpet but it feels amazing and, we think, in a large area it won't look out of place. It will also help bring the carpet closer to the level of the solid timber. To help this even further, we will be having the ply-wood sub-floor, which is needed for the timber, installed everywhere on the ground floor so that the final levels aren't too different.

Some pics:

Solid Timber Kempas Floor Boards (running vertically)

 

Solid Timber Kempas Floor Boards (running vertically)



Mohawk Cosy Comfort 'Bare Essence'

Fairmont Homes NSW Display Home - Gregory Hills

Where you see tiling (above) will be timber (plus the first stair tread and handrails) and where you see carpet will be...carpet, but it will be cream, the timber warm reds, the main wall colour will be cream with a large reddish-brown feature wall, white trim and ceiling and a stained timber front door.

Now onto tiling, we really haven't deviated much from what we've chosen previously:

Ensuite: Floor-to-ceiling tiling (pictured below). The shower wall opposite the door from the bedroom will be a full feature wall of the mosaics (Adore 'night'). The rest of the walls (including the niche) will be 30cm x 20cm gloss white tile laid horizontally. The floor and shower bench will be 20cm x 20cm Enviro "Black Flint" tile. Also pictured is our vanity.

The Powder Room and Laundry will be the following 30cm x 30cm tile (I'll have to get back to you with the name). It looks a lot like Crema Marfield, and whilst not cheap, is not as expensive as stone! We will be having this tiled on the floor and walls: to 1.8m in the shower, one row above vanity and skirting to the rest. And possibly the laundry splashback...

The Main Bathroom will have the above tiled on the floor in the 30cm x 30cm tiles, but we will use the 60cm x 30cm tiles for the walls, which will be tiled floor-to-ceiling including niches and pony wall.

We went with the smaller (30x30) for the shower in the Powder Room because 30cm fits nicely into the 90cm shower stalls, whereas 60cm tiles would need to be cut. This isn't a problem for the Main Bathroom as it's being tiled throughout, and the shower stall is slightly larger than the Powder Room.

We're having the corners "piped" (not sure of the correct term) in polished chrome stripping (to match tapware).

It should look a little something like this (tap and pony wall included but no feature wall):

And, in my dream world are finished with accents in these colours:

The last piece of the tile "puzzle" is the porch and balcony. We have decided on the following sand-stone-look tile. We feel it should complement the bricks as they are in the same "peaches and cream vein:

The tiles on the right are for the balcony and portico

For the balcony and portico

I think the timber, carpet and tile complement each other beautifully and they are quite timeless, even somwhat traditional (with the exception of the Ensuite, though black and white is always in fashion...in my book anyway). I can't wait to see them all installed!!