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.

action at last!

We have good news :)

The excavator has been and the pipe is moved :) They left the black (power supply?) pipe sticking up though so we will need to look into that, i'm really hoping that we won't need to get them to come back AGAIN to move it too. Really, i have no idea why they didn't just move it while they had the hole dug. Anyway, at least something has been done. It has been raining all day so if they do need to come back it will be a big delay of at least another week :S :(

The REALLY good news is that the tiler arrived late yesterday (thursday) afternoon! He was just setting up but he is finally there! :) :D Today i did a 'drive-by' and there were two of the tilers cars, an open garage and it looked like they were busy so i wasn't going to hold up their progress for anything!

I might get some photos if i go past tomorrow. Sooooo happpy to see the tilers arrive, the builder gave us an estimated move in of 5weeks from when the tilers finish. It feels so close, i want time to hurry up but the tilers to take their time and do a good job :) lol

Updates

We have had a few things happening at the house over the last week or two. My parents were in town today, so I took them around to have a look at the house (they hadn't seen it since it was just a dirt block)

The builder happened to be across the road on another build so we were able to get a key to have a look inside. I haven't been inside the house since it was half painted. The paint is now complete (except for skirting boards which will be done after tiles) and it is looking really good :)

The tilers haven't come BUT the waterproofing has been done and all of the tiles are waiting in the garage. I had a look at the tiles and they look good. We only have one style each of floor tile, wall tile and feature tile to keep it simple. They looked exactly the same as in the shop so very happy so far :) We could be waiting up to 2 weeks for the tilers as they are booked out. Nothing else can really be done untill they have finished.

The roller doors for the shed/garage also arrived this week. We had to meet the guy on site (He'd driven all the way from Sydney that morning) so we could sign for them. We also had to carry them around the side of the house - just to be on the safe side as we didn't want someone to come and help themselves to them :S

The shed kit will arrive on the 7th. We still don't have a slab :( The builder still can't get onto an excavator! At least he has been there with the bob cat and our yard is now levelled out. We also have our reverse cycle aircon installed. It's a Daiken and looks really nice - can't wait to use it. We are still waiting on the kitchen appliances, electrical fitout and bathroom fitout. The internal doors are all on but no handles on yet. The front door hasn't turned up yet either.

That's all for now. I forgot my camera so no piccies :( :(

We have paint! :)

I made another trip to the house today to see if i could talk to the SS about the second lot of shelves in the main bedroom. I'm glad i did as the builder had once again forgotton to pass this info onto the SS :( Poor guy keeps on getting all these things added or things that he needs to re-do and a lot is simply because he doesn't get the message sent to him. At least this is a simple one to fix - they will put it in tomorrow and the painter will just go over it when they do the next coat.

The bath is in :) It looks quite small at 1560mm (?) but otherwise done well. I like the shelf above it too - this will be very useful.

The painters was there busily working away :) As of lunch time today they have finished spraying the first coat to all ceilings and cornices (in ceiling white) all walls (Hog Bristle 1/4) and doors (Hog Bristle 1/2) I'm not sure how many of the door frames etc were done yet. He was very friendly and helpful, and the paint looked awesome! :D I also noticed that some of the door handles were on the finished doors :) Below: doors and second bedroom cupboard freshly spray painted

I didn't take many photos as I wanted to get out of the painters way so they could get back to work.  Here is the living room. You can see the ceiling & cornices have their first coat of white & walls have their first coat of Hog Bristle. So far so good :) Oh, and i didn't get a pic of the niche in the hall/lounge but it was looking awesome! YAY :)

While i was there the painter told me the sparkies were working on the house across the road. I went over to have a look at the house (very similar design to ours) and they have everything painted  and the tiles in. I asked the electrician for a quad power point at the wall end of the breakfast bar. He said that should be fine, we'll just have to tell the builder AND the SS that it's happening.

News on the shed: the builder has organised a bobcat for tuesday as the ground will be too muddy until then. Let's hope it doesn't rain so we can get the slab done :)

Our doors are reaaady to paaaaint :D

I finally got some pics of the cupboards and doors :)

I had to go around to the house today to meet with the guy who is doing the slab for the shed. We have been busy organising things - it looks like we could have a slab by the weekend if the rain holds off :D
The main issue is getting the pipe that was put in for the tank moved as it is right in the middle of where the slab is going. The concreter said once that pipe is gone he will start boxing the frame for the slab! :D We are currently negotiating with our builder so we can have this done ASAP, then once we have a slab we will have a few weekends available to construct the shed kit :D :D :D

Anyway, here are some pics of the doors & cupboards:

Pantry & Linen (or vice versa, depending on what needs the most space!) It looks as if they have had to make a special order for those double doors - we stretched the house lengthwise so this cupboard ended up being a little larger than on the standard plan.

Our bedroom cupboard - also stretched out a little.

Second bedroom cupboard and door. I'm interested to know if the doors have that design on both sides or just one side (?) Hmmm.

Storming in the distance and a pretty rainbow :)

And again from the 'garden side' of the house :D

Progress!

