Skypiea @ The Ponds

Flooring done

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 03:21:00 +0000

Floorboards are finally laid and we are should now be ready to move in.

We went with bamboo flooring inspired by our neighbor, Thigee, who lives only across the road from us. To my recollection, I think she said that strand woven bamboo are the hardest amongst all of them. There should be some article somewhere in the net that supports this.

I initially wanted to mix with some carpets as, to me personally, it feels like a cosy bedroom.

Our choice of color for the bamboo is quite restricted as it needs to match up with the internal color that we already have. As most of our color accent is pretty much chocolate or dark chocolate or even some people called it mocha, then finding a color for the floor shouldn't be too hard.

Here is what we came up with:

Work in progress

When it's all finished and cleaned (by me! :))

The stairs is looking good me thinks.

The state of the study room courtesy of the kids, and we haven't officially move in yet :)

Overall we are quite happy with the job. Only thing to note for this is, make sure you know exactly the size of the fridge that you have or will have. We had some trouble fitting in the fridge as the edging of the floor didn't allow the fridge to go into the space. So we had to get the people who did the job to come back and take the edging out so we can put the fridge into place.

Obviously this shouldn't be an issue if the floor are done before the hand over or you will have carpet or tiles to where the fridge supposed to go.

Next stop MOVING IN!

I'm Coming Home

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 13:41:00 +0000

I'm coming home I'm coming home
Tell the world I'm coming home
Let the rain wash away...
All the pains of yesterday

I know my kingdom awaits
They've forgiven my mistakes
I'm coming home I'm coming home
Tell the world I'm coming home...

We're coming home people!! Roll out the red carpet! Get the fireworks! Bring on the trumpets and the parade!

Ok that's way over the top and all of them don't necessarily need to happen :) but nonetheless we still got our keys!

So after 9 months and 10 days or 286 days, on Wednesday 22 February 2012, there we are with the key to our home, our sky island.

Hand modeled by our son

We were supposed to get them last December but still judging from the quality of the build, I think I will accept the fact that it is late. However this would only mean that it is the end of Metricon's construction part. Before we can move in, we still need to organise the flooring to be installed and the game of waiting isn't over as yet. I can only now wished that we went with the complete build package with Metricon as at least they include the floor coverings and we can move in right away after the handover...

Landscaping is still need to be done, blinds and hopefully if we have enough funds, shutters and also fencing.

All our sides of neighbor have given the go ahead to build the fence and to do the necessary as we see fit. They really are wonderful neighbors.

Part of the landscape is in fact nearly done. Like I promise I will write a separate post about this and the flooring as well.

But here is our dream home at handover.

Nearly There!

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:16:00 +0000

We are *THIS* close to getting our keys to the house.

I finally received the bank cheque in the mail today after what it seems to be an endless argument between me and the bank... Don't ask, I'd rather not re-visit that whole experience again.

I immediately ring our site supervisor to arrange a new time for the handover. As much as I like it to be tomorrow, unfortunately he is not working tomorrow... Story of my life.

So we are booked for Wednesday morning for our handover. YAY!!

It's been long overdue but we are glad that we know have at least a date of when we can move in. Landscaping should be done by that time also, to which I need to post a detail about it. I'll do that in the near future.

First thing first, getting the key to the house is our priority at the moment and flooring is going to be layed on the very same day.

PCI. How did it go.

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:13:00 +0000

As our last post mentioned, we had our PCI walkthrough last week.

Thanks to Karla with the mother of all checklist, the walkthrough was smooth and we actually have a plan and know what to look for.

We've also been inside the house a few times before the PCI and we had a good look through around the house in preparation for our PCI. In addition to the list, we felt we are prepared to show our supervisor what we are not happy with.

In all honesty, however, we find very little fault or defects with the quality of the build. Our supervisor is a man of his word and cleaned everything prior to our appointment. He guided us into every room and explained to us, if there is anything that needs explanation, very thoroughly and more importantly he didn't rush us to finish our inspection.

I've heard some stories from other people around the area saying that their supervisor rushed them to complete their inspection and got them to sign that the house is basically near perfect.

There is not much blue sticker around the house. We had a good look on the level and bumps on the ceiling and on the slab. Tested the light switch and power points. Check the cornices and skirting board. Test all windows and doors. Opening and closing the cupboards. Tested the water, etc. as you would before you buy a house.

