Cutting out the cleaning...

The day we moved into the house I spent the majority of the day protecting our brand new glass and tile surfaces with a product recommended to us to reduce cleaning time. 

Introducing Enduro Shield for glass or tiles. Once applied it lasts a lifetime :)

Tile and Grout shield

Cleaner, Enduroshield, gloves and lint free cloth

Enduro Shield for Glass. You use the cleaner with the steel wool (only use it wet or it will scratch) to clean the surface to start with. Our showers were obviously quite clean so it didn't take much time at all. Then you apply the Enduro Shield and rub it all over the glass until streak free with the lint free cloth. I guess this took a the longest (longer than applying the Enduro Shield on the tiles). Then you leave the shower to dry for 8 hours. All up the application took me 3 hours for the en suite and 2 for the main bathroom.

Grout sealer and the best invention ever! A bottle with a paintbrush on the end I found in Bunnings. Took a fraction of the time. All of the tiles surface have now been grout sealed to protect from dirt and scum. The sealer lasts for about 5 years.

I purchased the grout sealer, and both Enduro Shield packages from Beaumont Tiles. The Enduro Shield packages were $60 each and the grout sealer a bit cheaper. However, I am really impressed so far with how they have protected the glass, tiles and grout so far and cleaning has been minimal. So in my opinion, worth every cent.

Kirst

Note: this was not a sponsored post. All products were paid for by myself and all opinion are my own.

Who's the fairest of them all?

'Mirrors Mirrors on the walls' of our lovely bathrooms were installed last week along with the finishing touches to the tiling (grout will be finished this week sometime).


It is also wonderful to see that the basins and taps have mostly been fitted.


Lastly, the shower screens are also on :)


It makes such a difference.


The chippies also came and fitted out the storage, linen cupboard and bedroom robes. They look good. Now just waiting for the mirrored sliding doors for the master and Lachie's bedroom.


I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Powder Room with mirror and feature tiles

Shelving in the downstairs storage room.

Our beautiful kitchen with the shiny new finger mosaic tiles . Mmmmm

Upstairs linen

Lachie's cupboard

Kids bathroom

Wall to wall his n hers robes in the Master Suite

Ensuite shower

Finally... this beauty!!! LOVE <3

This week

1. Cleaners tomorrow
2. SS QA on Tuesday
3. Plasterers - Wednesday
4. Painters - Thursday
5. Chippy - sometime next week to finish balcony etc

Adieu

Kirst

xxx

That's what I call waterproof..

We had our independent inspector out for the lock up inspection. His criteria was he would not come out until the waterproofing had been done as in his opinion this is the most likely area for issues in the years to come. Not the normal stage of inspection but we were more than happy with this approach. Plus we could get him to look at any other work that had been done after the usual stage.

Long story short, he picked up a few things and not surprisingly the waterproofing was not to building codes. The alternative method used by M is allowable if it's in the contract and we signed off on that approach. It wasn't and we didn't. End result is the waterproofers had to come back and waterproof the entire floor area of the upstairs bathrooms including toilet area with retainers added and to make some changes to the balcony area to comply.  Our inspector has had this discussion with M in the past hence his preferred timing of inspection.  Thanks to all the readers of this blog that commented to my earlier waterproof Q'n some weeks back - check here for previous post.

To M's credit, they did it without fuss. M also arranged for the downstairs toilet waste point to be corrected as well - some 3.5 months after our inspector queried the position and angle of the first approach at his first visit. It taken awhile but M finally got it right.

The independent inspector was in the area so he dropped in to ensure all works were carried out correctly and he stated it was one of the better waterproofing jobs he has seen M do. Extremely happy with that comment - imagine the comment if it had been done that way the first time around.

Revised waterproofing to upstairs ensuite incl toilet area

Upstairs ensuite incl's small metal retaining strip at entry (diff to see in pic)

Balcony area corrected - waterproofing running up 100mm on all edges incl under door seal

Tiles ready and waiting...

Last week also included the flooring guys coming out to ensure the slab is perfectly flat ahead of the floorboards going down (a couple of weeks off) and a chippie back to ensure upstairs is perfectly flat for carpets (also a couple of weeks off).

