Had our final walkthrough this morning.
So many bits and pieces have been done. What hasn't been done yet, is the removal of the robes in the two minor bedrooms.
We also went through the list that our Inspector did up, suprisingly our SS had fixed nearly everything on the inspectors list :)
So, with the house looking very spiffy and soooo clean it is definately wanting us to move in as its tired of being alone...lol
...while with our SS I received a call from our builder telling us that our CoO had finally been issued...Hooray!!!!!
After finishing off at the house we then went into the Head Office in Keilor and collected our Certificate of Occupancy...came home, scanned it and e-mailed it to our Broker who had now forwarded it onto the Bank....we are hoping that we can get handover either on Thursday or Friday.
So, are we happy campers?....you bet!! Now it feels like the house is ours....(don't let the fact that we haven't paid the final invoice yet put you off).
Our Appliances are going in tomorrow, so we will be out there bright and early with the sparrows, then on Thursday our heating will be commissioned, then we can warm our baby up and see how she feels, we are planning on taking lots of photos tomorrow of the empty rooms so that once all the furniture is in we can take more pics and compare shots.
We still have some work to do before moving in on Monday, have to paint the feature wall in the rumpus room, as this has to be done before the projector screen goes up, also have to install our wardrobe inserts, gas and power have been organised, they should have been switched over today (cos today was meant to be handover), yet to organise the phone connection, but that is not too high on the list of priorities as we have been living off the mobiles for the last 12 months and our internet is currently a mobile broadband, house is insured, we are currently organising the glass fencing for the spa area, we were all set to go with the DIY stuff from Bunnings until we found something at the Home Show, again DIY but it was cheaper.
The plan is to move what we can from here at Adrians up to the new house during the week...it is suprising how much you can fit into one bedroom......
Kell is going to be the first one to sleep at the house, as she will stay overnight on Sunday so she can drive to Melton to pick up her Aunt who is going to help us with the move.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Close...but no cigar....
Had to go out on Saturday and have a look to see what had been done since last Tuesday.....render still hadn't been finished but we found that our house now had a case of measels...and did i have my camera...NO!!! stupid thing had fallen under the bed.
The electrician had finally been back, so the junction box at the front door has been removed, the wall lights in the rumpus have been moved...Yay...and the power point in the ceiling for the projector has been installed...allbeit in the wrong spot, so as it turns out it is just as well the renderers haven't been back.
The sliding door has been adjusted, so that it should now slide freely...will be able to tell when we get the keys.
The silicone around the bath has been replaced as it had metal shavings in the old stuff.
Today (Sunday) we went and paid off the remaining laybys and actually managed to find an office chair for Tony....got a call from Beacon my remaining lights have finally come in.
Also got some wooden spoons, and cake trays.
Thought we'd take some pics of our 3 storage containers so we could remember how much stuff we managed to get into them.
The electrician had finally been back, so the junction box at the front door has been removed, the wall lights in the rumpus have been moved...Yay...and the power point in the ceiling for the projector has been installed...allbeit in the wrong spot, so as it turns out it is just as well the renderers haven't been back.
The sliding door has been adjusted, so that it should now slide freely...will be able to tell when we get the keys.
The silicone around the bath has been replaced as it had metal shavings in the old stuff.
Today (Sunday) we went and paid off the remaining laybys and actually managed to find an office chair for Tony....got a call from Beacon my remaining lights have finally come in.
Also got some wooden spoons, and cake trays.
Thought we'd take some pics of our 3 storage containers so we could remember how much stuff we managed to get into them.
Container #1, mostly filled with boxes and somewhere at the back is the avairy.
except for the chair in the front, this container has all the furniture from the townhouse
and the container with all our new furniture.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
PCI...
This morning we had PCI at 10am...Kell is still on holidays and Adrian is on days off so both kids were able to come with us to go through the house.
Organised for our Independant Inspector Alex to be there as well...we arrived about 15 minutes early to find Alex all ready on the job inspecting the outside of the house......our SS was there as well but he was catching up with work in his car.
When we arrived the renderers were there giving our facade its final coat of render...silly things have to come back as they were a bucket short to finish it off...other than that it has really come up well.
