Turning a dream into Reality...

Landscapping

2008-04-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

So much to do.. First on the agenda is landscaping. The driveway hasn’t been done as of yet, which was totally our decision. We wanted to widen the sideway between the neighbours garage & our garage for better access, so a retaining wall was required.

Also wanted to level out most of the back yard so a second retaining wall was required.

We have 2 Beagles so we need to put fences up ASAP as I don’t think mum would want them for several weeks. Thanks to Andrew at 3D Retaining Walls, job was done in a couple of days. Now we can get the driveway laid & the back fence done.

Pic Fest!!!

2008-04-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

Family Room...

Family Room from the other side...

Theatre / Rumpus Room...

Upstairs TV Area...

Tylers Room....

Kids Bathroom...

Master Bedroom....

Ensuite...

Stairs....

Meals Area...

Kitchen...

Kitchen from the other side...

2008-04-08T23:52:00.000-07:00

Ok… It’s been long enough. I think it’s about time I updated this blog thing.

Lets see, where do I start… Well firstly we’ve moved in YAAAAAY!

We did our walk through inspection on the 21st of March with our Site Supervisor & his boss. By the time we had finished we have come up with a 4 ½ pg list of about 50 + items, mostly minor things from paintwork, plastering, scuffs & scratches etc. There were a few major issues from a dent in the laundry sink, that someone attempted to panel beat to the best of their ability, still stood out like a sore thumb. Also 4 large scratches in the timber laminate flooring in the family room, no doubt from a tradie dragging something that was too heavy to lift which left behind 4 train track like scratches. A couple of power points missing from where they should be… & the list goes on. Nothing too hard to attend to though.

They gave us a week to fix all these issues… keeping in mind it was the Easter w/end in there as well. SS rang me the following day & said all issues won’t be sorted until the following week & handover won’t be done unless everything finished… NO DEAL!!

We had sold our place back in December & settlement was supposed to be 29th Feb (as this was the date roughly we were told the house would be finished by). Because it went beyond this date we had 2 options… One was to move out & stay at mums for a month & keep everything in storage, then move it all again once the house was done, or we could rent our place until we could move in. We went with the latter option. There was no way I was moving everything TWICE! We paid 3 weeks in rent to the buyer & were ready to move in after that.

So we obviously didn’t want to pay anymore rent & they did tell us we’d be in by a certain date so we pushed them to move in on the 28th. They agreed providing the tradies could come back once we’re in & fix any unresolved issues. No Problems!

Did I tell you how much I hated moving. At least we had ½ of Friday & the rest of the w/end to do it. Went & picked up the keys from head office, signed the papers, received a nice complimentary bottle of red & a BBQ set then off we went to move. Had plenty of help (& offers), thankfully, as there was no way we would of got it done in the time we had.

Plasterers have been... Part III

2007-12-12T17:07:00.000-08:00

Went to the house on Sunday & not much had happened in the last week & a ½. In fact nothing that I could physically see. Went passed again Tuesday night, not expecting too much to have happened since the w/end... Well I was wrong.

Plasterers have been through in the last couple of days & patched & filled the whole house. Not only that, the cabinet makers have been busy too. Most of the kitchen has been installed, minus benchtops, & appliances & 1 sink, which is in the corner of the pantry in the pic. Looks like the cleaners are doing some overtime in the 2nd pic. Only took a minute for the nicely swept up pile of rubbish to be spread all over the floor. This will be the only time when the kids make a mess on the floor that we won't have to clean it up. I quite like the retro patch work on the plaster too. Shame to paint over it. 3rd pic is of the powder room sink & bench top & the 4th is of the laundry cupbourds & top.

Plasterers have been... Part II

2007-12-12T16:27:00.000-08:00

It took a few days between upstairs & down in putting the plaster up but all of the house has now been plastered. So too late now if we forgot anything like extra wiring or noggins etc.. Think we thought of everything... maybe.

More pics of downstairs with the plater in. The 1st looking through the rumpus / theatre room to our backyard & our view. Those trees are getting bigger along the nature strip & blocking a bit of the view... Maybe reqires some special meddy to help them sleep better if you know what I mean... Shhh. The 2nd is the kitchen, or at least where it will be (see following post), walk in pantry on the left, island bench in the middle, where the pipes are & byfold servery doors on the right going to the alfresco. The 3rd is looking from the back of the house through to the front door. Looking a lot smaller now with walls. & the 4th is the formal lounge. You can see the wall we knocked out to convert lounge / study into one big lounge room. The computer will be set up in the 4th bedroom so really no need for a dedicated study room.