This week is all about tiles.

Cam

I came, I saw, I conquered... Caesar is in the house!

WOW, two posts in one day. I simply couldn't help myself! I'm soooo excited. Cam came home tonight with these sneaky little pictures! 


Cue squeals of delight and jumping up and down...

The tiles have been delivered!

Yummy bench top and basin in the powder room!

The laundry cabinets have been finished, the Caesarstone Ice Snow is on too...

Ta Da...Caesarstone White Shimmer on the island bench with the divine waterfall edge! (with no joins at all in the kitchen... hoorah!)

the two Clark Epure undermount sinks!

Upstairs bathroom for the kids with Caesarstone Ice Snow installed.

Finally, the pièce de résistance... Our ensuite vanity 

with beautiful overhanging edge Caesarstone in Urban. Its a bit dusty so it will be slightly darker when clean.

What a fantastic surprise...

Stay tuned for tomorrow's big purchase!

Kirst xxx

All about waterproofing…..

Could someone out there in the blogger world help me out?

One very quick question regarding wet areas waterproofing.

I’ve been told the BCA’s 8.3.1.1 or something similar requires all wet areas to be fully waterproofed including the entire floor area especially where bathrooms (wet areas) are upstairs on timber flooring – not just the shower recessed area. What has been your experience?

This is a questions well ahead of where we are up to in our build but keen to get an idea of what is the correct process and what is the approach / experience of others.

Thanks in advance.


Cam

Tile Selections Complete

Cam and I (& Hamish) spent Thursday morning at Beaumont’s Tile Studio choosing our tiles for all the wet areas of the house.

It certainly helped that Cam and I spent a few hours there last Tuesday and by the time we got started with Julie, our tile consultant we had a pretty good idea about the majority of the tiles.

As we have already upgraded the downstairs flooring to bamboo floors, we didn’t have a huge area to choose tiles for. This was fantastic as Cam and I chose the tiles we wanted with little or no regard to the price. In total we added over $3000 of upgraded tiles but in my opinion it is totally worth getting the tiles you want as they are so difficult to change. Everything was an upgrade except for the tiles on the front balcony.

Here are the selections…

Laundry

FLOOR - Aristo Cement Porcelain tiles with rectified edge 300mm x 600mm.

WALL – Gloss White Rectified edge 300mm x 600mm.



Gloss White 300 x 600mm tile for all walls except features. ..sorry for dodgy photo:(...

 Powder Room

FLOOR - Aristo Cement Porcelain tiles with rectified edge 300mm x 600mm.

WALL – Mosaic Fingers Charcoal Lustre 22mm x 145mm around the windows, mirror and vanity wall returns



Lovely cement floor tiles with Mosaic Finger Charcoal Lustre wall tiles... I love them!





Bathroom

FLOOR - Aristo Cement Porcelain tiles with rectified edge 300mm x 600mm.

WALL – Gloss White Rectified edge 300mm x 600mm.

FEATURE WALL in SHOWER Aristo Cement Porcelain tiles with rectified edge 300mm x 600mm. SAME AS FLOOR, this will be the floor tile continuing up the wall

Our stunning cement/porcelain tiles for the floors and continuing up the wall for the feature walls in both showers. LOVE LOVE LOVE!



Ensuite

FLOOR - Aristo Cement Porcelain tiles with rectified edge 300mm x 600mm.

WALL – Gloss White Rectified edge 300mm x 600mm.

FEATURE WALL in SHOWER INCL. NICHE Aristo Cement Porcelain tiles with rectified edge 300mm x 600mm. SAME AS FLOOR, this will be the floor tile continuing up the wall.



Texture of floor tile...

Kitchen

RETURN AROUND WINDOW SPLASHBACK – Mosaic Fingers Off White Lustre 22mm x x145mm.



Off White Lustre Mosaic Fingers for around Kitchen splashback



Master Bedroom Balcony

Lifestyle Charcoal 400mm x 400mm (Standard Silver Range)



Balcony Tiles 400 x 400mm



We are very happy with our selections and don’t feel like we compromised on what we wanted nor did we select tiles that will date easily. A win-win situation…

Kirsten  xoxo