Handover happened today

We got the keys this morning and we're so pleased with our house, it looks amazing. Casaview have been fantastic. We got a nice welcome gift pack with all the usual paper work but we also got some wine and other tid bits which felt really special. I think it was a really nice touch. Best of all though our house looks great. My fav has to be the kitchen. I did a happy kitchen dance more than once today. 

Welcome pack...loved it.

Michael managed to put up all the blinds that we decided to do ourselves and he also got most of the curtain rails up. I got to work moving over the smaller items, removing any stickers, filling cupboards and later put up the curtains where possible. I still need to steam them but they look good. It's going to take a bit of getting used to as we have never really been big curtain people but we felt the room could take them and we wanted a bit more sophistication adding to the space.  Michael also didn’t want blinds on the large stacker so curtains it is.  

Looks a bit like a reception lounge but looks better IRL. Not as cream, this is night time. They will also shrink a bit when I wash them so we needed to make sure they don't look short later.

Tonight we got together a tonne of stuff and took down the beds ready to put up tomorrow. We have a fair bit of paper work to read but we are so tired we can’t possibly tonight. Anyway it was blog or read, of course I chose to blog about our first day. I have lots to learn about the house…it took me almost half an hour to figure out how to turn the oven on! Now I just have to figure out all the other fan dangle features because it has a few. Chloe touched it this arvo and I was worried it would turn it self on and cook a chicken so I turned it off at the power. That should stop little fingers and you smart oven. The next two or three weeks are going to be full on. No nanna naps for me for a while. It’s just begun and I am sooooo happy even though my body already hurts!

My favorite bit so far. My kitchen with the welcome pack

 A final note...thank you to our builder Casaview, you guys rock! You built our home in  5 months and 14 days with rain. Especially our SS(you know who you are) and now I know you have been reading my little bloggy, I hope I didn't stress you out too much with my stressing and noting every little concern. Our home is awesome, you're a legend and I thank you.

What a difference the treatment made

Here is a photo taken on Saturday showing the bricks. The nice grey area under the garage window is where they treated. You can see the obvious difference it made.

PCI Done...very pleased indeed.

PCI was done early, long story but the bank recommend it be done prior to them doing the evaluation and paying the final payment. Our SS was very obliging and changed it to today.

The only thing we were worried about was the bricks. They had started to turn a rusty/yellow colour(instead of the grey they started out as) and they looked, well, not right.  Anyway our SS had recognised this and got PGH out to check the bricks and advise. They said the issue was iron in the bricks reacting with acid(I assume from the acid wash). They trialed an area with a chemical neutralizer, which worked, so the whole house was done this morning.  We could see improvement in the colour already and this should continue to get better. The test patch is perfect. We are more than happy with how our SS and Casaview dealt with this. After handover PGH will also come out to touch up any large chips etc in the bricks. This attention to detail is very pleasing.

So besides a few minor nicks and paint touch ups(to be expected) there are no issues with the house. It looks amazing. The ensuite I worried about so much, looks great. It really does. I stressed over nothing. Our kitchen and caesarstone top looks awesome, even without appliances. Someone stole two kitchen cupboard doors. Why? I haven't a clue...idiocy. I just looked at my photos and they went somewhere between 25th and 30th July. No need to worry they'll be replaced. Master bathroom looks great, walls, floors, windows, overall fittings, exterior, concrete patio and driveway all are fabulous...really we couldn't be more pleased. As a topper the house has been completed two months before the contract date even with some rain. You can't ask for more than that. We are very happy with Casaview and will recommend them.

I would have taken some photos but like a dunce I didn't have the SD card in the camera and I didn't think quick enough to use the camera's small memory. Oh well only a week or so. We can't wait to move in, we are so excited.

10 more days and counting

Soon we are saying goodbye. Our rental is sweet, although a tad expensive. No more country view, no more cows or rabbits. The morning light this past weekend with my lovely daisys.

