The last week saw a lot of progress as we are pressing the builder to finish the job. All windows with visible scratches have been replaced (cca 20!) and so were our kitchen cupboards (we asked for no handles to be installed). The fire place mantel piece looks great in glossy white and our balcony has been finally tiled. The soil spreading is finished and the bricklayers are coming on the weekend to change bricks that were discoloured.
We’re quite pleased with the look of our door handles – we bought 40 sets a couple of months ago and the builder has now agreed to install them (instead of those we had to select from their limited range).
Stainless steel flyscreens and doors security screens are scheduled for Monday… all in all, it looks like we’ll be moving soon.

The “girls” already have their house finished – I’m enclosing photos of their 5 star luxury timber resort.

Minuly tyden se toho na stavbe hodne udalo, tlacime na firmu, aby konecne vsechno dodelali. Okna, ktera byla ponicena (poskrabana), byla pred par dny vymenena za nove (asi 20 oken) a kuchynska linka ma take nova dvirka (bez drzatek/klik, tak jak jsme je puvodne chteli). Rimsa krbu byla dokoncena v bile barve a vypada skvele. Balkon ma konecne dlazdice. Hlina venku je docela srovnana a o vikendu prijdou zednici vymenit cihly, ktere byly pospinene a nejdou umyt. Jsme spokojeni s tim, jak vypadaji nase kliky. Koupili jsem jich 40 paru a nase stavebni firma ted souhlasila, ze ty nase kliky nainstaluje (misto tech standarnich, ktere by dodali oni).

Vsechno se posunuje rychle dopredu, tak doufame, ze se budeme brzy stehovat.

“Holky” uz svuj domecek maji hotovy, prikladam fotky jejich 5ti hvezdickoveho luxusniho dreveneho strediska.

So close we can almost taste it! The electrical and plumbing fit-offs are nearly finished, the team of cleaners completed the first pass and now we mainly deal with the fix-ups. One of these includes the replacement of all interior doors that had their handle holes cut in 10 mm larger than our handles can cover. Initially a small oversight by the builder when ordering doors with 50 mm holes instead of 22mm but now it means a lot more work to paint and fit them again.  A similar mistake was made on the kitchen cupboards when no handles should have been fitted and now all the cupboard doors have to be made again.

The balcony is still awaiting its tiles and ballustrading but has been water proofed.

The photos I enclose show some of our light fittings installed without the glass shades. The bathrooms’ photos were taken before the clean up.

Elektrikarske a instalaterske prace jsou temer hotove a uklizeci ceta o vikendu  umyvala okna a uklizela co mohla. Ted jde hlavne o opravy a dodelavky jako napriklad vymena vsech dveri, ktere maji diry na kliky vetsi nez by nase kliky zakryly. Puvodne prehlednuti ze strany firmy, ale ted je to pro ne drahy omyl, protoze se nove dvere musi znovu natirat atd. Pro nas je to dalsich par tydnu cekani…

Balcon je zaizolovany proti vode a pripraveny pro obkladace a zabradli.

Na fotkach, ktere prikladam, jsou videt nektera nainstalovana svetla, avsak bez sklenenych stinidel. Fotky koupelen jsou pred uklidem.

Master bedroom/Nase loznice

Master ensuite/Koupelna z nasi loznice

Powder room/umyvadlo a zachod v prizemi (pro navstevy atd.)

Guest suite/Pokoj pro hosty

Guest suite – ensuite/koupelna z pokoje pro hosty

Upstairs bathroom

Upstairs view/prvni patro

It was a gorgeous day on Saturday! The winter sun was shining on the freshly spread piles of mud and we had the opportunity to walk inside the house and see the latest progress. In case you ask, no, we are not having professional landscaping company so the job to attack the mud will be ours only.

V sobotu byl opravdu nadherny den! Zimni slunce zarilo na cerstve rozhrabane kopce blata a my jsme meli tu prilezitost podivat se dovnitr na nejnovejsi “vyvoj prace”. Pokud se ptate, ne , nebudeme platit firme za zahradni architekturu, takze na to blato budeme muset zautocit jen my dva.

Not a perfect colour match with our cedar gables but not a reason to cry!

Barva neni dokonale sladena s nasimi cedrovymi stity, ale neni to zadny duvod k placi!

Half of the staircase has been stained with “Jarrah”, it will look great when it’s finished!

