Au Revoir....for now.

Well, we are all set to go offline. I don't know when I'll have 'net access again so this will be the last post for a while. Handover is set for Friday (woo hoo!!!) We have a Certificate of Occupancy and the final invoice has been lodged at the bank and is awaiting approval. So if all goes well, we see the SS at the house for a final inspection, then pick the bank cheque up and head down to the PD office for the official handover. Then it will be all systems go - we'll try not to break any speed limits on the way home, but we will definitely be going there as quickly as possible! The moving van is booked for Saturday, but we will be taking some mattresses and an Esky on Friday night and having our first sleepover! The kids just will not wait (and, just quietly, either can I..lol)
So, thanks to all who have followed our build and commented with advice and support - it has been greatly appreciated. Goodbye for now... see you when I return to cyberspace!!

Pretty Casual Inspection

We met SS at the house today for our long-awaited Practical Completion Inspection (PCI). I had on hand our contract, drawings, colour selections, tile selections, building variations, camera, tape measure and a roll of toilet paper (just in case we were there for a long time...) The only thing I used was the tape measure - to measure up where I'm gonna put my towel rails and kitchen bin! So, sorry, no pics...

It was just such a laid back, relaxed inspection that I thoroughly enjoyed walking through what is soon to be our new home and imagining ourselves living there.

Everything was done before we got there. The independent inspector had pointed out everything we were concerned about and more. Apparently, the meter box is 2mm off level (of course I could see that, but I didn't think anyone else would notice - lol) There were little pink, green and yellow stickers all over the place, but all very minor plaster and paint variations. The painter was already there working on those.

Of course, the splashback is yet to be replaced, but SS was very interested to see my little glass samples. He's convinced now that 'Crystal' have mixed the wrong colour, and that his boss is colour-blind for not being able to tell the difference between purple and blue!

While we were there, the inspector came to look over the place for the Certificate of Occupancy. I think he may have been there for a maximum 5 minutes, before he walked out declaring that 'everything looks pretty good'.

We were done after about 45 minutes. As I was expecting a longer inspection, I had a bit of time on my hands so I went to Bunnings and promptly spent about $300! All-in-all a pretty productive day. Now I must go and pack some more boxes and try and keep myself busy for the eternally long 7 days ahead.

Time stands still.

It is honestly true!! Time has actually stood still! Well, at least that's how it's feeling at the moment. Haven't been able to get into the house lately, but in just two sleeps we'll have our official 'Practical Completion Inspection' and I'll be able to see the 'practically complete' house in all its glory.

The mystery of the missing loo has been solved. Apparently it was off-centre so they had to take it and a few tiles out and redo it all. This meant the independent inspection which was due to take place on Friday, was put back 'til Tuesday. Now DH and brother-in-law were busy putting up the new fence on Tuesday and didn't see any inspector, so I can only hope that it was done today. Someone has definitely been in though, 'cos the little sticky notes have reappeared all over the place. Obviously things that need to be tidied up.

We've been informed that the rear roller door for the garage was never ordered so there will be a 'slight delay' for that. SS is amazed that they use two different suppliers for the two different doors - not his fault, he wasn't there at the time. It's going to be very difficult to move if we can't store all those boxes securely in the garage for a while. Luckily, we have our present house until July 3 so it doesn't all need to be moved in one day.

Our carpet is in and looking pretty good, as all new carpet usually does. The colour is 'Brown Earth', but it looks pretty grey to me. I'm very happy with it anyway. It seems to blend in well with the rest of the colours.

You may be interested to know that I have painted my two glass samples, and both look surprisingly similar and pleasantly purple, without a hint of blue! I will make sure I take these to SS. I still have to get in and put them up against the splashback to see the difference the shadows of the cabinets make, but I am now 95% certain that the wrong colour was mixed for my splashback!!!

I have been very busy over this last week trying to organise everything else that goes with building a new house. I've ordered the TV antenna, booked in to have the phone disconnected/reconnected, booked the concretor and the moving van. Unfortunately, my 'blind' man has reneged on me and tells me his supplier has gone into liquidation. So my second choice for window furnishings has been called, and she's livin' it up in Queensland! Looks like it'll be sheets on the windows for a while.....(OMG is there anything worse??!!!) I will look into those temporary blind thingies, if I have any spare change...Lol!

So it's off to bed now - get another sleep out of the way. J, if you're reading this, good luck with your PCI tomorrow - hope it all goes extremely well and I look forward to hearing the results.

