Our New Life

Wed 9th July, '08

2008-07-10T00:09:00.003+10:00

Hey guys, well i've spent 13 hours at the house today, from 8.30 am to 9.30pm when i locked the door behind us. I can't remember when i've been this tired!!!

Anyway, the Spotted Gum timber floor is half done. The colour looks different under different lights. The downlights and the camera flash have changed the colour in some of these pics....But i'm definitely in LOVE with the Spotted Gum. Just like my Nova Aurora benchtops, i'm so glad i selected them. Anyway, more blinds installed today, more boxes unpacked and some rooms are beginning to take shape...with my little touches!

Two of Henley's Maintenance guys turned up today and rectified the minor issues....Great effort guys! Just the garage door and insulation now to rectify and we're done! Hopefully that will be done soon.

Some more piccies before i go to bed....have an early start tomorrow, 7.30am when the tradies turn up to install the appliances. Telstra comes tomorrow too which will be good, then i can apply for internet!!!

Our ensuite:

Bathroom:

And how do i keep our 4yo quiet for that long???
It was difficult, but:

LOL, you use whatever works!!!!!!!!!

I'll try to update you all tomorrow, but i will be at the house for about 14+hours, so might not have the energy to type....bad enough driving home when you're THAT tired..... zzzzzzzzz (*yawn*)

Update from 8th July '08

2008-07-09T23:59:00.002+10:00

Hey everyone!

Yes we settled on the house today!

We met Luke, our Handover Supervisor at 9am at the house and the normal 20 min. inspection actually went for a lot longer. We ended up at the Sales Office in Narre Warren to do the obligatory handover of the bank cheque. It all went well actually and we returned to the house at about 10.30.

There are a few things to rectify, which are being dealt with at the moment, and i have the maintenance guy turning up tomorrow at 8.30 to do most of those. The major ones are the garage door panel with handle that requires replacement and is presently on order and the other issue is the ceiling insulation has not been installed properly, meaning, it does not extend to the outer section of the roof eaves. Kevin picked this up and it needs to be rectified. Kevin will return to confirm it and the other things have been done correctly.

As mentioned, Ian returned to work shortly after handover and i made a couple of trips back and forth to the house with the car full of clothes and things that i have been accumulating (some via ebay!) over the past 12 months....lol

What did i achieve today??? Well i brought the laptop and cranked up the music LOUD and worked away like mad!!! I cleaned the benches and shelves, swept and vacumed the concrete floor, stocked the pantry with some basic groceries, hung the clothes in the respective robes and unpacked boxes and put the stuff away in their new "homes". Ian brought more stuff for the house when he arrived after work. He installed 2 of the chocolate window blinds and the balance is scheduled as his job after work tomorrow....

Here are some pics:

Luke, Ian and Matt at the inspection:

Our Laundry:

The kitchen:

Our WIR (a work in progress there):

More chocolate blinds going up (this time in the theatre):

Tomorrow, i'll be meeting the timber floor installer and the Henley maintenance contractors at 8.30 on-site, so another busy day planned. I'll keep unpacking more boxes and seal the grout if i can.

We've only just got home and I'm really, really, tired, so am about to hit the sack....

Hmmmm........now the hard work starts......no more sleep-in's for me i think!!!

Update from Sun 6th July, '08

2008-07-07T00:48:00.002+10:00

Well since Friday, i've downloaded some pics for you guys
(sorry their small, they're off the mobile).

Here's some of the Telstra contractors digging our trench. They dug from the lead in cable which was locate in the middle of the driveway diagonally across the front of the house to the meter box on the other side of the house, so about 25m's?:

And the result! Our very own madison box!!!:

Anyway, we went down to the house again this afternoon.

We noticed that the mirror in the ensuite was taken down and replaced with another one over the weekend.

Some of the laminex end pieces of the upper kitchen cupboards beside the rangehood, had been taken down and replaced.

The side panels of the ensuite and bathroom cabinets were still off today too....

We've had an issue with the top laminate strip on the side shadowline area of the cabinets. This is what it looked like before:

Hopefully they are replacing the side panels of the 2 cabinets (bathroom & ensuite), they have to be back on tomorrow, and ready for handover on Tuesday.

The only thing that will be outstanding out of ALL the items i have been told, is the single panel of the garage door that requires replacing, because they installed a handle incorrectly.

Anyway, the reason for heading down to the house this afternoon was to paint/seal the garage concrete floor. We swept and i vacuumed it, looking like a complete nob! :roll: :roll:

Who in their right mind vac's their garage!!! lol...but i needed to make sure there was minimal dust before we painted.

Here are some pics:

We ran out of paint, 3/4 of the way through the job, so i had to run off the Bunnings to get another 4lt tin. It really soaked it up!!! When i came back we needed to use the car headlights as the light had just about gone!

I'll head back there tomorrow to roll on the 2nd coat myself. Then we can start to move stuff in during the week!!!

If we didn't seal the floor in there, we would never get around to doing it, so it's best to do it now....lol...that's me, always pre-planning!

Henley still need to come back tomorrow and do ANOTHER clean of the house, as its still not presentable...and there is still some broken bricks etc. that are still on site that requires removal since they rectified some issues.

Nearly there!

Update from Fri July 4th, '08

2008-07-07T00:44:00.001+10:00

OMG, OMG, OMG!!!!!!

Guess what????????????????????
(Bit of a long story, but........)

We went to the house this afternoon to supervise our Telstra trench being dug. The 3pm appt, turned out to be 4pm as he was running behind schedule!

It seems that Ian installed the wrong phone cable (It wasn't Austel approved) for the lead in cable and the contractor wouldn't use it. But he actually gave us enough approved cabling to lead back into the house to the phone point, so that he could finish the job!!! How nice was that...oh and free of charge which was nice!! LOL, But it cost $300 for the trench?!?!

Anyway it was about 4.30pm and i mentioned to Ian that "L" our Handover Supervisor hadn't called as promised today to advise on the actual handover date/time and we were about to call our Admin Mgr/CSA for her to remind him to call us.......but at that moment our C/M "G", drove up and we asked him to chase up "L" for us.

Anyway while we watched our garden get dug up, "G" did his thing with the tradies that were on-site. We're really close he said, you might be surprised he said????......hmmmm.......we thought?????

So at 5.00pm, "L" called and said would you like settlement inspection at 9am on Monday morning!!!

OMG, OMG, OMG!!!!!!

I looked at Ian, and Ian said NO...

He can't get time off work without notice so we re-scheduled it for Tuesday at 9am instead!!!

Kevin is meeting our C/M "G" on-site at 9am on Monday to re-inspect the house and will call us with his comments and if all is ok, then we settle on Tuesday!!!

It doesn't really change our plans and timings, just that we will commence moving things in from Tuesday instead of Wednesday which makes it a little less stressful for the weekend move.

So the big day is Tuesday the 8th of July at 9am everyone!!!!

Just thought i'd share!!!!

Update from Wed July 2, '08

2008-07-07T00:43:00.001+10:00

LOL, i had to chuckle this afternoon, when our Admin Mgr/CSA - "T" rang me and said she's been reading my Homeone thread and just wanted to let me know that she actually arranges the transfer of the gas and electricity at the settlement meeting.

So i have nothing else to worry about, except for arranging the phone - which i've already done!

How good is that for service!!! Talk about a sweetie!!!

And if you're reading this?

You're a Legend "T" - Thanks so much!!!

Update from Tues July 1, '08

2008-07-07T00:37:00.004+10:00

Ok, a bit of an update.....

We received our call from the Handover supervisor "L" today. The final inspection is booked for Wednesday the 9th of July at 9am with settlement thereafter. Kevin will do another inspection either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning with us to give us the go ahead and cover anything that requires further rectification.

"L" is working towards handover on Monday the 9th of July, but will still not commit until the end of this week. They have had tradies there everyday, which is great, but still its all a big rush at the end and we've already knocked back some of the work that they have done and said re-do it!!! I wont settle for any 1/2 done jobs!!!

"L" has been fine with my comments so far and is doing his best to keep me happy.

Time will tell. Worst case scenario - it will be Wed the 9th of July.

Ok well, the schedule is as follows (i warn you, take a deep breath now- cause its hectic!!!):

Friday 4/7

- Telstra trench and madison box being installed (yeah - after all the issues we've had!!!)

Break for the weekend, but their tradies will still be on-site working........

Wed 9/7 (if not earlier)
- 9am - Final Inspection
-10am - Settlement appt in the sales office-will book that tomorrow
-12pm - Timber installer commences
- Start installing the timber blinds

Thurs 10/7
- Timber install continues/concluded today
- 7.30am-4.30pm Appliances installed
- 8am-12pm Telstra fit off
- Finish installing the timber blinds

Friday 11/7
- Carpet install
- 12pm-4pm Ducted heating unit commissioned
- Official moving process commences 11.00am when Ian picks up the truck!!! (yeah!!)
- Hopefully not still installing our timber blinds :roll: :roll: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Ian will move in from the Thursday....
The rest of the family will move in on Friday night (well the basic's of the beds and clothes will)
The balance will be moved in over the weekend.
Will move our one little doggie, Tiga, in on Monday so that he is not under our feet in the move....

I have found an ISP (Exetel) for our ADSL/VOIP service as ADSL2 is not available to us at this time. And that hopefully will be connected in a week or so (all going well?)

Working out the driveway timings is more painful....up to a 10 week wait for that, so hopefully we'll work something out soon enough....

Its all happening, a bit hectic so havent been on the forum much....
I enjoy this bit, i love the planning side of it. Just need to call up the Gas, electricity and Water providers and open the accounts and it's all done....i think????

Have i forgotten anything???

LOL, oh yeah and guess who has to get up early and get her butt down to the house at those times on those days (with the kids!!!!)

ME!!!!

Ian's leave doesn't kick in till the Friday!!!!

Oh well, at least i'm used to supervising!!!! The tradies are going to love me!!!

LOL...i can just see it now......."eh hem....excuse me....i think you missed something over there, go back and fix it!!!!"

Update from Fri Jun 27th, '08

2008-07-07T00:32:00.002+10:00

Hey guys, sorry its been a while.......

We had our inspection with Kevin last Thursday the 19th of June, and it all went pretty well. Surprisingly well actually.

Kevin found 49 issues, nothing too serious which is good to hear....and then we had our walk through this Wednesday the 25th of June, armed with Kev's report and found a further 26 issues. And a couple of external ones that i will actually e-mail them about as we forgot to bring them up at the time (chips in the edges of the alfresco slab and a broken brick that we want replaced on the rear garage wall. The majority of the issues are external, which is good, stuff like one sheet of the front colourbond cladding which has a dent in it, or cleaning of brickwork, etc, etc....

The new garage door is on and the B&D door is so much stronger structurally as compared to the Gliderol, which is great too....BUT....they've installed an external handle on the door, which we originally specifically requested they NOT install.....

SO, now they will have to replace the panel concerned, as we will not be putting up with the garage door looking like it is and i doubt that the entire door will be replaced just for the handle? A bit silly actually, but hey? Could be worse???

We still don't have an "official" handover date and it is really frustrating at the moment!!! I really do think that is where the whole system falls apart. Its not very fair to give someone say one weeks notice that the house is going to be ready??? What would happen if we were renting??? The project management of their houses needs better "management" in my opinon.....

We have checked with the timber installer and the current lead time is 3 weeks, but they do have an window of 2 days that has become available on the 9th and 10th of July for our timber install and we really needed to know today when we can get the house so we can lock it all in. Otherwise it will be the 16th of July- which is just unacceptable!!!!

In speaking with the Handover Supervisor "L" today, and wasn't in the mood to take any b/s from him when he went on about still waiting to hear from so and so....about such and such. We were told we would have a handover date by today, and today i'm being told, i'll call you back on Tuesday!!! :evil: So, I asked again firmly, when i can book the installs- we can't keep everything on hold??? I told him, no b/s now, seriously i'm sick of the run around! I was then advised that they have tradies on-site at the moment, and i can book the timber to be installed on the 9th of July. That they will have the house ready by then.