Polovina schodiste byla ‘namorena’ (je to to spravne slovo?), bude to vypadat super az to dokonci!

Our master bedroom ensuite is slowly taking shape. The tiles are very neutral, which allows the dark jarrah double vanity to stand out. We opted for a pebbled border, it is subtle but goes well with the soft stone hues of the tiles (a texture which is not well conveyed through photos). The tiling of the corner spa bath is not finished but I will post new photos in the next few days. The tiler looked puzzled why we did not install a triangular- shaped spa bath – so in case others are asking too: we rely entirely on a tank water so the water usage/bath’s capacity in litres played an important role. Also, we really liked the idea of an oval bath placed diagonally and the corner hob. The builder’s standard inclusion in fact was a corner spa bath but we upgraded it to this one.

Koupelna u nasi loznice se pomalu rysuje. Obklady jsou velmi neutralni, coz vyzdvihuje tmavou barvu dreva nasi skrinky. Rozhodli jsme se pro lemovani/okraj z oblazku – hodi se to k jemnym odstinum dlazdic, ktere maji texturu napodobujici kamen (fotky to dobre neukazuji). Obklady nasi rohove vany jeste nejsou hotove. Obkladac se hrozne divil, proc mame vanu ve tvaru ovalu umistenou v rohu. Nam se to libi vic nez vana ve tvaru trojuhelniku, ktera puvodne byla zapoctena v nasi smlouve. Spolehame pouze na filtrovanou destovou vodu (vodovod nam sem nevede), takze kapacita vany a spotreba vody hrala velkou roli.

We aimed for a more time-less/contemporary country look with our brick-pattern tiles instead of an ultra modern splashback.

As predicted, our idea of how the choice of tiles would look on the wall, was somewhat different to when we saw them laid this weekend. Our kitchen tiles turned out to be MUCH lighter than expected. My expectation of an ‘icecream’ colour was leaning towards beige but in reality, it looks white. I wish someone had reminded us of the obvious – that once they’re laid plus when it is a sun filled room, tiles will always appear lighter! Oh well. The border looks great though and ties well with the “swirls” (S-scrolls) in our staircase. Once the tiles are grouted, it will look more complete. Our cupboard doors have not yet been replaced (we asked for no handles to be installed) and I think the kitchen “look” will change a lot when we install our own black wrought iron handles.

Tak jak jsme predpokladali, nase predstava jak obkladacky budou vypadat na zdi, se ponekud lisila od reality kdyz jsme je tento tyden videli. Obkladacky v kuchyni jsou mnohem svetlejsi – ocekavala jsem, ze ta barva bude vic bezova, ale ve skutecnosti vypadaji skoro bile. Kez by nam tehdy pri vyberu nekdo pripomenul, ze dlazdice pohromade vypadaji svetlejsi, zvlast v mistnosti plne slunce! Ale i tak jsme spokojeni.  Jeste nejsou ‘vyplnene/zalite’ – nevim jake je na to v cestine slovo).  To okrasne lemovani ve tvaru “S” se nam moc libi, nase schodiste ma take zabradli s podobnym “S”, tak to jde dohromady. Jeste nam nevymenli vsechna dvirka (objednali jsme tu kuchyn be klik) a verim, ze jakmile budeme moct nainstalovat nase okrasne kliky z tepaneho zeleza, ten vzhled kuchyne se zmeni.

A bit of a tongue twister but what a great relief! We met our tiles today as we drove by this morning. They finally started! It has been months since we chose our tiles so I expect a few surprises by the end of the week when it comes to seeing the tiles laid. For example, our ensuite tiles appear awefully lighter than I remember – not that I mind but is shows how quickly our memory of colour decisions can fade.  I do remember that our tile appointment was stressful – we were given 90 minutes to select all floor and wall tiles for four bathrooms, a laundry and a kitchen. We had some ideas but struggled. The ‘consultation lady’ guided us through it and mainly stopped us from choosing tiles that clash or patterns that should not be combined with others.  I felt at times that our choice were too neutral… too safe. But we were trying to create a little bit more timeless look and avoided the latest trends. Now we’ll soon see our choice glued to the wall! Fingers crossed! I’ll post photos of each tiled room once they’re finished.

KACHLICKARI KACHLICKUJI KACHLICKY!

