Are we there yet?

We're so close now we can almost feel the keys in our hands.

As you can see the top coat has been applied to the portico.  The colour is Malay Grey.

All the bathroom mirrors are in and so is the bath in the main bathroom.

I'm already loving the shelving in the butlers pantry.  Plenty of room for anything I can think of.  We have plans to change the shelving on the left.  After handover we'll remove the middle two shelves and put in a benchtop.

This is the wardrobe fit out in the master bedroom.  The additional shelving and drawers were part of the momentum promotion we signed up for.

Here's the ensuite with the double mirrors.

So what next?  I spoke to our SS last night.  The kitchen splash backs should already be in (but aren't) so they should go in this coming week.  The painter is due back next Saturday and the Metricon inspectors will come through early the following week.  Our SS has said that we'll probably do our inspection on Friday 12th.  A neighbour suggested that we remove the 'chinaman's hat' light shades before we do our inspections as they make quite a difference to the way the finish on the ceiling looks.  We think that the plasterers have done a pretty good job but it won't hurt to take them down.

Had a look at some carpet options today - quotes ranged between $10,000 and $19,000 for 100% pure NZ wool carpets with premium underlay.  Now we're only putting carpet in the bedrooms, kids leisure area, theatre room, sitting room, study and walk-in-robe so $19,000 is a lot of money (and out of our price range) - but boy was the carpet beautiful!

Closer and closer

Thursday night I went up at the new house while a potential buyer inspected our current house. Hadn't seen any tradies there for quite a while so I got a pleasant surprise.

The portico has had two coats of render and is just waiting on the top coat which will have the colour in it. This was done about a week ago - I just haven't had a chance to post pictures. So far we're really happy with it. You can see our front door in the picture above - it still needs to be replaced due to the door handle issue.


The kids' mirrored robe doors have been installed and we think they look really good. We disagreed over the mirrored doors - I wanted the framed ones and Wade wanted the frameless. In the end we've gone frameless - I'll probably regret it because they only have a small handle for opening and closing but they do look good.

Excuse the poor quality photos - I had to take them through the windows. The shower screens and mirrors have also been installed. You can see that in the ensuite we've gone for two smaller mirrors with a bevelled edge, instead of one large one. Easy enough to change over if we decide we don't like it in a few years time.

All the fly screens have been installed and a bit of patch work has been done inside the house ready for the painters to arrive. The down pipes and toilets will go in on Monday (we're putting those in) so we're edging closer to the finish line.

So what's left?

The answer to that question is...not much.




We met our SS on site tonight and I was really keen to get a close up look at the tiles and the bathrooms and get a bit of an idea about what's left to do.



Firstly - the bathrooms. Really love the way they look. In the ensuite we chose to have the short wall of the shower (where the tapware is located) in a dark tile. The idea came from a Metricon promotional magazine, I know not everyone will love it, but we do.

All the electrical work is complete - we can now turn lights on! There was a small hiccup with the front door. The beautiful $450 long bar handle we selected wasn't installed, instead a standard lever door handle and lock were, so that means a new front door needs to be ordered, stained and installed. No biggie.

So what's left? Well we've chosen to install our own cooling, carpet and curtains after handover so all that is left is the installation of the shower screens, kitchen splash back and the pantry/linen cupboard/wardrobe fitouts and rendering the portico. The toilets and downpipes need to be installed - but we're doing those and they should happen within the next week. After that it's the touch ups and house clean and then it's on to quality control and inspections.

I started writing this post last Tuesday (12/12 and today is 18/10) and have only just had time to complete it. Since then the temporary fence has been removed, the undercoat has been applied to the portico, the bricks have been cleaned and a partial site clean completed. We're also in discussions with Metricon over the poor workmanship with the termite control and the slab. I will provide more details and pictures in my next post.

Double Whammy

I received a double whammy from Metricon yesterday - two invoices on the same day - one for Lock Up and one for Fixing. On the good side that means that all the bricks have been finished (yay) and that things have are progressing inside as well. On the downside those two invoices account for 45% of the construction price - the next loan repayment's going to hurt!

We met our SS up at the house last night. I was hoping to get a look around inside but the tilers were still on the job - they'd just finished grouting the tiles and washing away the excess so we couldn't go in.

I was so pleased to see the bricks finished. After all my worrying there wasn't a problem with the colour of the bricks and I really like the way the house looks. We're so glad that we mentioned that the half built portico pillar was too small, because the bigger size looks really good.

Peering through our bedroom window I could get a bit of a look at the tiling in our ensuite. All the floor and wall tiles have been completed and my spa has been installed. Shower screens are due to go in today - not sure when the basins go in.

Our SS has scheduled the rest of the things that need doing to complete the house and it looks like everything will be done by the end of October, so if all goes well handover should be around mid-November (touch wood) which allows time for any defects to be fixed.

Day 126 and we have tiles.

Pretty happy with the way it's all going so far. At the moment the tiles stretch from the garage internal access door all the way through the house, including the entry, kitchen/dining/family room, pantry bathrooms etc.

We've run out of bricks, so at the moment the bricking has come to a halt while we wait for three more pallets of bricks. One of the portico pillars is partially built, but will have to come down as it has been built too small. It's not a major problem and we probably could have left it, but we both felt the house would look better with the pillars the bigger size. Given all the dramas we have had with the bricks, we're very concerned that the new ones wont match the rest of the house!

Our SS has moved to a different area and we are the last house in this area that he is coordinating. In some ways that's good - he knows all the ins and outs of the job so far, on the down side there doesn't seem to be a lot of 'supervising' going on at the moment. Maybe that's normal? Everything seems to have really slowed down.

Just for Mum

Got back to the house yesterday with my camera and went a little bit snap happy. So Mum, here are some extra photos just for you (and me, 'cos I'm pretty excited about this house).

The bricks continue to creep around the house.

A few different views in the kitchen

Last, but definitely not least, my fabulous sewing room. Can't wait to get set up in there.

It's all coming together

Day 118. We're so excited, the house is all coming together and we think it looks beautiful.

Wade called in at the house last night to see how the bricks were progressing and the house had been left unlocked, so I went straight around to check out the inside.

All the internal painting has been completed, there are a couple of areas that will need a touch up but nothing major. The finish is just beautiful. Our gorgeous timber front door and timber bi-part doors have been stained and they looked fantastic. The front door won't go up for a little while yet, but it looks great.

The electricians have been and about half of the house now has lights and all our switches and power points have been fitted. So glad we went with the slim line option, they look fantastic. All our vents for the ducted heating have been installed and the remote is hanging on the wall.

All the stone bench tops have been fitted and the cabinet handles have been installed.

According to My Metricon and the internal communication board, our wall tiling will commence today. Of course my camera went flat after one photo yesterday so I've only got mobile phone pictures. Hopefully I'll be able to get back there later in the week with my camera and there might even be some tiles to check out!