3 Months In...

...Whats new with you?

So, we've been living in the house for a few months now, and we absolutely love it! 

The guest rooms got their first official visitors over the Xmas break, and I took great pleasure in getting them ready for their inhabitants!

Main Guest Bedroom

Second Guest Bedroom

We have thinned out some of the scraggly bits and pieces from the front of the block, but we haven't done much else externally. 

No more twiggy bits

Burning the piles

To be honest, the works outside have kind of taken a back seat, as just after we moved in, we discovered there was a new project to focus on.

Pretty soon, in 20 weeks actually, the last spare bedroom will have a new inhabitant! 

The start of a new adventure!

So, between having my head in the toilet bowl (not fun, just in case you wondered!) and the regular goings on that life brings, we've been busy getting the room ready for the new bub!

Strap in, I think we're in for a wild ride!

We're in!

With much co-ordination and pushing on my behalf, we managed to pick up our keys, just in time to move on the long weekend as we had planned! 

The Front Elevation was painted only the day before!

Front Elevation Paint: Solver Shagreen

The move went smoothly, with friends and family pitching in and getting us all in and unpacked in record time, which we are so very grateful for! 

Now that we have been in a couple of weeks, we have started on the little projects around the house, and we're loving the way its looking!

London Skyline Watercolour from eBay, Frame from Ikea

Hong Kong Skyline Watercolour from eBay, Frame from Ikea

Artwork made by me!

Aella Pendants from She Lights

Dania Pendants from She Lights

No new couches right now, so a cover and some new cushions will do!

New bedding from Duck River

And the wardrobe in full use!

So functional!

Tasty housewarming present!

There is still a long list, but that's home ownership, isn't it? A never ending list of projects and practically buying shares in Bunnings!

So, who's coming to visit?

Gettin' Laid

...well, the floors anyway! 

The tilers have been and gone, and boy are we happy! They still need a real vacuum to get rid of the dust and probably a good few mops to get rid of the final grout haze, but they look great already!

Crosby Timber Tiles in 'Cherry'

We are super glad we made the decision to continue the tiles out into the alfresco, and absolutely love the effect it gives! The whole place looks even bigger, which we didn't think would happen either, so we've been pleasantly surprised by that! 

The stonework was also finished today, and we hold high hopes that the painting to the front elevation will happen tomorrow.

Archistone Cleft Face Stone in 'Colorado'

Our carpets are also going in tomorrow, so we're excited to see how they look! 

We want to move in next Friday, so I asked the builder to issue the final claim, and have sent that off to the bank so they can get the final valuation arranged and the funds cleared in time for us to get keys next week. We're now sitting with bated breath, hoping the final items will be done before the inspection so we don't have to cancel moving trucks and annual leave. 

I have a meeting with the site supervisor tomorrow morning so will be giving him a little rev up if needed. 

Fingers crossed it may not be needed... 

Stay tuned!

The List...

...Part II


After I gave the Builder "The List", I was expecting a call to meet on site, and go through each item. I was also fully expecting that when we did meet on site, that I would be met with many excuses and a lot of the builder trying to convince me that the items on the list were acceptable industry standard.

To my surprise, no phone call or meeting was forthcoming, until earlier this week, and was really a result of us telling the builder we have our floor tiler organised to go in next week and that the builders trades were not going to be allowed access while they were there.

All of a sudden, the builder decided we need to do a Practical Completion walk through, to cover themselves against any damage our trades may cause. Totally understandable, and probably the smartest organisational decision they've made through the whole process!

So, I met with the site supervisor, and the construction manager on site yesterday. I don't know how they ordinarily carry out the walk through's, but this meeting was run by me. I took my list, and I walked through the entire house checking off item by item. The supervisor then transposed any items which were still outstanding onto his official PC paperwork for us both to sign at the end of the meeting.

I was pleasantly surprised that there was very little complaint about the items I had listed. By this stage, I suspected they were going to do the majority of them anyway, as if they wanted to argue the point and get around any of them, it would have been brought up for discussion prior to now, but I still went armed with my industry standard info, just in case!

All in all, the list is much smaller than it started off, and to be fair, the items that have been attended to so far did happen quite quickly and are of a satisfactory standard. 

The way we see it, the Builder wouldn't present these items in one of their display homes, so why should we accept it in our home. 

The external works are still in progress, but most of the internal works are now done, with the exception of some minor painting issues to be remedied. 

The stonework hasn't yet been completed as the contractor wasn't provided enough stone to complete the works, but the additional product is now on site and waiting for another fine day to complete the works.

The garage door has been installed though, and its looking exactly as we envisioned, which is always a good thing! 

Centurion Garage Doors - Leeuwin Profile in Cedar

The small amount of paving we have in a path down the side of the house from the Laundry, and in the portico have also gone in.

Looks better close up without all the yellow sand on top!

Most importantly though, the Pièce de résistance has been installed. Our fantastic robe fitout from the gang at Lifestyle Wardrobes went in on Thursday, and we are thrilled with it. Well, by we, I mean "I". I love it, the husband probably doesn't have any strong feelings one way or another! I can't wait to stack all my pretties on the shoe shelves! 