Onto the PCI...really this should have taken about 45min but ended up taking about twice as long cos we kept gasbagging.
Really there is not alot that needs to be fixed.....all the paint touchups had been done during the week...we had little things like a leaking pipe under the ensuite vanity, a pin missing off the front door faceplate, removing the robe inserts in the minor bedrooms cos they are not supposed to be there, a couple of shelves in some of the kitchen cupboards, minor grouting in the bathroom, fixing the ceiling around the heating vent in the master bedroom, all this should be done before next tuesday when we get handover (hopefully).
I was very happy when i got to the kitchen...my rangehood is in....looks ever so pretty...thats if you can call a rangehood pretty.
Otherwise not a lot needs to be done, so, at this stage we have arranged to have our handover walkthrough at 10am next Tuesday, with handover to follow.
Organised for our Independant Inspector Alex to be there as well...we arrived about 15 minutes early to find Alex all ready on the job inspecting the outside of the house......our SS was there as well but he was catching up with work in his car.
When we arrived the renderers were there giving our facade its final coat of render...silly things have to come back as they were a bucket short to finish it off...other than that it has really come up well.
Onto the PCI...really this should have taken about 45min but ended up taking about twice as long cos we kept gasbagging.
Really there is not alot that needs to be fixed.....all the paint touchups had been done during the week...we had little things like a leaking pipe under the ensuite vanity, a pin missing off the front door faceplate, removing the robe inserts in the minor bedrooms cos they are not supposed to be there, a couple of shelves in some of the kitchen cupboards, minor grouting in the bathroom, fixing the ceiling around the heating vent in the master bedroom, all this should be done before next tuesday when we get handover (hopefully).
I was very happy when i got to the kitchen...my rangehood is in....looks ever so pretty...thats if you can call a rangehood pretty.
Otherwise not a lot needs to be done, so, at this stage we have arranged to have our handover walkthrough at 10am next Tuesday, with handover to follow.
my rangehood
completed garage trough complete with taps and tiles
White Duck render
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Trenches......
Tony went out early to the house today to dig the trench from the rumpus room wall to the spa where the electrics need to go.
He arrived the same time as our SS, so after a quick chat and confirming that he had permission to do the trench off he went......well Kell and I arrived out there about 2 half hours later to find he hadn't progressed far...hold ups for rain, phone calls etc...
He did have the area for the spa slab marked out and had started the trench......sent Kell down the street for supplies, while i took a walk around the outside of the house taking photos, on my journey i found that the front door was unlocked...yippee....wanted to go in and take a look at all the bits of pretty post-it's scattered around the house...continued my walk around the house.
In the garage our trough has finally been installed and the tile splashback laid, found that the garage door was also open.....back around to the alfresco where we had set up camp and found that the french doors were also unlocked and open.
Popped in, as you would to take a look around....loved the fluro pink and fluro yellow stickers everywhere.....checked everything to see what was what and discovered that the wardrobes in the craft room and in Kellys room have had the shelf and rod installed....WRONG!! we are installing our own robe inserts, their robes were deleted when we did the original tender.
Meanwhile Tony continued to dig the trench..not much fun with all the mud and slush from all the rain.....finally he got it to the depth required....then to fit the conduit....first couple of sections were easy, using a hacksaw to get the bits to the right length.....then he and Kell threaded the cable through....oops...the first piece of conduit that goes up the wall to the junction box was too tall....easy...pull it off and saw a bit more off...bugger...the hacksaw blade broke...there he was trying to saw it with the blade in his hand...not impossible just took a bit longer.
Then the job of getting all that mud and dirt back into the trench where it came from...Tony shovelled and Kell stomped....well, I must say, it looks like a bought one :)
Think cleaning up was the hardest job, all i can say is thank god for gumboots.
And how long did this take? i hear you ask...roughly about 5 and a half hours.....who said he was on holidays...
Oh yeah, we messaged our SS and asked if he would like us to lock the doors......a definate "Yes" was the answer.
Thank god i take lots of pics...cos i had forgotten a few things....
