Nearly There!

We are *THIS* close to getting our keys to the house.

I finally received the bank cheque in the mail today after what it seems to be an endless argument between me and the bank...  Don't ask, I'd rather not re-visit that whole experience again.

I immediately ring our site supervisor to arrange a new time for the handover.  As much as I like it to be tomorrow, unfortunately he is not working tomorrow...  Story of my life.

So we are booked for Wednesday morning for our handover.  YAY!!

It's been long overdue but we are glad that we know have at least a date of when we can move in.  Landscaping should be done by that time also, to which I need to post a detail about it.  I'll do that in the near future.

First thing first, getting the key to the house is our priority at the moment and flooring is going to be layed on the very same day.

Are we done yet?? P.C.I.

Nope the key is not in our hands yet but close, very close.  They're now within our reach.... hopefully.

What a week it has been for our family.  Our eldest had his first day of big school already and he seemed to enjoyed it.  I was quite nervous that he will not like going to school but all was very smooth and he was fine.  I guess it's sign that our boy is growing.  Whilst he made me proud as a parent but I'm also sad because he had been with us all this time since he was a baby.

Anyway back to the house...

So our supervisor seem to be running like headless chuck (I actually drove pass him when I was picking up my son at the school and that he was actually working).  All this time I thought he was being a slack.  I guess he gotten busy over the year as in our area there is a lot of Metricon houses being built and they seemed to be struggling to keep up with the demand.

As the title said, our supervisor arranged for us to do our PCI tomorrow!  He rang last week to arrange it with us but I'm the one now being a slack for not updating.

Well it is initially planned for tomorrow but due to the wonderful weather we've been having this week (NOT!!!) the site is covered with mud and we do need to walk to every part of the house.  We postponed it to Monday when it is a lot clearer, well according to the forecast anyway...  Should I trust them?

I've also made contact with all my soon neighbors to be about the fencing construction.  All of them are all very nice people and can't wait to move in to the area.  Generally they are all ok with the quote I sent them via the post.

I feel like over the next few months I will finally get my hands dirty that comes along with the suburban scar and quite busy doing a lot of "home improvement" chores.

I have my finger cross for Monday that everything can be settled as quickly as possible.  Like I said earlier, my son started school in the area already and it is quite inconvenience having to drive from we live now to the school.

Racing to the end...

There is not much I can write in this post as we are very near to our handover stage.

The latest update that I got today from our SS is saying that the guys has been doing some final touch-ups, cleaning and a bit of re-painting inside.

The front pier rendered brick post is going to get painted tomorrow.

He also said that his construction manager has done a walkthrough of the house today and waiting for the council inspection.

He also then invited us to do our walkthrough sometime next week when the place is cleaner and then I can get them to address any issues that we may or may not find.

I better get my act together and get the inspection check list out.

We really can't wait to say that we are finally move in!

We Got Driveway!

Hello everyone.  Welcome to the year 2012!

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful time to start the year and to those who have and will start their building journey, all the best of luck and hope that our experience maybe of some assistance to all.

Our journey has been a pretty long one with some rocky road along the way.  This would probably the last leg of the hurdle that we need to get through in order to get our house to a handover stage.

It would appear from the outside that everything is done and there is not much to do on the inside also.  Other than some fixing up to do like windows, doors not being able to close properly, site clean up, cornices are missing on top of the entrance door front portico, fly screens, paint to the rendered post and some other things that I probably have no clue about, I'd definitely say we're almost there.

However with that being said, there is apparently 5 weeks industry shut down where no tradies or supplier is working or open during the month of January until early February or so I've been told.

The frustrating part is that there has been lack of communication from Metricon and our site supervisor recently with our progress.  I had to chase them up for updates on our house.

We've also taken the step to get some quotes for dividing fences to our neighbours.  I've got two quotes that are very far apart on the amount.  There is about $2000 difference between the two quotes!  Please contact me via the "Contact Us" page if you are interested in getting the contact details for the fencing company.

From our recent visit, I noticed that the driveway has been paved and the window wasn't locked.  So I was able to sneak inside for a quick peek of the house.

I felt like a geek having to post this image.

Shower frame is up.

End of the Year but It's Not Our Handover

So here we are with a couple of more days to go before Christmas.

The house is still under construction and the wheather also hasn't been very supporting for the last couple of weeks.  We didn't hear anything from our SS also.