Paint work was excellent and I really couldn't find any patchy spot for the paint as you normally would around the corner after you fix something. At least that should be visible but nothing to be seen around our house.

Only some of the minor stuff like all of bathroom gaps need another seal, missing light fittings (but it turns out that all appliances and fittings will be fitted after we move in and we are ready), mortar joint on the brickwork needs some touch up and servicing the windows so that it rolls easily. That is all they need to fix from our list. Our supervisor said that it wouldn't take long for him to finish and as of today our dream house is ready for hand over.

That is our next step. Get a bank cheque from our bank, have another walkthrough with our supervisor and if we are happy, hand him over the cheque and he will give us the key to our dream house.

So where's the hold up? Why haven't we got our keys yet?

Well it is simply because we haven't got the bank cheque yet...

I believe I've posted something about our banks many months ago. Well that opinion hasn't change until today or in the foreseeable future and don't even mention our broker...

The request to draw the cheque for final payment was made last week and today there is still no sight of cheque to be seen in our mailbox or the bank branch. Apparently it'll take them 6 - 9 days to send the cheque to us...

It is what it is and it's another setback for us. So close yet so far.

We all only wish that the cheque would come through early next week so we can get the keys already!

PS. If you like a copy of the PCI checklist, I am more than happy to share that with you. Please use the "Contact Us" page to... well... contact us.

Just to note that there are 44 pages in this document (you heard me correct, I kid you not), so my recommendation is to read it carefully and change the document to suit your project home.

Are we done yet?? P.C.I.

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:09:00 +0000

Nope the key is not in our hands yet but close, very close. They're now within our reach.... hopefully.

What a week it has been for our family. Our eldest had his first day of big school already and he seemed to enjoyed it. I was quite nervous that he will not like going to school but all was very smooth and he was fine. I guess it's sign that our boy is growing. Whilst he made me proud as a parent but I'm also sad because he had been with us all this time since he was a baby.

Anyway back to the house...

So our supervisor seem to be running like headless chuck (I actually drove pass him when I was picking up my son at the school and that he was actually working). All this time I thought he was being a slack. I guess he gotten busy over the year as in our area there is a lot of Metricon houses being built and they seemed to be struggling to keep up with the demand.

As the title said, our supervisor arranged for us to do our PCI tomorrow! He rang last week to arrange it with us but I'm the one now being a slack for not updating.

Well it is initially planned for tomorrow but due to the wonderful weather we've been having this week (NOT!!!) the site is covered with mud and we do need to walk to every part of the house. We postponed it to Monday when it is a lot clearer, well according to the forecast anyway... Should I trust them?

I've also made contact with all my soon neighbors to be about the fencing construction. All of them are all very nice people and can't wait to move in to the area. Generally they are all ok with the quote I sent them via the post.

I feel like over the next few months I will finally get my hands dirty that comes along with the suburban scar and quite busy doing a lot of "home improvement" chores.

I have my finger cross for Monday that everything can be settled as quickly as possible. Like I said earlier, my son started school in the area already and it is quite inconvenience having to drive from we live now to the school.

Racing to the end...

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:00:00 +0000

There is not much I can write in this post as we are very near to our handover stage.

The latest update that I got today from our SS is saying that the guys has been doing some final touch-ups, cleaning and a bit of re-painting inside.

The front pier rendered brick post is going to get painted tomorrow.

He also said that his construction manager has done a walkthrough of the house today and waiting for the council inspection.

He also then invited us to do our walkthrough sometime next week when the place is cleaner and then I can get them to address any issues that we may or may not find.

I better get my act together and get the inspection check list out.

We really can't wait to say that we are finally move in!

We Got Driveway!

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:50:00 +0000

Hello everyone. Welcome to the year 2012!

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful time to start the year and to those who have and will start their building journey, all the best of luck and hope that our experience maybe of some assistance to all.

Our journey has been a pretty long one with some rocky road along the way. This would probably the last leg of the hurdle that we need to get through in order to get our house to a handover stage.

It would appear from the outside that everything is done and there is not much to do on the inside also. Other than some fixing up to do like windows, doors not being able to close properly, site clean up, cornices are missing on top of the entrance door front portico, fly screens, paint to the rendered post and some other things that I probably have no clue about, I'd definitely say we're almost there.

However with that being said, there is apparently 5 weeks industry shut down where no tradies or supplier is working or open during the month of January until early February or so I've been told.

The frustrating part is that there has been lack of communication from Metricon and our site supervisor recently with our progress. I had to chase them up for updates on our house.