Firstly, the deadlock on the master bedroom is now a shiny gold one instead of an antique brass look...the other french doors in the alfresco are now sporting a deadlock...both sets of doors now have sliding bolts in the non-opening door.
Next...we now have a gas meter...how I could overlook this I don't know.
He arrived the same time as our SS, so after a quick chat and confirming that he had permission to do the trench off he went......well Kell and I arrived out there about 2 half hours later to find he hadn't progressed far...hold ups for rain, phone calls etc...
He did have the area for the spa slab marked out and had started the trench......sent Kell down the street for supplies, while i took a walk around the outside of the house taking photos, on my journey i found that the front door was unlocked...yippee....wanted to go in and take a look at all the bits of pretty post-it's scattered around the house...continued my walk around the house.
In the garage our trough has finally been installed and the tile splashback laid, found that the garage door was also open.....back around to the alfresco where we had set up camp and found that the french doors were also unlocked and open.
Popped in, as you would to take a look around....loved the fluro pink and fluro yellow stickers everywhere.....checked everything to see what was what and discovered that the wardrobes in the craft room and in Kellys room have had the shelf and rod installed....WRONG!! we are installing our own robe inserts, their robes were deleted when we did the original tender.
Meanwhile Tony continued to dig the trench..not much fun with all the mud and slush from all the rain.....finally he got it to the depth required....then to fit the conduit....first couple of sections were easy, using a hacksaw to get the bits to the right length.....then he and Kell threaded the cable through....oops...the first piece of conduit that goes up the wall to the junction box was too tall....easy...pull it off and saw a bit more off...bugger...the hacksaw blade broke...there he was trying to saw it with the blade in his hand...not impossible just took a bit longer.
Then the job of getting all that mud and dirt back into the trench where it came from...Tony shovelled and Kell stomped....well, I must say, it looks like a bought one :)
Think cleaning up was the hardest job, all i can say is thank god for gumboots.
And how long did this take? i hear you ask...roughly about 5 and a half hours.....who said he was on holidays...
Oh yeah, we messaged our SS and asked if he would like us to lock the doors......a definate "Yes" was the answer.
Thank god i take lots of pics...cos i had forgotten a few things....
Firstly, the deadlock on the master bedroom is now a shiny gold one instead of an antique brass look...the other french doors in the alfresco are now sporting a deadlock...both sets of doors now have sliding bolts in the non-opening door.
Next...we now have a gas meter...how I could overlook this I don't know.
deadlock, now in the correct colour
garage trough...its taps are still off after the tiling was done
back of the garage door with all its pretty stickers
we now have one of these
The process of laying the cables for the spa.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Permits...
Forgot to mention that over the weekend Tony sat down and did the drawings for the permit for the spa.....what a long drawn out process it was.....3 copies of this....3 copies of that....copy of property title needed.....
So on Monday off he went up to Wallan to the council offices to hand everything over (except the title thingy...as it had to be no older than 90 days) anyways the council said they could get it for a small fee....which was better than us trying to get it ourselves.
The fee.....cos our build would be under $5000 was $440, if the build had been over the $5k the fee would have been $660....expensive!!
There was only a couple of minor adjustments Tony had to make to the application so over all he did a fantastic job.
So on Monday off he went up to Wallan to the council offices to hand everything over (except the title thingy...as it had to be no older than 90 days) anyways the council said they could get it for a small fee....which was better than us trying to get it ourselves.
The fee.....cos our build would be under $5000 was $440, if the build had been over the $5k the fee would have been $660....expensive!!
There was only a couple of minor adjustments Tony had to make to the application so over all he did a fantastic job.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Oh Joy oh joy....
Finally.....our SS gave us a call today to let us know that we have PCI next Tuesday (23rd) with handover set for the following Tuesday (30th). :)
Are we excited?.....reckon....oh my god, am sure that there are so many things that we have forgotton to do....
Trucks to rebook.....Furniture to organise for delivery....the list goes on and on...hehe.
Are we excited?.....reckon....oh my god, am sure that there are so many things that we have forgotton to do....
Trucks to rebook.....Furniture to organise for delivery....the list goes on and on...hehe.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Glass...
