Can't believe that it has been a week since we had our final inspection, handover and moving to our new house. It was a frantic but exciting week. It was a foggy morning on the 28th June, I went to meet the SS on-site for the final inspection, took us less than an hour going over the PCI list. Also noticed the QA inspection list ticked off and all done with. It was impressive that all of our issues have been addressed with the exception of the painting of 2 window lintels, adjustment of wardrobe door in one of the bedrooms and re-fixing of one light in the cinema room which the SS promised to be all done in the afternoon along with the delivery of the appliances and hot water cylinder. No letter of undertaking for these items as we were confident that the SS will do what he promised (and they did get done). Then off to the bank to collect the bank cheque. Also made a quick call to our city council to arrange delivery of our rubbish wheelie bins. At 1.30pm, I was at the CH office for the settlement and handing over of keys, warranty docs, etc. and yeah, the traditional present from them in the form of a gift card. Rang Mr Flipflop (my hubby) who just finished work and told him I'm on my way to meet him at our rental place to start loading some of our stuff on a mini-truck that he borrowed from his workmate. We didn't hire a removalist truck because we don't have that much to move. While we were loading our stuff, got a phone call from Dual Heat technician telling me he's on his way to do the commissioning of our heating and cooling systems. So, off I went to meet him at our new house. The commissioning was smooth and non-eventful, the technician was a middle-aged guy who has been doing the job for 20 odd years so he certainly knows what he was doing. Meanwhile, Mr Flipflop got help from male friends and family to move our stuff. All the small things were left to be moved on Wednesday.
Telstra connected our phone line on Wednesday and arranged for our SMART Velocity (broadband) connection. Onsite Blinds also came on Wednesday to cut and install our eco-wood blinds purchased from Freedom. The blinds looked like they were custom-made once they were up on our windows.
On Thursday morning, the concreters started working on our driveway and pathways - aggregate on the driveway and plain concrete on the sides of the house. By the way, we ended up getting our stone mix from Cranbourne Premix as they are also a preferred supplier by our contractor. The stone mix was called Jamieson which is quite similar to the Sunrise we have previously chosen from Mentone Premix. We are very pleased with the end result. Fences will come hopefully next week.
http://www.cranbournepremix.com.au/galleries/exposed-aggregate-sample-gallery/
Carlisle Homes has done a fantastic job on our house that we would recommend them to anyone thinking of building their own house. From site start to completion, the build took only 5 months which normally for a double-storey house could take longer with other builders. The only thing that we aren't happy about is the small Telstra box they installed in the garage - it didn't have enough space to house the modem and cables so that the door could not be shut as per photo below:
What follows now are the most recent photos, as promised to our blog mates and friends.
 |
| Cinema Room |
 |
| Dining Area |
 |
| Kitchen |
 |
| Family Room |
 |
| The Hallway |
 |
| Powder Room |
 |
| Balcony |
 |
| Master Bedroom Ensuite |
 |
| Bathroom |
 |
| Bedroom 4 |
 |
 |
| Kitchen Appliances |
 |
| Plain Concrete on one side of house |
 |
| Plain concrete on other side of house |
 |
| Lounge Room |
 |
| Driveway works |
 |
| Dining Area |
 |
| Family Room |
 |
| Kitchen Island Bench |
 |
| Kitchen all dressed up |
 |
| Cinema Room |
 |
| Exposed Aggregate on Driveway |
 |
 |
| Son's Bedroom |
 |
| Daughter's Bedroom |
 |