The 9th is good, but i have asked them to push it so that we can get the keys prior to that date.

So........ it seems that we are less than 2 weeks away from the supposed handover day!!!???? (fingers crossed)

I have agreed with the Handover Supervisor that i will not delay the handover due to the garage door handle, as that can be rectified after handover, BUT as long as all the main issues that Kevin and we found, are addressed to Kevin's satisfaction (he will be coming back for a re-inspection), which seriously aren't that major at all really? We'll be happy to accept the keys. The house is basically ready to go. Things like a clout that is showing on the porch ceiling or something small like that....really negligible stuff, but nevertheless, needing rectification.

I mean let's be reasonable about the whole scenario, a handle on the garage door isn't going to stop us moving in, is it??? That would, really be the most serious and most labour intensive of issues that require rectification....

The installation of the appliances, is another issue too, as Henley's policy is to have delivery and commissioning of the appliances 4 days after handover. We have requested that the appliances be installed and commissioned on the 9th or 10th preferably. So just a bit of pre-planning on their part required....it better happen!!!

If all goes to plan and we have keys on the 8th or 9th (morning at the latest) of July, our timber commences on Wednesday the 9th and completed the next day, then carpet on Friday the 11th of July. We want the appliances on the 9th or 10th. Ian will move in and stay from that point onwards. We want to move in on the Saturday 12th/Sunday 13th and will keep moving towards that. Not moving in before the appliances are in!!! Too damn cold for that!!!

We have asked Kevin to return for a re-check of the house and to confirm that the items have been rectified to his satisfaction. If he says it's good to go, then we'll be happy with that!!!

As soon as i hear the "official" date, i'll let you all know....

Kevin's 1st Pre-Handover Inspection 19th June '08

2008-06-20T00:00:00.002+10:00

Well Kevin from New Home Inspections met Ian and I onsite at 1pm today, our S/S and C/M were also present for the whole inspection to go through anything that was required and action it straight away - lots of tradies were on-site today to go though the place. It was a hive of activity!!!

It took Kev two hours, which is not bad i suppose? We're hoping to have his report next week sometime.

The good thing is, there was nothing too MAJOR, structurally that Kevin found in the house, just some notations on a few issues with windows, flashing and cladding etc.

Most of the issues were cosmetic so we're hoping that we are not far away from actual handover now.

We also recieved a call from the Handover dept yesterday to book in our First Inspection next Wednesday (25/6) at 3pm. We should have Kevin's report by then so will have all the info in our hands before the meeting.

Then once everything is repaired/resolved on-site we schedule a Second Inspection and we have asked that Kevin be present for that too, to make sure that everything is spot on. (Of course)....

If we are happy with the 2nd inspection, then we can go back to the office and settle on the house and pick up the keys.

Our new B&D contemporary garage door will be installed next week which is great. We had the painters, cabinet-makers and plumbers on-site today doing their thing, as well as a glazier as the 4 glass panels in our front door had to be replaced. It seems the painters didn't tape them up and when they scraped the paint off, they scratched the glass. I would have thought that it would be cheaper to install a new door on, but hey i'm not complaining...it looks good!!!

So wait and see what Kevin's report brings. It won't be long now.....we hope??

Oh and recieved the final invoice via e-mail today too.....
(the only invoice i am actually looking forward to recieving BTW!!!
- cause it means we're nearly there!!!!!!)

Update from Tues 17th June '08

2008-06-19T23:57:00.001+10:00

I did a quick drive-by today and found our Handover supervisor "L" on-site, armed with yellow dot stickers this time (Boy am i over these damn dots!!!). We had a quick chat, but they still seem to be dragging their feet!

"L" mentioned that we will get a call next week to arrange an appointment for a First inspection, but that won't be till the end of the month at least....

Hmmmm not happy!!!!

I know we want everthing done, and we want it done correctly, and we are even bringing in Kevin to speed up this final process. BUT, if it's 2 weeks delay for the 1st inspection, then perhaps 2 weeks to fix any issues, then schedule a 2nd inspection with Kev, thats at least ANOTHER MONTH!!!!

I mean seriously, does it take that long???

I might have to shoot off a few e-mails to try and speed this process up!!!

Watch this space!!!

Update from Mon 16th June '08

2008-06-19T23:49:00.002+10:00

Hey everyone, sorry have been taking some time out lately....so have been a bit tardy with my updates.....

We spent last Sunday down Williamstown way. So heres some pics of our lovely city from the other side of town:

Work on-site has been a little slow...
so no real need for updates either...

BUT.........

We have been issued with our Certificate of Occupancy which is great!!!!
Sending that off to the bank tomorrow, just waiting on the final invoice to arrange a settlement bank cheque.

The house officially is being passed over to the Handover Dept tomorrow (17/6) and they will be in touch with us in the next few days to arrange an inspection day/time.

But we thought we'd move things along a bit and have arranged Kevin to come in and do his independant inspection this Thursday (19/6)- independantly of the Handover dept.

The house has had another internal clean and site clean....but it still looks messy outside and there are still some building materials on-site, so we will see.....

By getting Kevin in earlier we will be able to have our report in our hands for the inspection walk-through.... and we will be getting Kev back in again once any touch ups have been done just to make sure everything is spot on. Therefore there shouldn't be any unnecessary delays leading up to settlement.

We've picked a few things already, but we'll leave it up to Kevin to see what he picks as well. The toilet in the ensuite has been moved (we have requested an engineering report on that for our records as well, since the slab was broken and repaired to facilitate the move), all tiling completed, re-plastering and re-painting done, they still need to re-do the render which after reading Louies thread i will be interested to see how that goes. Some damaged cladding requires replacing and general things, but nothing really major that we can see at this point in time.

Getting a little more excited, but still not sure on any sort of handover date as yet!

Anyway, here are some current pics of the house for you:

And the inside (all nice and clean):

Anyway, probably no updates until later this week....
but hoping to have some good news soon!!!!

Update from 4 June '08

2008-06-19T23:42:00.002+10:00

The electrician has returned to move the the junction boxes on the garage and the light location in the porch area.

We were told that the rangehood was supposed to be installed today, but it's not in, so we'll check again in a few days.

But here are some pics for the die-hards...

Here are some internals pics (without little red dots everywhere - yeah!!!):

No updates tomorrow though guys.
Its DS's 4th birthday tomorrow so we won't be going to visit the house at all,
but more updates soon....i promise!

We're over the Chicken Pox

2008-06-03T22:53:00.003+10:00

Ooooh another update:

Ian went down to the house this afternoon and it seems the painters have returned and nearly all of the red dots (Chicken Pox) around the house are now gone!

There is still a few around the house, but they require the plasterers then painters to return once again, before they can be removed...

So the update is: (wait for it!!!!)

That the Handover Dept will take on the house from the 17th of June. We should expect a phone call within a few days of this to arrange our inspection with Kevin from New Home Inspections. Based on what is found on the day, by Kevin and ourselves, we have the option to return to their office and complete the settlement process and take possession of the house!!!!

I'm not getting too excited though, cause it would really pee me off to arrange things to be done and then have to cancel them at the last minute - if the house is still not ready or if Kevin finds something wrong!!!

We'd rather wait and make sure everything is 100% before settling....

Plus the timber floor installer has a min 2 week leadtime, so nothing else could be done until the floor coverings are in.

Oh the irony of it all if our moving in is delayed as a result of the floor coverings!!!!

Update from Mon 2nd June

2008-06-03T22:48:00.001+10:00

Sorry everyone, theres been no need for updates cause the house is moving along REALLY SLOWLY NOW!!!!!!

Those lovely red dots have been sitting there looking pretty for about 2-3 weeks!!!

So what has been done on-site?

The toilet has been moved, but the tiling still needs to be grouted and the plaster wall around the tap (which had to be moved as well) requires repairing:

The mixer tap plumbing has been changed on the spa, but the plaster and tiling patch jobs are yet to be done too. This is the front view:

This is how they got access from the room behind:

Here are some better pictures of the splashback in the kitchen. The colour looks a bit bland, but with the s/s rangehood and cooktop it should break it up a bit:

The meter box internals have been wired up now, the site now needs ANOTHER clean as does the inside of the house....but this is what it still looks like:

So anyway, we met with our new C/M - "G" and our S/S - "D" this afternoon, to have a look at the past couple of weeks work and try and get that all elusive handover date!!!!!

So what we were told was, that the required 10 days notice was being given to the Handover dept tomorrow (Tues 3/6), then they (the S/S and his crew) have 10 days to fix everything before it goes to the Handover dept. Then they go through it with a fine tooth comb and we have our 1st inspection with Kevin and then depending on what Kevin finds, it would be another 2 weeks minimum before actual handover....

BOY......... IT'S SOOOOO PAINFUL!!!!!

So.......we're estimating that we're STILL looking at another 4 weeks........minimum!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know little things are being done, but still there is so much to do and so little has been done in the past 2-3 weeks....it seems like such a waste of time.

Anyway, i'm not in the mood to argue at the moment....we'll see how it goes....
Even the neighbours are asking "how much longer can it be????"

Our ETA on our blinds is the 12-15th of June, so we'll be sitting on those for a bit it seems, the carpet and timber has been ordered and once we have a handover date we can book them in too. We need to make a decision on the driveway this week....

*sigh* Everything else is arranged, now we only need the house!!!!

Some very sad news.....

2008-06-03T22:32:00.003+10:00

I'm sorry but this is a very sad entry into our blog (i apologise in advance),

On Saturday the 31st of May, i lost my best friend of 17-3/4 years...my dog, Prince. He was a white pure bred Maltese who i selected from a litter at the breeders. He was the most inteligent and "knowing" dog i've ever had, and probably ever will.....he would communicate with sounds and you would just know, what he was after. He was so docile and not once, growled or snapped at the kids, who were at times, quite unrelenting with him.

He'd been a bit off in the past few months, drinking lots of water, urinating frequently and his tummy was very swollen. When we took him to the vet a few months ago, his advice was take good care of him, make him comfortable and "you don't want to know the diagnosis".....so i didn't ask and hoped he would be with us forever no matter what..... but i had a suspicion that he would not get to enjoy our new home.

The last few days though, he had trouble walking, being a bit stiff and just standing or lying down, and the past 24hrs, he was howling in pain and not eating. Now this dog had never howled in pain, even after been clipped by a car and even when some idiot once kicking him and breaking his hip at the socket.... I had never heard sounds like what i heard from him, in the past 24 hours... Yesterday after being in pain and howling throughout the night and morning, he lost strength to walk on his hind legs soon after lunch....

Ian and i took him to the local vet who highly suspected the late stages of cancer. She said that she felt a tumor the size of a small orange in his stomach!!! The lovely vet gave him Morphine to ease the pain but we were told that keeping him on morphine would only prolong it by a few hours or at best another day or two. She left us alone, but eventually, the gut renching desicion was made to put him out of his misery, he slipped away peacefully while i held him and listened to him breathe. We brought him home afterwards, to be buried at mum & dad's and to say goodbye to his family.

Here is his family, Prince is the father (white maltese) and Tiga (our other dog) is his son (white with black ears), my Mum has Pepi (the mum - black) and Cindy (the daughter - white with tan ears)...The other dogs are really down at the moment and Tiga now won't leave us alone....he is by our side always... they are so knowing....

These pics were taken in march last year.

Moving into our home won't be the same now...i quite frankly can't be bothered to even get excited over it any more.... Tiga will be howling, as he always does when he and his dad are separated....i'm really not looking forward to it at all....

Sorry again...

Today's update!

2008-05-20T22:10:00.003+10:00

Well a couple of things happened on-site today,

Tell me if you can notice what's missing from this picture???

