Our Sweet Home

deck problem

2011-01-10T15:50:00.000-08:00

a drawing like primary school student

2010-10-13T23:12:00.000-07:00

Too busy these days, just got no time to update the blog...
These days, we're really stuggling at what & how to do with our landscaping. Too expensive to get professionals design and complete the whole frontyard , backyard, sidewalks..etc. We shifted from the paving idea to stepping stone option and finally decided to go with concrete for both sidewalks..and then, decking ! TOO expensive ! But I still want deck in alfresco area,looks stunning but very pricy indeed ! So, I might look at sometime next year to do it when we have sufficient budget.
Anyway, for the rest , I meant the backyard, and front garden, after a few quotes and a lot of searching from internet, I managed to draw a sketch , though it really looked like a drawing done by primary school student. :P

In the house

2010-09-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

All moved in !
I spent every weekend tidying up bit by bit ; Kevin was also busy with installing door stoppers, towel rails, sort of small stuff ,etc..It's really an interesting and enjoyable DIY experience that we never have before. We learnt from our unsuccess ,failures and we're very happy at the progress we're making now. Bunnings is our must-be-place every weekend. We bought handy tools from there , though one or two is crap :P and also got to know many useful things from the professionals there..
The house is still feeling quite empty, as we're still waiting for the blinds to be installed and two couch to be delievered.. The most headache stuff is the optical fibre, which we've been waiting for 2 weeks now and still yet to be connected , which is such a pain !! Life without internet is like a disaster to me :(
No photoes today..will definitely upload more photoes when the internet is connected !

Yeah ! driveway done ,finally

2010-08-19T20:16:00.000-07:00

Rain, rain , rain...I must have to say, I loved rain, but just cannot stop hating it at the moment ... It has almost been a month since we quoted the driveway, and then, it rains, non-stop ! The water overflow situation is just getting worse at my sideway, and concreting got delayed like forever.... But, finally I get messages this morning from NP that he's gonna pour the concrete today ! What a wow ~~it's so great that in the next couple of days, we don't have to step on the mud. Yeah !

This weekend is gonna be busy, will hunt for the side-by-side fridge , it's shame we forgot to upgrade a tap behind the fridge :( , so no luck in getting a ice-maker ... will also look for a letterbox and some bathroom hardwares ... All is about Moving !

some updates

2010-08-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

It's been a month since we got the keys and I have to admit that I'm quite behind...

A few issues coming up, the main one is the drainage problem at my pathway. Although the drainer came on Saturday who did a lot of diggings and repairings claimed to fix the problems, the overflow situation is not getting better at all, even worse is that the smart wiring was cut off accidentally by the drainter . I've talked to my SS and I agreed to wait another week "patiently" to see how it goes . Because of this, my driveway is also got delayed which was previously scheduled on this Monday.
I really want to get all the concreting done ASAP!

What else, I confirmed a qutoe on the pergola and blinds from homeoutlet; Dinning table, king bed has been delievered ... that's all.

I like my couch !

2010-07-12T17:09:00.000-07:00

Yeah!! I'm very excited on our first furniture , yes ! it's two couches for both family room and the to-be theatre room :) We spent almost the whole day hunting for the good bargain, but I just cannot move away my eyes on these two lovely couches at OZDesign. The only problem is that it's quite light color which shows dirt easily and hard to maintain....well, just love it ! But we have to wait for 6 weeks to have it delievered to our house...

I also meet the concreter on Saturday , haven't received the final quote yet, but I want the driveway to be lined up a-s-a-p so that we won't have the fuss stepping on the mud . My current big concern is the blinds and curtains. We got a couple of quotes, TOO expensive ! What am I gonna do with those windows ? !

Ye!!! We get the keys!

2010-06-30T20:50:00.000-07:00

Very excited ! The house is finally, formally becoming our own house ! There're quite a lot of keys though. We also received a gift from Carlisle Homes, a toaster and juicer :P

Okay, it 's time to think about concreting, paving, landscape, fencing, timber shutter, and many many things !!
A new era begins ! Cheers~~

few updates

2010-06-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

I just thought I should update something , but honestly, there's nothing much to write about. We have already received the occupance certificate and the final invoice as well. Went to the house last weekend, still found some outstanding issues on the facade needed to be rectified. So , what I can do now is only awaiting for the confirmation from my site supervisor and then book a time for final handover.
I admit I'm getting bit of lazy these days. I haven't got any quotes yet, nor driveway , landscape, blinds etc. My house and my neighbour's are the most quickest completion among the entire stage 12. Thanks to the rain recently , it gets more and more muddy around the whole area ! I don't think we could just move in like that ! But back to reality, it's almost time for doing the concreting, driveway and stepping into the mud for gardening, I knew it, and finally I will do it.

PCI today!

2010-05-31T00:27:00.000-07:00

When I arrived at the house, our inspector almost finished the external. So I still got the chance to go through with him for the internal items. Rob is very professional , nice and also very strict which was good anyway. He picked out many small things need to be fixed, like loose toilet, etc. I'm a careless person, so this independent inspection really helps me a lot.
The whole inspection took more than 2 hours before the actual PCI with my site supervisor. The PCI went very well, my site supervisor also helped to point out some small defects, like paintings, cabinet seals, etc. Just like Rob said, overall, everything is good except some minor items. That's comforting to hear . And those items are gonna be fixed , say in two weeks.
So far so good, Carlisle homes did a nice job.

Close to finish .