Wanted to measure all our glass surfaces today, as we are planning on getting Enduro shield put on the Splashback, Mirrors and Showers.
Hey!...the cleaners have been through again and done a better clean, as well as vacuuming the carpets...looks superb.
Checked out the pantry shelving again....still don't like it but i suppose i can live with it.....if i have to, think the problem is that it is not what i had pictured and the fact that since last November (09) i have been trying to get it organised with the CSC's and then our SS to make sure it was a floating shelf...only hope that the supports do not get in the way of the appliances....we are going to have to install some floating shelves on the side where they didn't put shelves as it will be above the kettle and toaster, and i do plan on putting the tea, coffee and jams etc near their appliances.
only took a couple of shots of the pantry today as nothing else had changed.
On the home front i have been starting to organise what things we have here to go to the new house....it will be so much better when we find out our PCI date during this week.
Hey!...the cleaners have been through again and done a better clean, as well as vacuuming the carpets...looks superb.
Checked out the pantry shelving again....still don't like it but i suppose i can live with it.....if i have to, think the problem is that it is not what i had pictured and the fact that since last November (09) i have been trying to get it organised with the CSC's and then our SS to make sure it was a floating shelf...only hope that the supports do not get in the way of the appliances....we are going to have to install some floating shelves on the side where they didn't put shelves as it will be above the kettle and toaster, and i do plan on putting the tea, coffee and jams etc near their appliances.
only took a couple of shots of the pantry today as nothing else had changed.
On the home front i have been starting to organise what things we have here to go to the new house....it will be so much better when we find out our PCI date during this week.
Around to the right the top shelf continues along the wall but the middle shelf and the bottom shelf stop at the end of the back wall.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
And still more...
The addiction is still there, so we had to have our fix today...well, actually we went out to take a look at the alfresco beams in the daylight, since it was dark when we noticed it last night.
Went across to our friends to collect some boxes, so we ended up taking her through the house....and what do you know...my pantry and linen press finally have shelving in them.
The linen press is just normal everyday shelving, while the pantry is NOT, i repeat not how i wanted the shelves...so we will have to wait until PCI to talk to our SS...I have been trying since Nov 09 to make sure that i was going to get the shelving that i wanted....grrrr
Not much else....Tony spoke to our SS today, who confirmed that the Quality Assurance guy was going through on the 17th...after that we will get a PCI date.
Went across to our friends to collect some boxes, so we ended up taking her through the house....and what do you know...my pantry and linen press finally have shelving in them.
The linen press is just normal everyday shelving, while the pantry is NOT, i repeat not how i wanted the shelves...so we will have to wait until PCI to talk to our SS...I have been trying since Nov 09 to make sure that i was going to get the shelving that i wanted....grrrr
Not much else....Tony spoke to our SS today, who confirmed that the Quality Assurance guy was going through on the 17th...after that we will get a PCI date.
Pantry...what i didn't want was the supports, especially on the bottom shelf...have no idea why they didn't continue the bottom shelf around to the right, but its not on the plans so we don't get it.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
A step closer....
My friend Rita texted me this morning to let me know that our fireplace was going in, and that the tradies had started at out place at 6am. Thank you Rita
So out we went at 5pm to have a look.
Well, the carpet has been completed...look different now, the passage looks warmer as do the back bedrooms.
Yes, our fireplace, mantle and hearth have been installed...WOW...what it does is make the architraves around the windows stand out..not sure if its for the right reason tho....did we goo and gush??....of course we did :)
Turned around and spotted that my sink is finally in...about time...very shiny it is too.
Walked around taking pics of the carpet, when we were in Kells rooms Tony stopped and looked out the window and nodded to me...'what?' couldn't see anything...looked at the fence behind us..looked at the ground, nothing....he had spotted the flyscreen on the window...ooh yay...one more thing to cross off the list. So then we went back through all the rooms to see if they had screens on...yep, they do.
One thing i will say is that the tiles on the floor as so darn cold on your feet in winter...will need good slippers i think, but just think how nice they will be in summer.
It was nice to see that Kelly's bathroom was now complete with taps for the bath.