Ok, well it's our big green dumpster bin!!!
Yes the neighbours will be upset (collective awwww pls)!!!
Although it still doesn't stop them from leaving rubbish there anyway so it seems????

But it has been taken away....that's a pretty good sign right???

Also the extra rails were added to our WIR today, so another thing crossed off the list.

Heres a pic of one of our termite boxes that was installed yesterday, we actually have 4 of them around the house....LOL....oh well those nasty critters are not coming anywhere near our place by the looks of it!!!

Ian's meeting with our S/S "D" tomorrow morning to discuss the outstanding issues, so hopefully i'll have more updates for you soon.

Update from Sat 17 May

2008-05-20T22:01:00.003+10:00

We went down to the house this afternoon to check on progress on Saturday.

The site has been sort of cleaned...well the pile of bright red brick sand has been shovelled and spread about everywhere....Looks lovely - LOL well not really, i thought they are supposed to clean the site, not shovel the brick sand around???

The windows have been cleaned....and the inside of the house looks cleaner, but not sure if it's the final clean???

We also had our 1st inspection today and there are a heap of red dots everywhere...which is to be expected i suppose.

The bathrooms are looking lovely:

Towel rails are in as well as internal door handles and door stops etc...

We're getting there!!!!

Today's update!!!

2008-05-14T20:08:00.004+10:00

Wooo Hoo more happening on-site!!!!

The "security" fencing has been removed:

The piles of rubbish have been removed from the front of the house too....

The house looks so very different without the fencing and other distractions

The mirrors and shower screens have also been installed and they look great....
Glad we went with the chrome look screens....as they compliment the tapware nicely.

Here's the ensuite:

And the bathroom:

And some odds and sods around the house like the fill panel over the back sliding door and the side flashing for the roof of the garage....

We should be getting the site cleaned this week and the internal clean as well....

Hoping to hear some good news soon as to dates.....but not holding our breath just yet!!!

There are still some issues that require resolution.

Update from Sat 10th May

2008-05-14T20:04:00.002+10:00

We noticed that our port-a-loo has been removed today!!

And hopefully the fencing will also be gone soon.

We should have our first inspection hopefully sometime next week....exciting now!!!!

So this is what it looks like today:

We're getting there!!! ::lol:: ::lol::

Update from Thurs 8th May

2008-05-14T20:03:00.001+10:00

And after visiting this afternoon, we had another surprise with the plumbing work completed on-site.

Here are some pics.....it's all coming together now!!!!

Ensuite:

(Realised after looking at the pics when i got home tonight, that the wrong flickmixer tap was installed on the spa - easy fix - will need to chat with them about that.....)

Bit of an issue with the location of the toilet in the ensuite....it's off by 10cm, which you might say is ridiculous of us to pick up....but we redesigned the ensuite by repositioning walls in an effort to move the toilet over more towards the door. All this so that the shower screen can open without hitting the toilet...... We won't know for sure until the shower screen is installed if we've got a problem or not....But either way it's not to the plan....
The only way to fix this we've been told is to rip up the tiles and jackhammer the slab and reposition the plumbing and rebuild it all again.....:evil: :evil: Not happy at all.....

Laundry:

Bathroom:

Toilet:

Kitchen:

Can you see my sparkle? :wink: :wink:

AND...... we now have lights on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ceiling insulation will be installed in the next few days, scheduled next week is the house and site clean, which will make a BIG difference.

And wooo hooo we'll be losing our toilet and fencing soon too!!!!! :shock: :shock: :? :?

Our electrician needs to come back as there are a few issues with the positioning of our garage/porch lights.... but nothing that can't be rectified!!!

How many sleeps to go now????

Update from Wed 7th May

2008-05-14T19:28:00.003+10:00

The tilers were back on-site today. The spa and bath are now done and the tiling looks pretty good.

I'm not sure what else is planned for this week on-site, i think it was the insulation perhaps???

Here's some pics of the spa in the ensuite:

And here's a better look at our WIR, still some more rails to be installed.

There are 3 sections to each side. We're organising some drawer inserts etc and extra shelving for shoes etc ourselves and we're going to be ordering that shortly. Ian wants to get right into it after handover....

Update from 6 May

2008-05-10T23:53:00.003+10:00

WOW....... well today has seen some dramatic changes around the house...well we think so anyway!!!

The Caesarstone benchtops were installed....YEAH!!!!

OMG!!!!

How i am so glad we selected the Nova Aurora with the sparkles...it is just DIVINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am soooooo happy!!!!

Plus we upgraded to 40mm benchtops so it looks even better!!!!!!!

We would have regretted it if we had got 20mm and would have always thought "we should have"......so in the end i'm glad we did upgrade....It looks so much better in our kitchen!!!!

The bathroom and ensuite are Ice Snow and also look great.
Can't wait to see it with the chrome taps and white basins.....

The Robe inserts were completed:

Also we had out ducted heating vents installed throughout the house.....

The electrician was on-site as the downlights are all in, the power points, light switches, junction boxes etc are also installed but still a bit more work to do there...so a return visit req'd.

AND....we had out gas meter installed today too....

Hows that for a productive day on-site!!!!!

Tilers were not on-site today - probably because the Caesarstone had to be in first for them to complete their tasks.

But still very happy. Although we're still being told a June handover....we're hoping that they will exceed our expectations....

OMG.....that's next month!!!!!!

So far the progress has been excellent!!!

Update from May 5

2008-05-10T23:35:00.002+10:00

Well, here's an update.....

We spent some time on the weekend looking at exposed aggregate mixes and thought we had made a decision on Mont Brown....

which is the black base, black stones and brown quartz....but it still had too much cream in it for us.... and after seeing it on some driveways, we're still not happy. So back again to look for another mix....maybe it'll have to be a custom.

I went for a drive to the house today and our Caesarstone is now being installed tomorrow...but the guy(s)?? had been in and set up the controller and return air vent for the heating/cooling.

Some pics:

So with the Caesarstone arriving tomorrow morning, the house will be busy if that's the case as the Electrician is due back tomorrow as is the tiler, so hopefully they can all work around each other? The tiler needs the C/Stone in to complete the tiling in some places too....

Also while at the house today, i came prepared with some flooring samples which i wanted to try and see how they looked together:

Tiles/carpet (where they meet in the Master B/R):

Tiles/timber
(where they meet in the bathroom/corridor & meals/laundry):
(Spotted Gum)

Where the timber & carpet meet up:

So back again tomorrow armed with camera to take more pics...LOL...of course!!!

Ian's going to ring the office tomorrow to ask for a handover date....

Wish us luck!!! :wink:

Update from Friday 2nd May, 2008

2008-05-04T19:31:00.004+10:00

We went down to the house yesterday 1 May 08 and the floor tiles were laid but not grouted.

Then again this afternoon for our on-site meeting with our S/S.

It was mainly to check the paintwork again and measure up the windows for the blinds. The paint looks good and we couldn't really see any plaster joins.

This is the Master B/R wall:

All tiles are laid now...Looks pretty good, nice and straight!!

We're very happy with the floor tile and grout colours we selected, but still waiting to see if the matt white 300x100mm wall tiles tie in with the white basins, white benchtops and the stainless steel taps, towel rail and shower screen??? Not sure against the wall colour...hopefully it'll look ok?? We'll find out soon enough!!

Bathroom:

Laundry:

Ensuite:

We are a little disappointed with the garage door colour and profile..... It IS our selection, i suppose, but now seeing the facade colours i am not happy. The garage door is too light and the profile does nothing for the facade. Ian didn't want timber look ("too common"?) and we were told that Jasper was too dark, so we went with Paperbark. But when you put it together with the bricks and the render colour and it stands out too much i think....maybe we should fling some dirt on it and dull it somewhat??? LOL :wink: :wink: I wish it could be more like the render colour.

We've decided that the front door and frame will definitely be 2 pac'd black a.s.a.p. after handover.... The colour consultant wouldn't allow it to be painted black when we asked....so we'll do it afterwards.

So the plan is now:

Monday - Caesarstone being installed and hopefully the electrician will be back.

Tuesday - Tiler returns to finish the spa and bath and grout the shower bases.

Also sometime next week the insulation will be installed.

Yippee, it's all happening!!

Next week will be exciting to see the Caesarstone go in!!!
I want to see my kitchen benchtop *sparkle**

Update Wed 30th April, 2008

2008-05-04T18:54:00.004+10:00

As promised tiling should be underway at the house today...although i'll do the drive-by after school to check it out anyway.

Yesterday when i drove by it seems that the showers are ready to go for the tiles.... Heres some pics:

Ensuite:

Bathroom:

We've arranged another meeting on-site with our S/S Friday 2nd May. Mainly to measure window sizes to pre-order our blinds but also for an update on their progress....of course!!! :wink: :wink:

__________________________

While at the house this afternoon i found that the tiles had been delivered on a pallet into the family room area, but no tiling had been done....hmmm...
The shower areas looked wet, so maybe they were testing them while waiting for the tiles to be delivered???

BUT, one positive is that there was one lovely guy on-site installing our garage doors!!!!

Unfortunately i couldn't see the garage doors down to take a pic, but will take some and upload them soon....

Oh well, at least something was done on-site today....even if it wasn't the tiling....

Painting is complete!!!

2008-04-24T17:11:00.003+10:00

Yippeeee, the painters finished yesterday!!!

A wonderful team of 5 guys worked solidly on our place and seem to have done a nice job. We had a meeting with our S/S on-site yesterday and it's looking great!!!! The paint was still wet in some places so we needed to be careful not to touch anything.

Again, our internal paint colours are:
Walls: Moon River
Doors/archs/skirts:Ashwood

The countdown is starting. The final programming of the house for handover has commenced and although we have not been given an actual date yet, it is definitely not far away.... The tiler starts next week and the house should be busy on a daily basis now.....H3nley are doing a great job and are exceeding our expectations so far!!!:D

I took lots of pics and the selected colours look good. Hmmmmm i'm thinking i maybe could have gone a bit darker on the internal walls, but it still looks okay.

OK, so here's a bit of a tour for you all:

Front door:
(Still not 100% happy with the Paperbark colour - black is looking pretty good!!)

Garage:

Front hallway:

Kitchen:

Meals/Dining (Complete with our lovely S/S - "D"):

Family:

Rear hallway:

Alfresco:

Master Bedroom:

Ensuite:

And last of all, our theatre:

The theatre will be repainted before the carpets go in to a colour much more suited to the room's purpose.

It's all going to be happening now from what we're being told, which is great!!!! In the home stretch!!!!

OK, i need to start working through my list of things to organise, telephone conn. and most importantly internet!!!! OMG, i'd die without internet!!!!

We have chosen to get our appliances installed when we physically move in and not at handover. We selected this as we want the timber floor and carpet installed/laid as soon as possible after we get the keys....THEN we'll move in....well, that's the plan anyway??? Fingers crossed.....

GO HENLEY GO!!!!

More updates soon!!! :D :D :D

But wait.....there's more!!!

2008-04-21T23:17:00.003+10:00

Here's some more pics from today's visit. The pvc bottom connections for the downpipes as well as the meter box have been painted (in Jasper). But other than that, nothing else done inside today though that we can see?

And have a look at our nice white eaves:

We have a meeting on-site with our S/S on Wednesday afternoon to have a look at the paint job and plasterwork since it's been partially painted and hoping that we don't see any plaster joins around the place.

It looks pretty good through the windows, but we'd like to see it all up close!!!! - Of course!!!

Update Sun 20 April

2008-04-21T23:02:00.003+10:00

We continue to be surprised when we visit our house....

It's been 2 days since our last visit, so we thought we'd drive down to the house this afternoon and see if anything more had been achieved.

Well, Ian noticed as we drove up, that the eaves and porch had been painted.

