Loving the house :)

Well i have been VERY lazy and not updated this in AGES!! We moved in on the 11th December after a few dramas here and there.

We only found out that we could 'officially' move in the day before, but we had been packing for two days anyway as we knew we needed to be out of the rental.

Anyway, on the afternoon of the 10th we called everyone & told them we were moving the next day. My parents & sister came over on the saturday morning (it was a few hours drive to get here) and DH's dad came, along with a good mate of ours who lives in our town. We loaded the car and ute, drove into town to meet the builder and chatted for a while (we had to discuss what was happening with the clothesline, mailbox, turf and side fence) Then there was a hand shake and the keys were ours :D :D It was all pretty informal and a bit of a laugh after all the waiting and anticipation of getting those KEYS!!

So then we drove over town and opened the door to our NEW HOME :D :D

We quickly unloaded the car (I made sure that the boxes of Christmas decorations were the first to come in as i wanted to know exactly where they were when I had time to put them up) and met up with my parents, then we drove back out to meet everyone else at the rental.

There was a bit of drama when we thought that the truck we had arranged to loan from a friend was no longer available :S (Not impressed that we may have to load our ENTIRE HOUSE into ute trays, there would have been no way we'd get it all done in a day)

Anyway, the truck ended up being available so it all turned out ok :)

The boys (mainly our dads) loaded the first of the big stuff and off we went again. We ended up filling the truck twice and filling about 10 cars worth!

It was about this time that we realised we have WAY too much stuff! lol. The photo below was the start of the first load, By the end we could only just walk through here!

At the end of the day we were left with a house full of boxes with little pathways to walk through in between. I think the only thing we had time for that first night was to try and arrange the lounges in the somewhat smaller loungeroom and set up our bed . So after a few bumps and scratches we were (mostly) in.     

                                                                                                                                                                       We thought the scene below would be funny for anyone who passed our moving convoy.
 'Ladies and gentlemen, please choose your seat!'



It took DH & I three more days to move and clean up the rental in between trying to unpack the basics here and me having to work (DH had time off work for the move)

We were originally told by the builder that we wouldn't be getting the turf until the new year. When we picked up the keys we were told if there was a break in the weather we would get the turf this week or it wouldn't be til next year. We didn't have very high hopes.

You can imagine my excitement when i got a text from DH on the 14th saying that the builders were supposedly at the house scraping the weeds! DH had to leave to go to clean the rental so he hadn't seen any progress. That afternoon after work i went via the house and low and behold we had TURF!

This was probably the biggest excitement as we were dreading having Christmas at our house with a yard full of weeds.

Anyway, we finished cleaning the rental and finally had time to focus on unpacking the new house :D :D

After three days of unpacking i was finally allowed to put up the Christmas decorations Woohoo :D

So now we have been in for just over a month and we are LOVING  it! There is still a garage full of boxes as the shed is yet to be constructed but the rest of the house is unpacked and we have settled in well. I have even started on the garden but this is a work in progress.

 I love the mixer taps in the bathroom, i'm so glad DH insisted on changing those when they were done wrong. I also LOVE the tiles, they flow so well through the house and are a breeze to keep clean. People complement our tiles all the time :) Actually we have had complements on the bricks, the tiles, the kitchen bench and of course the nieche hehe.

 Well, complements on everything really :)

Anyway we are in and it's awesome and we love it! We are so happy that we built and it's wonderful actually using the rooms and appliances that have been planned for so long. I'll try and update this as we add things. I have big plans for the garden and the paving, this is just the beginning so i'll try and keep you posted. :)

Oh, and we have a new addition, Lucy came to live with us on the 17th of December. I have wanted a cat for sooo long and now i can finally have one :) She is a little terror half of the time...

...and the other half she is a gorgeous lovable purry little angel.

She is beautiful and has brought us much joy :)

Packing!!! :)

We spent all yesterday packing boxes. We will also spend most of today packing so that we can move this weekend :D :D

The builder has been chasing the council all week. They are meant to be insepecting the house today (fingers & toes crossed!!) Once they give it the all clear it is ALL OURS :D :D and we get the keys and can start moving in.

It's been raining all night and all day today (34mm this morning alone) and it looks like rain all weekend. The roads are starting to flood so it might be interesting :S

The slab for the double garage was poured on tuesday so here are the pics:

It came a day early = happy campers :)

Graffiti ;)

ohhh i like a good slab... (of concrete! lol)

Side of house - now with weed lawn and stakes to mark our pop up sprinklers

Latest pic of the front - complete with weed lawn :P If it keeps raining we might still have grass to mow before Christmas LOL. Oh well, it's better than mud.

Sooo close!

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we are very close to moving in :D :D

The bank have given us their final approval, the builder has the final payment and the house is officially ours! We are still waiting on the council to inspect and approve for occupancy. The builder has told us that he can give us the keys but we can't move anything into the house before the inspection or we will be fined by the council. We will have our walk through this week.

Although we will soon be able to move in we are still waiting on a few things. We still don't have turf but the builder has applied for a special application to allow us to move in and get the turf after (possibly even in the new year) Our builder says that the turf farm is underwater and our yard is also way too wet to scrape again (our yard is COVERED in weeds after all the rain) We are also still waiting on a clothesline, mailbox and tv antenna which i think will be done this week (?) and the whirly bird won't be here til the new year.

The power, gas and water are all connected and we have to be out of our current rental by the 15th. We have booked the carpet cleaner for the 14th and are hoping that the council will approve everythnig this week so that we can move everything this weekend.

In other news the site for the shed slab was boxed up today and the concrete will be done on Wednesday. We need to start packing but haven't done any yet :S It still doesn't seem like it is real and we are FINALLY moving, even if the move is only ONE WEEK away!!

