Cooking On Gas

The appliances have been installed. We have a stainless steel Mia Cucina 900mm hob as part of the promo package with five burners and 2 Technika ovens in black and stainless steel plus a microwave and dishwasher. As usual I haven't seen them yet and will probably have to wait until we do handover on Friday before I do.

Hob

Oven x 2

Dishwasher - Yeah We'll Be Glad to Have One of These Again

Ping - Microwave

The cleaner is also going to be at the house tomorrow, the painters on Friday to redo the stairs where the stain has been applied substandard and the carpenters have already finished their jobs. The brickies are due back on Friday.

Final Invoice

We haven't even had PCI yet but the final invoice for practical completion and variations arrived yesterday!!!! 

Time To Pay Up

Looks like Metricon want to get us finished as soon as possible. That's good for us as there will be no delays waiting for the invoice and we can get the bank all ready for action once we are satisfied that the house (OUR HOME!!!) has been built to plan after PCI.

The movers are booked for Thursday 17th Nov, the buildings insurance is set up and now all we have to do is order gas, electricity, bins and telephone. We are moving into our new home - yes we really are.

The digger driver, fencer, native plant landscaper and pool builder have all been told we will be ready from Monday 21st so we are pencilled in for these jobs to commence/continue. I would dearly like the pool and paving etc to be finished before Christmas so we get to enjoy it over our break. Oh must get the turf company out as well otherwise it will just be mud or dust to play in depending on the weather.

We are now officially very, very EXCITED!!!

These Will Be Ours Very Soon

Now The Hard Work Begins

Spent the afternoon at the new Masters warehouse in Springfield. It is huge and has everything from pot plants to lighting and all sorts in between. All your DIY projects are catered for and they even sell white goods.
I've got 3 BBQs that I have my eye on and we have picked out floor lamps, some wallpapers, artworks and ideas for dressing the house and storage to go in the wardrobes and the study/playroom. Oh and they do an incredible range of floor rugs at very reasonable prices. So wish list in hand we will return once we have moved to go on a very big shopping spree. I think they do home delivery as well - hmm that might come in handy!

The building inspector is booked for PCI and we have finally decide on our fencing we will be having slate grey aluminum fences and gates across the front of the house and around the pool and standard palling fences on the boundary areas. It sounds as if the neighbours all want to get together to have a pow wow about the fences before people put them up. Well they better organise something soon as our fencing guy is booked in to start almost immediately after we move in.

Just the digger and turf to organise then the hard work of packing and moving and cleaning and landscaping begins.

It's A Date!!!

It's finally happening, the date for the Practical Completion Inspection (PCI) has been set for Friday 4th November. Wow, gosh and double wow that's next week. We are booking an independent inspection as well which will cost around $550 but will be money well spent if it picks up any issues that need attention.

Inspectors

Not sure how long it takes from PCI to handover - can anyone give us an idea from their own experiences?

Our bank have been really good at paying the invoices and getting things organised so I can't see them holding things up. Are we being too optimistic to think we might be moving around the 20th November?

I'm so excited, it's really happening we are getting a new home oh and a massive new mortgage to go with it!!! Brilliant, now we can do landscaping, finish the pool, getting fences and plants, decorate and furnish the place. Oh to have a big kitchen and bathroom again..... I've gone all dreamy.

Information

I sent a few early morning texts and messages to our SS and finally got a phone call in return, it's a miracle! He doesn't want to give us a PCI date just yet as he wants as many of the glitches fixed and finished before the inspection is done. I explained to him that this is OK and we are not trying to rush the house all we are asking is to be kept in the loop. I also explained that it would be really great if we could move in November as the following month is very hectic with our son's birthday, lots of work commitments, meetings and weekends away doing workshops oh and of course Christmas. He said he'd let me know either at the end of the day or today. I guess it'll be today as the only other conversation I had was to discuss the new study door and the position of the the big handle. I'll give him until lunch time then I'll gently remind him that he was supposed to speak to me again.

So the painters have finished (they are lovely guys) and the carpenters were in fixing up the sliding study door which they ruined it by putting a bathroom lock on it and apparently are extremely annoyed that they are having to change it and foot the bill for their mistake - the upgraded door cost nearly $3,000 so it was not a cheap fix!. They are also doing minor little things like inspection hatches and so forth. I find it disappointing that they work in such an angry fashion, that's my home you are polluting with you emotional energy.

I am chasing a few contacts about a digger and driver to move the soil around and we are still finalising the quote for the fencing. We are heading up to Noosa for a day out at the weekend for a bit of rest and relaxation but also to have a look at some mail boxes and other little bits and pieces for the yard at a place called front yard art. I have also sourced a few plant nurseries that specialise in bamboos and structural plants that we might want to put along some of the borders so we might check those out on Friday. We  have also picked out a light for the top of the stairs but are awaiting confirmation of it's dimensions as we aren't sure if it will fit the stair well space.