On the way out I went through the garage and noticed that tony has his taps in for the trough, which at the current time is sitting in the laundry pretending to be a washing machine...silly thing.
Popped our heads out the roller door to take a look at the back yard to see how it coped with all the rain, as yesterday Tony had spent a considerable amount of time digging channels to drain the water, well, what do you know, it worked! What we did notice in the dying light was that the alfresco beams have been painted, will have to get a shot of this next time we are out there.
So out we went at 5pm to have a look.
Well, the carpet has been completed...look different now, the passage looks warmer as do the back bedrooms.
Yes, our fireplace, mantle and hearth have been installed...WOW...what it does is make the architraves around the windows stand out..not sure if its for the right reason tho....did we goo and gush??....of course we did :)
Turned around and spotted that my sink is finally in...about time...very shiny it is too.
Walked around taking pics of the carpet, when we were in Kells rooms Tony stopped and looked out the window and nodded to me...'what?' couldn't see anything...looked at the fence behind us..looked at the ground, nothing....he had spotted the flyscreen on the window...ooh yay...one more thing to cross off the list. So then we went back through all the rooms to see if they had screens on...yep, they do.
One thing i will say is that the tiles on the floor as so darn cold on your feet in winter...will need good slippers i think, but just think how nice they will be in summer.
It was nice to see that Kelly's bathroom was now complete with taps for the bath.
On the way out I went through the garage and noticed that tony has his taps in for the trough, which at the current time is sitting in the laundry pretending to be a washing machine...silly thing.
Popped our heads out the roller door to take a look at the back yard to see how it coped with all the rain, as yesterday Tony had spent a considerable amount of time digging channels to drain the water, well, what do you know, it worked! What we did notice in the dying light was that the alfresco beams have been painted, will have to get a shot of this next time we are out there.
our lovely fireplace
'the kitchen sink'
rear hallway
Kells bath finally has its taps
Yay...we have flyscreens
fireplace hearth...it almost matches the kitchen benchtops
taps in the garage
firebox flue
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
It never ends...thankfully.....
We went to Melton this morning to get our hair done...we had already decided to go to Wallan after that as they were forcasting alot of rain today and our courtyard area is already looking like an inground pool.
Tony went armed with a long handled shovel and a mattock, so he could dig some channels to drain the water.
On our way into the estate we passed a termaguard truck...hey, I said he's been to our place...and I'll be blowed he had too.......so now we are protected against nasty little bugs etc.
Mr Carpet Man was there too, and at a guess he hadn't been there all that long, he was busy taking the underlay inside...interesting, we have 3 different coloured underlay????? It should all be the one colour, blue...we are going to have to check up on what the differece is between the blue, purple and rust coloured ones......it was nice to see the colour of the carpets tho, as i've said before its been awhile since we picked all our stuff out.
While at Melton we went to Bunnings to have a look for some Ready shades for the ensuite and bathroom while we wait for the plantation shutters....they had heaps of them...in our area we have been unable to find any...so at least we can now have a shower without the world watching.
Went back out tonight with Kelly, so she could see the carpet, so far the study, master bedroom and lounge have been finished, hopefully the rest will be done tomorrow.
Tony went armed with a long handled shovel and a mattock, so he could dig some channels to drain the water.
On our way into the estate we passed a termaguard truck...hey, I said he's been to our place...and I'll be blowed he had too.......so now we are protected against nasty little bugs etc.
Mr Carpet Man was there too, and at a guess he hadn't been there all that long, he was busy taking the underlay inside...interesting, we have 3 different coloured underlay????? It should all be the one colour, blue...we are going to have to check up on what the differece is between the blue, purple and rust coloured ones......it was nice to see the colour of the carpets tho, as i've said before its been awhile since we picked all our stuff out.
While at Melton we went to Bunnings to have a look for some Ready shades for the ensuite and bathroom while we wait for the plantation shutters....they had heaps of them...in our area we have been unable to find any...so at least we can now have a shower without the world watching.
Went back out tonight with Kelly, so she could see the carpet, so far the study, master bedroom and lounge have been finished, hopefully the rest will be done tomorrow.
look, something to keep the nasties away
termaguard along the garage
front yard has been cleaned again...that is one thing PD are very good at
Master bedroom, this is the only room in this colour
this is what the rest of the house is carpeted in...well maybe a little darker than the pic shows
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
We've been cleaned out....
