God bless landscapers

After the weekend, I have a new found respect for people that are insane enough to do landscaping as a profession!

Saturday and Sunday were spent making a path from the footpath to the front door. John is going to build a small walkway/deck type thing out from the front door to meet it so the entry is still not done.

Will post some pics later but we are pretty pleased with the result. I didn't buy enough pebbles to fill in between the pavers so will have to finish that off on the weekend. At $30 a bag the pebbles are currently the most expensive thing in the path!!!!

At least now you can walk from the footpath to the front door without having to worry about your shoes getting an inch of mud!!

Next weekend i'll finish off the path and start getting the soil ready for the little garden we are going to do in front of the windows. In front of that will be another path around to the side gate and then in front of that, just mulch.

One disappointing thing we found was that the water pipe is really close to the surface so we are concerned about digging around too much and hitting it. John was REALLY annoyed about that as he was sure there are plumbing codes and this doesn't meet it!!

Anyway, we are really pleased with our efforts.

Yesterday we thought of a few reality TV shows we could do "Couples landscaping: How to get divorced before you are married" or "Why are you doing it that way you idiot" or "How about you stop being a bitch and telling me what to do!!".

:-))

Give away - 2 dogs to good home

Dam dogs!! yes I know they are hating their new backyard - no grass, no trees to hide and play under .. cold and wet on their little paws. But at 1:00am this morning when I was in my dressing gown scouring the fence line for where they had just got out, I was ready to kill them!!!

No I wouldn't ever give them away but I sure feel like it right now.

I'm going to hit the nurseries on the weekend and see if there is anything we can do to alleviate some of their hatred of the backyard. Might get some mulch delivered and see if that helps them a bit, maybe even buy some trees and leave them in the pots for the moment. At least they have something to look at and play around I guess.

Also on the agenda for the weekend is to buy some gum boots!!!

We are also going to have a go at the front garden .. start to clean it up a bit ready to do some planting. We'll attempt to level it out and give it some form, then investigate the soil type and what we need to put on it to break down the clay.

Unfortunately money is tight so whatever we do, it's going to have to be cheap options for the moment. When wedding is done, we'll get stuck into putting money aside for the landscaping and see if we can't have something decent by christmas.

The street is really looking full now with so many houses almost finished. At this rate we'll be the only house in the street with no driveway and no front garden!!!

We drive past one of the houses in the street (Dave & Bec - for those that have been reading the blog from the start you'll notice that Dave was once referred to as 'knobhead Dave'. A term of endearment only :-))) and feel envious every time!! They have a beautiful looking home with a gorgeous front garden. Very simple yet elegant. They are spurring me on to get stuck into ours!!!

Will post pics over weekend of any successes!!!

The mud ... oh the mud

Even the dogs are struggling with the mud!!! It's awful to have this lovely house surrounded by horrible mud. Cash flow is tight (due to upcoming wedding) therefore we can't afford to get the landscaping done .. not even enough to cover up this %&%()%* mud!!

We did stretch the budget however yesterday and had the concreter come out and give us a quote on the driveway. He said that he could scrape it out and lay road base until we can afford to get the concreting done. We took him up on the offer as it will be better walking on road base than the other.

Wish now we had of added some additional funding to the mortgage to get the outside done, but I guess in a year's time I'll look back at this stage and smile fondly :-))

It's a good thing that the frustration stops the minute I walk in the front door. Still can't believe that the house is ours. Currently feels like I am on holiday somewhere and any day I will be told to pack my bags and move back again.

We are really enjoying the extra space (although I'm tipping our gas bill is going to be enormous for the heating over winter).

John got the plasma up on the wall in the bedroom ... looks absolutely brilliant and he's enjoying playing his X-Box games on a bigger screen!!!

Curtains and timber blinds have gone in .... just need to find some for the bathrooms. Every morning we have little doggy faces at the window while we are showering ... bit freaky having them gawk at you while you are showering!!!!

House pics

Yippee - pics of the house. For those that are interested I'll be updating with the backyard (aka the 'bog') and the front landscaping.

For those with a good eye you'll see that the couches are two different colours! Yes, they are actually navy blue and it was really bugging me seeing the navy blue against the red wall. While they don't look so great from the back, it doesn't look to bad with the cushions and throws. The good thing is that while I'm been going on and on about needing a new couch (which has fallen on deaf ears until now), the big fella agrees that we need an upgrade!! Woo hoo. Couch shopping here we come.

