Floors are done and dusty (very dusty)

Floors went  down this week, the floor shows up dust from the outside very easily but just as easy to remove. The flooring is vinyl plank flooring done by Carpet Choice Edwardstown, we are happy with the look but the room needs quite a bit of work to make it home  We went dark with the carpet as a feature because we only have carpet in a few room.

Yee Haaa, we've crosed the finish line

We got the keys to our new house yesterday, our journey has crossed a major mile stone, not the last one but one of great significance. Everything went well at handover, the SS even fixed a couple of small things whilst he was there. The only "major" issue was the lack of automatic roller door controls, a simple over sight that will be rectified in a few days. Other than that we are very happy and we now have an up hill climb to get all the outside bits finished and keep the dirt out.

A few indoor shots

Upon checking the outside of the house this morning I discovered to my horror that the side door was unlocked. I was really concerned as we had the Homestead sign dumped on our front lawn overnight by some kids, thankfully every thing is OK. But now it's given me a chance to have some real quite time in the house and do some measuring up and happy snaps.

Panel Door on

Another big item was finally added today, the panel lift door for the garage went on and I am very happy with the colour. The range hood was fitted yesterday and the kitchen is starting to come together slowly.

The cleaning and detailing has begun

Gas main connected, plumbing all finished, shower screens fitted and I have installed the storm water down the muddy side of the house. Got a phone call from the SS on Friday telling that the cleaners will be in on the weekend and the practical completion inspection will happen on Monday. Booked in the flooring people for the 17th of Nov. and the air-conditioner (evaporative ducted) will be fitted last week of November.

Some pictures will be posted when the cleaning is finished.

Power, tiles and painted

Last week the painter and tiler started, this week they have finished. The electrical is 99% done, and on Saturday the guy measured up for the shower screens. So now it's just the final fit out for the bathrooms, panel lift door fitment, kitchen range / range hood fitment, mains gas and a really good clean up. So at this stage we are looking at a hand over date of early Nov, approx 2 months early. Deposit paid on flooring, aircond and paving, fencing tba.

Painting has begun

Things are happening so quick I can barely keep up, almost everyday there has been some level of work being started or completed. Yesterday morning I see them rendering the front pillars, thinking great they will paint them probably next week, get home tonight and there are painted.

Anyway here's the front of house again, getting closer to what it will look like finished. The panel door will be paper bark, same as fascia's.

Locked out and locked up

We achieved lock up status this week, kitchen cupboards were delivered today together with a sundry of other items including the kitchen sink.
I received building approval earlier in the week for my shed and the site for said shed is being prepared this weekend. I guess my next items to buy will be storm water pipe and drainage bits and pieces. Fencing is another biggy that needs some attention and some dollars no doubt, a lot of DIY coming up. Its actually looking more than likely we will get the house before Xmas, wet area tiling, electrical, painting, a bit of a clean up and snap we are there.

Bricking finished week 2

And in a blur of cement and brick the house has been bricked. Very happy and they only stopped once for the rain. Rewards of beer and wine followed. The day after they finished bricking the insulation and gyp-rock was delivered.

The columns will be rendered

Rear of house

Bricking has started week 1

Big week last week, the brickies are on-site and da brickin' has started. It had been a tense time prior to seeing the bricks in place, having held the samples for so long and wondering what they will look like on mass combined with the roof, guttering and fascia's. I'm relieved some what, in fact I am quite happy with our selections, they seem to work well together.

Bricks, electrical, plumbing and MUD

Bricks are on site and what mess we have in our front yard. Wettest August since 1992 and it's a quagmire. I'm feeling sorry for the brickies already. The electrical is finished, although we need one small amendment made in the home theatre. Plumbing is done and looking good. The roof tilers finished last week but have not taken down the safety railing yet. All looking good and winter can't go on much longer.

Roof tiles and mud

We had our tiles delivered Monday and they started putting up the tiles today. Looks like the truck delivering them had a time of it, at least my un-compacted trench is slightly more compacted now. The tiles look a lot lighter than I thought they would, maybe just the angle of the light and time day (late).

Frames and Gutters

One month after the timber was delivered for the frames we have a finished house frame complete with guttering. Starting to get exited now, being able to walk through a actual building instead of a paper design is amazing.

A SLAB walked into a bar.......

WOOT Woooooottt!!

