Handover 27th June 2014

8 months after building, Garry picks up the keys Friday 27th June :). 

Reflecting, it's gone pretty smoothly with only a few pretty minor hiccups along the way. A huge Thank You to the crowd at Carter Grange who made it as easy as it could have been. Starting with everyone in the office who we dealt with, being Rob, Frank (for showing us the first Radisson before any were on display), Hannah, Danielle, Mary, Mark, Elisa and Haylee, and lastly, Rod. Rod, you came highly recommended by our friend James and surpassed our expectations. Your insights, honest opinions and attention to detail made our build an experience I would definitely take on again. 

Our Practical Completion Inspection (PCI) done 2 weeks earlier went very well, Rod having helped a lot by getting there beforehand and doing a pretty thorough inspection, finding mostly paint work that needed work on. The whole family including our exchange student Jonna came along on a grey winter's day to help. I'd put a checklist together by searching a number of websites, but nothing major was found. Again, Rod thank you for making it so easy. 


And so a few photos to share, of floorboards and driveways.

spotted gum floorboards

and it's all ours

spotted gum porch 

exposed aggregate (Montquartz 5%) from Mentone Pre-mix - Brett has done a stunning job. I think the colour we chose works really well.

What's next? 

• Council have our application for the crossover to be moved, lodged 24th June. Hoping they can beat their 4 week SLA 

• Driveway done last Wednesday 2nd July and looking pretty good

• Moving in date hoping to be 19th July

• Three bookings all locked in to get quotes for curtains or blinds or shutters - the choice is humongous - all I know is it won't be verticals

• Letter box

• Choose Towel rails, toilet roll holders as they don't come with the house, and installation of fan in alfresco and lights in kitchen

What can wait? 

• Landscaping (dependent on Tattslotto win)

• Decking over al fresco

• Bar stools...

PCI Wednesday

With the front door now installed we are locked out. There's been some more progress ie carpet and floorboards all in, but with limited photos:

I have spent hours and hours looking for the right kitchen pendant lights. Finally dragged Garry round to some shops, and we've bought 3 of the above. It's not that clear, but they have fine wires so should let through plenty of light. 

front door and no more fence! 

shot looking through the front door, showing spotted gum floor boards which I think look great.

And now it's late May

It's been a while since the last blog, but there's been quite some progress. Currently looking at landscaping and concreting quotes. 

Garage doors are in :)

Tiling is done, and taps are in. Powder room downstairs, and bath in the girls' bathroom

                                              

Our shower and powder room upstairs. Love the gloss tiles on the shower walls.

Kitchen with splashback and tap now installed

Laundry looking across to living room/study, now tiled 

 

Built Ins in our WIR, and shelving in butler's pantry.

Tiling begins

Went to the house a few times in the last few weeks, to meet with Rod to discuss water tank position and a few other things. Then with four concreters to get quotes for the new crossover, removal of the old crossover, new driveway with exposed aggregate, concrete behind the 3rd garage next to the laundry for the camper trailer, a slab against the fenceline in the far right corner for Garry's shed, and lastly for a slab for the rain water tank. I'd expected the crossover and driveway to cost $10K, with everything else it's looking more like $15K to $18K.... not a cheap exercise. But we can't get by without a driveway.

Good news is that where I'd heard some negative things about our council Monash not being in favour of double crossovers, when I spoke to them last week about the permit we need, the guy said a 3.5 m crossover sounds like it might not be an issue. Especially with needing to back in our camper trailer, and having a 21m frontage. We must remove the existing one though. I am going to write a letter along with 3 copies of a plan they need, detailing my requirements and justifying the 3.5 m crossover. Further justification is our neighbour's driveway opposite is 3m...  Stay tuned. 

Also waiting for a landscaping quote. And decking over the alfresco, and of the front porch.

Going round Thursday night at 6.30 pm pallets of tiles were being unloaded. And Anzac Day morning (next day) the tilers were there starting on our shower in the ensuite. Further good news was all the stone benchtops had been delivered in readiness for installation.

Lastly I had noted that the drawers in my island bench were on the left of the bench, opposite to where we'd put them in the plan. (I wanted them as close to the dishwasher as possible). Yes they will be changed! Good to have that sorted. And now for some photos:

tiles

kitchen benchtop above double ovens

powder room benchtop

laundry benchtop

We were warned not to choose one of the lighter exposed aggregate colours, as they show rubber from tyres, as well as any oil. So, here are the ones we are considering:

 

 

Painting

Progress in the last 3 weeks is that the cornices and skirting boards have been put in place, house has been prepped for painting, and painting started this week. 

