Flooring - To screed or not to screed?

A while back I wrote this blog about flooring, most of the answers (that I know) about flooring is in that post. 

As I mentioned back then, we opted to screed.  I continued deliberating over this for ages even after I wrote that post.  I even spoke to my site supervisor and asked him for his professional opinion.  He informed me that MDJ don't screed that the glue is usually fine.  The word 'usually' didn't sit too well with me.  I get it, they don't screed and 90% of the time its fine, but in my scenario its not like I could call the builder back up and say "tile is broken, come and fix it" my tiles aren't the builder's problem because we are doing them after handover.

I did speak with a few more independent tilers regarding this and they all seemed to reach the same conclusion.  I was laying 600mm x 600mm tiles and I was adamant I wanted a 1.5mm grout.  If I had gone with a 3mm grout I could probably have saved myself the $$$ by avoiding the screeding but I knew I wanted the 1.5mm and they all advised me to do the screeding.  So we screeded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm so excited looking at the house with just the screeding, can you imagine how excited I'll be when they actually lay some tiles...

House - at last it's ours

Finally, finally, finally we got our keys... we are now the proud owners of House. I am currently reading a book called 'Room' if you have read this book it is from the view of a child and he refers to the room he lives in as 'Room'. In a sense that's how I feel about 'House' it is what it is until I make it 'Our Home', anyway without boring you all I know you don't want to read words as much as you want to see pictures.

Welcome to House...

View from front door

It looks a little bit all the same colour at the moment due to the floor being dusty concrete.  The tilers are working hard as I type, hence the next round of pics will show a more complete look, except that I still have no idea what artwork will be taking up residence in the space at the end of the hallway.

Proceeding up the hallway and taking a left, we have ''garage, laundry & linen cupboard'

Man Cave aka Garage

Woman Cave (NOT) aka Laundry

All Jokes aside my hubby does help but I like to be in charge of the laundry room especially now that it looks like this.

Linen cupboard doors

Linen internals

Note the blue stickers where the painter 'forgot' to touch up after PCI - he obviously didn't open the doors.  That's okay though, he can do it after our maintenance period.

Okay moving swiftly along opposite the garage/laundry we have the kids activity area/bedrooms & bathroom.

Desk area

We will be installing overhead cupboards into the area above the desk sometime in the near future, this area will become the home office area/kids desk area - I'm hoping to avoid the barrage of bills and papers that seem to make their way to my kitchen bench, by giving them a home here.

Kid's TV storage area

In this area built in storage will be going in along with all media related things for the kids

(TV, game consoles etc).

The kid's rooms have no light at the moment and they all look the same, imagine four walls, windows and wardrobes (I'll get some photos once I purchase light bulbs).

Kid's bathroom

Kid's bathroom (again)

We have two girl's and a boy in our house, we installed a 2nd sink into this area to avoid the teenage arguments that will come in the future with having two girl's in the house practically the same age (a year apart).

Kid's toilet

not much to say about the toilet, the original window in this room was bigger, it went down to meet the toilet, I shrunk it to give me space to put a shelf above the toilet so that I can put some smelly things in here (candle?!) and a little basket to discreetly hold some girly item.

Moving into the Master Suite...

Master Bathroom

I only have a picture of the master bathroom at this stage, it is screaming out for colour and accessories which I fully intend to supply very shortly.  

I had no light in the bedroom and at this stage it is an empty room so apart from 4 walls and 2 windows I have nothing to show you.  This pic looks a little strange because it's one of those landscapey pics, it was the only way I could get the whole view in for you.  Where is the toilet? I hear some of you think - it is hiding behind the wall with the towel rail on it ~ lets not go into detail as to why I like the hiding toilet, I'll leave it to everyone's imagination.

...and heading to the back of house, lets take a backwards glance and admire my front door...

The front door

The Lounge... the Dining... the Media & the Kitchen otherwise known as the back of House

Yes, this is where most of the living will take place, except for when I decide I've had enough and I send all the naughty kids to the 'front of House' to give me some thinking space.  Ha, no seriously I have lived in a house which was too small to swing a cat in, moving into this space will be like heaven, I don't think I'll be sending the kids off anytime soon, it will be a pleasure to share this space with them without feeling like I have a million little voices pounding on my head (that is how it feels with a lot of voices in a confined space, competing with TV noise and game noise)... 

Lounge Room

Lounge Area - looking in from kitchen

Fire

We will be putting in cabinetry and shelving to the areas on either side of the fire.  You will note that there is a TV connection to the left of the fire, but at present we are going to leave the TV's to live in the media area and a 2nd one in the kid's activity area (and I'll have one in  my bedroom hidden somewhere).  We don't really watch much TV so we have opted to leave this area as a quiet area for the time being, hopefully to encourage talking and just spending time together.

Dining Area & Alfresco

Of course right now all you can see is the doors, without furniture and lighting there really is nothing to show you.  You can see the Alfresco from there, which again is just a concrete area until it gets finished off.