Ooooooh and the front door too!!!!

Woooo Hooooo....what else is in store for us???? I couldn't take off the seatbelt fast enough!!! :shock: :shock:

Well we've had the ceilings painted, including the garage and alfresco ceilings and a first coat it looks like on all of the internal walls.

The internal doors have also been painted:

Its looking a lot lighter in the house now. How exciting....can't wait to see it all done and see how good our colour selections are????

Bring on those tiles, i say!!!!!!

Update from Thur 17 April

2008-04-21T23:00:00.002+10:00

Yipee, they ARE preparing for the paint process.

The walls are in the process of being filled and sanded.
The plaster in the bathrooms is being smeared with some light green goopy looking stuff (technical term of course) over the plaster joins and around the pipes for the taps....

The internal doors and hinges have also been pulled off, in preparation for painting.

Hopefully it won't be long now and we'll see some colour!!!

Update from Wed April 16

2008-04-21T22:54:00.004+10:00

I noticed today that the inside of the house has been cleaned again....so hopefully they are going to commence the preparation for painting soon?

Here are a few pics:

LOL we're just waiting....waiting.......

Update from April 10th

2008-04-13T19:42:00.002+10:00

We drove down this arvo to the house and found all the skirts and arch's off the walls, and you could hardly tell they were on in the first place....very nice job, no plaster damage! The new stuff was delivered and they have commenced putting on the 92mm skirts and they look much better.

Our WIR:

The cabinets have also now been installed throughout the house. Here are more pics:

Lookin Good!!!!! :D :D :D

Update from April 9th

2008-04-13T18:58:00.003+10:00

LOL.....now where do i start.....

OK...well a meeting was arranged for the 9th of April with myself and our S/S "D" to cover some issues we had picked up...nothing major, a power point at the wrong height and downlights marked out in a line, that didn't line up that well....minor things....no biggie :wink:

So meeting at 2.45pm on site, no problems....

As i walk up, we have our front door on.... YEAH......GREAT...........
do you like our green feature colour???!!!!!!!!!! :wink: :wink:

I walk through the study door to get into the house and see that all the doors and architraves are on.....OK...GOOD, sort of....

I then walk into the family/kitchen area and this is what i see:

OMG!!!! We have a kitchen!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!

And our overheads cupboards (in Moleskin):

And a close up pic of our our handles!!!

Now, i'm definitely wrapt to see the kitchen going in, the guys fitting out the house have done a wonderful job and their workmanship is great, but it seems (and i noticed this as i walked into the house) that they've delivered and installed the wrong size and profile of the skirts and architraves!!!!!!!!!

Poor "D" he was both very upset and so apologetic when i told him they weren't correct!!!! Definitely not his fault, the items were ordered via the office....Oooops!!!!!

WOW, i'm glad i picked it up as i walked through the door...it's funny though, we're not mad at all.....you really have to laugh about it hey? :lol: :lol: :lol:

OK..... so "D" get's on the phone to fix it, but now the issue is that the guys who were supposed to finish on-site today now have to remove the existing skirts and arch's and replace them with the new delivery that will be delivered tomorrow on-site....

I decided to wander around, it seems that we have all our cabinets on site!!!

Heres our bathroom (It's Oyster Linea and will have Ice Snow C/S):

Our Ensuite (Again Oyster Linea and will have Ice Snow C/S):

Our Laundry (Mushroom Linea with Brook Pebble (laminate rolled edge benchtop to go on):

Oh and most importantly i have doors on my theatre now!!!!
Woooo Hoooo....sorry priorities!!! :roll: :roll:

Oh well, we'll be back on track soon.... :D :D

It's been a while!!!!

2008-04-08T14:57:00.003+10:00

LOL, i apologise for not updating the blog for a while, been a little hectic lately....

Ok well, here's an update for all of you avid readers...(???)

The plaster and cornicework was completed mid last week. The guys have done a great job, very clean!!!! Heres some pics:

Garage:

Alfresco:

Our WIR:

Kids play room looking accross the hall to the study:

Our Master B/R:

The doors and architraves have been delivered and have the

tradies have commenced putting them up.

Kitchen/Family/Meals area and front hallway:

The kids bedrooms have their doors and cupboards on, as does the laundry and the bathroom. The rest of the arch's have been cut to size and they along with the other doors should be up in the next few days.

It's looking good, glad to see that the tradies are still on the ball!

PS.........we've passed the 3000th reader mark...YEAH!!!!!

Let's get PLASTERED!!!!!!!

2008-03-25T21:15:00.002+11:00

We made a trip down this afternoon as we were told that the plasterers were going to be working on-site today.

We have ceilings throughout the house, and all rooms have most of the bottom or top plaster on and the balance plaster is cut and ready to install hopefully tomorrow!!!! That's pretty good for one day i think!!!

Well, here are some pics:

This is the view from the rear sliding doors, you can see the family room, meals area on LHS and the doorway to the laundry, the kitchen straight ahead and the hallway leading to the front door, master B/R, Kids play room and study:

Looking from the sliding door again with a view of the kitchen bulkheads and the doorway on the RH wall leads to the kids bedrooms and bathroom:

These are the 1-3/4 doors of the theatre room, leading out to the family room:

Our Master B/R with doorway to the ensuite straight ahead and WIR on the RHS:

Our WIR:

Our study with dbl doors onto the entrance hallway:

The pics are a bit blurry due to the fact that they were taken through the windows...but hey...we're not complaining!!!! At least they are back on site now and it seems....its all full steam ahead again!!!

All quiet leading up to Easter.

2008-03-25T20:50:00.003+11:00

Due to the delays from the pre-plaster inspection with frame repairs etc... we were told that our plasterers could not start until the Tuesday after Easter, that they had been allocated to another job....so it was pretty quiet on-site for a while.

But...the jasper colourbond cladding for the front facade was installed on Easter Saturday....

and it seems we did have a visit from the plasterers too as some plaster was up...in the bathroom and ensuite...

Bathroom:

Ensuite:

Re-inspection of Pre-Plaster stage.

2008-03-15T00:57:00.002+11:00

Well, i must apologise for being a bit tardy with my updates lately....but it's been just over a week since Kevin inspected our place on the 6th of March.

Kevin's Inspection report related to issues with framework, Roof Trusses, Brickwork Flashing, Brick Cavities and the Slab Overhang issues...which have already been addressed. Nothing major which is great!!! Our builder has been fantastic regarding getting right in there and fixing whatever was on the report...no questions...no arguments.... there's been tradesmen in and out all week to fix the issues.

I drove past yesterday and the final colour coat of render has been put on the house.
The render colour is Barn Rafter. Here are some pics:

The plasterers have actually started on some bits, like the bulkheads in the kitchen, the wall /bulkhead around the fridge cavity, and a bit of the WIR :

Our solar panel needed to be moved as it was originally installed on the east-facing roofline and has recently been re-located to the west-facing roofline:

The roof tiles have also been double checked and cleaned up and it now looks nice and sleek.

*******************

We have had our Pre-Plaster re-inspection today on-site at 12.00pm.
Present were Kevin from New Home Inspections, Ian (my hubby), myself, "D" - our S/S and "R" - D's construction Mgr.

Kevin checked over all of the defects he had originally reported on and gave them the all clear.

Well Done Henley!!!

SO what does that mean???? It means that the plasterers will re-commence on-site on Monday!!! (hopefully it won't be too hot for them to work?)

We also asked/joked about when we'd be able to get an indication of handover time frames. "R" advised us that when the tiles go in, thats the time to call our CSR and at that stage, they will have a date booked in for us. So hopefully it won't be too far away???

We're happy that it's all systems go again..... Just waiting for those tiles now....bring it on!!!!!

Wow!!! We're at Lock up stage!!!!

2008-03-05T21:46:00.011+11:00

Hmmm it's been a few days since my last update and things have just fallen into place.

We have had the electrician in and we're all wired up,
External doors are on and locked!!! :-(
Insulation and sound-proofing is in,
Eaves are on,
Roof tiles have been pointed,
Bricks have been cleaned,
Heating/cooling in,
Site cleaned,
Downpipes on:

Our plaster was delivered today:

Solar panel on today (but needs to be re-located....its in the wrong spot....LOL....but no big deal...)
and they rendered first coat on the feature section around our master bedroom today :

We also had our pre-plaster inspection on-site today and we called in the "infamous" Kevin McDonald from New Home Inspections.

( www.newhomeinspections.com.au )

This gentle giant was fantastic, we spent about 1-3/4 hours going through things with "D" and Kevin has advised that he will have his report to us before Tuesday next week. My recommendation to anyone building or buying a new home....call him!!! He's worth his weight in gold!!!!

Here's Big Kev in action (in the red) with "D":

I must say that our S/S "D" and our CSR "T" have been great. The issue with the centering of the front door was fixed within 24 hours!!!! What a fantastic effort!!!! Thanks Henley!!! We're very happy with the service we're getting....

"D" really is on top of his guys and we really are lucky to have a great team working with us to build our new home...

The house is looking great and we hope that the current pace continues now that we're at lock-up and we are moving into our home soon...

The next job will be the colorbond cladding above the render on our master bedroom,which is being installed next Tuesday. We are getting the cladding in Jasper and it will look like this (this is the only other house that we know of in Melbourne with our same facade....except theirs is rendered:

The final prep. for plaster will be done next week. Then the plaster and cornices go up and woo hoo we're one big step closer to packing our stuff and movin' on in!!!!!

So how's that for a full on update????

Stay tuned for more!!!!

The front door is centred!

2008-02-29T23:30:00.002+11:00

Well just to let you know that Henley have rectified the issue of the off-centre doorway. We are much happier with our door centred, on the inside and the outside of the house.

Before pic:

After pic:

We've been advised that A.V. Jennings have accepted the gap above the front door?? So we will wait to see how that looks when it's finished. But still not happy because we paid for it to be done.

They have been busy on-site today. The roof tiles have been pointed. The gas has been connected on-site. We have 2 out of 3 doors that have locks - just the front door left to do now. The eaves are being put on and the balance of the roof safety barriers need to come down as well. It's looking much better!!!!!

Here are some pics:

Shouldn't be long now to lock-up i would think???

Bricking is finished....for now!!

2008-02-28T20:38:00.004+11:00

Ok, sorry if i've been a bit quiet, but there has been a bit going on at the house that needed following up so there was no point updating.....

The bricking has finally finished today (for now) and this afternoon we had the lock-up carpenter in, finalising things and the roof tilers were back doing the pointing of the roof tiles.

We've had an issue with the positioning of our front door, the surrounding brickwork and it seems there is also gap above our front door that isn't supposed to be there.

I have some pics to give you an idea....

This is our front porch/doorway, there is a gap that shouldn't be there over the top of the door and secondly the LHS and RHS brickwork (on either side) of the doorway is not even (as per the display home pictured below?). You will see that the LHS brickwork is wider than the RHS (the total space around the door is 25cm, so we have 10cm one side and 15cm on the other):

This is the display home. Notice the brickwork is even on either side of the front door? It seems that the bricks that are located between the study window and the front door are cut slightly to make the join of brickwork around the door even on both sides.

Now this is a picture of the inside framework for our home... on the LHS of the doorway there is one stud, but on the RHS there are 3??? Therefore the door is off centre (more towards the LHS) on the inside of the house too. Same as the brickwork.

As opposed to the display (pictured below) which is offset to the RHS??? I can't understand how it can differ??? Now we also have 67mm arch's going in and they would look pretty silly if the door is not centred along that small internal wall.

Now in saying that, the builders spec's documentation says that the quality etc. should be the same as displayed in their display homes. But our front door is off centre when the display home is nicely centred. The brickwork is different and is not the same quality as the same area in the display home.

