I'm Coming Home

I'm coming home I'm coming home
Tell the world I'm coming home
Let the rain wash away...
All the pains of yesterday

I know my kingdom awaits
They've forgiven my mistakes
I'm coming home I'm coming home
Tell the world I'm coming home...

We're coming home people!! Roll out the red carpet! Get the fireworks! Bring on the trumpets and the parade!

Ok that's way over the top and all of them don't necessarily need to happen :) but nonetheless we still got our keys!

So after 9 months and 10 days or 286 days, on Wednesday 22 February 2012, there we are with the key to our home, our sky island.

Hand modeled by our son

We were supposed to get them last December but still judging from the quality of the build, I think I will accept the fact that it is late.  However this would only mean that it is the end of Metricon's construction part.  Before we can move in, we still need to organise the flooring to be installed and the game of waiting isn't over as yet.  I can only now wished that we went with the complete build package with Metricon as at least they include the floor coverings and we can move in right away after the handover...

Landscaping is still need to be done, blinds and hopefully if we have enough funds, shutters and also fencing.

All our sides of neighbor have given the go ahead to build the fence and to do the necessary as we see fit.  They really are wonderful neighbors.

Part of the landscape is in fact nearly done.  Like I promise I will write a separate post about this and the flooring as well.

But here is our dream home at handover.

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.

PCI. How did it go.

As our last post mentioned, we had our PCI walkthrough last week.

Thanks to Karla with the mother of all checklist, the walkthrough was smooth and we actually have a plan and know what to look for.

We've also been inside the house a few times before the PCI and we had a good look through around the house in preparation for our PCI.  In addition to the list, we felt we are prepared to show our supervisor what we are not happy with.

In all honesty, however, we find very little fault or defects with the quality of the build.  Our supervisor is a man of his word and cleaned everything prior to our appointment.  He guided us into every room and explained to us, if there is anything that needs explanation, very thoroughly and more importantly he didn't rush us to finish our inspection.

I've heard some stories from other people around the area saying that their supervisor rushed them to complete their inspection and got them to sign that the house is basically near perfect.

There is not much blue sticker around the house.  We had a good look on the level and bumps on the ceiling and on the slab.  Tested the light switch and power points.  Check the cornices and skirting board.  Test all windows and doors.  Opening and closing the cupboards.  Tested the water, etc. as you would before you buy a house.

Paint work was excellent and I really couldn't find any patchy spot for the paint as you normally would around the corner after you fix something.  At least that should be visible but nothing to be seen around our house.

Only some of the minor stuff like all of bathroom gaps need another seal, missing light fittings (but it turns out that all appliances and fittings will be fitted after we move in and we are ready), mortar joint on the brickwork needs some touch up and servicing the windows so that it rolls easily.  That is all they need to fix from our list.  Our supervisor said that it wouldn't take long for him to finish and as of today our dream house is ready for hand over.

That is our next step.  Get a bank cheque from our bank, have another walkthrough with our supervisor and if we are happy, hand him over the cheque and he will give us the key to our dream house.

So where's the hold up?  Why haven't we got our keys yet?

Well it is simply because we haven't got the bank cheque yet...

I believe I've posted something about our banks many months ago.  Well that opinion hasn't change until today or in the foreseeable future and don't even mention our broker...

The request to draw the cheque for final payment was made last week and today there is still no sight of cheque to be seen in our mailbox or the bank branch.  Apparently it'll take them 6 - 9 days to send the cheque to us...

It is what it is and it's another setback for us.  So close yet so far.

We all only wish that the cheque would come through early next week so we can get the keys already!

PS. If you like a copy of the PCI checklist, I am more than happy to share that with you.  Please use the "Contact Us" page to... well... contact us.

Just to note that there are 44 pages in this document (you heard me correct, I kid you not), so my recommendation is to read it carefully and change the document to suit your project home.

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:

And the tiling continues...

This feels like a dejavu post when I was writing about our bricking stage.

Not so much happening in our building journey last week and this week other than tiling and tiling and tiling...  Frustrating when you are only one stage away from completion.

The progress have been pretty slow in our construction and there is a slim chance that we will move in before Christmas as it is only about 5 weeks away.  To get to the completion or hand over stage, the contract variation that we request need to be provided and the house needs to be ready for us to "live in" practically.