Soon we will saying hello and enjoying the morning light in our new home. 10 more days...

Overall view. Still needs some repairs.

The fence has been removed. Now the neighbours will have to find another access instead of walking all over our unsealed driveway with their muddy shoes! Here's me tip toeing on the corner so as not to mark it. I was spuing.

Chloe checking out her playroom yesterday arvo.

Bed

I hate our bed, wish our old bed was a queen size. It was gorgeous. Our current on is a hand me down which was very handy when I was pregnant and needed more room. I was going to make it over but I'm not sure it will work out now. I can dream.

I love this one

and this one. Sprayed black or in the white.

While I'm at it... I LOVE this wallpaper. I didn't notice the similar bed until now.

Check

So we've been busy bees...

I sorted out teh final credit with the builder
wrote letters for the bank and forwarded for final payment
spoke to all neighbours about the fences, they're all on board
arranged a fence quote(a neighbour is getting one or two as well)
checked on process of shutters
arranged three quotes  for screen doors
Booked removalist

M has booked dates with air cond and landscaper.

Still need to arrange second blind tradie and book aerial guy.  I need to sort out mail re-direct too.

Busy, busy.

Am I crazy?

I was speaking to my SIL(they are also building a new house, PCI on same day strangly enough) and she and her hubby are totally overwhelmed by the building process and whats ahead. M is also quite overwhelmed by it too. It's giving him major stress with all the things to think about and all the jobs to do. So that brings me back to my post title...Am I crazy?  I'm not feeling overwhelmed at all. In fact I feel energised by it. I do have a lot to think about and am acting accrodingly, writing a list where appropriate, watching the budget and making all the calls I have to but I'm pumped.  I know all the utilites will be on, I know all the bits and pieces will get installed or built and I know it will be great. In fairness I have done it before so that maybe makes it easier. Then again maybe I am crazy!

Fences

Today I'm talking fences with neighbours.

Contenders are

Grey Ridge

Summershade

Riversand

Driveway laid

It was dusk but I drove past the house last night and the driveway looks awesome. Really nice job from what I could see from the front fence. Yah!


I have a photo but can't load it yet. Maybe I should wait for better daylight pics. One will come soon.

Our house looks awesome.

I'm feeling a shift

I've just been "visiting" one of my fav places of all time - pininterest and I'm noticing a shift in my style, a revertion(a word?) if you will, back to the more modern of old. I got hooked up on the hamptons vibe for so long(dream house LOL) but with my new haven almost complete and it being a modern space I am feeling a shift.

I'm loving a bit of black with my fav white and clean lines. The black and white kitchens on The Block last night really did it for me. I'm so happy with my modern white kitchen.  I can't wait to decorate, oh new catch phrase - style my new house. Decorating is so passe!

Concrete patio is all good

We went past the house this morning to look at the concrete. It rained over night and seemed to have cleared away all the white stuff. Yah! And...it looks good. Maybe it hasn't been sealed yet.Anyway the jagged edges are hardly noticeable now. I am more than relieved, I was panicking. M thinks we should check it out once it drys, just in case.

Now the question is will lay the driveway tomorrow as scheduled. Normally I welcome rain but not at the moment. At least our tree got a good watering.

the last remaining bit of white, it was much brighter than this and all over the top and sides.  

up close

 Overall view.

I have a name

Ages ago I posted I knew my style but didn't have a name for it. I was talking with one of my friends from swimming the other day and she said she liked federation style...not my cup-o-tea and then  I said it I like modern beach cottage. So my style has a name...modern beach style. Now I don't live near the beach, can't afford that but I love the beach and beachy things. I don't go too beachy but I do like a touch here or there and that feeling of light and airy. Took a while. I might start a new blog when this build is done. Oh I better do it now and secure a name.

Concrete patio

I went past the house to look at the driveway form work. Looks good and will work for the bins. Concreter and SS were very accomodating. It's a good resolution.