2010-05-22T01:31:00.000-07:00

Facade looking,garage door installed :

BUT, we've got the wrong colorbond flashing on the facade, it should be the same color as the fascia , now it's dark black! I have to call our site supervisor on Monday to get it changed. Hopefully, it will not affect the PCI on time due next weekend.

new look

2010-05-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

Now the house really takes on a new look with colored rendering :)
Carpet was all finised . Kitchen splashback was put on too ! I'm so excited to see the bright colors inside and outside as well.
PCI date was scheduled in the end of this month. Today, I've called my inspector and am trying to arrange a good time for both.

Here are some pics:

BIG BIG internal change!

2010-05-09T03:17:00.000-07:00

Went to our house this week , pretty close to finish ! The only thing I could think of needs to be done is the "carpet ". Walk-in robe, pantry, smart wiring, ducted heating, showers, bathtub, taps, downlights, downpipes...are all completed. So, are we supposed to have handover soon ?

Walk in

Heating control

Bathtub

ensuite

shower

smart wiring -home theatre

a few updates

2010-04-27T23:53:00.000-07:00

We went through induction last weekend and got the card for the leisure center. Maybe we could bring our sporting suits and try the gym next time :)

Ok, big update --Floor tiles have been finished ! Kevin and I both like the color of bathroom.

Well, this is the main area, tiles are just so so. Color --doesn't look that good, hopefully be better after the cleaning. Size--- 400mm*400mm still looks small :(

painting finished , tiles delivered !

2010-04-18T19:07:00.000-07:00

It's a very beautiful weekend. Our house now looks much cozy under the sunlight. :P
All internal paining has been finished , color 's great. And we also found the tiles delievered already. With any luck, tiles will be spread on next week !
I don't have much confidence on the tiles we chosed, so am really looking forward to it .

is inspection necessary ?

2010-04-13T20:07:00.000-07:00

I know it's a bit early. But looking at everything moving so fast now, I have to worry about the quality and thus final inspection before handover should be taken into consideration!
I really need a professional to give me some advice at least. Only one thing, does Carlisle will finally accept the inspection report which to some extent may need builder to re-do something ? ... ...

And just talked to our Carlisle admin , the PCI date has not been finalised but the very rough date would be somewhere around 20May! Is it that FAST ? !

lock up !

2010-04-11T18:41:00.001-07:00

Our house was lock up from last Thursday, when the painting was scheduled in.
We received two invoices at the same time for fixing & lock up ! Well, they never got delayed in collecting the money :P

We went to the site on Saturday as usual and found bircks all finished awaiting for the rendering. Painting is going well up till now. It's said it would take about one week to get painting completed. So, so far so good. Everything's moving smoothly and the floor tiles should be expected at end of this month. Woohoo~~

I've taken one picture of the paint from outside window, very unclear though.

a few updates

2010-04-05T04:09:00.000-07:00

nothing exciting , really. It's said the painting scheduled this Thursday if everthing gets fixed on time.

facade not finished yet

nothing more particular before the long Easter weekend

2010-03-31T21:57:00.000-07:00

I got a call from our carlisle admin that the painting is scheduled next Thursday, and will probably finished in one week. So, the hub box thing must get moved before that. Actually, I guess everything needs to be fixed before paining anyway.
But I really don't think we can see the hub in the right position when we stop by this weekend. It takes time . In fact, it's not a big deal to me at all, becaue if the walk-in rack would be 5cm lower doesn't matter too much. But they insisted to relocate the hub by 5cm higer which should be the right height according to the final drawing.
So I just hope things get fixed in time without any damage so as not to miss the painting schedule.

Hopefull, more photos come in after we check it out this Easter weekend.

got some colors in :)

2010-03-27T03:47:00.000-07:00

I was told the kitchen cabinet has been installed yesterday. So, today we just could not wait to see it. Everything just became so quick.

Kitchen : ) I really like the color .

Our ensuite.

Laundry

Bricks are still in progressing.

first problem

2010-03-20T19:40:00.000-07:00

We went to the site yesterday, found the brickies and plaster workers were still working on Saturday! But the brick works was progressing pretty slow, only the garage wall was nearly finished.

And we also found this :

This is the toilet in our master room. It didn't fit very well. I'm really concerned about it . Will it bring higer chance of stuck toilet in future? I think I'd better report it to our SS.

this is one bricks wall. The Austral "Tan" looks good. :)

new inside look

2010-03-13T18:31:00.000-08:00

There's not much update this week. Bricks haven't been put on either. But when we got there yesterday, we met our brickies on site doing some preparation work for next week. They said the bricks will start soon next week and it will be completed within 2 weeks. This is pretty much busy season for them, as they also do brick work for PD.

Although from outside , pretty much the same , nothing unchanged, insider did take on a new look. We've found the smarting wiring roughed in, ducted heating units around, and some more new gadgets.

check it out

We then took a drive to the beach nearby. Sunny day ~

our house has a lovely hat :)

2010-03-06T23:05:00.000-08:00

Another cloudy day ! On the drive to point cook, we were actually a little worried about the house as if it were shattering in yesterday's huge thunderstorm.
And when we arrived, it was pretty much comforting to see our house with a nice hat :)
Bricks had also delievered , but only with problem that the Austral Tan didn't really look like the same color with the ones in the color selection. I was much concerned about it. .en ...

Is it Austral Tan ? I really doubt it ...

more pics after roof frame

2010-02-27T01:21:00.000-08:00

It was very cloudy and cold this afternoon. However, I just didn't feel the chill when I was too excited to find all frames have been done and windows were put on. Now, it really looks like house now.

roof delievered

family room

kitchen

Alfresco door

frame up ! it all becomes fast

2010-02-20T18:10:00.000-08:00

So excited to see our frames put up ! Now it gives us a clear picture of what the interior would be like .
Also the windows have delivered as well. It all becomes very fast.

we had our slab on !

2010-02-14T01:46:00.000-08:00

Very exciting to see our slab was laid on already, though it looked bit of smaller :P