However, upon completion or handing over and getting the keys, I still need to arrange for the flooring guys to come in and do their bit.  There is also fencing and landscaping added to that to do list.

So we may not be able to move in to our new house until the new year...




Ensuite



Shower in ensuite

President bath tub (that's a big tub)

Upstairs bathroom



Laundry



Tiles Tiles Tiles...

Delivered but not installed...  At least that was from last weekend.  Hopefully this will be a different story when we visit tomorrow.

On another update, our wheather board wall has apparently been painted with the color we wanted. 

Tiles delivered

Tiling preparation

Kitchen sink

Wheather board painted

The Show Goes On...

We are now officially at "Fixing" stage, in Metricon's term of stage progression.  This would only mean that this is the last stage before the D-Day, which is the "Completion" stage or some might call it the "Handover" stage.

Although from our recent visit, it doesn't feel like it was at fixing stage as our horizontal kitchen window was pulled out from the wall!  I suspect that they needed the extra space to put the caesarstone benchtop on!  I am being biased here but I'm really loving our selection of the color :)

Other "fixing" they have installed are the sinks for kitchen, laundry and all the bathrooms.  I must say they are looking good and we can't wait to move in!  Hopefully we are not far from it... :)  I have also been told that tiling has commenced on 18 Oct.

Despite having the kitchen window pulled out,  I guess The Show Goes On...  (This video below does play the song "The Show Goes On" by Lupe Fiasco, it just that I like this version better :)).

Alright enough talking from me, here are some illustrations of what has been happening.



Where is the window?!?!?!?!?



There it is... but why is it there??



Kitchen sink and benchtop installed... checked



Laundry sink and benchtop installed... checked

Powder room sink and benchtop installed... checked

Bathroom sink and benchtop installed... checked

Ensuite sinks and benchtop installed... checked

Until the next update :)

Breaking and Entering

Well there is not much to report or update from our last visit as we've just settled our bills with Di Lorenzo earlier this week.

I have let our SS know about this and he said he will organise the tiler to start working on them as soon as the order comes through.

We did, however, from our recent visit found that the back door was unlocked!  It appears to be inviting and beckoning to be broken into... (of course you wouldn't want this happen when the house is finished and ready to be lived in :)).

So this is a golden opportunity for me to take pictures of the interior of the house, including the kitchen!!

Kitchen reloaded!

Same kitchen with different angle :)

Above the fridge wine rack

I have had few people asking us about the location of this wine rack.  Refrigerator being the electrical nature as it is produces heat from the mechanical motor installed at the back of the fridge.  Some wine apparently can't be exposed to this sort of heat and will damage the content of the wine.

Obviously we didn't know about this as we rarely drink alcohol and all of our collection of wines are either gifts from friends or we actually bought them from the duty free shop at the airport because they are so cheap!  So despite the fact that we rarely drink alcohol, we still buy them just for the sheer decoration value out of it.

Moving on with the rest of the pictures...

Laundry up close and personal

President bathtub - Ensuite

Shower - Ensuite

Main Bathroom

Staircases

Entry to the main bedroom with the translucent glass door

I've also taken some picture of other things that happens around our place.

The wind has been quite strong this week that it blew the porta-loo outside out of it's place.

The bridge behind our place is also nearing it's completion.

Help!! We're locked out!!

We are now officially locked out from our own home.  At least the lock up stage can now be verified with having the locked door at the front and back...

It was quite a late visit on Saturday night as we waited for the kids to be fresh before we can do any activities during the day. When we get to our house it was already quite dark making taking pictures very difficult. I had my big flash with me but not sure if it's going to be enough. But I took some pictures anyway just to see how it turns out.

We noticed that we now have front entry door!! Well let's just say that we now have doors all around the entrance to the house. The doors were locked and obviously, it's not possible for us to go inside now unless we find a way to sneak in! But we didn't. We checked all around the house and all doors are locked securely including the bi-folds door is now covered with some panels.

So I guess it's going to be difficult from here on to gain entry to the house unless the tradies leave one of the door open...

Still, I've noticed that the walls have been painted and the cornices are up also. Not sure if they are finished as it was too dark to see inside the house. My guess is from the last update, they should now have started on the staircase.

Some picture for illustration entertainment:

Laundry door

Is that our translucent internal door??  Why is it doing outside??

Yay!! Our front entry Windsor 6G has been delivered and installed... We can't get in now :(