We've also taken the step to get some quotes for dividing fences to our neighbours. I've got two quotes that are very far apart on the amount. There is about $2000 difference between the two quotes! Please contact me via the "Contact Us" page if you are interested in getting the contact details for the fencing company.

From our recent visit, I noticed that the driveway has been paved and the window wasn't locked. So I was able to sneak inside for a quick peek of the house.

I felt like a geek having to post this image.

Shower frame is up.

End of the Year but It's Not Our Handover

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 04:40:00 +0000

So here we are with a couple of more days to go before Christmas.

The house is still under construction and the wheather also hasn't been very supporting for the last couple of weeks. We didn't hear anything from our SS also.

I decided to ring him yesterday just to find out what has been happening and when can we expect the handover date is.

Well as you might have guessed it, it is not today... It's more like early January now barring any issue from conditions and inspections from the councils and ourselves.

Driveway should be paved this week and the concrete has been laid as it's foundation. The nature strip driveway will stay as it is though :).

I was advised that they were doing some work like caulking inside the house. I didn't understand the term caulking at first but apparently my smart phone does!! How very cool is the technology today :).

This would also be my last post for the year and I like to thank you to all who have followed our journey thus far and I hope to see you all again in the new year :).

Wishing a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Our selected pavers

Driveway

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:44:00 +0000

Construction is moving along towards the end and I believe we only needed the driveway to complete. There are some other final touch ups and fixes that we'd like to see but at least all the major work is very near.

We are hoping for the handover to happen before the Christmas. But then again we still aren't able to move in as we still need to put down the floor boards. Not to mention that there are still a couple of inspections to go through.

In one of my earlier post, I've alluded to the fact that I still need to do the council strip driveway because this wasn't included in our contract with Metricon...

How very wrong I was....!

Here is the prove.

This mean that I don't need to waste anymore time looking for concreter for our driveway. Thanks to our SS.

So close yet so far...

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 04:29:00 +0000

The time for completion is just right there. It is very close but yet so far... I wish the rain would stop for about a week so that the driveway paving work can be completed. Today's been very good...

We are also waiting to find out whether the council strip concrete is included in our driveway package. This reminds me that I have to ring our SS later on today.

We also have rang the guy from Ezy Clip Fencing, who mostly do the fencing work for our area, to get a quote. I am still new in having a house build so my understanding is that we needed to get three quotes from three different vendors and send them to our neighbours, left and right hand side as well as the back side as they should be paying half of the boundary fence. If anyone can give me some more insights on this that would be much appreciated.

The next thing to do is also we have rung around to get some quotes in to install solar panel system. We had a look around at the home show earlier this year but it would be nice if I can get the solar panel system installed with the construction of the house.

We then need to get the flooring guy to come out and do the final measurement. Possibly we won't be able to do this until the handover time.

Like I said earlier, so close yet so far...

Piccies from last weekend. We can't go inside the house as it is too muddy for us to step in.

There is a garage door now! Our neighbour next door has finally started building.

Looks like they installed the wardrobe door as well

Can't wait to move in!

Let there be light

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:10:00 +0000

Not exactly but close to it anyway. Electricity is not working as yet you see... but that will change in the next 5 - 10 days as we've just oragnised

Last week it's the lights fittings, the power point and more painting.

However today I received a breaking news from Metricon. It would appear that the plumbing fit out has been completed and the next stages, which is the final stages, are to clean up the site and do final touch ups. Looks like the house maybe ready by Christmas after all...

This would only mean that we need to start organising for the flooring guy to come and do their measurement, blinds and shutters, fencing around the house, landscaping, etc etc. Still plenty to do but the main thing is to get the house ready for us to move in. Once we have the key of course...

So moving in is not until after the Christmas - New Year period.

Quite excited with the news but hopefully it's not like some other companies that I've dealt with over the past couple of weeks, N.A.T.O. (No Action Talk Only). Some companies nowadays are very good at that...

We'll most likely replace these after we move in and settled.

Downlight package - Part of the promo

Heat pack for all the bathroom.

Fence Down

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 02:46:00 +0000

Nothing much to report this week other than the temporary construction fence is down and the walls have been repainted again.

It would seem like everything is progressing but very slowly. Still to do are paving the driveway and rendering the front pillar.

Our house in picture:

And the tiling continues...

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 06:32:00 +0000

This feels like a dejavu post when I was writing about our bricking stage.

