We Are Still Here

It has been around 10 months since we moved in and we have been busy with life, work, school and family. The house is now feeling more homely as we continue to put our own stamp on it. We have had some custom made entertainment units installed in the family and leisure rooms and storage cupboards built and installed in the garage so we now have somewhere to put coats and shoes and all those other garage odds and ends that you never have space for.
We have even started buying decorative pieces which really add character and express who we are thus making this our space. Still however we are struggling to decide on art works and have vast amounts of bare blank wall space staring back at us but its not too bland as we have some lovely views out of our up sized windows and bifold doors.
We have a brilliant veggie garden and have begun harvesting salad leaves, herbs and this week broccolini - loving having a garden big enough to give is the space to do this. Soon we will have French beans, tomatoes, cabbages, carrots and beetroot. Yummy. With sweetcorn, broad beans, capsicums and egg plants to follow assuming they all grow successfully.

The build directly behind us has started (and stopped for now) they have had the slab poured and then nothing has happened since. Sadly they are building about 2 meters off our rear fence so our lovely views out to the gum trees and I suspect lots of our natural light from the early morning sun will soon be blocked. Look we knew it would happen one day but after living here for so long with an empty lot behind you just kind of get used to it.

Next door had handover last week but are yet to have their drive done so not sure when they will be moving in. I think it is the slowest Metricon build I have witnessed so far having said that though there is a house on the estate that was started about a month after ours and it still isn't finished!

Are we still happy with our home? Yes we love it and can see ourselves living here for many, many years to come.

Photos to follow......

Updates

The painter has been and do the first coat to cover up the touch ups to the damaged plastering as part of the service and maintenance. The plumber is still to come out and hopefully the painter will be back to do the second coat as the walls are quite patchy.
Our electrician has been and put heater lights in both bathrooms which we are really enjoying now that Brisbane is having a mini cold snap. Look in know you guys down south don't think that 1 degree overnight is that cold but for us in is like being in the Antarctic.

Much excitement this week as the cubby house and shed are going to put together and the soil and chook poop is coming for the raised vegetable beds. The garden is almost complete. Scored a great 12v electrical ride on car on EBay for my son so I guess he'll be out driving around or in his cubby from now on - oh the peace and quiet - erm hang on his going to have the coolest play area ever and that means all the kids in the estate are going to want to hang out here too!

The cabinet maker has been out to measure up and quote for some entertainment units and storage and thankfully the price was less than anticipated so there should be just enough left in the budget to get this made up. Oh no that means we have to choose finishes and colours again. It will be worth it and I will most definitely post photos once its all done.

We are getting towards the end of our post build phase so I think this blog will naturally be reaching its conclusion soon, however I must say I have really enjoyed doing my posts and its great to look back at progress. Hard to believe that where there are now houses was bushland and empty fields less than a year ago.

A Few Photos

That Land Drain Doesn't Work Then

Where's The Ark?

Veggie Patch or Duck Pond?

Pumping Out The Downfall Again!

The Yard In Progress

From Another Angle

There's Going To Be A Shed There So Can You Shift Your Tools

Drainage! And It Works

Stepping Stones

And Its Finishes

Front Yard - We Will Plant Mini Black Mondos Between Paving

Closer View

Angel Appreciating The New Garden

Paving and Pebbles

The hard landscaping is almost completed, we now have stepping stones, paving and pebbles around the front of the house and around the side from the front to the pool area. All that needs to be finished off is some soil and mulch and the garden is finished - well almost as once the landscaping team is done we will need to get some more plants put in and make a start on the vegetable garden, oh and order the shed. Then when we have the money we will look at getting some feature pots and possible water feature for out the front of the house to give it a bit more wow factor and street appeal.
The long awaited cubby house should also be arriving sometime this week so hopefully we can get our carpenter friend to put it together for us.