Media Room Doors

I daresay these doors will be open 90% of the time, unless of course we are all in there watching a movie.  It is very difficult to get a photo of the media room, below is one of the landscapey ones again, it makes the walls look rounded but it gives you an idea.  The original plan of this house had the sitting part of this room where we have the TV, I switched it around so that on the off chance I'm in there watching TV and the kids are roaming about in the living area, I can still see them from the sitting area.  I like to be able to keep an eye on things.

Media Room

and my pride and joy - the kitchen...

Kitchen

what can I say I love it, once the flooring is in it will all come together and my appliances will go in after the flooring.  Below are my pantry doors and internals - cannot wait to unleash  my inner organising nerd and give that pantry a makeover.

Pantry doors

Pantry Internal

Kitchen looking into dining

and that's it so far.  I'll get some better (not iphone) photo's again once the tilers are done and the carpets are in to give you a more complete look.  Below are some more landscapey photo's (with bendy walls) to give you a general idea of the space.

Lounge/Dining

Back of House

and finally a night time shot from the street.

Front of house with all the lights on

It looks like I have no roof - I will need to get a daytime shot.  We obviously still have driveway and landscaping to attend to ~ we are busy trying to make decisions on that at the moment.

Ms Betsy xo

New Page - Faux Pas {Tiny Wee Mistakes..}

I have added a new page which is static (next to electrical selections). It is a way for me to list any mistakes I've come across during this build. I'm sure over time I will discover more, especially once I move in. I will update the page whenever I come across anything, hopefully other people can learn from my mistakes and avoid them. Happy Building.

Photo Update...

Well finally, as promised, I have some photo's for you.  Hubby had a site visit the other day and snapped some on his phone (sorry if the quality isn't fantastic)...

It's all coming along very nicely and I'm patiently waiting for someone to tell me I can move in... yes I'm still patient (only because I can't be bothered packing up the house at the moment), its a bit like being pregnant, I'm waiting for the nesting to kick in THEN I'll start packing...

In the meantime... 

Come on in, excuse the mess...

Hallway

I love the hallway, the picture niche at the bottom is screaming out for some artwork... the problem is the choices are endless and I can't decide on anything

Kid's Bathroom & Master Bathroom

How dirty is that floor - scandalous.. 

As you can see not much differs between the bathrooms, we kept the colour schemes exactly the same

Laundry

Not sure I'll ever love laundry, but it will be a heck more pleasant doing it in here.

Lounge Room

Fire is still a work in progress, hopefully they will finish that some time next week.  

Shelving etc will be installed after handover.

Media Room

Sorry - I have nothing, I thought for sure he'd take pics of the media, but nada ~ next time

Kitchen

calm my beating heart - I am in love... 

Can't wait until it is cleaned up and finished

Cannot wait to fill this baby up... my organising brain is in overdrive

Alfresco

Ignore my beat up fence, it will be replaced after handover when we tackle the landscaping

Till next time

Ms Betsy xo

Q & A - Flooring

Good Morning,

things are moving along nicely at the 'house', I promise I'll get some photo's soon.  My husband was on site this morning with our SS, hopefully he snapped some pics.  In the meantime I thought I would take this opportunity to answer a question I received on my blog.

Flooring

I was asked:

"Hi Betsy, let me just start by saying that your house looks awesome and your blog has been so helpful to me. i recently signed up with MJH and your blog has provided me with heaps of knowledge for a rookie like me. Just wanted to ask you a bit more about doing the flooring after handover.do we need to keep anything in mind. Also if you don't mind my asking which tilers are you using. Thanks so much for your help."

Great timing with this question as presently the reason for my sleepless nights is flooring.  We opted to do our flooring after handover for a number of reasons but primarily due to the fact that I had my heart set on a certain tile which, McDonald Jones did not stock.

Things to consider when doing your own flooring

We questioned a lot of things prior to signing our contract but we really weren't armed with the right information and no-one really gave us a definite answer on anything it was all very 'it'll be okay' and we went with it.  Even now, a few weeks away from actually doing the flooring we still really don't know how it is going to work.  Tilers and builders are very non committal.

However, things you need to consider:

• Screeding;
• Skirtings;
• Door heights;
• Dishwasher space. 

Screeding

To screed or not to screed - this is the million dollar question and I'll be damned if I can get anyone to give me an answer on whether you should or you shouldn't, its more a case of "Well you could get away with just glue, but you never know" (roll eyes and swear under breath right about now) so I thought 'fuck it' and I decided to go with the screeding.  Note I have read about lots of people who haven't screeded and their tiles were fine, but I read just as many horror stories. I don't want to take the chance so screeding is how we are proceeding.

Bear in mind that your choice of tile and finish will determine a lot with this question.  Liaise with your tiler.

Skirtings

We opted for MDJ to go ahead and install our skirtings, in hindsight I would have still done this but I think I may have asked for a higher skirting as I will lose a fair bit of it with the install of the tile.  Some people opt to keep them off but then you are faced with cutting, painting and installing them all yourself, I didn't want to do that, the last thing I want to do when I move in is anything that completes the house.  I didn't even want to do the flooring but I had no choice due to my tile choice.