Thanks for sharing the journey with us .... but it's not over yet!!!!!! Got a wedding and a garden to plan.

;-)

The happiness fairy has been

Well I'm feeling much happier today :-)). I think it's sometimes good to have a big vent on paper (or in cyberspace as the case may be). Kind of like therapy this internet thing.

The house will be a hive of activity today in preparation for our move tonight/tomorrow. Each time I go back to 'old' home I can't get my head around how much there is still to pack up but I'm sure once all of the furniture goes, it may not look as bad.

Water tank gets installed tomorrow so I'll be happy if there is no rain in the morning but it can pour in the afternoon to fill our little tank!!

We have our first dinner party on Sunday evening so the race will be on over the weekend to get the house in a reasonably orderly fashion. Actually unpacking is the good part ... packing is crap!

Looking forward to displaying all of the little things I have bought over the last few months. John mentioned the other day that he will be interested to see how much new stuff pops up, lol.

Happy days!! :-))

What's up with the tradies??

OK .. so I'm about to have a bit of a rant and rave about tradies. if you are one, please don't take offence as in general, I love you all.

Quite a few times in the last week I have been amazed at the service that tradies don't give.

I give you example 1.

paling fence installed. looks great, however a billion little pieces of wood strewn across the backyard with quite a lot of rubbish (from the fence) on the block behind us. 7 days after it still hasn't been cleaned up, even after putting a call in to the fencing place asking them why they didn't clean up. Fortunately they stuffed up the gate (made it too small) so the guy they sent to fix it did the cleaning up (might I add, complaining about the previous guy while he did it).

Example 2.

Floor boards installed. Not a cheap exercise I can assure you. You will no doubt (hopefully) understand my fury when we checked his work and noted that he had indeed finished his work, however the floors were covered in dust, muddy foot prints and dust also all over our cleaned kitchen. Upon calling the installer I was mocked by the person on the other end, virtually asking why I would expect that they should have to clean up after they have installed it. Can you believe that??!!! I was most unhappy and fortunately the better half but a rocket up their backside, and made it very clear that we would not be happy (read: you will not be paid) until the floor was cleaned. Was it too much to ask to have a freshly cleaned floor after installation? Perhaps .. I don't really know as I've never built before but logic tells me that you present a quality product to ensure a happy customer who will pay your bill.

Example 3 (not really a tradie problem but an annoyance factor with PD).

I'm pretty positive PD would be making a sizeable profit on the building of our house. Again, while not being a builder or a person that owns a business, I still think that maybe it's the little things that keep a customer happy. Like providing light globes in the 5 rooms that have batten lights!! What's up with that??!!! We have a zillion downlights ... all of which have been provided with a globe so that we can see at night. The very few rooms that have battens (ready for something lovely to go in there) are not provided with globes. How much is a globe do you reckon .... $1 each? Blimey charley .... maybe I'm just expecting too much.

Anyway ... anyhoo ...or any bloody way you want .......will be glad to get home and have an ale or three. Not having a good day as you have probably figured out.

My painting arm is hurting

Last Friday and the weekend were spent painting the feature walls, digging the trench for the telstra cables and installing the letterbox.

We are really thrilled with how the feature wall colours have come out. Very bold .. some very very bright (Sarah's room) but we love all of the colours we went with.

Today's visit (or should I say tonight) found that over 50% of the timber floors had been laid. I'm a bit speechless because I am ecstatic with how it is all coming together. Can't wait to see the carpet go in and it gets cleaned up. It's almost a shame to put our old furniture in there!!

Only 4 days to go and it's moving in day.... bloody hell, better get off the net and finish the packing!!

P.S. The tile for the bath was finally replaced!!

It's ours!

Well it's official. The Australian dream is ours!!

At approximtely 12:00pm yesterday afternoon we met with one of the administrator's at the PD office (Megan, who we had been dealing with the whole time is currently in Kenya - PD built an orphanage in Kenya and apparently once a year 2 employees are chosen to fly over there for 2 weeks. Pretty awesome hey).

Anyway, met with Belinda (not quite as friendly as Megan) who asked us to sit down and straight away asked for the final cheque!! Sat for another 10 minutes or so while she disappeared and we had to complete a customer satisfaction form. Finally she came back (felt like she was gone for hours) and she had a whole load of paperwork with her, envelopes of keys and a little 'congratulations' pack of towels and bathroom ceramic stuff (toothbrush holder etc.)