Now For The Hard Stuff

At last the hard landscaping has commenced with the formation of a concrete slab for the shed and concrete pads/steps out from the rear garage door and laundry. The land levels have been lowered and recontoured to allow for better run off into the new drains ahead of laying pavers and and covering with gravel. Now that the slabs are down it makes the remaining areas of garden to complete seem much smaller and more manageable, which is a good thing as we do in fact have quite a large area to maintain.I'm looking forward to the shed arriving so that we can move all that stuff that you don't have a home for out from the garage which will make it easier to get the cars in and out. This will  probably be the final work that we are having done on the house for a while as we have now come to the end of our house build budget and need to start saving again to be able to get some built in cabinets and storage made. Luckily we have enough furniture and bits and pieces to make do with for now so we don't feel like it is a big deal to be putting things on hold.

We now have neighbours in the Plantation home next door and the brick work has started on the Metricon on the other side. It's strange having people around and it's sending the dog crazy, good to know that she is protective and will bark if someone is about though.

Metricon have opened a new display at Rochedale so we might pop over later today to see what they have done and get more interior design and furnishing ideas.

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.

No More Ponds?

The drains are in, all 4 have been positioned exactly as requested and they have done a neat job. All we need now is a heavy downpour so we can see if they have made a difference and whether we will get big ponds of water despite our efforts to prevent them. The land levels will need adjusting so that they fall towards the drains and perhaps a couple of ag pipes wouldn't go a miss either. The hard landscaping can commence now but we are after another quote first as the one we have does seem very expensive and I'd like to have something to compare it to. Pavers and concrete don't come cheap I know but even so I'd just like to double check first before committing another $15k of our hard earned cash.

Next door the build on the left as we look at our house looks ready for handover, their driveway is done and the temporary fencing is down and they have had their pool shell poured so we will be getting new neighbours very soon. The house on the right has been blue wrapped and their air con is being installed, wonder when the bricks will be delivered?
On the estate several houses have been completed in the last few weeks and now have families living in them plus 2 new builds have commenced. We still love watching the builds and seeing peoples homes take shape. The 2 most popular builders here are Metricon and Plantation Homes so its a nice mix of modern homes, mainly 2 storey houses that sit on the entire block leaving just enough room for a small garden and a titchy pool. Glad we opted for a larger block of land as I love that our garden has lots of run for the boy and his dog to play and go wild.

Metricon Visits

Finally after a couple of increasingly more urgent and slightly more irate emails to the service and maintenance dept at M the Qld Building Manager paid us a visit this morning to assess the drainage (or lack of) issues.
After listening to our concerns, looking at the photos of a water logged yard and examining the site he agreed that we actually need 4 more gully/land drains and a retaining wall between us and out right handside neighbours (who are at frame stage now with M). The retaining wall was originally included in the building plans but was never constructed so M will install this at no cost after discussing the potential land levels with the site supervisor to assess how high it needs to be. As for the land drains Metricon's plumber will come and do these for us and Metricon have agreed to split the cost 50-50. We felt this to be a fair arrangement as if the engineer had recommended additional drainage in the first place we would have had to pay for it all anyway and if we hadn't got M involved we would have also had to foot the bill. Hopefully the plumber can come and do the drains for us the week after next and then at last we can finish the landscaping.

The moral of this story is always get the builder to come out and look at potential issues, stay calm and be reasonable, state your case clearly and tell them how you would like to see matters resloved and then hopefully you get a win win situation.

Action Next Door

The rain eased to light showers and then glorious sunshine yesterday which was great timing as 3 cubic meters of soil arrived ready for spreading in the miniature lake feature that develops each time it rains along side the laundry area of the house. The thinking is if we can raise the levels and even the area out the water may not pool so much when it rains heavily (wishful thinking perhaps?). The next consideration is do we add some gravel pit soak aways as well as or instead of the 2 additional land drains proposed? I will need to do some more research to see how effective they are and compare costings as there really isn't much left in the gardening budget. I would like enough cash left over as we were hoping to have a small deck and pergola added to the outdoor entertaining area (as if it wasn't big enough already!!).