Now for a few pics...

DH and BIL working on the new fence. Had the back and one side done in two days (and only got a little bit wet) The other side will have to wait until the neighbour gets his brick garage up at the back - it will be part of the boundary.

Perfect combination - 6 year old boy and a pile of bricks....

View of backyard - shed and pool to come later (if the bank says it's okay).

Nice high fence.

What I could get of the carpet through the lounge window.

You can sorta see how the carpet blends with the tiles. Quite happy with this.

Conflict resolved?

Thank-you to all of you for your invaluable advice regarding my 'splashback issue'. PD came back to me today with a very reasonable price of $340 for them to replace my splashback with the upgraded 'Starfire' glass. Unfortunately it won't be done until after handover, so I will just have to trust them on this one..... I've been to see the local guy here who does splashbacks, and he gave me some off-cuts of the two kinds of glass. I'm going to get a sample pot of my paint tomorrow to see if it really does make such a big difference (purely for my own peace of mind).

On a much lighter note - my front garage door was put in today and I have to say I love it!! I think it really finishes the front off beautifully and I'm so glad we upgraded to it. We just need to get the right colour on the portico render and it will be perfect! (I hope....lol.)

The plumbers have been in and we now have taps and two out of three toilets. The powder room toilet is missing for some reason. I hope they haven't forgotten it! I would hate to have my new guests squatting over that little hole in the concrete.....he he he. There was also a little 'surprise' for me in the ensuite loo - looks like the ol' port-a-loo just doesn't cut it for the tradies these days - I wouldn't mind so much if they just remembered to flush!!! Unbelievable. Okay, that's enough potty talk for now.

The cleaner was there today, giving the place a bit of a spruce up. I asked her if she could come over every week for the next 12 months or so, but unfortunately she thinks she lives too far away. Bugger.

Here's some pics....

My new garage door - unfortunately it was very overcast today, so the picture's not so great.

Last-minute stairwell lights - so glad I thought of these before it was too late.

Whoops! Wrong spot!

Internal door handles.

The only fan-lights that PD could offer us - now hidden in the kids' bedrooms.

Fan-lights that I later asked the electricians to put in for me - which do you prefer?

Bath taps.

Toilet - noice.

Pin levers to ensuite.

Shower rose - I was so worried that it wasn't going to have a soap dish included. Phew!

Huge powder room tap/hose thingy! Hope it doesn't miss the bowl!

New pantry appliance bench - once again in 'Fudge Stream'.

Kitchen flick-mixer.

3 weeks??!! Really???

Well, it has been a busy week, to say the least, and PCI has been set officially for the 12th of June! Yayyy!! That means, if all goes well, we'll be moving in on the 19th.....

So, whoosh, big breath, where do I start?

The splashback is still an ongoing issue. I received another call from the CSC on Thursday to tell me that the splashback is indeed the colour I selected and there is really nothing more she can do for me. Now I have to tell you that, after a very busy day with work, study and children, I was in no mood to be told that! So poor CSC copped an earful, then promised that she would take the matter to a higher level and have someone of authority call me back. I got the call today from 'W', who is I-Don't-Know, and he told me that they would replace the splashback at their cost, if I was willing to pay for the upgrade to the 'starfire' glass, which is a clear glass that apparently will not affect the colour (funny, they told me the same thing about the 'standard' glass..) Anyway, I am now waiting to hear what the cost of the upgrade is before I decide.

I think the electrical fit-offs are complete now. I couldn't believe that they actually left the house wide open this week after installing all the lights and connecting the heating and cooling. If there ever was a time to lock the place up - it is now!! It's so lucky that I happen to be visiting every day - lol.

The linen cupboard in the laundry (that was a linen, then changed to a broom 'til I requested it be put back to a linen) has been fitted out as a broom cupboard - Grrrrrr!! READ THE BLOODY CONTRACT!!! So the little man will be fixing that up when he comes back to finish the pantry.

Oh, and the renderers came back to finish the front today and, yes, you guessed it, got the colour wrong!! There is supposed to be two colours but they've done it all in the one - no biggie, will be back to rectify that shortly..

Now for some good news... The painter has been back to touch up where necessary. The mirrors and shower screens have been installed and look great! And all the door knobs are on and I'm quite pleased with them. The temporary fence has come down. The carpet is booked in for Wednesday, so I'm assuming we will have toilets, taps and garage doors within the week. What else is there to do? It's all getting very exciting now!