Plasterers have been.

2007-12-12T15:11:00.000-08:00

Well as I mentioned in the last post, the plasterers have been & done the upstairs ½ of the house. They definately don't mess around once they're in there. It's amazing the difference it makes to the place with plaster over the frame, being able to see all the rooms come together, taking shape.

Took these pics on the 20th of last month (been slack posting them, sorry) at 9:00 at night so it's a little dark up there, haven't come out too bad though.

The first is from the master b/r looking at the TV area & the 1st bedroom. The second is in the reverse, looking from the TV area back to the master b/r & where the stairs will go on the RH side. The spa bath has been installed in the bathroom in the 3rd pic. The 4th is the tiny window above the double shower recess in the ensuite. The 5th is the plaster delivered ready to be fitted in downstairs.

2007-11-15T20:35:00.000-08:00

Been a while since the last post, & plenty has happened since.

Firstly all the brickwork (excluding garage) has been finished off, & that is one hell of a lot of bricks!! So all of the scaffolding has come down. Once the render goes up it will break up the overwhelming look of a “brick fortess”

Went passed on Tuesday night after work (& lucky I did) as the electrician had been & done all the wiring for the whole house! There was someone there at the time installing the alarm & vacuum. Told him who I was & he said that the electrician had been waiting for a call from me as to where to locate the telecom points before the plaster goes in. I said “When’s the plaster going in?” He said “Friday”… After a few seconds of silence & shock… & several phone calls, I got onto him & we worked it out. Went passed last night & sure enough, all points in the right spots.

We were told initially that a letter will be sent out by the builder with the details of the electrician & for us to contact him for the location of all the telephone points. That was fine, & we did receive the letter… the Friday before! That gave us basically the w/end to organise it. Thought that maybe a little longer than 4 days would have been nice. Might have got lost in the mail.
Also had to organise my guy to come out & do the wiring for the HT room… Speakers / Foxtel / extra aerial point etc… With a little persuasion of his favourite drop of bourbon, managed to get him out the following day to do it all… One less thing to take care of.

Other than the wiring, the evaporating cooling unit has been installed on the roof along with all the ducts for that & the heating. A big pile of insulation was delivered on the Tuesday & was all installed the following visit on the Wednesday. Still a pile of it for the upstairs area to be done. Should be in by now. Also the little windows that were in the previous post have been installed… Don’t they look cute! Piping for the ducted vacuum all in & alarm pre-wiring done as well. Brickies have been back & started on the garage (½ of one wall finished) & frame for the rear access door in.

As you can see, the temporary front doors have been put in, which means one thing… “Lock-up”… hence another payment installation from the builder required (10%).

Only spoken to our site supervisor once, over the phone, the whole time of the process… Today is his last day with Carlisle Homes, which might have something to do with the lack of comms with him. Hopefully we can get a little more out of the new supervisor. I have faith! One of the main reasons for contact in our circumstances is a Completion Date. I know they can’t give us an exact date, but just a rough time (maybe what month) is all we would like to know. We will be putting our existing house on the market ASAP, but without a handover date of the new house, it’s a little difficult to work out a settlement period.

Overall, very happy with their progress.. You never know, might be in earlier than expected. Fingers crossed!

More Bricks!!

2007-10-28T17:32:00.000-07:00

Sick of seeing bricks yet?? Too bad... Here's some more!

The guys are making some real progress with the north wall all done, most of the south wall done & ½ of the front & back done. Not sure if they're waiting to complete it all before they start to put in the garage. Thought they might have had the frame up by now & get the bricking done at the same time as the house. I'm guessing they're leaving it until later so they can access the back of the house easier.

South wall all done!

Front entrance taking shape. The whole front will be rendered in 2 different colours (see the picture at the start of the blog)
These are the little port hole windows.....
.....that go in here. Also one on the first floor in the master bedroom.

Bricks!!

2007-10-24T23:16:00.000-07:00

I have been past each day this week (nothing better to do obviously) & the brickies have been hard at it. They started the first level on Monday & probably got about 10 courses high all the way around. Tuesday: Done another 10 courses roughly & the scaffolding floors have moved up a notch. Wednesday: ¾'s of the way up the south wall & ½ way up the rest of the walls. Will have another look tonite & see how far they have got.