There has been activity finally on the block next door, site scrape happened Thursday followed by the concrete footings yesterday. My prayers have been answered and there house has been situated on the far side of their block away from us so their garden will be next to ours leaving a good 15 meters of space between our homes. This will allow us privacy, light and distance as well as good breezes and we don't completely lose the view out to the trees and fields beyond. Fantastic. It looks like they are building the Lindrum 52 which is a bit of a squeeze lengthwise but I'll keep you posted once I get some official information i.e. "morning building team do you know which house they've gone for?"

Plans for today, morning walk, light breakfast, family time playing with our rapidly growing spoodle pup Angel who is settling in brilliantly, then off to the landscape suppliers to choose some paving and gravel before a BBQ and afternoon of relaxing.

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!

Washed Away

We have had so much rain in such a short space of time that the water can't run off quick enough. If you look at the pictures in my last post and imagine it all underwater with a mini creek running through it then this would give you a good idea of who our garden looked yesterday. The mulch from the beds along the garage washed away as the drains became full of silt, mud and debris running off the vacant block to our right .The area that contains the proposed veggie patch filled up with so much water that we had to but a submersible pump to get the water levels down. I back washed and released water from the pool on 5 occasions (twice standing there in my gum boots and pyjamas, lots of lovely green tree frogs though!) as it was full to bursting.

Today thankfully it has stopped raining and we are left with a muddy, boggy squelchy mess that we will have to address, oh well at least its a public holiday. Happy Australia Day!

We also received the quote for the hard landscaping works including the addition of two very much needed land drains.....now for the ouch moment. The quote has come in at $15,000 which is around 5 grand more than we hoped for but the work needs to be done especially the drainage and I feel that once this happens the issues with impromptu water features and lakes appearing should be resolved. There is a lot of concrete, gravel and pavers included in the quote so I guess we were simply naive about how much square meterage there actually is to be worked on.
It also looks like it would be wise to get a bigger and better land drain added along the path by the garage as the small drain provided by M just can't cope with the work load. I am also baffled as to why no drainage was provided on the laundry/kitchen side of the property?

Here's to a dry day and hopefully some sunshine.

Lush

Malay Dwarf Bamboos and Cubby Area In Background

The Feature Garden Bed - Water Feature Or Steel Art Frames To Go Here

Gingers, Cordylines, Crotons and More

Black Mondo Along Side Path

New Gate Plus Liriopes

Privacy Screen Fence and Gate

Fenced Off - Shed To Go In Top Right Corner, Then Gravel and Pavers

Steel Planters ready For The Veggie Patch

Plants and Gates

The main garden planting has been finished and mulched along with the area along the edge of the drive. We have more bamboos, cordylines, blood grass, gingers, black mondo grass, liriopes, crotons and some more natives and it looks lovely. Its so great to look out and see the plants swaying in the breeze. The boys from Native Habitat Solutions worked really hard on what turned out to be quite a hot day. Great job thank you. I'm glad we got them in to do this area as the ground was so hard they needed to use pick axes and ended up digging out lumps of concrete kindly left behind by the builders. No way we'd have been able to manage that.

The fencers from Harris Fencing came later in the day and completed the privacy screens and gates across the side gardens. We went for the slated aluminum fencing in slate grey again and we are extremely pleased with the end results. The house now feels complete (well almost as we still have a small amount of hard landscaping to do) and I felt really proud of what we have achieved when I pulled up outside the house last night.

So far I think we have spent around $7,500 on plants, lawn and the gardening team which I think is really reasonable as our initial estimates for doing the gardens was around $15k. Hopefully the hard landscaping won't break the budget and we'll have some cash left over for some fun things like pots, statues, garden lights and a small water feature if we are lucky.

The next project will then be to get the cabinet makers in from Crafted Cabinets to come and do some entertainment units and storage for us. We have used Ross and his team before, they did all the cabinets for both my business premises, the kitchen in our old house plus a kitchen and storage areas in the granny annex and they always do a great job.

