Happy Snaps

Fence Painted in Slate Grey

Fence Panel Left Out So We Can Deliveries

Pool Filter and Pump

Thank You Flowers To Sandy For All Her Hard Work With The Move

One of The New Lamps

Our Trendy Cardboard Curtains

Front Garden Prior To Planting

From Another Angle

Rubbish!!!!

Ahhh Luxury! My Candlelit Bath

Very Pretty - Good Old IKEA

Can't Wait To Get In and Soak For Ever

Front Garden Planted - Tree Repositioned Too

Native Plants and Mulch

Brick Blocks For Our Pool Waterfall

The Pavers Have Arrived

Light Grey Granite

The Kitchen With The New Fridge

The Fridge and Our Doors

The Pantry - Wow Its Amazing

Pool Works

The tilers have started paving around the pool, the coping has been completed and the wall plus waterfall slot has also been finished (sorry the problem with photos continues). The light grey granite looks fantastic now we are wondering what colour to pain the wall once it's been rendered, the pool itself once pebblecreted will look almost black so not sure whether to go light or dark or have a splash of colour. Any suggestions?

The driveway got super pressure washed and scrubbed but as the weather forecast is a bit iffy with showers and rain forecast the sealers are going to wait for a spell of fine weather before applying the polyurethane coating as rain would spell disaster. Hopefully it is set to brighten up next week.

The fencers are coming Thursday to put up the privacy screen around the water tank and across one end of the pool. And the pool fencers are coming to do our frameless glass pool fence on Monday. Yippee then we need the pool certifier out as soon as possible so we get get the pool pebblecreted and filled with water ready for swimming over Christmas.
The tilers will take about 5 days to finish paving the whole of our outdoor room but as that is under cover rain is not an issue, however if we get more than showers then the schedule for pools and fences is all off as they can't do the pavers in heavy rain!

The technician is coming from Technika today to look at our crazy oven so let's hope its something simple.
Telstra rescheduled our phone installation as they were doing works in the area and so on Thursday we should get our landline. Just waiting for the ADSL modem to arrive now and then we can have more reliable internet.

Glitches

Sorry for the lack of photos so far, there seems to be some strange glitches with my computer, Picasa and my memory card. Photos disappear or simply wont import so I will have to try again from work today if I get time.

Anyway the blinds are up and look fantastic, much nicer than cardboard! and you can pull them up to look out the window, great to be able to appreciate the views from our balcony across the fields. It's a lovely spot to sit and watch the sunset or rather it would be if we had some chairs to sit on! Add those to the wish list.

Sunday was spent digging a hole and mixing up some concrete so we could erect our new postbox. It took us several attempts to work out the angles and which bit should be level but it the end I think we made a very decent job. It also helps that you can get bags of ready mix concrete from the hardware store simply add water and mix - just like baking a cake!
Following lunch it was time to put the tree up for our very first Christmas in our new home. Rainbow lights, hearts and doves are the theme for this year and I must say that it looks quite beautiful (you will have to imagine it for yourself until I can resolve the photo issues).

If the weather holds today the coping and pavers for the pool will start and the driveway will be cleaned and treated prior to sealing. Fingers crossed for dry weather but the forecast is for showers. Doesn't nature know we want the pool ready for the Christmas break!

How's It Going?

Well it's been 2 weeks since we moved in and so far the house is going really well. We are mostly unpacked and are now deciding what additional furniture and bits and pieces we need. After a good and rather ruthless sort out we have a lot more items to sell on ebay as we felt that some of our old things no longer worked for us.

Up until yesterday we have had no glitches then one of our ovens which was having its second use became possessed and over heated, the display/control screen went blank and the muffins for our son's birthday nearly cremated. Being unable to find a power switch for them inside the house we had no choice but to switch it off at the circuit breaker in the meter box. The exterior of the oven was boiling hot as was the work bench and cupboards around it. Pretty worrying! I managed to speak to the SS and he said there should be a power point behind the drawers in the workbench - there is but there is nothing plugged in to it! Anyway he is coming round today to replace the dodgy microwave trim so he can have a look for himself then. We will have to call Techinika today to get it attended to. Psycho oven aaarrrggghhh.

The blinds for the windows are ready and will be fitted tomorrow. Yippee no more attractive cardboard curtains. Once they are in the place will look quite different. We went for roller blinds in a brown/grey tone to match our carpets and colour scheme and will probably add some curtains in the master suite at a later date. The family room is so open plan with very large windows and bifolds so we didn't want any window treatments in that space - we may change our minds once the houses either side get built but only if we feel too over looked.

Exciting news on the swimming pool front. The tilers are running ahead of schedule so will be coming to do our coping and paving from today, 5 days earlier than arranged. Amazing, fantastic, brilliant. It now looks very promising that the pool will be completed before Xmas and we wil be swimming and relaxing in it over the holiday period. That's if the weather holds and we don't get torrential rain and if the fence gets installed as planned and everything is certified and signed off.  Nah it'll be fine don't know what we are stressing about!

The driveway is aggregate and as we want it to look its best and last a long time we are having it sealed with a polyeurethane treatment that gives it a glossy wet look finish and really shows off all the different colours. It also protects the drive and makes it easy to keep clean. The treatment we have gone for is more expensive than a normal sealer but lasts twice if not three times as long so actually works out cheaper over the long run. That will take place on Monday and Tuesday next week as they have to pressure clean the drive and then apply two coats of product. Should come up really nice. We have also booked them in to seal the garage floor in the new year - this involves them grinding back the top layer of concrete to remove the powdery layer at the top and expose some of the aggregate below.

