Friday, September 30, 2011

Hear Ye, Hear Ye!


Melbourne was hit by wild storms on Wednesday!  Took me three hours to get home from work due to the Cranbourne train being cancelled.  Frustrated and was having all these crazy thoughts that maybe it was a bad idea to buy a house 45 kms away from work which takes me on normal days an hour and half max to travel by train.  And all these news about the GFC and house prices sliding down etc. etc. make me sick in the tummy!

Enough of my sad story!  On to the building journey, yes, it ain't all finished yet, as we still have the 3 month "100-point" warranty inspection that took place today.  Our Inspector was a nice chap who has a good eye on spotting issues that I missed noting down like doors not properly shutting and balcony skirting tiles needing more silicone.  Main  issues we brought up were: draft entering the front door due to missing rubber linings or weather seals; leak stains on the ceiling from roof above our dining area; and leaking window on our ensuite during heavy rains (somehow all these heavy rains that passed did us good by testing the weather tightness of our house, lol!). The house was also checked for floor squeaks and found the area between the master's bedroom and stair landing having a bit of problem which we agreed to monitor and raise issue at 12 month stage.  We also asked for CH to send someone to check our insulation in the roof.  All these and some minor items to be attended were noted on the warranty/structural inspection certificate issued to us after the hour-long inspection. We were given a time-frame of about a month for all these issues to be resolved which we know CH will deliver as they always have in the past. We were also given a "Carlisle Home Owners Checklist"  and Client Warranty Contact Numbers to make sure we get all the information we need to keep our house in perfect shape.


A couple of days ago, our garage door was making funny noises and we rang Gliderol the supplier to fix it for us which they did (well done!).  We haven't had the chance to try our security alarm yet which is quite slack of us but we'll get into that within the next few days.  Hubby had been busy with his DIY landscaping through the winter season,  shedding a few kgs along the process which did him good!  Almost done now, just need to shop for a few more outdoor furniture's and decor for finishing touches.  Inside the house, we have finished replacing our batten lights with down-lights, pendant lights and chandelier. Very pleased with the results indeed!  Next up will be furnishing our bare looking study room and entry hall area , etc. etc.  Here's a few snaps we took today....


DIY retaining wall and instant turf grass
Retaining wall blocks from Austral Bricks
http://www.australbricks.com/au



English boxes for the driveway

Our bare looking study room

Lounge with LED down-lights and pendant light


Pendant Light up close
View from the family room

DIY plant box outside family room

Family room with new down-lights

Glass pendant lights for the breakfast bar


Dining area chandelier from Beacon Lighting
http://www.beaconlighting.com.au/index.php




Cinema has now roller blinds bought on-line
http://www.halfpriceblinds.com.au/index.php



Hubby's DIY landscaping and paving
Pavers from Lyndpark Home & Garden Centre


The all-important clothes line

Stone bench from Casey Auctions
http://www.caseyauctions.com.au/

DIY alfresco tiling

Pebbles from Diaco's & pots from Bunnings
http://www.diacos.com.au/
http://www.bunnings.com.au/


Plants from Chris & Marie's
http://www.hellohello.com.au/
Still waiting for the lawn seeds to grow




Flipflop flowers in the bathroom

Eco-blinds from Freedom
http://www.freedom.com.au/



Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Home Sweet Home



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