Today we will be taking it easy, going for a walk, a dip in the pool (if it's warm enough), play with the puppy and our son then a family BBQ, now that's the lifestyle we imagined when we started this process over 18 months ago.

Photos in the next post.

See How My Garden Grows

Despite the mud the fence posts have been concreted in ready for the side fences and gates to be finished today. This means the garden will be enclosed and secure so no need to worry about our son or new puppy doing an escape act. The fencers are so lovely and its really funny seeing big rough looking burly blokes going all gooey over a 9 week ball of fluff with four legs, she is really cute and social so she wins them over in a split second, sweet.

The raised garden beds arrived as promised and they look really good, plenty or room for some vegetables and still space to move around.

Today the guys who did the planting in our nature covenant and the turfing are back to plant out and mulch the remaining garden beds for us. They will also be bringing in a large quantity of sand to act as a sub base for the cubby house and some gravel to go around the edge of the drive and the side of the house so the main garden will be finished. I can't wait to see how it turns out as Dale from Native Habitat Solutions has a great eye for plants and really understands what we do and don't like.

After the rain we gave the hard landscapers a call and had a chat about drainage, he had a chuckle as he was actually drawing up his plans when we called and was wondering whether to add a gravel pit for drainage or not. Ah I like it when people are on your wavelength and have tuned in to what you require. So we will be getting a gravel pit, some concrete slabs for the shed and steps from the laundry and rear garage door, pavers, gravel and some simple plants to finish it all off - assuming the price is right that is! To save some money we are going to use the left over pavers from around the pool and outdoor room for the steppers in the area outside the laundry. Hopefully it will look really good once completed and then we can concentrate on what we want to do inside the house as we'd like a few built in cupboards in the family and leisure rooms for the TV etc.

The Fencers Are Back

We ended up having so much rain in a such a short space of time that we had to buy a pump to get rid of the lake that was building up next to the laundry as it really looked like we were going to flood at one point. The water was coming up so fast that it couldn't drain away. plus w are getting loads of run off from the build next door as there land level is about 30cm higher than as at present. Also the pool was so full I had to let loads of water out as it was about to go over the edge. Crazy! Now it has stopped raining and the water has receded and we have a huge mudpit. Which would be OK as it would simply dry out over the next few days however, the poor fencers are here this morning skating around in the mud trying to concrete fence posts in for our privacy screens and gates. Good job they are great blokes with a sense of humour otherwise I think they'd have took one look at the working conditions and gone home. We really will have to get additional drainage put in this side before we finish landscaping otherwise every time it rains heavy we are going to flood.

The 3 raised beds for the veggie gardens are being delivered sometime today, so that will also add to the mud fest. In the end we decided to go for the metal for the colorbond type, like the rain water tanks, as they will last longer and need little to no maintenance. These are really nice as we could get them made to measure and pick which colour we wanted so we went for monument to match with our gutters and roof. They will be about 60cm high and around 1.5 - 2m long so we should end up with a fairly large planting area. Now all I need to do is learn how to grow veg.

No Need To Water

It was 39 degrees at a week ago and the grass and plants were looking really thirsty and dry but this morning it is 19 and raining raining raining. The garden is soaked which is great for the grass and plants but for those areas yet to be landscaped its a different story as we now have deep mud and massive pools of water. Hopefully the weather wont delay the guys coming to finish the plants and mulch later in the week as it would be nice to get the formal garden completed.

I have started making a list for the 90 day service but so far it is very short and minor which I can only think must be a good thing. So far we are very happy new home owners.

Sealed At Last

Finally the weather was not too wet or excessively hot and the driveway got cleaned and sealed with an amazing polyurethane finish. The drive now looks glossy and sparkles in the sun and we will be able to put our cars away in the garage from tomorrow. I am now taking bets who will be the first one to ding the car going in and out! (Most likely me sadly).

The renderer for the pool was supposed to trun up yesterday, hmm unless he was invisible and the new fashion in rendering is to leave it looking like a block wall I figure he didn't turn up. I'm cross as this is delaying the final payment on our building loan and costing us a higher interest rate until its converted to our mortgage. The pool company will be getting a firm email today.