There is a gap above the door which is not supposed to be there. Our estate's developer (A.V. Jennings) does not allow "in-fills" above front doors or garages. Therefore we paid a few $$$$ to have the infills bricked up all over the house and had to have the garage re-engineered to accomodate the brickwork under the eaves with a lintel. This was the ONLY way that we were going to get approval from A.V.Jennings for the build to go ahead. We have gone for higher ceilings in our home as opposed to the display, but that shouldn't make any difference. A.V. Jennings still would not approved any in-fills over the door!!!
But Henley are saying that the gap needs or has to be there and that doorways and brickwork never line up??? So here lies our problem....who is correct????

Regardless this gap is not on the plan and A.V. Jennings approved the building of the house based on the plan. The representative from A.V. Jennings, "W.W" has requested that "T" our CSR call her to discuss this as they should not be changing the plans.

I find this ironic, as we requested reducing the amount of render to the front of our home recently and we were told that it would need to go back to AVJ for approval, but the builder can change the plans and guess what???? No approval required??? Why is that???

So anyway, we were supposed to have a quick meeting with our S/S "D" on Wednesday which ended up going for 1.5 hours....

I have taken photos of similar Cottesloe homes that have been built in the area (with the standard facade) and this morning I even drove to the closest display home to take pictures and we sent them to our CSR.... All of the homes have the same brickwork, it's only ours that's different.

At the end of the day, we want what was/is displayed.... We do not want to/and will not accept anything different. If the problem was around the side of the house, we probably would not be as fussed. BUT this is at our front door! The entrance to our home, the starting point for our visitors to judge our home and we cannot spend so much money and accept the doorway as it currently is.

We are waiting for Henley to get back to us regarding this issue, hopefully it will be soon.

Our sparkie is supposed to be in soon, then insulation goes in early next week. The plaster arrives on Wednesday so everything else is moving forward....which is great to hear!!! Our S/S "D" is really moving along with our home...

Hopefully the doorway will be re-aligned and re-bricked soon and then we will finally be at lock-up!!!!

More updates as soon as they are available....

Nearly there - well the brickwork anyway?

2008-02-24T13:47:00.003+11:00

Well only a few 2-3 more days of brickwork left for our lovely brickies.

Here are some pics from our last visit:

All set for lock up next week!!!!

Wooo Hooo!!!!

More brickwork.

2008-02-21T23:51:00.005+11:00

Well the sunshine is back in Melbourne and so returned our brickies to our house!!!

They have just about finished the front of the house and commenced work on the LHS. Nearly 1/2 the house is bricked already....

Kevin came out to the house today and had some concerns about the overhanging framework in some sections, but he is working with our S/S - "D" to resolve them. Henley have been very positive about these issues and we hope to have everything resolved soon.

Here are some pics:

Hopefully we'll be able to have Kevin back for a pre-plaster inspection next week.... WOW...Lock-up stage....hmmm not looking forward to THAT invoice!!!

Roof tiling is finished & Brickwork re-commences...

2008-02-19T23:24:00.004+11:00

Todays update:

Our roof is complete, well.... they still have to remove the safety barriers and insert the tiles that fit into those spots, but the capping has been cemented in place so it's just as good as done now. There has been very little wastage of roof tiles too. What you see left on the roof is IT...and very few wasted tiles around the site too. That's not bad, in my opinion.

The brickies....(God bless their exceptional work)... have recommenced today as well, all 3 of them.

The quality of the brickwork is REALLY GOOD, well i think anyway. That good that it even looks like you wouldn't really require the bricks to be acid washed....seriously, they are that clean!!!! Very happy with the raked mortar too, we selected this as we wanted the bricks to be the feature, not the mortar. We are loving the colours we have selected...they really work well together.

Very straight brickwork too....VERY, VERY NICE WORK GUYS!!!!!

Can you tell we're Very Happy Chappies today!!!!

Oh and in regards to the slab issues, Kevin is coming out on Thursday. He's got Henley's Engineer's report but wants to have a look at these sections for himself....
Just gotta love Kevin!!!!

It's all happening...

2008-02-18T23:08:00.004+11:00

Well the tilers commenced on-site today and i drove down in the arvo, fully expecting the tiles to be just laid out in nice little piles on the rooftop...

What i saw actually made me gasp!!!!

The roof was more than half finished!!!!

The tilers didn't get it all done today though.....not that they were slacking by any means either.... it was a stinking hot 34 degree day in Melb so i can understand the need for these guys to call it quits for the day.

Also met our S/S the lovely "D" on-site and he came out to chat for a bit He wanted the tilers to be finished laying the tiles today as the brickies are scheduled to re-commence on-site tomorrow. They can't work underneath while the tilers work on top, too dangerous if something falls off the roof! One of the brickies assistants was there today preparing/measuring the front bedroom section of the house....

The roof tiles we selected have a nice shine to them which we preferred over the matt varieties. That and the fact that no one has the same tile profile as us makes us stand out from every other house in the street. I like that.

The leftover bricks from the garage have been stacked at intervals around the front of the house and we should see some brickwork to that area tomorrow.

We have 3 brickies i think, well 3 guys worked on our garage and their work is pretty darn good. Our neighbour's house had one older guy working on it and it took him weeks to finish.... So these guys should knock our house over in a week or so i would think...

The front door (slab repair) still needs to be poured.
We recieved the Engineers Report today which i will fax off to Kevin for evaluation and subsequent inspection on-site. We don't want anything to hold it up, but on the other hand, we want it done correctly!!! This is what it looked like this afternoon:

Everything is going ahead at full steam!!!!!!!

GO HENLEY GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A bit of a clean up...

2008-02-17T01:06:00.002+11:00

We went for a drive to our place today to do a bit of cleaning (*sigh*....and so it starts!!!!).... the last few lots of tradies weren't very clean and decided to leave their rubbish all over the inside and outside of the house. So we went armed with brooms to sweep and collect as much rubbish as possible.. and generally clean it up a bit....

This is just one lot of crap that we swept/carried outside:

There was another pile at the back of the house too....

Anyway the house is much cleaner now...

We also noticed today, that three of the four overhanging framework issues had
been supported with lintels......they now looks like this:

The garage/porch area:

back of b/r 3:

back of b/r 4:

We also noticed that some of the slab has recently been jack-hammered to allow for the plaster to be installed.
It is the wall between garage (LHS of pic) and study(RHS of pic - which has the internal access). I suppose it looks like an okay job - Kevin from New Home Inspections will be the judge of that though???

The one at the front door is yet to be completed though... hopefully that will happen soon and then brickwork can commence.....YEAH!!!!

We're wrapped...well at least the house is!!!

2008-02-14T22:51:00.009+11:00

Well it seems that our house has been wrapped up to keep it warm and cozy today.

Here are some pics:

One question...Why do they not wrap the sisalation around the "internal" garage walls? We've also found that the plaster wall that is shared between the garage and BR2 has not been wrapped either??? Not sure why??? Are only bricked walls wrapped? No that can't be it either as in this pic we have the garage on the LHS, then study window, then front door, then master B/R on the LHS. The study, front door surround and master b/r have been wrapped but not the garage wall??? Why??? (Have i confused you all???)

Anyway the roof tiles are confirmed to start on Monday 18/2/08, we're also waiting on an engineers report regarding the overhanging frame issues. The main one at the front door has had some reo pinned into the main slab,

but in the process they've chipped the threshold concrete...

There are another three around the house, but not sure whether they are within tolerances. Anyway we're getting Kevin from New Home Inspections, to go over the engineers report as soon as we receive it and also to come out and have a look at the slab to ensure that it passes his quality standards. We'll feel happier then.
Once approved then brickwork can commence.

(*sigh*) We're getting there!!!

Gutters/Fascia's & Plumbing complete!!!

2008-02-13T22:52:00.004+11:00

Our gutters and fascia's commenced on Monday and were completed on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday the plumbers completed their rough in.

It's looking great....here are some pics for you:

Street view:

Garage roofline:
Alfresco:

Side view:
The roof has the safety barriers on for the roof tilers and we are hoping to see
them on Monday.... hope the weather holds out!!!

A quick update.

2008-02-08T20:35:00.000+11:00

We have been updated by our CSR today. It seems that the gutters & fascias are starting this Monday 11th Feb and the roof is scheduled to commence on the following Monday 18th Feb.

H3nley have conducted the frame inspection in the last day or so and we are waiting for the results from our CSR.

If there is anything wrong, it will need to be rectified prior to continuing the build.

Can't wait to see more movement..... can you tell we're dying to have our house???

Garage trusses up.... finally!!!

2008-02-07T22:38:00.001+11:00

Well it's finally happened, the garage trusses are up.....
Drove past this morning and "S" and his guys were there busy on the garage putting it together...
They even cleaned up the site... so much that the bin is now full...
Thanks guys, appreciate your cleanliness on site.

Here are some pics:

Full Frontal:

From the corner of the garage looking towards (from L to R) BR2,
Study (within int. access) and Front Porch /Entry:

The garage trusses...
(hmmm not as much storage space up there as we thought):

No news yet from Henley's Engineering dept or our CSR as to how the additional concrete issue is going to be resolved, but we hope to hear from them soon.

Hopefully there will not be any more delays and the fascia / gutters will be on soon... then the roof. But not sure when???

A little closer.....BUT

2008-02-05T23:21:00.000+11:00

Well on my morning drive-by (after school drop off this morning) i noticed that "S" and his chippies were back on site, which is great...

Another drive-by this evening sees the Garage trusses still not on yet...
But looks like everything else is ready to go for gutters/fascias possibly tomorrow...

Our windows are now in, which gives each room a more enclosed feel (well as enclosed as you can get with only a frame i suppose...LOL)

BUT.... there is something we saw that is a little worrying.......

In light of a fellow Homeone member - VJ's episode with their slab, it seems that we have had a little "addition" to ours too!!!!!!
This is the front door entry... they have added about 8cm on to the slab.....
We will be contacting our CSR tomorrow for a "please explain"....

I could kick myself now, we noticed this when the bottom plates were laid out on the slab.
But we referenced back to some pictures of the display and noticed it was bricked so we ASSUMED that they would brick underneath the doorway.
This is the before pic....

Word of advise..... NEVER ASSUME.... not that we could have done anything to prevent this, but we should have brought it up sooner....

Anyway, will update with more tomorrow....

On a Sunday????

2008-02-03T15:19:00.000+11:00

Did another drive-by today and what the?????

The chippies are still working... on a Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!

"S" (the very lovely head chippie) and his team are working their butts off to finish the house for the guttering/fascias on Tuesday...

Wow Weee!!!!!

2008-02-01T14:18:00.000+11:00

We met with "D" our Site Supervisor, on-site at 10.00am this morning, lovely guy!!!!
We chatted about a few things, all minor concerns of course. Things like a slight alteration of the WIR configuration due to the window that we "had" to put there for estate covenants etc., noggin placement for towel rails etc., timeframes etc....

The trusses are going up today and guttering/fascia due early next week. With roof shortly after... The same brickies will be coming back.. which is great to hear as the quality of their work was fantastic....

"D" advised us that we are actually a little bit behind schedule as they couldn't get a good brickie onto the site, (Not that you would know it by what's being achieved each day!!!), but the good news is they are expecting us to be at lock-up in about 1.5 weeks!!!!!!!!!

YEP THAT'S RIGHT...... 1.5 WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

But in saying that, there is rain scheduled for next week, so will not celebrate too prematurely...

Regarless, it's all systems go, go, go at our place and it's nice to know that Henley are on the ball with everything....

Thanks "D" for taking the time to chat today.... will update with more pics over the weekend.

The garage is done... for now...

2008-01-31T21:34:00.000+11:00

Although we had some morning rain today, it did not deter our fantastic brickies from completing our garage brickwork.

Here are some updated pics:

We're meeting with "D" on-site tomorrow morning...and really looking forward to it. There are a couple of things that we want to discuss and nothing better than a face to face....