I decided to ring him yesterday just to find out what has been happening and when can we expect the handover date is.

Well as you might have guessed it, it is not today...  It's more like early January now barring any issue from conditions and inspections from the councils and ourselves.

Driveway should be paved this week and the concrete has been laid as it's foundation.  The nature strip driveway will stay as it is though :). 

I was advised that they were doing some work like caulking inside the house.  I didn't understand the term caulking at first but apparently my smart phone does!!  How very cool is the technology today :).

This would also be my last post for the year and I like to thank you to all who have followed our journey thus far and I hope to see you all again in the new year :).

Wishing a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Our selected pavers

Driveway

Construction is moving along towards the end and I believe we only needed the driveway to complete.  There are some other final touch ups and fixes that we'd like to see but at least all the major work is very near. 

We are hoping for the handover to happen before the Christmas.  But then again we still aren't able to move in as we still need to put down the floor boards.  Not to mention that there are still a couple of inspections to go through.

In one of my earlier post, I've alluded to the fact that I still need to do the council strip driveway because this wasn't included in our contract with Metricon...

How very wrong I was....!

Here is the prove.

This mean that I don't need to waste anymore time looking for concreter for our driveway.  Thanks to our SS.

So close yet so far...

The time for completion is just right there.  It is very close but yet so far...  I wish the rain would stop for about a week so that the driveway paving work can be completed.  Today's been very good...

We are also waiting to find out whether the council strip concrete is included in our driveway package.  This reminds me that I have to ring our SS later on today.

We also have rang the guy from Ezy Clip Fencing, who mostly do the fencing work for our area, to get a quote.  I am still new in having a house build so my understanding is that we needed to get three quotes from three different vendors and send them to our neighbours, left and right hand side as well as the back side as they should be paying half of the boundary fence.  If anyone can give me some more insights on this that would be much appreciated.

The next thing to do is also we have rung around to get some quotes in to install solar panel system.  We had a look around at the home show earlier this year but it would be nice if I can get the solar panel system installed with the construction of the house.

We then need to get the flooring guy to come out and do the final measurement.  Possibly we won't be able to do this until the handover time.

Like I said earlier, so close yet so far...

Piccies from last weekend.  We can't go inside the house as it is too muddy for us to step in.

There is a garage door now!  Our neighbour next door has finally started building.

Looks like they installed the wardrobe door as well

Can't wait to move in!

Let there be light

Not exactly but close to it anyway.  Electricity is not working as yet you see... but that will change in the next 5 - 10 days as we've just oragnised

Last week it's the lights fittings, the power point and more painting.

However today I received a breaking news from Metricon.  It would appear that the plumbing fit out has been completed and the next stages, which is the final stages, are to clean up the site and do final touch ups.  Looks like the house maybe ready by Christmas after all...

This would only mean that we need to start organising for the flooring guy to come and do their measurement, blinds and shutters, fencing around the house, landscaping, etc etc.  Still plenty to do but the main thing is to get the house ready for us to move in.  Once we have the key of course...

So moving in is not until after the Christmas - New Year period.

Quite excited with the news but hopefully it's not like some other companies that I've dealt with over the past couple of weeks, N.A.T.O.  (No Action Talk Only).  Some companies nowadays are very good at that...

We'll most likely replace these after we move in and settled.

Downlight package - Part of the promo



Heat pack for all the bathroom.



Fence Down

Nothing much to report this week other than the temporary construction fence is down and the walls have been repainted again.

It would seem like everything is progressing but very slowly.  Still to do are paving the driveway and rendering the front pillar.

Our house in picture:

Gee... we ROCK!!

The latest update that I receive last week from our SS was gyprock should be done sometime this week and Wednesday the tradies should have started on building the staircase.  Next on the list would be sealing the wet areas with waterproof sealant.

This just means that we need to get our act together and have another look at our tile selections again and finalise the bill for that.

I can't wait for a sneak peek of the staircase.  Maybe we'll to get to see it when we pay a visit this weekend.

Other than that looks like everything is well underway with the progress and we are really hoping that we can move in by Christmas.  (Please Santa can we have our early Christmas present this year)

As promised from my last post here are some photos of the Gyprock progress

Entry hallway - Feels like a train ride...