On a positive note, we have a gardener and landscaper coming to plant out the final beds which are too hard for us to dig after all the trucks and builders going back and forth and to pour concrete steps, a slab for the shed and put in pavers, gravel and more planting for us. The raised bed containers for the vegetable garden have been ordered and all we need now is the shed and the garden is almost finished. We would also like to create a BBQ area by making a deck with covered pergola extension off the back of the outdoor room so I will be getting quotes for that soon.
Doesn't look like it will be long before the garden is finished and the fencers are returning next week to finish off the side gates and fences so the yard will be fully enclosed and hopefully puppy proof! Good timing as Angel spoodle puppy arrives tomorrow.

Litlle Angel

What a sweetie

Visuals

Rear of Garage

Dingo Action

No More Moonscape

Resort Furniture From Freedom

Outdoor Seating

Outdoor Dining

Cleared Ready For Veggies and Puppy

Feature Bed Near Outdoor Room - Pony Tail Palm Should Get to 2m Eventually

Feature Bed Near Pool - The Grass Here Will Be Replaced With Gravel In The Future

Citrus Grove - Left to Right Orange, Lemon and Lime

Hunter Gatherers

Yesterday we did a round trip of Brisbane sourcing statues, water features and plants. We came home with lots of ideas, prices, measurements and things we want to add to the garden wish list. Plus 3 dwarf citrus plants, some liriopes and 2 pony tail palms from the best and cheapest nursery in Brisbane out at Redland Bay.

The ladies at Lagoon View Nursery were really friendly, knowledgeable, helpful and passionate about their plants. The place is massive and they have a really simple pricing method - small pots $5 up to big pots $30 ! We got plants for $30 that we would normally expect to pay around $75 for. All their plants are extremely healthy specimens and we only looked at about 25% of what they had in stock as our car boot was full after 15 minutes!! A bit of a journey to get their but well worth the trip, definitely going back for more.

On the way home we stopped at yet another garden centre for afternoon tea and a look at their aquarium centre which was lovely with sea horses, clown fish and coral reefs. All in all a fun day out.

None of the water features lived up to expectations as we'd like something similar to what M have in their displays but I have sourced this (see below) online from a firm in Brisbane who make them to order for you.....now the only problem is convincing Sandy that $5,000 for a water feature is a great investment!

Now That Would Look Amazing In The Garden Don't You Think

Dingo Bingo and Outdoor Seating

How lucky are we? We rang a local dingo company (a small bobcat not the wild dog) to see if they could come and level out the land near our laundry and aircon areas and dingo bingo they could come the next day or in a months time! So they came out on Wednesday and after about an hour of running the little digger over the 100sqm of land our interesting moonscape is now relatively flat and weed free. This means we can now look at getting some concrete slabs poured for a step and small paving area out from the laundry door and another one for the shed. We need to do some measuring and rough sketching of what we need before hand though as we need to allow for raised bed as vegetable plots and a little piece of land for the dog toilet (sorry too much information?). We've decided to have a "that'll do for now" garden and make additions and changes as time goes on.

That same day we got a delivery from Freedom and now have our new outdoor set which fits our outdoor room really well. I finished work at 4pm came home had a swim in the pool, cooked a lovely meal on the BBQ and broke in our new table and chairs. I felt like I was still on holidays. Fantastic.

The renderer should be coming soon to finish the wall around the pool and we still have no idea what colour to paint it now that we have a blue pool not grey. The fencers will also be back soon to add side gates so that the garden is secure and hopefully this spell of dry weather continues and we can finally get the driveway sealed with the polyurethane coating.
We also need to hire/borrow/cajole/bully/press gang a couple of guys to help us move our old sofa upstairs and the spare sofa to the apartment at work as we do not have the physical strength or stature to do it alone.

Off to look at more plants today as well as feature pots, garden art and statues that we can use to add interest to the garden.