We have a slab, the lads did a great job. Noisy as hell but worked from 6.30am to 7.45pm. From now on it's just sit back and pay the builder, and doing the odd checking as well. Had the first meeting with the SS on Tuesday to review the slab and all is good. The bottom shot shows the outdoor area, it looks small in this photo but it's a good size

Mesh, Mud and Rain

A day after they finished the trenching they started getting the plumbing and mesh all sorted. It appears that my worries with the concrete left by the demo team amounted to nothing and all is looking good. All I need now is for it to stop raining for a few days for the form work to be completed and the slab will be poured. It's amazing how small the house looks when it's at this stage, thank god we had a display home to walk through

Trenches and soil

It's been an interesting week, I've gone from being in control to being out of control and then back in control all with in a few days of each other. However finally we have our trenches finished ready for the plumbing install and then concreting. The demolition company that I used did a shonk job, they failed to remove a sizable piece of concrete approx 400mm below the top surface. Fingers crossed it will be OK as only the kitchen sink drain sits right on top of this area, if it needs to be removed it will cost me $$ and the builder time which we both can't afford. Other than that the job of soil removal and trenching has gone quite well, once the contractors made contact with each other it all went smoothly. Now I just have to pray that it does not rain to heavily this week prior to the concrete pore.

On winters door step

Hey all, well things are happening. Last week we had our sign erected which in turn angered the rain gods as it did not stop all weekend. As an apeasment a dunny was placed on the block which appered to please the rain gods and the rain stopped. Unfortunatly the block was too sodden to walk on let alone drive on so the site prep was delayed by three days. But today we have a level block and by tomorrows end we should have a block ready for footing excavation works. Photo's of said works are few and far between as it's too dark or too wet to capture. There should a clear spot on the weekend to photograph the site works.

GRrrrrr......$$$$

We had been expecting it, hoping they would understand and realise that we had done everything within our power to be on time. But NO, they slapped us with a cost penalty for breaching the 90 day time limit within the contract, $4400 is not a lot in the bigger scheme of things but it does mean we still have to find it from somewhere. Anyway's the site prep guy is rocking up next week to get a start on the block and then a slab will "magically" appear soon afterward. Fingers crossed the rain holds off for a few more weeks.

Green light

What a week it's been, demolition completed and we received development approval. AC demolition did a really good job on our block, they have been snowed under with work lately but they got the job done in the nick of time. Next step is to get the block resurveyed prior to site prep, a slab is not to far away.

We have a cleared block

It does stuff, bad stuff to old houses

 

As promised the Heavy armored division has arrived, better late than never

Selections done

Finished selections this week, hell of a process. I'm kicking myself a little as I should have done more homework prior to the meeting. However we are happy with our choice of brick and I think the roof tile should will work in. Lighting was where I should have put in more thought as I was caught off gaurd and it was the one thing I really wanted to get right. We still have not signed off on anything yet so maybe a few things will be revisited over the next week. Choosing front of house colouring and trying to picture what it is all going to look like has been my biggest struggle so far.

On another front the demolition started this week, the cladding has been removed and now we wait for the heavy mech division to roll in and clear the block.

Wooot !!!! April the 1st

Well after a couple of months waiting things are really starting to happen, had a phone call from the builder today to arrange selections and get things sorted. The process is starting to get exiting.

March update

Waiting, waiting, waiting, all of March has been waiting game. Waiting for council, waiting for banks, builders, banks, council, back to the banks. But finally something actually happened, the BANK gave the OK to demolish. Believe it or not the council actually beat the bank. So now the real game is back on and we are booked in for the 12th of April for demo. I've had word from the builder that our plans have been rubber stamped by the councils planning dept. so fingers crossed developement approval should be sorted soon. I've got the site prep guy ready to roll and hopefully the builder will be on site sometime in May.

Feb 2010 update

Well it's been one month since my last post, in this time we have sorting out our respective financial messes and fingers crossed by next week I will have something to take to the bank. Homestead lodged our plans with council last week and today I finally lodged the demolition application. We had the power disconnected by ETSA this week, I only placed the requisition for disconnect two weeks ago, very fast. Hopefully the council will come back with a fast approval for demo as the demo guys are chaffing at the bit.

It's official, we've signed up

After an extended break and some weeks of soul searching we actually signed up to Homestead tonight. There really wasn't that much soul searching, just the Xmas break and some bloody hot Adelaide weather. We received notification tonight that our tenant is moving out this weekend so the next step is to get the services disconnected and the demo guys in. Bank finance is the next hurdle, not a biggy but an important one to get right. 2010 is going to be a busy year.