Not so much happening in our building journey last week and this week other than tiling and tiling and tiling... Frustrating when you are only one stage away from completion.

The progress have been pretty slow in our construction and there is a slim chance that we will move in before Christmas as it is only about 5 weeks away. To get to the completion or hand over stage, the contract variation that we request need to be provided and the house needs to be ready for us to "live in" practically.

However, upon completion or handing over and getting the keys, I still need to arrange for the flooring guys to come in and do their bit. There is also fencing and landscaping added to that to do list.

So we may not be able to move in to our new house until the new year...

Ensuite

Shower in ensuite

President bath tub (that's a big tub)

Upstairs bathroom

Laundry

Tiles Tiles Tiles...

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 05:26:00 +0000

Delivered but not installed... At least that was from last weekend. Hopefully this will be a different story when we visit tomorrow.

On another update, our wheather board wall has apparently been painted with the color we wanted.

Tiles delivered

Tiling preparation

Kitchen sink

Wheather board painted

The Show Goes On...

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:26:00 +0000

We are now officially at "Fixing" stage, in Metricon's term of stage progression. This would only mean that this is the last stage before the D-Day, which is the "Completion" stage or some might call it the "Handover" stage.

Although from our recent visit, it doesn't feel like it was at fixing stage as our horizontal kitchen window was pulled out from the wall! I suspect that they needed the extra space to put the caesarstone benchtop on! I am being biased here but I'm really loving our selection of the color :)

Other "fixing" they have installed are the sinks for kitchen, laundry and all the bathrooms. I must say they are looking good and we can't wait to move in! Hopefully we are not far from it... :) I have also been told that tiling has commenced on 18 Oct.

Despite having the kitchen window pulled out, I guess The Show Goes On... (This video below does play the song "The Show Goes On" by Lupe Fiasco, it just that I like this version better :)).

Alright enough talking from me, here are some illustrations of what has been happening.

Where is the window?!?!?!?!?

There it is... but why is it there??

Kitchen sink and benchtop installed... checked

Laundry sink and benchtop installed... checked

Powder room sink and benchtop installed... checked

Bathroom sink and benchtop installed... checked

Ensuite sinks and benchtop installed... checked

Until the next update :)

Stained

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 05:35:00 +0000

We are still waiting for the tile order to be delivered by Di Lorenzo. I guess this delay is unavoidable as the bill wasn't settled on time. Nevertheless, it would be nice if tiling can start sometime this week.

In the mean time, from what we can see from our last visit, there were some more work done to the house. Like Phil and Bel said there were some painters working in our house on the weekend. We've noticed that the entry doors, front and back, and stairs have been stained with the merbau color as we selected during the internal color selection.

Hopefully when we visit this weekend a little bit more progress on the tiles would have been lovely.

Bi Folding door in the outdoor room

Stair railing

Front entry door

Breaking and Entering

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:56:00 +0000

Well there is not much to report or update from our last visit as we've just settled our bills with Di Lorenzo earlier this week.

I have let our SS know about this and he said he will organise the tiler to start working on them as soon as the order comes through.

We did, however, from our recent visit found that the back door was unlocked! It appears to be inviting and beckoning to be broken into... (of course you wouldn't want this happen when the house is finished and ready to be lived in :)).

So this is a golden opportunity for me to take pictures of the interior of the house, including the kitchen!!

Kitchen reloaded!

Same kitchen with different angle :)

Above the fridge wine rack

I have had few people asking us about the location of this wine rack. Refrigerator being the electrical nature as it is produces heat from the mechanical motor installed at the back of the fridge. Some wine apparently can't be exposed to this sort of heat and will damage the content of the wine.

Obviously we didn't know about this as we rarely drink alcohol and all of our collection of wines are either gifts from friends or we actually bought them from the duty free shop at the airport because they are so cheap! So despite the fact that we rarely drink alcohol, we still buy them just for the sheer decoration value out of it.

Moving on with the rest of the pictures...

Laundry up close and personal

President bathtub - Ensuite

Shower - Ensuite

Main Bathroom

Staircases

Entry to the main bedroom with the translucent glass door

I've also taken some picture of other things that happens around our place.

The wind has been quite strong this week that it blew the porta-loo outside out of it's place.

The bridge behind our place is also nearing it's completion.

