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

Fixing stage photo fest

I went for one of my regular visits today and found an open door! Wooohoo!!
The painters have arrived and taken all the doors off ready for painting although I seem to be 2 doors short which is a bit odd. I also found some paint tins hiding in the kitchen cupboards!

I got asked by someone also building a Regent 21 to take photo's of the cupboards so that's why I have taken them - enjoy Craig!

Now, time for LOTS of photo's from this week at the house

Chateau Lisa - notice the garage door to the backyard


Fixing of the front door


Fixing of the internal garage door


Skirting boards in the garage


Not needed? I think they changed the garage internal door


Garage door to backyard


I have a portico roof!


I love it!


The thingy over the garage


Ooooooh a door is open - this means ACCESS!! woohoo!


Ensuite basins


Ensuite basins


RHS ensuite cupboard


LHS ensuite cupboard


The doors are off again and ready to be repainted


Window frame


Window frame


Pantry cupboard


Pantry shelf


Island bench cupboard, between the cutlery drawers and the dishwasher and some paint!


Under the sink


Kitchen sink


To the left of the sink and more paint!


RHS of stove


LHS of range hood


Above range hood


RHS of range hood


I have a laundry sink


The laundry cupboard


Bathroom cabinet


Bathroom cupboad - way too small :(


Bathroom


Linen cupboard


Skirting boards


The black thing in the backyard


Cows


Rabbits!


Ducks!

Penultimate Invoice

Now that I've seen with my own eyes that the fixing has been completed I just phoned the bank to request the penultimate invoice to be paid! Wow! I'm only one payment away from being in my house!! One final payment, a measly 10% of the overall cost.

I really hope I get some dates soon so that I can give notice on where I am currently living and not have to pay another full month of rent!

This weekend I'm going to pack some more boxes, I think I will pack up the entire bike room

No paint for you!

No sign of the painters... On Tuesday when I went through I noticed that someone had drawn circles and other lines in certain spots on the plaster, so maybe it was the quality inspectors and they need to be fixed before the painters start... My SS being on leave probably wont be helping either, ahh well I can't blame him for having a holiday, we are all humans and need time off :)

I can however confirm that the fixing stage is now complete and I have a garage door to the backyard now :)

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!

Oh dear

I just came to a possibly sad realisation - I think that today is the first Wednesday since construction on my house started that I haven't been out to see my house, in 11 weeks!!

HAHAHAHA what a house building loser I am!! The even sadder bit is I know I am probably not the only one!! Share with me your loserness! I don't care, I love it as I get to see my house grow bit by bit :D

More to learn

Not having a garden at all I am a bit slow on the uptake for where we are at with water restrictions etc at the moment. According to Yarra Valley Water

• Lawns cannot be watered by residents, businesses and local councils. There are some exempt playing surfaces that can be watered.
  
• Manual dripper systems can be used between 6 am - 8 am on your watering days.*
  
• Hand-held hoses fitted with a trigger nozzle, watering cans and buckets can be used to water gardens between 6 am – 8 am on your watering days.

Sooooooo seeing as you can no longer apply for exemptions for new grass, it looks like a water tank will be a higher priority than the actual garden - fair call too.

It might also be time to start research watering systems to use too seeing as I know nothing about them all.

I figure for my vegie patch I will use some kind of hose that sites on top of the soil (under the lucern mulch though) and will try to maybe connect that up to an automatic timer and something similar for the rest of my garden too.

Gee another steep learning curve ahead of me!

Mr Fixing has returned

On Monday I started to get a bit antsy about the lack of work at my house over the previous week. I knew that the painters were scheduled for later this week so I wasn't too concerned, however if there had been no action at the house yesterday I was going to ring B and find out what was going on. Thankfully Mr Fixing man was at the house doing his thing! This also meant that I got to go into my house again!! So yesterday he was working on the skirts and the window edge/frame bits and he said that the painters were coming on Thursday - YaY!!!

Letterboxes

I've been a bit against a concrete letter box as the entire estate seems to have them, however I realised today that there are mostly metal ones in my street! Soooooo I am thinking that a concrete one might be ok and I will paint it to match the render colour and this way I also then don't need to worry about digging a hole and getting concrete etc to install a letterbox

Comfycouchyness

Today I made my first big purchase for my house!! My first ever brand new couch! Yes, my first ever!! I've lived out of home for about 10 years but all my couches and chairs have either been from an op shop or hand me downs.... but not anymore!! YaY!!! Well, not after a 10-12 week wait :(

This is it, 2 recliners and a 3 seater couch and the 3 seater couch has a recliner on each end too! It is soooooooooooo comfy! I'm getting it in the espresso/chocolate colour







In other news, today there was no one working on my house! That's 2-3 days now and PD 24/7 says my house should be Fixed by today and it isn't... there are no skirting boards or window frames and not even all the doors are hung! hrmmm.... Will call my SS on Monday.

I've also started the hunt for a letterbox - what a nightmare!

Fixing has begun!

Well the fixing stage has begun and I have doors and shelves and on Monday I got downpipes!

The photo's are taken through my dirty windows so excuse the quality

Chateau Lisa - see my downpipe!


Downpipes!


A thingy - is this important, can it be buried? I think it's to do with the storm water


Deliveries! No idea what for (no not the gyprock, that's old)


I think this is the outdoor plaster for the portico roof


Meals and family room - something's been happening


Master bedroom looking into the WIR - I have a door and a shelf!!


A shelf in the cupboard of bed 2


Another door!


From the rumpus window looking to the front door


Templates measured for the kitchen bench


My pantry has shelves!


I am soooooooo sick of mud! This is my alfresco area


I think someone got bogged in my driveway


This is my made street - it looks muddier than the dirt road behind my block


My house!! :D (with over the road stealing power)