Kitchen with rubbish dump.

Powder room with mirror.

Shelves in WIR that can actually be reached! Macy was very pleased about this.

Bathroom with mirror.

Love the shower screens!

Love my shower!!

While I know a full mirror would look great, I will appreciate the extra storage here.

Tiles and Splashback.

Well, the tiles are almost finished in the house now, and I'm pretty happy with them. A lot of them are just basic white tiles and they look a bit blah at the moment, but I'm confident they'll look a lot better with grout! I'm lovin' my floor tiles! I can't wait to get out of this house and say good-bye to shiny white floor tiles forever!!!

The glass splashback was also installed today and I'm actually quite disappointed. The colour is nothing like my colour sample and not much like the colour I downloaded from the Dulux website. I know you can't trust colours from the web, due to resolution and monitors etc... but the colour I chose is quite clearly purple and the splashback just looks blue. Not happy. SS checked the order and insists they have used the right colour, but I'm determined to meet him at the house and let him see the difference. I've been told that the glass has a greenish tinge that can affect some lighter colours, but I was assured it wouldn't affect a dark colour such as the one I picked.

Dulux 'Fanfare' from website

Dulux 'Fanfare' splashback

Am I just being picky? It looks blue to me, almost black.

Lol - hopefully my tiles and stairs will not always be that grubby...

Ensuite niche - I just wanted a small feature - but now I realise it will just be covered up with shampoo and conditioner bottles!

Open wide, come inside....

Did a drive-by at lunchtime and saw a white van parked at the house and a person outside carrying a large bucket??? Don't know who they were or what they were doing. I'm hoping maybe the tiler cleaning the floors a bit in preparation??

Went back after school pick-up and no one was there so we did our habitual 'walk around the house and look through the windows to see what's been done'. Was walking back to the car, disappointed that nothing had been done, glanced at the front door and saw that it was wide open!! Woo hoo!! I mean 'oops, how did that happen...?' So we were able to go in and have a good look around.

The painters have finished for the time being and the tiles are sitting there waiting to be laid (which is why I locked the door securely behind me when we left). The bath has been put in its proper place (it's very small - will never be able to fit all four kids in there....) and the shower recesses have been prepared for tiling. Oh, and the downpipes have been put on. So, yes, a little bit has been done.

I rang my CSC the other day and had a rather heated conversation about the ridiculous bifolds that have been installed. I notice on all your blogs that your doors have a hinged door, a handle and a lock. Not us - we must have missed that option somewhere and I am very unhappy about the configuration. Unfortunately, it seems there is nothing we can do except pay for them to pull them out and replace them with others. Can't afford that - nothing we can do. I suppose if that's the worst that will happen to us throughout the build, we are pretty lucky. :)

Hope to have some tiling pics soon.

The house now with infill over garage door painted 'Woodland Grey' (instead of the selected 'Dune') - looks okay so we will leave it at that.

A glimpse of 'Exotic Night' in the rumpus room.

QQ Benchtop in kitchen - 'New Diamond White'

From top of stairs - feature wall to void in 'Tivo'.

Balcony decking installed.


New rubbish dump/shower

Bath now in correct room (no bricks in it to hold it down though...)

'Exotic Night' risers on stairs. What do you think?

Lookin' good!!

Met the fixing carpenter today. He was putting the finishing touches onto the alfresco. Skirtings and architraves now done inside. Not completely finished yet, he tells me, until he's done the balcony floor. Lovely guy - told me that we should be well and truly finished before our July 3 deadline!! We'll see.....

Anyhoo... had a look at my paint today. All the plastic has been removed from the windows and most of it is done. Apparently the painters will be starting on the feature colours tomorrow. I can't wait to see them all together. Bit of a worry, but as they say, it's only paint! I've kept most of the paint pretty neutral (sorry J..) but my current house has been very colourful for quite a while and I needed a change. It won't all be bland though, plenty of colour to come. Here's some pics...

Games room - strange place for a bath, but I suppose I could get used to it. Lol!

Looking from games. All walls painted in Wattyl 'Kid Leather'

Top of stairs, handrail all stained and varnished.

Looking up.... risers still to be painted feature colour.

Harry Potter's room under the stairs.

Kitchen - more 'Kid Leather'. I wish they'd take the plastic off so I can see what it looks like!!

Living room.

Looking out from Rumpus.