We met with the landscaper yesterday for him to hear our thoughts on what we would like. We've agreed on an australian native theme plus a lemon tree, magnolia, and a vegie patch. He suggested putting a shed in the back corner with a spotted gum screen, showed us a photo of one he'd recently done and it looked great. We discussed the driveway and other concreting. I think it's going to be a sizable total but he'll provide a breakdown, am hoping we can postpone some things but obviously the driveway and a fence for Snowy is going to be the priority.... looking forward (not, lol) to getting it in about two weeks.

Dropped by this morning to find painting in full swing. We have gone for a neutral colour, Dulux white duck quarter, and it's looking good. 

Bathroom vanity

Painted doors for toilet and WIL

Painted doors in our bedroom, a bit dark as the windows are covered in plastic to stop paint being dropped

 Kitchen

Hallway upstairs

Shower in Bathroom

And I forgot to add that the two retaining walls have been done - looking pretty good:

it's all happening indoors

Talk about progress inside and out this week:
 Cabinetry delivered
 Cabinetry installed downstairs
 Stair case installed
 Retaining walls started

Are we impressed? yes :)

north wall of laundry

double bench oven cabinetry

when am I going to be installed?

ensuite

retaining walls starting to take shape

slightly blurry kitchen shot, showing overhead bulkhead for heating and cooling and much longed for island bench :)

we have a staircase! view from the front door

and then there was plaster

22nd March
it's been a while since my last post. The roof tiling has now been completed and electrical work done. We added a few more lights, powerpoints in various places, given it is much easier and cheaper to do it now then later. So pleased to get that sorted.

The pre plaster inspection was done by NHI on Wednesday 5th March so it meant the faults found at the post-frame inspection had to be fixed prior to that. The pre-plaster one found 9, all minor, which have since been addressed.

Plastering started only the day before these photos were taken, on Wednesday 19th March, with a downstairs team and a separate team working upstairs. Amazing progress.

We met SS Thursday to discuss the required 2nd retaining wall. For some odd reason the quote for the first retaining wall (along the north boundary) was included in the house build, but not the one needed going from that corner along the west boundary. Now quoted and both getting done next week.

The stairs go in at the end of next week. 

We are looking for water tanks of around 2.5 - 3 K L. We then need to get quotes for 

• a concrete pad under the water tank
• moving the crossover (I'm told about $3,500) and 
• doing the driveway (about $6,500). 

I've found the washing line I want, but we've yet to find a letter box, 3 lights for above the kitchen island bench, and 3 bar stools. Also, quotes for

• decking
• landscaping (and that's going to be the painful one).

Latest pics:

 

Alfresco looking into house

View from the street, hasn't changed much

electricals including for NAS

back room

Hallway looking to the front door

top of the stairs looking to the leisure room

kitchen, splashback window on the left

So quite looking forward to the next stages, including completion of the rendering, cabinetry being installed, painting etc. Looking more and more like a house :)

Roof on al fresco, garage and back room

Quite a bit of progress in the last week, just haven't gotten to the house for regular updates. Now that upstairs render is done, the roof over the alfresco and back room, and garages is taking shape, and electrical work progressing. An interim front door has been installed and we are close to lockup. What that exactly means I'm not sure. But I assume it means the house can be locked up with a key, and now they are ready to work on internals. 

One point to highlight - the stone and cabinetry we'd chosen in laundry/powder rooms/bathroom were no longer available and we had to choose replacement. This came as a blessing in disguise, as I'd made a mistake with the feature tiles I'd chosen for our ensuite. I'd matched them to the benchtop in the laundry not the benchtop in the kitchen. If the benchtop and cabinetry hadn't no longer been available I'd be none the wiser and the feature tiles would have been done looking absolutely awful ... fortunately we picked it up as a result of the above change and were able to change to the other benchtop. Phew. Thanks to CG for coming to the rescue.

some photos:

view towards the al fresco

My dark laundry taken from the hallway. I plan to install a skylight. The light from the left is the glass door. Light on the right won't be visible because the roller door will be there. 

just love my iphone - panorama shot of the back room. To the left is the kitchen, with the 3 stacker door going out to the alfresco, and the sliding doors on the right to the back yard

from the alfresco

carpet rose blooming in the back yard - thought we'd lost it after the demo :)

our new (interim) pivot front door

I'm really pleased with the colour of the Hebel. There is a house round the corner from us totally rendered in a dusky pink - say no more. I thought we may have gone too dark with the Dulux caveman but it's looking really sharp, especially with the black aluminium window frames.