The garage brickwork needed to be completed in order to support the trusses for the front of the house... and we'd expect that the trusses will be on in the next few days...

We're hoping for the fascia and guttering to possibly go on next week..and who knows, maybe even the roof tiles???

We'll wait and see......

Day 2 of garage brickwork

2008-01-30T22:47:00.000+11:00

Well it's day #2 of brickwork to the garage and... well it is actually starting to look like a garage now.....hmmm can't get the cars in yet though????

Did a drive by this morning after doing some school stuff (bring on the 4th of Feb!!!!) and noticed we have 3 wonderful brickies working on our home....

They have finished the back of the garage where our roller door will be:

and bricked up the offset window on the front of the garage....

It's looking good... the boys brickwork is nice and straight... and the black windows are looking niiiiiiiiiice against the bricks....phew we/I stressed to make sure we would be 100% happy with our colours.... but you never really know until you actually see it in real life....

Our exterior colour selections are:

Bricks: Selkirk Ironstone
Mortar: Natural raked
Windows: Night Sky (Black)
Fascia/Gutters: Night Sky (Black)
Downpipes/Meter box: Jasper (to blend in with the brickwork as opposed to standing out)
Feature render : Barn Rafter
Garage Doors: Paperbark
Front Door: Paperbark... but i want 2 pac black...we'll see how it looks when it's in first

Hmmm... more updates soon...

Happy, happy, happy!!!!
GO Henley GO!!!

Still haven't heard regarding the brick colour issue though???? Hopefully we will hear more tomorrow????

Brickwork commenced...

2008-01-29T20:10:00.001+11:00

Our brickies have started work today and a nice job they are doing...we must say...

If you want to know, our bricks are Ironstone by Selkirk... with raked natural mortar.

We did have a small issue with one stack of bricks being a different colour to the rest that were delivered. Our builder has contacted the Selkirk Rep who was going out to inspect them.
We will wait and see.... But a BIG difference in colour (in our opinion)...The brick on top is the correct colour. From what we saw, the stack has been isolated so we'll wait to hear from them...
Can you see the difference???

Long weekend festivities

2008-01-28T16:48:00.001+11:00

We celebrated our Australia Day weekend with some relatives visiting
from the "sunny" Gold Coast!!!

Down only for the weekend meant we were rushed for quality time together, but it's been fun...

Took them for a tour of our new house so that they can get the idea of what to expect....next time they are down.... plus they are going to be regular online visitors to our blog... (so we thought we'd give them a special mention...LOL...)

Unfortunately, my cousin & her family left yesterday and my auntie and uncle are leaving tonight....(sigh)...oh well...until next time....

Thank's for a great weekend guys...it is always lovely to catch up...

Gutters & fascia's delivered

2008-01-27T22:22:00.000+11:00

Even on a long weekend, these guys are on the ball....

We've had our black guttering and fascia delivered.

Stacked so nicely along our back fence, it doesn't seem that there is enough for the whole house... but i'm sure they'll make sure we have enough!!!

Seems like next week is going to be busy at our place, brickies, chippies and sundries working on multiple aspects of the house....

Hmmm very happy!!!!

Need to go to Berwick a bit this week, so might visit the site during the day to check these hard working tradies out.... ;-P

Wow, what a difference a day makes!!!

2008-01-25T23:40:00.000+11:00

Well, hard to believe it was only yesterday that we had 3/4 of the framing done..

Today on our visit we found the following:

The trusses had been delivered
The bricks had been delivered (partially)
The brickie's sand had been delivered
The balance of the frame had been installed

The trusses were not fully pre-made it seems, partially made and requires a bit of chippies nouse to put it together... They have laid it everywhere, on top of the framework, along both sides of the house, inside the house (all over the house) and what they couldn't fit in the house, they have left on the "driveway".

Well it's better than on the neighbours property i suppose!!! LOL...

Nearly finished the frame......

2008-01-25T09:51:00.000+11:00

More framework completed yesterday. Not there yet, but the chippies are doing a great job!!!!

Here are some updated pics:

From the theatre looking forward:

Back of the house:Kids bedrooms still coming together:Front of the house:Our bedroom:Family/kitchen area:Our theatre:Meals/dining area:

We've also been updated by our CSR today and it seems that our house will need to have the garage bricked before they can complete the balance of the framework.....so....guess what.....??????

Bricking of garage to commence next week!!!! Ooooooh fantastic news!!!!!!!!!!

Then the trusses will go on and the frame will be completed next week!!!

After frame is completed then it's guttering, plumbing, roofing, sisalation. And then brickwork!!!!

Not sure if the brickwork on the house will commence after the garage or not, it's a little different to another home that has a similar facade being built about 20 minutes away. But we have made the garage a lot wider at 8.4m's so 2 of the walls are solid brickwork ( i.e. no framework to be used on those sides). So maybe that's why???

Who cares????

Not us.....

Just want to see movement!!!!

Yippppeeeee!!!!!!!!!

"D" great job so far mate!!!!

Go Henley Go!!!!!

Getting there.....

2008-01-23T21:31:00.001+11:00

Well the frame is coming together slowly but surely.....

Again, trying to guess how much they had achieved today, i thought it would be 1/2 finished and hubby thought it would be completed... hmmm...you decide who wins???

What you are looking at from the back of the house going forwards, is the theatre, grand dining, laundry, kids play room/lounge, ensuite and our bedroom and robe... (lost you yet???)

The frame should be 100% complete tomorrow...no idea on when the trusses will be coming, but we are due for an update phone call hopefully this week and we'll know soon enough.

Ooooh, and today our multi-phase meter was installed, it tells the date, time as well as reading the electricity usage... pretty cool hey???

Seriously though, it's required for the air conditioning that we are getting.....LOL
Glad it's finally turned up....

More updates soon.............

Bit by bit....

2008-01-23T00:31:00.000+11:00

We are getting there, we have top and bottom plates laid out to plan on the slab today.
More wood has been delivered including the larger beams for the alfresco area.

Here are some pics:

From the back corner of the theatre room:

From the back corner of the kids rooms:

Our bedroom and robe:

Back corridor and kids rooms:

Looking at our family room, from the laundry:

Another installment tomorrow, as if you wouldn't have guessed????

Preparation for the frame.

2008-01-21T19:53:00.001+11:00

Well on our ritualistic trip to visit our slab, we found that we had a visit from the tradies today.

They had cut the studs and noggins and placed them in neat stacks on the alfresco area.

Pretty neat job...

Funnily enough, there just doesn't seem like there's enough timber for the studs, noggins, top and bottom plates for the whole house??? But what do we know???

We hope that they will be back tomorrow to start piecing this Meccano set together....
we sure will be..........back that is!!!!

Homeone BBQ

2008-01-20T23:50:00.000+11:00

Today, we had a great day at Jell's park with some fellow members from the Homeone Forum.

Back row from left to right:
Ray (Fiona's husband), Mandi (Rob's wife), Rob (Vanderlay),Tony, Emma, Laura, Richard (friends of Tony & Emma and soon to be homeone members), Eng.

Front row from left to right:
Fiona (nzfiona), Sam (Fiona's son), Nathan (my son), ME!!! (Nik) (**Phoenix**), my other son, Matthew, Dana (Kryten), Gill (Al's wife), Al & daughter.

Some of the kids were missing for the photos, couldn't tear them off the playground...

Thanks to everyone who attended. We all had a great time. The weather held out all day...in fact it only started to drizzle when we were in the car halfway home.... Can't ask any more than that when we've had 2 previous days of rain!!!!

Thanks to Jason and www.homeone.com.au for assisting with the BBQ...couldn't have done it without you.

Already talking of another one, possibly a dinner just for the "adults".

LOL, party time!!!!

Hmmm.....

2008-01-19T18:50:00.000+11:00

The framing hasn't started as yet... not sure why???
Visited yesterday and today but no work...

We do have some cracks in the slab in various places but will keep our eye on them to see if they increase in size and go from there....

The builders timeframe was:

The time frame provided by our builder was:

14/12/07 - Site cut - COMPLETED 11/12/07

7/01/08 - Set Out - COMPLETED 11/12/07

8/01/08 - Drains - COMPLETED 7/1/08

9/01/08 - Underground Power - COMPLETED 9/1/08

10/01/08 - Concreter to start - COMPLETED 15/1/08

18/01/08 - Frame to commence - ???? nothing yet??? hmmm wait and see???

Hopefully next week we should see the skeleton for our new house???

Don't blink or you'll have missed it!!!

2008-01-17T22:06:00.000+11:00

Well see what happens when you don't visit for one day???
Henley have really stepped up to the mark!!!!
Today, we visited the block to find:

Security fencing, staked to the ground:

Windows had been delivered:

As well as the timber and bracing for the frame and the external doors:

The entire site had been cleaned and back-filled:

And rocks delivered for the driveway:

All set for a BIG day tomorrow on site...

WOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO

GO HENLEY GO!!!!!!!!!!!

Now with music...

2008-01-17T00:06:00.000+11:00

After a bit of html tweaking we have "music to blog by", provided by finetune (refer: special links)
Feel free to view our blog pages and listen to some smooth music...
Not all of it might be to your liking, but nevertheless, relax and have a read of our adventures!!!

Slab Party - Our Place - Be there!!!!

2008-01-15T23:01:00.002+11:00

Well the slab has finally been poured!!!!!!!!

The kids and i went down to watch today (no - not at 6.30am!!!) but at 10.30 the house slab was already 1/2 poured.

We hung around until about 12.00pm and they were just pouring the garage and the front porch.... removing the framing for the slab and trowelling the corners off....

We saw 5 or 6 cement trucks come and go and the timing of them was impeccable...only a few minutes in-between trucks so no real down time at all for these guys...
An impressive turn out of about 10 guys, it was all hands on deck...or so it seemed... and the concrete pump definitely impressed the kids....

I took the kids away to have some lunch and to see a movie and returned to the block at about 3.00pm. There was only 3 guys left just touching up the slab and making it look just perfect....

Then left to go home and grab hubby after work so that he could have a look too.And the final result????

Our beautiful slab!!!!!

Job well done Henley.... thanks!!!!

It's going to POUR tomorrow!!!!!!!

2008-01-14T23:11:00.000+11:00

Well, we have been to the block today and the preparation of the slab is complete...Finally!!!

"T" advised us that the pour is scheduled to commence at 6.30am tomorrow.

I'll head down about 9.00am to check it out and might spend the day in the "area" and return later to take more pics.

Here is what it looks like at the moment:

From the street, nice and high:

Our front porch/entry:

From the corner of the master Bedroom:
Our alfresco area:
An aerial view:

By the way, that broken riser pipe was all fixed and ready to go!!!

Will make sure that i upload more pics tomorrow... it's going to be a great day!!!!

Oh and the weather for tomorrow : Fine and 31 degrees.....

Wish us luck!!!!!

Not much happening today.

2008-01-12T21:26:00.000+11:00

We ventured down to the block (of chocolate), but nothing else has been done today...

Here are some pics that hubby took, while propped on the back neighbour's trusses...LOL:

Hopefully the slab will have the reo laid and be fully prepared on Monday for the foundations to be poured early to mid next week...
Wish us luck!!!

Just like a slab of chocolate...

2008-01-11T23:51:00.000+11:00

Well, the preparation is nearly done for the slab.... looks like a family block of cadbury milk chocolate hey???

The reo has been delivered and hopefully will be laid down tomorrow. Presently it sits on our neighbours empty block.

After speaking with our CSR, "T" whilst at the block, she mentioned that the pour would most likely be Monday or Tuesday next week.

Here are some pics:

This is from the back of the alfresco looking towards the front of the house:

This is the view from the corner of the garage , across the porch and the master bedroom:

This is the corner of the garage, looking to the back of the house:

We did have one issue, a broken riser pipe for the bathroom which will most probably need to be fixed before the slab is poured , "D" our site supervisor will look into it and we hope will resolve the issue a.s.a.p.