Staircases and Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 06:00:00 +0000

We're up to the stage where we have the kitchen build minus the caesar stone benchtop, the laundry cupboard fitted to the way we wanted them to look and the wine rack above the fridge have also been fitted. Additionally the staircase looks like pretty much done.

We're still locked out of our house when we come for a visit. (I hate it when they're being meticulous but I equally hate it when they're not! lol) Thus we can only peek from the window of our house, hence the picture quality that I am about to show you.

The tiling should also been done this week but for some apparent reason we can't get them to progress as we need to settle the invoice with Di Lorenzo before anything can happen. I was wondering why they haven't send us any quote with our upgrade yet and apparently they're emails are being blocked by our mail server! They must have been blacklisted by someone in the past if this is the case...

Moving on, I quickly ask them to change the initial setup in the powder room. I requested that the feature wall tile to be moved to the shower portion as oppose behind the vanity wall. I've just received the amended quote as I am typing this paragrah! That's quick...

So all I have to do now is to sign the acceptance form and pay our deposit money so the work can get started already.

Here are some pics to share from our last visit. I apologise for the quality of the shots but given the circumstances of being locked out and taking them from the window, I hope you can all appreciate them.

Enjoy.

Another retake on our front entry door in the daylight! Cloudy to be exact.

Staircases ticked! Balustrade ticked! Zig zag capping ticked! Timber flooring no tick...

Kitchen! Kitchen! Kitchen! I get excited with kitchen :)

Wine rack above fridge done, Laundry looks pretty much done, kitchen is almost there...

Just need the stone benchtop and the equipment that goes with it.

We're in the news!

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:03:00 +0000

Well, not us personally anyway, but The Ponds as one of the newest suburb is. Here is an article from SMH that compares Sydney: Old vs. New. There is another mention also in this article.

It's great to see that The Ponds as a new suburb has been getting a lot of mention in the public news and even more so when comparing The Ponds and all the newest suburb around the city with the oldest suburb in the history of Sydney, The Rocks. The article mention that The Ponds has a lot of places and lots of green grass out and about but The Rocks is just kilometers of paved and concrete all the way with not much grass on it's footpath. Maybe trees but even comparing The Rocks to a residential suburb, there is not much competition in that department also.

The Ponds is a new suburb with a new living concept. We were handed a guideline by the developer at the time of purchase and we have to adhere guideline in order to have our house build. It's a great concept and I don't mind it at all. I think it's great to have a uniformed design with the other houses in the area. I guess one of the reason is to keep the value of the area at a certain level, which is not a bad thing really.

It will be a massive change of lifestyle for us as a family having to move from where we were living before in the inner west, all the way to the north west. I can already imagine some of the sentence that I will say when we move in: "It used to take us around 15 - 20 minutes plus 5 minutes walking distance from home to the station. Now it takes us around an hour to get to work!" or something to that effect.

I've already mentioned this very same reasoning in one of my early post. Reading that article made me think and asked myself "Why are we moving to The Ponds?" and at this point I forgot that I've posted the answer before. I'm glad that the very same reason was still my answer if we were asked that question again.

I guess in addition to that reasoning is the appeal of the community that draws people to the suburb and to the lifestyle that we are longing for. It's true that I've already met and know our neighbors even before we move in!

My office is situated within 5 steps to The Rocks literally and some of my photography work has also include The Rock as one of my favorite location. I don't think it's necessary to compare The Rocks and The Ponds or the other new suburb.

The Rocks has it's own historical value also that I quite like it the way it is. It's true that some of the redevelopment maybe has destroy some of the lifestyle value there. Something that exist in 1973 (even before I was born!) may not be there anymore. Having said that some are still there, like the convenience store around the corner near the Australian Hotel. Or the connecting alley along George St at The Rocks. I hope the local council can still maintain and keep it's historic value for time to come.

Help!! We're locked out!!

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:08:00 +0000

We are now officially locked out from our own home. At least the lock up stage can now be verified with having the locked door at the front and back...

It was quite a late visit on Saturday night as we waited for the kids to be fresh before we can do any activities during the day. When we get to our house it was already quite dark making taking pictures very difficult. I had my big flash with me but not sure if it's going to be enough. But I took some pictures anyway just to see how it turns out.

We noticed that we now have front entry door!! Well let's just say that we now have doors all around the entrance to the house. The doors were locked and obviously, it's not possible for us to go inside now unless we find a way to sneak in! But we didn't. We checked all around the house and all doors are locked securely including the bi-folds door is now covered with some panels.