The niche in front of the sitting room

Kitchen and dining room

Rumpus room - In case I missed it, the Bi-Folds will be stained with Merbau color

Family room - The wall niche decoration

Provision for the fridge - Laundry - Pantry

Main bedroom

Ensuite

Hallway leading to leisure room

Leisure room

Wall opening to the study room

We've all seen this picture numerous time but can you tell the difference? - It's the stacker timber post!! It wasn't there last week :)  This too will be stained with Merbau

Cleaned Bricks + Scafolds + Air Conditioning + Lock Up

Wow it has been a crazy and busy times for us recently that I've neglecting to update this blog.  I'll try to update this as I go in a small chunk but at the time of this post, there may be about three weeks of back log of stuff happening to our house.

 

To summarise the update quickly, here is what has been happening:

 

• Bricks are now cleaned
• Scafolding has come down
• Air conditioning internal unit is installed
• Insulation looks like done
• Electrical wiring done
• Eaves done
• Roof done
• Cladding done
• Gyprocking is well underway
• Bi-Folding door is delivered and installed but no glass yet

About a couple of weeks ago, we finally got our SS to agree for us to come and visit for a walkthrough with him.  We told him about some contract variation that is missing and our SS efficiently fixed that for us the next day.  Wifey also pointed out a strangely shaped looking metal that looks like it's bent in the ceiling of the garage and he fixed that also.

We have also been billed for the lock up.  Metricon's definition of lock up is quite funny in my humble opionion.  Apparently their definition of a lock up is without front and rear entry doors.  (It's true, I've read the contract again and I just couldn't believe my eyes!)  So all the while we are at lock up stage, we can still roam free inside the house...

Anyway one thing that I'd like to comment on, although our SS is quite elusive with us requesting to come and visit (whilst the head office seemed to think we should be able to visit anytime we like as it is our house), he is a man of his word.

We asked him if it is possible for us to come and clean the house from the dust before the gyprock goes up.  Like Thigee, we also like to keep our house cleaned even if we don't see it and all the dust are within the walls.  But our SS assured us that he builds our house like he builds his own home and he will get the carpenter to do an entire house sweep including the insides of where the walls should be.

He kept that promise!  We came back the next week and they actually DID cleaned and sweep the entire place!  The kids also loved the place and run around nails free!  Two thumbs up to our SS.

We also saw that the gyprock has been delivered as well.

So here are some recent photos from our visit.

I haven't had time to process the gyprock photos yet so I promise that I'll do that in the next post.

Previous week after they took down the scafolding

Internal Air conditioning unit installed



Alien come and invaded our place in one night!



What a MESS!!! Kids please clean up your toys...



Feels like I'm inside the tummy of a dinosaur!  I was eaten alive!




Gyprock before it's up on the wall




See what I mean being inside the tummy?!



Bi-Folding door that would cost us around $4k to upgrade!

Cladding done and a look of our Bi-Folding door from the backyard

Geeky stuff.  Where the network switch will go.  Love the color of the bricks. I guess we didn't make the wrong choice then. :)  Don't you think so?



Our Home



Bricks Cleaned... at least for the top floor

There's not much happening in between our visits couple of weeks ago to last week.

I have been getting some updates new from our SS but he just been saying that the rain has delayed the progress yet again.

Although I can see that they've been doing some work but it's more like "move along nothing to see here" type of work.

However the most recent update from our SS was the bricks for the top floor has been cleaned and that the scaffolding is due to come down in the coming days.

We were also told that by the end of next week, it will be the lockup stage.  I don't really see how is that happening as the doors that we wanted, i.e. the bi-folding doors and the front entrance door, haven't been delivered yet.

We've also told Metricon about our concern about the 'ad hoc' fire place inside the house, to me it really looks like someone has been cooking BBQ, cause there was some sort of grill at the top, at our place and inside the house!  They said they will send someone to investigate.  If occupational health and safety is really an issue, then hopefully they can be more considerate from now on whenever they need internal heating or a BBQ place.

Other than that, there is really nothing much to report.  The pics should be able to describe what has been happening :)



Looks like the rangehood has been delivered....



but... where is it??


The bricks has been cleaned for the top floor.


Before cleaning...




After cleaning...



Miscellaneous pics around the building...



Roof got cleaned too?



What happened here??



Last week



Skypiea as it is taken today.