Inside photo

Here are some photo's I've taken over the past few days

Security doors were installed - marine steel grade mesh or something, I'm calling it the door people don't see as I have already had two people not realise it was there and try to walk through it


Driveway is all boxed up for concrete


Driveway boxed up


Outdoor/alfresco area boxed up


I asked them if they could move all my bricks to the back corner with the bob cat and they did :) Although I wonder how many broke


Now the bricks are moved the side of my garage is all cleared and flattened out


My kitchen!


Kitchen


Island bench


Oven


I love the space on the top here, it's huge!


Meals and family with my old furniture


Family, meals and kitchen


My letter box - it needs a bit of a clean up and I want to paint it the same as the render


First meal cooked in the oven

Home Owner, I have the keys

As you could see from my last post, I have the keys to my house! I got the keys at about 10am and I also got a small handover gift of gardening gloves, a handheld garden fork and some seeds.
It was such a great morning wandering about my house, MY HOUSE and letting myself into MY house with MY keys! I put all the temporary blinds up (redi shades) and by the time that was done the guy turned up to install the security doors but I had to leave to go to my friends funeral so my Dad and his wife stayed while they installed the doors - so very nice of them :)

There are still a few things that need touching up on the house, but they will get done and they are not major and if they have to wait till the 3 month maintenance then so be it, but I doubt it will take that long.

The funeral was, well, draining and emotional and right now I am mentally exhausted as well as quite stuffed physically. I've had to do a bit more packing tonight but I have stopped now and will do the last few bits in the morning and what doesn't get packed into a box can just stay for a few more days, but I should get most of it in.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day of moving, so glad I am getting removalists

The Cheque

I have The Cheque! All that's left to do now is inspect my house, drive all the way to Port Melbourne and hand it over and in return I get the keys!

Oh and I also need to finish packing! I really can't be bothered though... but I have to! I got some more boxes from Bunnings, some biggish ones for the awkward things left to pack... why do the fiddly bits n pieces remain as the last things to pack, that just makes it even more annoying.

Oh and I also now need to disassemble my beds my self as my brother was meant to help but no longer can... great...

Final Invoice

I got my final invoice today! I called the bank to get the process started and they told me that who ever it was that said I needed 7-8 business days didn't know what they were on about! It's 5 days maximum! Anyway, they will send a person out within 2 business days and then I will be contacted about how I want to make the final payment sand where to get the cheque. I'm hoping I can collect it on the Monday after work so I don't have any hassles and delays on the Tuesday.

Also an interesting fact, Westpac don't require a copy of my COO for the final payment!

While I was on the phone to the guy at the bank I asked him how much short I would be. For some reason I had it in my head that I was going to be a few hundred dollars short but it turns out I am wrong! After I have made the last payment to the builder and I have paid my heater/aircon crew I will actually have a bit over $2.5k that I can get put into my account!! Wooooohooooooooo! Calculation error in my favour!! Go past go and collect $200! YaY!!

Lock it in Eddie!

My PCI and handover dates are officially official now!! :D As opposed to being told its those dates but not actually having it set in stone! Sweeeeeeet!

No word on the invoice yet though, hopefully they get that sorted today and can email me a pdf of it so I can call the bank up and get them started on it all!!

I also got a phone call today that my security doors are ready! I've booked them in for the afternoon of handover - lets hope handover goes smoothly... might be a fine fine line...

Just think, this time in two weeks I will have woken up in my new house from my first nights sleep there!

To do list

I tell you what, moving into a new house on it's own needs a project manager! So far I have organised to put up the temporary redi shades and front window blinds the Tuesday (handover day). On the Wednesday I am moving and have scheduled the fly screens to be installed that afternoon. Thursday/Friday/Saturday hopefully my concrete for the driveway and alfresco is done, two days is needed - fingers crossed for good weather. I also need to organise a day for the security doors to be installed and I need to organise the cleaning of my current place and I need to clean up the backyard! Gawd I have soooooooo much to do that it's not funny! Also as already mentioned I still don't know when I will get a phone line AND I need to get my tv antenna connected in the roof! I'm trying not to watch my recorded tv and downloads just incase I wont have tv recception or internet - my gawd, could you imagine no TV and no internet?!?! The mind boggles!

Outdoor Painting

I called my SS yesterday and discovered that he didn't realise that the PCI and handover dates had been locked in! ARGH!!! So I explained that N had told me she discussed it with him and we talked about the dates and that I have given rental notice based on the dates and booked removalists etc etc! Anyway, I found out today that he will be submitting those dates into the system - lets hope that I now get all the stuff to the bank in time for their processing times!

I also submitted my order for a home phone line and was told that it has been put on hold due to the main cable requiring an upgrade - wtf? I figure it's just that my end of the street hasn't been actually turned on yet and that I am probably the first to apply for a phone line in this stage. I should find out a timeline of when I can expect to get a phone line and then I can work out what to do in regards to internet etc

In other news, the outdoor painting has been started!!

Chateau Lisa - can you see the painting of the gutters, eaves, down pipes and....


My front door has an undercoat!! I LOVE IT!!! Really LOVE it!


Loving the colour!! See the portico roof and wood poles have all been painted


The door needs another coat, but I LOVE it!!


You can just see that they have done the inside too


Painted downpipes


Painted garage door

Counting down

Yes, I am officially in countdown mode! Tomorrow is the builders Final Inspection where building surveyors or some such come out and inspect the house in order to release the Certificate of Occupancy and evidently some of the managers from head office come out and take a look too.

I have 8 sleeps until my PCI and 15 sleeps until handover! -squeal- I really only have 2 weeks left to go!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO Wow!

