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!

Sooo close to keys!!!!!

Today we found out that we will get our turf this week, we are not sure if they will need to re-scrape the site first. They better not wreck our watering system after the massive effort it took DH to put it in. The cleaner has been booked for this week and the council have scheduled their inspection for either friday or next week (can't remember exact day, i was too excited when he told us!!) We also have a shower screen and mirror.

The list of things still to be done:


'Whirly bird' and two eave vents to roof
Tv antenna
Turf
Clothes line
Mail box
Finish shelving in main bedroom
Clean whole house and SCRUB the toilet til it's looking brand new again!!!
Paint - touch up paint /clean walls where needed

Other possibles (undecided how much it will matter, we would rather have the keys if it comes down to it!)
* Turn around blinds above sink (so they hang at opposite end to sink)

*Possible re-paint of paint around front door

Our AWESOME neiche with downlight. Love love love!!

Checking out the dishwasher! :)

The oven is ready for some Christmas cooking! :D :D I can't wait!

We have a shower screen :) I'm a little disappointed it is a white frame. The builder had previously said it would be chrome so i might ask about that















Hopefully all the news from here on in is good news! Bring on the turf...and KEYS!!

The carpet was installed on Monday (i've been busy so i haven't uploaded the pics til now)

I LOVE the carpet! It complements everything else in the house (and even DH approves!) These are the best photos i have until i can get access to the house again.

Third bedroom

Main bedroom













The list of things still to be done:
Install shower screen
Mirror for bathroom
'Whirly bird' and two eave vents to roof
Tv antenna
Turf
Clothes line
Mail box
Finish shelving in main bedroom
Hand towel ring installed in laundry
Turn around blinds above sink (so they hang at opposite end to sink)
Clean whole house and SCRUB the toilet til it's looking brand new again!!!
*Check to make sure all powerpoints are in (especially at end of kitchen bench)
*Check to make sure towel rail is installed in bathroom
*Paint - touch up where needed
*Possible re-paint of paint around front door

That's all i can think of for now :)

We still haven't got a move in date. We've been told it could be up to EIGHT WEEKS for the bank/council to process paperwork if they take the maximum time allowed! :( :S We can't start that process until the turf goes in (condition of council to have the house & land 'finished' and presentable) The problem is it keeps raining in Newcastle (where turf iscoming from) so they can't dig it up and it's been raining here so it would be too muddy to install it :S

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!