The handover process took no more than 20 minutes and then we were off to the house!!

We spent the afternoon painting the undercoat on the feature walls and I will head back down there today to keep going. John had to go to work to earn some money!!

I feel like such a goof when I'm at the house .. I just walk around smiling, looking at everything, opening doors ... just so proud of our creation.

Don't know where the camera is right now so I'll update photos when I can find it. The current house looks like a bomb has hit it as we really get stuck into packing up.

Mood: Poor but happy :-))

The fence is up

Well today was my last day at work. It was probably the alcohol but I felt a bit teary when I was leaving. It's been great working there and I will miss everybody.. but as they say .. onward and upward!!

Anyway .... onto the house.

This afternoon dropped by to see that the fence was up!! Bloody unbelievable. I'm told that I shouldn't have been surprised that it was done in 2 days but I reckon that putting all of those bits of wood together would have taken me an eternity! well, maybe not an eternity but certainly longer than 2 days.

The backyard seems a lot bigger than I expected it to be. Yes it's quite small comparing it to other back yards but pleased that it is a bit bigger thanI imagined it.

There are a few gaps under the fence that we will need to deal with otherwise the escapee hounds will be running amok on the estate.

Key collection is tomorrow (time TBD) ....

2 days to go

I can't believe that at this time in 48 hours we will have the keys to our brand new home (and most probably already be a little bit drunk!!).

We had the pre-hand over inspection yesterday which went pretty well. Main disappointment was some wanker (or wankers) had broken in, punched a hole in the plaster and cut the plumbing pipes. It's beyond me why people have to do this. It was pointless getting upset about it or getting angry because the damage had been done so me getting worked up would only cause me grief, nobody else.

Anyway, Peter was great about it all and got straight onto the relevant people that needed to fix it all up and while he was disappointed as well, he wasn't overly worried about it. Apparently worst things have happened and he is no longer surprised at what people do on building sites. He just can't figure people out either!! Recently he has had somebody try to take out a whole kitchen ... yes ... a kitchen ..... and he fixed it up and they came back for a second shot!!!!

Other than that, we were really happy with it all. A few paint touch ups here and there and some brick work to be fixed but nothing major. It certainly won't effect picking up the keys on Thursday!!!

The fencing guy was there also yesterday and had started to dig the holes for the posts. The rain clouds must have scared him away because he left the site and didn't return!! Hopefully he's back there today.

So apart from the issue of the knob-heads, we are still unbelievably excited about our house. Can't wait to move in and start enjoying it and having friends and loved ones over to show of our little creation.

Photos will be posted after hand over on Thursday!!

Too much time on my hands

This is what happens when you resign and have to wait out 4 weeks of your notice period. The mind wanders and the google search engine is in full swing!!

I have spent the morning playing around with landscaping ideas for the front garden.

You may or may not notice but the portico colour is changed.. Woo hoo .... unfortunately not in real life, but as this is an 'artist's impression' only, I figured I may as well use what somebody had done for me in the way of colour for the front.

I'll keep this very bad impression up here until we really do the front garden .... will be good to see how completely unlike the planning it will be!!!!

Bad news on the inspection front ... John just rang to say that inspection date has been moved from Thursday to next Monday. Apparently there are some plaster issues that he wants to sort out before we go through. Although I am disappointed, I'd rather him be fussy about this stuff and get it fixed. Allegedly hand over date hasn't changed!! We'll see!

It's so close .. but so much to do

Saturday morning visit to the house showed that an inspection had been done (by somebody??!!) and there were little post it notes around the place indicating where things needed to be fixed.

As you can see our front toilet and temporary fencing has been removed, and the site has been cleared. They have done a great job and the back yard is virtually flat now. Still a little bit of a rise where the patio area is but that won't be a huge problem we don't think. They even gave us some little 'temporary steps' made of broken bricks and mud!! Love those builders.

Inside where the inspector had been we noted that some were things that we already knew about ... others we hadn't even picked up on so we were pretty pleased that the mystery inspector had done a good job. Although there was a couple of things we noticed that he/she hadn't picked up on but we'll make sure they are pointed out on Thursday.