I've been trying to make a list of what needs to be completed:

• Carpet
  
• Kitchen splashback
  
• shower screens
  
• Mirrors
  
• outdoor painting (I want to see my door!!!)
  
• electrician needs to move a light switch and do a GPO in the bathroom and an outdoor light
  
• Insulation to go into the roof
  
• Appliances - last thing to go in though

I finally bought some door mats on the weekend. I had been looking for something nice that wasn't plain and boring and I finally found one that's simple but OK.
I've asked a friend to get her hubby, who is a handyman, to give me a price on how much it would cost to build a brick letterbox but yesterday I also finally found the letterbox I was after so I'm really not sure which way to go with regards to that, I'm tipping it will be a price point decision.

I also ordered my redi shades last week and they were sent on Thursday so hopefully I get them today too

OMG I have only 15 sleeps to go!!! I really should have done some more packing on the weekend hahahah ahh well will do some each night after work this week, there really isn't a lot left to do but still, it does need to be done.

Rental notice given

That's right, I have submitted my 4 weeks rental notice to the estate agents! ARGH!! Wow! A big move considering but my builder has been really good and accurate with dates so far so it should be OK!

Today I've also booked the removalist, put in my annual leave and purchased the redi shades for the rest of my windows!

Oh hang on, I don't think I put it in here, on the weekend I had a suggestion put to me that I buy some nice wooden venetians for my 3 front windows. This way the front of the house will look finished and I will be able to block more light out of my bedroom so good all around and for less than $140 for the 3 (they were 40% off) I agreed, it was a good idea!

PCI and Handover Dates plus render

I have actual PCI and handover dates! Yes, yes I do!! PCI is 22nd and handover is 29th!! I figure I can hopefully move the day after handover and take the rest of the week off! YaY!!!

Providing I can clear it with work, I'm going to give notice for Tuesday October 6th which gives me a week to move out and get it all done!

Also! I have my first coat of render!

The photo's are kinda dodgy as it wasn't just raining but hailing!

Chateau Lisa


First coat of render (no that's not the colour it will be!)

I have a date

Firstly, today is the second day in a row I haven't left work till late so I haven't been out to my house -pout- I'm having withdrawals but I'm honestly almost too tired to care due to the amount of work I'm TIRED and knackered.

Secondly I got told today that the Final Inspection has been booked in for September 15th! From that they should hopefully then book in the PCI for later in the week and then handover/settlement 1 week after that so I am still looking good for being in by around the end of September! I wont give my notice to move out though for another week or so though.

Update and TDL

So a quick update, painters should be being busy little bee's at my house starting today and the tiler is booked in to start on Friday! B my SS should be back on deck on Monday, so hopefully Monday or Tuesday I could have a date for the Final Inspection! -squeal-

I called a removalist company today and got a quote of $470 for the move so I've told them I will let them know when I have a date! I've also called my fencing guy and left him a message as he hasn't given me a quote yet :(

The past few day's I've been thinking a LOT about what to do once I am in my house and making a bit of a list. I started off thinking about my vegie patch and how I was going to water it. I figure I will install drip irrigation that can hook up to either the rain water tank or mains water. I then figured I should investigate the water restrictions and quickly discovered that you can no longer get exemptions for watering new turf - you can't water ANY grass with mains water anymore! Fair enough I suppose too. What this means is that I will either need an almost full rain water tank or some kind of grey water system. I figure I will run drip irrigation lines on top of the soil and under the turf and run it back to the rank and have the option for hooking up some grey water to it too.
At the Home Show on the weekend I found this nifty little grey water system that is the size of a giant wheelie bin. It comes with some filtery stuff for the in water (so say from your washing machine) and then also has a pump and a hose connected to it and as you need to use grey water within 24hrs it's the perfect size! I could use that to water my lawn with from a fixed point near the back door and also be able to wheel it around the garden to water plants! Noice!

Anyway, so with all this thinking about irrigation for the lawn and vegies I realised that it might take a bit longer to do the garden and I should probably wait until it is done before I get a dog too :( It just makes sense to do it that way though.

So here is my To Do List for once I am in my house and in no specific order at all - I will work out the order once I am in and see which one annoys me the quickest and needs doing:

• Blinds
  
• Curtains
  
• Vegie garden beds
  
• Irrigation for vegie garden
  
• Water tank
  
• Grey water wheelie bin
  
• water tank pump
  
• Irrigation for lawn
  
• Lawn
  
• Front garden

Understanding the handover procedure

I just had a great conversation with N my Admin person at PD. Firstly, B my SS is on leave this week and all of next - things should still be done and it's probably a good time in regards to my build with the painters scheduled to start today and then the tilers can come in. In the mean time one of the construction managers will be looking after it all for me.

So PD Access (not sure if it is all of PD or not) are currently changing their handover procedures a bit. They used to schedule the final inspection, PCI and settlement from when the final inspection was booked in for. Now they are booking in the final inspection and then based on the results of that they are then scheduling the PCI and settlement which kinda makes sense.

Final inspection is the inspection done on the building works and the Certificate Of Occupancy (COO) is based on this and it is this inspection that decides if the COO can be released or not.
If it is decided that the COO will be released and nothing else needs doing for that, then they will schedule the PCI for a few days later and settlement is always 7 days from the PCI!

As my SS is on holiday's, N is waiting to speak to the construction manager about my file (should be tomorrow) to see where it's at and if the final inspection can be booked in yet or not and also to confirm the actual procedures as it's still a new process. Also, a date probably wont be booked in until my SS is back from leave.

Hopefully the painters have started today!