So I guess it's going to be difficult from here on to gain entry to the house unless the tradies leave one of the door open...

Still, I've noticed that the walls have been painted and the cornices are up also. Not sure if they are finished as it was too dark to see inside the house. My guess is from the last update, they should now have started on the staircase.

Some picture for illustration entertainment:

Laundry door

Is that our translucent internal door?? Why is it doing outside??

Yay!! Our front entry Windsor 6G has been delivered and installed... We can't get in now :(

Gee... we ROCK!!

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:09:00 +0000

The latest update that I receive last week from our SS was gyprock should be done sometime this week and Wednesday the tradies should have started on building the staircase. Next on the list would be sealing the wet areas with waterproof sealant.

This just means that we need to get our act together and have another look at our tile selections again and finalise the bill for that.

I can't wait for a sneak peek of the staircase. Maybe we'll to get to see it when we pay a visit this weekend.

Other than that looks like everything is well underway with the progress and we are really hoping that we can move in by Christmas. (Please Santa can we have our early Christmas present this year)

As promised from my last post here are some photos of the Gyprock progress

Entry hallway - Feels like a train ride...

The niche in front of the sitting room

Kitchen and dining room

Rumpus room - In case I missed it, the Bi-Folds will be stained with Merbau color

Family room - The wall niche decoration

Provision for the fridge - Laundry - Pantry

Main bedroom

Ensuite

Hallway leading to leisure room

Leisure room

Wall opening to the study room

We've all seen this picture numerous time but can you tell the difference? - It's the stacker timber post!! It wasn't there last week :) This too will be stained with Merbau

Cleaned Bricks + Scafolds + Air Conditioning + Lock Up

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 06:59:00 +0000

Wow it has been a crazy and busy times for us recently that I've neglecting to update this blog. I'll try to update this as I go in a small chunk but at the time of this post, there may be about three weeks of back log of stuff happening to our house.

To summarise the update quickly, here is what has been happening:

Bricks are now cleaned
Scafolding has come down
Air conditioning internal unit is installed
Insulation looks like done
Electrical wiring done
Eaves done
Roof done
Cladding done
Gyprocking is well underway
Bi-Folding door is delivered and installed but no glass yet

About a couple of weeks ago, we finally got our SS to agree for us to come and visit for a walkthrough with him. We told him about some contract variation that is missing and our SS efficiently fixed that for us the next day. Wifey also pointed out a strangely shaped looking metal that looks like it's bent in the ceiling of the garage and he fixed that also.

We have also been billed for the lock up. Metricon's definition of lock up is quite funny in my humble opionion. Apparently their definition of a lock up is without front and rear entry doors. (It's true, I've read the contract again and I just couldn't believe my eyes!) So all the while we are at lock up stage, we can still roam free inside the house...

Anyway one thing that I'd like to comment on, although our SS is quite elusive with us requesting to come and visit (whilst the head office seemed to think we should be able to visit anytime we like as it is our house), he is a man of his word.

We asked him if it is possible for us to come and clean the house from the dust before the gyprock goes up. Like Thigee, we also like to keep our house cleaned even if we don't see it and all the dust are within the walls. But our SS assured us that he builds our house like he builds his own home and he will get the carpenter to do an entire house sweep including the insides of where the walls should be.

He kept that promise! We came back the next week and they actually DID cleaned and sweep the entire place! The kids also loved the place and run around nails free! Two thumbs up to our SS.

We also saw that the gyprock has been delivered as well.

So here are some recent photos from our visit.

I haven't had time to process the gyprock photos yet so I promise that I'll do that in the next post.

Previous week after they took down the scafolding

Internal Air conditioning unit installed

Alien come and invaded our place in one night!

What a MESS!!! Kids please clean up your toys...

Feels like I'm inside the tummy of a dinosaur! I was eaten alive!

Gyprock before it's up on the wall

See what I mean being inside the tummy?!

Bi-Folding door that would cost us around $4k to upgrade!

Cladding done and a look of our Bi-Folding door from the backyard

Geeky stuff. Where the network switch will go. Love the color of the bricks. I guess we didn't make the wrong choice then. :) Don't you think so?

Our Home

Bricks Cleaned... at least for the top floor

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 02:13:00 +0000

There's not much happening in between our visits couple of weeks ago to last week.

I have been getting some updates new from our SS but he just been saying that the rain has delayed the progress yet again.

Although I can see that they've been doing some work but it's more like "move along nothing to see here" type of work.

