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 :)

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.

KITCHEN!!! Garage door & front door :D

Hi everyone, sorry for the lack of update as i've been away for the weekend.

We now have a kitchen! We think it was installed last thursday, around the same time the garage and front door went up :)

I LOOOVE  the kitchen! The colours have come together really well, maybe even better than i expected. Everyone else seems to go with black and white but there was no way we were having that in our kitchen, It would feel depressing to me for some reason (oh, and black gloss benches are a NIGHTMARE to clean, trust me) The only complaint is the size of the kitchen itself, i really wish we could have somehow made it a bit bigger. Oh well, we will make it work :)

Things i love:
The diamond gloss bench top (Lunar Stone)
The pot drawers
The touch-catch door under the breakfast bar
The overall colour scheme and how it's come together :)
ALL OF IT!!! : D : D

I should also mention that i love the look of the garage door, and the remote that comes with it! The front door is actually the wrong one so we will have to get it changed.

As you'll see in the photos the shower tap fittings have been changed to a mixer :D and are now awaiting the gyprock.

Onward to the photos!

duckboards and wading pools at the front step/garage (It was flooding in Tamworth)

wading pool!, post on stilts wating for concrete and a plop of mortar left from the brickies

Swimming pool in background, anyone?! You can just make out a line of floodwater in the distance.

Ooh a tap! Two actually, and they even work!

Front of the house today after we found an unlocked window to climb through! We'd been locked out for a week now.

Internal doors ready to go

Remote controlled door :D

Here it is! :) Top cupboards and kick board -peruvian clay, Bottom cupboards -Pumice, Bench - lunar stone diamond gloss (covered by cardboard). All laminex selections. Handles are slim bow handle in satin chrome, also by laminex

Loving the drawers! Dishwasher space

Oven space and gas cooktop space above it covered by cardboard

Top cupboards with room for exhaust fan and fridge space

The best shot i could get of the sink under the cardboard

The offcut from the gas cooktop space - we scabbed it out of their bin along with the one from the sink space! If we can find edges for them we might be able to make a little movable trolley or something to match the bench. It's a shame to waste such beautiful glossy bench top!

Yes! please be careful and look after our lovely kitchen!

Skirting boards ready to go in

The offending shower pipes have now been changed and we have our mixer tap installed. I wonder how cranky they were having to re-do it??

The view out of our bedroom window, this will eventually all be built out :(

Close-up of bench top and breakfast bar

Best shot i have of the touch-catch cupboard door at the back of the breakfast bench

Taken through the window when we were locked out - the best colour indication of the top cupboards plus the pantry and linen in background

The first drama of the build...

Today i went to see our SS to check on a few things. It turns out the tap fittings are wrong in the shower, and for the vanity :( The only way to have mixers is to pull off the gyprock and re-do the plumbing. The builder went off the original plans as we hadn't told him we were having mixers. We had assumed that the people we got the taps from would have told him or he would have seen it on the quote and when he ordered them. That's ok, it was a mixup and probably mostly our fault.

I told them not to worry, we'll just have normal taps. When i told DH he had other ideas and insisted we get the mixers, so back to the builder i went to say we did want it fixed. Problem is 1. We have to foot the $500 bill to change it and 2. They have to have the mixer tap to install into the wall when they do the plumbing. So off i went to the shop to find out where our order was at... and the lady couldn't find our order!

So now we need to wait for them to find out where our order is (arrived, on order or lost in the abyss) so that we can take the mixers so that the plumber and plasterer can be booked to change the plumbing and re-do the wall again!

It's going to be one expensive mixer by the time we are done!