Our toilet has been moved too....LOL... do you think that the tradies were a little scared of it toppling over and maybe they have moved it again? It's still at an angle though.....
Who knows it may end up on the nature strip eventually????

More updates soon....

They are preparing the slab

2008-01-10T21:44:00.001+11:00

Here are some pics from todays visit to the block...what a scorcher today was....over 40 degrees... boy these guys work hard in the sun hey????

The preparations for the slab is a little over 50% complete.

This is the view from our bedroom towards to the back of the house:

This is the back corner of the theatre and alfresco area:

Our toilet was moved forward and now slopes precariously.... wouldn't it be funny if it topples over while someone was in it???? Well not really funny, but you know what i mean....just as long as no one gets hurt....LOL....

We hope they will be back tomorrow to finish the job.
Not sure when they will pour the slab, preferably not tomorrow though as it's going to be 40 degrees AGAIN!!!!

Maybe Saturday or Monday then....we'll wait and see....

Shocking news!!!

2008-01-09T21:31:00.000+11:00

Well what do you know???

We went down again today and we have a meter box, the main switches, two power points but funnily enough NO METER ????

Not sure that it works, but anyway, here are some pics:

Funnily enough, the electricity pit was left uncovered, not sure why....hey maybe our meter is hidden down there??? Hmmm...an accident waiting to happen perhaps???

Anyway, will provide an update tomorrow again.... don't want to miss a thing, now that we are moving along nicely!!!!

We should have guys there preparing the slab tomorrow - as per the timeframe given....
Hopefully????

The time frame provided by our builder was:

14/12/07 - Site cut - COMPLETED 11/12/07

7/01/08 - Set Out - COMPLETED 11/12/07

8/01/08 - Drains - COMPLETED 7/1/08

9/01/08 - Underground Power - COMPLETED 9/1/08

10/01/08 - Concreter to start

And there's more.....

2008-01-09T00:07:00.000+11:00

Well back to the block yesterday and found that the builders had laid the plumbing....

Here are some pics:

At this stage, there should be power connected /meter installed today as well as preparation for the slab. The concreter is supposed to start on the 10th, so hope all will go to plan...
The weather is a bit hot this week, but hopefully we'll have no issues....

Wooo Hooo, GO Henley GO!!!!!

It's Started !!!!

2008-01-08T16:37:00.000+11:00

Well we ventured down to the block again yesterday...
Because it's the first working day of the new year for our builder and guess what?????:

The time frame provided by our builder was:

14/12/07 - Site cut - COMPLETED 11/12/07

7/01/08 - Set Out - COMPLETED 11/12/07

8/01/08 - Drains - COMPLETED 7/1/08

9/01/08 - Underground Power

10/01/08 - Concreter to start

As at yesterday we had our storm water connected:

This is our street scene:

Going back tonight for another look-see as they need to be on track for the concreter to start on the 10th of Jan and Frame on the 15th of Jan.....

The weather is clear and HOT for the rest of the week, so all going well, everything should fall back on track....and we'll be in the house in March !!!!!!!!!!!

JOKING!!!! LOL

But it would be nice hey?????

Stay tuned for more pics.......

Another surprise delivery....

2008-01-05T10:15:00.000+11:00

Well after dinner last night we went out for a drive to our block to see if anything had been done....and Guess what!!!!

Hmmmmm well no house miraculously appeared....(big sigh....) BUT there was a big green dumpster on our naturestip.... that's a good sign....right????? LOL

Anyway the court should be a flutter of activity next week with all the houses at various stages. There will be a few slab parties next week too...will be sure to take plenty of pics.
Stay tuned......

Our New Look Blog

2008-01-02T21:04:00.000+11:00

Well we hope that you like our new look blog.....

It is still a piece of artwork in progress....
so bear with us while we tweek it here and there to get it juuuuuust right.....

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you all...

2008-01-01T17:57:00.000+11:00

Well it's come and gone....

Christmas day passed without a hitch...
New Years Eve celebrations were great, except for the 42 degree weather...

But nevertheless we had a memorable time, but always thinking that next year we'll be in our own home...maybe even throwing our own little NYE party - who knows...

Here are some pics from the Rialto in Melbourne....we watched the kids session of the fireworks from up there...

What a spectacular view.....

Not to be????

2007-12-24T22:12:00.000+11:00

Oh well, we ventured down to our block on Saturday and again today, Monday the 24th Dec to see if we had power connected. But no, there was no power to our site... The rain has been persistently falling the past three (3) days so that could be one of the reasons why it didn't eventuate.....not sure, but either way it was not meant to be....

We will wait to see what 2008 brings....hopefully Henley's timeline will be accurate and we have great weather to accomodate the work being completed.

Maybe more news???

2007-12-21T23:09:00.000+11:00

Have been advised that "D" is eager to get as much done prior to Christmas as he can... (i think i like him already). We are supposed to be getting the meter/power installed by Monday 24/12...

Do they still work right up to Christmas eve????

But not sure if the timeline is still in the correct order now....

14/12/07 - Site cut - DONE
7/01/08 - Set Out - DONE
8/01/08 - Drains
9/01/08 - Underground Power - BEFORE X'MAS???
10/01/08 - Concreter to start
15/01/08 - Commence Framing

Can the meter/power be installed before the drains???
Does that mean that security fencing needs to go up????

Will check out the block tomorrow.... and maybe on Monday arvo to see if anything has changed.

Definitely more updates to come....
Well done "D"..... you are off to a great start already....

Hello from our Site Supervisor

2007-12-19T20:13:00.000+11:00

Today hubby recieved a phone call from our Site Supervisor, we will refer to him as "D" from here on in... "D" confirmed that the work will re-commence on the 7th of January, 2008 with the slab to be poured on the 10th of Jan.

He went through the procedures of site access , his availability, and that contact should be made through "T' our CSR. Which is all pretty standard....

Well, what a surprise to also hear that the frame will commence on the 15th of Jan!!!! I didn't think it would be that quick after slab pouring, but regardless, still happy.

No news as to when plumbing, roof, brickwork etc. will commence, but hopefully it will not be too long after.

We have advised Henley that we will have Kevin from New Home Inspections in for a few visits during the build process so that might keep the quality levels consistent.....which i'm sure they would be anyway.......

Oh also a quick update that our site was actually cut/set out on Tuesday the 11th of December. Our neighbour kindly let me know as she came round to visit her building site...

There are now 15 houses out of 21 in our street that have commenced with 2 already complete and the new owners have moved in. Next year is going to be really busy when everyone seems to be moving in within the space of 3-4 months i would say.....

Have to have a street party i think.....yeah right i hear you say......any excuse..... LOL.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE!!!

2007-12-16T10:16:00.000+11:00

I went down to the block on Thursday 13/12/07 to check if the earthmoving equipment was there ready for the site scrape on the 14/12 (the revised date).
But didn't i get a surprise when i drove down the street (which by the way is all abuzz with building activity!!!!) to find a toilet on our block....... at it has already been scraped and set out!!!!!!!!

Woooo Hooooo how happy was i?????

The revised timeframes given were:

14/12/07 - Site cut - COMPLETED 11/12
7/01/08 - Set Out - COMPLETED 11/12
8/01/08 - Drains
9/01/08 - Underground Power
10/01/08 - Concreter to start

We can only hope that the drains, power and concrete is on-schedule for first week back in January or earlier would be great too....

No fences yet though, no problems there.

Had a small issue with some tradies from Carlisle Homes though. There is one of their homes being built 2 doors down, and they sent an apprecntice over to gather water from our tap!!!!

Anyway i sent him packing and the next day we went back with a padlock to lock the meter.....that should put an end to their theiving days!!!!

But i suppose i'll have to keep it unlocked when our builder starts back on site.....don't want to hold anything up now because of lack of water now do we????

Just a little hiccup!

2007-12-08T12:08:00.000+11:00

Okay so not really little, we called Henley on Thursday 6th of December to confirm a couple of things and it seems that our Site Start has been postponed due to the unavailability of concreters to pour the slab. Site start was going to be changed to mid- January 2008!!!!

Well, then i get "heated" and start firing off e-mails/phone calls to see what i can do to "fix" this problem. After much discussion it was resolved with a satisfactory result- well we think so anyway.

The dates are now as follows:

14/12/07 - Site cut
7/01/08 - Set Out
8/01/08 - Drains
9/01/08 - Underground Power
10/01/08 - Concreter to start

We hope it all goes smoothly from here on in.

Thanks to Henley sales/construction staff and Management for working out an acceptable solution to what was indeed going to be a very angry christmas.

Our Home - Slideshow

2007-12-05T19:38:00.001+11:00

IT'S A DATE!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-12-01T11:24:00.001+11:00

WOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

IT'S A DATE - THE 7TH OF DECEMBER, 2007!!!!!!!!

Our CSR has given us the site start date and we know that it is going to be a lucky # 7 for us!!!!! How exciting - we will be the last slab that Henley pour before Christmas 2007 - feel slightly honoured - although i don't think that it can happen fast enough for us....

I will spend the day out there and watch and capture as much action as i can to upload onto the blog.

So exciting - it seems that it has taken forever to get to this point - so much planning and the decision making process - although fun has been not without issues.

BRING ON THE 7TH OF DECEMBER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Some special friends from the Homeone forum are also celebrating special things on the 7th of December, they are:

Matt has handover of his Carlisle home:
http://ourgrandeplan.blogspot.com/

Arkraider is having their title released:
http://www.arkraider.blogspot.com/

BMP has handover of their home:
http://peedleville.blogspot.com/

DeeElle has their site start Date:
http://buildinginadelaide.blogspot.com/

and VJ is having their site start on the 6th - near enough to the 7th though....

Congrat's to all of us - i hope the day passes with no issues and we can all celebrate with plenty of alcohol!!! - theres been lots of hard work behind each and every one of these celebrations......i think we all deserve a nice drink!!!

Building Approval Recieved!!

2007-11-16T13:02:00.000+11:00

We have been advised today that we have received our building permit approval....

Fantastic news!!!!!

One more step closer to having our beautiful new house.....

A little bit of a compromise on the location of the house on the land.....we had to move it back by 300mm, to make it 4m off the corner boundary. Funny though, we thought that we were already 4m back from the boundary line but obviously we were not.....

But we are now.. (lost you yet?)

No problems, as we still have a couple of metres at the back between the alfresco and the rear fence so that is still fine...

We are very excited to see the dirt turned over, will keep you updated....

GO HENLEY GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Construction Drawings Are Ready!

2007-11-13T13:30:00.000+11:00

Well, we've been advised that the final drawings are ready and we should recieve them sometime this week. Will have to go over them and make sure everything is okay before signing them....
We've also been advised that it is about a week before they will start on the site. I'm sure that it will pass very quickly....
We will still go and check the block every week so see if anything has been done....just in case LOL...

WATER, WATER, WE'VE GOT WATER !!!!!

2007-11-12T10:12:00.000+11:00

WOW, we went to visit our piece of dirt (again) yesterday and we were very happy to see that the water meter had been connected sometime between Wednesday 7th and Friday the 9th of November!!! I wasn't there when we visited on Melbourne Cup Day on the Tuesday.

Very exciting for us as we should have movement on site within a week or two now. My bet is about 1 week then it will be go, go, go for the site scrape.

While we were there we also met up with one of our neighbours, and they only have 2 weeks to go before they move in!!!!!

Gee we are so excited about a water meter, imagine us with only 2 weeks to go!!!!!!!

I think that we'll be blithering idiots by that time....

Must check the status of the building approval with "T" - our CSO and will update again soon.

Developer Approval Recieved.

2007-10-31T22:01:00.000+11:00

Well after a week of waiting, we have been given the go ahead by AV Jennings who are the developer of The Chase Estate...