Door Heights

Door heights could be an issue once you tile, depending on whether you will require screeding or not.  As you know we are screeding, I have resigned myself to the fact that there is a 90% chance I'll be requiring a carpenter to shave the bottom of my doors.  No point in stressing about it now, it is what it is and I'll cross that bridge sometime in the near future.

Dishwasher

As for your dishwasher space, I've realised they come in all different shapes and sizes so I don't envisage buying one to be a problem, however if you are thinking about using your existing one, think about the height allowance as you will probably lose about 32mm after you do your tiling (if you screed).

Grout

I'm throwing this one in for good measure because I didn't know it was even something I had to consider until about a week ago when my tiler said to me "If you go 3mm grout then you will be fine without screed, but if you want 1.5mm then you will probably need screeding".  STOP THE BUS!

You mean I have to make ANOTHER decision.  I thought all I had to do was decide on a colour for grout, and that was easy, as close to the colour of the tile as you can get.  Now I need to consider a size.  Not once have I had to consider this and I've been planning this house for nearly 2 years.  None of my friends told me about it, MDJ didn't even mention it (incidentally they just go ahead with the 1.5mm in your wet areas).

Why is it important for me to share this with you?  Well when this question was put upon me, I figured what the hell 3mm isn't big (its teeny tiny right) and it will save me $2k if I don't screed.  However, I'm a good little girl scout so I sat down and did some research and I soon realised that 3mm is quite significant, especially when you are trying to create a seamless floor.  For us, the 3mm was out, I definitely need the 1.5mm to achieve the look I'm after.  I'm telling you guys about it because not all tilers will ask, and if you don't know anything about it, they could just go ahead with 3mm.  Also some tilers (if your building with Eden Brae, this might affect you) will charge you an excess to grout 1.5mm and its quite a significant excess.

We all love a visual so here you go, see if you can guess which is 1.5mm and which is 3mm.

Hope that gives you all something to think about...

Please bear in mind, I'm no expert, I'm only relaying what I've learned along the way (and it isn't much). 

Referrals 

Who is my tiler?

I write this blog for fun, to share my journey and to help people out.  However I am well aware of the power of a recommendation on a blog.

My blog is not sponsored in any way whatsoever.  Therefore the only time I will refer anyone to one of my contacts is when I'm 100% happy with them.  I'd hate to refer someone to a company that I wasn't happy with and see them share the same fate. 

Presently I'm 100% confident in my tilers, I wouldn't be giving them the work if I wasn't, but they haven't done their job yet.  As soon as the job is complete and I'm happy I will gladly give them the recommendation that they deserve but until then....

Happy Building
Ms Betsy xo

Kitchen & Laundry progress

Where does time go?

I can't believe how quickly time is flying past now that we are in the New Year.  My site was a bit slow off the starting blocks after Christmas.  I was reading about other people having activity at their sites and I kept driving past mine but nothing was happening.

However, they have sure made up for it.

I had a little site inspection last week and got a few sneaky snap shots while I was there.  I took them with my iphone so the quality isn't great.  Next time I'll take my proper camera and grab a lot more photo's.  Let me show you my kitchen and laundry..

Kitchen

 

Kitchen again, different angle

Laundry

Laundry, wrong overheads, these need to be changed

Laundry sink - how exciting is a sink... ha ha

Hopefully I'll have more to show you soon.  Tilers were in last week and painters are scheduled for next week.  Time is flying by. 

Ms Betsy xo

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone, yes I'm a little late coming to the party, but I've been in full blown holiday mode.  Work at the house has been very minimal, only a little bit of action getting the cornices installed by a tradie who was heading off on holiday so he worked over the break so that we wouldn't be held up {thank you}.  

It has been a welcome break not having to 'think' about the house, but my brain is slowly turning back to it.  I've been driving past wondering when the official 'break' will be over and work will recommence.  I was speaking with a MDJ staff member today and we mentioned that our contract date was in March, he said we might be lucky enough to get in by mid February - for the love of god I nearly died hearing those words.

Don't get me wrong I want my house, but mid February puts my little organising self into a panic.  I still have all the boxes that I packed up to sort out (when I moved out of the house) still all taped up and to be sorted.  I want to purge at least 30% (preferably 50%) of the 'stuff' that came out of that house, before I move back to the new one.  I guess that means that every spare minute I have in the beginning of 2014 will find me trawling through boxes and boxes of 'stuff'.  

Update on house

I was a bit slack before Christmas and didn't update my blog, you can blame Santa, he had me running all over the place looking for presents.  

We are officially locked up.  It started with a front door...

and then a garage door...

and we are officially locked up.  There is a laundry door too, but I haven't got a photo of that yet.

I think I'm in love with that garage door, she's gorgeous!

Welcome to the New Year, if your building I hope all is going well and work recommences soon.  If your thinking about building ~ go for it (and go and see McDonald Jones).  Here is to a wonderful 2014 and to many houses being built and homes being made.

Betsy xo