An update from the last post....

Had a call from our site supervisor on the Friday who left a msg on the mobile.. (a day after the post on here). Rang him back this week & organised a meeting. Coincidence, maybe, or not. Doesn't matter. All good now! Now I have someone to direct all my issues to... So far, Carlisle have done a fantastic job & can't fault them so none yet & hopefully none to follow.

There's just no stopping them...

2007-10-17T22:36:00.001-07:00

Been a bit slack in the last couple of weeks, sorry guys, & haven't updated the blog regularly.

Unlike myself, the builders have been hard at it as you can see.

Since the last post the gutters & facias were the first things to be added, which was all done last week. Went to the site last weekend & all the roof tiles & battons had been delivered. Thought that might have kept the tilers busy all week but it was all finished by Tuesday night. Mustn't need to get up there any more as the scaffolding has been removed completely from the roof line. Think they seen the weather forecast for the rest of the week & knocked it up as quick as possible. Had to work on the golf handicap maybe.

Bricks & sand were also delivered at the start of the week. The house has been ¾ wrapped with insulation before they could start laying them.

A couple of other minor things have been done in this time as well... Glass has been added to the rear by-folds. Roof trusses over the alfresco finished.

It's amazing how much bigger the house looks now inside with it wrapped & nearly fully enclosed compared to just the frame. Each room is starting to take shape & you can picture how everything will be set up with it all finished.

One thing I am disappointed in is the lack of contact from Carlisle since the start of the site. I would have thought by now, at the stage we are at, that we would be introduced at least to the site supervisor, which hasn't happened. Luckily we only live 5 minutes away from the block, so I do go & check it constantly, but if this wasn't the case & I couldn't regularly pop in when I wanted to, I would have no idea on what is happening, or about to happen.... I dont think a phone call at least is too much to ask for, do you???

brickwork should hopefully start by the end of the week & it should start to look like a real house!!

Can you see the rainbow on the left hand side of the picture... Ahhh, isn't it pretty!!

It's grown over night!

2007-09-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

Another visit to the house last night & as you can see by the pics it has doubled in size. The first floor went up on Wednesday & the windows & roof trusses went up yesterday (Thursday).

This is from the bottom corner of the block looking into our Rumpus/Theatre room on the ground floor & the 2 kids rooms & TV area on the first floor.

From our driveway this is our front door entrance & the balcony for the master bedroom. No garage yet, but I'm sure it won't be long.

This is taken from the 1st floor of the house being built behind us (shhh). They are roughly at the same stage as us but has taken 3 times as long...

It's starting to look like a house now...

2007-09-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

Looks like the nails have turned up & they've started putting everything together. Not bad in a 24 hour period. I reckon if I drive past tonight, there will be another storey attached. No messing around for these guys..

This is a view from the top of the driveway looking at the front door & garage floor.

This is looking through the front door, down the hallway & meals area & out the back byfolds

This is down the side of the house with the formal lounge, family & rumpus / theatre room walls

View of the back of the house looking into the alfresco area.

We now have a frame in those red lines... (see previous post)

We have Wood!!!

2007-09-24T17:33:00.000-07:00

The Mechano Set has arrived... Now all they have to do is put it together.

For those that don't know (or under the age of 30), a Mechano Set was a real toy on the shelves about 25 - 30 years ago. Like leggo, you could make things out of it but it was made of metal, not plastic. Hours & hours of fun for those that liked pulling things apart & putting them back together.

Anyway, the builders haven't let up again & doesn't look like they will in the next few weeks now all the materials are there, & some good weather ahead, there is no excuse.

Another thing that they are quick to get out of the way is the initial progress payment for the slab completion stage. I think the payment request was signed sealed & delivered as the cement trucks were leaving the site.

It's also good to see where all the walls will be going. Puts things into perspective....

Upgrade to 24 Cans!

2007-09-20T20:32:00.000-07:00

Once again they (builders) have shocked us. Over the last couple of days since the last post it has been raining off & on, so didn't expect much to happen at the block. Was going past last night anyway so went & had a look by the off chance there's been activity....

.... & ahh yeah, there's been activity.

At this rate we'll be in by Xmas.. Wishful thinking?? Looking like March at this stage, everything going well, but we all know that isn't always the case. Touch wood.

12 cans...

