Bricks

Casaview treated our bricks a couple of weeks ago after testing a patch area with a couple of products.  The bricks look great now. Lets hope they stay that way. The yellow is awful. The grey is lovely.

Bricks

It's always good to know how a builder follows up in the time after you move into your gleaming(one hopes) new house.

Well as I said our house was lovely, nothing much to report really. The biggest one being that the bricks (PGH Sorbetto) started to again discolour even after the treatment they did. The maintenance supervisor asked me to wait 6 months to see how they would go, which was fine.

The six months is up and the bricks continue to discolour and at a more rapid rate it seems. I have contacted the builder and have been advised someone would follow up but this is yet to occur. I am hoping to hear from them soon as it's now been a month since my first email to remind them.

I would like to note the Casaview had taken on board the issue with that particular brick and has not offered them for many months. I really hope a long term solution can be found because I don't fancy this rusty colour all over my supposedly grey house.

To be continued...

Thought I better follow up on the issues I had

I just want to say that I know I posted negeative things about the ensuite tiles. Geez was I on a rampage over those tiles but  I am happy to say that after living in the house our ensuite tiles look amazing. They match the feature tile beautifully. I like them better than the master tiles now that we are living there, they hide all the hair, not that I leave it there for long and they don't mark easily. The problem is they don't photograph well but IRL are beautiful.  Also the soap dish that I worried about doesn't even get noticed.

The concrete looks fantatsic(when clean, damn dirt) and the concrete path that the concreter created for us works perfectly well and looks great. I am very happy with the job he did.

The brick colour is much better now after the treatment and looks perfect. I am pretty sure the chips were fixed as well.

They were the only concerns I had with the house this entire build and none of them apply now...humblest pie being eaten.

The End

Well this blog was supposed to be about our journey building our new Casaview home not about us living in it so I guess this is the end.

You can follow our house transformation and that journey here.

Thanks for reading this blog and going on this fun and sometimes nerve wrecking adventure. Our builder was great but I won't be jumping in again any time soon.

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...finally!

Day 12

Today it's one week since we moved into our house. Day 12 since handover. 

The past two weeks (can you believe it) have been so busy and a bit of a blur since soooo much has happened.

Since my last post we have had air cond, fans, lights, intercom and a letterbox installed and that was in less than a week. Lots of action.

We had our official move on Tuesday of last week. It was such chaos...boxes everywhere, stuff everywhere. Toys and dogs and cats and cleaning our rental to contend with. It's a bit of a blur with aching bodies and late nights. We have so much STUFF it is ridiculous! We had a big clean out as we unpacked. Be brutal I said. If you don't love it or use it, let it go. We have so far given 5 boxes of things to charity. Five BIG boxes. Books, glasses ornaments, wall pictures, frames, you name it. I have also recycled three boxes of old magazines from as far back as 2007! What was I thinking storing those. What is even more ridiculous is the fact that we had a clean out when we moved to the rental. I'm a bit ashamed that we have so much that we don't need or use. Chloe has accumulated so many toys over the past year that she has two rooms! I have a Xmas layby for her and half of that is getting returned I tell you, the child has too much. One word...SPOILED. We are all spoiled!





Our letter box is in but all dirty here. Driveway got very dirty OMG. Thankfully all that dirt came off! Looks good cleaned up.

family room chaos

laundry chaos. We have installed a cupboard for all that cleaning who ha! Now we just need a clothes line.

master bedroom chaos

kitchen chaos. There is still a few bits floating around my kitchen that are unwanted. Like a box of tools.

I know we got rid of so much but we did have to buy new lounges for both living areas. We also bought a new book case to house all of Chloe's things. Otherwise our furniture has fitted really well. We are pretty much completely unpacked now and poor Michael had so many boxes to remove that he never wants to see another. Most of the rooms are looking tidy and we have a place for almost everything. There is still the odd thing here or there. We still have wall shelves, mirrors and pictures to put up. We don't want to be knocking holes in our lovely walls until we are certain.

Amongst all the chaos we managed to entertain my mum and aunt for Mum’s birthday, which was a great motivator for me. I took Chloe to my baby cousins birthday party and we had a swish lunch and rest day for Father’s day. Although that was after a hospital visit for me in the middle of the night. That’s another story.

The house is starting to look really nice. Well it looked really nice empty and then was filled with stuff so looked terrible and now it is starting to look really nice again. More photos will come soon.

fan up and bed made. Temporary sheet window coverings are up whilst we await our shutters. Which disappointingly have been delayed by three weeks. At least the sheets are white.

Outside view. Nope you can't see much. Oh and our outdoor front lights are here too.





The playroom has a nice sunny aspect which gives a wonderful vibe. We had to buy that shelf to house all her stuff. Mum bought the 1-2-3 poster for her new room.

The family room is coming along nicely. Again missing shutters. We bought a rug yesterday which isn't shown here.

This week our retaining wall is going up, in fact the timber section is almost complete. The fence is being done next week. Then we can get into gardening. Still so much to do. I can't wait to start the garden.

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.