The application for a building permit will be made tomorrow, Thursday the 1st of November, 2007 by Henley. We have been advised by "T" that this should take about 10 days. Hopefully soon after we will see some movement on our little piece of earth!!!!

Step by step we are getting there.

Go Henley Go!!!!!!

DONE DEAL !!!

2007-10-12T21:28:00.000+10:00

Well that's it, it's official, the contract has been signed.

A few issues with the drawings, but they will be rectified prior to the construction drawings being passed onto the developer and the applying of the building permit.

Bit of an anti-climax though as we thought that we would be on-site within 30 days... Not so, as the developer needs to approve the plans and we have been told that it could take up to 4 weeks to get through that process... that's even before the building permit.....

HURRY UP AND START !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway we are nearly there, in the home stretch now so hopefully on-site soon.

Time for a Tidy Up

2007-10-04T10:01:00.000+10:00

Well, we thought that the beautiful sea of green that are our weeds needed a trim, so off we went to mow them.

Well hubby mowed and i supervised....

It will be a few weeks yet till building starts so we needed to attend to them soon anyway. They were so high, they surpased the mower in height in some places!

It's amazing how long it takes to get the job done though.

An hour and a half later........it was finished.

Enjoyed a lovely sunset and before we knew it, the light had gone....

ALL DONE!!!

It's Tender Time!!!!!!

2007-09-21T22:40:00.000+10:00

Well, we know how poor we are going to be for a long time as at today.

That's right, we had our tender appointment with Henley.

We are keeping most of our additions to the house. The large alfresco, the larger ensuite, the large theatre and dining room and a few others ....

But it is surprising to see how much the unknowns can cost and ultimately add up to???!!!!!

Due to the confidentiality agreement signed at Tender appt, i cannot state specific values on this site.

But i can say that YES we are over budget, the H class slab was extra on top of the standard M class slab. Then although we thought that we were on a pretty flat block, having to excavate about 30cm out of the back on the block and level it will a few more $K!!!!!

The council and developer guidelines then kick in and that adds up to more $$$$K.

Lucky we had allocated a larger amount for site costs, but thought that would cover the fences and a few other items. Oh well... we just have to save a little more. At least we know that we are getting the extras that we really want.

We went over the standard price of the home with additions by about 26%. That's pretty average i suppose though.

The siting drawing is right on the money. Exactly what we had expected to see, which is great!

Our Tender Consultant was lovely and took the time to answer all of our questions and resolve any issues that we raised. We actually spent 3 and 1/2 hours instead of the std 3 hour appointment with her. She went out of her way to double check things as we are upgrading the standard house with a lot and there isn't another house being built that has all of our strucural variations/

We walked out smiling though. Yes we are spending a little more....but only about 3% over what we budgeted, but we are closer to getting our home.

We have a contract meeting in 3 weeks and we are very excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hopefully we will get through contract signing and be on site in mid-November. If all goes well, we won't have to look at the weeds growing on the block...

VERY HAPPY THAT THINGS ARE MOVING QUICKER NOW.

Again i am not allowed to name specific people due to the confidentiality agreement but we would like to say thanks again to all the girls at Henley's East sales office for their assistance and professionalism.

Hurry Up!!!!

2007-09-17T10:17:00.000+10:00

Oh the disappointment, we drove down to visit our block yesterday and saw 3 more blocks in our street had had their water meter connected.....Not Fair....More people are going to get their houses before us............How sad.......

We sooo want something to happen soon......

Tender appointment is this Friday the 21st of September and we are hoping that all our homework for the past few months will pay off. We have budgeted enough for everything, but the deciding factor will be the things that might be thrown into the equation like additional site costs.... Trying not to worry though.....

Funnily enough we met someone who has recently built with Henley and has only been in the house for a few months and had similar internal colour selections to us.
We were invited around for a look and foiund that we are very happy with our colour selections. JUST WANT TO SEE IT FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have selected our flooring now, and have gone for the 15mm Boral Silkwood Range in Spotted Gum (Natural finish) similar to the one displayed here, but ours will be laid running the length of the house, not accross it.

Our old Carpet was a Godfrey Hirst Carpet - from the Tibet range in Mocha colour. We have sourced the flooring through Fowles.

We have since changed it to a Quest carpet - Charisma - Cassia colour - 100% wool:

Hopefully we know have done our sums and are pleasantly surprised on Friday at tender. If all goes well i won't have to compromise on anything and we might even be able toadd a few more options into the equation.

Wish us luck................

Talk about Indecisive!

2007-09-10T11:21:00.000+10:00

Well i thought our colours were all signed, sealed and not really delivered, but then we went driving around and saw similar houses with black windows like we originally wanted. Although we don't want a house that looks too dark it is hard to choose colours that co-ordinate with our bricks to get the look we want.

The colour consultant suggested flush off white mortar with our Ironstone bricks. We ended up choosing a raked mortar and agreed to the off-white, but then after seeing it on houses with similar colour bricks, we both agreed that that was not the look that we wanted for our house.

We wanted a raked natural morter, and hopefully it does not look too yellow against the bricks. Time will tell. We also changed our Paperbark windows to Black as we originally wanted. The roof tiles, guttering and fascia will remain as black. We were undecided though about the garage door. We have selected a Paperbark, but tossed up jasper and Sandbark as well. We were warned away from black as it was too dark.

So we hope we have got it right now. I feel a little more comfortable with black window frames on the brickwork. I want the render and garage door to be the feature of the front facade, not the windows.

We will not know for sure until it is built, but we feel confident that it should look pretty good.

I don't think that i want to go driving around for a while, we are happy with everything so far........

Colours, Colours, Colours.....

2007-09-07T18:16:00.000+10:00

Well today we had our colour appointment at Cosham Interiors. Started out stressful, but ended up being very easy. If you have read our last post you will know that we had issues with our previous selection of brick colours and floor tiles.

Well we are proud to say that as of 4.00pm today it is all done!

Woo Hoo!!!

We selected the following:

We have tried to remain fairly neutral in our colour tones so that we can accessorise with blacks, whites, possibly red and neutral shades of brown/beige. What a shame, cause that means we have to buy some new items for the house...... Hubby is going to love it.......(not).

We have placed the colours on Spotted Gum which is engineered timber flooring from the Boral Silkwood range. It is the type of colour that we are after. We want something with light tones, without going for Tas Oak etc as they are too soft. With kids we need a timber that will withstand Tonka trucks and tough toys......

Good Luck i hear you say????

This colour scheme is the opposite of what we had in our last place. We had black granite benchtops over cream cupboards. Light cream porcelain tiles and red ironbark floors, so this seems very different to us. We are not big fans of the 70's dark wood cabinetry so we have gone for something in-between.

We hope that it all looks great when it all comes together.

We just have to wait and see.....

At least we are one step closer in the process to getting our new home.

CAN'T WAIT.............

Colour changes

2007-09-03T13:41:00.000+10:00

Well, we had a busy weekend, we spent Saturday arvo looking at as many Henley display homes as we could to see what colour options were available to us.
We thought we were pretty set in our colours...........

BUT THEN on Sunday we went to Cosham for an information session and were advised that since we were tiling the shower bases, we needed to choose a tile that was 300x300mm in size. We had originally chosen a 400x400mm tile. Since we do not want the shower base to be a different colour to the floor tiles, we decided we needed to choose another tile. Simple task.....Maybe not.....

Needless to say, that was the beginning of a few changes that we ended up making. The kitchen c/stone benchtop colour changed, as did the door colour as did the top cupboards colour as well as the glass splashback.

Ohhhhhhhhhhh...........Back to square one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then we were advised that there were some new bricks in the standard range, so the colour of our original brick might change too... So instead of going for a darker red/brown brick with black highlights, we might go for a lighter brown with some black highlights.... We have our appointment for final colour selection on Friday so we need to make our decision soon anyway.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL THE DADS OUT THERE!

Until next time.....

Another Busy Weekend Planned

2007-08-30T22:06:00.000+10:00

Well after having last weekend off with the kids, it's back onto the house stuff for us. We will be spending Saturday 1st September looking through all the Henley displays (in the nearest village)to make sure we have all the colours just right. The tiles, cupboards, caeserstone, brick and render colours etc.

We have an information session with Cosham Interiors booked on Sunday 2nd September and a Colour selection appt next Friday the 7th of September. So this is our last chance to make selections and see how they look in a larger scale. Choosing colours from a tiny sample and a single tile is not what i call an enjoyable experience.

We are pretty well planned so far though. I keep colour samples, we have sample bricks and roof tiles that we continue to look at and re-confirm that is what we want to look at for a long time to come. I do not want anything that is going to be a "fad" and will be outdated in a few years so i am conservative with my colour selections and think that i can always accentuate with accessories.

I know that when we sold our last place. We had so many compliments on the decor and so many offers on the table on D day that proved we had presented the house tastefully. We know that we need to keep things neutral and the lines clean.

Our colour schemes are fairly neutral, beige colour walls with some darker feature walls here and there, black and white for accents and timber floors, with darker brown/grey colour carpets. We have black leather sofas from our old lounge suite, which will have to do for now. But i'm sure that i can buy more stuff. You know what they say, out with the old and in with the new.... (much to hubby's dismay).

We are not changing much....(yeh right!) The c/stone, tiles, door furniture and even the toilets are being upgraded just to mention a few, so we want to make sure that we are 100% positive on what we want.

I am looking forward to more space though. Having a kids room has really excited our 2 little ones. They can keep it as long as it is kept clean!!! (mum's rules)
We will have multiple entertainment areas, 1. the Family room, 2. The Theatre/Rumpus room and 3. The Kids Retreat. Not that i don't mind being a family unit. But our family-members have very different views on what they like to watch & do.
Hubby likes to watch car racing, 10yo likes to play Playstation, 3yo likes to watch kids movies & car racing with daddy and i enjoy movies. So needless to say that sitting down in front of one TV ends up as an issue most times.

I get quite excited at this stage. i love this aspect of the building/renovating process. Anyway, we'll update the blog on Sunday with our choices. I'll see if i can get some photos together to upload of the colour selections.

A little piece of normailty.

2007-08-27T14:01:00.000+10:00

It was our first weekend for a long, long time that we didn't go looking at display homes, didn't look at interior colours & concepts, bricks, flooring etc. We didn't even go down to stare at our bit of dirt.....

It was nice to spend the weekend playing with our children and being "normal". Sometimes we tend to forget what is most important in the world. Sounds soppy i know, but it is nice to stop worrying about the building process every now and then. It brings a sense of normality to our usually busy lives.

Until next time.....

Our block & House

2007-08-24T21:09:00.000+10:00

Well hi to all. This is our block of land in The Chase Estate in Berwick, Victoria. Settlement occured this week and we can finally call this piece of dirt ours.
Ours is a so called "corner block" at the top end of a T style court so we have some restrictions as to what the side of the house (that does face the end of the court) looks like.

************************************************************************************************

We have chosen to build the COTTESLOE with HENLEY.

We have optioned it up quite heavily with the following changes:

* Castlereigh Facade (Galbaly facade pictured here)
* Adding 2m to garage width incl. a roller door for rear access
* the rumpus will become a theatre and will be larger
* the dining/meals are will also be larger
* we are adding a bath to the ensuite
* internal access into the study from the garage
* an alfresco (all going well with budget)
* a corridor from which to access BR's 2, 3 & 4 instead of BR4 coming off the family area
* we are also adding a wall and double doors to close off the living room to make it a seperate zone to entertain in
* adding double doors to the study

A lot of changes i know, and these are only the large ones. Lots of little ones too. We'll try and update the plan and upload to this blog.

Our New Life

2007-08-23T15:24:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone, well here it is, our testament to the next few months where we will put ourselves through hell to have exactly what we want....Our new home...

We have chosen to build with Henley. Our home will be The Cottlesloe - but with a few twists.