19/12/2015 Grass !

Grass ! well half way there. we think there was a misunderstanding with our order we ordered 46sqm but the order got delivered as 40sqm so we didn't have quite enough. we have to wait to do one side of our lawn until the neighbours are finished as we get a daily dump of building waste falling on our lawn each day so best leave that side until they are finished building. the council also advised do not touch the council strip as they will dig it all up and do their landscaping. here are some pics. pool people still haven't come to finish off. guess that's it now and they wont be coming before xmas? cmon Better pools and spas - we want to have a swim !

17/12/2015 decking stained and laundry completed.

Laundry - glass splashback was put in a week ago. Bit lazy with the blog these days....its Starphire glass and the colour match was Dulux Seafoam (half) . They managed to fit a 3m piece in with no join. The colour is actually a little darker in real life.

 

Decking.

The never ending deck is almost done. just three pieces needed to cut and finish off at the back and at the front. The pool area has had two lots of stain, the alfresco has one coat and we will do another tomorrow night. Dirt also arrived last Saturday and has been spread around. We won't completely finish the garden until the high side has finished building (maybe three more months) as a lot of their stuff falls onto our land. (as per previous  rants neighbours didn't want a retaining wall) so at the front of the house we didn't build one and now as they have built up we get a load of crap all fall into our yard and footpath. )not sure how this will right itself maybe after they landscape and discover they need a retaining wall after all)  but it is not important right . Deck looks pretty good for amateurs ! I spent the day cleaning out the pool shell in the hope they will turn up to finish it .....not looking good. 40 degrees tomorrow and I still can't swim.

 

 

we have handed in our warranty fix list. just minor things I guess - cracked tiles that were cracked and not noticed until we moved in. rusty window and door handles. kitchen tap leaks at its base, and a few other things... 

 

 

03/12/2015 Pool fence approved by Council and retaining wall dilemmas again !

pool fence passed all ok. got the certificate now so just praying that the pool company has enough time to come out before xmas to finish it off.

still got a little more decking to do, but not too much left now.

Next door's land got scraped today..... just a recap.......neighbours would not contribute to a retaining wall. Preferably we wanted to build a wall that would be sufficient to cover our both builds so that there were no issues in the future ......so we had no choice ended up doing a wall on our side of the boundary to suit our build and it was about 1m high at points....neighbour was warned that he needed to underpin if he was digging down deeper and close to our wall (which his plans say he is). I was worried as wisdom just dug down on the boundary of another house a few doors up with a driveway sticking up in the air over 1m high..... knew they would do the same to us without giving a crap....

so of course they scraped yesterday...had a tractor scraping against the footings.....they did not take the wall into consideration at all. Hopefully everything will turn out ok...

its already so noisy living here - trucks all up the street from about 6am and roads is always blocked so am dreading living next to a building site for the close to 1 year it takes Wisdom to build a house. why can't people get their .... together and build within the time they are supposed to. rant over. ha ha

02/12/2015 pool fence completed

Glass Pool fence was installed today . Decking around the pool was  stained a couple of days ago. It has gone a lot darker. Just found out we need to seal the travertine coping.....its gotten so dirty in the month or two its been sitting there...got a special cleaner and sealer from the stone supplier so hopefully that will do the trick. Thinking picking waterline tile colour on the net was nit such a good idea ! hahahah at the supplier showroom today  I saw what they look like on a picture..... they are a bit too dark for what we were going for. the inside we have chosen white pebble with mix of two colours of blue glass. hopefully it will look ok. we had to add screening to the top of the fence as it was too short (council put that fence in) . the neighbours were offered a taller fence and we would pay for it all, they agreed then when fence guy was about to start they changed their mind......but of course all our neighbours say no to the correct way of doing things (see my next post)  hahahah now they get to look at the back of this .....nice

We have also decked the front porch and entrance areas. looks good but I was adamant the boards are usually laid horizontal in all the diplay homes......Hubby disagreed but went with it....turns out I was wrong ! who knew !

21/11/2015 pool area decking....and shutters installed

another weekend of decking.....remaining parts of the shutters are being installed today.

I saw two dragonflies in the pool today so I think that makes it a swamp...

go to also add screening to the top of the fence now that we are not having it replaced. and then pool fence guy is ready to go. 

17/11/15 it's been a while....

it's been a while, have been so busy trying to get everything completed haven't had time to update the blog. Bit lazy of me...

I'm sure I won't be able to remember the dates or everything that's been done....

Carpet was laid just after the tiling was completed. Took a whole day but they did quite a nice job. No marks on any walls. This carpet was called Majestic and the colour is Dark Knight.

Driveway has been finished and sealed. this is a close up though its quite dark in real life just like the previous photos. Its exposed aggregate and I think we picked the charcoal colour?

Laundry was ripped out and all fitted out. Just ordering a glass splash back now. Not really needed but an acrylic one close to $800 delivered but  not installed and a glass one around $1100 installed. Will find a nice Dulux colour today nothing too bright but definitely need to break up the white. 

home theatre lounge and curtains in place. lounge is much darker than the photo i think it was the flash?

decking.....never ends but here is how far we have gotten ......trying our best to get pool area done so we can have the pool people come back and finish the pool off. pool fence due to go in as soon we finish deck. still got to sort out the back fence which is not high enough to be compliant. Neighbour agreed for us to take section out and replace with same new higher fence then backed out (are we stuck with the most difficult neighbours on every side ????) none of the neighbours can make a decision on anything and so we always get held up by them. annoying!...technically we can just give them notice and replace the fence  as we have to make the fence comply and their pool on the other side does not comply with that fence anyway.....instead to make it quicker and easier we will get something put on the fence to make it higher or panel over it. will look messier and rather just replace the fence so its done.....so now they will have patchwork fence to look at....well done neighbours....

anyway both side fences are up. thank god privacy at last. lost some light in the later parts of the day but we would lose that anyway once the big house next door is built.

7/10/2015 Driveway and side paths begin

Driveway started today. with footpaths on both sides. Formed up yesterday. First section is exposed aggregate and second section will be plain concrete (as per council rules). The council inspected today and all was ok to pour the concrete on the council strip tomorrow. Phew ! The exposed aggregate looks great, really glad we did it.  They will do the acid wash tomorrow so we can see what the finished look is.

The pantry, cleared it all out today. We aim to become some serious food hoarders now. 

 

yes I know chips and toilet paper is weird, I swear these are what was left from the supplies left for all the tradies !

Electricals/Tiling

electrician has spent 4 full days getting everything finished off. and tiler spent four days tiling the living areas with timber look tiles. these photos are before the grouting...

 

down lights in the eaves

 

1/10/2015 Keys !

well we finally got the keys after a few more days delay from the supervisor. argh but thankfully we can start work at last to finish off. Today retaining wall was still going.

 

 

 

22/09/2015 Splashback & PCI (Practical completion Inspection)

Inspection this morning just a few minor things to fix and should get the keys next week.

here are a few pics

 

the great retaining wall starts this week!

 

finished

 

Splashback went in this morning

dining room

garden room

 

looking out from the main bedroom

 

walk in pantry

 

home theatre. sparkle ceiling still to come !