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


9 comments:

  1. Congratulations Flipflop Family - well done in only a week. All looks gorgeous with colours complimenting beautifully.

    Wishing you many years of happiness and enjoyment with your children in your family home.

    Even some plants in position!! We're tackling our front mud at present....getting there, oh! I dream of turf.

    Home Sweet Home.

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  2. Oh Flipflop, it's gorgeous!

    I love looking at other Carlisle builds. The houses just seem so familiar and homely.

    As Deb said, you'd done a fantastic job in just a week. You must be so thrilled to be in and having it looking so settled?

    Thanks for posting the piccies, and as I said on the forum, that you so very very much for sharing your journey with us. Have loved every step! (I'm getting all emotional).

    Take care and enjoy the happily ever after :)

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  3. Thanks Deb and Reinsey.

    Knowing that there are people out there like you who appreciate our blog motivated us to squeeze in sometime to update our blog.

    Cheers to all of us who made the right decision to build with Carlisle Homes....

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  4. Congratulations :-) your house looks awesome ;-)
    I have also enjoyed following your blog & only wish you lots of great memories as a family ;-)
    Carlisle built your house super quick! I'm currently at 140 days & still onlybat bricking with PD! Arhhgggh lol
    Many thanks for sharing your journey ;-)

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  5. Congrats again FlipFlop...Ur house looks beautiful and nice work with all the decor in a weeks time..nice idea on getting concrete done on the sides..looks very clean. Thanks again for sharing the pictures.

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  6. Wow wonderful Flipflop...your house looks beautiful and you have made it a fully complete home within a week..! what a great job you have done there..you must be very very happy now that you are the owner of that wonderful house..!

    Your blog has been very very useful for us and whenever we were not sure about something in our build the very first thing we did was (actually we are still doing:)) to check your blog and see how it happened in yours..we always found something to answer our questions in your blog..you never forgot to share anything new that you got to know whether it was blinds, driveways. Thank you very much for being such nice to us..!
    I wish you and your family happiness and success in every single day of your life in your lovely house..!! Keep in touch..!

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  7. Hi there.

    Just wondering, how steep is your driveway?

    For us, we will have a 5.5m long driveway with 80cm fall.

    I am secretly hoping that it would look something like yours. =)

    Raph

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  8. Home sweet home indeed! I couldn’t be happier for you to see this house finished. You’ve been waiting for this and now here it is, ready for move in. From the exterior to the interior, everything looks great. What’s very noticeable in your house is the front, which is very edgy and bold. With good landscape, I’m sure this is going to be even more attention-grabbing. ->Blair Construction L.L.C

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