I had another look at the back patio today. I really hope this is not the finished product. As I mentioned the edges are jagged. The stencil pattern has been lifted too quickly or late or early or not carefully enough and now there is white stuff leaching all over the concrete. It highlights these imperfections.  The edges alone are passable but highlighted like this they look terrible. M has not had a chance to see any of it yet so we are going past tomorrow.  I have no pictures. I just had a mini brain freeze when I saw the white stuff so forgot to actually take photos.

Bunnings

Ahhh beautiful Bunnings. I have not spent time with you for so long. Today we did a marathon of two hours with Chloe in tow. She was a champ. We had our obligatory sausage sandwich and then dove right in. We picked our clothes line, front lights and letter box. Bought the number 6 for our house and lots of little butterfly screws and other hardware so that we can get fixing straight away. The letterbox and clothesline are under budget even with the quickset. M will install those, well the clothesline at least before the big move and the letterbox once the retaining wall is done.  We looked at lots of plants for the front garden, which Chloe loved and the prices are pretty good. I told M the other night I want to get him a BBQ for fathers day so we had a look at those too. He liked a couple of beef eaters.

We have also arranged the air conditioning, aerial and retaining wall installation.

We have to follow up with mortgage broker, neighbours re: fence  (I need their input style, colour etc)  and I need to call fencers. Hmmm what else...

Hand over date...Yippee.

We got a handover date of 24.8.11 and we are thrilled. This will give us just over a week to move out of the rental and get ourselves sorted. This is awesome. The house has been built in no time and we can't be more pleased. PCI is on 18th I think. Hopefully there won't be too many things to fix, it all looks pretty good. Splash of paint here, finger marks in wet paint there...whoops. There's a pool of water that needs resolving, although the brickies next door have finished their work now so that may help. I think they used our water and it's a low spot. Water was about 20-30cm deep the other day. Anyway I'm sure there is nothing major to resolve it has been a great build. Yah, yah, yah we are moving.

Tiles resolution

I never mentioned the resolution for the tiles in the ensuite. The feature tile was cut from its body because whilst it was supposed to be the same white as the other tiles, when it arrived it wasn’t. It’s baked separately to create the feature and that changed the white. So, the best thing was to cut the tile.

In regards to the mis-coloured soap dish. It is white, just a different white. Casaview know about the difference in colour so I hope they make mention of the colour difference to future clients, it's the right thing to do. Saves any disappointment and the time discussing it. I spoke with the guy from the tile shop and he said that they could remove the dish and tile, replace it etc. I thought about it…would it be worth disturbing the water proof membrane? Maybe not. So I didn’t take it further.

In relation to my ensuite gripes I guess my issue is not with the tiler but I keep saying that. I should clarify that I really mean the tile company/consultant. They/he was pleasant in person but I think the tile company could run a tighter ship. They took ions to get back with quotes for extras, didn’t return my calls so I had to chase things several times and I believe they ordered the tiles too late, which is why a couple of days before the install I had to change the floor tiles. I still think the tile consultant should have advised me better. In fairness they did look a better match in the show room, I don’t know...old samples or whatever, otherwise I wouldn’t have chose them. All in all I did find myself saying to M "they're a bit slack". All these things plus the colours, then the soap dish, cut tiles etc all contributed to my overall experience.

I guess I might give some feedback to Casaview later and suggest to them that if anyone notices that tiles don't really match at any stage, they could as a very personal touch and courtesy give the client a call and say “look the feature you chose in this situation doesn’t match the floor, do you want to go to the show room today and pick another tile?”. I would have been there in an instant! It wouldn’t have been too much of an inconvenience to gives us the option to change that small amount of tiles before they were laid.  We would have been thrilled at this attention to detail instead of disappointed and thus worrying over every little thing in that room and annoying them about it.

At the end of the day, yes, the tiles could match better but it's not the disaster I was thinking it was. Like I said yesterday the ensuite with the other fittings looks nice now and I may even be happy once it's all finished and clean. Ouch, did I say that!