2007-09-18T23:27:00.000-07:00

...The equivilant to ½ a slab!!

As you can see the builders, once again have suprised us with more additions. In the last 2 days the framework for the slab has gone down & ready for the concrete to be poured. Going by todays weather they might hold off until tomorrow. Will have to check again tonight to make sure.

Now this is going to be tricky... The fall from the slab base to the fence is roughly 3 - 4 ft over a 4 meter distance. Might have to call in the experts for landscaping options. As it is a "thatched fence", we can't put in a retaining wall under it (that I know of). Maybe we can level it out with the retaining wall below the level of the slab?? (if at all possible). Will worry about it when I have to.

Any suggestions will be appreciated...

More pics...

2007-09-16T22:56:00.000-07:00

Must have rained over the w/end... Strange white tree stump like objects coming up from no where... Yes, I know. It's just the plumbing. Still looks pretty cool. Temp fences gone up too. So unfortunately for the house being built behind us there is no access through our block. Shame (hahaha).

& We have the POWER!!! + a bit of the view of "Suburbia!!!

No complaints yet... Every time we have visited the block the builders have been & there have been changes. Looks like there might be a bit of rain this week so that will be the test..

Colour!

2007-09-16T22:23:00.000-07:00

After many requests (& a quiet day at work) I've put together a pic of some of our colour choices... Shows our benchtops, cupbourds, wall, floor... you get the idea!

We have been very conservative in our choices, with warm cream tones. Will be doing a couple of feature walls after handover.. haven't decided on colours though.

Didn't have any pics of the carpet, guttering etc, but I'm sure in a few months time we will see them in a better perspective... actually on the house.

mmmm, Scrapings!!!

2007-09-09T22:14:00.001-07:00

It' s always the way... When you expect something to happen, nothing happens & when you don't expect it, this happens...

...looking from the lowest part of the block at the rear to the highest at the front.. The little fella found a lid. Thought it made a great frisby!

...reverse angle. As you can see unfortunately we have lost part of our view due to the HUGE NSD double storey behind us :( ... not too much. Can still see the city.. just)

Was told by Carlisle on Friday that "Everything going well, we should have a start by Monday", which I was happy with. Went past yesterday (Sunday) as I was in the area & low & behold... the excavators have already done the srcapings for the slab to go down. Must have done it on Friday, unbeknown to myself... & Carlisle customer relations. Not that I'm complaining :D

The fence between us & the neighbours is going up today as well. The good thing about this is we won't need a temporary fence down that side, which is an extra $500, which will come in handy when it comes time for extras (landscape, curtains, other unforseen items) once finished.

First Setback

2007-08-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

We have encountered our first setback, well 2 really.

The first, which is no real problem is a covernant in our estate that states all pitched roofs must have a slope of greater than 25 degrees. For starters, the house we have chosen (Bordeaux) as standard has a rear piched roof of 20 degrees, which doesn't comply. Seeing we have extended our Alfresco area, that actual roof pitch has decreased to 16 degrees, which definately doesn't comply.

When the covernants were drawn up initially it was intended that the roof pitch was only referring to "the front of the house" & not the entire house. But it doesn't say "front" anywhere, so they said it can't be done. Initial thoughts were "That's it! Who do I need to come & see to sought it out before I go troppo". After calming me down, Carlisle said it will not be a problem as at least 20 other houses in the estate are not abiding by this covernant & it's something so petty that if anyone complains they won't have just our house but the 20 + other houses to deal with. So in all, the house stays. No need to go back to stage 1.

The second problem, a little more intricate & harder to overcome than the first, is the setback of the house on the property. I'm not going into lengthy detail about the whole thing but once again, "badly worded" covernant with not classifying a 3 + metre balcony as a wall (which it should be) our balcony should now be inline with our neighbours external wall & not their balcony. If this is the case, if all houses in the street have a 3 metre + balcony each ajoining house would have to be pushed back to the front external wall, so by the time you get to the last house (& ther are 10 houses in the street) it would be 20 + metres back from the original.... which doesn't work!!... You think you don't understand it all. I had to have it explained at least 3 times & I still can't work it out

This is the first time our builder has come across this problem, hence the delay we are facing. They have taken it up with the council, who has verbally approved it (after extracting $90 from our back pockets for reasons I still can't understand seeing it is their problem in the first place), providing we get approval from our neighbours....

