Connected

Energex came and switched the solar on this week so we should be generating some of our own power now its all connected up to the grid. All we need is a few sunny days so we can really reap the benefits and claw back what we have paid to have the system installed. Finger crossed we can generate more electricity than we use so we can sell the surplus back to the electricity company.

We also had the roofers come and replace all the broken tiles and recheck the roof so hopefully everything is water tight and leak proof again.

The cost of the hard landscaping has been renegotiated and we have booked them to start as soon as possible as we are very keen to get the garden finished and have a shed so we can move all the stuff for the garden out of the garage to free up some space. We are having paving and gravel with concrete steps out of the laundry and garage.We have gone for a dark paver and light gravel which hopefully compliments the house and the rest of the colour schemes.

Next door on the left, as you face our house, picked up their keys today and are moving in a week once they have had the flooring done. Our other neighbours build has ground to a halt this week due to bad weather but they did get their bricks delivered - as far as I can tell they have gone for the austral zinc which is quite a dark almost black colour. Should look good.

Looking forward to a lovely weekend catching up with friends and family and taking the dog to her first obedience class.

Rain and Solar

At last it has stopped raining. The pool levels got emptied a further 3 times and the submersible pump from Bunnings got a really good work out. I am contacting Metricon regarding the lack of land drains to see why they were only positioned on the one side of the house. It looks like we will need to raise the ground level in the garden on the pool side of the house and add more land drains, gravel and drainage pipes to prevent us filling up with water every time we get heavy rain. A costly project but one that needs to happen to safeguard our home and allow us to have a useable utility garden (shed, veggies, washing line etc area) I think its going to add around another $3-4K to the garden budget which means we may have to put some of the inside of the house projects on hold for a while longer.

On a more positive note we are having a 3 kilowatt solar electricity system installed, 16 roof panels to catch all that glorious Queensland sunshine - ha ha the irony after all the rain we have had! We choose a company called FreeSolar as their prices were extremely competitive. In total its costing $4,000 which we felt was a bargain, Metricon had given us a verbal quote of about $12,000 for a similar installation when we enquired all those months ago at preliminary contract. I don't think a 3KW system will mean we'll be selling electricity back to the grid but it will certainly help with the running costs of such a large house. Not that we have loads of appliances other than the washing machine in constant action! Oh I guess the dishwasher gets a pretty good workout though. We are yet to receive our first electricity bill so we have no idea how the running costs of this house compare to our old home yet. So we should be going solar by the end of this month.

The new puppy Angel is settling in well, a total sweetie and an excellent playmate for our son. Ah Home Sweet Home!

Photo Journal Part 4

Power Points Et Al

Light Switches - Clipsal Slim

Down Lights

Outdoor Room Ceiling Fan and Lights

Family Room Celing Fan and Air Con Outlet

Where Are The Photos?

My apologies for getting really behind with posting photographs, I was away at a workshop for a few days and had left the camera with the family so they could follow progress. There now follows an awful lot of pictures as I wasn't sure whether to add them to previous posts or just put them all in one big photo journal.

See photo journal Parts 1 -5

We Have The Power

Well its been a busy weekend, we have light switches, plug sockets, ceiling fans, air con vents, lights and all sorts of electrical stuff going on. The electrical crew were there Friday, Saturday and Monday so they must sense that the deadline to get this house finished is near. 
The insulation bats have been put in the loft space and I'm not quite sure if anything else has happened at this point. We did get some colour samples for the robe door and have picked out a lovely metallic grey/brown for the master suite which should sparkle nicely under the lights.
The construction for the pool also has continued over a similar time frame. Apparently they ran out of steel for the form work so had to leave it until Monday. Hopefully the concrete will be poured today as scheduled . Not entirely sure of the weather forecast but it looks like showers which is actually good as it slows the set of the concrete giving a harder final result.

We are yet to have a site meeting with the SS to go over the issues that we have spotted. He was super grumpy when I spoke to him about it last week and was quite rude to me actually. I called him back later and told him that I didn't appreciate being spoken to like one of his tradies and reminded him that I am his customer paying his wages. I did get an apology so hopefully we can move forward now without any dramas.

I promise I will post some photos soon (watch this space so to speak)

Steel and Electrics

The steel work is in for the pool and for the paving areas around it and in the outdoor room ready for concrete to be poured on Monday. I've had no more calls from either sets of builders so I have to assume they managed to sort out their differences. They have a few finishing touches so should be on site again today. Indoors they have started on the lights, switches and sockets. I will check on progress when I return later tomorrow.

Lots Of Activity

While we've been away it has rained a lot but the tradies have been busy on site doing lots of little things and completing tasks that were already underway. There were about 8 blokes working away at the house when we went in on Monday. So what progress did we see?

The kitchen installation continues
The cabinets have handles on
Doors have been hung (some not all)
We have door handles and locks on the exterior doors (our son wants his keys now!)
The floor prep has been done for the bathrooms
Laundry sink is in
Holes for lights, switches and other electrics have been made
Architraves are being cut and fit
The brick work is finished
A new kicker has been made for the ensuite vanity
Ensuite vanity has been moved (amusing photo to follow)

The tiling should start soon however the last we heard the tiles are not in the country yet so no guaranteed timeline can be given on that one.
Its looking good and really starting to come together as a house and not just a build now.

