Home and Dry

It's been a long journey but we've now got to the end of it and we've finally moved into our new home. We 'settled' (paid the final installment) on it on 23rd April and moved the remainder of our furniture in on Monday 11th May. All in all it's been a roller coaster ride of highs and a few lows.

We've only just had our water tank installed today 14th May because our building Company were having troubles with the handover to a new supplier. We're just waiting for some much needed rain to fill it.

All that's left to do is to landscape the front and back gardens which could be a bit of a challenge as they are on a slope. The children are loving it and have been helping by digging in the garden tonight. As you can see we went for the stencilled concrete driveway and we are pleased with it. Carpets and Laminate were installed with no problems by Harvey Norman. It is so difficult to visualise it and choose the right colour when you buy. The carpet which we bought is supposed to be brown but looks a series of different colours in different lights. The dark laminate really shows up dusty foot prints and marks but it looks good when it's clean.

Dave made the posts for the post box and we saved a bit of cash by staining it with vegetable oil after the man at Mitre 10 advised us to do so.

Still Waiting.....

We're still waiting for repairs to be completed but we've also managed to get some pictures of inside the house for you all to look at.

The first two pictures are of our ensuite. The next three are of the bathroom and the last two are views from our balcony. One of them shows Melbourne city in the distance.

Not Happy!!

Our house was supposed to have been finished on the 23rd Febrary but we didn't have our new house presentation until the 13th March:-( At our new house presentation we went around looking for faults for the builders to fix before handing over to us. We found quite a few faults but the real whopper was that they had used the wrong tiles on the balcony. The one's they had used were for internal and not external and were very slippery from the early morning dew.

Anyway, the new house presentation team said they would have to hand back to the site manager to get the tiles ripped up and replaced. However, after this they got the wrong tiles delivered again and so we have had to wait for the right one's to be delivered. The builders, Hen3ey, are not even keeping us informed of what is happening. The only way we are finding out the truth is by visiting the site for ourselves. It looks as though we won't be in the house until after Easter now for sure. We're really disappointed but at least we're getting paid by Hen3eys for the inconvenience. (by the way if you haven't signed your contract yet make sure you negotiate the amount you will be paid for agreed damages for late completion of building works).

Brief Update

We're now over a week past the contract end date and our building Company have had to start paying us for late completion. However, the house has been handed over to the final Handover team and we are waiting for them to ask us for a walk around session. The session will give us the opportunity of picking up any faults we might find. After this the Building Company have two weeks to fix the fault. Our fence on the right hand side has been erected now as well as you can see on picture on the left. We've got ourselves organised and have got the curtains made and ready to install. We've got the carpet and laminte organised to be fitted and we've got someone to do our driveway. So we're all ready to go and move in.

Getting There.......!!

Now that we are getting closer to the contractual end date of the build, the rate seems to have speeded up a bit. The front render and the door have been painted and we can really see what the house will look like when it's finished. (It was very hard to visualise what it would look like when we chose our colours for the house.... but we think the final product looks okay.)

The tilers have been in the house as well and have started the tiling but there is still about another half to do. The roof lining in the alfresco and porch have been painted. The glass splashback and sink in the kitchen have been installed too. Dave has noticed a few things he isn't happy with so we are going to have to snag them with our site manager to get them rectified and hopefully they won't take too long to fix.

We spent some time in the house about a week ago while we had a man around to measure for curtains and it really felt like home for the first time (even though it's still a building site).The children played out in the back garden with the bits of plasterboard and didn't want to leave when it was time to go. We're now busy getting quotes for fences and a concrete drive. However, we are really undecided about what to do for the driveway. Should we go for stencilling (which looks like fake paving but is quite convincing) or go for exposed stone which has a rough texture and is plain with various colours... answers all on a post card please....?

Undercoat complete

We went to see the house yesterday with our site manager and he seems to be saying that the house will be complete by February as things are going to plan. The kitchen cupboards have now been put in and the cupboards in the bathroom and ensuite as you can see above. We've gone back to the 70's/80's with a black kitchen.......as you can see. We've chosen grey for the cupboards in the bathroom and ensuite. Only problem that has come up so far was that there was a bee's nest in the alfresco so they had to get the pest controllers in. Let's hope they don't return as I'm not keen on that kind of "buzzing".

We're Plastered

Today is the 17th October and they have finished off the plastering in the house. They have also rendered the front balcony which will be painted later on.

Here is a picture of the family room.

....and a picture of the kitchen/meals area showing part of the stairs ready to be fitted.

......and a side picture of the house showing the balcony and the evaporative cooling.