Getting Settled!

Well what a month it has been, it has gone by quickly and to say that it has been busy would be an understatement!  We are slowly getting settled and working our way through our list of jobs and also adding more items along the way!

We did get a little worried with all the rain we've had in Adelaide this last month as our storm water system is fully enclosed and reliant on a sump and pump which we have not yet installed, so we did have a bit of a build up of water and mud around our house!

This week our blinds arrived, I was very impressed with their speedy delivery and also with the quality and ease of installation. Mike was able to install them on his own with no hassle at all.  The colour the we chose for the block out matches the colour used on the top shelf of the kitchen and looks good against the other furnishings we have. 

We also got our dining table, dishwasher and washing machine delivered a couple of weeks ago which has helped to finishing things off.  Soon I'll have time to put a few things up on the walls and add some finishing touches.

 

We've got a work in progress happening with the decking, the outdoor room was finished off today it just needs a stain, and they've started putting the pieces together for the decking in the portico.

 

 

Once the decking is complete we will start to look at retaining walls and fencing.  The neighbours on our South side will start building in a couple of months so we'll just start on the Northern side and work our way around.

All in all, it's coming together and we have our first visitors coming for dinner on Sunday which is good timing as our oven is getting fitted tomorrow so I'm cooking a yummy roast for dinner!

We're IN! & now we have internet!

WE HAVE THE KEYS!!!!

And lots of them! We will never lack for spare keys that's for sure, but we are in and it has been a whirlwind over the last few weeks ... has it really gone by that quickly?!

Well firstly lets update with some pics of things that weren't in at the PCI:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this bath!!!

Range hood and stove top, plus a goodie basket!

Our fixed up linen cupboard!

Front security lights.

All in all handover went well with only a few things that needed to be completed, the oven wasn't installed yet as it hadn't arrived from being re-ordered that is in now though only we are waiting for the cabinet maker to come back for some extra fittings to secure it.  We did have some issues with our front security lights but that was quickly fixed and everything else is just a few little things to be taken care of in the 3month period.

Our first round of tradies where the concreters for the driveway and front perimeter path, they came last week and we still need to wait a week before we can use the drive.

The driveway came up great and really finishes off the house plus helps keep all the mud out!

This week we had the solar panels put up, just in time for the rain!  And now the decking guy has set to work and is looking to wrap up middle of next week.

So it's all coming together and in between it all we're getting ourselves settled inside bit by bit!

First order of business was the get the blinds sorted, I looked at online places as we didn't want anything too fancy I just wanted it to do the job!  Blindsonline.com.au had really good reviews and their samples proved to be good quality plus at a reasonable price, managed to do the whole house excluding the main bedroom for around $1,200 so I was happy with that.  Now we just have to sort out something for our bedroom, but we don't have a bed yet and are sleeping in the spare room so no rush!

We had a few issues ordering in that they have 2 different brands of material and these brands have to match for the double rollers, of course our first choice was one of each, then one of the fabrics didn't come wide enough for one of the windows.  But once we figured out the ins and outs of ordering it was an easy process and they where very quick at replying to me emails regarding the issues that we had.

The next thing on our agenda is to sort out the stormwater, we have to do the sump and pump, the rest of the system was done for us, but after the big downpour of rain we had today and a bit of a panic attack regarding flooding along the side the in the backyard, mainly from all our neighbours stormwater coming onto our block, we will need to sort this out sooner rather than later!

In the meantime we will continue to settle in and Achilles is giving each room is own personal paw of approval!

One Week til Handover!

After two years of organising, waiting, chasing and a little more waiting we are only one week away from our big move!  It's an awesome feeling!

We're lucky that a majority of our belongings have been in storage these past two years so packing will be easy, most of it is already done as we both have busy weeks ahead work wise we thought it was best to be organised. 

Today I'm just chasing up a few last minute things like getting the gas/electricity connected, quotes for fencing, bin delivery from council and home insurance.  All the fun things! 

But this time next week we will have those keys in our hands and the whole process will be worth it!

PCI Complete!!

Are you ready for an overload of photos!?!

View from straight on at the front now that the porta-loo has gone!

