This Blog is Not Finished!!!

I'm here and alive and well! So is the house!! We moved in, then we moved out again while the floor was being sanded and polished and we moved back in again this week!! This is a very short update of the things that have been happening so far. Over the weekend, I plan to go crazy with the camera and update properly with photos and more information. THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO WHEN YOU GET THE KEYS!!!! We have barely been able to draw breath let alone sit down and type a post!!

Exciting things that have happened since we got the keys!

• Our amazing Queensland Spotted Gum hardwood floors were laid (they remained unsanded/polished for 2 weeks to adjust to humidity levels etc.)
• Floors were sanded and polished!!!!
• We built all our retaining walls (this had to be done before our boundary fences could be put up) and when I say we built, I actually mean my husband and his band of 'brothers'!!
• Boundary fences are finished (just finished yesterday)
• I've sealed the grout on the porcelain tiles (has an impressive 15 year protection from stains etc). I wouldn't actually call this exciting more painful!!
• We painted all our ground floor skirting boards (whilst we were camping.....) and these have all now been put on. They were left off due to flooring being done post-handover
• Half of the double roller blinds have been installed (upstairs) - we had to wait till the floor was finished for downstairs, these are being done today - including our black fabric pelmets
• Victory came yesterday and installed sheer curtains to master and study and plantation shutters to both bathrooms and theatre. These are absolutely stunning! LOVE, love, love them!
• NBN is connected
• Half of our scratched doors and frames have been replaced - yes half, see below......
• Appliances were installed (eeek see below) 
• We had the Theatre painted - Dulux Raku, feature wall in bedroom - Dulux Stepney and the fire hob and bulkhead - Dulux Raku
• Drive way and other areas in the backyard were excavated yesterday ready for concrete! Good bye muddy mess! When I left today they were not there so not sure when it is being poured. The weather has not been very kind again
• Our side wing fence is up - looks great and after spending over a month at friends, our beautiful dog can finally come home (finished yesterday)
• Holes have been dug ready for the decking to begin in the backyard - sometime this century!
• Our reverse-cycle air conditioners were installed - post-handover (not through Carlisle Homes)
• It's been all about deliveries, deliveries, deliveries and workman everywhere!! Glad the blinds are on now!!
• Front door tinting is happening in the coming days (light tint from Tint Master) 

Frustrations and ongoing dilemmas!

• Telephone is not working - going round in circles with Telstra, NBN and Argus Technologies - should get a better answer by the end of today... Should....
• Half of our windows and doors were replaced. Absolute incompetence by our SS. This has been a big issue through the build and it somewhat escalated last week when A & L showed up with half of the works - they were completely unaware of the other half - even though it was on our completion of works list to be done post-handover our SS only fulfilled some of it. A lot of angry calls were made as well as emails, discussions with managers of all.. It will all be done and has been ordered but now our floors are done we are not happy with it!! Lots more detail to come about this.....
• Of the 6 appliances we had installed (fire place, ovens x2, cooktop, range, hot water service) only 2 were correct, not damaged, not defective..... The ovens were perfect. More to come on this - most of this has been rectified but still some issues!
• 2 areas of the kitchen vinyl wrap was damaged by the installers of the range and the window people post-handover - this is going to be fixed
• Still waiting for our one and only timber infill to be painted the correct colour. It was painted white, instead of Woodland Grey as it should have been. Such a minor thing in the scheme of things now but frustrating all the same
• When we collected our keys our SS put wrong door handles in two rooms (doors and WIR) - still waiting for this to be done

Looking forward to doing some major updating of things in detail in the coming days. First to come has to be the floors - stay tuned!

Site Clean Up

Last week our site clean up was done. We had quite a bit of broken glass and ruble so it was nice to get that cleared off. It's amazing how much more open it all looks. Nothing is left behind. We were hoping to keep some of the brick off cuts (a few wheelbarrows full) to put in the concrete of our retaining walls to further secure them. We might have to visit another building site to request a few!! The sand that was left over from bricking has been scraped around too; making it a little less boggy. We spent a few hours there over the weekend, mapping out the garden plans and making the most of the space. We also added insulation to all the windows that have infills - to maximise the double glazing (authorised by our SS).

In Front of the Garage

Down the Side of the House

This side was cleaned really well and was even scraped back a little further, which we would have had to do by hand ourselves after handover. Makes it much easier to put our retaining walls up!

Inside the mysterious boxes in the garage!

Box number one; the mains power switches (makes it easier if the lights go out, having it inside!)  

Box number 2; as we suspected, the NBN connections!

Insulation my husband added to the window infills (this is the largest one). He used double sided tape and packed it in tight. Our SS was happy for us to do this (we think the infills will be happening sometime this week). 

Even down the side of the doors!

Excavation

Due to our block having a slope/fall of 1.5m front to back, we knew we would need to get some excavation work done as part of our landscaping. I can't believe we thought we might be able to this ourselves! Our good friends who own Glenvale Homes were able to help out in this job - thanks guys! It took 3 days (part days) to dig, level and clear off the excess dirt (they were estimating about 10 truck loads removed!).  We have decided to level off the area that extends from the alfresco as we will deck this area. The higher area we left (some of) to create some variance to the yard and create a raised platform of grass. Gives us a better indication of the area we have to work with. Included are my husbands sketches and plans for the area! (We will obviously need to do retaining walls too!)

The raised area - approx 50cm high

Now Level from the Alfreco

Down the Side - Great space - bigger than we imagined (4.5m)

Our Landscaping Plan!