I'm happy to report that there has been some action at the house during the last week :)

We have this:

A shiny new driveway and concreted verandah! :)

and a nice big water tank :D
It isn't connected yet, it will go down the back next to the double garage

Front view :D

And here is a pic of the new rug we got last week, love it - so plush and soft :)

I should have vacuumed it first though! :(






The shed progress is as follows:
*We have now got owner builder approval (needed for owner built constructions over a certain price)
*The lady who does our paperwork has sent off all the forms and she thinks we should have everything ready to go next week! (her job is to process and approve applications, the same as the council but she is quicker at getting the papers done, helps with the forms and she is much more approachable)
* We have paid the deposit on the shed, so once we have the go ahead we can order the kit and book the concreter :D - It's looking like we will have a shed to put our stuff in while we wait for the house to finish! :)

I bought some nice native shrubs and pretty flowering plants at Agquip (agricultural field day) a week or two ago. I chose lots of plants that are frost hardy, minimal watering and have pretty flowers. There are a few different shapes and sizes so now i'm starting to think about how i want the garden to look and where i want the plants to go. I have also potted a few offcuts and seedlings growing at our current house. I like some of the plants here and know how they grow. I can't wait to start planting everything in MY OWN GARDEN!!!! :) :)

So that's it for this week - i hope we get lots of progress next week too :)

Slab Party :)

We had a little 'Slab Party' today with a few family & friends (most of whom thought the idea was a little amusing!) I'm very sorry to say i forgot about the camera so I have no pics to share :(

We gave everyone a 'tour' of the slab, then we went across the road to have a look at the mirror image of ours which has a frame & roofing complete. It was funny how people said that our slab is small (which we know) but then when we went to the same sized slab with walls they all commented how it seemed so much bigger!

While we were having our little bbq the neighbour from nearly directly opposite us (the blue roofed house in previous pics) came over to say hello. We have now met everyone in the new part of the street except for the people in the house that we walked through. (The street has been extended about 300m?? into what was a paddock and it now ends in a cul-de-sac)

Our neighbour kindly showed us through her house :D They have been in for three weeks and loving it! She kept saying how warm it is (only used heater once so far!), how nice the street is and how happy she was with it all. Her design is slightly upgraded from ours with a different set out but it was so good to get a better idea of the finished product. We are so happy to have nice neighbours! :)

SLABBED!!!! :)

I called the builder last night and he said they would decide at 8:30 this morning, depending on the weather. I was going to be in at 9am anyway so DH went to check it out while i taught a few scripture lessons. When i was finished he picked me up and told me they were finishing just as he got there! They decided to start at 7am so he only saw the last truck finishing off. 

By the time we went back they had their little hover-craft thingy (lol) smoothing it off. It was setting quickly so i asked the guy to put the coins in for us near the garage. He didn't seem to mind and took me straight over there to put them in :)

Soo happy to finally have our little slab :)

Big cement truck spout thingy :)

Pouring the last bit in?

Finishing it off

Smoothing out the top

All finished! Our shiny new slab :D

Slab pour tomorrow!!?!!

I went for another drive past the block today, just to see how muddy it was getting. I was VERY surprised to see that the formwork was done, the waffles were in and everything is ready for a slab pour! It looks like we will be getting our slab tomorrow after all : D
I assume it should be ok as long as we don't get heavy rain in the morning. I'll be ringing the builder tonight to confirm. If it is tomorrow we will both be there to watch, take photos and add our coins to the mix as DH happens to have the day off work : D
YAY, i can't believe it is happening after all this time. Wooohoooo!!!!
Some pics of the site:

All waffled & ready to go! :) Small square front and centre is the porch, to the right is single garage. We have plenty of room to add another (free standing) garage to the side of the house later on.

The laundry pipes are all sealed

My pink glitter gumboots : D











Plenty of room for a garden, and views of Tamworth :)

Rain, rain, go AWAY!!!!

Once again, the only news is that we have had rain all week, it is raining at the moment, and rain is predicted until the weekend :(

I ran into one of the builders in town on monday. He told me that they had rescheduled the slab pour for this friday. Seeing as it has been raining so much i highly doubt that it will go ahead. The only thing that has been done on site - they have stacked and resecured the foam waffles so they can't blow away. I hope we can have clear weather from next week so we can get into the build. We'll just have to wait and see.

Mud!

After another day of constant rain, it is looking highly unlikely that we will get a slab pour this week. If it was clear weather it would have been poured Thursday of Friday. Oh well.

We went for a quick visit today and took some photos. There is finally something to take photos of! It was very muddy (hard to see as we tried to only walk on gravel parts). There were no builders in sight, although they have done a little bit more since my visit on Monday. The wood frame (?) to hold the concrete is closer to being finished and the foam wall has been broken up (and seems to have been flung everywhere - maybe by wind?) Anyway, things are slowly happening. Onto the piccies... :)

What we have so far. Our humble abode :) The block borders are the colourbond fence, rural fence at back and runs (about halfway) through the white styrofoam pile on the right. As you can see we will have plenty of room for our garden (900m2 block)

Bathroom: L to R- foreground is shower, drain, up back is bath then vanity. Furthest right is seperate toilet. Caved in from all the rain.

 

 
 
 
 
Dear husband checking out the progress. Notice houses in background built by same builder. The cream one is very similar to ours minus the verandah we will have over front window & porch. The lamppost is close to our other border mark. Click to enlarge.

 

 

A better view of the block. You can see the styrofoam chaos to the right!