The other project that we would like to get completed before Xmas is to get some top soil, grass and garden beds made up and then we can relax a bit before starting with planting. It seems like this will come together as we are using the same person who did our native plants - we are waiting for the final quote and then it will be action stations.

Telstra were supposed to be coming to connect up our landline today but this has been delayed due to works in the area - as of yet I don't have a new date for this. I absolutely hate dealing with Telstra it is so painfull and long winded and now I have to call them again to rearrange a new installation date. Hopefully our modem will be here soon though.

Phew there is a lot going on and a lot to do but it feels great. I have been emailing all our firends and family telling them how much we love our home. I hope that feeling never wears off.

We will be celebrating our boy's 5th birthday here on Saturday and have his Nana coming to stay for the weeked, we are excited about having our first house guest and having a weekend off from house projects. The Christmas tree will be going up on Sunday to add to the magic and I will hopefully be able to post some photos for you.

Naturally Cool

I never really fully appreciated until now how a well positioned and insulated house makes all the difference to whether it is too hot or too cold inside. The main living areas of our house face north east and stay really cool even in 33 degree heat and high humidity. We catch the breeze no matter which direction it is coming from, simply open a few windows and a bifold door and viola instant cooling. We have not needed the air con on during the day once yet and boy let me tell you it has been hot and sticky weather here in Brisbane since we moved in. The last  few places we lived we would have melted and needed the air con running at full bore under similar conditions and even then it would still be hot.
The only room that gets quite warm is the master suite but that's because it faces south west and at the moment we don't have proper window coverings and haven't been opening the balcony doors so our pieces or cardboard for curtains don't blow off!

Hopefully we will find the house stays warm during the winter.....

We have decided we are going to keep a tally of running costs for the house so at the end of our first year here we can let you know how much we spent on gas, electric and water. I think it will be quite interesting.

Sorted and Piled Up

Wow, moving house is exhausting. We have unpacked and sorted through our belongings and now have a pile of things to throw away (the skip is coming today!) a pile of things that we are giving away and another pile for items that we will be selling on e-bay. It's a big task but one that is very satisfying once completed. The only problem now is I don't really know where anything is other than the kettle and the tea bags! (not quite but it feels that way).

I have just been watching the sunrise through the bi-fold doors, everyone else is still asleep and its moments like this that make a house a home.
The local wildlife has been making us feel welcome, we have a small flock of ducks who come over to eat the grass for breakfast and dinner and we also had a crazy hare (yes hare) come charging through our garden, only to hit the fence, turn around and charge off the way he had come in. What fun.

So the skip is coming today, the pavers and coping for around the pool should be arriving in a day or two and we are getting a quote to seal the driveway.
The native plant covenant now has lots of little new native plants in and has been mulched, yes we have some greenery. The Metricon board has also been removed along with the erosion barrier so now from the front it looks like a home and not a building site at last, shame we can't say the same about the back gardens! We are getting a quote for some grass and trying to come up with some ideas on landscaping and plants and may be even a deck with pergola off our outdoor room (as if our out door area wasn't already big enough!).

The fly screens in the family room are now in and we spoke to the air con people and apparently it is such a powerful system that it has to have excess air flow in to one big zone otherwise the motor will blow up under its own force. Ok then if that's the case so be it. And she said something about being able to control the system via SMS from our mobile phones - well that's news to me! She is e-mailing us information on how it works. Neat eh? Coming home on a hot day I can phone ahead and put the air con on before I get in. Awesome.
Now I just need to work out how to do it!

70% Unpacked, 90% Exhausted, 100% Satisfied

Phew, we're in, mostly unpacked, a bit worn out but very happy to be in our new home. We have some really fancy pieces of cardboard blu-tacked to the windows while we wait for the blinds to come and have had no major glitches or hiccups this far. However, the air con will need some attention as even with some zones off there is still air flow, usually it means the motor is not closing the vents off fully and the air con guys just need to come and give it a tweek. I will call them Monday to see when they can come out.

It's great to have a dishwasher again - pure indulgence but we love it seeing as we cook so much. Loving the space, awesome for hide and seek and chasing around,however even though the house is huge it lacks, as all new build homes do, in the storage department so it looks like we will be having yet another trip to IKEA soon.

Today we christened the outdoor room with an easy lunch of hot dogs, normally I would have done a BBQ but we left the old one at the apartment and we are yet to decide what one to get for here. The outdoor room is brilliant, it catches a small amount of early morning sun then is in shade for the rest of the day. Perfect. The bi-fold doors allow us to take advantage of the cooling breezes and the house stays much cooler than anywhere we have lived in Oz before.

Yesterday the fences got spray painted in a mid grey to match our colour schemes and the plumbers finally turned up to do the pipe work for the pool and install the pump and filter. We are optimistic of getting the pool completed for Xmas but we'll really have to keep our fingers crossed as the pool company are super duper busy. I guess everyone wants to be swimming with Santa this year.

I have some more photos for you but as I am typing this on the note book and not my more powerful lap top I will be here until 2012 trying to upload them so yet again you guys will have to wait for those progress shots.