However the most recent update from our SS was the bricks for the top floor has been cleaned and that the scaffolding is due to come down in the coming days.

We were also told that by the end of next week, it will be the lockup stage. I don't really see how is that happening as the doors that we wanted, i.e. the bi-folding doors and the front entrance door, haven't been delivered yet.

We've also told Metricon about our concern about the 'ad hoc' fire place inside the house, to me it really looks like someone has been cooking BBQ, cause there was some sort of grill at the top, at our place and inside the house! They said they will send someone to investigate. If occupational health and safety is really an issue, then hopefully they can be more considerate from now on whenever they need internal heating or a BBQ place.

Other than that, there is really nothing much to report. The pics should be able to describe what has been happening :)

Looks like the rangehood has been delivered....

but... where is it??

The bricks has been cleaned for the top floor.

Before cleaning...

After cleaning...

Miscellaneous pics around the building...

Roof got cleaned too?

What happened here??

Last week

Skypiea as it is taken today.

Honey.... The Roof's Leaking...

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:28:00 +0000

It's been a while since I last posted our latest update. We've been quite busy recently with a lot of things. From children getting the winter season disease, work, family events, newborn niece, relatives wedding, bank drama, etc. Hectic! But the most important thing of all, our son has been accepted to go to the primary school close to our house. Yay!! We now look forward to the orientation days in November.

Still we are glad now that all of the issues are behind us and we can start again look forward to getting our home to finish.

It's not that we haven't been visiting (how can we not??) to our soon-to-be house at all. We have been visiting every weekend but I have been failing to write about it... at least until today.

During our visits, we've met with a lot of our soon to be neighbors as well. At least by now, we know who is going live next to and behind us. They are all very lovely people. We thought that the block next to us was empty and it could be a while before any construction activity can start.

The corner block next to us is drawing their own plan for their custom design house. Apparently they have a lot of restrictions due to the conditions of a corner block. I was told a very long while ago that you need to have two facades that face the street. Also it would seem that you still need to comply to the setbacks guide on all sides including the ones that comes in angle. Sounds a lot more hectic than our build!

We also met with the young family next to us on the other side. Similar to our situation they also have two kids and looking forward to go move in to The Ponds because of the community vibe. Also another not quite so important but it kind of is, they are also building with Metricon! They should already have signed the contract at the time of this post. They were asking a lot of questions in relation to our building experience so far to which I just point them to my blog site where I've been sharing the news.

Really this has become a nice area to live in and although we haven't live there officially but it feels like we already are!

So what's been happening with our build?

First of all, the bricking should have been finished by now. Well at least that's what our SS has said. For about two to three weeks all he can say was, we are still working on the bricks and due to the wet weather this has been a slow process.

Nevertheless, I can see during one of my visit that the gutter and fascia are up. So they have been doing some work after all.

Here are some of the pics from that visit.

A multi colored bricks for the front pilar? I thought we suppose to be rendering this?

Bridge construction near our house

The bridge construction seems to be coming along nicely. At this rate, I think the bridge should already finish by the time we move in.

Our SS also told us that the roof tiling has commenced and we should expect that to finish within the week depending on the kindness of mother nature with the rain of course.

Soon when the roof is up, we can do a house walk through. Or so I've been told.

It has been raining a lot lately and getting access to the house without getting wet and mud all over the shoes can be very tricky indeed... I say where there is a will, there is always a way. After wrapping my shoes with plastic material, off I went inside. Although I know I'm not suppose to.

Here is our roof. Delivered and not secured...

Has someone been cooking BBQ in my study room!? Or is this their heater?? Our SS is going to hear about this!

Looks like this part is almost done

This part hasn't but the sarking is there?

It is so good to see at least one part is nearly complete and it starts looking like a proper house now

I came up to this scaffolding area via the main bedroom and through the en-suite window. I happened to look at the area where it is suppose to be our shower. I was told that the plumbing work has all been completed but I am pretty sure that they have missed an extra shower head that we requested in our contract.

I guess I will be letting our SS know about this before they close the entire wall.

So that's it for now. Apologies for the long reading and thank you for reading up to here.

My neighbors, if you are reading this. I hope to see you all on the weekend.

Ciao.

