Move along.... Nothing to see here!

Hello All and Hi to Grandpa in Novogrod, keep warm

Well interesting week, dare I say. The painter finally arrived on 22 April Yipee!! He obviously found the house after two weeks, marvellous things those GPS units! Ummm, missing the tiler that was supposed to start then....


Sorry no pictures, nothing to see because they have taped down all the windows and the timber doors with at least three pieces of thick plastic which is totally impossible to see anything through at all! We can't get in and we can't see in either!!!


We can get into the garage so we know that the ceilings have been painted and it looks like quite a tidy job. The cabinet maker went in on Friday while the painter was there to measure up for the quote for our study joinery. We also got the concreting quotes. Holy hell, prices have gone up from when we set the budget last June! Concrete and reo have gone through the roof in the last 12 months it seems, because everyone was around the same ballpark figure.


The best I can do is a picture of the type of driveway/walkway we are having:

It's called slatecrete and it's your basic charcoal colour. We'll have this for the driveway and paths at the front of the house, plain coloured concrete for the walkway down the side of the house and something a bit daggie for the alfresco. Shhh!! Only we and the concretor are supposed to know that.

We had our building inspector in for the fix inspection too. Result - fix invoice still not paid. The stone bench top got liquid nailed to the cabinet tops before they put the sink in the middle (it's an under mount) so, we're waiting for them to come rip it out, put in the sink and then put a new stone bench top on. What an absolute waste! It was obvious that the cabinet tops had been routed to take the sink, but no, they put it on anyway. Apart from that the house got the thumbs up at the stage which is good to know.

Apologies for the absence of pics, hopefully the plastic will come off sometime this week! It's like waiting for Christmas, all those presents wrapped up and you can't open them.

Fingers crossed for all of you not locked up that the weather does not slow you down or do too much damage!

Have a good one all!

SOLD!

Hi all,

Big Hi to Grandpa in Helsinki, hope you are having a great time!

As you might deduce from the title, we sold our current house. I can't believe it, it went unconditional last night, We sold in 8 DAYS, for the amount we wanted and with a 90 day settlement. We put it on the market because a house across the road was on for nearly 7 weeks before selling (fairly similar type house) and we thought that it might take that long to sell.

Ummmm, No, on the market Friday morning, inspection Saturday, inspection Thursday before Easter and then sold on the Saturday. Can you tell I am still in shock that it has all happened so fast?

So we have to be out by 9 July, I really hope PD is finished by then. I am getting less confident, the painter was supposed to start Easter week, then straight after Easter and still no appearance your worship! Now we are told the tiler is supposed to start on the 22nd. Well, we live in hope!!!

So since the last blog update there has been some action:

- The caesar stone bench tops have been installed = Good

- They forgot we are having an under bench mount sink so they did not put it in before fixing the bench top to the cupboards = Bad

- More back filling of our retaining walls = Good

- Only on one side of the block= Bad

- More washing of bricks so no more green bricks = Good

Um, and that would be about it. So for most of the last two weeks, zip, nada, nothing. So, no we have not paid the fix invoice yet. It's being insepcted Monday and we'll know where we are then.

Our CSC says we should be ok, she thinks, but they will not budge from 11 August, so we all may be sleeping in a row of sleepy bags on my father in law's lounge room floor if it goes past 8 July!!! Our SS had handovers on Thursday and Friday this week, so hopefully that means that he can concentrate on getting our house up to scratch and moving again.

News on the decorating the new house list:

We had decided on red ironwood floating floor. Our carpet store got in a box of the red ironwood for us to look at, so we could see exactly what we are getting. We thought a bit strange because we had chosen from a sample in the shop. As we are getting over 110sqm, which adds up to a bit, Neil wanted us to see a larger area and feel comfortable with it. So he ordered the packs and asked for one to be sent on approval. Well we went in last weekend and yuk, the pack was almost a honey brown colour instead of the red/pink of the sample. I know timber oxidises and darkens, but I am not waiting for 10 years to get the colours I thought I was getting from the sample they supplied. After lengthy discussions, we decided to look at a jarrah floor. Fast forward to this weekend and our sample pack of Jarrah arrived today. It's gorgeous! So we have now massaged the budget to include this extra cost.

On a brighter note, we went and choose most of the lighting for the new house and put a deposit down on them. So that is another thing off the list. Anyone else finding that it is just toooo easy to spend bucket loads of money quite easily when "shopping for the new house" LOL

Getting our concreteing quotes this week, so more ambulance action could be required LOL

Fix Stage Complete.... I don't think so.

Hello all,

Hmm, PD have a very interesting way of invoicing people. We paid our lock up invoice on the Wednesday and in the mail on Friday I got the fix invoice. Seems that the house is supposed to be at the completed "fix" stage according to when the trades people were meant to be there and how long they were allocated for the job, hence we got an invoice.

So, we visited the house on Friday night. Hmm, er, NO, it's far from a completed "Fix" stage. Missing skirting boards, doors not hung, wrong doors, shelves not put in, the powder room cupboard is still in the kitchen not installed and the list goes on. Sent a polite email letting them know that I was not going to get this stage inspected until I could see that the Fix was complete to begin with then once it was inspected and any issues corrected, I'd pass the invoice on for payment.

Our CSC let me know that she has faxed the list to the SS and she should be able to update me Thursday. Supposedly the painters go in straight after Easter, but the plasters have not been back and there are quite a few things for them to fix. For those of you further along in your builds, did this happen to you? I cannot see the point of getting it painted then pulling down the plaster and getting it repainted. Why not fix it first????

Either way, when we went there last evening, it was clean. No sign of the fix carpenter. We thought that meant he'd finished, but we have no shelves and other things are not done either. We'll have to wait for the update.

On a happy note, the wonky brickwork was all taken down and re bricked on the weekend. The SS was having a meeting with the brick rep on site on Tuesday, so we should get an answer on our brick colours too this week. On the whole, we cannot complain, as issues are raised they are usually acknowledged or explained and then fixed in due course.

Our current home went on the market on Friday so fingers crossed we get a good price and that we can get terms that we want. Once we know how much we will have to play with once the settlement goes through, I think it will make me a bit less nauseous each time I look at the bank statements. LOL

Pics from this week:
Interesting view. Yep, a big chunk out of the window frame. Why can't they just take a bit more time and care?
Guess which is straight the plaster or the skirting board? Answer, neither!

Man (or should that be Person) hole, that's the platform that the heater is sitting on at the side there.
Ensuite, looking good. But our tiles are to go to the ceiling, shouldn't that waterproofing stuff go under all the tiling???

Yep, contract says 4 panel balmoral doors. I suppose since there are two doors, technically there are 4 panels. Oooopsies. They did it again in the laundry too...

I know this is a bit of a ramble, but this blog has become therapy (thanks Liana!) for the trials and tribulations as well as the joys of building. Thanks for coming on the journey!

Happy Easter all