Manhole-s!

It's been a very busy week at home so haven't been stalking The Range as often as we have been. Did manage to finalise curtains and blinds so hopefully will have them installed before we move in.

The other big job we booked in was the installation of our evaporative cooling. Our kind SS agreed to let us install it prior to handover which was a bonus. Only problem was, the installer turned up on the day to find no man hole had been cut in the ceiling, therefore no access. Called our SS and found it was an oversight and wouldn't be done till 2 days later! Luckily for us the installer's not charging us extra to come out again.

So this manhole business. On our plans, it's located in one of the bedrooms. Not sure why we've never noticed this but I really don't like the idea of the manhole being in a bedroom. No big deal but I just don't like it. Queried with the SS who was surprised by it's location too. He looked into it and was happy to inform me that it really wasn't a suitable place anyway as there isn't enough room at that point of the roof for a someone to get through. I suggested a spot in the hallway outside the upstairs toilet. A nice little tucked away spot. He said no problems and as far as I know, the hole was cut and a/c installed.

Spoke to my SS after the installation and turns out the spot I wanted was not possible either because there was a truss running along the middle of the hallway in question. Hmmm, how did he know this after the ceiling has been plastered up? He found it after cutting a hole of course! Further along the hallway was also no good because there was a piece of wide timber board right behind the plaster. Again, how could he possibly tell with the plaster up? He found it after cutting another hole of course!!! Around the corner above the living space was suitable though thank god. Yes, a 3rd hole in the ceiling. Fortunately 3rd time lucky!

The holes will get patched up and won't be noticeable I'm told. They better not be!!!! Guess it's my fault for asking for an adhoc change from the plan but boy, had I known it would result in 3 gapping holes in the ceiling I probably would have left the manhole in the bedroom!

At least the air conditioning is in now though I do have to find out why 1 of the 6 vents is noticeably smaller than the others. My observant neighbour also pointed out that they've used white pipes against our darkish roof. Odd. Forgot to grab a pic of the unit today so will get one next time.

We also appear to be getting our balustrade soon. The scaffold's up in prep for the installation of it hopefully next week.

Being a long weekend, we were surprised that both the brickie and carpenter was in today. Great to finally see those brick and mortar issues finally being rectified. It's only taken 3 months but at least they're now fixed to our satisfaction.

There is a lot to be done to meet the promised mid April completion, a LOT. We are excited but also getting rather nervous. We've recently sold our house and did allow for 3 weeks delay in building but with the current pace, 3 weeks might not be enough!

A Saturday Inspection

We were pleasantly surprised when our SS told us that the carpenter was going to be in on Saturday to finish off majority of the carpentry work like skirting and fixes here and there. Thought we'd take the opportunity to drop by and check out the house.

I was super keen to see how the caesar stone benchtops were looking. We decided in the end to upgrade for all bathrooms so hopefully the finished look will be well worth it. The extra 20mm thickness we got for the kitchen benchtop looks great too despite hubby not being 100% on the bullnose edging that I chose. He prefers the square edge which would be more modern looking but I was thinking of the kids bumping their heads!

Pic of bathroom cabinet and caesar stone bench top.

That lovely smashed in niche hole I mentioned in previous post has now been cleaned up. Still needs plaster lining but at least it looks like a feature now and not an accident!

Ooooooooh and here's that kitchen vac that I am just dying to try!!! Call me a sucker but when they told me I can have a floor vac that sucks in any dirt I sweep towards it. Well, like I said, call me a sucker :) Doesn't look like much now but should be an awesome lazy, ahem... efficiency tool!

Ah, and here's the best part about the home!!! Our family :) I can see little miss muffet waving passers by from the glass balcony all day long. Now, step away from the edge Dad!

One of the reasons we chose this block is it's proximity to one of the wetlands in the estate. Can't see the water behind the trees in this pic but its just the view from one of the upstairs bedroom. A nice spot for a walk and hopefully a little swim for the dogs. Not sure about the rules and restrictions yet but of course when we purchased the block, Australand was like 'of course your dogs can swim in it!' Some 18mths later, we're thinking the wildlife may not appreciate it.' It is still a very dog friendly area though with walking tracks and all.... or has that changed too. mmm.. will have to wait and see.

Bits and Pieces

We have a front door! Nice little finish to make it a home :) Love our extra wide timber door. It will be finished with a merbau stain which should complement the bricks nicely.

Water proofing of the wet areas was also finished last week. Cant wait till tiles go in!

And that all important under stair storage space now has a customised door. Our carpenter and site superviser's been great at accommodating to our late requests. Just trying to decide on the locking system at the moment. The carpenter suggested a clip in method so there's no lock visible from the outside but then its just closed and not locked. Given my 2yo loves exploring it may turn into a perfect hiding spot for her which is no good for mummy. So we've decided on a flat key lock to give us the option of locking if it proves too troublesome.