Hence we met the new neighbours last night, & luckily they are lovely people... I couldn't think of anything worse than having "BAD" neighbours. So variations have now been approved & sent to council so as we can get full approval & start construction.

I hope I have bored who ever is reading this as much as it bored me with their explanations. A lot of crap to be honest from the council. At least we moving forward again.

2 Words... "Unconditional Approval"

2007-08-07T19:13:00.000-07:00

Dictionary Meaning...

"Unconditional": complete and absolute, and not dependent on certain terms or conditions

"Approval": to consent or agree to

... in other words, the bank has approved our home loan, WOOHOO!!

Tender Appointment

2007-06-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

We had our Tender Appointment on Tuesday With Adam at Carlisle & Like Emma, a really great help. Very dunting seeing a "Final Figure" in black & white. A little bit over budget (which was always going to happen), just have to put in extra hrs to pay for it!!!

If you're interested, we have gone for a timber laminate flooring throughout downstairs. Would have loved the real McCoy but cost / maintainence / scratches / wife constantly wanting me to mop them... Laminate was the clear winner!. We went for "Flame Jarrah" colour. Never thought we would pick something that dark but Adam at Carlisle had done his Bordeaux 40 in the same laminate, showed us pics & they looked fantastic, so happy in the end.

Changed our minds on a few other things from the colour appointment, like carpet colour, door colours etc... in the end we're very happy with what we have gone for. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Contracts will be drawn up & finished within 4 weeks & comencement should start another 4 weeks after that so as we were initially told August still looks to be the starting time, & still finishing in Feb 2008.

Modifications

2007-05-31T18:08:00.000-07:00

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

We have made a few changes to the above standard floor plan.

Knocked out the wall between the study & lounge to make it one large formal lounge room. Unlike Henley, who wanted to charge an extra $450.00 to remove a similar wall in one of their displays we were initially interested in, our builder is not charging us anything. We don't work from home so we feel there is no need for a study. Computer will probably be set up in the spare bedroom.

Also made the alfresco area bigger. Extended both sides out an extra 1500 roughly & also extended it past the meals area. Will probably end up putting decking ontop of the slab but unsure yet.

Instead of a dedicated home theatre room we will be turning the full wall between the meals & theatre room into a ½ wall & the window to the back into a sliding door. This is so we don't lose our views from the meals & kitchen areas. This idea isn't set in concrete yet either as I am really keen on a closed in theatre room.. don't want to be waking the house up during the night watching sports & movies. (Don't like my chances though).

In the display home there is a gas log fire in the formal lounge room which I think would be a real waste so we have moved it to the family room where we will be probably spending most of the time when downstairs.

A few minor ones like a larger window in bedroom 3 (can only put slimline windows if house a certain distance to neighbours house for privacy purposes, but we won't have neighbours this side so not a problem), extra downlights, power points etc... & I'm sure before the tender there will be many more.

So far...

2007-05-31T00:19:00.000-07:00

.... Well this is what we have at the moment. 700m2 of dirt, somewhere to put our palace. It's located in the Chase estate in Berwick (45 minutes south east of Melbourne for those that aren't from around these parts). The shot is taken from the centre of the block basically to show the view we have... Jealous?? That's pretty much why we chose that actual block. Also you will notice the thatched fence down one side. Another reason why we chose it as no one can build next to us so the view is there forever. If you look really close right in the middle of the picture on the horizon, & squint your eyes a bit you can see the city (only on a clear day which is few & far between most days) which is about 44 km away... sweet!!!.
So far we have had the soil tests done by our builder (haven't got back to us yet) but it was only a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully no bad news as it's a pretty standard block. Our colour selection appointment was done last Friday... which was pretty overwhelming but went without a hitch. Emma From Carlisle was a great help, but I must say my wife & I have very similar tastes which helps the process. Will be posting pics of colour choices at a later date (when it gets quieter at work... shhhhh). The tender appointment will be in another 3 or so week so really need to pull our finger out & decide on a few things that are yet to be agreed on ie. laminate or timber floors downstairs... I love the timber floors but the maintainence is not to the wifes likening. Do you think if I agree to the cleaning of it, I could twist her arm??? I'll see how I go (keep you all updated). Also not sure on leaving the theatre room as an actual "theatre room" or open it up as to enhance the views that we have... As you can guess, I'm all for the "THEATRE ROOM!!". I'm sure we'll come to a compramise & work it out in the end.