Our ensuite double skin and the skins used in both bathrooms

Ensuite framless shower

Main Bathroom frameless shower

Range hood and glass splash back in kitchen (obviously the power points still to be fitted)

Our feature doors, first for the main bedroom, the middle is the cavity slider in the study and last the linen cupboard.

Main bathroom fittings

Under mount Sink

Living Area

Overall we are very happy with the quality of the build, our private building inspector went through this morning and made note of a few things that need to be fixed prior to handover.

- paint touch ups throughout, nothing major though and that's to be expected.
- one of the kitchen drawers needs to be replaced as it's been scratched.
- scratch on the bi-fold doors to be powder coated
- a few touch ups on the staining for the feature doors
- an added door stop in the main bathroom so the door doesn't bang against the cupboard/stone bench.
- bath still to be fitted.
- oven, gas cook top, hot water to be fitted the morning of hand over.
- rain water tank to be fitted.
- the linen cupboard was meant to be finished with the liquorice linea rather than the white but it wasn't overly clear on the selections so understandable why it was missed, they will be replacing these for us.

So overall we are very happy with how everything is looking and have set the date for Monday 3rd June for handover!

Landscaping Budgets ... Oh My!

This week we've both been off work on annual leave so we've taken the chance to go over a few ideas and fun around to some places to put together a rough blue print of what we wanted to do when it came down to landscaping. 

We've already organised United Concrete Works for our driveway and a perimeter path at the front of the house in aggregate.  Along with the decking for the portico and outdoor room through Nagel Building and Carpentry and are in the process of setting up dates for those.

But the rest is up to us!

This was the plan that we come up with, it's rather handy having a husband who knows how to do scale drawings, we're going to keep things reasonably simple to begin with, with the view that we can always upgrade and change areas in the future.  Being a picture of a picture it's not overly clear but it gives the general idea.

The front yard will have a garden bed along each side of the pathway lining up with the pillars of the portico.  The front path will be stepping stone pavers, these will also be used in the backyard around the outdoor room and along the back wall, with river stone pebbles between.  The ones that we decided on are the Sawcut Limestone pavers from Urban Stone in 600x600 size.

 

The grass for the rest of the area outside the main bedroom, we will have a small timber enclosed area to hide the bins off to the side this will be paved and be able to open so that we can have clear access down that side if we need it.

 

Down the sides of the house we just wanted to keep it simple as it's only an access way and didn't see the need to go with expensive pavers and also to get the concreting done through that area was more than we wanted to pay. The best combination of price/look as far as the cheaper pavers go we found in Bunnings for only $27.36/m2 which was much cheaper than the $40+/m2 from most other places.

 

 

We will include some pebble work as well just to keep the theme going from front too back.

 

There will be a garden bed along the Northern side outside the kitchen window so we aren't looking out over a beautiful fence and we're looking at doing some sleeper/wood finishes to the area for something different.

 

 

Most of the plants will be native or easy maintenance as we are not avid gardeners!  The only thing I will look at going is a herb garden but I think that is enough to test my green thumb!

The rest of the backyard will be lawn at this stage, I'm thinking of having some bamboo screening along the back fence and to cover the garden shed and we'd love to have a seating/fire pit area out the back as well.  But for the moment costs are a big thing and we'd rather have it function and looking complete now than a dirt patch while we wait for the funds. Ands things like that can be easily added down the line.

Counting Down to Days to PCI

Yep that's right, with less than a week now to PCI things are getting exciting and can't come fast enough! 

We had a bit of a nosey this evening as we don't have another time to walk through before then but from what we could see the carpets are in, lighting/electrical fittings have starting to be installed, I could also get a glimpse of the mirror in the ensuite which also showed the reflection of the shower frame (or should I say glass as it's frameless!), plus the frameless mirror doors of the built in's are also in place as well.

Our door handle!

View from the back window down the hall way

Kitchen

Carpet in the master bedroom and the double door has also been stained.

Our outside lights!

PCI Date Set!

No new pics as they where grouting the floor tiles yesterday when we went by but we've set a date for PCI on 22nd May and all going well hopefully we'll have handover on the 3rd June!  Fingers crossed all goes well!

Wait I lie ... I just remembered I hadn't posted these yet:

Our staining has been done for the front door and window, plus yesterday when I we went through the door handle was on as well.

Floor tiles placed and grouting happened yesterday.