Most things look like they are easily fixed with a clean (the house is still revoltingly dirty) but others are a little trickier like the bit in the ensuite (pictured above) and we did also notice that there is a tiny chip in the ensuite shower door.

They mystery of the missing tile in the bath is yet to be solved. The tiler has finished all grouting etc. but for some reason hasn't put one tile in the side of the bath... perhaps his idea of a feature however we would like it fixed at some stage! We just have to assume that it will be done prior to 10:00am on Thursday!!

The house will still look a little bare when we take possession on the 24th as the appliances and water tank will not be installed until the day we move in. I'm also assuming that the fly screens are installed when we move in as well.

Last night after I dropped Sarah home, I did a quick scan of the house again and as I was getting ready to leave some of our neighbours from around the corner walked past. Stopped and talked to them for about half hour. Lovely people with 3 little boys (who look like they would be a handful) but they were very cute. Typical little boys wanting to explore the building sites. They aren't technically neighbours but we can see their house so I'm happy to call them neighbours :-)). We also met the owner of the house 2 doors up from us (building with Metricon). Young guy building with his girlfriend. John asked about his car and of course I tuned out until I heard 'turbo' and 'hotted up'. I really did show my age when I said to John after "I hope him and his friends don't hoon around the streets at all hours of the night!!!". God I'm getting old.

So all in all (other than portico colour) we love our little house. There is so much cleaning to be done prior to Thursday that I'm not sure how they will get it done, but as we have found out throughout this whole building process, things happen that we just shouldn't question.

Next post: Thursday

P.S. Oh - I found some very reasonably priced taps on Saturday while John was sailing so I figure that I'll just start putting a bit of money aside each week and will be able to buy them over the next couple of months. What John doesn't know won't hurt him ... oh .... hello dear, didn't see you there :-)

How am I supposed to clean that?

Mid week trip to the house revealed the following work has been completed:

- mirrors in bathrooms

- garage door installed

The tiler has also been back and looks as if he has almost finished. Still needs to fit in the tile that is missing from the bath and put the silicone (or whatever it is) around the vanity and down the edges of the shower.

The mirror in the ensuite is huge! I know we are big people but that is just ridiculous. It goes all the way to the ceiling so I'm not sure how I'm supposed to clean it. Guess I'd better invest in one of those extended poles like the window cleaning people have.

Peeking in next door neighbour's window I also noticed that they have had their carpet and floors done. It's amazing how different a place looks when the floors are in and you don't have to look at grey concrete. It looks really great and they should be pleased with the result.

Told you I could ramble on before the 17th ....

"Dad the builder" la la la la la la la la

Can he check it ... YES HE CAN .......

Sunday morning we met the elderly's (aka Dad & Liz) for breakfast then took a drive to the house. Liz hadn't seen it at all and the last time Dad saw it was before the plaster went up.

Dad was a builder for about 30 years and he's one of those 'old school' builders that has to have everything perfect. He quite often rants and raves about these 'young blokes' that cut corners on building sites and don't do things properly.

Anyway - we were very keen to get him down to have a look before the walk through on the 17th. That way we would know just what we could and couldn't complain about.

It appears that our love for Peter & his band of merry men has not been without reason. HUGE sigh of relief. Dad went through and checked that all the cornices were straight .. inspected paint work and the brickwork. A huge thumbs up from Dad - you have no idea how pleased John and I are. From our point of view we always thought they were doing a good job, but it's nice to hear it from somebody that actually knows what they are talking about.

We even got a big tick from Liz (ex interior designer with a touch of snobbiness) on the bathroom and the kitchen. It kills her that the location is so 'bogan' but too bad. Most of our neighbours seem great and I'm positive we are going to love living there.

Still a bit disappointed with the tiler who hasn't been back to finish off but I guess he's got another 10 days before we need to panic.

Start my new job on 28 May (after a weekend of painting) and move the following weekend. Talk about bad timing!!

I can't imagine there will be much to update until the 17th May when we do the walk through but I'm sure I could waffle on about something.

Catch ya' soon :-)

Bathroom & kitchen update

Not a well thought through plan!

OK ... so my plan re taps hasn't really paid off!

Let me take you back to the tender process (almost a year ago now!). Meeting with Hopetoun Interiors going smoothly. All of our pre-work had paid off and we knew pretty much what we wanted on most things.

