So…
Wow…
It’s been a while. We sorta got distracted when we got given the keys to the house. It’s been pretty crazy since then, packing, moving, Christmas, New Year, Hamish moved in (the cat), drive way, fences, letterbox, couch replacement, light fixtures, bin install, ironing board holder install, peeping-hole (for the front door thank you) install, garage tidy, letterbox number install, blinds, plus a bit of R&R in there too.
Settlement day was 11th December 2009, and we arrived for our final inspection with our Site Supervisor at 8am, which was all good - hot water was ready, oven going in, rangehood installed, and it was starting to look very finished.
We did, however, have no garage door at settlement. The garage door company had told our Site Supervisor that the doors had been measured. Then the install date comes and goes, and no doors. So the SS rings them, and is told “oh, no that hasn’t been measured so isn’t ready”. Bah. So delays on that, but it’s all installed now, and looks (and works) really well. But I guess it wasn’t too much of an issue given that PD don’t do any external gear to the house (i.e. driveway) so not like we could lock the cars in - we’re just grateful that it was installed shortly after, and our SS has been fantastic post-settlement with getting those odd jobs fixed up. Although, one still comes to mind he needs to address… But anyway…
The kitchen is simply superb - the 5 burner cooktop and 900mm oven is a dream to use, and already has had beautiful things made on and in it including our Christmas turkey, paella, a stir fry or two, plus, of course, components for home-made ice cream. Oh yeah, we know how to live.
We moved in about a week after settlement, which was the weekend before Christmas, and unpacked 95% of the gear by then. There is, of course, still 5% to go, even today, but we’ve run out of bookshelf space, so they can stay in a box for now.
But it’s been pretty smooth sailing (except the fences, but they will get a post in their own right later), with the phone connected and internet active when we moved in - so in that sense it didn’t feel like a “new” home as it was all ready to go. And of course, our geek cupboard is very geeky now including switches, modems and routers to get our networked house up to the world of Ethernet. We have our wireless running from the lounge room through an AirPort Express so that we can stream music from our computers to the lounge room speakers via iTunes - it’s just all working so well.
And the best bit, I can see the TV from my office (the 4th “bed” slash “store” room), so can get the best of both worlds.
The thing to look at… the site clean up. Ours was pretty, well, piss poor to put it no other way. We had chunks of concrete left around - see the photos for some size comparisons - and we were told that the site had been cleaned. Rubbish. So we now have a mound of crap that PD didn’t clean up sitting at the front of our place, that our landscapers had moved to prep for landscaping efforts.
But anyway, it’s getting on, and I have another post up my sleeve including driveway photos, and then time for another stir fry - my turn to cook.
To two of our fellow followers and soon-to-be first-time builders who have emailed us already - I do apologise for the delayed updates - but if you’re going house hunting around Point Cook at the displays or your own block, give us a tingle and come and say hi.
As with all new projects, we are already starting a list of things to get addressed in our three month post-completion work, but nothing that we weren’t expecting or warned about, so that should all be pretty straight forward when the time comes… wow, only two months until that…
Facade (sans garage door)
Facade (sans garage door)
Updating White Plastic with... oooh shiny...
Crap. They're size 11 shoes.
Damaged pipe at the rear
Size of crap left on-site post-cleanup
Site Cleanup? Where?
Red. Splash. Red Splashback.
Installed. Working. Lit. Woo!