I can't wait to put up the Christmas decorations! :D :D We plan to have the shed, paving and a basic garden finished before we host Christmas at our house. Here's hoping we get time to get it all done!

digging

On the weekend we did some digging:

We were digging trenches to put in pipes and sprinklers for our watering system.

We dug out all the trenches with the dingo, but were a bit afraid to dig too deep as we weren't sure where all the pipes and underground phone/power was :s
So then we had to shovel out all the dirt and dig a bit deeper in places. We then linked up all the sprinklers but it was getting late so we decided to come back on the monday (which we both had off) to finish.

That night it RAINED and RAINED some more :S  :(  :( We haven't been back to do anymore as we've both been busy.

Light covers are included (for everything that isn't a downlight) We didn't realise we would get these so it's a bonus!! :D :D :D

The best pic i could get of the oven taken through the window on an angle :S

Front door with varnish. Love it, not so much the green :S Told the painter to do whatever he thought would look good!?!. At worst we have the cream paint so we can do it ourselves as if we have to. The rest of the paint looks good.

These were another bonus! :) One set on the side and one set out the back. Love them!

And finally a pic of the door handles. Still waiting on the carpet, hopefully it might come tomorrow. We are so close now, i hope it doesn't take too long. I guess we should start packing huh? Lol

more toys! :D

Here's the latest:

Hand towel holder ( it looks big! :S) And that isn't my drink...

Near invisible soap holder and glass shelf!  :) Hopefully it will match the shower screen :)

They have painted the shelf supports (the ones they forgot to do with the rest)

We have a toilet!
Not so happy to see that it's been used - or should i say ABUSED!! :( :( Bleughh. HOW RUDE. They better be cleaning it til it looks brand new again.


Oh, and you can see what the door handles look like :)

Gas cook top minus the black trivet (?) things that go on top. I realised today that they hadn't put the oven in yet. The electricians were there today doing all the power points and putting the oven in :)

Sink looking good. Not sure why they got the blinds to hang at that end of window :S Might have to change that...

Dishwasher! :D :D

Painters were there painting on the skirting boards Tilers have finished laying the extra tiles (the ones that were missing after they tiled the extra room by mistake)

Not sure about green verandah posts... and they painted green around the door - i think that should be cream as it looks a little strange...

They were staining / lacquering the front door (or whatever it's called :P) Happy to see action! :D

We (meaning I) have drawn up a plan for the garden - and a plan for the watering system with pop up sprinklers and water weeping hoses :D We (Meaning DH) plan to dig the trenches and put in the pipes this weekend! YAY!

Lastest additions

Here are some new things (I can't see in the house because the blinds are all CLOSED - how dare they, lol!)

New front door and door handle :) Door needs staining - this will be done when the painters come back to paint the skirting boards (not in yet), verandah posts and touch up paint.

We have a pump (a teeny one but still it is a pump) This is for the tank water as only some of our inside taps are fed by town water (Part of the BASIX/council water saving conditions). We still need to work out exactly which taps are tank water - each of our neighbours has a different idea! :S

And this is the tank - now fully installed. It will be beside the wall of the yet-to-be-built shed. Shed will be built on the right of the tank. One the left and behind the tank and shed will be my veggie gardens :)

 Another view of the tank and backyard. The shed will be in the foreground, the remaining dirt will be turf, gardens, veggie patch and pavers :D

Speaking of turf - it will be laid in the next week or so. I went to the 'Bunny Warehouse' today to find out about lawn and yard watering systems. The dream is to have one that works itself with pop up sprinklers, burried pipes and timers. Hmmm i think the budget may have other ideas :(

Welcome to our home! :D I'm just imagining a Christmas wreath hanging there in a few weeks time. YAY, i can't wait :)

Don't let this boring box fool you - the instantaneous gas hot water system is one of the best toys in the house! It's going to be soooo good at Christmas with lots of people in the house and not having to worry about the hot water running out. Oh, and we're not paying for hot water that we haven't used! :P

The next time you see it, we will probably have turf! :)

Tile drama sorted :)

We ended up going with the tiles. The builder actually said he thought it looked better as tiles once he saw it this morning. It seems the tiler thought it was meant to be tiled and didn't check the plan.

This means we get a free room of tiles, feature tiles laid for free and we don't have to pay extra for laying diagonal tiles! Wooohoooo. Glad they stuffed up now lol. They have all been very generous and gone out of their way to make up for it. One happy customer here :D :D :D

When we were there meeting the builder it seemed like it was all systems go - we had the guy just finishing up installing the blinds, the plumber doing the vanity and taps, someone else installing the kitchen appliances and the carpet people came to measure the rooms!

Below: Guy taking the dishwasher in the front door :D

It is looking really nice now :) We have kitchen appliances all in, blinds finished, vanity and bathroom taps all done :)

Still waiting on: Skirting boards to be installed, tiles to be finished, paint to be touched up and skirting boards and posts out the front painted, carpet installed, power points, light fittings and switches, gas HWS installed, pump and tank connected (tank now in right place), grass going in  next week, clothesline, mail box and then the KEYS :) Not long to go now, approx 3 weeks plus the time for council to approve and let us in.

Left: Shower tiles and taps yay :D The shower head may not stay though, it's just a water saving one i had already so we didn't have to pay for a cheap normal one.

: D

Loving this! :) Mirror still to go in.

New toys!!!

Blinds in living area. They match perfectly, considering i didn't have a paint sample to comare it too. Mmmm 'biscuit' :)











I didn't get any kitchen pics as the guy was there the whole time installing everything, i thought i'd be a bit strange to ask for him to move or have him in the pic :S  Photos of kitchen next time.