Hunter Valley

noreply@blogger.com (SkyPiea~~Sky Island) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:47:00 +0000

We made a "detour" trip to the Vineyard Country on the weekend as opposed to going to The Ponds. There you guessed it, this post is not going to be related to our building journey at all :)

But I guess we could use a little change every once in a while and a family holiday is also something that we need. I have to say that this trip would probably one of the most decent family holiday that I have in years. I mean I really enjoyed it. Not because you get to go wine tasting, enjoying the vineyards view or even the fact of going on a road trip. This is because in this holiday, the kids BEHAVED! Sure there were some occasions where they fight over a toy but that's kids, they do that and generally they were behaving. I am still in amazed by this. They eat their meal by themselves without us having to feed them, they stay close to us whenever we are out and about, they listened when we told them not to touch breakable stuff and to top it off we get to enjoy ourselves! I think this will easily be one of most the unforgettable moment in my life

I'm not much of a drinker, alcohol wise anyway. I'm more of a drink-only-when-you-have-to type but otherwise I'll avoid alcohol totally. So I don't purposely go out and buy all the wine that money can buy. Yes we bought a couple of bottles of dessert wine but we don't venture to every vineyards purposely looking for them.

The majority of people may go there for the wines but I think that you can find the Hunter Valley wines here in a lot of the bottle shops anyway. You can even order it online and they will send it to you free of charge (depends on how many you buy of course).

What I do like about having a trip to Hunter Valley is the scenery and the sheer relaxation that it brings. I think I mentioned it before, but photography is one of hobby and that is one of the activity that I enjoy doing the most whilst in Hunter Valley. I'm no professional photographer but I do have a camera that could be classified as an enthusiast photography. There are still a lot of skills and techniques that I need to learn and I've only been doing it by lots of reading. I think a proper workshop is needed but I hope this method will get me by for now.

I've been there only twice but I think I've chosen bad time on both occasion. I wanted to go there when just before the harvest time so that I can get some decent and proper vineyard scenery for my gallery collection. However all I see was this:

Where are all the grapes?
Click on the image to view the larger version

We went to Emma's Cottage Vineyard where we got our first dessert wine. Emma's Cottage is located in Lovedale and is probably one of the smallest vineyard in the Hunter but nevertheless I would recommend getting one of their dessert wine called Perfect or Pirate's Treasure. Again I'm not much of a drinker and I don't really like the taste of wine, however Perfect has some sweet taste in it and doesn't taste much like a wine at all. We have never taste the Pirate's Treasure as they always seemed to go really quickly. I guess anything that goes quickly can't be that bad.

We were recommended by the people from Emma's Cottage to try the moscato at Ballabourneen as our family friend was looking for one. They say the moscato there are to die for. So we would like to see what the fuss is all about.

Ballabourneen Wine
Click on the image to view the larger version

They were right and we were not disappointed. I wouldn't go as far as saying it is to die for, but we all know that I don't drink alcohol. However the taste of the moscato was even better than we had at Emma's. The difference though, this is a sparkling moscato. Maybe it was the soda that makes the difference? They produced a brand new version of moscato that they haven't list on their website yet.

We went for a bit of wonder around the area that includes the cheese factory, near where we stayed and the Hunter Valley Chocolate company shop, on the Broke Rd. I must say that the price that they put on the shelves for their chocolate is way overpriced. It feels none other like the Darrell Lea shop in Sydney or the more big brand company like Haighs. However if you feel that you can't resist the sweet juicy chocolate sensation, then I'd suggest to head down to their factory which is up further near where Emma's Cottage is. Not only the price difference between the shop and the factory was huge, you can also see how they make their chocolate. Obviously the note written on the shelves was "Factory Second" but nevertheless it taste all the same.

There is a free map that you can get at every accommodation place that you are staying and ask them where can you find the Hunter Valley Chocolate factory. I'm sure they'll be happy to tell you where it is.

At the Chocolate company shop I found some more object that interests me.

Click on the image to view the larger version

An old cart, lying in the middle of nowhere. It looks like the cart that they use in the old wild west civilization long time ago. This would probably another thing that I like about Hunter Valley. It is not just vineyards that you see here but it also has this historical atmosphere. The images above are just parts of the cart.

Like I said, I am in no way a professional photographer and that this is one of my many hobbies. You can pretty much say that I am a photography enthusiast. I hope I can get better but there is a lot of knowledge to photography that I keep discovering. I guess I'll just have to keep on learning.

My bundles of joy - Diamonds in my life

Hopefully we can give some more updates on our dream house next week. Until then, I wish to thank you for reading this far.

Yopz - Skypiea