Admist all the rain, we decided to go visit the house.
First thing we noticed was that the fence was gone....then all the rubbish in front of the house from the garage.
Inside the garage it was all swept and the smaller pieces of rubbish gone.
...Out through the roller door we went...looked up and squealed..ooohhhh...door handles as i spotted the handles on the rumpus room door. It was then we noticed the sign on the alfesco door stating that the house had been cleaned.
It was so nice to walk through it with clean (well, cleaner than before) floors, it is most noticable in the ensuite with the absence of insulfluff everywhere.
The other thing we spotted was that the external doors now have their gold hinges, well most of them do, the master bedroom french doors have mixed colours at the moment, one side is gold while the other is still silver, the garage door also still has silver hinges...will wait and see if they get changed.
So glad we decided to change the handles on the wardrobes and lined press to match the doors, it definately looks much better.
Outside the moulding on the render has been painted, looks much better in one colour, also the infil on the gables has had a coat of paint, the same as the mouldings.
First thing we noticed was that the fence was gone....then all the rubbish in front of the house from the garage.
Inside the garage it was all swept and the smaller pieces of rubbish gone.
...Out through the roller door we went...looked up and squealed..ooohhhh...door handles as i spotted the handles on the rumpus room door. It was then we noticed the sign on the alfesco door stating that the house had been cleaned.
It was so nice to walk through it with clean (well, cleaner than before) floors, it is most noticable in the ensuite with the absence of insulfluff everywhere.
The other thing we spotted was that the external doors now have their gold hinges, well most of them do, the master bedroom french doors have mixed colours at the moment, one side is gold while the other is still silver, the garage door also still has silver hinges...will wait and see if they get changed.
So glad we decided to change the handles on the wardrobes and lined press to match the doors, it definately looks much better.
Outside the moulding on the render has been painted, looks much better in one colour, also the infil on the gables has had a coat of paint, the same as the mouldings.
Look Ma...no fence, pity about the rubbish
Long awaited gold hinges for the external doors
Door handles, this one is the toilet door with the privacy lock, so you get 2 pics for the price of 1
Kitchen without the masonite on the benches
clean tiles
Painted mouldings
Painted infil on the gable, this matches the moulding on the render
Saturday, August 7, 2010
They do it with Mirrors....
Oh yes! our showers are finally in....and boy, ours looks huge....it took a second for us to realise that the mirrors are also up...thought ours had a huge scratch on it...after finding something to stand on Tony said..nah, its just a mark..whew! I am not sure how I am going to reach the top of the mirror to clean it as it goes all the way up to the ceiling (remembering that we have 9' ceilings).
Kells shower and mirror are also in..we paid extra for her mirror to go all the way across to the window...at the other end the stupid thing stops at the edge of the vanity....dumb!
The only other thing that has been done in the last few days is that they have filled the hole in the wall in the hallway where they started to cut out the plaster for the return vent for the heating before realising that the vent was too wide for the spot...
We went to visit friends across the park who moved in today....when we got back to the house we were looking at the house next door which has only just started the building process...they have had their pipes installed...wallking back to the car we finally realised that the portaloo is gone...'oh yeah, makes sense when we had already noticed that the crossover protection was gone.
It's getting closer and closer.....
Kells shower and mirror are also in..we paid extra for her mirror to go all the way across to the window...at the other end the stupid thing stops at the edge of the vanity....dumb!
The only other thing that has been done in the last few days is that they have filled the hole in the wall in the hallway where they started to cut out the plaster for the return vent for the heating before realising that the vent was too wide for the spot...
We went to visit friends across the park who moved in today....when we got back to the house we were looking at the house next door which has only just started the building process...they have had their pipes installed...wallking back to the car we finally realised that the portaloo is gone...'oh yeah, makes sense when we had already noticed that the crossover protection was gone.
It's getting closer and closer.....
See....no portaloo
Ensuite shower
Mirror
Kells Mirror
Kells shower
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)