So much to do and follow up

Last night I was looking through our paper work looking for details about something and I noticed a couple of things. The toilet suits that were originally pictured as part of our package are different to what has been installed. The bowl was nicer and would have looked much better in our master bathroom. I looked at the written details and the model wasn’t mentioned, just the brand. Drats, that other loo would have looked fantastic.
As part of our upgrade package we are meant to get a Caesarstone chopping board to match our bench top. There may be one on site, I wouldn’t know. I need to chase that if there isn’t.

In the construction certificate it states that no bricks should be used with chips or damage and there are a few about the place. Hmmm…honestly I haven’t even looked closely.

We also need to now re-do our garden plan as the concrete paths and patio have changed. We need to  consider railing around the patio or some sort of safety barrier. Chloe is the main concern, I don’t fancy her breaking an arm. Jordan’s also a concern as he can’t see, he will walk straight off the edge and really hurt himself.

Oh and I have to start a new list of people to contact for address changes or whatever. Another job. This can be it.

• Re-direct mail from old house and rental
• Licence
• Bank
• Animal registration
• Medicare
• Salary sac
• Heath fund
• Utilities need changing
As the other companies roll in via re-direct I will change those as well.

I have to start packing. I’ve been sick for almost two weeks so I am BEHIND! Chloe has so many more toys now than she did before.

I have contacted the removalist for quotes. That’s gone up in a year. Will chase.

Oh gosh so much to do and remember. The lists are endless.

On the up side, the days are rolling on by and we will be in the house soon. Yippee! I can't wait to walk through it and see all the new bits and pieces.

Retaining Wall Blocks...Good news.

We ended up speaking to the engineer(??) at the company who issued the construction certificate and they have said that we can in fact use a different block for the retaining wall as long as we supply the specs sheet to them. M seems to have sorted that and we are now waiting for the landscaper to get to us with the written quote. He was going to do that last night but has done so yet. This is great news and is going to save us a bundle.

Concrete

It came to light that the concrete path that we paid for as an extra needed to be changed. It was going to be on too much of an angle I guess so a step would have been necessary. This defeated the purpose of the path as we would have had to drag bins up a step. M met with the concreter this morning to discuss our options. They came up with a solution that M is happy with. Apparently at no extra cost, thank God. We have already paid nearly $1700 extra for concrete. Our driveway is being formed up today as well and may be poured if things go well with another job in the area, otherwise it gets poured Monday. I hope when they remove the stencil they do it a little earlier or more carefully as I did notice that the patio is a little jagged in places.

It's getting close

back patio laid but not yet cleaned and sealed. It was well worth the extra money we paid for the raised drop edge beam concrete and no step. Driveway gets formed tomorrow and poured Friday or Saturday.

The shower screen in ensuite. IRL the tiles look like a better match than before which is what we suspected may happen once the entire room was fitted. I am much happier with it's overall look now. Once I add towels etc my initial dislike??/concerns will be a distant memory.

Kitchen with ceasar stone top and splash back tiles complete. I am loving the white but it needs to be moved into before it will look homely. It looks a bit stark now but I know my vision. I am going to Martha that baby up. Appliances will come last minute of course. OMG look at how filthy our tiles are. Clay mud all over them! That better come off the grout or I will be so annoyed. Stupid rain.

M moving the council tree. Took him a few hours.

Posing for a shot half way through the job. I'm going to have to get used to his workman look because he is going to be wearing that gear a lot for the next few.

On Sunday we visited the tree, yes visited(any excuse), to make sure it was still standing and secure. The mulch and gutters need a little tidy up but we'll do that when we move because there are still trucks etc visiting the site so it seems pointless right now.  That's my gorgeous shadow figure.

We met one of our neighbours

We went past the house on Sunday and our neighbours were on site looking through their house. They are a young couple and seem very nice.