Front Door Handle

Rear Garage Door Hardware

Translucent Glass Door to Powder Room

Butler's Pantry Left Kitchen Right With Cavity Slider Middle (No Doors Yet)

Laundry Sink, Laminex Seal Bench Top

Island Bench With Space For Dishwasher

Close Up of Door Handles

Island Bench From Another Angle Note Silver Kicker

Bathroom Floor Prep

The Balcony

More of the Balcony

Cut Out For Light (This One Is Patch) In Wrong Place

Look They've Repositioned The Vanity!!!!!

Electrical Diagrams

For all of those of you out there who like looking a drawings here are our electrical diagrams. Nice looking plates of spaghetti eh!?
Click on the diagram for a bigger view.



Ground Floor




Upstairs



Electrical Appointment

We did all our selection appointments in one day so by the time our 3pm consultation with Stratus came around we were starting to dip in energy as we had been hard at it since 8.30am. This was the appointment we were most nervous about as we had read many blogs where people had had such a terrible experiences doing their electricals, from unhelpful consultants to big budget blow outs.
Before our visit we had spent hours deciding where lights, power points, switches etc should go and drawing them on to our house plans. I found the best way to do it was to imagine myself going in and out or rooms and where I would need or like a switch or lights, phone points and so on to be.
Luckily for us our consultant was superb, he really knew his stuff and approached our project like it was his own home. He gave us great advice, took time to explain things, go through the options and even made some good suggestions. He was impressed with our drawings as it made his job much easier and also allowed us to understand why certain things would or wouldn't work.

We ended up with almost 70 down lights along with a few fluorescents and vanity lights, a batten point for a stairwell pendant, stair lights, spotlights for outside, outdoor feature lights, circuits for future garden lights, ceiling fans in outdoor room plus security system and home network and of course all the relevant power points and switches.

All in all we spent just over $16k which was right on the budget we had set. Our consultant said we'd done well as most people spend around $20k on a house the size of the Nolan 45.
This appointment took nearly 2 hours and we were very tired at the end of it but so pleased it went well, mainly because our consultant made it so easy and because we had done loads of preparation which seems to be the key.

We also met with our CSC who is about to go on maternity leave, she informed us Council were only waiting for the hydraulics plan so hopefully we will get the go ahead to start building soon.
I am relieved and excited that all the planning and decision making is over and can't wait for the build to finally start!

A Day Out Making Selections

What a huge day, our minds are fried from all the decision making and high level concentration required to do tile and colour selections plus electrical plans all in one day. We set off at 6.30am to be in Robina in plenty of time for our 8.30am start so Sandy and I could chat and finalise details over a cup of tea before getting started. Contracts, plans, samples, photos, magazines, sketches and laptop in hand we had come prepared, we wanted today to go as smoothly as possible. After a lovely pot of peppermint tea at the local cafe and a few side bets on how much of our budget we were likely to spend we were ready for 7 hours of planning appointments.

Thankfully all went brilliantly even our electrical appointment. The team at Metricon were very professional, easy to work with and extremely well briefed. They had checked through our plans and contract prior to our arrival and had everything prepared for each appointment, filling us with confidence that they knew what they were doing and what we would need.

A very tiring day as we didn't get home until 6pm so I will post more tomorrow once I have had chance to process everything and have a look at how much we have spent.
Oh and a big thanks to my Mom for coming over to take our boy out for the day would never have been able to do our selections with a 4 year old in tow!

Finding Out The Price of Things

Greetings from Hoi An Vietnam, we are having a fantastic holiday but felt to share this gem of information.

We have a rough plan for our electicals and started to panic about costs once the number of downlights went over 70 having heard they were $100 each! Quick bit of maths tells me that's $7000 just on lights......Noooo!!! That can't be right.

So plan b quickly start to cross things out or go for what would seem to be a cheaper option. Not happy with having to compromise on our dream house Sandy made a really brilliant observation....How can we do a budget when we have no clear idea of how much everything costs, would it not be easier to just ask Metricon in advance? Genius!!! Just shoot off a quick e-mail to the CSC asking how much for lights, power points etc etc.
Got a lovley email back with the following prices:

External double power points $152 each
Outdoor lights (not flood lights) $134-$170 each (up and down light, depending on the finish, etc)
Ceiling fans $275 each (white, 4 blade, 52 inch)
Cfl downlights $105 each (full price, does not include credit for batten holder of $63)
TV point $80 each
Telephone point $95 each
Satellite/ Foxtel point? $160 each (satellite)
2 way light switch $54 each
3 way light switch $79 each
Internal double power point $63

Now doesn't that make things so much easier? So the moral of the story is if there is anything you need to know just ask Metricon.
Now we can go back to our plans with a much better idea of what we are spending.

That's all for now as we are heading off on a boat trip this morning and there is so much wonderful food I am yet to sample here in beautiful Vietnam.