Konecne! Rano jsme jeli okolo stavby a videli, ze tam nekdo je. Predstavili jsme se nasim kachlickarum – cekali jsme na ne uz nekolik tydnu a nechapali duvody takoveho zpozdeni. Ocekavame tento tyden par prevkapeni co se tyka naseho vyberu dlazdic a kachlicek. Vybrali jsme je totiz pred mesici a pamet ohledne barev rychle vyprcha. Napriklad koupelna u nasi loznice ma mnohem svetlejsi kachle nez jsem si predstavovala. Ale rozhodne si pamatuji, jak stresujici byla schuzka behem ktere jsme si meli vsechno oblozeni vybrat – jak na zed tak na podlahu. Dali nam 90 minut na vyber kachlickek pro 4 koupelny, 1 pradelnu a kuchyn. Sice jsme par napadu meli, ale stejne jsme s tim silne zapasili a stali jsme v obchode jak opareni. Pani “konzultacni” nam s tim trochu pomahala – hlavne v tom, abychom nekombinovali vzory ktere se k sobe nehodi atd. Nekdy mi pripadalo, ze jsme si vybrali vsechno neutralni. Na druhe strane jsme se snazili vyhnout modernim trendum nebot chceme styl, co rychle nestarne. No a ted konecne budeme moct videt nase volby prilepene na zed!  Poslu fotky kazde oblozene mistnosti jak je dokonci.

It will be 14 months next week since the house construction has officially begun. It would be fair to say that we fully expected to be in our new home by now but we aren’t. The standard building contract stipulates 365 for the construction including any delays due to bad weather. Builders typically finish ahead of time so what happened? It will be three years in August since we purchased the land. Three years! So many people buy their land and move in to their new house within a year. I suppose we’re not the typical case – our land is outside of most builders ‘working map’ but then we were charged premium because of the location. In fact, we were meant to have a more dedicated supervisor. Hmm… what happened to that?

The builder’s office informed us that we should have a ‘walk through’ in three weeks time – an appointment with our site supervisor during which we raise any issues before the final handover. This makes us a little be apprehensive because we do keep a list of issues and I wish we could voice them now! It’s hard to trust a builder to know what they are doing if they were unable to deliver a finished product in a set timeframe.
On a more positive note, we have learned invaluable lessons during the past 14 months, we love our house and look forward to living there.

Pristi tyden to bude 14 mesicu od zahajeni stavby. Byli jsme si jisti ze touto dobou uz budeme v novem dome bydlet, ale opak je pravdou. Ve smlouve je delka stavby 365 dni vcetne zpozdeni kvuli spatnemu pocasi. Stavebeni firmy vetsinou dokonci domy ve stanovene lhute – tak co se deje? V srpnu tu budou tri roky co jsme ten pozemek koupili. Tri roky! Tolik lidi koupi parcelu a behem roku bydli v novem dome. Mozna nejsme ten typicky pripad – nas pozemek je mimo ‘pracovni mapu’ vetsiny stavebnich firem, ale prave kvuli mistu stavby nam uctovali vetsi sazbu – pry jsme meli mit i vyhradniho vedouciho stavby…hmmm…

Z kancelare firmy nam dnes oznamili, ze za tri tydny ma byt dum hotovy a s vedoucim stavby budeme mit na miste schuzku, behem ktere mame moznost poukazat na jakekoliv problemy nebo nedostatky. Po opravach bude nasledovat predani.  Z toho jsme trochu nervozni, protoze nedostatku uz mame celou stranku a nechceme cekat 3 tydny na to, abysme ne problemy upozornili. Mozna se nemame ceho bat, ale je tezke duverovat firme, ktere nedokazala dodrzet smluvni lhutu.

Na pozitivnejsi tema – naucili jsme se toho za posledni rok spoustu, mame nas dum moc radi a tesime se na to, az tam budeme moct bydlet.

These downstairs photos  were taken  by a mobile phone after the painters have started. Tyto fotky jsou z mobilniho telefonu – omlouvam se za kvalitu!

The tiles arrived – Kachlicky/dlazdice dorazily

Master bedroom/Nase loznice

Master Ensuite/Nase koupelna u loznice

Home cinema/Domaci Kino

Living Area/Obyvaci mistnost u kuchyne

Sitting room by one of the fireplaces/Mistnost u jednoho z krbu