The Light is Similar to This One

All Quiet On The Western Front

"Its oh so quiet, its oh so still". No phone calls, no e-mails, no activity on site and no reply to my text messages either. All we want to know is an idea of PCI and handover dates so we can start planning. I'm not getting annoyed or impatient about the end date as our build has only been 20 weeks so far but I think its quite rude not to speak to your clients for 2 weeks when it is your job to keep us informed with weekly progress calls. The Building Support Coordinator (BSC) Karen is very good she answers our email promptly but when it is oh yes TC (the site supervisor) will call you about that and then he doesn't I get irritated by the lack of a courtesy call. if they don't know when PCI is yet then just say that and we'll patiently wait another week.

We are still nutting out the final specifications for the fencing and typical of us we always prefer the more expensive option or products. The budget has blown out by a couple of thousand but we had factored that in in our initial price range estimate. We are also trying to decide do we want curtains or blinds, a combination of both and which is going to go at which window. We are thinking of not having any window treatments for the family, kitchen , dining space as we have massive picture windows that we don't really want to obscure in any way - we may change our minds if it's not private enough or too chilly in winter or there is too much glare in summer. It would save us a lot of dosh if we can avoid having curtains in that room though.

We are also considering a small shed to go in the ugly side of the house where the air con, hot water heater and pool equipment are situated. The shed can the be home for our gardening tools and pool cleaning things which will give us more space in the garage for the boy's toys - you know bike, scooters etc.

Sandy is busy selling our worldly goods on E-bay so we don't have to move things in that we don't really want any more. Better go check that one of my kidneys isn't being auctioned as we speak........

Finishing Touches and Tidying Up

The final push to finish our homes continues. The shower screens and bathroom mirrors have been installed and the totally over flowing site bin has been cleared away. The rest of the site is still a tip so we presume they will do a final site clean a little closer to PCI/handover.
I plan to speak to the SS tomorrow to see if we can set a definite PCI date so I can book the building inspector as well. We will also be going out to check out some furniture while everywhere has sales on. This is the sort of thing we'd like for the family room.

King Furniture - Kato Deluxe - In Grey?

We (I should actually say Sandy) worked tirelessly yesterday ringing for quotes on gas, electric and building insurance as well as finalising what fencing we are having and getting us an new quote. It appears that we will now be having frameless glass fencing for around the pool and we have seen aluminium fencing that looks just like timber that would be awesome for a privacy/feature fencing. No maintenance and no wood stain bleeding out and dripping colour onto the granite pavers. aluminium slats gallery

Looks Like Timber But Is Aluminium

It is so surreal that almost a year to the day that the land auction happend we will be moving in to our new home. Crazy.

Nearly There?

18 weeks have passed by since the build started with the site scrape and it has flashed by in a blur of concrete, steel, plaster, timber, cables, pipes, bricks and tiles.

Things are slowly coming to an end, the balustrade on the balcony is in place and the air conditioning unit has been installed. We were trying to think what else needs to be completed before our home is finished and this is what we came up with:

• carpets
• appliances in the kitchen
• driveway and concrete path to portico
• stain the stairs
• little bits of painting
• robe doors
• fix minor hiccups
• and let me see can I think of anything more ...... no I can't

No way, is that really all that is left to do before the final inspection and handover, surely we have forgotten something? No it actually looks like this house will be finished in a few weeks (or may be less than that who knows?) now we are starting to get a tiny bit excited, yes!

Balcony With Silver Balustrade

Air Conditioning Unit (This Is The "Ugly" Working Side of The House)

Over Bench Lighting In Kitchen

We have had a stressful few days with the SS verbally fighting with the pool builders. It got very heated and quite nasty and I had to tell everyone to pull their heads in and try to get them to reach a compromise but sadly because tempers had become so heated everyone was digging their heals in and refusing to budge. In the end I had to call the construction manager who eventually calmed things down and got the situation rectified. I never knew temporary pool fencing would cause so much mayhem. I tell you they are worse than kids. However, we are determined not to let a moody SS spoil it for us. But had this happened earlier in the build I would be approaching Metricon regarding a change of site supervisor as I don't appreciate dealing with someone who is dismissive and aggressively defensive and then tries to bully people in to doing everything his way. It is interesting that when you ask him about something his answer is always a sharp "that's standard" I think I'll ask him if he'd like that as his middle name! Yes it has been irritating but Sandy and I are very calm people and can see the funny side of it but when people are threatening to walk off the job and rip up your concrete because a pool fence is too close to the house you know that it's time to say enough is enough. We are supposed to be having a site meeting on Friday so have decided that each time we point out something that needs changing we will be a little tongue in cheek and simply ask "erm is that standard?".

We have had a native plant gardener come and look at the nature covenant, he is going to pull out all the weeds and spray to prevent them coming back, then plant around 40 lovely native shrubs and mulch the entire 250 sqm with a thick carpet of forest mulch. The fencing contractor is also coming out to do a proper measure up and help us decide on the finished designs. We will need to decide where we are having garden beds and turf then get the grass people out for a quote as well. What else will we need to think about - the gas supply, window treatments, mail box, house number, landscaping etc etc etc. What fun!

We would like an independent inspection before handover, can anyone recommend a certifier in the Brisbane area?