The other important thing that finished last week was the skirting and architraves. This completed, we are now ready for painting!! Woohoo, so excited for the finished look. It also means we can get measure and quote for curtain and blinds which I'm really keen to have before we move in. I've had a few quotes done 12 months ago and after a follow up, Complete Blinds Ringwood is still the most competitive. We're pretty happy with their service too so have put in a deposit.

Air conditioning was the other thing we've been sourcing quotes for. Cold Flow has given us the best price for a Breezair unit and stoked that they can install prior to completion. We probably could have waited another 6mths before warmer weather hits again but as it's a big installation job (scaffolding required), I rather it all done before we move in with the kids. Life is so much more complicated with kids! But yes, oh so joyful too hehe... can't forget that :)

So with 6 odd weeks to go before the expected completion date, there are still a 'lot' of bits and pieces to do and fix.

1/ The niche they forgot about - The plasterer got a bit excited and plastered over 1 of the 2 wall niches we paid for (yes we paid to have a hole in the wall! :) We told the SS and he said easily fixed. mmm... I guess he didn't say 'elegantly' fixed. It will be finished off with more finesse :)

2/ The other hole in the plaster - I was pretty shocked when I saw this. It's actually the pipes and stuff from the meter box which is supposed to be 'behind' the plaster. Somehow, they've miscalculated the position of the plaster and yes, the pipes jut into the room! Their first attempt to fix it was to hammer the pipes back but that obviously didn't work. The solution now is to put another piece of plaster board over the existing one. That sounded easy enough but as they've already done the cornices, these will have to be removed and redone also. All easy but a hassle and another item on the to-do (or re-do) list.

3/ The odd pipe front of house - It's called a separator apparently but I have no idea what it's for and why it's frankly, so ugly! It's the first thing you see when you approach the front door so no, we're not happy with it. Spoke to the SS and he said there should be another way to do it and will get onto the plumber. There has been a few more 'aesthetic' things we've complained about but so happy that the SS has been willing to rectify. Just a matter of time now I guess.

Anyway, so we're almost there. Cannot believe we bought this block Aug 09 and only started building in June last year. What a journey!

Kitchen installed!!!!

Why are all my blog titles ending with exclamation marks? Probably because I'm a wee bit excited :))) Our kitchen arrived and in about a week, has been installed. So glad we upgraded to get the microwave tower, the original position under the island bench was just not going to work with 2 young kids. My helpful 2yo would have cooked all her plastic toys in no time! Looking forward to the splash back and caesar bench top.

The gutters and downpipes are in as well. We had to change the colour to meet design guidelines of the estate. Looking forward to the finished look.

Now my husband had a brilliant idea the other day when he saw the stairs again. All that empty space underneath would be great for storage! We spoke to our site supervisor about putting in a door for access and looks like it will be done sometime this week. Very cool. So happy we thought of that before it go plastered up. Going to come in very handy.

Electricals have started with the rumpus room. Rest should be done by early next week I suspect.

Kitchen cabinets!! Woohoo!!

So once the plaster was done, we were all ready for the fixing. It was very exciting to see the kitchen cupboards arrive, woohoo! We selected these so long ago that it's great to see them again. They're going to look great against the floorboards we've chosen for the bottom floor too. Our home is starting to come together :)

And lookee lookee!!! we have stairs :))) They look fantastic and after a quality stain are going to look amazing. We considered carpeting them, thinking they'd be safer for the kids but in the end decided we really do prefer the timber look and hey, the kids are going to grow up right?

The cornices also got done over the last week (boy things do fly after Lock Up). Little by little, the rooms are looking more 'finished'. Pretty happy with the quality too.

Brickwork finally fixed!

Finally the brickwork we've been complaining about since before Christmas has been fixed! Basically we wanted all the window sills to be redone as we weren't happy with the quality. ie. crooked sill, chunky mortar. Anyway, stoked that Metricon agreed to fix them and that after over a month of chasing them up, it's finally happened.

Photo of some of the repaired window sills.

Garage roof and plaster

The garage roof was finally started despite brick work finishing a couple weeks ago. There were lots of other things being addressed in the meantime (including the metal support beam along the garage door that had to be replaced) so we weren't too stressed. It was nice to se it covered up though, like another important piece of the puzzle! It's our extra wide garage (given we couldn't get a 3 car garage!) to fit our 2 cars through with space to open side doors and room up the back for the dog beds :)

The other significant work has been the plaster! It took all but 3 days andthe entire house had been plastered! We were so excited to see it as we weren't expecting it for another week. Amazing what a difference it makes when the walls go in and you're suddenly walking in and out of rooms!

The master bedroom...

Family room.. aka, kids room.

Painting will occur in a couple weeks apparently. Can't wait!