Shoes! (Door in the pic on RHS is to the Master Bedroom)

Looking in from the Master, Ensuite around to the RHS

Master on LHS. This section is directly opposite the shoes

Continuation of section above

Around the bend. Ensuite on RHS

Continuation of section above

Our floor tiler starts on Tuesday, so stay tuned for pictures of that!

The List...

...and The Confiscation.

So after many weeks of little to no progress I finally got jack of it.

I emailed the builder politely to ask what is happening and whether we were still on track for the mid-Aug practical completion walk through and key handover by the end of August. I also expressed concern at the list of approx 10 items we had given them and they had responded with dates each item would be completed by, as only 2 of those items had since been completed, and neither of them were on the dates advised.

They responded by saying the supervisor would call me to discuss.  

He did call, and he made the comment that "everything inside has finished, its only the outside" so I took that as my opportunity to jump in with a "well actually, no" and it started from there. We had quite a pleasant conversation where I pointed out a couple of things and said there were quite a few, and as I still had my construction key did he want me to send him a list, effectively minimising the need for a walk through, and this way he could get started on the works inside while the external works were still being completed. 

So I did. All 85 line items of a list was sent to them late last week, and today they emailed me saying the construction manager was going to go through the list, but in the meantime could I return my construction key. I don't think they liked my list! But the way I see it, they either get the list now, or they get it later, and at least this way we might get our keys sometime before the end of the year. 

The list got the desired result though. I did a drive-by at lunch time today and there were 5 cars there, one of which being the construction manager, who was going over things with the painter as the bulk of the items on the list were painting issues. 

And after many weeks waiting, today we finally got some stone to the front elevation! 

So I expect a call and a request for a meeting with the manager sometime this week. I am more than happy to compromise on some things, but I went in with every little thing on the list to begin with so I would have some room to move. If I went in easy, they'd try to get away with less than that, and I'm paying good money for this stuff, so they can bloody well do a good job! 

So, we've booked to move at the end of September, whether we have the keys or not, but I'm hoping we do have a bit of time to do little bits and pieces before that. 

We'll see.... 

Tapping the toe...

Impatience!

Since the last post, we really haven't seen a whole lot of progress, which is frustrating to say the least!

The builder contacted me at the end of July and advised that we weren't far off our first inspection, to which I responded with a "really?" followed by a list of currently incomplete items. They responded with dates each of the items were due to happen, and to date they have hit maybe 3 of those. The bulk of the internal items are completed, but there is the entire front elevation still remaining to be started, and lets just say attendance by trades on site has been sparse. The builder has since adjusted the mid-August key handover to a 20th August first inspection date, and at this stage, being only a week away, I doubt they'll hit that date either. 

We have reached the point where we can't let them hold us up any longer, so bookings for our own "after handover" items have been made, including the laying of our floor tiles, for which our tiler needs full uninterrupted access, so I have informed the builder, in no uncertain terms, that handed over or not, the tiler WILL be going in that week, and the builder WILL NOT have access that week! I don't know how impressed they are with that, but hey, we're not impressed with the lack of action so too bad! 

A minor picture update on progress since the last post, but nothing really huge to report, unfortunately! 

Garage Hardstand Laid

The correct shower head arrived!

Flyscreens on our lovely stacker doors!

Front Entry Doors - Stained to match the [future] Garage Auto Door

Brick Pavers delivered - yet to be laid

Ducted Reverse Cycle Air-Conditioning Control Panel

Air-Con Installed

Air-Con Installed

Septic Tank Delivered

Hopefully we'll have more exciting news in the next post!

Mirrors, and Screens, and Paint...

...Oh My!

This past week has seen more of the final finishes go in.

First we had mirrors, and shower screens.

Main Bathroom

Ensuite Shower Screen

Ensuite Mirrors

Then we had the vinyl linen sliding doors.

Linen (Open)

Linen (Closed)

And lastly the first coat of the paint on the walls has gone on.

Looking from Entry to Main Living

Theatre

Looking back toward Entry

Kitchen

The colour is slightly darker than we anticipated but we really like it. It looks different in different areas of the house, and at different times of the day, and has a nice depth to it. It will look different again with furniture in the house, I'm sure!


Another little purchase for the house this week too. Bar stools like these, except white. Now we will have plenty of seating to entertain, and will actually be able to invite people over - something we've missed being able to do regularly in our current little unit. 

We did have another little hiccup, that the husband picked up. The electricians had run the cable from the dome to the meterbox, and only ran single phase instead of the three phase we had upgraded to. A quick call to the builder to let them know sorted that out, although the electricians were cheeky and told the builder that we were wrong and it had been run correctly, and must have rushed out there to re-run the cable, as when we went out the next day after work to check it was corrected and the builder had called me to tell me it was definitely run in three phase. Little did they know we had taken photos confirming their error! Not a biggie, as it was sorted quickly, but it just astounds us that they could be so shady! 

We are still working to the mid-August key handover date, but by the time we get our floors tiled, carpets in the bedrooms & theatre, blinds installed and wardrobe fit-out completed, it will be closer to mid-September which is a bit frustrating, but we can't do much about it. 

Until next time!