Since sharing the amazing new that our kitchen joinery would be shaker panel doors, a lot has happened at Casa Almora!
The framing was completed around Christmas 2015. In fact, lock-up stage was by Christmas, so all the windows went in and all the exterior doors. In the New Year the insulation bats were pushed into the walls and plastered on top. It was so exciting seeing the house with all its plaster up because you could finally visualise the 3D space blocked in, and you got a good understanding of the real size.
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| Living room. |
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| BTS of the living room ceiling. |
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| Hallway to front door. |
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| Upstairs balcony. |
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| Framing of my bedroom in the early, early stages. |
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| My bedroom ceiling with bats put up. |
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| My bedroom finally plasterboarded. |
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| Living room roof windows along the boundary wall steal natural light where possible. |
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| The second entrance looking very linear and ready for some art work. |
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| The plasterboard has been all taped up in preparation for painting to begin soon. |
Five weeks ago the joiner sent us through the drawings for the infamous walk-in-robes belonging to my sister and I. And would you believe it, they were nearly 100% identical to my own drawings I submitted to him a few months ago. So I was over the moon. I’m still yet to see the wardrobes installed, but I think it will be soon. Fingers crossed the wardrobes are shaker panel doors too - this is not entirely certain. And YES, I am still having the scarf rack!
Floorboards were laid 4 weeks ago by a woman and man team. I met the woman, she wasn’t much older than me, so I was super impressed that we had a female contractor contribute to our build! The blackbutt timber floors look great. We are going to keep them a light, natural colour.
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| Living room floor boards. |
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| View from outside of living room. |
The exterior was painted around the same time. We had no idea what colours we had confirmed because it was ultimately the architects’ and the council’s choice, considering Casa Almora is a heritage listed property. Happily, a nice neutral colour scheme was painted on the exterior. It’s quite pleasant to the eye, and now that the rusty red roof has been replaced with a shiny new silver one it all blends perfectly.
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| The lovely neutral colours. |
Two weeks ago we finalised our decisions for the tiles. I always wanted a Sarah Richardson-inspired tiled design in my bathroom downstairs and I was pretty successful in my tile selection. The floors are going to be a 30x60 charcoal tile in a bricklay pattern, with a softly textured off-white 30x60 tile on the walls. The Sarah feature comes into play in the shower where my sister and I are having a 30cm wide strip of tiny carrara marble herringbone tiles. They are absolutely stunning, and were my favourite tiles when we first went tile browsing months ago. These same herringbones will be the kitchen splash back as they are slightly cheaper than the larger size herringbone my parents originally wanted. I think these tiles will look better, so I’m excited to see them installed!
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| The beautiful herringbone tiles with our wall tiles and stone bench top samples. |
This past week we have been deciding interior paint colours and joinery knobs. I painted 14 neutral colour samples from Dulux one weekend, only to be told there were another 13 paint pots to sample from Resene as well. We ended up choosing Peplum 1/4 for the walls and Lexicon 1/4 for the trim both from Dulux. The knobs in the kitchen are going to be a New Zealand design in pewter, half the price cheaper than the Australian comparison #onlineshopping. For the wardrobes I suggested glass knobs to add some girly flair. We ordered a few sample knobs from a store in Sydney and chose a gorgeous princess cut style. The bathrooms and laundry knobs are still up for debate, but are likely to be the same pewter ones as the kitchen.
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| We've chosen the 3rd from the left knob for the wardrobes, and the dark pewter one for the kitchen. |
Finally, our fabulous kitchen. Isn’t she a stunner? Our builder sent this to us a couple days ago and my jaw dropped so low when I opened the text on the train. It was so beautiful! I couldn’t believe we had shaker panel doors. And I got to see the kitchen island I designed in 3D form! Amazing. It’s going to look even better when the Caesarstone bench tops and the splash back, tap, and appliances are installed. At the same time as the kitchen, our stairs were installed. Beautiful open tread stairs to let the light through and not feel closed-in. You can see the stunning light coming from the second entrance just behind.
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| So happy with the result! |
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| Stunning staircase. |
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| Living room joinery to accomodate the TV down the far left end. |
I can’t wait for the site visit this weekend so I can see the kitchen and stairs in person! I also wonder if the wardrobes will be in by then.
Thanks for checking back everyone. Don’t forget that I’d love you guys to check out my blog’s Instagram https://www.instagram.com/casaalmora/ where I’ve posted lots and lots of photos of our renovation. So if you want regular updates and photos about Casa Almora head to my Instagram @casaalmora and 'follow’ me on there. It’s a quicker way for me to reach you guys and share the latest progress on the renovation!
Xxx Suzy