The question of taps is raised .... the range is hideous. Even the upgrades were ugly. So in my wisdom (word used very loosely) I went for the cheap taps, knowing that I would upgrade them when we moved in.

Have you ever priced a tap? It's insane. Absolutely insane. Almost have to get an extension on the mortgage just to get some good looking taps.

So my plan to have ugly taps for only a short period of time has not really paid off and it appears that I will have to put up with them for quite a while yet.

* Heavy sigh *

Is it wrong to be this happy about a building?

After having a lazy breakfast with my best friend yesterday morning, we headed down to the house to see what had been done. A quick detour to pay the money owed for the curtains to be made and we arrived at the house to see a Ute parked in our garage.

Min agreed that the colour of the portico wasn't right (groan) so I braced myself for the fact that other things may look crappy to other people.

Finding the tiler in the bathroom and having a bit of a chat we set about checking on the progress.

Splashback has been put in the kitchen (I absolutely love it) and our little Italian tiler had been doing a super job on the tiles. In his broken English I got out of him that he was finishing up on Sunday as he has another job to start.

The pics above are of the house yesterday .. and today (while I'm here at work) I thought I'd update with yesterday's pics .. but will head down this afternoon to see if he has indeed finished.

I absolutely love the tiles and the kitchen looks fantastic, so my disappointment of the portico has been overshadowed by these latest instalments. I would have loved to hang around but obviously it would have bored Min to tears.

Rang John (who is in Tassie) to let him know how fantastic it is all looking.

We also tested out the downlights and they look great too.

Update will follow this evening!!

Ah ... there he is!

OK, so we found the tiler.

One of the benefits of building a home close to my daughter is that she has been able to keep an eye on the progress while we are not there. Last night she had been out walking with her dad's partner (and I'm assuming the dog as well) and I received a text from her telling me that somebody was at our house, and it was too late for them to be tradies!! Of course I had a mild panic attack picturing all of the damage that these people were doing to our beautiful house.

So I decided to take a well earned break from work and drove down to the house - hoping that somebody would be there to let me in.

Nobody was there. Thinking that not much work would have been done since Wednesday but wanting to scrutinize the damage done by our visitors last night, I picked up the camera and walked the perimeter of the house (don't like the idea of not being able to get into the house!!).

Walking past the ensuite window I saw the beginning of a tile .... big smile as I planted my face onto the window and saw that the shower walls had been done. Nothing on the floor as yet or in the shower recess.

Next thing I noticed was an outdoor powerpoint ..... then as I looked through the kitchen area I noticed:

- downlights in
- ducts for heater
- GPO's

Wow!! So much had been done in one day I was .. once again ... amazed at their progress.

Walking around to the other side of the house and once again, peering through the windows the laundry has been completed (just waiting for grout) and Sarah's bathroom wall tiled and bath .. just waiting on shower recess and floor.

I was a bit bummed that I couldn't get into the house but was more than pleased with the progress that has been made.

Anybody seen the tiler??

After having a wonderful sleep in yesterday, we got up and ready to go out for breakfast at our regular cafe (tradition for day's off) and then head to the house.

First disappointment ... the cafe was closed! Yes I know it was ANZAC Day however this woman opens every day except Christmas so we were very surprised that she wasn't open. So I cooked Johnno some scrambled eggs and I had french toast (much cheaper than going out mind you) and then took a drive to the house.

Second disappointment ... looked through the ensuite window hoping to see the tiles laid. Nothin'.

The car didn't start when we went to leave (long story) so we got one of our friendly neighbours to give us a jump start. While we were chatting some tradies arrived at next door's house ... so we got them to open up our place so I could take a peek.

While I was very disappointed that the tiler hadn't been, there has been work done since Saturday.

- door handles on all doors and wardrobes
- door stops put on
- plumbing above bathroom sinks have been put in (we have wall taps not taps that are attached to the sink)
- corner bits on the house finished off

The corner bits (no idea what they are called) have been put on around the dining area (will update with photo later in the week). Finishes off this area nicely.

So I imagine that the tiler won't start until next week now. Little bit disappointed but I guess there was some work done so it's not so bad.

We figure that the only stuff left to do is:

- electricals
- tiles
- ducts for ducted heating
- cleaning

Bring on the 17th May I say!!!!

The Countdown has begun

1 month to go .....

This time next month we should be (please note the use of the word 'should') going to Porter Davis to pick up the keys.

Mood: Deliriously excited